Hate
I just hate Halloween. Always have.
October 31, 2004
October 30, 2004
See Sharp
My C# learning is coming along nicely. I just need to keep practicing to keep it fresh in my head. The things that can be done with Visual Studio are amazing. While programming is not easy, I think it is really amazing how easy some things are to build.
October 29, 2004
Five
In the next couple of months, I will be heading into my fifth year of blogging. Five years is a lot of time... and a lot of writing.
October 28, 2004
The Other Side
Trying to print double-sided on my new inkjet is taking more brain power than it should. Either I am losing my mind or this is entirely too complicated.
October 27, 2004
VBScript and XML
I am hunting the web looking for the best way to use VBScript and XML. I am trying to get away from parsing through text-based INI files and start storing data and settings in XML. It may even be a large improvement to parse the logs out to an XML format for printing and viewing.
October 26, 2004
Older
Yea, I feel older. I am not sure I like it.
October 25, 2004
Happy Birthday to Me!
I am now the ripe old age of 26. My oh my, how the time flies.
October 24, 2004
Dallas Bound
I am off to Dallas for the week; I have to do a rescue mission for my company. It will be a week long training session that I need to give.
October 23, 2004
Generation Minus Two
Technology is developing faster than we can keep up. It is simply a new trap of the consumerism culture that we live in. My simple advice for survival is stay at the current generation minus two.
Yes, the newest cell phones have color screens. However, can you please tell me why a color screen is needed? My phone rings and functions in monochrome just as well as it would in full color.
Yes, this year's Palm Pilot holds 25,000 address over last year's 10,000. The truth is that I only know 625 people; how many people do you know?
Yes, it is now possible to play games on your watch, phone, Palm, computer, PS2, Gameboy, and laptop. Do you see the connection to why no one has enough time (and oddly everyone is really good a solitaire)?
Trust me and stay in the dark, don't buy the newest, and chances are that you really don't want anymore distractions in your life anyway.
October 22, 2004
Theory of Power
I have been talking to a lot of people and listening to their different theories on why certain people are successful and what it takes to rise to the top. I have made a few discoveries that are as interesting as they are sad.
One, people who do a good job stay where they are doing a good job. This means that if you are the best stapler operator in your entire company and they would have to hire three other people to replace you, you will never be promoted. There is no good business case to move you up the latter if you fit fine where you are at.
Two, the irritant gets promoted and not the irritated. The facts seems to point at that if a person doesn't quite fit, they will be promoted up and out of the department that they don't belong in. Being likeable will not get you promoted as quickly as being disliked.
Three, you will not get a raise. If you need to make more money or you are not being paid enough, you need to go get a new job; this is the only way to get a raise. If you get a raise where you are currently employed they will expect more work from you. It is not a matter of being fairly paid for the work that you do.
Four, politics are more important than quality of work. Money can be lost and customers can suffer for the sake of office politics. This is the saddest but most true. The things that will keep a business a float will take a backseat to politics.
October 21, 2004
Manage Me
I consider myself to be a hard working person that is self-driven. When given a task, assuming it is reasonable, I complete it on-time and with quality. My greatest burden on any given day is that I have at least 3 different managers giving me more work than a small army should have... and despite this, I still accomplish my tasks.
Manage me more, please.
October 20, 2004
Insanity Continues
The drama of my life, work, has not improved. In fact, it seems to be on a downward spiral. It is irritating and sad; I just don't how much longer I can bear to watch it all go down the drain.
October 19, 2004
Object of Affection
All of this learning C# has not been to bad. The hardest part is getting in the mind set of how an object oriented programming language works. I am honestly not sure if I quite get it yet. The struggle continues.
October 18, 2004
New Printer
Ong and I bought a new printer. It is without fail an HP (the only brand that dare purchase). It is a cute little DeskJet 3745 for only $40.
October 17, 2004
Bigger Box
I would like a bigger box of time. My current collection of items will not fit in my box.
October 16, 2004
My First C#
using System;
namespace HelloWorld
{
class myClass
{
static void Main( )
{
Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
}
}
}
October 15, 2004
Visual Studio
After nearly 3 months, I have finally installed it. It is a monster install that nears 4 GB; and took just about an hour to install.
October 14, 2004
About Boring
The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness. People who wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead.
- Dr. William Menninger
October 13, 2004
N*Sync
I am the proud new owner of a Palm Zire 31 Personal Daily Organizer. Like any proud father, I love every little thing my cute little Palm does; however, my young Palm is having a few social issues. I use a Palm, Outlook on 2 computers, and Hotmail Calendar. Things are a little out of sync and can't quite seems to stay up to date or I am getting double to triple entries for some (not all) contacts and tasks. Any advice to help a new Palm father would be appreciated.
October 12, 2004
Stepping Up
I am doing everything in my power to grow. I have started reading an insane amount of books per week. The subjects range from software development, project management, to effective habits.
I have always been hungry to improve, but it seems that my desire to improve has grown stronger.
October 11, 2004
Happy Birthday, Max!
Happy birthday to my long-time friend, Max.
October 10, 2004
Outlook 2003
I am in the process of learning how to use Outlook 2003 better. If you have any tips or tricks, send them my way!
October 09, 2004
Bleeding Heart
I'm lucky to be a person who can honestly say that they love their job; however, it makes it even harder to see the company hurting themselves. It really breaks my heart to see some of the daily office events. At moments, I find myself so shocked by what I am seeing that I wonder if it is even real. I have to pinch my poor bleeding heart just to make sure I'm alive.
October 08, 2004
Pressure Chief
Cake's new CD, Pressure Chief, is another great album from this band. My favorite tracks thus far are "no phone" and "the guitar man".
My suggestion here is not to go out and buy this CD; rather, I would suggest that you run out an buy every Cake CD. There is nothing quite like 5 straight hours of pure Cake. Cake is the music that drives creativity. I find it useful for pushing my writing and my programming.
"Some people like to make life a little tougher than it is..." - Cake
October 07, 2004
Bishop Allen
I have really grown to love a small band called Bishop Allen. I suggest listening to "things are what you make of them". I have yet to buy this CD, but you can bet I will own it soon.
October 06, 2004
Hotmail Plus
Microsoft made me do it. I am now the owner of a Hotmail Plus account.
Why? Microsoft took away a free feature that I have become very dependent upon - the ability to use hotmail with Outlook. This was the main reason that I was forced into bondage, also know as $20 per year.
What? I get a lot of cool stuff. First, I get my Outlook feature back; I can return to dropping and dragging messages between account, moving from computer to computer, and always have the messages that I need. Second, I now have 2 GB of storage which is a vast improvement to the 2 MB that I have been struggling with. Third, I can now send and receive up to 20 MB files; the previous limit of 1 MB was difficult. Last, I no longer have ads; strange, but true.
The last one is actually the hardest change to get used to. The page looks lonely; I have gotten so used to ignoring ads. I know you think I am insane; however, I think I have an analogy to help. I would say that it is like a when someone move from the noisy city to the quiet country. They miss the noise, the lights, and the busy. Eventually, they get used to the country as I will get used to my naked hotmail.
October 05, 2004
Bad Times; Good People
It just always feels like good people have more bad time than the bad people that cause the bad times for good people. Good people should get to have more good times than bad people. It is simple not fair that the reward of being a good person is to have bad people get the good time by creating the bad times for the good people.
October 04, 2004
Blueberry
I rushed out of the house a little too quickly this morning. I am now stuck with eating a blueberry muffin for breakfast. I am finding it very difficult to get up in the morning as of late. Not even coffee helps the waking process. I think it is time to start exercising more.
October 03, 2004
Back
I am back in the office after a week on the road and a week off (mostly).
October 02, 2004
Fundamentally Wrong
There is just something wrong at the core of an entire industry when the accepted statistic is that 65% of all projects are late... and not by a little bit. They are late by 25-100% or more. Meaning that, if it was scheduled to be completed in six months; the odds are that you may have it completed in a year.
Other industries would crumble and die if this were true for them.
October 01, 2004
Daily
What happened to my daily image? I am such a shameful slacker. Starting today the daily image shall return.