Posted by Joel
Fri, 28 Apr 2006 21:26:00 GMT
Yesterday I went out and bought some clothes. Then I went down to some punkish hair salon in the Castro and got a haircut. I cut it short again, so yay. Here is a picture of me looking like a dork, evidently endorsing a cup of coffee:
I'm pretty used to the long-to-short conversion by now, having done it a few times, that really I feel very comfortable with both hairstyles. It's always a relief to shed it off, though, because long hair tends to make me feel like a loser.
Some strange activity started outside while I was getting the haircut, so when it was done the stylist and other employees ran outside with me to find out what was going on out there. A couple blocks away was full of smoke and visible fire. Fire trucks were putting it out, and the whole area was blocked off by police, with people stand in the street gawking. Evidently some guy's car had blown up and taken out some other cars and property around Castro and 17th. So that was kind of crazy.
Anyway, the main motivation for this is of course being more presentable to potential employers or clients. I went to the interview today which I felt went really well. I might very well be becoming an employed real working man in a normal job. Would be a relief after the startup business, where you get paid in informal equity instead of dollars despite doing all the work.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:22:00 GMT
Thoughts of work, money, and freedom have been dominating my thoughts for the last few months and some realizations were made yesterday.
The main one is regarding my project, which I feel has gotten unruly and out of hand in terms of design and expectations. It used to be a clearer, simpler idea, but as it abstracted and my vision grew more grandiose I think I may have taken on an impossible task in philosophical experimentation. As such, I may return it to its original purpose.
I lined up an interview for tomorrow, most likely for a proper job programming Rails for a pretty big company, we'll see how that goes.
We went to La Rondalla for Katie's birthday. It was an alright time. I became entranced by the thought of a life of a Mariachi player at La Rondalla. And beyond that, the middle aged woman bussing our tables. I felt like an aristocrat and it disturbed me. How stupidly lucky we are, and how little we appreciate it. I can say that and still deep down feel like I am annointed to being the way I am because I'm better than other people, ultimately due to some innate predisposition which, by definition, I can't be held responsible for. What a joke. But perhaps that core narcissism is what keeps us going.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:41:00 GMT
I went to repark my car but got there too late :( I decided to remake my resume, and am now fairly satisfied with it. I applied for big jobs like Google and Apple again out of purist optimism, and then for a couple smaller ones, but we'll see if I take any, as I'm mainly looking into continuing the consulting lifestyle for now.
I spent a few hours going over design things in chats and text files for my project, but then Carl came over to help move some of Katie's stuff into the apartment. Then we all went to Magnolia and had a great time. At Magnolia I got a call from a client and ended up putting in some late night work once I got home.
Also, screw splitting up posts by category. RSSPECT is really cool. I didn't like the main premise, but the AnySite thing is really damned cool. RSSPECT is made doubly cool by the fact that it is made by the same man who makes those delightful Dinosaur Comics, one of the few comics I actually read daily.
Look! An RSS feed for Perry Bible Fellowship! And Bob the Angry Flower!
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Posted by Joel
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:49:00 GMT
Got some Cafe Abir, watched the Sopranos, did some contract work, did some major project work and pushed my changes up for those who know where to find it.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:07:00 GMT
The only thing of note for yesterday is that I went to the Maker Faire. It was truly a geeky experience. It had a few really cool gems, but besides those was merely just ok.
Interestingly, I walked a few inches from Apple co-founder and personal-computer-inventor Steve Wozniak. He was in the Segway Polo booth. I remarked to David I'd like to try riding a Segway, but once I saw the Woz I thought to myself, "is that him?" I remembered that he owned a few Segways. I was a bit struck but then I said to David, "That guy looks like Steve Wozniak," but he didn't believe me. Still, we didn't stop and say hello, or even try to ride a Segway. :(
Anyway, when I got home I looked it up and sure enough it was him. There's pictures of him on Flickr, but here's one David took at random (he had no idea he was Woz). And that was my exciting brush with celebrity.
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Posted by Joel
Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:29:00 GMT
Yesterday I didn't go out at all really besides to get some Eddie's. Eventually in the afternoon I did my laundry. David ordered some pizza and we had that for dinner. We were just relaxing, but then Katie got upset at us for watching the Godfather during the spousal abuse scene, which just made everyone kind of awkwardly retreat into their own thing.
So I worked on my project and I did a lot. I worked out a lot of the details of the design that had been bugging me, made some crucial decisions about what to keep and what to ditch, and got some real implementation done.
My project uses lots of bi-directional self-referential multiple associations. What that means is that it has normal trees, but they allow for multiple parents as well. Due to the complexity of some, I have some implemented as a habtm, and others implemented as a has_many :through. I was surprised to find this morning, after having implemented a has_many :through solution which worked greatly, an article about it in one of the Rails blogs I read. We had implemented it exactly the same way, too, even with the "edge_as_association" terminology. Truly a case of simultaneous discovery. And here I thought I was so smart. Oh well, at least I got to add a useful comment.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:16:00 GMT
Yesterday was marked by a staggering lack of productivity. The only thing which could even slightly be considered productive is finally switching to Adium over iChat. Once you install your message style of choice it becomes quite pleasant to use. The Growl support is great, and the minimalist contact list options are nice, although I tend to hide the contact list when not in use.
Anyway... I got up late, for some reason, slept through my alarm. Didn't do much of anything. Watched the new South Park, which was kind of gross.
David told me that my living situation was going to get shaken up again. Katie is moving in since she can't find a place yet, which I don't really have a problem with. But he said that come June or later he might be planning on moving out with Katie, and he was giving me ample notice to find another roommate or other living arrangements. I can't say this really screws things up for me though as I'm so stress-free and unattached to this place at the moment.
A while later we went to Alameda to meet with some friends. Another Italian restaurant (I just had steak and a beer this time), and we went to Carl's house. He was intent on bringing us on a dive bar experience, so we ended up all driving out and going to some place called the Pop Inn.
It was definitely a miserable little bar, with a bunch of old guys and waitresses sitting on their stools laughing with one another or being sullen by themselves. Only Bud was on tap. After some initial discomfort, I began enjoying the adventure out of our demographic.
The girls complained enough so we left and went to a more appropriate bar for our age group and had an ok but unmemorable time there.
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Posted by Joel
Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:29:00 GMT
Yesterday I got some contract work done, had Eddie's, tried to work on my project for a bit, and went out to dinner at an Italian place in Lower Hayes. Altogether the day was good, but I felt sort of awkward and boring. I have been concerning over my appearance again, which means I need to really do something about it before I start obsessing over it. Hopefully I will find the courage to venture out and get a haircut and some new clothes one of these days.
I was a bit frustrated by the difficulty of designing my project and didn't make a whole lot of progress besides more rambling in text files, which has been my main way of brainstorming. I wish I could reveal more about my project here, but secrecy is important in any business, I've decided. Odds are that if you're reading this blog, I've shown it to you anyway.
I did however switch to svk, a decentralized version of Subversion. It was really easy to switch because you only really have to change your client setup. But already I can tell it is much better and recommend it. For multi-person groups especially it would make things easier, as everyone is always in their own local branch. Which also means you can work offline, which is comfy. It doesn't even require ".svn" directories. And yes, there is an svk bundle for TextMate.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:25:00 GMT
Yesterday I was feeling kind of down. I reparked my car, did contract work during the day and then fell asleep around 6pm and woke up at around 10pm. Watched some TV with David and Katie, then went and got some more beer and a burrito. I talked to the guy at the convenience store for a while. Came back and did a short radio show for RH before going to bed.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:04:00 GMT
Friday I went down to my mom's place in Los Osos, and from there we went to LA.
I visited Ben's new place, a house in Echo Park, where the silent film-era actors used to live. The house, and his roommates, are really cool, with various odds and ends, books, paintings, musical instruments, and a great view of the city's skyline. I was drawn to the idea of moving in with him, since I have no real attachments to the Bay. The weather is better in LA, and I've always wanted to live with Ben. He has a way of making life exciting.
The next day we had Easter at my aunt Roseanne's. My mom's side of the family seems uncommon to me in that the extended family members are regular members of their lives. On my dad's side, and in most families I've observed, the extended family is something you see somewhat rarely. Indeed, your own siblings and parents become something you don't see very often after moving out of your parents' place. It's probably a result of them all living not far from one another, but it's also possible their closeness is what encouraged the proximity.
Lately I have been exercizing. It feels good to actually perform some physical activity, since I haven't done much of that since high school, instead taking time off to eat, drink, smoke, and otherwise lead a sedentary lifestyle. But I feel it's time to take better care of myself.
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