Category Archives: Uncategorized

Puff the Magic Dragon revealed…

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I’m sitting at my computer right now, sort of recovering from an interesting night of drinking.  So many things went on last night including, but not limited to a water fight, dancing around an overturned jeep (probably thinking I was helping), head butting a girl (not on purpose), attending a random 30th birthday party, and sliding down a grass hill.  Oh and somewhere in there, I made it to four or five bars…

Anyway, somehow I began thinking of Puff the Magic Dragon and decided to Google for it.  I came across this newsgroup entry that sort of clears up the urban legend of Puff the Magic Dragon.  I was always brought up to believe that it was about smoking pot, but it’s somewhat interesting to find out that it wasn’t originally intended to be taken that way.

Quality starts with proper management…

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I’ve just finished reading through The C# Design Process: A conversation with Anders Hejlsberg.  I must say that it is an interesting read and well worth checking out, if you have the time.  Anders compares and contrasts features of Java with those of C#, as well as diving into other c# topics. 


 


Also, one other thing worth mentioning is that I really enjoy and marvel how all program managers at Microsoft know intimate details of the product(s) that they are responsible for.  Even some of the marketing people know detailed information about the products that they advertise.  I have seen many companies where program managers only know a high level overview of products, thus reducing the effectiveness of that product.  I think that it should be a requirement of a program manager (and even the marketer) to know their products inside and out.  They should treat their product(s) as their own children.  I think that also is a major factor in the quality produced by certain companies…

Possible evolutionary twist…

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Evolution is taking/going to take an interesting twist, I think… This specific twist concerns cosmetic surgery with human beings.  So, you take current American societal beliefs, people striving to be accepted or valued as beautiful.  Now, the way I see things is that the people getting cosmetic surgery, to alter their original genetic appearance, are probably going to procreate more with people further up in society’s status ranks.  I think that this has a tendency to “dilute” the public/popular gene pool from the desired result, though.  While one person thinks that they are procreating with an attractive counterpart, it is rather an unattractive person wearing camouflage.  Both the male and female can take one or both roles.  Thus, most times the need for “camouflage” (surgery to make more attractive) remains and unattractive offspring results… Now there are most likely exceptions to this, but I still think that it is a strong possibility…


 


Perhaps I should go patent the idea of changing someone’s gene makeup so that their offspring retains the traits/features currently displayed. 


 


 

Save the world type dream

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I had a dream this morning, which was a re-occurring dream of sorts… it was more like part one of a two part dream (I know I had part two previously).   Anyway, it involved 5 main actors, including myself.  It started at a house party type event with myself and another person (Hann-Ah, I believe) trying to get away from an Arnold Swartzeneger type thing (pretty much like a terminator).  We were trying to get two objects out of the house and bring them to a specific location.  After a little while of cat & mouse type games, Hann-Ah and I were able to get out of the house with the two objects (a scepter & a key type object).  We then proceeded to bring them to a 7/11 or Open Pantry type place.  I took the objects and placed them on the quickie machine, inside.  A hologram appeared with further instructions for what to do.  Basically it told us that we needed to bring the objects to a building downtown (the pentagon).  This brings the other 2 people into play.  I told them that I would pay them $100 to drive us downtown, or show them the most amazing site that they would ever see.  So, while we were jumping in their car, Arnold came back and a scuffle ensued.  After another short game of cat & mouse, we were able to get away from him.  At this point, I remember that I reflected back to how Arnold came to the planet, etc.  He came via a spaceship that I supposedly shot down.  Somehow we transitioned to the house party, and that brings us back to driving downtown.

For some reason, something major was happening that night.  It was like the 4th of July, a large night parade, or something like that because a lot of people were in the downtown area, but they were all in the streets, etc.  At this point, I started waking up, but I do remember having almost the same dream a while ago.  It didn’t involve the party information or anything, but I do remember taking objects to a downtown area building.  Inside the building, the objects transformed the building/opened up another secret room and out came a spaceship type thing, shaped like the statue of liberty.

That’s about it, but I figured it was worth writing down…

Random thoughts about fun and age…

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I hope I don’t sit down at some point and think something like “the good ‘ole days are gone.”  Granted, there have been some fun times in my life, but if I start thinking like that, then I might as well pick up a shovel.  To think that I won’t have fun as I get older is ridiculous.  It’s just that the type(s) of fun to be had changes. 


 


This thought process has been sparked by an email that I got from a friend of mine.  He mentioned that he’ll be completing his (secondary) schooling (working at his undergrad for about 10 years) in another year or so.  I got the feeling that he thinks that life will be over for him after completing school. 


 


To me, it’s not over, it has just changed slightly.  One of the beauties of being out of school (and having a job) is that I’m doing what I currently like, full-time, and I actually have money to “invest” in the things that interest me.  College is supposed to round a person out, but I found it as more of a social benefit than anything else.  I met a wide variety of people (most not related at all to what I do professionally) and sort of improved my social skills while sometimes attending classes.  I am finding that I am “rounding myself out” more now than ever.  I am able to do the things that interest me without being tied down by wondering what people will think or monetary concerns. 


 


I know that at some point in the future (time is passing faster and faster), my lifestyle will change to more of a parenting role.  I might look back at my past and grin with what I’ve done, but at the same time, experiencing the beauty of discovery in my children will bring me even more pleasure.  And so the idea of “fun” changes again… The one thing that I do hope to keep in mind is even though I need to be a figure in my children’s lives, I shouldn’t forget to keep living mine…

Microsoft Certification preparation

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I have decided that I will get Microsoft certified at some point this year.  I’ve just come to the decision that it won’t hurt me to have certification(s) under my belt.  Ideally, I am going to go for my MCSD, but I’ll start off and see how it goes…


This is an initial roadmap of where I plan to go:



I think that the first three exams should go pretty smoothly.  I should only need to brush up on a few areas that I’ve just briefly touched in the past.  The last two exams might be more difficult, but I have done those tasks in the past.  If anyone has any tips/study resources, I’m all ears… Otherwise, I just plan to study on my own using some (free) web resources. 

First days at e.magination

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This week been pretty busy for me so far; I started my new job with e.magination and have been trying to have a social life, also.  e.magination has done a great job so far with making me feel comfortable in my new surroundings.  The people who I work with are very outgoing and friendly, but on of the huge bonuses that I do enjoy is that I’m not sitting in a cube.  I sit in a large room that has a series of big wooden desks; it’s pretty hard to explain so I sort of “sketched” the layout below.   Each ‘o’ represent where a person sits.  There are two of these giant wooden desk structures in the open area where I work.  Anyway, it’s quite nice, since I can just pop my head up and talk to the people around me.  Also, a the people around me are not developers, so it’s somewhat easy to get into “normal“ conversations with them… I think I prefer this over being surrounded by developers.  If I ever need to speak with a fellow developer, they’re not far away…


 


My first day started out with introductions to various people around the company, and just getting setup with internal systems, etc.  I was taken to lunch by my boss, which was an added bonus.  The introductions, etc lasted about 2 hours after which I was presented with some tasks to accomplish.  I have since been working on those tasks and am somewhat surprised by how I “was thrown into“/“jumped into“ all of this work so soon.  Tuesday started off with a meeting with the company COO.  He basically went through a company overview and general business direction and ideas.  So before I keep going on and on, I’m going to get back to my third day.


 


 


Desk structure


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     o | o


       |


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     o | o


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     o | o


       |


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     o | o


——-|——-


     o | o


       |


       |


     o | o


——-|——-

Some recent dream activity

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I had a strange dream last night/this morning.  I feel as though the premise has been touched by other dreams in my past, but I can’t remember when, though.  Anyway, it started that I was coming out of something dark.  I was “driving/moving” along a VERY high highway.  I remember being able to look over the edge of the highway & see below.  There were hot air balloons or parachuters (not sure which) floating down towards an island.  The island was big with buildings & a fair, but I had quite a bird’s eye view, so I was able to see most of it.  At the time, I knew the name of the island, but it escapes me now.  I’m pretty sure that it was near New York, though, and I might have called it Ellis Island for some reason.


 


The next thing that I knew, I was in the fair.  I was walking around it with some people (again their identities escape me now) and I ended up in a couple of the carnie “rides/buildings.”  Unfortunately, that is about it, but if more comes to me, I’ll write about it.


 


Also, there was a little blurb of a dream that I had yesterday.  I was sitting in the passenger seat of my friends (Kyle?) car, while he was driving on a highway at night.  All of a sudden there was a person (face unrecognizable) standing in the middle of the road, but the driver did not swerve.  At that point, I remember grabbing the wheel of the car and trying unsuccessfully to turn out of the way.  It got pretty graphic at that point, as the car hit the person standing in the road, and their head popped off and hit the window by me.  At that point, I woke up somewhat confused…

Babble babble…

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Cameron brings up a question about if kids blog or not.  I was sort of thinking along these lines for a little while and I suppose I should write something down.  The difference is that I was thinking that when I was younger, I never saw myself keeping a journal or diary.  I guess that plan sort of fell by the wayside, but I think the biggest impact that made me go ahead with a blog is that I don’t have to physically write.  I’m far more comfortable as and a much quicker typist, than I am a writer.  That and the readability (I tend to write like a doctor most times) allows me go back and read over some of the articles from time to time.  Not to mention that Cut/Copy/Paste is so much cleaner than eraser marks or strike through.  I do, however, enjoy knowing that my current thoughts are written down, rather than just fading into the ever re-structuring of my persona.  It’ll make for excellent reading in 10-20 years, I imagine.

I find it somewhat strange that people tend to keep diaries private (locked even) while on the other hand, blogs are kept quite open.  I think that people have a sense of privacy with blogs due to getting lost in the sea of web pages.  Because bloggers don’t necessarily see their readers on a normal basis, if ever, I don’t think that they mind that their “audience” reads personal details.  The other subtle benefit of blogs is that the people who read the blog might have a better understanding of the writer’s personality/history than some of the writer’s better friends.  So if a blog reader ever meets a blogger, they would know what to expect.  I find it somewhat similar to a musician getting on stage for the first time.  The first few times are coupled with feelings of nervousness and self-consciousness, but it gets easier with each appearance.  After a while, it becomes fun.

This brings up some interesting situations if a blog “fan” meets the blog writer.  One is that the reader could bring up personal instances of that bloggers life, and just start probing into details about those situations right away.  It would strike me as somewhat weird to have pretty much a stranger asking me personal questions… Maybe this is similar to what celebs have to deal with.  The other situation is that you could cut through all of the BS associated with getting to know someone, and just get on with a typical conversation as if long time friends.

Observations while on the road

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I found a couple other things out last night.  The first one is that there are no self-serve gasoline stations in New Jersey.  It is all full-serve.  While that might not come as a shock to some, it did to me.  Others might wonder why I prefer self-serve and I do for two reasons.  The first is that I was much quicker at figuring out the complex pump (heh…push the button for the fuel grade.  Whew, that’s hard) and getting gas into my car, than the amount of time that it took for the attendant to come over.  By the time the attendant came over, my tank was full and I was ready to pay them.  The second reason that I like self-serve is that I don’t “top off” my tank.  I think it’s pointless… why would I risk having the little bit of gas that I can fit in my tank get gobbled up by the nozzle, when that amount of gas really wont matter when I make my next stop.

The other thing that I wanted to comment on has to do with geeks and soda.  I’m guessing that Microsoft has a deal with Coca Cola because they only served Coke products.  They had diet Coke, Coke, and Sprite.  No more, no less…  The thing that made me curious was how many people actually prefer those products over say… Mountain Dew or even water.  I was always under the assumption that geeks preferred Mt. Dew, but maybe I’m a bit biased… I do not like Coke and would not have grabbed a bottle last night had there been another free choice for a caffeine supply.  Personally, I’m a water man… if I must; I’ll have Mt. Dew or root beer if looking for some flavor.