I got the green light to start running again, but I’m under strict orders to start off slowly. 1 to 2 miles for the first week or so, and on even, level ground. No hills. That’s fine with me, I’m just happy to be able to get out and run again. I tend to get a little stir crazy this time of year and I’ve been itching to get outside.

My hamstring is feeling a lot better, although it’s not quite 100% yet. The stretching and strengthening techniques I’ve been learning in physical therapy have been a great help. As long as keep that up, I’m pretty confident I will be completely healed in a few months. Knock on wood.

I plan on testing the waters this afternoon. Giddyup!

Since I don’t write software for a living, and since I’m not in the IT business, per se, it can sometimes be hard for me to figure out what kinds of programs I should write. That’s why I’ve been slowly compiling a list of programs that might be interesting and fun to write. These should all be attainable at my current skill level…well, almost. I’m not saying they’ll be pretty, but hopefully functional. Here is what I have so far.

• A texted based RPG - I love games. This would be a fun little project to tackle. It’s still a bit out of my reach though I think.
• A small program that contains a dictionary of foods and their equivalent nutritional information (possibly just calories to start). - This will help out when I want to track my nutritional intake.
• A math game for Cameron - I thought I could make a game to help my 10 year old daughter with her math lessons. Maybe even unlock a code if she does well that will get her some sort of prize. This would be fun to write and beneficial to her.
• A program that modifies the Zip Lead sheets into lowercase letters. - At work, I get something called a Zip lead on a daily basis. It’s a spreadsheet of all the homes that have sold in our area. I would like to write a program that traverses the text, converts it into a format which I like, and places it in another file to use as mailing address for a later time. This one may also be a little out of my league, but maybe not for long.
• A time line program. - Something basic at first, but maybe incorporate some flash or Ajax in the future.
• A Morse code translator. - As I mentioned in my last post, I am reading a book about the rise (and fall) of the telegraph, and of course, Morse code. I thought it would be fun to write a little program that translates text into Morse code (and vice versa).

Those are some of the ideas I have right now. I’ll post more as I think of them.