Webninja.org

Projects projects projects…

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.

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more time past..

So much has gone on in the past month and a half.  Not to mention I have plenty of things from the prior to my last writing which I wasn’t necessarily talking about.  I really would like to get to finding more time for myself again.  It seems like more and more the rush of life has caught me in its wake.

From work to to my personal life, it seems like I have no time and I’m always rushed.  Work has been busy as usual, I’ve come to learn the crunch time doesn’t end.  It has it’s ups and downs, but in general I’m still fairly happy with my job.  There are so many unemployed programmers out there, or even worse, those working tech support.  I’m glad to say every day I get to write code.

My life outside work has consisted of djing, planning what Nascent Numen is doing next, and recently my new girlfriend.  I try not to talk about my personal life as far as relationships go here but occasionally I make mention and this is one of those times.  Suffice it to say, I feel like a lucky guy.

I recently came back from a trip to Washington D.C.  I played a couple dj gigs out there and also was able to do plenty of site seeing.  I took quite a few pictures while I was in D.C., and played the role of tourist.  As usual, you can see the pictures on my Flickr account.

So in an effort to try to grasp for more personal time, I’ll be making frequent stops to Caribou Coffee or perhaps other places with free WiFi once I start searching.  Also I’ve been slacking on my gym membership.  I pay monthly for it, I need to utilize it again.  I’m a bit behind on my initial target goal so I’ll have to create a new one.

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Would it help to say I’m sorry?

I’ve been pretty busy with life lately.  Work has been chaotic as usual.  While I’ve been told it’s going to die down once the initial rush of bridal season hits, I don’t feel as if it has.  It seems like no matter what I’m working on that’s computer related lately has been a fight to a degree.  At work I deal with the horrible code from our previous developer that is slowly going away.  I rewrite a major portion of our call center application and we’re putting it through testing now.  I’ve also been working on a new layout for the site.  I figured I can’t let all of the time I’ve wasted in photoshop go too far to the wayside and feel dirty using a pre-made layout.

Along with this, I’m intent on writing the new site sans-tables and it’s proving a headache getting browser compatibility to work.  As would be expected, it looks great in Firefox and Safari but Internet Explorer likes to add random spaces all over the place.  Then again I could just be creating my own problems by writing my own CSS hacks to make the site work.  As it is I still have a few issues with spacing not being perfect in IE vs anything else but I’ll resolve those issues later.  In other words I should have the new layout up soon.  I’ll probably try to find a decent tutorial on CSS design and maybe run with that.

Beyond that, life has changed a lot, mostly for the better.  I have a ton of code I’ve been working on generalizing so I can share it here, most of it involving the Zend Framework to some degree.  I haven’t been pushing DJing as much as I was in the past, but I’m heading out to Washington DC to play in March so I”m pretty excited for that.  I’ll write more soon as I have time.

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Crunch time…

Nothing motivates me like a deadline.  Back before October 1st, Brandon and I were handed a deadline at work and it began a stream of 16-20 hour coding marathons at work.  It was a period of emotional highs and lows unlike anything I’ve experienced before.  Right now we’re at a similar stage.  Next week I’ll be in San Antonio for a work convention that I’ll be speaking at multiple times.  Along with that, and January being our biggest month of the year there’s a huge emphasis on getting our projects rolled out for the new year.  In other words, it needs to be done tomorrow.

Since starting with my company, I’ve began a complete rewrite of all of our webapps we’ve codenamed Puma.  I’ve talked about it some before, how it runs under the Zend Framework, some of the struggles, my realization of how little I knew about SQL when I started, and a few other things.  We’re very close to the end of this stretch, where we begin to truly rewrite all of the apps next year and I can’t wait.  Yeah, I’m a geek but if you really know me, you already knew that.

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25lbs later…

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.

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The Game Is Afoot…

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.

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I’m an apple whore

It’s true.. after using an iPhone, then a nano, and now a MacBook, I have to admit it.. Apple makes a good product. I really hate to say it. After all these years, I’ve always said I didn’t like them. I never gave OSX a shot although I was open to it. I hated the operating system prior. They really did a great job. I’ve been leaving my compaq laptop at work to force me to use the macbook and after 2 weeks I can honestly say I really enjoy using it. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Windows XP. I gave up on Vista after giving it a few months to grow on me.  So I’ve been using my MacBook for playing out while djing and it’s pretty solid.  I’ve also begun applying it to my developer side of things  We’ll see how it holds up versus the staples I’ve grown accustomed to over the years.

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Another year…

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. =)

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Can you see the light?

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!

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I really don’t want to go to work today

So I’ve now worked 12 days in a row, and I need to go in today again.  In a way it sucks, but on the other side, I’m doing something I love so I can’t complain too much, plus the company always takes care of me when I put time in like this.  We have a huge October 2nd deadline to meet so I’m sure this week will be the same thing with a few 12-16 hours days.  I guess I can give up one thing and then just watch the other end pick up heavily.

On the flip side, I feel strangely energetic today.  Robbie and I went to the gym early and lifted for a while and rode the elliptical machines for a while.  Things with Lifetime have been going good so I can’t complain.  I’ll start with my personal trainer next week so I can really learn what it’s like to kick my own ass.

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