Thoughts and Things

Unemployed Again and in a Deep, Dark Pit of Despair

2018-08-06T16:39:00.001-04:00

I am once again unemployed. I really hate this feeling of desperation and despair. If I don't find a good, solid job soon, we might lose our home. This is not good.

Should any employers out there need a seasoned Java Enterprise developer, have a look at my current resume.

A WRINKLE IN TIME Trailer (2018)

2017-10-14T04:29:00.001-04:00

I like this trailer. Of course, it could also be the soundtrack that drew me in.

OS X Yosemite: Breathing new Life into my Old, Faithful Companion

2014-10-19T15:46:00.001-04:00

So the other day I wrote that my MacBook seemed to run a little slower and use more memory. What's strange is now that I've been using it, it's actually running noticeably faster. It still takes up more memory, but not that much more. It's like Yosemite has breathed new life into my aging companion. There is probably something I can do about the memory, too. What my Mac really needs is more space on the hard drive. I have some serious cleaning to do.

OS X Yosemite: I like it!

2014-10-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

It only took about 9 hours to install. Granted my MacBook Pro is 5 years old, and has a slow, 350 GB hard drive, but it does have 8 gigs of ram and that helps when running apps. Anyway, although my mac now runs a little slower and uses slightly more memory, I like it. I particularly like the new, flat looking user interface and the dark themed menu bar. And so far, of the few applications I've tested (Kindle for Mac, Curio 8, Xcode 6, Crosswords, Moonlight Mahjong and Full Deck Solitaire), all seem to work perfectly. But since I use it mainly as a development machine, I still have some things to test before I can be completely satisfied.

Upgrading my MacBook Pro to Yosemite

2014-10-17T19:28:00.000-04:00

So I decided to upgrade my old MacBook Pro to Yosemite. It took about 2 hours to get to the point where it indicated that I had "About 2 minutes remaining", and that was 8 hours ago. I know it's doing stuff because when I press CMD-L I can see the install log and a bunch files being moved about. Actually, about two hours ago it stopped logging because it had run out of buffer space, but the disk is chugging along so I'm hopeful maybe later tonight I'll get to play with it. Anyway, here's hoping!

Functional Programming

2014-08-23T15:01:00.003-04:00

Unemployed again. Learning Functional Programming in Haskell, OCaml, Scala and Clojure. Yay!

Hooked on Pinterest

2012-10-10T11:12:00.000-04:00

I am hooked on Pinterest. I even have the 'pin' app for my MacBook Pro. And I've recently been pinning cool stuff. But it has been keeping me from doing my work. I suppose, however, that there are worse ways to procrastinate.

I Finally Got Curio 7!

2012-01-11T07:41:00.000-05:00

I wrote a while back about a cool app for Mac OS X called Curio. Just yesterday I was able to afford to upgrade to version 7 (and no, not because the upgrade price is too high--it's extremely reasonable). Just wanted to make a note about it here in a blog entry so I can remember to write about some of the cool new features it comes with.

Mumford & Sons

2012-01-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

So the other day I listened to a song on the radio called Little Lion Man from Mumford & Sons and I've been listening to it a lot. I love the song and the band is really cool. Check them out.

Addicted to Games I Hate

2011-09-10T20:37:00.000-04:00

This is not Moonlight Mahjong

I have been playing on my mac two solitaire card games and a mahjong game. I hate these games. I really do. But I can't stop playing them.

Moonlight Mahjong is a gorgeous version of solitaire mahjong with a 3D twist. There a lot of different boards and background, and a lot are 3D, which makes it more challenging because you can rotate the board any way you like, which you'll need to do to find hidden matching tiles. And playing it is just mesmerizing.

Why do I hate it? Because rather than doing my research or works, I just get too tempted to go into a solitaire trance. Sure, these kinds of games help reduce stress. But most of the time I use it as a means to procrastinate. Oh well. Gotta go. Itching for some 3D Klondike solitaire!

Learning is Expensive

2011-06-22T16:54:00.006-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

The title says it all. Learning is expensive.

Being really poor (yes, i am barely hanging on to my internet service and my old mac is, well, old), when it comes to discovering cool things (e.g. in science), I have to be content with reading, for example, blurbs of really cool articles on the Scientific American website. Or samples of books on my Kindle (it was a gift). I used to be a member of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), but the yearly dues are entirely too much for me and to be worth it, really, you need to also purchase the yearly subscription to their digital archive. And so of course I don't have access to all the great historical and modern scholarly works. Yes, I'm whining.

It's probably that I don't know what all is out there, but I was thinking. Wouldn't it be nice to have a digital magazine/website like Scientific American, but for free? A place where science geeks can go to simply learn, and rejoice in the learning of new things. Us independents I mean. Those who chose (perhaps not voluntarily) the private sector over academia and who would rather (perhaps) squirrel themselves away in a corner of the dark hollows in the depths of their own dank homes rather than tempt fate by coming up for air, light and human companionship.

Then again I really have no clue about people such as that. Honest. I don't. Really.

Anyway, learning is expensive.

My Kindle

2011-03-12T16:49:00.004-05:00

I love my kindle. Sure, it ain't an iPad 2, but it is a pleasure reading books on it. Because I can't afford to buy very many books, I've downloaded a bunch of free, classical literature books. Will I read 'em? I've read a few back in the days when I read real, paper bound books... remember those? But they'll probably just sit in my kindle taking up space.

When Sherri bought me my Kindle for my birthday in February, she also bought me $50.00 Amazon gift card so I did manager to buy a few books. Here is a list:

Of course there are the twenty or so book previews that I've downloaded. They really get you there. You read the first chapter, get hooked, click the menu button and click Buy This Book Now and that's it. Sucks, really. I found a few books I liked and was too tempted to click the Buy button and so I did and, well, no money, no book! Alas, there are plenty of book samples out there, so that should keep me busy reading! Heck, if I survive to my next birthday maybe Sherri will surprise me with another amazon gift card.

It has Been a Long, Long, Long Time

2011-01-28T16:14:00.000-05:00

So I work in Pittsburgh for a startup called Medallion Analytics Software Corp. We're a very small team--just seven of us. And we write software for the eMortgage industry, and it has been so fun. Not that I am particularly interested in mortgage, but the problems we solve are in themselves quite interesting. I get to do a lot of work with Java EE 6, building workflow systems, rule engines and all sorts of neat things that drive the whole process. Okay. Right now I am exhausted because I work every day and average 16 hours each day of the week. Wow. Okay. Time to pass out. Ciao.

I Got a Job

2010-04-13T18:58:00.000-04:00

I am so very thrilled to announce that I have finally landed a job in my field in Pittsburgh at a company called Medallion Analytics. Yee Haw!!!!

Marijuana in California

2010-03-29T12:09:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting story. I've been wondering when something like this might happen, and often I try to imagine the ramifications. Is legalizing marijuana like this a good thing or a bad thing? Is legalizing marijuana at all a good thing or a bad thing?

I think that legalizing medical marijuana was a good thing. If I were dying of some horrible, painful cancer, I would like to be stoned until the very end. Sure, there is morphine and other powerful opiates that you'd get as you wasted away in some hospital bed, but being high on pot might help you cope better.

Now that it is on the California ballot, I am very curious to know how things will turn out in the November general election. Also, should this pass, making marijuana legal to grow and possess (in personal quantities, that is), I wonder how the California economy will be affected. One thing that came to mind is that perhaps there will be an in-flow of new California residents. More people moving to California, buying new homes and bringing work would be a boon to the economy, I think. Then again, a whole bunch of stoned Californians might not be such a good idea. Of course being high, you wouldn't necessarily care about the economic woes. Everything would seem just fine. No worries. Just smiles.

Updated Resume

2010-03-27T15:04:00.002-04:00

Here is my latest resume.

Today on TV

2010-03-22T14:21:00.000-04:00

While trying to learn Objective-C and Cocoa programming on Mac OS X, I took a break to see what was on TV. Star Trek: The Next Generation is on SyFy all day. Yay! This should make learning Objective-C a little more fun. I think.

For the Love of Words

2010-02-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

I love words, and I'm always looking out for cool software that makes exploring them and their relationships to other words easier and fun. Today I came across this cool app, which has both a desktop and an online version, called Visual Thesaurus. Even though I can't afford it, and had only a few minutes to play with it before it required payment to continue, for what you get it is really inexpensive ($19.95 a year for the online version), and it's a lot of fun. Once you search for a word, you can see all the synonyms surrounding it, which are color coded to indicate the type of word (noun, verb, etc.) But what is really cool is that when you hover over a colored node, the software shows a small popup window that contains a short definition and a usage sentence.

As a geek, too, I am fascinated with graphs and how they can be used to visualize information, and the graph used in Visual Thesaurus is really cool. It's animated and when you select a node (word) it seems alive as it springs around a bit and comes to rest. You have to check this out and also check out the introductory videos.

Farmville

2010-02-24T22:33:00.000-05:00

My wife has gotten me hooked on this game called Farmville on Facebook.

Resolution

2010-02-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

I have resolved to write an entry in this blog at least once a day. And yes, this one counts as an entry.

Star Wars Marathon!

2010-02-20T10:56:00.000-05:00

Today my friend, Shawn, and I are going to sit our lazy buts down and watch Star Wars movies all day long, with the occasional break to get more junk food. I love Star Wars, but unlike my friend, I haven't really gotten into the lore and the larger universe, etc., etc. It's cool to listen to him explain all of these things. Now, I am a Star Trek aficionado, and because he has never watched Star Trek (he's young), I got to introduce him to it by way of the latest Star Trek movie, which is really cool by the way.

So my wife gave us pizza money for later (she is so nice) and, as if all the other junk food weren't enough, we'll be stuffing our bellies with more stuff. I think I am also going to try to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. My wife and I tried the other day using the toll house recipe, but they came out like little hard and crunchy flat disks.

Anyway. That's my day.

The Pear 2

2010-02-05T19:12:00.001-05:00

Here is a pear drawn in charcoal.

J. D. Salinger Dead at 91

2010-01-28T13:54:00.000-05:00

A sad day. J. D. Salinger dies at age 91. This is a good story I found in the Dallas News online paper.

Apple iPad

2010-01-28T00:24:00.000-05:00

Now this makes me really, really happy. Of course it doesn't have a camera for video chat, but what the hell. I would use the iPad simply as a reading and surfing device, and perhaps for some games. I'm not much for socializing anyway. But what I really like is that it will make a fantastic e-book reader with the iBooks store. I can't wait until I can try this thing out. Of course it might be years before I'll be able to afford one, even at the low price. But still it is something to look forward to.

Dictionary Removed From School in a Reactionary Move by School District

2010-01-26T14:21:00.001-05:00

Here is a link to a story about a parent (no doubt an ultra-conservative christian fundamentalist in need of some serious head) who cannot keep her nose out of the crotch of her school district--itself apparently full of people in serious need themselves of some good head.

Rather than simply shield her own children from the world, keeping them ignorant and stupid, she spoke up to the school complaining that the Merriam-Webster 10th edition dictionary contained the term 'oral sex', which she found objectionable and age-inappropriate' (whatever that means), which then prompted the school district to pull the dictionary from classrooms and library book shelves. I suppose to this moron of a parent 'oral sex' trumps all of the other 'graphic' words in the dictionary, and perhaps this thinking reveals something of her own psychosis. Anyway, it is a shame that schools fall prey to the hysterics of a single stupid, ignorant person--perhaps she'd be better off moving to communist china where censorship is the name of the game.

Here, in fact, is a quote by a spokesperson who probably unintentionally hinted at her own ignorance and stupidity.

"It's just not age-appropriate," said school spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the newspaper. "It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature."

I wonder if she also finds it difficult to read books and newspapers.

Censorship sucks. This woman and her christian friends will doubtless scour the classrooms and school libraries looking for anything that might sound the least bit offensive and not age-appropriate (whatever that means) and have these books removed in hopes of hurtling themselves and all those they affect back to the dark ages when repression and persecution ruled.

I so hope that the other, more intelligent parents, rise up against this censorship and even if they cannot get the school district to stop being reactionary, at least teach their own children that the dictionary is a good thing as is all knowledge and allow them, no matter what age, to think for themselves. Besides, could a child really even understand what oral sex means? And if so, what would it matter? Being sexually immature and so not even understanding what sex is, doubtless the term would be meaningless. Also, if parents really wish to shield their children, they can always throw away their own dictionaries, laptops and PCs, and send them to christian schools.