[mh] Attempting my first custom code -- need some Perl help

[Steve B. <st...@me...>]

OK, so I'm attempting my first custom code for MH and I'm getting a  
Perl error that doesn't make sense... here's the code:

------- cut here ---------
# Category=Informational

#@ Announces misc. reminders.

speak("rooms=all It is now sunset at $Time_Sunset") if $Time_Now ==  
$Time_Sunset;

if (time_cron('30 20 * * 0,1,2,3,4,5') || time_cron('30 21 * * 5,6')) {
     my @ashley_reminders =
       ('time for you to do your chores', 'time to earn your  
paycheck', 'start getting ready for bed');
    speak "rooms=all voice=Kate $Time_Now.  Ashley, " .  
$ashley_reminders[int rand @ashley_reminders];
}


if (time_cron('0 21 * * 0,1,2,3,4') || time_cron('0 22 * * 5,6')) {
     my @mark_reminders =
       ('time for you to do your chores', 'time to earn your  
paycheck', 'start getting ready for bed');
    speak "rooms=all voice=Kate $Time_Now.  Mark, " .  
$ashley_reminders[int rand @ashley_reminders];
}

sub speak_anniversary {
     my ($year, $person, $type) = @_;
     my $years = &speakify_numbers($Year - $year);
     speak("voice=Kate Listen up everybody.  Today is ${person}'s  
$years $type!");
}

&speak_anniversary(1989, 'Steve & Lisa',   'anniversary') if  
(time_cron('0 8,10,14,18,22  17 6  *'));
&speak_anniversary(1992, 'Mark',           'birthday')    if  
(time_cron('0 9,11,15,17,21  17 6  *'));
&speak_anniversary(1997, 'Ashley',         'birthday')    if  
(time_cron('0 8,10,14,18,22  11 2  *'));
&speak_anniversary(1970, 'Lisa',           'birthday')    if  
(time_cron('0 8,10,14,18,22  4  2  *'));
&speak_anniversary(1968, 'Steve',          'birthday')    if  
(time_cron('0 8,10,14,18,22  29 10 *'));


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It's lifted right from Bruce's sample code so my assumption is that  
it's pretty close to error free.  Anyway, first it didn't like  
$sunset so i changed it to $Time_Sunset and that worked.  Now it's  
giving me "Global symbol @ashley_reminders requires explicit package  
name at (eval 112) line 4053."  According to what I read after  
googling some, this only applies when strict typing is enforced.  I  
thought that the @ symbol made it a local variable in which case the  
error I'm getting doesn't even make sense.

Sorry to sound new but I'm guessing everyone started somewhere.

Steve