26 Miles

The Rubynator

// August 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Technology

My friend Geof has for years attempted to persuade of me of the pure awesomeness of Ruby on Rails, and the many ways that it excels over any other language/framework. So in honor of his efforts to constantly evangelize me with the “Oh is much easier in Rails” (and of Dr. Doofenshmirtz, one of my cartoon heroes), I think I’ll start calling him The Rubynator.

I’m no neo-luddite, and I’m generally an early adopter, but have approached Ruby and Rails with only an arms-length interest. But having spent some time this summer doing my own research, I’ve become convinced to embrace it on a couple of big projects at work that are separate platforms from our core product. I’m looking forward to it. One thing I’ve noticed (how can you miss it, they practically yell it), is how much I enjoy and appreciate the culture that’s developed alongside Ruby on Rails in terms of making applications and code elegant, concise, readable, and easy to maintain. The Rails framework seems to make it easy to do things the right way, and I believe the lessons we’ll learn in developing RoR applications will help my team and I become better developers in general, regardless of the development environment we use, and I’m excited about that.

I’m also looking forward to attending the Lone Star Ruby Conference this weekend in Austin and seeing what I can learn.

Puppy Blues

// August 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

Sunshine and I finally caved to Doodle’s sweet, but persistent pursuit of canine companionship. A week ago we brought home Katie, a Cavalier King Charles puppy.

My thorough, if sporadic research on the best breed for our family settled me on the Cavaliers some time back. A little finesse with my little girl in steering her away from the cute but been-there-done-that Yorkie path and our little Cavalier rescue puppy was home.

I’ve had lots of dogs, but never been, you know, personally responsible for their care and house training. God Bless You parents and grandparents for your patience with these little creatures. I could always deflect responsibility for the dogs of my childhood off to them, and (not unlike many grandparents and children), “hand them back” when playtime was over.

I’m struck by the similarities between caring for an infant child and a puppy. Getting them “on a schedule”, “sleeping through the night”, and “pooping and peeing in the designated location” are all coming up again. Much like children their motivations are simple, their memories are short, they look at you with those big eyes and melt your heart, and their cuteness keeps you hanging-by-a-thread sane. We can also take consolation in the the fact that “It won’t be like this for long.”

All in all though she’s a good puppy — smart, playful and loving, and I’m glad she is here.

Can You Spot Me 2 Cents

// August 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

Because clearly the people at some restaurants cannot.

Went to get some of my favorite sweet-bread-encapsulated-chicken-nugget provider for breakfast. The total $3.02. Change $1.98. Seriously! Can’t spot me $0.02 Mrs. Manager? Then the nerve to say “God Bless You” as I’m driving off. Fortunately God is more merciful than she felt this morning.

But the capper was lunch. Now in possession of $7 and 98 cents in cash, I head to my favorite pizza buffet for lunch. The cost. $7.99. Will they take my $7.98 and risk losing that 1 CENT in profit. OF COURSE NOT! OH COME ON, SERIOUSLY!

I know times are tough but have you heard of pay it forward?

So I debit-carded my $7.99 lunch and am still in possession of my $7.98 in cash, which I’ll happily spend somewhere else.

Bizzzeee

// August 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

We’re launching a big client next week on our software platform at work. So I’ve been busy finishing up a software release with some new features to support a new business model (asynchronous course delivery). So needless to say I’ve been working a lot lately. Eager for the normal 50-hour work week to resume so I can take a break.

We’re planting 9 bush/trees in the backyard today. It’s really starting to come together and in a year or two will look really awesome. It was one of our goals to leave the backyard in better shape at the end of the summer than it was in at the beginning, and we’ll definitely be able to say we succeeded there.

I’m headed to the Lone Star Ruby Conference in Austin at the end of the month with my friend Geof. I’ve been interested in Ruby on Rails for a while now and will finally get to have a little “immersion” and see more of what it’s all about.

Lots of vacation time left for me this fall so I’m looking forward to that too. I love the fall… Cooler weather and FOOTBALL!