Well it’s about that time of year again. I’ll be taking the doors off of the Jeep in no time and hopefully getting the Focus running again. New tires, a bit more boost, it should be fun. Along with this will be more grilling. I really want to try to grill lots of chicken this summer and try to shy away some from red meat. Want and will are 2 different things though and I love steaks and burgers. I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll be managing the summer but I’m up to the challenge.

We’re going to be doing another trial run of the PodCast soon, we’re still working out some things such as topics, focus, etc. Oh and probably a name eventually. Along with that, I’m hoping to start doing more writing akin to my previous post about PowerSet. I’ve been trying some offline blogging utilities, currently I’m writing this post in ecto on my way over to Sean’s house. If you happen to be familiar with a decent offline utility, please let me know. Some day I’d like to move to the bay area and this could be a good start at getting my foot into the door out there.

On another note, I’ve been using Twitter a lot lately. On the new layout I have my twitter updates on the sidebar however until I get around to that, you can see what I’m up to at www.twitter.com/trahma. I’ve been using the Twinkle iPhone application as well so quite frequently you’ll see pictures attached to my tweets.

And with that, I’m pulling up to Sean’s house, time to steal his WiFi and post this.

So life is pretty busy as usual when Summer hits.  Lots of things are on the horizon for me and I’ve more and more turned into a techie again.  In June, I’ll return to downtown and be djing every Friday again so it should be interesting to see how this all plays out.  Managing work, side web projects, a dj / promo crew, and having a girlfriend will certainly be quite the task.   That’s why I have the jeep though, top down, doors off.  Freedom.

On the project note, Brandon, Chrispian, and myself have decided we’re going to step into the world of Podcasting.  We ran a technical test last night and things went well.  I think we’ll probably have one “pilot” episode of sorts to see how things work out, then launch from there.  We’ll most likely target the tech sector, with a dash of geek.

To handle my voice, I picked up a Microsoft LifeChat VX-3000 headset and am actually quite amazed with the quality.  I wore the headset for about 2 hours and never really felt like it was cumbersome.  On top of that, the clarity is top notch and it works well with Leopard.

Well I’m making this post a bit pre-emptively. Last September I made a decision to start getting my ass into the gym and watching what I was eating. I’ve done this in the past, as far as dieting but it never seemed to work out well for me. In life I constantly look at ways to improve myself and better me. I like to think that this has been another experiment in making myself better.

I had hit a point in my life where I weighed more than I ever have before. I stepped up on the scale and watched it count up to 245.5 and almost shat myself. Sure I wasn’t eating the healthiest but I couldn’t believe it. That was when I started cutting back. I eliminated pop, red bull, and picked up a gym membership. I still haven’t used my personal trainer sessions because I’m hitting my goals on my own thus far. As soon as I seem to hit a wall though I have 6 hour long sessions I’ll be calling on to play clean up. I’ve been trying to hit the gym 3-4 times / week although I’d like to get into a routine where I go in the mornings to work out, then on my free nights go and play basketball. I still have a bit of practice to get in to where I’m comfortable playing in the pickup games but I’ve given myself until February to do so. I’ve been running dribbling drills and a few other practice techniques to get myself ready to go. In the end, eliminating pop, going to sugar free red bull, visiting the gym, and turning down most sweets seems to be working quite well for me. It’s a life change that’s not strict enough where I feel the need to binge on food and at the same time, I keep my body moving enough to keep the metabolism chugging.

Lots of things in my life have changed since I started. I watched myself climb back into the geek persona more. Once again I wake up thinking about queries and ways to re-write classes more efficiently. For some reason, I feel the need to write about it here often as if justifying myself and my years of seclusion in my room working on code. Brandon and I have become quite the coding duo. As a side effect, I need to start posting more stuff here that’s code related. I’ve done a lot of work within the Zend Framework that I’d like to put up to help others that may be in the same situation I’m in.

Speaking of work, I’m off to San Antonio next week for work so I’ll be working long hours to prepare this week. I have 4 or 5 projects to finish up by this weekend so I’m expecting a few marathon coding sessions. While I’m out there though I’ll definitely be bringing along my camera to take plenty of pictures. I’m starting to like this travel thing more and more.

This was the opening statement made by our class valedictorian Marija Reiff on the day of my high school graduation. To be honest, I don’t really recall a lot of what her speech was about. However I remember the opening line.. the first impression so to speak. I fail with first impressions often. Sometimes I feel like I nail them perfectly, usually whenever it comes to something dj related. I know how I want people to see Justin Styles, and I hit the mark. In smaller cities, I’m a superstar dj from Minneapolis. Locally I like to think people respect me and have heard about me. The truth? Hell if I know. I’ve gone through the years, trying to find my personal flaws and improve on them. Determine what things will make me a better, stronger person. What better method to meet yourself than to face yourself right?

In reality, not many people meet the real me. I can probably count on one hand the number of people. No I’m not trying to say I have deep dark secrets nobody knows about, but there’s a select few people I try to turn to for advice, or their opinion, or am willing to tell someone about. Like everyone, I’m a person of layers. Computer geek, dj, car enthusiast, and an array of other things. I’ve done well at not being so introverted, but I still bottle up lots of things. It’s a pride thing. I don’t want to look bad, or be found out for the truth. I think I learned my sense of pride from my Mom early and she fought with me over it. Trying to get me to admit something is my fault. It’s the feeling of caving I hate so much. It could have been in elementary school when I was an outsider at Lincoln. I’ve always stood up for what I thought was right, regardless of penalty. In the end, it’s cost me some good friends, but I still have my pride.

It’s funny to think just how much of my life is dictated by an internal emotion that is only regulated by myself. The way I act around people when I want to act a different way. How I’m not able to just go with my feelings at times. It’s the fear of rejection, the fear of failing, the fear of not living up to the expectations I’ve set for myself.

In the end, I think it hurts me the areas I hold most dear. The ones that can forever change my life. It’s something I need to learn to set aside at times because the only thing that can change my pride is myself.

It’s weird to think another year in my life has blown by. I went from car guy to dj then back to geek. I’m pretty happy with things now. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I like to look back at where I’ve gone in life and reflect on how I’ve changed. The things I’ve done better, the things I’ve been worse at. I’d say my 26th year was a good one.

First off, I’m very satisfied with my living arrangement. I made the decision to leave my 2 bedroom apartment and things have been good in Bloomington. Leaving Identix also turned out to be a solid plan as I love my job now. I still look forward to going to work every day. The dj crew is still doing a kick ass job even though we have a few bumps here and there. Our party we hosted last Saturday was crazy and around 250 other people agree with me on that. On top of that, I’ve been hitting the gym, not as much as I’d like but I’ve been fairly decent at it. I haven’t been in a few weeks though and that will change this week.

I’ve left good friends behind and gained new friends and rekindled past friendships. Some of this I’m pretty upset with, some I think is for the better. The way life changes as I walk down the path intrigues me though. It’s weird to think how the smallest thing can make a large impact on your life. I like to look back at those moments and think about how my life wouldn’t be the way it is without them.

I guess that’s enough reflection, I need to get into work. I’ve got lots of code to write. =)

It’s been quite a tumultuous past few weeks.  I’ve written thousands of lines of code and we’re so close now with 2 days to spare.  Brandon and I did another 12 hour marathon session at work and most likely will start another in a couple hours.  The pieces of the puzzle are all coming together and I’m excited for the results.  If all goes well, we’ll finish up tonight, polish tomorrow, and wow the vendors on Tuesday.

It’s really fun being a programmer again.  Sure the time investment isn’t the greatest but I’m actually using my brain again.  To those that haven’t seen me around much lately,  I apologize but I’m sure you all know I’ll be back and kicking very soon.  Next we get to start planning the AfterHoursDJs spinoff here in Minneapolis.  The venue is locked down and the djs have their flights booked, it’s just a matter of getting the plans for the venue locked down.  If you’re in Minneapolis, you better party with us on October 20th!

Back when I used to work at Irresistible Ink during my first yearly review my boss referred to me as 95%.  He told me that I can do any project and fly up to 95% and afterwards wait until the last minute.  I sometimes feel like this is true about my life lots.  I can climb to near the top at almost anything I do.  Be it djing, working within the car club, or work.  It seems like it comes with relative ease as if I prove to myself I can be the best, then slouch off.  I wish I could explain why I do it, or where it came from.  I know that when I push myself, I climb over the wall but there have been few times I’ve done that.  I really don’t know where all of this is coming from either.  I should be in relatively high spirits.  I’ve been working a bunch of hours but beyond that, I’m on track for a very successful year in my life.  I love my job, Brandon starts work there next week.  My dj crew is growing more and more and we’re throwing 3 shows in the next few months which will put us at the 4 shows I wanted to reach in the beginning of the year.

For those that don’t know, I also signed up for a gym and I’ve already lost 6lbs in the last 2 weeks which puts me just a hair over the 2.5lbs / week goal I set for myself.  Yet at the end of the day, I feel dead.  I haven’t felt like going out for quite some time now and even playing out isn’t a priority.  I really think I need a vacation and may opt to take one in October.  I’m really considering just getting in the jeep and driving.  Where I end up, it really doesn’t matter as long as it’s away.  Of course, that means getting away from work, probably everyone I know as well.  I really enjoyed being away with an entirely new feeling.  Driving in downtown Nashville, not knowing what I was going to find was exciting.  Granted this would probably be a better plan if it was summer but maybe I’ll just go that far south.  Who knows, not me that’s for sure.

Well I decided to make a life change today and it’s a pretty big one.  It’s actually one that will have a huge impact on my life.  I really don’t keep too many secrets, so as an experiment, I’ve told one person of the change.  It’s something that if it goes well, will affect me for the rest of my life.  Have any guesses?  Anyways, it’s one of those things that’s for the better.  I’ve considered creating a separate category that’s private where I can write about it and then once I’ve decided to, I’ll open it up for others to see.  Here’s to my new endeavor!

My life has been pretty nuts lately.  I’ve been employed for almost 2 months with the new job and I still wake up in the morning excited to go to work.  I feel like they really appreciate me, and I keep getting to do new things.  Right now, I’m spending alot of our time reverse engineering the previous programmer’s work.  He wasn’t very good at keeping things organized.  There are no comments, and its like untangling a big mess of cords to figure out where things are.  Thus far I’ve been using the Zend Framework in favor of Cups or Code Igniter.  I made this decision based on a few things.  While I hate to say it, ZF is made by the creators of PHP.   Because of this, I expect the best support out of it as well as community.  Some parts of Code Igniter feel cryptic and the community around seems small.  Working with ZF and hanging out in the irc channel for it reminds me much of when I started learning PHP.  As far as where I’m at with our re-write at work, we’ve been doing a lot of planning on the show management side which will lead us into the call center manager’s portion of work nicely.  In a way it feels exactly where we should start so I think we get bonus points for that.

I’ve also written a search engine of sorts to search or data tables easily.  The existing setup is fairly clunky (which I’m sure is hard to  believe based on previous statements) so I rewrote it the way I think it should be done.  It’s not 100% but it’s definitely an improvement over our exisiting one.  I plan on posting the basics of the code here once I get a bit further along with it to share.

Beyond that, I purchased Bioshock today for Xbox 360.  It’s purely insane.  The graphics are unmatched and it’s the first game to scare me and make me jump in years.  Plus its a fun single player FPS.  It’s been a while since I’ve found that.    Anyways it’s near one oclock and I have another long day at work tomorrow so I’m crashing.