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I try and make every project an opportunity to learn something new. Whether its a new way of thinking about an old problem or something I just never took the time to understand. I’m also trying to accept help from others whenever I can. I find that I often develop my own idea of how something works and input from someone outside of the problem can often shed new light on the matter. I never want to become so full of myself where I start overlooking valuable input from those around me.

Work so far has been an amazing opportunity to learn and grow and I’m glad I’ve been pushing myself like I have. I’m finally starting to realize my potential as a developer and there’s a lot more fun to be had.

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So I’m failing at keeping this thing updated but in all fairness I’ve had a busy month. The holidays were a breath of fresh air compared to life since I moved to Boston a few months ago. Work became a bit too overwhelming and there were too much I wanted to do. I had made the decision to try and settle down somewhere full time a few months prior and since my last blog post I’ve now reached that goal.

So I’ve completed my third week at my new job and so far I’m loving it. The people are great, the work is challenging and the environment is exactly what I need. Best part is I can see the TD Garden, the Zakim Bridge, the U.S.S. Constitution and part of the North End right from my desk.

The best part about starting a new job is a chance to start fresh. I’m starting fresh as a developer, a boyfriend and a Bostonian. These last three weeks have felt great and I couldn’t be more excited for the future.

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I spend a crazy amount of time creating content for free on the internet. Whether it’s posting to one of my many blogs or working on one of the plugins I maintain in the WordPress repository. I do these things mainly because I enjoy helping others and I especially enjoy hearing how my plugins and blog posts have helped people with their own projects.

I also put these things on my resume because I spend a lot of time working on them and believe they’re one of my strongest selling points as far as defining who I am as a web developer. It is a little disheartening however when you put a lot of time and effort into something that ends up getting little to no traction online. It’s hard not to feel like I failed or did something wrong.

Ultimately I try not to let this get me down. If my plugins and posts help just one person then they were worth it. But then today, I was meeting with a potential client who in fact used two of my plugins for their own clients’ site. Something I had developed a few years ago with little to no traction on the internet ultimately was the deciding factor in getting this new job.

So be proud of everything you create whether it gets the response you were looking for or not. It’s a little piece of you on the internet and you never know who’s going to run across it a few years down the line.

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The highlight of the entire weekend had to be the last night starting at around 2am with Pretty Lights and continuing on to the silent disco where things got nice and trippy. It was my first silent disco and won’t be my last.

The best part was going with great people. Hopefully next year we’ll have more great people with us and some more great memories.

Here’s the offical aftermath video :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMYBuIuBjvg&w=500&h=350]

Here’s my own little video I put together:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTsG3QMRNGM&w=500&h=350]

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The best part of freelancing is that I get to work from home. You would think this is awesome but recently I’ve been finding it hard to focus. I have this reflex I can’t seem to control where whenever I am in between projects or having a hard time with something, I automatically open Minecraft or right click the Steam icon in the bottom right corner of my desktop.

To solve this problem and overcome my gaming addiction I need to get myself out of the house to actually get any work done. I’m not sure if it’s actually the change in scenery or the fact that without a mouse I can’t game but either way it helps. I should try an experiment where my girlfriend hides my mouse from me during work hours. It does suck a little because I am definitely more productive with my mouse but whatever, this is what I have to deal with.

So I usually end up walking down the street to Starbucks. On occasion I will head into one of the offices of my clients nearby but I really only like working from one of them, because they’re pretty awesome. I’ve also graced the Mass Challenge offices a few times which is nice because of all the startups crunching away getting shit done. A cool environment to be in.

Starbucks however is my location of choice. Maybe it’s the easy access to delicious coffee of all varieties or maybe it’s the diverse group of people coming and going but I just like it. It does seem pretty cliche, a web developer working from Starbucks, but it works.

That’s all for today. I’m due for refill of the ice coffee and I need to get some work done.

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I’ve been so busy with work I never update this blog anymore. Hopefully I can change that. I finally got a more capable phone and can now easily post to WordPress using the Android WordPress app. So i’m hoping between this and voice input I can find the time to insert my random thoughts here. This also means my random thoughts might get more random but I’m ok with that.

In other news I’m trying to wrap up a side project that ended up being a lot harded than I expected. I’ve accomplished a lot I had never done before with it so it’s all been worth it. It helps that the client is pretty cool and has been very understanding.

Hopefully this will be my last side project for awhile now as I move on to bigger and better things. Either way I’m looking forward to the morning so I can wake up early to move my car and get some Starbucks. Living in Boston has been swell.

5am and I feel like I should be working on something but instead I’m in bed writing this post. Forcing myself to fall asleep now. Good night moon

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The filthiness of the wobbles and drops keep my brain working at peak performance as I make awesome WordPress plugins and websites. I am actually head-banging as I type this to an HD playlist of all the UKFDubstep tracks I embedded on this page. One time I was thinking about how much I miss Fresh Prince as a crazy drop started having sex with my eardrum. This is their offspring.

Another thing I learned is I love to dance. I mean I’m puertorican so I knew I was good at it, but I believe it was Rusko at this show that turned my legs into stomping machines as I proceeded to give myself whiplash.

Our next Dubstep show was Nero right after he released his new music video for Me & You. Nero redefined my idea of sweaty, drunk basements and I somehow wormed my way to the front of the crowed to catch his entire set. The pic on the left is me in the white button up. I had a lot of fun.

The next show we went to was Zeds Dead. Somehow we ended up next to the speakers which made for some great video but some sore eardrums after the fact.

There is no point to this post besides to spread the Dubstep. I spend most of my time playing in /r/dubstep on Reddit. Just let it happen.

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I did not always believe this.

I was brought up in the Episcopal Church where I attended youth groups and bible studies. I also spent a few years going to Young Life meetings on top of spending 8 summers of my life at a Christian camp up in New Hampshire. I would travel to the local Christian college every Sunday night to pray and sing praise songs. I loved God and Jesus for all they had done for me.

I would say I first starting questioning my beliefs during our weekly bible studies where I would travel to the local college and meet with some kids I knew from camp and high school. It was there that we would take turns constructing our own bible studies trying to answer life’s questions. That is where my life changed.

How I Challenged My Beliefs

It started with an idea. The idea that something omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent would have human enough emotions that it needed to be loved. A skydaddy of sorts, pulling the strings with the single goal of having its puppet children choose to love him. This was the Pandora’s Box that sent my brain spiraling and I had to find some answers.

One of my idols growing up was C.S. Lewis. Reading the Chronicals of Narnia as a child inspired my mind and helped me dream up great things. Later, the Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity would define my beliefs and sculpt me into the Christian I was. His ideas of natural law made complete sense to me and became the foundation of my arguments when defending Christianity. After my great revelation I began to dig deeper into the question “Where do our morals come from?”. Finally I’ve settled on the fact that over time, we realized that by working together for the greater good we can succeed in greater numbers.

Looking back I can’t believe I ever truly thought getting my morals from religion was a good thing.

I’ve seen so much hate come from religion it sickens me. People judging others based on their beliefs, sexual orientation and the color of their skin. Some of the things I learned from the Bible disgust me when I remember the verses in hindsight.

Then I started learning more about our country’s history and some of the quotes from people like George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson that expressed a distaste for religion. While searching I also ran across the teachings of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens which solidified beyond any doubt that the atheist point of view was the correct one.

Conclusion

Coming to the realization that I am a process of evolution and a scientific miracle gives me new purpose in life. My mere spark of consciousness is a gift I refuse to take for granted. Hopefully some day we will be free of religion which has stifled scientific and moral progress.

All of that said, I leave you with this. I may not be able to change your mind about what you believe. A good friend told me “Do not take your one chance at life for granted for one second. You will not live to regret it.” I hope someday you can do the same.

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