I got an e-mail from a recruiter looking for a Software Engineer. The recruiter was looking for someone with open source software experience, multiple language experience etc etc and someone who has an active blog. I’m not really interested in the position the recruiter was seeking to fill but the bit about someone who has an active blog did precipitate a twinge of guilt about being so delinquent when it comes to posting to my blog. To all you hordes of internet users who have been waiting for a blog post from me… I’m sorry, I’ll do better in the future… maybe. Part of the reason I haven’t posted is that there is so much going on is that in true ADD fashion, I can’t really settle on anything to write about. I start thinking about writing something and then something else comes along, I get distracted, and pretty soon I forget that I was going to write something in the first place. By the way, the article I linked to about ADD is really interesting, at least the first paragraph or two and the bit in the middle is, I never made it all the way through…. where was I?
I’m doing a bit of web development. I’m surprised at how easy it is compared to the stuff I normally do for my day job. Web development seems formulaic. All the original thought seems to go into the work that the designer does in terms of user experience and ascetics. Translating the designer’s ideas into executable code and html is pretty trivail IMHO. I’m not very experienced in web development so I encounter things I’ve never done before all the time. When this happens I spend a few minutes digging around on the net or on #rubyonrails and I have my answer usually with accompanying source code. The biggest challenge for me is not to over optimize. I don’t think anybody really wants to pay you to spend the days squeezing a few microseconds out of some code that generates a web page. It is really satisfying writing a few lines of code and immediately seeing the results pop up on a browser. If I keep doing this I’m going to dig into the ascetic side of things. My first major in college was art and I’ve always loved creating visual stuff. I’m just clueless about contemporary computer graphics tools.
I’m divorced. Here’s to the end of something old and the start of something new.
I work for a big corporation. Well I don’t know if its really big when compared to other corporations but its much bigger than the little company that I used to work for that was bought by the corporation that I now work for. Be that as it may in the past I’ve made disparaging remarks about the corporation that I now work for and corporations in general. It’s kind of fashionable to do that kind of thing if you’re an OSS Linux tech geeky kind of guy. Corporations Evil!!! Just read about Microsoft on Slash Dot and you’ll get this gist of what I mean. Lately I’ve been appreciative of the corporation I work for. There are several reasons for this change of attitude. One of them is that I am still employed. I’ve got an open position in Jersey and I see stacks of resumes from people that just a few months ago were working at big investment banks and hedge funds that have imploded. Comparing these pedigrees to mine is like comparing a Westminster Dog Show Best of Breed to some mutt in a dog pound. Suffice it to say I am glad I still have a job. The other reason that my attitude about the big corporation has changed is largely philosophical. I think that in an increasingly crowded world the ideal of individualism is outmoded or maybe it would be better to say that the priority placed on individualism is excessive. I think more priority should be placed on utilitarianism. The good of the many outweighs the good of the few. The big corporation is comprised of many individuals working together for the good of the corporation and it’s shareholders. In return for this work the individuals are rewarded. Some individuals are rewarded to a disproportionate degree but all individuals are rewarded. Sometimes a few individuals are discarded but this is generally done for the benefit of the corporation as a whole. The good of the many outweighs the good of the few. Sometimes dealing bureaucracy in the big corporation is a bit frustrating when compared to doing things in a little start up but it stands to reason that one has to be more collaborative when dealing with many more people. As long as the bureaucracy doesn’t become a reason for people to not do things or to delay doing things or to shift responsibility it’s really not much of a problem. So I try to be a good little worker bee anonymously doing my part for the greater whole. I get my allotment of honey and all is good.
What to say. I’m going on the infamous Bike Ride to Rippey aka BRR on February 7 with my girlfriend.
Other than that bit of insanity I’ve been doing a lot of software optimization at work, ice skating, running, playing guitar and not blogging. I really wish I had something profound to say but I don’t. Sometimes I think of something profound to say but when I do I’m not around my computer and by the time that I am I forget what the profound thing was. Oh well, c’est la vie.
If there is are lines of people waiting for something I’m going to pick the slowest one no matter what. It doesn’t matter if it’s waiting to check out at the grocery store or waiting to go through security at the airport, if there is a line I’m going to be in the slow one. Case in point I just got through security at Newark Liberty Airport. It’s really early here and they just opened up a security station so there were only a couple of people waiting to go through. I headed over to the short line thinking that fewer people in the line would translate to a shorter wait. Silly me. As soon as I got in line the guy at the head of the line started stirring up shit with the TSA people staffing the gate. I don’t think the guy spoke English and he evidently hadn’t been to an airport before so he didn’t think his luggage would be searched or something I don’t know but he was really upset which of course caused the TSA people get upset and the whole thing was a huge CF. Needless to say what I thought would be the fastest line became the slowest line so it took forever to get through. If this was an isolated incident it wouldn’t be a big deal but this sort of thing happens to me all the time. I’m like the Odysseus of lines. I’ve pissed off the line god and he’s not letting me through. Anyway, it’s time to wait in line to get on the plane so I’d better be going.
I’ve been spending some time in Iowa the state where I grew up. I was driving to the airport in Des Moines taking back roads feeling nostalgic. All of the corn is dry and ready to harvest the ditches and gullies of gray dead grass hiding deer and pheasants. This used to be my favorite time of year. The time of hunting dogs, shotguns and early mornings in the field. My eyes are still programmed to see certain motion patterns that indicate a duck, a deer, a rabbit. I think of passing on the unspoken things that my father passed on to me. Quiet masculine companionship, hunting, breath fogging the cold air, love of nature, life and death.
I got a new guitar as a gift, a very nice Fender DG-24. A long time ago before I got married I used to play quite a bit and I’d been thinking about picking up the habit again. It’s kind of funny my fingers remember what to do but my hands aren’t strong enough to pull it off and no callouses. I played, or tried to play until I got little bloody lines on the end of the fingers of my left hand. It was kind of weird playing because it seemed like it sort of shook loose a bunch of old memories. It’s like I suddenly had access to all of these old sensations smells and feelings that I associated with playing years ago. I have to travel to New Jersey next week so my fingers will have a chance to heal up. If I keep traveling I’ll have to get a travel guitar. Or else stop traveling.
