Too Young to Play 50

So auditions for To Kill a Mockingbird just came and went.  The director had asked me to come out for Atticus and I was feeling good.  Now, I never think I actually have a part until I have a script in my hand at the read-through, but I was feeling optimistic.

At least, I did until I got there.  I then realized that even though I'm in my 40s, I'm still too young to play Atticus.  The text says he's pushing 50 but it seems that the Dick Clark genes aren't on my side this time.  It's generally a good thing to look younger than you are in this profession, but this wasn't one of those times.  Another actor was there in the light suit who was doing a good job, too, and while I thought I might have edged him out with regard to the performance part, he looked the part more and thus, he landed the role.

I get to concentrate on work now.  I've been teaching myself JavaScript and I've been working on creating a clock script.  Not that hard, I know, but the issue has to do with where the scripts are going to run.  Our software allows the users to create customized pages and it will recognize scripting, but it doesn't provide access to the HEAD tag.  Thus, all scripting has to be capable of being run in-line.  Thus, the script is triggered by a window.onload function.  But, the users will want to have multiple clocks so I had to develop a method that would allow multiple clocks (for whatever time zones they choose) be loaded.

And on top of that, the designer where the users will build the page will actually run the script that's on the page.  Thus, since the clock is continually updating, leaving the page will always trigger the, "Your page changed.  If you leave without saving, you'll lose your changes," message...even if you just saved the page.  So, I developed a method to detect where you are in the system so that if you're in the design section, the clock doesn't run.  Anywhere else, it does.

But after a few days of going through JavaScript references (while continuing to support the users and do the trainings), I've managed to get them to work.  The users will still need to do a bit of coding to load the script and put in the correct DIV reference, but it's mostly plug-and-play and they'll be able to have a clock that isn't a third-party solution.