March 17th, 2009 / by Alec
As I reflect on the six weeks since my last post, my brain wants to immediately qualify it an utter failure. Goals remain far from complete, but as I really take it in, I’ve made progress. Adequate progress. Nothing fancy, nothing beyond my expectations, but the fact that progress is occurring is an accomplishment for me at this point in time.
We last left off with me determined to hope onto the iPhone developer bandwagon, getting up to speed with Objective C, the programming language of choice for Apple software. That’s still a goal, but I now realize I was biting off more than I could chew. I took it a step back and even there, hit a roadblock. So I decided to just start from the bottom and work my way up, and at this, I’m moving rapidly.
Good progress is being made. Which is important since I’m essentially racing a ticking clock. I have a lot to accomplish in just a few scant months, so let’s hope I make it to the finish line. Well, I’ll hope. You can most definitely hope to, but I won’t hold it against you. I’m sure a few of you secretly hope for my failure. You’ll probably get it, but still, fuck you.
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February 4th, 2009 / by Alec
Right now, I feel a lot like the Pittsburgh Steelers when there was 2:37 left on the game clock and the scoreboard read 20-23. It hasn’t been the easiest day, not when your massive contributions to one of the biggest projects of the season is unrecognized not only in a entire-staff meeting, but also a smaller, yet equally impactful team meeting. And not when your former employer closed a deal that made him a multi-millionaire. No, it wasn’t an easy day at all.
But hopefully, like my beloved Stillers, I can possess at least half the grit they showed to battle, persevere, and capture their ultimate goal. Nothing or no one is going to make it easy for me, I just have to make it work. I’m earnestly trying my hardest to not allow myself wallow in this pool of negative emotions, but instead use it as the fuel to get myself where I want to be. I think today was eye-opening, in more ways than one, in what my future could be: how it can be if I continue on the same path or what I can acheive by making that hard right.
My goals remain unchanged, but you can believe my resolve is peaking.
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January 20th, 2009 / by Alec
…Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl, here we go!
For decades, fans had the rallying cry, “One for the thumb,” since the four fingers already sported bling acquired during the 70’s. Well, the 2005 Steelers finally delivered, so what do we say now? One for the other thumb!
A sixth Super Bowl victory would make the Stillers the all-time winningest Super Bowl team, putting them one ahead of the Cowboys and 49ers. What dumb luck I had when I randomly selected a football team to be a fan of. Imagine if I went with the hometown Dolphins? I probably wouldn’t even be a fan of football, so frustrated with years of disappointment to care anymore. Now, though, no matter what, I’m Steelers for life. They have provided so much pure entertainment for me that I’ll watch no matter what. And one day… I’ll be attending every game live. That’d be the ultimate dream.
It’s going to be a fun two weeks.
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January 13th, 2009 / by Alec
Time flies, motherfuckers. The 30 Day Dev Challenge is going well; three of the five challengers appear to be actively participating and really, that’s two more than I expected. Very pleased with that. I’m not really sure why, but I often have this inner-desire/instinct to prop up those around me. I want to see others succeed, especially my friends, and I like to help ‘em reach their goals. I get energized off of it. Of course, it’s far tougher with some and it’s definitely case-by-case, but I dunno… I’m sure deep down it’s because I can’t do it on my own so I try to live through others, like parents with children, or some other kind of selfish act. In the meantime, I’ll pretend I’m being noble.
Andrew pointed me towards this hot new motivational fad, Getting Things Done™, and I’m going to try to apply some of its most basic principles as a guideline to further improve myself. I know one of its main tenets is getting the thoughts out of my head and onto paper. That’s common sense, but man do I never do it. If I can visually see what I’m not doing, maybe I’ll actually do them. Lately, I definitely feel that I’m finally doing something with my life, so let’s keep this train rolling. Whistle tips go Whoo, whoo!
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January 10th, 2009 / by Alec
…you deliver a Steelers victory tomorrow. PLEASE PROVE YOUR EXISTANCE. I was 0-2 today in picking the games. Last weekend, I was also 0-2 on the first day’s games and 2-2 the next. Let’s hope history repeats itself or else Alec won’t be heard from again… ever.
I’m two days away from the kickoff of the 30 Day Developer Challenge. As it stands now, it appears one of the five contestants may have to bow out. I’m unsure of two others and the remaining challenger appears to be ready to ride along with me. That makes me happy. After a long, hard week with murmurs of a rough month ahead at my job, I’m more energized than ever to build myself up to be self-sufficient and recession-proof. I have to be independent. I can’t fuck this up. God, again, if you’re listening and want a believer… oh, who are we kidding?!
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January 7th, 2009 / by Alec
I did not procrastinate today.
It was absolutely amazing. This morning I awoke feeling like complete shit and decided to stay home from work. The lady friend went to school around 8:30am and I thought to myself, “Lemme clean this place up and make dinner for her tonight.”
Now, I usually have this idea every time she leaves for the day and I’m at home. And then I’ll tell myself, “I’ll start at 12pm, after I wake up a bit.” Noon rolls around, I (obviously) don’t feel like cleaning, and re-negotiate with myself, “Okay, one more SpongeBob, but then REALLY start at 1pm.” Then it’s 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 4:30, 5pm, 5:15pm… then it’s, “OhshitIhave15minutesgottadoitfast!” Then I (sort of) do it.
Today? Same deal, tell myself I’ll start at noon, except… I actually started at noon! Mind you, I have started on-time before, but I’d pace and just look around, timid to pick a place to start, and do a very tiny bit and sit back down. NOT THIS TIME! I started and continued cleaning, and continued, and kept going until I was done.
I even got to a point where I accomplished more than I initially set out to do and was ready to reward myself with a break, BUT EVEN THEN, I saw some dishes that needed to be done and dove in.
I know how mundane and immature this all sounds, but I shocked myself today. I hope this is indicative of a greater change and a result of my actions to put myself into a truly comfortable position. I have a house, I have a much shorter commute to work, I have a yard where I can just let the dogs out instead of walking them, and I don’t have any clutter. I’m set up to just focus on advancing my life and not worrying about the little every day things.
Speaking of which, I’d like to introduce an idea I came up with: the 30 Day Developer Challenge. I invited a group of my techie-friends to spend the next 30 days learning a new computing language of their personal choice. It’s like a competition slash group support system to help us stay focused on finishing the challenge. It’s like starting a diet with a significant other, except with a feasible goal.
I set up a new blog and invited them to be an author so we can share our progress with each other. You can find that blog here: http://30daydev.blogspot.com/. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m learning Objective C 2.0 in the hopes of developing applications for the iPhone. I’m excited to see what my friends decide to learn, and even more excited to see if any of us can complete our goals. I’m very confident in myself and I think this system will be of great benefit.
Here’s to a future that doesn’t suck!
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January 6th, 2009 / by Alec
I was getting into the shower today and snuck a glance at myself in the mirror, with my long, desperately-needing-to-be-cut hair and week-old stubbly face, and for a very brief second I thought I was looking at my own father. It was rather spooky because I’ve always felt that I didn’t share any of his features. Now, as I grow older and slower and achier and less mentally sound and more fond of small dogs, I’m finally starting to inherit the physical features of my paternal heritage.
On an unrelated note, I made an appointment with the chiropractor and signed up for the Premier League Soccer package on DirecTV. Maybe I should call in to work tomorrow…
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January 4th, 2009 / by Alec
That’s right, I reached all the way back to the 90’s for that HILARIOUS post title. It’s a play on a words, see? I’m very pun-ny. Hah!
So I decided it’s time to stop living disconnected from the world’s collective conciousness and manage my life via Google. Wherever I need to go, from any computer or mobile phone, I can access my e-mail (Gmail), my calendar (Google Calendar), and even my documents (Google Docs). No longer will my information be constrained to a single local machine in a Microsoft Office environment. Now, Google handles every bit (and byte) of it.
On top of all my crucial files living on Google’s servers, I also modified my Windows desktop to allow for easy access by installing the Google Sidebar. As you can see from the following image, I don’t need to do anything to see and manage all that data.
On top of that, I’ve been using Google Chrome as my default web browser. My life is squarely in the hands of Google and I can only pray that their company motto still is “Do no evil.”
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January 3rd, 2009 / by Alec
A nasty virus has invaded my insides and it has unleashed unholy war against my immune system. Sadly, reports from the frontlines are grim. Reinforcements from the Walgreens Regiment have been called in and it’s in their hands now.
After a week of anticipation, Wild Card Weekend has finally arrived and I look forward to remaining motionless on our couch for long periods of time. There’s four games on tap this weekend and I predict a sweep for the visiting teams. I wonder if that’d be unprecedented? I wish I had access to the same service these sports shows use for the crazy stats they get. “No team has ever lost every other game while using a backup quarterback with a mixed-race Senator in office of their home state while an El Nino effect is going on! BUT HISTORY CAN BE MADE TODAY!”
Yesterday, Jennifer and I drove through the mean streets of Compton and Lynwood to get to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I’d like to first remark that downtown Long Beach is perhaps the cleanest downtown I have personally seen and has to be the most expensive place in the world to live. The aquarium couldn’t be in a nicer part of California, which I can’t say the same about the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where I feared for my life every second I was in that god forsaken mess of concrete.
The trip was a rather nice affair, with plenty of my favorite sea creatures on display, the sea dragons. Unfortunately, these guys are illegal to own as I believe they are a threatened species, but goddamn, it’d be like owning my own Japanese monster. They come in many variations, some less leafy, some more straight and narrow, but the leafy offers up too much unique features to not be my clear-cut favorite. I just read their Wiki and they are indeed considered endangered by the Australian government and there hasn’t been much success in captive breeding, therefore if you want to own one, you essentially need to go into Australian waters and brave great white sharks to catch your own, an illegal affair. Perhaps, one day, when Jennifer is a successful, respected member of the veterinarian community, she can cozy up to a public aquarium official and get me a license or something.
One day…
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January 2nd, 2009 / by Alec
History of any sort has always fascinated me. History pertaining to the hobbies I enjoy, even more so. The NFL Network has an absolutely phenomenal series called America’s Game. It consists of hour-long episodes covering the NFL’s Super Bowl winning teams. It’s unique in that it features three or four of the team’s players or coaches telling their stories while looking directly into the camera, as if they’re personally telling you the tale. Also, the episodes are narrated by some big-name talent, such as Alec Baldwin, Gene Hackman, or Donald Sutherland, among others. Here’s a clip to better illustrate the show.
Well, since there have only been 42 Super Bowl victors, the show had a finite amount of episodes to air and so they turned to teams who were “Missing Rings,” that is, teams that deserved to wear the Super Bowl hardware, yet inexplicably fell short. One such team, the 1998 Minnesota Vikings, went 15-1 in the regular season, broke the NFL record for most points scored in a season, and had a kicker who hadn’t missed a field goal in over two years. Cut to the conference championship game where all that was needed to go to the Super Bowl was an easy field goal and well… I’m sure you can piece the rest together.
The coach of that team was Dennis “Denny” Green, a 20-year assistant coach veteran that was finally given a chance to be a head coach. He opened training camp of that season preaching what he called the three D’s: Desire, Dedication, and Determination. Now, I’m not sure if using the motivational tools of a head coach with over 30 years of coaching experience and no ring to show for it is a wise idea or not, but his three D’s certainly sound like something to follow if you have a dream you’re reaching for.
According to Green, to achieve your goals you have to desire it; want it like no other thing you’ve wanted before. Dedicate yourself to pursuing it, sacrificing everything necessary in the hunt. Always be determined; do not allow missteps or accidents to impede your progress towards reaching your goal.
Growing up, we hear it all the time: you can do whatever you want if you set your mind to it, put the hard work in and you’ll be rewarded, and so on and so forth. It’s all there, pretty clear and easy, yet just… feels impossible when it really shouldn’t. As I enter the year 2009, with so much possibility and opportunity out in front of me, perhaps the three D’s are exactly what I need to remember and follow to start getting to that next level.
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I'm a guy that dabbles in everything who catches lucky breaks along the way. Professionally, I work as a front-end web developer, but I've also been paid to write about video games and I've had very minor success with a few short films. I think the term is "modern day renaissance man." Either that or lazy & indecisive.
