Busy day. Mowed lawn for first time this year. Moved some boxes for Mom and put in a screen. Cleared more clothing.

Made room in the bookshelf by packing up all my FileMaker books with the recognition that I will never build another data base with the complexity of the Wood River Evergreens Inventory/Billing system or the student data engine for Saint Joseph School. Out of all the various ways I used these machines over the years, database creation seemed the least like working. Loved every bit of the process. Even now I kinda feel that db results are like magic. Start with nothing. Get some data. Build a structure to hold the data. Automate the manipulation and presentation of said data. It is a wonderfully dynamic process with the ability to modify every aspect of the original structure at every point along the way. Incredibly satisfying to take something from an idea to useful real world applications. Interface design is more art than science I think. All together, db design and implementation gives one power: The power to smash data chunks together in different ways to generate useful information.

I will miss building dbs.