Robots Don't Sleep

Lately, I have found that discomfort has been a central theme in my journey in self-discovery… not as an absolute, but rather as a guiding force. To be fair, I must admit that I am still trying to find the right balance between respectful professionalism and a joking sense of humorless non-awareness. There is a reason that I find awkward comedies such as Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and The Office absolutely hysterical — because I know that I have not only been in, but also have the potential to create such awkward fits of self-illusion in my own little maladjusted excuses of a world.

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I wanted to post a quick update to show off a slightly facelifted blog. I mostly fixed a lot of css issues that I had been meaning to fix, as well as adding a Twitter widget on my sidebar. I was partially inspired by Josh’s recent blog facelift, so thanks Josh for letting me critique your designer skills. Anyway, I need to go to bed. I hate this stupid time change… it’s completely unnecessary and I hate adjusting to it.

“I’ve got knives in my eyes.”
- Brendan Frye, “Brick“

Also, as a not-so-quick aside, I’d like to point out how much I loathe IE CSS hacks. I am also completely disgusted at Microsoft’s decision to give Internet Explorer 8 a “compatibility mode” so that people can continue to view websites the way IE7 rendered them. Super job at trying to push web standards, guys. There is also a recent CoDe Magazine that is entirely dedicated to IE8, and one of the big articles tries to explain their reasons behind making that decision. Honestly, If I had a birdcage, I would line it with that article.

One last thing – IE Developer Toolbar sucks!

That is all.

This isn’t exactly news, but regardless, I am very excited. Please bear with me.

I am well aware that this may not mean anything to anyone that may read this blog, but I have something special to announce. I have waited at least a month to say this, but I am very excited to announce that in less than 2 weeks, I will be making a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! I was lucky enough to receive a free ticket to MIX, a Microsoft conference that has a strong focus on the correlation between current internet technologies and design. The talks are presented by very high-profile speakers in the industry, and I actually follow a lot of these guys on twitter, or I subscribe to their blogs on Google Reader.

The code that I write is lagely inspired by the things that these people write! I know it’s super nerdy but c’mon!

I am not only excited to make my first trip to the real Vegas, but I am really looking forward to the chance to network with some of these bigwigs in the industry. I can’t believe that this opportunity just fell in my lap out of nowhere. At the same time, however, I am extremely humbled at the fact that I will be representing my company (along with my CEO and boss) at such a huge technology event. I have even considered entering in a Rock Band competition.

Besides the fact that I haven’t worked with very many web-based technologies as of late, I still believe that I have an interest in where a lot of the current trends are going. For example, I have been doing Silverlight 2 work on and off, as well as giving talks at SoCal Code Camps and participating in Silverlight labs in Irvine. Most of the talks that I am planning on attending are either Silverlight 3 or Expression Blend related, and I have been advocating on the behalf of Silverlight almost nonstop since it was released a few months ago.

It’s time to switch to the dark side, Actionscript Nazis!

Wow… haha. But seriously, all joking aside, I think that this year’s MIX Conference will be extremely rewarding and I’m very lucky to be given the chance to attend such an event so early on in my career.  To make this blog post that much more boring, here are some of the sessions that I am planning on attending:

• What’s New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Integrating Microsoft Expression Blend with Adobe Creative Suite
• How’d they do it?  Real App.  Real Code.  Two Weeks.  Nothing but .NET (Scott Hanselman!!!)
• From Concept to Production: Microsoft Expression Blend
• User Experience Design Patterns for Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Deep Zoom++ : Build Dynamic Deep Zoom application with Open Source
• Touch and Gesture Computing, What You Haven’t Heard (Joseph Fletcher!!!)

I’d like to add that almost all my former classmates from school do web-based work with their companies, while I have done hardly any web-based work so far at all.

So… yeah, it’ll be nice to rub it in their faces when I get to meet a lot of these famous Microsoft people face-to-face.

Haaaaah, it’ll be great.

I apologize for not updating more frequently in 2009. I don’t really have an excuse, but I will say that I will be posting much more in the coming months, especially when I make my first ever trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for MIX 2009! I am very excited about this opportunity and I can’t wait.

I am kind of questioning what to do with this blog… If I should keep it more personal or technical or some weird mix of the two. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Also, I wrote this post from my iPod Touch using the WordPress app. It’s actually really nice and I hope that this will make me post a little more often.

I had this strange realization this evening… I woke up from a nap on the couch and I stumbled around groggily for a little bit and I realized that I have been extremely blessed this year. So, I spent a little bit of time going over my entries from this year and I decided that these are my personal top 5 biggest moments of 2008:

1. Graduating Magna Cum Laude from Neumont University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
2. Moving to Carlsbad, California and working for an amazing company doing work that I love.
3. Voting for my first presidential candidate.
4. Turning 21.
5. Adapting a more active lifestyle.

This is a defining moment in our country. I don’t care whether you’re democrat or republican or conservative or liberal or moderate or independent… your children will look back on this moment and remember that President Barack Obama was the underdog in this race. He was the one that was counted out against Hillary Clinton and John Edwards… He was the one counted out against the combined force of John McCain and Sarah “Hockey Mom” Palin. Whether or not you think you are are too good enough to vote, or that your vote doesn’t count, or that you are unwilling to elect a “lesser of two evils”, I beg you to look at elections past and the great distance that this nation has come. I beg you to believe in President Barack Obama.

I believe in him. Even if I may be considered a “fan boy” by some, I don’t care! I support him and I believe that he will be an historical president that will unite this country over the course of the next four years. I am of the belief that there are candidates out there that can ignite the feelings of our voters. I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that Barack Obama will serve this country to the best of his ability just as John McCain or John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Ron Paul would have. I believe, as Barack Obama does, that this is not a red or blue or indifferent America… nor is this a liberal or conservative or moderate America… nor is this an idealogical or agnostic America… this is the United States of America.

And fuck me if I’m wrong, but I am a firm believer in this America.

I believe that our children will ask us about this moment. They will ask us what we were doing in this moment in our country’s history. Were we celebrating? Were we mourning? Were we full of excitement? Were we filled with hopelessness? Or, were we hopeful?

I will feel that we felt truly United. Our first black president… an underdog candidate… was elected to the highest office that the American political system can acknowledge… Barack Obama was elected, by majority and by the college, to be the 44th President of these United States of America, and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

“I got troubled thoughts and self-esteem to match.” I started listening to a few of the new Fall Out Boy songs from their new album, and I quickly realized how far-removed I am from that world I used to belong to. It really is a weird feeling to truly realize how far you are from the world you used to wholly embrace. In listening to a single song from a band that I used to idolize, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve finally matured past the stage I used to defend with open arms. It’s a refreshing realization – no different from the other “refreshing realizations” that I’ve recently come to accept. I’m just not the same person that I used to be.

It’s been a long time coming, and I’ve seen all the signs, but I can still remember (Fresh in my mind) the moments when I told myself “I’ll never end up like this.” I used to depend on my friends to give me a sense of realism; I used to depend on them to keep my feet firmly on the ground. Although, relatively, my feet were perhaps far from where I thought the ground was. Now, I only rely upon myself to steer myself in the direction that I feel is where the warmest light is eminating from. It’s a sad thought, but a realistic one.

I’m on a path that I feel is righteous, and I’m sure some will disagree with me on this. I can feel the negativity and I can feel the dissent coming from (almost) all directions. However, I know that I am only here for myself at this point, so I know that I have to keep the faith that the beat that I am following is the one that leads to the encore. I have had many dreams, and all of them end with me on the winning end.

My newest goal is to make some new friends. Although, the memories of the last two years have kept me up at night – the fact that it took me almost two years to make new friends in Utah. There are times when I am equally glad and remorseful that I chose the path that I chose. I know that it’s led me to the greatest place that I could be right now, but at the same time I realize that I spend the majority of my time by myself.

Really, I think tonight is the culmination of a lot of dissenting feelings that have built up over a period of time, but in the end I am positive that I’ll be fine. I have nothing to complain about… except for the election. I will be so relieved when it is over… this fucking circus that the majority of America has largely ignored since the primaries began. Others will choose to accept their own self-serving reasons why they’ve made up their minds, but I refuse to accept that I am selfish enough to let the rest of the country suffer while I am sitting here in my ideal situation, reaping the benefits. I believe in giving my parents the tax break that they deserve – I believe that this country should be led by a person that is actually inspiring and brilliant in his own right. I don’t believe that slimeball political strategies should be rewarded with the most important elected office in this country. I believe in Barack Obama, and whoever disagrees with that… I don’t give a fuck.

Goodnight. Tomorrow is a new day and a new set of opportunities that I used to dream of so dearly. I’m starting to think that at this point, I’m much luckier than I could have ever imagined. I’m going to try to not take it for granted. Wish me luck.

Today I decided to do a little work around my room. I cleaned up my desk, started going through the (many) boxes I still haven’t unpacked, and did some much-needed laundry. Not too much of a lazy Sunday I guess. Anyway, I started tidying up my music collection as well as filling in the holes that happened when I upgraded to Vista. I still don’t understand how that happened.

I also got the new Jack’s Mannequin album today, and I am really enjoying it so far. I would definitely recommend it to anyone to go out and grab. It’s so strange that I haven’t listened to Jack’s Mannequin in so long. In Transit was such a great album.

So, my workout plan has been going very well so far. I went to the gym Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and I will be continuing the trend on Monday. Instead of going to the gym Saturday, I decided to bike down to the coast and watch the ocean for a while. My overall distance was a little over 20 miles, and it was a very reflective and refreshing ride. I think I may try to do something like that every Saturday from now on. I just can’t decide whether I should go in the morning or in the late afternoon. Hmm…

Finally, if anyone out there isn’t registered to vote yet, please get off your lazy ass and do it now.

I got complimented this weekend for a cover song that I recorded over a year and a half ago. I realized I haven’t listened to Brand New in quite a while. Pretty weird, but it feels good, I’m not gonna lie. Especially the person it came from… it meant a lot.

Anyway, today was supposed to be day 2 of waking up at 6am and going to the gym. Only… I didn’t wake up, and neither did my roommate. Oops. I made up for it by going after work today, but I still need to stay committed. That means I can only afford to write a short blog post and go to bed. Yep. Goodnight!

I knew that when I promised myself that I’d keep up with yet another blog I wasn’t going to keep that promise. As with my others, I made a few posts at a fairly decent frequency and then my mind started wandering on to other things. But, it’s ok. I am going to try to figure out a way to keep myself writing and convince myself that I’ll keep it going.

I started working on a new project at work two weeks ago and now it is coming to a close tomorrow. Work has been going great and I’ve really started to find my groove. I realized the other day, however, that some of my skills in certain areas have been dwindling because I’ve been focusing on other things for a bit. I found myself making dumb mistakes that I remember making when learning these skills, and I came to a realization about how important it is to revisit these sorts of things. I need to keep myself from straying, which should be getting easier as I’m becoming more and more comfortable with where I am in my life. Good luck with that, self.

Another thing that’s been on my mind recently is politics, but I won’t get into that too much here. I will say that I am finally a registered voter in California, which is a great feeling. I’ve known who I was going to vote for since at least last year, so the only thing that’s really kept me interested is the way that things are playing out as November 4th gets closer and closer. I’d say that it’s kind of like a bad soap opera, but I think it’s becoming more and more like a freaking circus. I will just say that I am a fervent supporter of Obama and I have no doubts that the McCain/Palin charade will turn out to be all for nothing.

Well, my thoughts are starting to become more and more jumbled, so I continue this another time. It’s actually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what to talk about on here, especially since right now I am at a point where things are going great. I need to take my bike out for some fresh air a bit more frequently, though. I put some road tires on it last weekend and so far I’ve only used it once. I’m hoping that after tomorrow, when this project is over and done with, I’ll have a small window where I can dedicate a little more time to writing and biking.

Until then, here’s a trailer for what will surely be the greatest Disney movie of the year!!! Sarah Palin in… “Head of Skate”!