Monday
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.
Maker Faire
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.
Splitting up posts
Posted by Joel Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:00:00 GMT
In the future, I think I'm going to post articles split up into various categories. That way, if you're my friend, you can read about my boring day, and if you're some guy reading a Rails blog I just inadvertantly trackbacked, you can see what I have to say without hearing what I had for breakfast. I know the true pro route is to separate personal and professional blogs (if you even have a personal blog), but isn't that what categories are for? I'm just starting to realize, though, that perhaps the "life" category shouldn't be mixed with other ones which might be of interest to outside parties. Bear with me.
Junk Food and Progress
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.
Unproductive
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.
Frustration and svk
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.
Down
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.
Easter
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.
My job is to ruin fun
Posted by Joel Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:29:00 GMT
Some of you zany radical pinko leftists out there might have read this article of rumors about the administration which has been reprinted in various sources, such as Daily Kos and Wonkette. Really, just lots of places, do a google for "iced underwear".
Being acquainted with Martin Random, I can assure you all of this is untrue. Martin is a very inventive and creative individual, and a bit disturbed, and while I'm still unsure of his motivation for doing this, I can assure you he is apolitical (to the point that he had to look up who the members of the administration were in Wikipedia while writing the article).
He and I belong to an internet community to which he freely admits it is untrue. In fact, he has written other fantasy stories about his life in the past, if people would bother to look through his posting history. In reality, he's just a law student.
You have to admit, though, it's pretty funny.
Typo!
Posted by Joel Fri, 14 Apr 2006 05:18:00 GMT
I have long been a Rails fan, but somehow have continued to use Wordpress -- a godawful LAMP system -- instead of switching to Typo. Being the lackadaisical fellow I am, I found myself with free time again tonight, much like every night. As such, my platform hypocrisy has ceased, and I once again get to start anew with a new blog.
Oh, sure, I could transfer the embarrassing contents of my old blog over to this one, but I see this as an opportunity to once again wipe the slate clean. Those of you who have been following my exploits know that my blogs rarely live that long before getting archived somewhere on my hard disk and never again read by anyone, including myself.
So! That said, here we are, the future is now, enjoy.
