The Latest: Week of 4/08

In The Beginning

Riding the bus home from my second 3-hour bartender's training cram session, I wondered how I was going to get all of the drink recipes, replete with ingredients, liquid counts, and garnishes we were being taught straight in my head.  Just then, a light bulb popped on over my head, and my inner, suppressed, computer programmer said "hey, make a program."  I don't know why it sounded like a good idea -- 8 hours before my next work shift, 12 hours before the next bartender training class -- to start tinkering around with making a computer app, but at the time, it just did.  (Sleep has never been my most treasured activity).  I guess they say you go with your strengths in a pinch.  So, as I hit my front door, I made a bee-line for the computer and started slaving away.

Computer-nerdese disclaimer alert:
Just to get off the ground running quickly, for the interface and the innards I went with what was most familiar and accessible at the time: MFC, C++, and the std::c++ library.  Just threw up a bunch of buttons as placeholders for the glasses, bottles, shakers, juice gun, and so on, and dove into coding the drink recipes.  

Within a few hours I had enough to test choosing the proper glass, selecting the right liquor and/or juices, specify the right counts, and add the right-sized straw for a drink asked at random by my digital make-believe bar patron.  Nothing too fancy; just your basic highball and lowball drinks.  But enough to drill practice the drink recipes without trolling the house for non-existent bottles or asking *myself* what to make (a setup).