Ronda Pederson's Facebook profile

Showing entries as of Friday, July 03, 2009
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  • Quote

    I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best -- it's all they'll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money -- provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don't need it.
    —Peter DeVries

    Blogs I Read

    Links




    Fun

     
       |  A site for the rest....
    [ ]

    WORTH A LOOK
    There is the Huffington Post , the Daily Kos, the New York Times ... I just discovered a site that has a little fun from another perspective! (Except that it documents the outrageous statements it makes)

    http://obamawtf.blogspot.com/
    posted at 03:04 PM | |

       |  Children's conversation provoking reading list
    [ ]

    The topic came up today, when discussing politics, of "The Little Prince" - one of my all time favorite books. I love books that make you think. It reminded me of the glorious times I shared with my daughter before she was really reading on her own and even after she was reading until about the age of 10, where I read to her. It opened up all types of discussion about the world and how things worked and helped me to share my love of 'thinking' with her. So I thought I would start a list of some of the books that I read to her - I can add to this as more come to mind but here are a few that contributed to serious conversation about the world and how it worked. Of course we read fun books with little lasting meaning but this list is for the rest:

    The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry's
    Animal Farm by George Orwell
    The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key
    The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien
    posted at 03:17 PM | |

       |  911 - What if
    [ ]

    When I was 16 I went to the State Fair with my best friend Lisa, we parked at the Routh St. Womens clinic downtown within walking distance of the fair since it didn't cost us $5.00 and her mom worked there as a counselor. When we came out that evening we discovered the car has been broken into. My stereo and some personal items including a tape recorder and a couple hundred dollars in cash had been stolen. I remember not the loss of property but the feeling of violation.

    I was at home on Sept 11, 2001. I had a funeral to go to that day and had the news on when the first news reports of the devastation began to come in. The phone rang and my brother Robert and I were on the phone when the second plane hit. The same feelings of violation. I can only imagine the loss and immense feelings the families of those victims felt. But remember we were ALL victims. We all felt anger, felt that violation. I applaud George Bush for giving us back some retribution for 911. This will be a long battle and I hope that we never forget and we have the foresight to elect leaders that will act against these senseless acts of violence.

    What if we had different leadership. Someone who felt calm negotiation was the more pc response. Would I be wearing a cloth across my face?
    posted at 06:12 AM | |

       |  Lipstick on a Pig
    [ ]

    The hoopla today is whether Obama was calling Governor Palin a pig. Mike Huckabee, Republican Arkansas Governor gives him a ride under the assumption that "You can put lipstick on a pig" is a common term. I find it interesting that it is a term Obama has not previously used in any public speeches and uses it only a day after Sarah Palin's statement regarding the difference between a hockey mom and a Pit Bull (lipstick). I have watched the tape of Obama and he tends to stutter if he is speaking impromptu.... he didn't stutter when he made this statement. So you can make your assumption - I have made mine.
    posted at 03:10 AM | |

       |  Where's the Change?
    [ ]

    Change!

    It seems that 'Change' is what Obama based his platform on this political season and I must tell you - I was all ears - then he started elaborating and there was no content behind his statement, does he think we are all stupid? The main thing I have taken away from his rhetoric is that he is going to tax the big guys, corporations and the wealthier sect of our country and give a break to the little guys including the people who don't work and the people who arn't citizens and everyone else. Well I suspect the middle class is going to get screwed once again with this plan but either way - where is the change? Cut taxes, raise taxes .... this has been the party platform of somebody since I have been voting for the last 20 years. I still fondly remember Reagan and have been hopeful of another candidacy that could compare for years, but Obama, my friends, has nothing new to offer.

    The Republicans have suprised me this year and given me hope that their big spending ways ARE going to change with the nomination of John McCain. McCain's record in going up against congress is long and filled with little battles on the senate floor that make me believe he has never been the favorite son of any party and this is the kind of change that I am looking for. Can you imagine in insider that doesn't tote the party baggage? I could not foresee a better candidate to really instigate some change in Washington. His 'August Suprise' with the selection of Sarah Palin further cemented the fact that he has no intenion of letting anyone run his candidacy but is going to do things his own way and I can not envision a better leader for our country. I believe McCain is in a unique position to know how the machine works. I think his age is a huge plus, remember Reagan, another old guy that knew what he was doing. McCain has already made all the friends he needs to make and he is one of the strongest patriots I believe we have ever elected to office. I personally believe he may go down as one of the top 10 best Presidents our country has ever known.

    The choice of Sarah Palin was wise beyond McCains years! He picked someone not unlike me; someone truly representative of the people of this country. When is the last time we had a VP that was so representative of the people? A governor with 60%, 70%, 80% approval ratings? WOW! And talk about progressive - who would have ever thought it would be the Republicans who stepped up and nominated a woman in this campaign? I believe Obama's decision to snub Hillary will be his downfall. I wouldn't have voted for him anyways but I do believe the race would have been different if his arrogance had not got in his way.

    I am still listening in case Obama figures out what 'change' means but I suspect we are going to hear the 'same old thing'.
    posted at 02:04 AM | |

       |  Total Summary Rows in Datagrid with DataItem
    [ ]

    There are a gazillion ways to create a summary row in the footer of a datagrid. I think this is one of the slicker, faster ways. Using the dataitem enables you to use friendly names and variables throughout - so when you have many many columns it makes it a lot easier to keep track and manage.

    Declare some integers for holding the values



    Private MonthlyGoal As Integer = 0
    Private FiscalYrYTD As Integer = 0

    In your Databound event add up the values:

    Public Sub dgAttainment_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DataGridItemEventArgs)

    If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Or _
    e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem Then

    ‘add the items as you bind each row
    ‘Intellisense will not have the datafield name when you choose
    ‘e.item.dataitem but just add it anyways – it is the datafield
    ‘that you have used in your datagrid column

    MonthlyGoal += e.Item.DataItem.MonthlyGoal
    FiscalYrYTD += e.Item.DataItem.FiscalYrYTD

    ElseIf (e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Footer) Then

    ‘put the added values into the appropriate column in the footer

    e.Item.Cells(6).Text = FormatCurrency(MonthlyGoal, 2)
    e.Item.Cells(9).Text = FormatCurrency(FiscalYrYTD, 2)

    end if

    End Sub
    posted at 08:43 AM | |

       |  Domains for Sale
    [ ]

    After supporting these domains for years - planning on eventual development - I am curious as to whether there is any interest that would be worth selling them. Below are the domains I am considering selling if anyone is interested in making an offer.

    www.ItsABigDeal.com
    This would be an excellent site for bargains, closeouts, special purchases - online auctions.
    www.acreageagent.com
    www.acreagefinder.com
    www.collincountyacreage.com
    www.dfwacreage.com
    www.homeswithacreage.com
    Real estate sites - some of them are regional specific - some generic with a national appeal.

    www.dfwnetwork.com
    www.dfwclothing.com
    www.dfwcoffee.com
    www.dfwplanners.com
    www.dfwacreage.com
    What can I say..... Dallas specific Domains - kinda self-explanatory

    Books!
    www.fratboybooks.com
    Possible tagline - (ummmm barely used!)
    www.utbookbargain.com

    Clothing
    www.popularFootwear.com
    www.popularhandbags.com
    www.dfwclothing.com

    Miscellaneous
    www.UltimateSpaces.com
    I was thinking --- remodeling - design - but it could be used for many things
    www.Sick101.com
    Bad Jokes? or Medical Reference?

    I have more that I will post... but this is a start!
    posted at 06:24 AM | [1] |

       |  You are making it too difficult.
    [ ]

    About 2 years ago my mailbox was getting overwhelmed with the mail I get from listservers. It seemed I was getting overwhelmed with lack of time to read the posts but couldn't bring myself to just delete the incomng unread mail. I moved all of my lists except one to my gmail account, which has been a godsend, and it has greatly helped with my time management. I kept one listserver in my regular inbox - 'sqlqueriesnocode'. This morning I was thumbing through the entries that came yesterday and saw this one - the subject was "join sql server and oracle table on openquery select statement". The poster showed his tables and his query that was not working and was asking for help. I read it quickly - assumed I had no input on a sql/oracle query (it also was rather confusing) and moved on to the next post.

    Then I saw Arnie Rowlands answer and it changed my attitude about a lot of things in just a moment. It changed my attitude about the tasks I am facing today, including a job interview. I have to share this post with you. The first line of Arnie's response was "You are making it too difficult." The answer was a very simple join. I think many times I tend to focus on 'that which I don't know' instead of 'that which I do know'. I believe it is a matter of attitude that could make such a monumental difference in the way we approach everything. I could have answered this post had I possessed a different attitude towards the content. Facing my first job interview in several years I have been focused on all of the skills that I don't have, the things I don't understand and negating the things I do know, the things I don't even have to think about anymore. This was a great realization for a Monday and frankly may have an impact on my approach to everything that is to come ~ R
    posted at 05:03 AM | [1] |

       |  Community Server
    [ ]

    WOW.... those guys at telligent are really on the ball. I installed community server for my hometown and haven't advertised it yet but it looks like it is truly going to rock!

    I installed it here http://downtowncleburne.com/cs/Default.aspx but plan on changing the URL soon

    I am trying to get some folks in the area to add some commentary before I start exploring avenues for disseminating it to the public. Take a look and please feel free to send me any comments regarding Forums/Blogs or other content.

    I am looking forward to seeing how receptive the public is to this project.

    Cheers,

    Ronda
    posted at 06:54 PM | [3] |

       |  SQL Dupes
    [ | ]

    I saw a post on one of my lists today for retrieving only duplicate records and it reminded me of how valuable Pentons article has been to me over the years.
    One of the issues we almost always encounter when dealing with other peoples data (it could not happen to us directly because we always have excellent DB design) is dealing with duplicate records. David Pentons 'analyzing duplicate records' script is too lengthy to paste here but check it out when you get a chance: Analyzing Duplicate Records

    posted at 12:06 PM | [1] |