Simeon Says

Ok, I can’t put this off any more. I keep not blogging about little things because I told my self I wouldn’t write anything else until I got this more important post out of the way. But I keep not having time for this more important post, so I just need to get this done.

After nearly 10 years in the web application development business as an employee of one company or another I have decided to strike it out on my own. As many of you know I have been living a double life for the last couple years. By day I have been the Director of IT for a small business in portland. By night (and the occasional week) I have been a freelance developer and trainer. But the emphasis of my time has always been on the day job. As of June 1 this is no longer the case. For the last month I have been working part time for my day job and committing the bulk of my time to freelance work. And I have to say I am very happy for finally making this commitment to my self and my family. My wife has been trying to get me to do this for a couple years, she is very supportive and I think she likes having me around more (even if I am working.)

I will continue in my day job part time through the end of the year and then they will become one of the companies that I do work for as they need it.

So far I have been very busy. I picked up a couple smaller gigs just before landing a 6 month contract with Cisco. I have really enjoyed working with the great people on these project and the challenge of doing something new.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share this life change with you all. Plus now I can get back to writing little helpful posts because this milestone blocker post is done

Thanks,
sim

Ok, I will admit it, I have an addiction. Last week I bought my first GPS unit and I wanted to play with it. So I had heard people talk about geocaching, but I didn’t really understand what it was. So I visited Geocaching.com and read about the process. I searched and found a couple caches near my house ( a couple really near, but 50 within 5 miles). And I took my wife and my daughter out and went searching. WE HAD SUCH A BLAST! And we found nothing. Since that first night I have gone everyday and found at least one cache, although I usually look for a few.

This weekend we took a drive to the coast with Ryan and Ciara to show them around where I grew up. We found one out by the river. After Ryan and Ciara headed back to Seattle I hooked up with my dad and my brother and we went on to find 8 more caches that day! After coming back to portland my daughter and I went for a bike ride and found a couple more.

GeoCaching has been a wonderful combination of technology and nature, and just enough of a reason to get out of the house and go do something. If you have a GPS I really want to you to try geocaching. If you don’t have a gps? Well now you have a reason!

Keep an eye out for GeoLog an AIR application I am writing that uses the GPX files from geocaching.com and the AS3 Map Component from Yahoo to help you manage your geocache collection.

Not only did I go outside this weekend but I went to the mountain and went skiing! My mother in law has recently rediscovered her love of skiing. But she is lacking friends to do it with. So while I spent 10 years snowboarding I decided to accompany her on a trip to the mountain this last sunday.

Plus this gives me a chance to use the new gallery feature of wordpress 2.5 so lets see how this looks.

Dear Driver,

I am really excited that we have this chance to talk. I think its really important that I take a second to express my feelings about what I just saw occur. You are an asshole. No really, you are. And its not really the fact that you swerved back and forth across a 4 lane highway or were driving damn near twice as fast as the rest of us. The part that makes me really upset is that you didn’t once use your turn signals.

In the three minutes or so of speeding, swerving and riding peoples asses, that I could see before you made your way out of sight, not once did you give any indication of your intentions or directions. Now I want to be very clear on this point, I don’t want to know where you are going so I can follow you, or impact your driving in any way. I want to know where you are going so I can work my hardest to be as far away from you as I can at any given moment. Because while you have been very lucky ( 3 near accidents that I have seen so far) you wont always be. I want to know so that when you crash and your car roles across the highway and you die in a spectacular flaming mess, its only you and the people who love you that have a bad day. I want to make sure that when you meet your amazingly bright and flame-full death, I am far enough away that I barely hear the sirens marking your departure from this world.

So please, regardless of the rest of your driving habits, please use your turn signals when you intend to change lanes.

thanks

Well Hello! There you are. I was wondering where you have been. I don’t think I have seen you in a while. How are you? I am doing well. Yeah, I just finished a couple big projects that have been taking up most of my time. You? Yeah? Cool.

What am I up to now? Gosh, I dont know, well lets see… I’ve been planning on doing a bit more blogging. I have a couple code project I need to spend some time on, I need to come up with a couple good presentations for Adobe Max 2008. I really think I need to find a way to try my hand at video podcasting. I think it would be really cool to do a talk show format like love-line with Dr. Drew. People can watch and then call in with questions about their flex and air code. And then we can put solutions under the microscope and everyone can see. Seems like it might be fun.

Anyway, I gotta run. It was great talking to you. Lets catch up again soon. Don’t wait so long to drop by next time.

Laters

When I saw that Macromedia was being bought by Adobe I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. When Microsoft invested in Facebook, I didnt wait to see the ramifications, I closed my account. Now I see that MySql has been bought by Sun, and my first thought was “Time to learn Postgres”.

But here is the thing, Adobe has done great things with Macromedia’s products. They added money and reach to some tools I thought were the best of breed. I still feel fine not being involved with Micro-Book (Face-Soft?). And I really like Sun, I always have. So I decided I had better put some more time and thought into the MySql deal rather than just write them off.

Sun is a company that is working hard to support Open Source software. They have partnerships with most of the Open Source OS vendors, and have always put time and money into OSS projects. So why do I worry about mysql? Or any of my favorite projects being bought up?

I think it all comes down to one thing. I dont believe in corporations. I feel that they are bureaucratic, wasteful, and unresponsive to users. I feel like once a company goes public their responsibility is to their investors and not to the end user, and I can’t support that. I feel like corporations and the “must protect ourselves” attitude they employ are one of the biggest reasons our country is falling apart (stupid lawyers suing everybody).

Most of all in these things I feel that I am a hypocrite. Because in most of the things I do in my day I support these big companies. So I am as much a part of the problem as they are. I shop big chain grocery stores, I use my expensive apple products, I drink my $5 cup of coffee. But here is the crux of my argument. I do attempt to support the little guys in the things I feel I really have a choice in. I support Open Source software. I am a member of the EFF. I use products from small privately held companies as often as I can, as long as they support my open attitude. I feel like these companies have a much greater responsibility to they users of their products, and as such I expect more from them.

My problem with Sun buying MySql is that I am afraid they will become part of the big corporate mess that is America. Its not really about me not liking Sun. Its about me being afraid they will break MySql. Two years later i am very happy with the Macromedia and Adobe “merger”. I hope that I will be able to say the same things about Sun and MySql.

But my closing thought for this post is this. Support the small business, and do what you can to help others around you. Everybody has to make a buck, be aware of where you spend yours.

I just got off the phone with Joe and I am so excited to help him share the announcement of his daughter Ava!

Ava Louise Rinehart was born into this world on December 9th at 9:40 PM EST. She weights in at 8lbs and is a striking 20 3/4 inches long. She and mommy are recovering well.

There is no wi-fi at the hospital so Joe has not had a chance to post, so I have selected a post on the family blog for well wishers.

Be sure to go and offer your congratulations to Joe and his family!

Not really, but that was almost the headline for tomorrows Oregonian. I was walking back from Starbucks, day dreaming about code and I was crossing the street inside our business complex. As I walk up to the street, and just as I start to step into the crosswalk, a man driving an electric Lexus SUV zooms past narrowly missing me.

Now this is not on a busy public road. This is in a parking lot where we have a posted 10 MPH max. I swear under my breath and continue along my way. Much to my delight the driver pulls up into the short term parking in front of my building… directly in my path to my office.

As he is getting out of his car I say to him. “Hey Asshole, I hope your kids get hit in a crosswalk by a sober but unobservant driver.” To which I receive a blank stare. He really had no idea how close he came to hitting me as he zipped right through the crosswalk. Now obviously I wish no harm on his kids but I really wanted him to feel the impact of my anger. But with that blank stare, I say he is lucky I didn’t accessorize the fender of his Lexus with a head shaped dent.

Today is my daughter Ana’s eight month birthday. I can’t believe its been 8 months, but beyond that I can’t imagine my days without her. My wife is much better at the sentimental stuff than I am and as such keeps a monthly log on her growth as a baby and as a person. But there are somethings that a daddy just has to say for himself and this is my soap box so prepare yourself.

As I said I am ever impressed with her growth over the last 8 months, but today in particular we had some very interesting pictures.

Here you will see Ana checking her email this morning. Yes its true, she does have her own email address and even her own domain. Although there is not currently anything displayed on her site, I wanted to make sure she could use her name in the future.

And of course every dad says his baby is the cutest. And I am not willing to get into a war over this, but I think its important to note that i am not the only one of this opinion. Sarah in my office always tells me she is the prettiest baby she has ever seen. And today as we went to get her 8 month photo taken, we found this surprise in The Picture People store.
Thats right folks. My pretty little girl was chosen to be one of the display models. And while I have realized a great opportunity in sharing my wonderful little girl with the world… I will forever be forced to accept that I (the dad who loves her) have posted naked pictures of my daughter on the Internet. Yes thats right, I didn’t even have to wait for her to be a teen on some terrible video, I started this terrible trend for her as a youth.

I am so happy being a dad, and I cherish every moment I get to share with her. And I thank you all for putting up with my rambling and my gushing while I commemorate another month where I did my daughter no physical bodily harm. Unfortunately there is no question as to the mental harm, she is my daughter after all, the damage has been done!

I got sucked into the vortex that YouTube tonight, and I decided I should try my hand at video blogging. So I logged in and fired up the ole webcam and … Somehow talking to my self on the computer didnt seem so fun anymore.

I watch these videos and I really want to contribute. The problem is I am a performer, I really get going when I interact with people. And sitting here by myself, that is just not happening. So what do you do? My first thought is to get a buddy on video chat and try to record our conversation. But from my few podcast attempts I realized that there may not be enough interaction in that either. So what do I do? Set up a room at my house and have tech buddies over to BS so I can feel comfortable enough to actually say something funny?

Is pretending you have a crowd a trait that can be learned? I just dont know. I just need my buddy Randy from Bend to come around. He always gets my fired up. I need a poster board cut out of Randy that I can shoot the shit with. Hmmm…. I think i am gonna have to run that by him and see what he thinks To bad he is not answering his IM right now. That would save me some trouble. Now what will I do. I think I am going to try to record the content of this post as a vlog.

We will see how that goes