Tables and chairs

In my previous post, The Elusive Balance, I had mentioned that my goal was to enter twenty-three CDs into the Media_Title table. I am happy to report that this goal was reached, and the rack they were destined to fill is now completely occupied. After doing the updates to this table, however, I discovered some flaws in my "main" media table, which has caused me to reconsider the design of my database.

I wish I could remember where I had read this, but someone once wrote that the best way to start a database is to design it with pencil and paper. Although I've always agreed in principle that this was a great idea, in all of the databases which I've designed, I've rarely heeded this sage advice. This is partly because planning things often results in frustration and headaches for me, but also partly because I can "see" with my mind's eye what the database will look like and what it will do prior to a single keystroke being executed (note to the faint of heart and the true database newbs: semi-professional DBA on a closed course. Do not attempt at home or work. Especially at work).

One other caveat is necessary when discussing database design: don't be too afraid of change.

When the idea of Forty-Two first came into my mind is hard to say- it predates this blog by a few years at the very least. The concept was fairly modest, at first, and didn't even actually have music or media as its primary focus. It was actually my Lego collection. This was another project that grew by fits, false starts, and occasional bursts of inspiration and diligence. And it was done entirely in Excel. Over time, though, I saw the possibility of building something more powerful (and consequently more useful) in Access.

The earliest Access versions- starting in Access 2003, then moving to 2007 and finally 2010- were not grand by any stretch of the imagination, and were at first only intended to catalog music CDs. Eventually, movies seemed to be a natural addition and were incorporated, followed by books, software, console games and finally books in the latest iteration. And all of it goes back to Lego.

One of the problems I have with Lego elements is that although I do not have a large collection by many AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) collectors' standards, I have enough to necessitate them being stored in different containers and in different locations in our home. As I was working in Excel, I found that I didn't have a really good way of taking this into account. When I realized that Access could handle this particular problem, another thought occurred to me: I could do this with media as well, and eventually incorporate things that were totally unrelated, and this could be useful in insurance planning.

That's the short version of the history of Forty-Two. The immediate future, as alluded to in the first paragraph, will see the end of what I often refer to as the "primary" table. It will be replaced by several (relatively) smaller tables, each being tasked with holding a specific type of media: music, videos, books, etc. Other tables will host data on Legos and electronics, for starters. And lastly there will be the helper table which exist primarily to normalize the database.

Whew! A whole blog post devoted to data and nothing but data. At this point some may be wondering what is up with the chairs in the title? Well, "Tables" alone sounded boring; "chairs" is pretty much an attempt at a hook to draw a potential reader in.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Saturday Night Blogging- or, This Blog Won't Write Itself

I've got Saturday night off, which is a nice thing. Saturdays tend to be a bit odd for me, at least in comparison with most other folks I know. For starters, as I work nights, I spend most of my Saturday in bed. When I don't work on Saturday, Jennifer, Mr. T and I attend church at The Bridge, where we are members.

I was particularly excited about this evening's service, as Karl Clauson was scheduled to be speaking. Karl is a fascinating man and a wonderful speaker who never disappoints. As we approached the entrance, we saw a few folks wearing neon green Celebrate Recovery tee shirts.

Something was up.

Something indeed- CR was celebrating five years at The Bridge. The service started early, with lots more neon green tee shirts all around. And music. As AC/DC so eloquently phrased it, "the music was good and the music was loud". After the music, Heather spoke. I'm not going to spoil the surprise or muddy what she had to say by trying to summarize- I think her presentation will be available on The Bridge's website in a few days.

In the wonderful world of data, this past week has seen progress with both of the databases that I own. I had the opportunity to spend some time on Saturday morning with my work database- this will be a truly cool and useful tool once it is up and running. I did a few updates to a few tables, and solved a somewhat simple naming convention problem. All of our jobs are known by a numeral, but because some jobs have multiple versions (but are essentially the same job), I decided to add the alphanumeric designator which is normally associated with the job right after the job number for these jobs, thereby keeping each job number unique (sotto voce aside:yes, I am aware that I used "job" seven times in one sentence- eight if you count this one!). There are a few other types of jobs which further complicate things, in that they are under one job number but are really different jobs; for these, I've added a "Version" column to the table. So far- with just a little over a month's worth of data, the system is working.

Back in the Secret Underground Lair, data is also happening- and so is a new energy conservation initiative. Because of September's power outages- and in an attempt to conserve a bit of electricity- we've purchased a number of battery-powered motion sensing lights. In the short time we've had them, we've used them as emergency flashlights and area lighting in lieu of electrical lights. I've also taken to turning off a surge protector, which has a few "vampire" devices attached to it. I can't report with any certainty that we've lowered our electricity usage' but we do have fewer lights on.

My "big" database is coming along quite nicely. In spite of not being a huge data entry person, I had a surge of "git'r done" this past week and managed to update well over 200 entries this past week, mainly in the "Media_Title" table but also in the "Names" table.

That's all for now- I vacuumed and need to "freshen up" a bit before dinner.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

The October Sexperiment and Blogger's Rules, Part Deux

I should warn you- it's been my experience that sequels are generally not as good as the originals. I share a home with at least 3.0 videots... um, the math and logic get really fuzzy here, as I am video-challenged in comparison to the others in our home. Our oldest son is truly "the little professor" when it comes to all things video; his areas of expertise include anime, action films and the weapons in these movies,  as well as soundtracks and is an almost on a par with The Oracle of Bacon when it comes to connecting actors, actresses, producers and directors. Jennifer's film knowledge is more mainstream, and includes a lot of small-screen (television) knowledge as well. Mr.T reserves his Sunday nights for video entertainment. In selecting his video entertainment, he will consider suggestions from his interwebz posse as well as the three of us. He has one overriding rule: if it's a series- movie or television-  he will not watch it out of order.

Me? I want to enjoy a movie- I like explosions, gunplay and special effects, as well as clever dialogue. I love parodies, and every time I say "Part Deux", its my homage to Hot Shots! Part Deux, which was probably the finest sequel ever produced. Period. Hot Shots! was an excellent example of a parody, but somehow Part Deux eclipsed it. In the realm of movies that had only one sequel (that is, not being a trilogy or a "franchise"), Part Deux stands head and tail feathers above the rest (*movie reference). Of  movies which were trilogies, Part Deux  blows away The Empire Strikes Back, steals the thunder from Back to the Future Pt 2, and ... The Two Towers? Really! I'm a Tolkien fan, and while the movie is beautifully done, it is STILL a second. Our daughter was reading the trilogy, and I asked her what book she was reading.  "The Two Towers," she innocently replied. Nonchalantly, I swooped in for the kill and asked, "Are you at the part where they're walking through forest*?" "YES!," she replied, "how'd you know?"

(*For those who have never read it, it seems that approximately 50% of this book is spent walking through the forest).

So here I sit, writing a Part Deux to a blog.

The original blog did quite well, but it strangely enough was actually a commentary on an earlier blog. I just took a look at the numbers, and the last two blogs are getting slightly better numbers than previous blogs, and I've received a relatively disproportionate number of hits from China and France, but to be painfully honest, I've never written a blog before about implied sexual escapades, and I'm not sure I could even do a reasonably entertaining sex blog. The only stab in the dark I can make about the increased views from China and France is that sex sells bigger there, Or not... after all, this IS the interwebz,

It's a good thing for me that this blog's unifying theme is data.

On the blog side of data, I just wanted to reiterate that sex does seem to work. In all honesty, I did enjoy the wordplay, but I don't see  myself writing another piece like that anytime soon.

Getting back to data, it's autumn here in North America, and Jennifer and I separately came to the conclusion that some cleaning and organization were long overdue. A couple weeks ago, I moved some file cabinets from the basement to a more strategic location, and yesterday we discussed updating our filing in earnest. We picked up some additional supplies at Sam's, and are now officially loaded for (filing) bear.

In the database part of data,I just finished updating the Media_Title table with a couple shelves' worth of data, bring the Media_Title count to nearly 1K. That's not hugely impressive by most standards, but I'm pleased for a couple of reasons. First, I'm getting back to putting time into the care and feeding of the database, and second- the database is helping me to better organize the physical media that I'm cataloging. I've cataloged approximately 40% of our known digital video titles; once these are done, I'll tackle the VHS, and then its time for music, and then Daniel's anime.

And then games. Ugh. To paraphrase Kurtz' most excellent soliloquy in Apocalypse Now, "I've played games, games that you've played. But you kave no right to call me a gamer." 

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.