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Reflections on @30 - Misses

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 22:42:22 -0500

It’s been a year since I started my @30 project, and I ended up going 9 for 18, which isn’t quite as good as I’d hoped to do, but it was a good experience.

After posting about my successes, it’s only fair that I add some context to why I missed the rest of my goals.

Go to a Football Game - College football is a hard thing to plan for. Even though schedules are announced way ahead of time, the rest of life tends to get even more scheduled. Attending church on Saturday nights (and working in the nursery one night a month) made it hard to find a game that I could attend. Taking a vacation to Disney World over 2 fall Saturdays made it even harder. Hopefully I’ll make it to a game either this next year or soon.
Read CS Lewis - I was able to finish The Four Loves, but I found the CS Lewis non-fiction books to be a lot harder to grok when reading primarily at night. Some of the concepts were hard to grasp in his writing style. I did end up purchasing all of the books on my list, so I may end up reading through them in the future.
Get a Bike - The Razorback Greenway Trail is now complete and it runs not too far from where I live, so I definitely plan on getting a bike, but this year was dominated by walking. My little one transitioned from riding in a stroller to walking, and she wants to walk everywhere. Once I figure out a way to involve her in the ride, I’ll be better prepared to go.
Eat Foie Gras - Even though this ingredient is featured in a lot of recipes, it doesn’t appear to be on the menu at any restaurant nearby. After doing more research into its preparation, I’m not sure I really want to try this food.
Print a Photo Book - I’ve been shooting pictures using my digital camera since college, so I have thousands to go through. I ended up spending my time picking a bunch of pictures that I liked instead of choosing pictures for a book, so I never was able to complete it.
Run in a 5k - In total, I didn’t do a very good job of exercising this year. Most of my exercise came during 30 minute walks at night which didn’t quite prepare me for a 5k. I think biking may end up being a better method of exercise for me in the next year.
Keep a Journal - Even with all the technological advances and apps available to me, I found that scheduling time to write daily ended up being harder than I thought. I installed Day One App and even had it send me reminders to write, but other things ended up taking my time. Working on this challenge did help me focus on remembering events, though.
Present about Django - My work life has been very varied in the last year, and I’ve ended up spending time in Django, JavaScript, Java, and pure Python. Even though I spend a lot of time coding, I’ve found that I enjoy architecting and workflowing projects more than implementing everything. I’ve continued to read about management and working in teams, but I was never able to share with others.
Launch a Website - This task is close to complete, but I wasn’t able to do so during my project timeline. I ended up creating the skeleton of a product that helps me personally, but coding at work made focusing on coding after work harder. I do hope to launch a site, or at least an MVP, soon.

Reflections on @30 - Successes

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 22:13:35 -0500

It’s been a year since I started my @30 project, and I ended up going 9 for 18, which isn’t quite as good as I’d hoped to do, but it was a good experience.

Rather than posting entries detailing how each went, I thought I’d summarize the experiences:

Go Whitewater Rafting - I went rafting with my wonderful wife to celebrate by birthday last year. It was very cold, but a fun rush.
Launch a Blog - I guess this can be considered a blog. I spent my first 6.5 years working as a professional web developer, so I feel like I need to build/lay out my own blog at some point, but this works for now.
Sell Old Tech - This wasn’t quite as fun, but it was good to clear out some space in my room. Free Geek Arkansas is a good resource if you would like to donate old or unused tech items. They’ll give you a tax deduction, too.
Go to Disney World - This was a very fun experience that ended up being a lot different from going without my little one. It was fun seeing her expressions as she saw all the characters and attractions. It will be fun going back when she’s older, too.
Upgrade Camera Kit Lens - The Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 has been on my 7D pretty much as long as I’ve owned it. I love the bokeh it produces in images and it’s allowed me to get a wide variety of shots. The only downside I’ve seen to it is that it doesn’t focus well in the dark.
Go Without Coffee - I thought this challenge would be harder, but I guess I’m not as caffeine addicted as I thought. It might just be that I ended up drinking more soda in the afternoons to offset the missing java, though. I definitely don’t recommend doing this kind of challenge when you have a vacation planned during the month.
Read through the Bible - I’m glad to have finished this challenge early. I started in Hebrews and worked my way around from the Old Testament to the New. Isaiah, Lamentations, Psalms, and some of the minor prophets were definitely hardest to get through, but reading them did help me better understand the references made in the New Testament letters.
Wake Up Early for Work - This was probably the hardest challenge. I started by getting up and out of bed just as the alarm went off, but I ended the month hitting snooze one or two times before getting up. Even doing so, I managed to wake up more than 30 earlier than normal, so I count it as a success.
Watch All Pixar Movies - This was a lot of fun. It was cool to see how Pixar’s style and technology changed over all of the movies, particularly watching Toy Story 1-3. I found that even though Pixar movies are aimed at kids, some of them are too scary for little ones, particularly Brave and parts of The Incredibles. (Reading through Creativity, Inc. while watching the movies made them even more fun. I’d definitely recommend it.)

My new Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 22:58:54 -0500

My new Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM

@30: Upgrade Camera Kit Lens - Choosing a Lens

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 22:58:43 -0500

Last year I upgraded from my Canon XSi to a Canon 7D to get the ability to take pictures more quickly while gaining quality. After shooting with the 7D for a few months, I realized that my main lenses were either primes (35mm and 50mm) or kit lenses (18-55mm and 28-135mm). While none of these lenses are bad, I thought it would be good to replace my primary kit lens (the 18-55) with a higher-quality lens.

Edit for disclosure: The thoughts and beliefs expressed here are my own and don’t necessarily reflect those of my employer.

I wanted my replacement lens to meet the following criteria:

Offer good performance in low light (like my 35mm and 50mm primes)
Allow me to take pictures of large groups of people (like my 18-55mm)
Fit my budget (less than $1100)

After reading review sites, I found that the highest recommended lens for my Canon 7D that met these criteria was the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS. This lens has a zoom range from 17mm (widest) to 55mm (narrowest), a constant aperture of f/2.8 (it lets the same amount of light in regardless of how far it’s zoomed - the closer to 1 the better), and IS (image stabilization) to allow better hand-held photographs. I rented the 17-55 in January, and I really liked how the photos I took with it turned out. The main thing that kept me from buying it was the price tag (about $1050 when I was looking at it). This was within my budget, but it’s hard for me spend that much at once.

While I was waffling, I read that Sigma announced a new constant aperture lens, the Sigma 17-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM. I’d never really looked at Sigmas before, since most Canon photographers I hear about swear by Canon lenses, but this zoom lens had the best constant aperture of zoom lenses released to date, and it got good reviews on photography sites. When the price of the Sigma 18-35 was announced to be less than $800 USD, I had to put together a list of pros and cons for each lens to figure out which I’d get.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS

Pros:

Zoom range better than my existing kit lens
Constant aperture at f/2.8
Image stabilization
Good experience with rental

Cons:

Price
Lens barrel extends when camera is hanging around my neck
Aperture isn’t as wide

Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 DC HSM

Pros:

Price
Wide aperture
Scored better on photography tests

Cons:

Non-Canon lens
Less zoom range
No image stabilization
Newly released

In the end I chose the Sigma 17-35 primarily for its aperture and price. I placed an order for the lens, and after waiting two months while it was back-ordered, it finally arrived.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to go on some trial runs and see how this lens performs with my shooting style.

@30: Going to Disney World - Technology

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:30:00 -0500

As a professional in technology, I’m always interested to see how companies use tech to influence user experiences. My week at Disney showed a few ways how they’re using technologies to simplify and make processes easier.

As a required disclosure, the words included here are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the beliefs of my employer. I haven’t been asked or otherwise compensated for this review.

Key to the World

Upon arrival at Disney, we were issued RFID-enabled key cards. These “keys to the world” served several purposes:

They unlock room door with a touch. To open our resort doors, all we needed to do was tap the keypad area with the card and it unlocks. This helped a lot when trying to carry a lot of bags to the room after a day at the park.
They serve as park tickets. Upon entering parks, we held the card to an RFID reader while holding our thumbs to scanners to be granted access for the day. I can see how this would be more secure, but I thought the biometric scan was a bit of overkill.
They link to our meal plans. When charging to a meal plan or our room, waiters scanned the cards with an iPod Touch running a custom app to provide validation. It was kind of cool to see this setup work.

Mugs

Going along with meal plans, we were issued colored mugs that also contain RFID-enabled tech. When used in our resort, these mugs linked to the soda fountains to keep track of refills by hour and day. Since I primarily drank coffee at the resort (which isn’t monitored) this wasn’t super helpful.

Mobile App

Also helpful for tracking during the day was the “My Disney Experience” mobile app. This app provided current listings of ride wait times, characters available for photographs, and a GPS-enabled map of all parks. It made figuring out where Mickey was set up for pictures a lot easier.

Digital Photos

Most places where we could have pictures taken by park photographers allowed the use of a Photo Pass card. When the photographer finished shooting, he or she would scan a data-matrix barcode on the card and associate the pictures with our account. I haven’t looked at how they’re presented in this account, but it was nice to have the option to get photos in addition to those taken with my camera with just a card.

Future Changes

Based on some literature I saw in the park, it looks like Disney is working on other enhancements to digitize other aspects of the experience. For example, it looks like they’ll be rolling out a digital fast pass system sometime soon that will tie allocated fast passes to a wristband, removing the need for paper passes.

Overall I was thankful for the new tech experiences. The RFID key cards made keeping track of payments easier. The mobile app helped keep track of scheduling and where we were in the park. I’ll be interested to see how things will change in the future.

@30: Going to Disney World - Hollywood Studios

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 20:53:00 -0500

@30: Going to Disney World - Hollywood Studios

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 20:40:00 -0500

Park 3 of the Disney rotation led to some of the biggest differences between trips.

We hurried to get fast passes for Toy Story Mania first thing. Fast Passes are reservations that allow you to almost always walk on to a ride, even if there is a long wait. The catch is that you have to wait a minimum of 30-45 minutes before you can use the pass and you’re limited in how many passes you can have at one time. Last time I went we waited too long to get passes and it would have been hours before we could use the pass. This time it was only a 2 hour wait to use the passes, and it was fun actually getting to ride.
We used ride/child swap to ride Star Tours. Last time I went, they were still retooling the ride to use new movie clips. This time my wife got a whole “tour” to herself, and I was able to walk on. My daughter was able to sleep through both of our tours.
We had to keep our daughter entertained while it rained for 2 hours in the middle of the day. Thankfully when the rain started we weren’t too far from a few character photo spots, and we were able to walk in to a show that we knew my daughter liked. I think the rain finally helped me learn enough about Sofia the First to figure out what how its plot works.
We skipped the rides with loud explosions or distant action. I enjoyed the Indiana Jones and stunt car shows last time I saw them, but they would have been too hot and would have been too far away to keep my daughter’s attention.

Hollywood Studios definitely followed the trend of focusing more on characters than thrill rides, but it was a good chance to figure out more about what to show my daughter and what to skip.

@30: Going to Disney World

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:30:00 -0500

@30: Going to Disney World

@30: Going to Disney World - Magic Kingdom

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:30:30 -0500

On Tuesday my family and I tackled the Magic Kingdom. Last time I went, most of the day was spent either on rides or waiting for rides. This time was different since I now had to consider going through the park with a daughter who didn’t meet the height requirements.

We toured the new Fantasyland, which added a new Little Mermaid ride and an improved Dumbo ride. I actually rode Dumbo last time, but it felt different holding my daughter in my lap while we went as high as the elephant car would take us in the air.
We used Fast Passes for character meet-ups instead of rides. During the day we took pictures with Merida (from Brave), Rapunzel, Aurora, Cinderella, and Mickey. Cinderella appeared to be the favorite.
I researched the best use of a dining plan snack pass and walked all the day across the park to use it. The Dole Pineapple floats from Aloha Isle are probably worth walking across the park for anyway.
We found a pavilion away from a lot of the excitement and rested for an hour while the little one napped. This was definitely preferable to leaving the park, and it gave us a chance to recharge while she did.
We got to see the retiring of the colors on Patriot Day at the park. It was moving to see the Disney performers all pause to salute as the Marines lowered and folded the flag. I didn’t plan to see this but it was a good reminder that the world isn’t all happy entertainment outside of the Disney bubble.

The Magic Kingdom seemed like a great place to take a little one. Disney does a good job of providing activities for the younger ones and their parents, and there are things to appreciate when you slow down to see things instead of just trying to ride every rollercoaster.

@30: Going to Disney World - Animal Kingdom

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 21:05:11 -0500

My family and I started our exploration of the Disney parks at Animal Kingdom on Monday. When my wife and I went before, it was like going to the zoo with one or two rides thrown in. This time I got to see the kid side of things.

We ate at Tusker House, which is known for its character lunches. I’d almost recommend eating before going to a character meal, since there are so many characters who come around that it’s hard to find time to eat what you’ve selected from the buffet. I was great to see my daughter finally get to hug Mickey, though.
We saw Festival of the Lion King. The show ended up being better than I thought. It was almost as good as the Broadway version of the film in parts.
We waited for and watched the jungle parade. Instead of trying to reserve a spot at the beginning of the parade, we camped out where it ended. We got good seats without having to fight crowds and only had to wait about 15 more minutes.
My wife and I rode Expedition Everest, but used child swap to take turns watching our daughter. I rode first while my wife waited at the end, then we switched. I think all amusement parks should implement it.

We ended up arriving at the Animal Kingdom as it opened and left after it closed (thanks to a late showing of Finding Nemo the Musical). Taking in all of the kid activities ended up making a trip to the zoo into a full day’s trek.

@30: Going to Disney World

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:26:27 -0500

This week my family and I headed across the country to Disney World in Orlando, FL. While this completes my goal, I thought I’d break up reporting it into a few entries.

Our trip to Orlando had a few differences from the previous trip my wife and I took a few years ago:

We flew a budget airline (Allegiant) instead of a more major carrier. This meant a lower price but fewer frills (in-flight drinks and snacks weren’t free and we had to pay for carry-on/checked bags).
We flew with our daughter. She did really well in the plane and at the airport, thankfully.
We flew into a smaller airport (not Orlando International). Going through the terminal and getting our bags took about 15 minutes tops.
We had to drive across Orlando to get to Disney. It took about an hour, but we had a hired car to help us.
We stopped for groceries before checking in. Publix seems a bit pricier than WM, but it’s cheaper than Disney.
We stayed in an on-property resort (Port Orleans - French Quarter). The check-in process was very smooth, and the property is fairly empty/quiet.

Now that we’re here, it’ll be interesting to see how going to the parks with a toddler differs from going without.

Introducing @30

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 21:35:00 -0500

I turned 30 about 2 months ago. I’ve come to realize that my time is going past too quickly and my high input/output lifestyle is making it hard to remember what’s happening in my life. I too often fall into routines and find it hard to try new things.

That’s where @30 comes in for me. @30 is my attempt to live more intentionally and to do a better job of keeping track of what I’ve done. It gives me a chance to pick some goals for the year and to keep myself accountable for doing them.

While celebrating my 30th year, I’ll strive to complete a series of tasks that I’ve either put off or always wanted to do but haven’t prioritized. For each task, I’ll post entries about what I plan to do, why I plan to do it, and how it turns out.

To keep things readable, I’ll plan to follow the “a picture is worth a 1,000 words” rule. For each entry I will do one of the following:

Post a picture of what happened
Post an entry of no more than 1,000 words

As part of @30, I will attempt to do the following:

Go to a Football Game
Go Whitewater Rafting
Launch a Blog
Read C. S. Lewis
Sell Old Tech
Get a Bike
Go to Disney World
Eat Foie Gras
Print a Photo Book
Upgrade My Camera’s Kit Lens
Run in a 5k
Go Without Coffee for One Month
Read Through the Bible
Wake Up Early Every Work Day for One Month
Keep a Journal
Present About Django
Watch All Pixar Movies
Launch a Personal Website

All entries will be linked from my @30 page in the right sidebar, and I’ll change the status of tasks as I go.

If you’d like to follow along with my @30 experiment, please add my blog to your RSS reader of choice or follow me on Twitter.

Here’s to the adventure!