Past Diatribes

You heard correctly-- they don't have toaster ovens over here. "You're right," realized this other American, Jenny, when I pointed this out. "No wonder I didn't get five of them at the wedding!"

(She married an Irishman.)

Other than reveling in delight over my specially couriered Black & Decker and eating toast, I have been keeping myself occupied learning Visual Basic.

VB is cool. It's much like the Microsoft Paint accessory that is bundled in free with every copy of Windows, except after you have created your boxes and buttons and text, you add in some code that makes the computer react when you click on the parts of your picture. Easy stuff, and a lot of fun to mess about with, I tell you.

There are an estimated three million VB programmers, worldwide. These people make a hundred and fifty pounds (c.$200.00) a day designing software (like the popular "Hotdog" HTML editor or MS Profit). Since last writing, I have acquired a mortgage the size of San Francisco's gay population, so I believe you can comprehend my long-range career change here.

So as not to bore you with details or attempt to echo what others have already said better than I can, here are some good Intro-to-VB links:

Visual Basic Beginner's Corner

VBnet, The Visual Basic Developers Resource Center

The VB Resource Index

Visual Basic FAQ

Check it out.

I will attempt to update this diatribe section more often, but as you can appreciate, this new homeowner is busy busy busy. I have had time to add a few more entries to the Dublin section and also have a new story called "Beyond Common Ground" posted in my fiction section. So far I have four unfavorable reviews on it, but three others approved. I'll sign off for now, go eat some toast, and let you be the judge.