Elemental Cosmos - Update 11

With page 1 finished, it is on to page 3 (I am working down instead of across). I had to shift the canvas in the q-snap, and the blue swirl that was part of the previous updates was out of place by a few stitches. I have since tried a second time, and keep screwing up the placement/count. So I have decided to complete the star before filling in the rest of that portion.

Elemental Cosmos - Update 10

I had a lot of time on my hands yesterday, so between then and this morning I finished the first page of the pattern. Well, all but the backstitching. I am going to save that for when i feel like dealing with it, though it is pretty straight forward on this pattern. Outline the ring and the star with black, outline the flames with garnet (310, 814).

How I Got Started - Cross Sttich

I started cross stitching almost 2 years ago. My mom has cross stitched and done needle point for as long as I can remember. She always seemed to be working on something. As a kid, I didn't pay a lot of attention. I knew what she had made for my brother and I, and other gifts to other people, but that was the limit of my interest. My grandmother had terrible arthritis in her fingers, and to keep her hands loose she did latch hook. My brother and I both got into that for a while. But eventually the novelty of it wore off and I didn't think about it again for a long time.

Fast forward more than 30 years. I grew to be a web developer and, now, an Oracle database administrator. I didn't study those things - I studied writing and have an MA in Medieval history. My hobbies were music (listening, not composing) and video games. I still like video games. I get addicted and quickly figure out how to beat them. However, I don't have anything to physically show for all of those hours. My friends know I can adapt quickly to most games, and they get a kick out of it (I think). But I started thinking it would be nice to have a hobby that I could easily share and wouldn't be limited to gamers.

I mentioned that I would like to try latch hook again. In February of '12 my mom came home from a shopping spree with my ex and my daughter and presented me with a latch hook kit. A dragonfly. I took to it almost at once, and I started buying and hooking a lot of kits. The more I did it, the more I realized that this was just a very low tech form of generating an image for a computer. Each stitch of the latch hook was basically a pixel on an image. As I started to make some patterns of my own, I saw that I would need very large latch hook canvases in order to make what some of the things I wanted to create. Most latch hook canvases are 3.75 stitches to the inch - some are 5 stitches to the inch. That makes for very large canvases in order to get the detail I wanted. So I started thinking about doing cross stitch.

In May of '12, after only 3 months of latch hooking, I got my mom to show me how to cross stitch. Mom has more patterns and kits stored away in her stash than she will be able to finish in her lifetime. She selected a few small, basic kits from those and I got started. I had purchased a dragonfly kit for my daughter, but I did not realize it was needle point. This was not a problem - the fact that the pattern was very flexible for someone used to a nice grid of stitches, and I put it away. I might be able to do it now, after 2 years, but I am color blind and I need the grid of stitches to show me where to put the stitch and the color required. The pattern provided was just an outline like a color by number. I found it difficult to envision.

So mom provided a duck listening to music with headphones. If it sounds silly, it was - but it had about 6 colors and also had its own hoop to center the provided canvas. I did it in an afternoon. Then a Winnie-The-Pooh. Then a printed canvas dinosaur (I am not a fan of printed canvas for the color blind reason above). And then it took off.

Like most crafters (I know that needle workers are not limited in this), I started collecting a stash almost immediately. I don't have more patterns and kits than I can finish in my lifetime - yet - but I am getting there. I love Halloween and Christmas patterns, and anything mystical or new age-ish. I am not a fan of flowery patterns, but I would do one for a gift. I also like making baby announcements. I think I like those because there have an inherent purpose aside from "something pretty."

I prefer to stitch with music playing. Anything I like listening to will do, but I prefer new age or classical. I can also stitch watching most TV shows, and football and baseball both lend themselves to stitching due to the pace of the game. Old movies I know by heart are good to stitch to as well. A good friend of mine, when we get together to stitch, will pop an old comedy into the DVD player that we have both seen hundreds of times and just quote it and laugh without looking up from our patterns much.

Anyway, that's how I got started. My work colleagues are used to seeing me with my crafting bag, so it doesn't draw as many stares as it used to. And they see that it definitely calms me down and provides some stress release. I am still a bit of a novelty, being a man that cross stitches. But that's OK.

Java and Oracle Forms

Once you have logged into Oracle Applications and move to one of their Java forms, the Applications Server will check to see which version of Java you are running. If it is not the same as what the Application Server believes you should have, it will ask you to download and install the version that the Application Server has. This version is NOT updated on the Application Server when a new version of Java is released - it must be handled manually. Please see MOS 393931.1 for instructions on how to do this. They are pretty thorough.

However, if you run a shop like ours, where multiple users could possible have multiple versions of Java, and updating the Java version on the Application server is not an option, there is a fix in MOS 393931.1 that will help.

Under the Known Issues section, and then under the Forms Launch Issues heading, is the following helpful piece of information: 

3. Different Users run different JRE Releases from Multiple JRE Streams

Here you will find the setting for your appsweb.cfg file that will tell the Application Server to not attempt to install Java if the client PC has ANY version of Java installed. Simple replace the setting as indicated in the document, and the client PCs will pick up the information the next time they attempt to access Oracle Forms. 

Of course, since appsweb.cfg is a file that is rewritten by autoconfig, this setting will need to be changed in the autoconfig process in order that it be rewritten properly should you need to autoconfig your EBS instance. 

This part, which is covered in MOS 387859.1, is documented well for how to actually change the setting...but not for where to FIND the file containing the setting to be changed. I guess it should have occurred to me, a relative DBA newbie, that the file required is the Context file. It didn't occur to me, so I did it the old fashioned way - I opened $ADMIN_SCRIPTS_HOME/adautocfg.sh and looked inside to find the file.

Of course, there it was right near the top:

CTX_FILE="<$INST_TOP>/appl/admin/<SID>_<SERVER_NAME>.xml

Elemental Cosmos - Update 9

Did not get to stitch this morning, as some fool got into an accident on one of the major arteries leading to work and flipped their car. I have little patience for people who cannot drive. Likely this was caused by some other idiot who felt they JUST HAD TO GET THERE FIRST...and the driver is included in that possibility.

So, aside from being grumpy at the people I must drive with every day, here is today's update. I did get a point of the star finished, and the next section of the circle is off to a good start. Hopefully lunch will provide more progress.

Elemental Cosmos - Update 8

Busy weekend, but I managed to accomplish a pretty good amount on this pattern. I did complete the portion of the circle I wanted to get done, and then some.

Also, I got the framing paid for for the RV project I mentioned a few weeks back. Hopefully it will arrive before the recipient goes on her 6 month trip.

Elemental Cosmos - Update 7

Terrible headache last night, so minimal stitching. One of those headaches that actually makes you nauseous. Still looking into causes, but I did manage to make a little progress - though finishing that section of the circle before the weekend is not going to happen. Maybe by the end of the weekend.

Still, even an hour of stitching is better than none at all.