Thursday, September 8, 2005
Breakfast: orange juice and a breakfast burrito at the cafeteria. Updated a student org listserv for a student. Updated the supp app workshop page for Stacey. Made live the last city tour. Met with student SJ again, we worked with Dreamweaver and her student organization website. This time we were able to connect (ITS fixed the password problems yesterday), but we again ran into problems while uploading files. Afterwards, I discovered that the problem was that the volume where the account is had run out of disk space. I filed a ticket with ITS. Talked with Cindy about the P1 listserv and when it should get populated. Gave some suggestions to Rick S about the download web pages for the Mac OS 10.4 VPN client. Currently, a single link called "Installation Instructions" links to a 124-page PDF file—the VPN User Manual. This is essentially unnecessary, since people don't need to read it to get VPN working (and most won't even try to read it). Responded to a student's question about why he has spam in his inbox. Directed a student who needed to design a website for a course to our WebCT pages. The lock shop person (Danny, x27657) arrived. Double-checked the lock shop's work. Updated all parties regarding the updating of door locks. I walked Ena through setting up staff meetings for the next 15 weeks. Lunch: roast cow and cheddar sandwich from Courtyard Cafe. Computer support coordinator meeting. Helped Chris reinstall Java and troubleshoot problems with the staff portal. Fixed a problem with the interview reply pages. The problem was that when you clicked in a form field on our web page the focus would jump to a different form element. The page validates properly, so it's not that. There was no Javascript on the page, so it wasn't that. I isolated the problem to a combination of Firefox and a LABEL tag. The problem does not happen in IE6 or Opera 7.5.3. When I change the position of the ending /LABEL tag so that it doesn't encompass other form elements, the problem no longer happens in Firefox. Technically, I think it should still work as I had coded it, so I suspect a bug in Firefox. Snack: a banana. Dinner at home with Mom Ryan and Patrick: delivery from Xiao Loong: lemon chicken, combo chow mein, wonton soup, green beans, steamed rice. Mom Ryan received some excellent news in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, using a list of places where Mom Ryan might be eligible for HUD housing, they found a retirement community in the Castro which might be able to take her in. They visited today, and it looks as though Mom Ryan will have a new home by October 1! Normally there's a 3-year waiting list, but Katrina evacuees are now being given top priority. Mom Ryan got the very last spot available! The staff are friendly and helpful, and the building and grounds are well kept and clean. The staff has offered to help her with the Social Security office to ensure that she's getting all the money she's entitled to. But wait, there's more! The staff is also calling Ikea and Macy's to find out if they'll donate some goods! Today, Mom Ryan also went to Citibank to try to get her finances figured out and pull out money. Citibank isn't her bank, but she figured out through something on the news that she could go to any bank, explain her situation, and they would help her access her account. It worked! And before she left the bank, the teller offered to give her some furniture for free! We're all overjoyed with the compassion and generosity she's been offered by so many people since she's arrived. Before today, Mom Ryan wasn't certain that she would stay in California. But now with so many things falling so fortunately in to place, it's decided she'll stay and begin a new life here. It's been emotionally draining these past 12 days for all of us, but we're starting to see a new light out of the recent darkness we've traversed. Mom Ryan did some shopping at Stonestown Mall for more things she needed—mostly clothes, but also something new she's been needing lately: thank you cards. Patrick got an A on the speech he had to deliver yesteday. He was very nervous, but I knew he would do very well—he's an excellent student. Tried to put together a differential tar script but couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Did work for Corinna: note card drafts, round 2.