Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
Let inspiration rain
Thursday, March 27th, 2008Morning of surprise
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007For the past month I’ve been getting up early and jogging almost every morning. Well this morning was a bit different because it was thundering and lightening outside. I took this opportunity to use my gym membership which has been frozen since just after the winter thaw. I have no desire to work out inside when it’s so beautiful outside. I jumped in the car, drove down across the river, feed the parking meter, and walked inside. Only to find that my gym went out of business, thankfully it was only this location. When I purchased my membership I was wise enough to make sure they had other locations because I knew gyms have a tendency to go out of business without warning.
It looks like tomorrow I’ll be wandering across town to check out the other location which has been in business for as long as I can literally remember. As for today it looks like I’ll have to wait until the rain stops to go for my daily jog. Which doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon and when it does it’s projected to be about 85 degrees out. Not the greatest weather to jog in but I’ll survive.
Adventures of San Francisco
Monday, April 9th, 2007It’s been a couple few weeks since I’ve been back from California and figured I better write a post about my adventures in San Francisco while they are still vivid in my mind. Let’s step back in time to the beginning of March. I arrived in San Fran on March 8th an hour or so after sunset. Originally I had planned on taking Amtrak up from Santa Clara but after discovring 511.org I decided to take the Lightrail to Mountain View. While in Mountain View I stopped for dinner at the Tied House (recommended by someone at EclipseCON) where I had the Brewers Burger and a pint of their New World Wheat. Both were amazing and I plan on returning next time I’m that neck of the woods. Oddly enough I ran into Ben Konrath from Red Hat who was also at EclipseCON. Figured once I left Santa Clara I wouldn’t see anyone I knew until I returned home, guess I was wrong.
After dinner I grabbed the next CalTrain up to San Francisco on which I met someone else playing their PSP. Sadly, I had left all my games back home because I accediently grabbed the wrong case on my rush to get out the door. I would of rocked to do some fragging on a train. Roughly an hour or so later I was in downtown San Francisco. I left the CalTrain station and jumped on the BART which dropped me off about 2 blocks from my hotel. Upon rising to the surface I encountered a colorful character who politely gave me directions and a free map. Man what more did I need to look like a tourist, wasn’t the winter coat, luggage and camera a big enough hint. Anyway, since this was his main source of income I kindly gave him a tip and went on my way.
I strolled down Market St and hung a right on Mason. Not paying enough attention to the direction I had recieved (He said on the right not take a right) I wandered up Mason a couple blocks. Knowing I had gone to far or the wrong way I asked the Bellhop at the Nikko Hotel. He pointed behind me at the building with the gigantic stop sign. As I walked away he asked, “Why don’t you bomb the hill on your board?” I replyed, “The luggage wheels couldn’t handle it.” Headed back down Mason I found my hotel. The outside didn’t do this place justic at all. Upon entry it all was redemed, the walls & ceiling were lined with beautiful woodwork and a floating waterfall on the wall. I checked in and went upstairs to my room. Which was your average room aside from the 42″ (my guess) HD TV. Nice little touch aside from the fact I don’t normally watch TV.
After unpacking I went downstairs and got the key for the Business Center. I spent a few minutes checking email and double checked my flight details. Next I headed upstairs to do some running in the cardio room. I put a half hour run on the books. While in Cali I’ve ran pretty much every day. I headed back down to my room where I watched some TV (how could I not it was sitting there taungthing me) and crashed out early. I wanted to get a start on things ASAP.
Goodbye EclipseCON, Hello San Francisco
Friday, March 9th, 2007Today marks the end of EclispeCON and man was it a blast. With over 1,300 people in attendance and a alcohol tab of just under $3,000 how could it not be. I meet a good handful of people and learn a lot as well. I’m looking forward to next years EclispeCON. I figured while I was on this side of the country I might as well do the tourist thing and head up to San Fran. While I’m here I plan to visit Alcatraz, Fishermans Wharf, Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, The Bay Bridge and what ever else I can find. I’ll probably visit some museums and what not as well. There is a wine tour that goes up to Napa Valley that I might end up taking. It’s 9 hours long so the only prerequisite is that you have to be hard core wine consiour. Might be a bit out of my league tho. Who am I kidding, it sounds like a blast. I’ll let you know if I end up going or not. If anyone knows of anything else I should do while I’m out here please leave a comment.
Having a chaotic blast!
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006The title says it all about the past 6 months. Let’s see where do I begin. Roughly at the beginning of June I began working on the Freelancers Union project. The team I worked with on this project were awesome and I thank you guys for all your hard work and dedication. Eli especially you. You were my go to guy on this project and you were always there when I needed you at the most critical of moments. The Freelancers Union project was unique because it’s 2 different version of Seagull running side-by-side completely unnoticeable to the naked eye. My team and I used Seagull 0.6.x to build a custom CMS built on top of the Publisher module and the other half of the site that is related to the job postings runs on a 0.4.x release which was built but another company. The main focus of the CMS was to create an intuitive and K.I.S.S GUI that your mom could use. Literally how the client described it.
In addition to the custom CMS we also wrote a couple plugins for it. A Dashboard plugin that displays the different content statuses and current number of articles for each status and a Timetable plugin which displays a gnatt chart or list of content items for the selected status and date range. We also integrated Live User into Seagull for this project but I think the best part of this project was that I finally got to use PostgreSQL. I’ve been dying to get away from using MySQL all the time. Next, I want to give Firebird a run for it’s money. I finally wrapped up the last bug in Trac for this project by implementing Full Text Indexing for a plugin for the CMS that allows you to search content items. I ended up using Tsearch2 an extension for Postgres that add Full Text Indexing support.
While all this was going on I was also working on a smaller project, . This project was a favor for a colleague of mine who got lead on by another coder only later to be told that he never did *ANY* work and wasn’t going to do the projects. I hate to see bad things happen to good people. The nice thing about this project was that I was able to team up with two of my fellow Seagull developers Werner and Davert to create an Event module. This was based off the Publisher module and currently only supports 2 event types. Events that occur on a specific date and recurring weekly events that occur on a specific day. More features are planned.
Mid-August I accepted a contract form m3 Media to work on a Seagull based in-house application. The past 3 and a half months have been a blast and I’ve had a chance to prosper both professionally and personally. For the first time in over 3 years I actually have a set schedule. Never thought I be saying that but man is it nice. I truly enjoy working for m3. This is also the first PHP5 application I’ve had the pleasure of working on. I’ve been patiently waiting to apply all the great things I’ve been reading about PHP5 over the past year. While working on this app I’ve learned a ton but the most notable highlight was working with Pentaho which is an Open Source Business Intelligence tool. Last week, I renewed my contract and I’m about to begin working on a new feature for Open Ads. I’m looking forward to seeing how this project has evolved since the days when it bared the name – phpAdsNew.
It’s time for a break
Friday, June 30th, 2006In an average day I spend anywhere between 10 to 16 hours in front of my computer. This isn’t so bad if I were get up ever hour or so and take a break. However, usually my mind is buried deep within the current task at hand and I completely forget to take a break. In reality I usually end up taking a break about ever two to three hours. Which is better than not taking a break at all but still it’s not healthy. Today, I stumbled across an applet called Workrave which kindly reminds me to take a micro break every ten minutes for 30 seconds and a rest break every hour for 20 minutes. This wonderful little program also has a timer that limits the amount of actual time I spend at my computer in a day.
Not only does Workrave make me get up and move about. It also provides a gross of possible exercises to preform while I’m taking my break. These exercises are meant to stretch the muscles you commonly use while working at the computer. The purpose of the exercises are to reduce the risk of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). I’ve been using Workrave for the past hour and have already notice a difference. My eyes have not been bothering me as they usually do and the tension headache I had has gone away. I recommend this to anyone who works with computers for a prolonged period of time. Not to mention it’ll make your Doctor happy to know you’re being proactive about your health.
Relaxing and Sleep
Sunday, June 25th, 2006For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled with never having a solid sleep pattern. Friends, Family, Colleagues, and Clients will all concur. My sleep pattern would constantly change with the drop of a hat. For two weeks I’d work 3rd shift and sleep 1st shift. Then, for some reason or another I’d end up having to pull an all-nighter. After which I’d switch over to sleeping 3rd shift and being awake during the normal time frame as the majority of the world. Last week I decided I couldn’t continue doing this for the rest of my life. It’s eventually going to catch up with and it won’t be pretty when it does. Since Friday June 9th, I started getting up before 8am and have continued to do so with the exception of Sunday.
Recently, I have become more pro-active about ensuring my workspace is as pleasant and work friendly as possible due to a recent back injure which has since healed. The cause of the injury was from working way too many hours (12-16 a day, 7 days a week) without ever taking downtime or relaxing. Anyway, Today while I was reading the daily news I came across an article, “10 ways to relaxify your workspace.” I just couldn’t resist to see what it had to say. They’re all pretty sound ways to not only make your workspace more relaxing but they also reduce stress. Maybe the whole “Add a fountain.” one is a bit lame but it’s not a bad idea to provide break the dull silence. Interestingly enough I already have made 8 out of 10 part of my routine. All I need to do now is get a couple plants and add that fountain. Adding some plants have been on my to-do list for a while.
As I have previously mentioned that I’ve recently decided to change my sleep pattern for the better. I also found a two part series named “How to Become an Early Riser.” The first part wasn’t a bad read. The second installment wasn’t the greatest however it did prove to have a couple valid point and is worth the time to read both. I can completely agree with the fact that since I have started getting up at the crack of dawn I have become 10 times more productive. I plenty more energy and best of all when I lye down to go to sleep I’m out in minutes. It used to take me any where from thirty minutes to an hour and a half to fall asleep. By the end of the week I was getting up before my alarm clock which was set for 8am. Now to keep the ball rolling and pull it off again this week.
Bigger is always Better!
Sunday, November 27th, 2005Today I came to terms with being an American, I ate a Triple Whopper. The evening started as it has so many times before with a quick trip up to Burger King for dinner. It could have been for a total lack of motavation to cook, pure laziness, or a fit of hunger but mostly a combination of all three. Soon I found myself on out the door and down the road. This venture will soon turn out to be no where near ordinary. On arrival I gaze over the menu as normal and instantly I’m completely dumbfounded and in awe. I begin to mummble, “What the fuck? A Triple Whopper!” at the same time thinking “Man, I must live in a state full of really fat fucking people! I have to if Burger King is putting a Triple Whopper meal on the menu.” Since I myself don’t fall into the super-sized human being generalization. I had no choice at this point but to order one. Everything was going great up until that point. Next, I idled on up to the window and paid. Nearly 5 minutes later the manager returns apologizing for the wait and asks me to pull around because it’ll be a couple minutes, they are making my Whopper fresh. I pull around and start thinking, “Great! At least when I give myself a heart attack from eating this damn thing it’ll be fresh.” Another 5 minutes linger on by and the irritation begins to set in. Shutting of the engine and unbuckling my seat belt I start to go in. Just as I open the door out comes someone bringing me my food. Isn’t that how it always happens.
A bit frusturated it took over 15 minutes to get my dinner when it normally takes 5 minutes. I head home to embark on consuming this massive hunk of beef and cheese they called the Triple Whopper. Comfortably seated at the table I begin to take my food of the bag. This burger had to weight in at least 1.5 pounds easy. As I unwrap it I glance over at my rottweiler and he looks up at me with his head cocked to the side with that look on his face that every dog gets when they are unsure about what going to happen. I soon could feel my heart begining to slow and my waist expanding by the inch with every bite I took. Nearly half way through I considered taking a break however this temptation quickly passed. Unable to finish the all of it I gave the last of it to my dog. Leaning back in my chair giving my food a few minutes to settle before I head back to work. I began to ponder. So is this what it’s like to be American and believing that bigger is always better. Was this philosophy responsible for the hunderds of thounsands of obese American? Is this same philosophy responsible for the thousands of gas guzzling SUV driving down the road? Could it also be possible that this same philosophy is responsible for America having more nuclear and toxic waste than any other country? And if America’s philosophy actually is bigger is always better than why in the hell didn’t we stick to it when the Dutch built the largest levee system in the world? How come America didn’t build a bigger levee system? If it were a building or vechical no one would think twice about it. Some times the subtle things like eating a pound in a half burger really make you think about what lifes really all about.