Tasks are hard when toes are cold.
Last night I spent a couple of hours with the OpenOffice database software, setting up a languages database. The initial purpose of the database is to replace the XML files that currently holds the information. But it wasn't until this morning that I realized that it is apparently not possible to use a JDBC driver to access the OpenOffice database from a program. This despite the fact that it is very possible to use the same JDBC driver from within OpenOffice to connect to an external database so that you can use OpenOffice as a front end database manager. All well and good. So I download MySQL and after much searching in the forums figured out exactly what I needed to do to make OpenOffice connect to MySQL. But now I can't figure out how to get my Java program to connect to the MySQL database. I'm not expecting anyone here to tell me how, so I won't go into everything that I've tried, or, more accurately, how confusing the various pieces of documentation can be, but, needless to say, I've given up on figuring it out tonight. Maybe in this next week I'll have more luck.
But between figuring out how to get OpenOffice to work with MySQL, and failing to get Java to work with MySQL, Tom and I went and finally rescued my car from the highway. This process probably took an easy four hours, as a car with a wheel that is bent out and breaks that are almost entirely shot is hard to keep straight up or down the ramp from the trailer. We dropped it off at the body shop of a guy Tom knows, and his initial ballpark was $600 plus any parts. To my understanding that is a very good price, and I hear he does good work, so hopefully I'll have a working car again in a couple of weeks.
Of course, between these two things I haven't been able to get anything else productive done, but that isn't such a big deal. School finally starts tomorrow, and I'm quite eager to get back. It has been a long break.