Category: Life

Categories
Life

Slave to Soda Pop

I used the politically correct term in the title, but I’m going to call it pop (I’m from Minnesota) from this point forward.

I have to finally admit it. I’ve had an addiction to pop for the past few years. Actually, I think since I started college (in 2005), so that would put it at six years this Fall. That means I should give myself twelve to actually ditch it completely, right?

All kidding aside, I was pretty well hooked on the stuff. There were days when I would look forward to a taste of a good, well-carbonated Dr. Pepper like it would carry me through the rest of the day. I wouldn’t venture far from the office without having something in my hand to keep me going.

There probably isn’t much that looks less professional than a bottle of Mt. Dew at your lips as you are working on a computer issue.

I was a slave to the pop. As sugary sweet as it is, it is going to be difficult to stay away from it, but I think that my relationship with pop needs to change. It isn’t going to end because I’m a firm believe in “everything in moderation,” but the days of relying on that caffeine boost to get me through the week is going by the wayside and I will need to find another way to do it.

One thing I am doing is getting out and working out more regularly again. I’m going back to Couch to 5K to try and get myself back into shape again, which will go a long way to getting my energy up as my body increases its metabolism.

At the office, my big change is the introduction of iced tea as my drink of choice. I’m hoping that it will be the sweetness I crave without all of the ill effects. I also need to drink more water.

Luckily, I’m now on week 2 of not having any pop and the headaches are gone. Sadly, they are replaced with my body now working to cope with increased workouts, but I’m sure I’ll get there soon.

It feels good to break those chains.

Categories
Life

Motivation

This post is not meant to be an indictment against anyone else, but I need to post something about my own motivation while it is still fresh in my mind.

Money doesn’t motivate me. It is a nice by-product of what I do, but I will almost never do something for only money. There needs to be something more for me, or I will lost interest and give up on whatever I am doing and myself. It is too demoralizing to run after more money for the sake of more money. I can’t do it. You can ask my parents because I’m the kind of person who would neither hold onto money nor seek it out.

My motivation is derived from my creative need to always be thinking, to always be exploring to always be learning more and striving to be better and do something better than it was done before. It is the little things that make something better by being completely engrossed in a problem. The small efficiences that lead up to a huge gain in productivity. Always trying to new things to see if you can find something better.

It is not about not being content, but always striving for something more and better.

My motivation is my family whom I love dearly and would do anything for. It is waking up next to the love of my life (or the loves of my life if it was a hard night of sleep for the little man), the kisses as I walk out of the door and the hugs as I come back home after a day at work. The smiles, the laughing, the discussions and even the trials that it means to be a family.

My motivation comes from my faith in God and what his Son, Jesus, did for me. As a father myself, I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like to send your own son to be sacrificed for the saving of the world. It is the blessings that I receive this day and always have. It is the love that God has shown me that I know I don’t deserve because I trip and fall and stumble and fail and … you get the picture.

These things are what motivates me. These places are where I derive my motivation to do what I do every day. I thank God every day for what I have.

Categories
Life

Things Change

Over this trip, I was able to listen to some of the backlog of podcasts from 5by5, mainly the four episodes of Build and Analyze I had forgotten about from Dan Benjamin and Marco Arment. One of the topics that has been discussed over those past episodes has been that of self-hosted blogging platforms.

Marco was the lead developer of Tumblr and is currently the founder of Instapaper, a service I use daily. He’s been working on a project he calls Second Crack. It is, basically, a self-hosted blogging platform that transforms text files written in Markdown into blog posts. Cool stuff. Dan and Marco have talked quite a bit about the design ideas behind it, what Marco has been aiming for as far as post workflow, administrative workflow, how posts get where they are supposed to go, etc. and it is a lot of fun to hear about.

However, I want to write something myself because of it.

Also over the past few days, Andy Clarke has released 320 and up, a really cool inversion on what has traditionally been touted as responsive web design. What I mean by “cool inversion” is that instead of starting with the desktop and working your way down, you start with the stylesheet at the smallest device level (usually smart phone-sized) and work your way up to the desktop. The idea is to download only the needed assets and add stuff as you scale up.

It makes sense, it is cool, and I want to build something.

I’m also looking at forming an LLC again. I know, I just disbanded Replosion about a half-year ago, but things have changed (obviously) so I’m looking for names again.

All in all, a lot of work to do.

So here is what I am thinking at the moment:

  • splitting http://bobmartens.net up
  • http://bobmartens.net will be my personal portfolio site
  • http://bobmartens.net/blog will be my personal blogging site
  • both will be designed using 320 and up as the base
  • http://bobmartens.net/blog will be using my own blogging platform
  • my new blogging platform will NOT have comments
  • it will use static files in the final form
  • it will be simple

That’s the idea, at least. There is a lot of moving parts to get out of the way, but http://bobmartens.net will once again be changing. WordPress is too much for what I want, Tumblr is not hosted by me (which is not what I want or need).

Now I need to actually ship something.

Categories
Life Technology

Another Technological Change in Direction: Week One

So it has been one week since we dropped our Mac Mini into someone else’s lap and picked up a used MacBook for my wife to use. I thought I’d post some quick thoughts on how things have done so far. Yes, it is a list, so bear with me.

  • I spend far less time in my office at the moment now that I have all of my stuff on my MacBook Pro. Granted, part of that has to do with me ditching caffeine as well and needing more sleep. I am interested to see if that will change as I get more and more into the development side of things again.
  • My wife uses her laptop A LOT, which is great.
  • The speed increase between Late 2009 and Early 2011 for the MacBook/MacBook Pro is pretty amazing, but the MacBook is still REALLY usable. Actually, more than that, I would still use it as a main development machine if it was mine.
  • An SSD really can make all the difference. I don’t have any right now, but my old MacBook Pro was fast ONLY because of the SSD I had in it.
  • OS X is worth the “price of admission” for me and my family. The amount of time I spend fixing things is nil now, which is great.
  • The glass screen of the MacBook Pro might be glossy, but it is SO strong that it is worth it.
  • I can’t believe I missed it, but purchasing an entire cable (instead of just an adapter) to run from my monitor to my MacBook Pro is worth it. So much simpler.
  • Mice are a crapshoot. The Magic Mouse is a great mouse, but you will need to try out a number of mice to find one that works for you.
  • I really wish Apple was still making the smaller USB keyboard (the one that looks like the Apple Wireless Keyboard).
  • The iPad is still incredibly useful. I was worried that its usefulness would go away with the purchase of another laptop, but that has not been the case. The experience is still completely different, and different in a good way (both using a laptop and using the iPad).
  • Apple’s MagSafe adapter might be my favorite change to laptops along with LED-backlit screens. A minor thing overall, but it makes a HUGE difference.
  • We really need to get a desk just to hide the power adapter. Would really like a roll-top desk so that we can hide the MacBook from our son.

That’s about it. More later!

Categories
Life Technology

Another Technological Change in Direction

Where the confluence of life and technology meet, I waver back and forth. I’ve always been this way, for better or worse, but it seems to be at pandemic levels at the moment as I waffle back and forth on my technology setup for the future.

If you’ve been keeping track for long, you’ve seen me go between Windows, Mac, Linux, Mac, Linux, Mac and then Linux again. I probably missed one or two transitions in there, but you get the general idea from that list.

One positive has been my ability to stay rather neutral as far as file formats go, and moving between platforms has been relatively painless for me since my initial move to Mac back in the Spring of 2005.

However, I’m set to make another course correction in the near future, one necessitated for a number of reasons. I’ll split them into Work Reasons and Home Reasons.

Work Reasons

Work purchased me a new 13″ MacBook Pro, so that really made the decision pretty easy. I had my T61 set up pretty nicely for the time being, but when the opportunity presented itself I jumped ship back to Apple pretty much as fast as I could. I have no scruples when it comes to technology and right now Apple provides me with what I both want and need.

There is also the little bit about how I’m unofficially/officially the “Mac guy” at work as well. Part of benefit of my Genius training I suppose. So, having a Mac, using one and thus, keeping up with what is happening on the platform is probably a good idea. I’ll also get to keep up with Linux because I interact with them at the server-level every day.

So, I’m ditching my T61. If you are looking for a T61, let me know.

Home Reasons

Since I now have a Mac portable, I’m going to go ahead and consolidate on that single machine for ease-of-use. It makes sense for me, and the power of the Core i7-powered MacBook Pro is WAY more than I am used to having, so it works rather nicely.

However, that leaves a wonderful Mac Mini sitting in my office not getting used anymore. That’s not 100% true, as it does get used for pictures and videos and music at the moment for the family, but not as much as it did and not even as often as it should because of its location in the basement of our house.

The basement means having to go down a flight of not-quite-awesome stairs and also putting yourself farther away from the rest of the family. Since the machine will now be used mostly by my wife, and she can really only use it when our son is asleep (and will be able to do it even less-so when our next child arrives in July), she doesn’t get down there often. You also can’t hear much when you are in my basement office.

What does it all mean?

It means I’d like to get a machine into the main part of the house for my wife. However, we don’t have a desk to set it on, and if we did we really don’t want a huge monitor staring us straight in the face somewhere in the main living area. It also only draws our son’s attention, which we don’t want either. The boy loves looking at pictures, videos and just pounding on the keyboard as well.

Because of those needs, I am working on selling the Mac Mini and we are going to use the money to purchase an inexpensive Apple portable for my wife to use (used, refurbished, won at a drawing, etc.). This makes sense for a number of reasons.

First, it can be closed so it is not staring our son in the face the whole day. Second, it can be stowed away in a case or a roll-top desk (which we would like to get) so that it is not always out for people to look at. Third, because of the above two, it can be in the main living area so that she can use it more often to get her pictures up on Facebook or edit some video for various groups.

Now, the idea is to use any money we get from the Mac Mini to purchase the laptop so that it is an equal trade. We might have to trade some processing power for the size and portability, but that is a choice we’ve made.

I don’t know when this is all going to happen, but I’m hoping relatively soon. Sometimes things just keep on changing.