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Giddy with excitement.

February 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If I were trapped on a desert island, and it was me, some coconuts, an xbox360, an HDTV and only one game (we’re assuming the island has an electrical outlet… hey, it’s MY desert island, not yours), the game would be Battlefield. Ever since I first walked in on my friend Kris playing conquest on a PC about ten years ago, I’ve been hooked. Unlike most of my PC-gaming brethren, I’ve long since preferred the console Battlefield experience over the PC (Except for Battlefield 2, which was arguably the greatest multiplayer experience you could have that didn’t contain the words “Roman Orgy”) and have been a faithful Battlefield player since I beta tested Battlefield on the Sony Playstation 2. Which, by the way, was actually why I bought a PS2. When I found out I could get an invite to the beta, I immediately replied, “of course I have a PS2″ and swiftly left the house to go buy one.

So when I saw this, I nearly fainted. When I saw the bit at the end about pre-ordering and getting “Back to Karkand” expansion pack at no charge, I’m not ashamed to admit I pooped myself AND got hives.

Filed Under: Video Games Tagged With: , , ,

Everything old is new again.

February 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well, after spending my first night jumping in feet first, I have to admit. It’s fun again to be a programmer.

I learned C over ten years ago. The last time I used it? Yeah, ten years ago.

See, I’m one of those rare breed of cats in the world of interactive crap. I’m one of those asshats who actually went to school for Computer Science. Oh yeah, you heard me right. Discrete Math, Calculus, Linear Algebra, C, Operating Systems (remember Minix?), x86 assembly language… the whole nine yards. But see, here’s the deal. I’ve never used any of those since… well, since college. Jumping straight into Advertising in the mid 90s, I quickly learned that none of that mattered. Remember, at the time nobody was doing “object oriented” web development and frameworks were a twinkle in your mom’s eye. I was going down the ColdFusion and SQL road, which hadn’t yet embraced OOP, Flex went by another name, a little animation tool called, “Flash” and all of this was owned by a company that doesn’t even exist anymore because it was bought by another company that doesn’t even exist anymore.

But lately, I’ve been looking to fill a void in my life. No, not peanut butter. Another void. The one that forms when you feel like you’re no longer challenged.

So I got a couple books, got myself an iPad, an iPhone, a Macbook and decided to join the Apple Developer Program. Once the sacred initiation rite was complete, and the goat had been slaughtered, I was “officially” an iOS zombie. Hurray for me!

I took the last week’s vacation (look, I refuse to play into that whole “recuperating from a heart attack” meme. That’s just what the liberal media want you to think) as an opportunity to crack open some books, and my first reaction was to get a little nervous. I mean, after all, I hadn’t ridden this bike in ten years. Then I realized, it is a bike, metaphorically speaking. I haven’t forgotten how to be a programmer. I haven’t forgotten what a string constant is.  I haven’t forgotten what a class file is. I just hadn’t used them in a while. Sure, I may be a little rusty, but that’s okay, I’ll get better.

But here’s the best part. I was excited. I didn’t know something, and I was on very unfamiliar ground. That felt good. That felt a lot like what I remember best about Computer Science, tinkering with code, messing up, trying to figure out where you made the mistake, then fixing it, and finally seeing something work that you created. I haven’t felt that way in a long time.

So tonight when I get home – for the first time in a long time – I’m excited to dig into something that I don’t have a clue about. But I guarantee you when I go to bed, I will have figured something cool out and learned something that I didn’t know when I walked in the door.

Now if only there was a market for an iPad app that was a single button that made a fart noise when you pressed it…

Filed Under: Development & Design, Personal Tagged With: , , , ,

Back in the saddle…

February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Tonight I tentatively got back on the bike. I say “tentatively” because I wasn’t even remotely sure how I’d feel. I’ve been resting and recovering all week, and while I wasn’t feeling up to going for a walk, much less riding a bike early in the week, I started to feel much better as the week progressed, and by the weekend I was just flat-out jonesing to move my legs.

So I put on the last disc in the first season of Rome, hopped on the rollers and gave it a go. I thought, “I’ll just take it easy, see how my legs feels, and go from there… maybe do a quick ten miles”. Fifteen miles later, I’m off the bike checking my heart rate recovery. It’s fantastic. In fact, I think it might be better than before. Of course, that’s not entirely surprising, but to actually feel that. It’s pretty awesome.

This whole heart thing has really given me a lot to think about lately, lots of life changing thoughts rolling around in my head. It’s nice to know though, you can still count on your legs.

Filed Under: Cycling Tagged With: , , , ,

I’m not even gonna blog about it.

February 17, 2011 By 7 Comments

Yeah, so I had a heart attack last week.

I’ve probably gone through about 4 drafts of some kind of post in a sort of cathartic attempt to talk about it. Then I realized, I don’t even wanna bother.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not thinking of minimizing its effect on my psyche, or marginalize how important an event in my life it was. In fact, just the opposite. It’s too huge to write about. I mean, let’s go over it. I’m 43, I have the healthiest lifestyle that a man my age could even hope to live. I exercise, I eat right, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink… at all.

But let’s not kid ourselves. For years I didn’t live that way. Not only that, pretty much my mom’s entire side of the family with the exception of her dad passed away early in life of some form of heart disease. We’re talking early 50s in some cases. So I had 40 years of shit living piled on top of the genetic lottery. It was basically win-win. I was a shoe-in for Myocardial Infarction, and guess what… my number came up. In fact, I’m pretty sure (and a couple of doctors agreed wholeheartedly… no pun intended) that my lifestyle changes of the last couple of years saved my life. If I hadn’t started to eat right and exercise, you’d be leaving comments here about how lame it was that I died at 43 of a heart attack.

So with a new lease on life, including some new hardware to go along with it, and a fuck-all super appreciation for what I’ve got here around me, I’m gonna soldier on. I’m not gonna dwell on it. I’m not gonna wallow in it. I’m not even gonna let it change my life all that much, because let’s face it, if we let it change our lives, then the terrorists win. No, I’ve got a great life and a great lifestyle. I just got caught by the past and a floating turd in the gene pool. Nothing I can do about that.

So all I’m left with is the future, and that shit’s not written yet. So rather than sit here waxing poetic about how shitty my situation is, I’m gonna buck up and keep doing exactly what I’m doing. Because let’s be honest, I was doing all that shit before with a bum heart, imagine how effective it’ll all be now that I’ve got some blood flowing back to that muscle, right?

Now if I could just get well enough to leave the house to go get a massage. Those fucking hospital beds suck.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: , , ,

February 11, 2011

February 11, 2011 By 2 Comments
Avatar, the last Airbender.

"It's the Avatar, daddy. He's bending water and creating a water hurricane." She's five. She's five years old and she draws with more style than I could ever hope to muster.

Filed Under: Photos And Video Tagged With: , ,

You find your own rewards… sometimes without even looking.

February 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The last week  has been really rewarding. It’s Friday and as I look back on the week, I realize events that were merely “to-do” items on my agenda turned out to be the highlights of my week. Not the place you expected to find yourself on a Friday afternoon, but certainly a place you’ll enjoy.

On Wednesday, I hosted a “lunch and learn” at work. I love my job and one of the best parts about it is all the great technology I’m constantly exposed to. An even better part of it is that I love sharing it within the context of actually showing people how it can make their lives easier, make their work easier, make their jobs easier, and basically help them realize that often lofty goal of technology, “to improve your life”. Too often, and I’m even guilty of it too, you think, “oh, this is just too much. There’s too much out there and I can’t ever keep up” and so I’m always on the lookout for ways that technology and software can facilitate making my day to day life a little easier. Once I find them, and I learn and use them, I become an evangelist of sorts and I’m always eager to share. Wednesday was one of those days. I sent an email out to everyone at work and basically said, “hey, I’ve discovered a bunch of great, useful tools that I’m finding myself using and getting a lot of value from and if you’re interested, I’d love to eat a sandwich in the front meeting room, get on the big screen, and share some of them because I think you’ll dig ‘em too.” I wasn’t sure who would show up (if anyone) but lo, and behold, I had a nice crowd! We spent the hour eating, sharing, talking, and I walked out of the lunch thinking, “wow, that was more awesome than I anticipated, and I think everyone got something great out of it!”

Then, this morning, I had a meeting scheduled to sit down with a room full of Realtors and show them how to use their CRM software to use some email templates we had created for them to more effectively market to their customers and prospects. I wasn’t sure, walking into the room, what to expect, and knowing that my audience wasn’t as “technical” (in other words, they weren’t database nerds who actually got excited about working in a robust CRM) as I was, I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the outcome. I don’t know what it was, either I love to hear myself talk (well, we all know that’s totally the case) or they were really in tune with what I was laying down, but we all really clicked as a room and it quickly turned into a really rewarding, collaborative meeting. Lots of energy, lots of enthusiasm, and again, I walked out of there thinking, “wow, that turned out way better than I had anticipated!”.

So it was, I had two rather non-eventful events planned on my schedule that I wasn’t expecting so much out of, turn out to be some of the best work moments of the week. I wasn’t programming. I wasn’t creating anything, or hitting a deadline, or managing a project. I was just sitting with some people, sharing solutions, engaging in some back and forth, and walking away feeling as if both sides got way more out of it than they thought they’d get going into it.

That’s some pretty rewarding work… cleverly disguised as “to-do” items on a calendar.

Filed Under: Advertising, Personal Tagged With: , , , ,

To all my friends who have Playstation 3…

February 6, 2011 By 3 Comments

Hey, friend me!

I’m on the Playstation Network now and I’m not sure who else that I even know has one. I think a couple of my friends either on Facebook or Twitter have Playstations, but for the most part, I’ve been all about Xbox360 for so long that I’ve never really followed who even has a Playstation 3, or who’s on the Playstation Network. Hell, I don’t even know what the Playstation Network is, I just know I signed up and joined it when I got my PS3.

So if you’ve got one, send a friend request… or whatever they call it on Playstation, and let’s hook up. I’m curious to see what people play in a world without “Halo”. I think I’m gonna grab a driving game or perhaps one of the Call of Duty or Battlefield games for Playstation, but I’d really like to see what multiplayer games my friends play before I dive in.

So jump on that. Let’s get this party started! My “Gamertag” (for lack of a better term… what DO they call it?) is “JeffRSmall”. Hit me up, yo.

Filed Under: Video Games Tagged With: ,

You know, the first step is admitting you have a problem…

February 4, 2011 By 5 Comments

I just had the oddest experience. I was walking down the hall at work when I caught myself thinking about something.

No, that part’s not the “odd part”. The odd part was what I was thinking about.

I was thinking about peanut butter. Specifically, I was thinking about “Smucker’s All Natural Smooth Peanut Butter with Honey”.

I have an almost uncontrollable addiction to nut butters. I love them. I eat them on Triscuits. I spread them on whole wheat bread. I eat them on bananas. I have absolutely no ability to moderate my intake of any particular nut butter. It gets worse when it’s almond butter. I daresay I could polish off an entire jar of almond butter in one sitting and not blink twice.

So there I was, walking down the hall at work thinking, “boy, I can’t wait to get home tonight and eat some peanut butter on some Triscuits”.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I don’t know, but I guarantee, whatever it is, it can be fixed by spreading a little peanut butter on it.

Filed Under: Fun and Frivolous, Nutrition and Food, Personal Tagged With: , , ,

Slow January, AmIRight?

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Yeah, I’m struggling with stuff to write about. I mean, it’s not for a lack of things to do, but a lack of things to write about.

I mean, I’m sure part of it is that I’m pretty busy. My daughter has had two birthday parties in the past two weeks, and each weekend has been spent cleaning, cooking, running around getting things set up, helping the wife.

I suppose I could write about that, because after all, I was duly impressed with her ability to put together a great party. Once again, we chose Pepper Geddings for my daughter’s birthday party, and once again, they were fantastic. For those of you who aren’t from Myrtle Beach, Pepper Geddings is the Myrtle Beach Recreation Center. Indoor pool, gymnasium, basketball courts, etc, and they have a couple of rooms set aside for parties. They have a great program over there for the kids that includes games & activities, swimming, and use of the facilities. They really have a great crew there that leads the kids in a handful of games. Duck Duck Goose, Red Light Green Light, and a bunch of other little fun games that they  enjoy. The “theme” of her party was “Scooby Doo” so they played games like, “Scooby Says” and I think instead of “Duck, Duck, Goose” it was “Scooby, Scooby, Shaggy”. Fun stuff. We got her a Pinata, which was a first for me, and just let me say… I’m not sure I’d wanna give a wild gang of 5 year-olds bats again anytime soon. That was a scary couple of minutes for the guy holding the Pinata (me) lemme tell ya. Anyway, the wife did a spectacular job getting both parties off the ground and I was really proud of her. She’s a great mommy (and a terrific wife!).

I’ve also slowly been putting together a replacement for my entertainment system that culminated in the last week. I began by replacing my older Denon receiver with a newer, 7.1, HDMI 1.4 2011 model. As soon as I started down that road though, I realized how out of date my 7 year old HDTV was (DVI… no HDMI) and that led me to the realization that I was probably better off replacing my TV and taking advantage of pre-Superbowl sales. Of course, over the holidays, I added a PS3 to the mix, so once I realized I was moving an almost completely HDMI-based entertainment system (The Xbox360 is still the last holdout… component AV + Optical audio. It’s an older 360 so it’s pre-HD needing the HD kit add-on) I really had no choice. So I spent most of the last week or so migrating over my Harmony remote, setting up the PS3, dialing in the receiver, and enjoying my first taste of pure 1080p Blu-Ray goodness.

My, that’s a pretty picture.

While all of this is going on, I’ve been working really hard to get my legs back, and honestly, that’s been the biggest challenge of all. I spent most of… okay, ALL of… the holidays eating, not riding, and basically relaxing and while the desire was always there, the legs were a bit lacking. I started off the beginning of January throwing in some intervals, but quickly realized that I needed a good, solid base of miles before I could begin pushing it that hard. I went back to the drawing board and began slowly adding mileage every day until I was putting in a solid effort of 15 miles a day on the rollers. 15 miles a day at about 20 miles an hour for 45 minutes is a damn good start to the year. This weekend I dropped an effortless 30 miles and the only thing that got me was the wind and the temperature. If I had layered a little bit more I could’ve easily thrown another ten miles or so at it, but by the time I got 15 miles out, my fingers were numb and my legs were aching from the wind. The Conway Area Bike Ride is in about three weeks and that’s really the first ride of the year. I don’t think I’ll have any problem being in good enough shape to tackle the 63 mile ride, so I’m just gonna stick with the routine and build a good base of miles before the ride.

So that’s really it. I think there’s a lot going on, just not a lot to write about. I think as it gets warmer, and as things calm down around the house, I’ll have more opportunities to wax poetic on various topics. I’m having a good time with CSS3/HTML5 (or really at this point, just “HTML“) and Dreamweaver, so I expect I’ll have a lot more to say on those topics in the coming weeks, as well as a couple of other huge, life changing things that I don’t wanna spoil. Suffice to say, I don’t think the beginning of 2011 in any way portends the remainder of the year… heh, heh, heh (that’s my evil laugh).

Cheers!

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: , , , ,