Category Archives: nodes

redesign at 75%

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Since the last post, I’ve added my flickr photostream on the right (with snazzy lightbox2 popup, or click the header to find me on flickr), re-added the ability to post comments, and neatened up a few other sections.

What still needs work:

  • Something is broken in IE.  Also old versions of opera, and some obscure *nix browsers.  I’ll focus on IE.
  • Content!  enough form, more function
  • Better navigation? Categories or tags navigation on a sidebar?
  • What else?

I’ll add more as I think of it.  Maybe some screencaps soon too.

Redesign

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Currently working on a redesign for this site.  The theme is inspired by the Shiny Gmail theme and the previous theme I had here, Tomorrow by pacquola.org.

One thing i have noticed is that I’m not sure how you add comments, besides clicking on post titles.

Here are some screencaps for posterity:

The previous theme:

the Tomorrow theme

The work in progress:
my new Archoli theme

seventy-five days of the year already gone…

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And no blog post until today!  I apologize, fictional(notional?) reader.

Updates from the last 75 days…

Got Married. (Password is the date of the wedding, the 3rd day of the year, in mmddyy format and then reversed.)

Got a camera.  Canon Rebel XSi.  Learning to use it, tweaking settings.  Still in search of the best photostream utility.  Someday I’ll even post a photostream link here…

Began to formalize the website project process, using Redmine.  I’ve recently begun to research the right way to use Archoli.com as a clearinghouse for projects for people to cut their teeth in a friendly, welcome to collaborative programming websites and other tools.  So far it’s home to a few web projects, mostly private for now.

I’ve also begun the stressful process of preparing my job for life without me.  My last day is May 29th, and there’s a lot of knowledge to get out of my brain between now and then.  A few projects to finish, too.

I’m going back to school in the fall, and trying to figure out how to get there from here.  I expect it to be an interesting journey, regardless of the roads taken.

In a related note, both Yanessa and myself have suggested to each other that we try to write in our respective spaces more often.  Although I won’t declare it a nanowrimo-level challenge just yet, let’s just say it’s a deal.

Time rushes by, and never moves.

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Would you believe I’m actually getting married in less than two weeks?  Also, the amount of stress and drama associated is ridiculous.  There’s no need for that.  Calm, control, and confidence will overcome any hurdle.

In other news, what is completely necessary is a moment of respectful contemplation about a friend’s father, who has passed.  Although I did not know him well, he had my respect.  And if his son is any indication, he was a damn good father and a damn good man.  Here’s to that.

fatigue

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I really don’t understand the way my alertness cycles work.  I also can’t decide if it is a question of interest…

I try to get up every weekday morning at 6am to shower and have breakfast before leaving a little past 7:30.  This rarely happens anymore.

Work lasts from 9a to a little after 5:30p, most days.  commuting by subway generally takes a little over an hour each way. 

Recently, I’ve also tried to make it to the gym for at least 30mins every weekday evening, and I try to get some WoW on, as well as wedding details, and some website projects.  very busy.

Recently, I’m awake and aware as soon as I get home, and can be up and doing things until 2 in the morning with little difficulty.  Then I get to work the next day, and I’m tired, sluggish, and can’t focus all day, but as soon as I get home again I’m alert and ready to go.

What is going on?  Maybe I’ll try to bring some work home and see how that goes.  Would probably provide an answer to the alert-cycle vs. interest-cycle question…

Economic Stimulus

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I’m going to foreword this post with a note that I understand there’s a decent chance that I have no idea what I’m talking about.  But, I need to express the ideas anyway, and here’s the right place!

A few thoughts on a potential economic stimulus package, inspired by a few articles like this from the New York Times, talking about potential problems with an infrastructure-based stimulus package.

According to the article,

Some have suggested that Mr. Obama should push for infrastructure spending, to repair roads and bridges and sewer systems, as a way to stimulate the economy and provide jobs while attacking long-term problems. …But an infrastructure bill could easily degenerate into a pork-laden measure that benefits regions with powerful lawmakers, rather than serious needs.

This is a major potential problem.  However, it’s also one that Obama has specifically said he’s against.  Recently there have been national surveys of infrastructure (especially roads and bridges in light of the recent Minnesota(?) collapse) needs.  I think they were even ranked.

A stimulus program needs to be need-based.  The data is already there, conducted by engineers during a process which, if there was any “powerful lawmaker”-based bias, would likely have trended towards making a need look not as severe.  (Maybe.  I’m actually not convinced of this.)  With the announcement of a stimulus package, there would be no opportunity for the existing data to be modified by political influence, because the study (and ranking, hopefully) is done.

So, you announce $100 billion of infrastructure projects and associated jobs, and say that the projects will be determined by the existing infrastructure surveys, projects in worse condition first.

The stimulus will likely be weighted towards population centers, but could provide jobs for anyone willing to temporarily relocate to work, just as artisans from all over the place descended on Connecticut to build bridges for the Merritt Parkway during the New Deal.

As the NYTimes article says, investing in infrastructure is the perfect way to create jobs now while achieving significant, essential projects for the future.

Achievements

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This weekend, I finally hit level 70 in World of Warcraft.  Mind you, I’ve been playing since launch of WoW classic, in November (?) 2004.  Craziness.

You can check out my character: Zephys, Level 70 Draenei Paladin, Knight-Commander of the Knights of the Vale.

In other news, I managed to get a Mediatomb server up and running on my recently converted Xubuntu box.  I even got it streaming media to my PS3, while using samba to share with all the other computers on the network.  The hottest part: it live-transcodes media the PS3 couldn’t read, so I can now watch all my anime.  Kickass!

niches

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I wonder if the world of blogging is all about carving out your own niche.  I have a number of interests, and I imagine it would be really awesome to have my job be diving into one or multiple of those interests all day to find interesting nuggets and post about them. 

Some of the blogs out there are definitely niche blogs for this purpose – lifehacker, gizmodo, actually, most of the gawker network.  But it’s weird to think about some of those things as niches, like scanner – is writing about absurd parts of pop culture really a niche?

But then those posts are more about selling your editorial skills and spin, the way you present your points.  I know that’s true in other arenas – regardless of what i think of her point of view, I enjoy reading Maureen Dowd’s NYTimes editorials every wednesday and saturday because she says interesting things in very interesting ways.

Now I just have to figure out how to be interesting.

An aside – is there a saturation of interesting people?  How many people can the ‘public’ hold up as interesting at one time?  I assume there’s a formula that could be derived for this, xkcd style, that’s dependent on population size (singular specialty develops a society once there are more people interested in that specialty), number of geographic identities (my circumstances are different from yours), and activities.

Is there a point to quantifying this saturation level?  Also, is there a filter size (only social types with >5,000 active consuming members count)?

Things to ponder. 

I think the final, most relevant question is one that I’ll think about many times, which by pausing to contemplate I may automatically answer – am I the self-starting, own the world type that will be a successful leader at what I choose to do, or will I be more content to sheepify and join the ranks, keeping my ambition and ideas and dreams internalized?