Posted by Joel
Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:06:28 GMT
It's been a pretty eventful month but I will try to keep this concise. The LuckyOliver party was a lot of fun and we all had a great time.
I went skydiving. Ryan, Jill, and Jill's husband also came. It was a pretty incredible experience, which I'd recommend, but I don't really see myself doing it again. The moment of jumping out of the plane goes much faster than you would expect. I didn't think the freefall was over in a blink; in fact it felt surprisingly long for me. And cold and windy.
I went to a couple web events, namely the SF Beta mixer at the Minna gallery, which LuckyOliver was sponsoring. I saw Thor there and had a good discussion with him. A week or so later was the Laughing Squid party. I rode a nifty Cycle-cide contraption. It was a beautiful venue. I saw David and Katie there and we hung out for a while and got tacos and in general I feel better about my relationship with them.
Afterwards we went to the Minna gallery again for an Anticon show. One guy was playing some interesting touch pad, which Aiden helped explain to me. Boom Bip was scheduled to be playing but we decided to get out of there because the current music sucked and Aiden wanted to visit the 2 to see Moe because it was his birthday the day before. Got some street food (hot dog wrapped in bacon).
Anyway, went to the 2, had a good time as usual, came home, and I just remember feeling something like bliss on the way back. A real moment where I appreciated the "now".
Work has been incredibly stressful lately, since there's just been loads of bugs which came up due to splitting our app up amongst extra servers and doing a long overdue software upgrade. We're basically trying to kill them all as they pop up, but it's a difficult process.
Interviewed someone for Zurb, he's a cool guy.
I joined a 5v5 arena team in WoW with my friends in-game. That's been a lot of fun and we're doing pretty well!
Some big stuff on my mind which I can't really touch on here but will when I get the chance.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 12 Jul 2007 04:21:28 GMT
I'm in San Jose now in a studio. It's ok. I worry my neighbors will be too noisy. I might start looking for another place, most likely in the city, but now I have some time and things have calmed down a touch.
Only not really, because work has been really hectic lately due to a few technical problems. We're working it all out though and so far everything seems ok.
The move wasn't that bad. Aiden helped me move and we had some really good discussions afterwards down at Katie Bloom's in Campbell. I'm really glad to have a friend like him.
Tomorrow is our LuckyOliver party. We've had, as of this blog post, over 450 people RSVP. It's going to be insane.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:32:13 GMT
I've decided to really start living my life. I'm not sure what has been going on with me the last year or two -- it's been an interesting ride.
I'm going to stay in San Jose for now, because it's close to work. This is good because I hate driving long distances, it's greener, generally less stressful. Plus it means during the weekdays I can focus on solitary habits, keep good discipline, all that sort of thing with greater ease.
I'm going to try to spend more time in the city. Living down here makes me appreciate it more; it doesn't feel tiresome and mundane and stressful, it feels exciting. Some buildup of boredom makes for a great release when I do go up there.
I'm going to go to more events. Web events. Art events. Shows. I've decided I'm not too good for it, but was just being bitter, resentful, cowardly, jealous. If you are a prominent figure in my life and I have scorned you in the last couple of years it was probably my own bitterness that spawned it and I apologize for that. I've made some bad decisions and I've learned from them.
I'm reading the hip blogs and using the hip services. And it's all fun. I feel somewhat relieved.
I need to buy a camera.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 09 Jun 2007 07:03:03 GMT
Let me first start by saying I hit 181 lbs today! I'm pretty excited about my progress thus far and fully intend to keep at it.
I bought a new computer. It is the base model of MacBook Pro. The screen is much nicer and it is far faster. I haven't installed Windows yet, but I probably will eventually so I can play some 3D Windows-only games. I want to have a copy of Vista that I can both boot into and run via virtualization, but so far that can't be done, so I'll probably just wait until it can. Virtualization will be nice so I can test websites in IE. WoW is much nicer looking now. Although I've been thinking lately I want to foster non-computer hobbies, and the first thing I'd sacrifice for time would likely be Warcraft.
I have to move again. My roommate, Marc, has decided that now that the lease is up he wants to move into a single apartment and he's grown tired of this complex. This is sad for me because we were pretty good roommates. But in any event, it's time to move on and I'm wondering where it will be. I don't think I want to move to SF or Santa Cruz because I'm not into the whole commute thing anymore. Plus, life down here is much easier when it comes to the stresses involved in my fitness and work routines. I like to think time down here betters me as a person.
There are three major new projects I am attempting to undertake in addition to work and fitness. One is cleanliness, another is sleep, and a third is non-computer hobbies (as I said above). Sleep has a huge impact on my productivity and happiness, and staying up late on the computer for no good reason isn't going to cut it. Cleanliness is just something a guy my age should have, in all senses. And the hobbies thing is to make me more well-rounded and less sedentary. The first one that comes to mind is painting. I want to do something outdoors, too, but I'm not sure what it would be.
Anyway, I'm leaning towards a small studio apartment somewhere here in the Valley, but I'll probably check out a few Craigslist ads for potential roomies. I'll start looking next week, because this weekend I'm busy working on a big site push.
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Posted by Joel
Sun, 27 May 2007 02:00:00 GMT
Today's day eleven and I haven't cheated yet. I feel a renewed sense of confidence and willpower. And I'm down to 187 lbs; the last two months I was wavering between 192 and 196. It feels kind of easy, honestly. It's coming with the same sense of simple, motivated purpose that I had when I quit smoking.
I know it requires a lifestyle change, and that's going to come at the end of this; I'll eat junk and drink alcohol, but in real moderation, and I'll exercise, but with an easier schedule. Plenty of days I don't want to go in to exercise. I usually don't even start until 10 or 11pm. But despite that I go in, do my weights, run three miles, take a shower, make myself some tea, and go to bed. And that sort of discipline feels good.
One of the hardest parts is quitting alcohol but now that everybody has already realized I'm not going to drink for a while it's a lot easier because the initial scoffing is over with for the most part.
This week we moved LuckyOliver over to a new database server which made it much faster. We also greatly improved the search results. Yesterday was a new record transaction day. Slow and steady. Just need to keep at this and it could happen.
Today I'm going to SLO to see my mom and sister.
Marc got a new cat. It's a black cat and likes to break things and scurry around. It has no name yet.
Since it seems everybody is kind of taking a hiatus from WoW I specced my druid feral and am just doing quests and killing people solo pretty much when I do play. I actually had a really good time playing for a couple hours today just questing.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 19 May 2007 21:31:04 GMT
After finding myself working out only once a week but still eating junk and drinking beer and all that, I was still at around the same weight I started at. So, much like I did last summer, I'm going to try taking my fitness very, very seriously for a short time. Last time, I was very successful in this goal until a certain day shot my motivation and confidence levels, but I don't see anything like that in the foreseeable future.
The goal I have set for myself is going to last until my 26th birthday, which is January 19th, 2008. This goal is to not drink any alcohol in any form. There are two reasons for this. First, the obvious one, is that I think I drink too much alcohol, and it's not a good habit to start increasing. I looked at my kitchen table and had 14 bottle caps after a week. That's quite a bit. And in terms of fitness, at 150 calories each, that's over 2000 calories, a day's worth of food.
But for me, not even 2000 will be a day worth of food. More like 1500. I'm only eating two healthy, portion controlled meals a day and I'm avoiding snacks, desserts, fatty coffee drinks, etc like the plague.
And I'm exercising every single day. Weekends included. I'm about to go right now. This is very important to me and I want to be a very different person when I'm 26. I have allowed myself to live in this comfortable environment on the terms I would use it to make myself a better person, and in some ways I have been successful at that over the last year, but now is a time to take it to the next level.
Today is day four.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:13:00 GMT
It's 5 am and I'm awake for some reason so I figure I should post to my woefully neglected blog.
Our dog, Ash, is dead. It turns out he was pretty sick after all, but there's not much we could have done, because he had cancer. Still, it was hard to watch him suffer near the end, and I wish he could have been put to sleep sooner.
The last couple weeks have been some hard work, likely the hardest in my life, and we finally pushed two features, the Sideshow and the Odditorium. It was an awful lot of work getting it done but feels fulfilling. Aiden, for all of his worries, managed to complete the project, and I'm hoping he'll gain some confidence and positivity from the ordeal.
I don't feel myself getting fit as quickly as I would like, partially because I've been slacking on the routine a little and allowing myself more junk foods. Need to keep grabbing at discipline and maintaining good habits.
I paid my taxes, and of course owed a decent chunk since I did some contracting last year at Rubyred. I used Turbotax and it went pretty well. I also actually put money into my first investment, a mutual fund, which is kind of testing the waters for me.
The death of Kurt Vonnegut saddened me. A teacher once graded one of my short stories (back when I had an idea I could become a writer) as "Vonnegutesque." I gave the original copy of the story to a girl I was in love with.
I've very glad that the Sopranos is back on the air. Death Note has also had an epic plot pivot take place. And WoW is fun as usual, although I haven't had any time to play. When I do play, I've been back into auctioneering; scanning and analyzing the auction house looking for deals to buy and repost. I have an extensive portfolio, but I felt guilty about not contributing to the economy, so tonight I farmed some herbs, and actually made a decent amount. I was reminded of this cartoon.
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Posted by Joel
Fri, 23 Mar 2007 06:40:17 GMT
I've not only kept up with my exercise routine, I've stepped it up. I have been working out five days a week after work, doing a full torso workout and running a minimum of two miles (usually 2.5).
It's made me feel much better. I'm hardly fit yet, but I think I look a touch slimmer. I can lift much more than I could a month and a half ago in just about everything.
I haven't completely cut back on comfort foods, but I'd say I eat healthy about 3/4 of the time now instead of 1/4 of the time. I even switched to light Heinekens as my daily beer of choice (I tried giving it up entirely but it wasn't much fun). Trying to eat cereal instead of Starbucks junk in the morning, taking multivitamins, the whole thing.
Hopefully in six months I'll have transformed physically somewhat. It's gotten to the point I really enjoy going to the gym every day. The effect music has on me while I'm exercising is incredible. The song I often choose to listen to near the end of my routine is Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. I can run really fast through that, and it's kind of like bliss. I originally was a little dismissive of Muse but that kind of poppy rock is pretty nice while running and I've come to love them.
I've been trying to make it a habit to go to the city on the weekend. Visiting Aiden is fun because he really likes to have a good time in SF and try new things. In particular he loves Club 222 in the Tenderloin and I am also somewhat in love with the place, and now even know some of its bartenders. I'll be at their Masquerade party on the 30th.
Work is moving along well. For reasons unclear, but most likely due to changing our search URLs which angered the search engine crawl bots, our Alexa ranking slipped a bit. It's been recovering though and our sales have been doing well the whole time, with our record sales day just a couple days ago. Lots of little things continue to get fixed, and we're about to unleash forums within a couple weeks. That will be an adventure.
While I've enjoyed making WoW a regular nightcap at this point, I get on late enough (about 10pm) that my friends, who are either two or three hours further east, are often incredibly tired and on their way to bed. I need to shift my schedule by a couple hours.
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Posted by Joel
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:29:00 GMT
Things have been pretty smooth lately. I've kept to my workout routine well, and it's nice to see myself marginally improving.
Work has been relatively smooth as well. Our Alexa ranking seems to have levelled off, but our sales continue to rise. Some exciting potential ventures on the horizon, things are reasonably stable and fast, and I get to work on a nifty new feature. I see good things.
I went up to the city a couple times. I visited Aiden, a new coworker from Indiana, and we went to various spots in the city for drinks and then to the Pork Store the next morning and had mimosas.
The next weekend Ryan visited and we ate too much diner food, visited the ferry building and looked out over the bay, walked around Union Square, then went to the mission for a couple drinks and finally to an indie hip hop show where we met with Rob. If nothing else, all that time spent parking in Nob Hill/Chinatown taught me where all the good areas are; I'll probably never pay for parking in the city again.
I've been trying to play WoW but haven't had much time. I only really get to play a couple nights a week for a few hours. I'm only level 68, all my friends are above me, haha. However when I've played so far I've had a good time.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 05 Feb 2007 07:10:00 GMT
I'm sipping from some hot cocoa. I'm wearing some new pajama bottoms I bought. I opted to pay more for Ralph Lauren ones because I like the polo guy logo and they were a shade of gray I preferred over the cheaper ones which were on sale. This is the sort of thing I base decisions on.
I've been exercising again. I'm trying for three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday in particular. Dad bought me an iPod nano to use while I run and lift weights.
Today was the Super Bowl and my Bears were in it. I don't follow sports at all but I appreciate big games with teams I have reason to care about. Well, you know what happened.
I'm having one of those reflective moments where I feel confident and happy and not scared of anything.
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