]]>
]]>
I can't tell you how excited I am to meet you! You've been a growing flicker in my brain ever since my brother was born, when I was just about six years old. It was an amazing experience to be old enough to help take care of him, to watch his personality develop, to be his closest friend, and to share with him all of the things that I love about life.
Sometimes common expressions get lost on us from all the repetition. "Your better half," is one of them. I've heard it a thousand times, but when I actually sat and thought about it, it feels really true with you for two reasons. You've brought the best in me to the surface (parts of me that might never have seen daylight otherwise), and I know you so deeply that sometimes my life feels like just an extension of yours.
If this blog survives when your future siblings are around, they should know that when I'm thinking of you these days, I'm also thinking of them. You came first, but this transition of our family involves us all (living and destined)!
]]>I think the recent increases in shootings in this country point to a cultural problem we have of downplaying mental heallth issues, unintentionally turning terrorists into celebrities, and too much emphasis on the "I" over the "we" when we go about our daily lives. America is individualistic in a beautiful way -- it's what's made us who we are -- but I think we sometimes take that sentiment too far.
It does matter to me that other people have healthcare. It does matter to me that other peoples' children receive a quality education. It does matter to me when science suddenly becomes controversial. Through the great spirit of indivudalism in America that has paved our culture I can work hard and better my life, but I can't change the fact that we are all connected. It's sad that it often takes tragedy for us to see how intertwined are lives are. When we better each other we better ourselves.
This incident isn't about adding metal detectors to schools; it didn't happen because the shooter was "introverted"; it's not even about gun laws (to some extent). This incident should focus us to stand as a more united nation -- not in terms of anger, might, or revenge, but in compassion and through a desire to improve our world.
That's why I just donated to this project (not specifically related to Newtown, it's just a good cause for improving education).
]]>In either case, you can count on playing sports or princess with me (I'm awesome at racquetball and Peach is my favorite MarioKart character).
Your mom is insanely awesome. You'll find this out in good time, but you should know now.
2012 is a year you'll never know, so let me sum it up for you: The media has lost its mind and covered the election nonstop for nearly two years. The mobile device market is fragmented to shit and god knows why you can't build native apps with HTML5 yet. We landed an unmanned craft on Mars, and some people think the world will end in 12 days because an ancient civilization ran out of calendar stock paper.
Can't wait until you're sentient and we can have a conversation! Until then I'm practicing some kickin' lullabies.
]]>Recently my wife and I learned that we will be joining one of life's exclusive clubs that some 50+ perent of people belong to: we will become parents!
I've thought about this moment forever and jotted down a number of life scribblings when dreaming on the topic over the years. I've always felt the temptation of this prospect and taking life's greatest natural adventure. I've thought so much about getting to watch who this person will become, wondering in what ways will it change myself and my wife, and thinking on the realization that a completely new way of looking at life can begin. It's as if I've had one life so far, created many wonderful memories, and now I get to do it again!
As my wife begins to be getting over the nasuea and is starting to have more energy, I feel inspired and oddly confident. All the details of modern life now seem to be so much less important. Social discomforts, work problems, and life's various anxieties have much less weight in my mind. A focused energy seems to have taken its place.
I'm sure I'm about to get knocked on my ass by this tiny new person. I'm sure in 10 months I'll be begging for the kind of energy I'm describing now. And the world is not short on people who have gripes about being a parent. Even as I do a few Google searches to write this post I saw tangential articles like this: "Why Non-Parents are Happier Than Parents."
But at the risk of sounding naive, I feel hopeful and ridiculously excited. Some day what is now a tiny peach-sized organism will eventually be a fully grown person and getting married to someone they love, and all I want to do is be a proper gardener -- one who provides plenty of love, watering, and sunshine, and one who knows how to watch life grow as it will!
]]>It's like email in the sense that it's really easy to start a train and get things going, but it includes awesome features like read and download tracking, amazing preview generation for uploaded documents, and the ability to assign to-do's to make sure things get done.
Hopefully "train of thought" will eventually make it into our everyday vernacular just like "tweet" did!
In my opinion the development language you choose is all about productivity. I'm most familiar with C# and prefer having static compilation to quickly catch coding errors. JavaScript is actually my favorite language, but when it comes to back-end development it's nice to be able to lean on a compiler. I'm simply so familiar with C# that when I code I usually only ever have to worry about the algorithm at hand -- I'm not having to check basic assumptions about environment/run-time/style/etc. Also, .NET is very deploy-friendly, the .NET framework is rich in utilities, and things like the reflection API allow for some brilliant customizations and emergency work-around efforts.
Any concern around .NET as a framework choice seems either political or it surrounds nervousness that the acquiring company couldn't easily ingest the code into their existing platforms. Since I don't drink the Microsoft kool-aid, my steering clear of things like WebForms, MVC, etc., means that re-writing our product in another language wouldn't be out of the question. Additionally, a good REST API can quickly enable cross-platform systems to work together.
I did some very quick research and found that the following companies seem to be using .NET:
Do you know others using .NET? Please share in the comments!
]]>
Here's a listing of what we have left for sale -- make us a reasonable offer and you can have it! If you're interested, leave a comment or send me an email at colin.mathews [at] gmail [dot] com (sorry for the weird formatting -- this helps prevent spam coming into my address!).
The elliptical was bought for $775 and we're asking $450, but we're accepting best offers. Here's the Amazon link for details on the elliptical.
The HD camera is brand new and is a really nice pocket video camera. It takes photos as well, but does not include a flash. The USB stick pops in and out of the bottom so it's really easy to charge as well as transfer data!
Come early and get your hands on a free frisbee and/or a 1GB USB drive that fits in your wallet! We'll also have some kind of refreshments: lemonade or something similar.
The wind was kicking up, so here's how we're advertising our sale. :)
In addition to the other items we've posted on this blog, we have a bunch of great books for sale (my wife is a HUGE book nerd, so they're in good condition...and there's a lot of 'em).
This elliptical has been great (here's a site showing the model's details). It's super smooth and has some good tech and we originally paid $775 for it.
The bench press is standard size and allows three positions: standard, slight incline (which is what is pictured), and sharp incline. Going with this is a collection of free weights.
My wife has a ton of clothes for sale that are in incredible condition. Everything from really cute skirts, to fun dresses, to a few fairly formal items.
We've got a nice selection of fun games including Wii Fit and the Wii Fit Balance Board.
If anyone else out there (like us) still uses a VCR, we've got a handful of tapes going for cheap. And in this gallery are a few other random pictures of items for sale.
Here's a few pictures of some of the tech items we'll be selling on Saturday. One of the laptops is a Windows XP Professional machine that works great. The other laptop is Windows Vista, so it's a little slow but it also is completely functional (the batteries on both laptops are dead, so you have to stay plugged in). There's lots more for sale including at least one desktop PC and monitor.
Come early enough and get a free frisbee and/or USB drive (more details to come on that)!
Stay tuned for a listing of some of the item's we'll have for sale! Here's a map to our location:
]]>"Chimpanzee" is a fun movie with an amazing story. I'll try not to give too much away -- maybe the trailer and news articles already inform you what I'm about to write about anyway...
Ultimately this is a story about a newly orphaned chimp facing the threat of being cast out by his community. He finds acceptance, and ultimately family, from the least likely place: the elder, alpha male of the group.
I don't know much about Chimpanzee behavior, but from what was said in the movie, casual reading, and with a basic understanding of alpha-male social structures, it is easy to see that a male's role in communities like this is typically very unconcerned with the welfare of others--outside of basic community survival. So the fact that an alpha-male truly became a mother to this orphan is incredible. He is a representative of the first single dad.
It's the outlying stories of individuals like this male throughout history that created the evolutionary path to human existance. We are a product of scattered individuals breaking rank with their instincts and adding a compassionate intelligence to the DNA pool. We are a species of care, emotion, and thoughtfulness. In watching this movie, I felt I was witnessing one of the many forks in the road that led directly to not only my anatomic makeup, but my existance in that very theater!
]]>
Through a fair amount of tough love and doing my best to maintain a deep honesty with myself (at times facing some pretty tough questions), I have uncovered bits and pieces of my identity at each stage of my life, desperately seeking the big picture. Not that I'll ever be finished learning and growing (puh-leaze), but it's relieving to finally feel a truly strong foundation on which to build.
I don't mean to imply that I have it all figured out, but I feel a strong sense of peace and compassion in my life right now. I feel empowered and ambitious, but also very content. And it strikes me now that while any early death is tragic, the ultimate tragedy is death before getting a chance to really know yourself.
]]>
