An Old Man Returns To A Younger Man’s (And Woman’s) Game

It is widely believed that coding, much like writing music, is best left to the twenty-somethings. I’m about to try and shatter that notion. I guess it’s safe to officially announce that I am once again a full-time software developer — and loving it! I have always had a passion for software development and had been suppressing this passion for way too long.

A lot has changed since I put mind-to-algorithm, so I have a huge amount of learning to do in order to rule the world write good code. Wonder why I’ve not been on Twitter and Facebook? Not been going out to bars? Not dating? Not exercising regularly? Not writing interesting blog posts? In large part I’ve spending many hours reading, watching video lectures is “learning,” or more accurately attempting to learn, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, as well as relearning Java. Thankfully I already have a firm foundation in C and C++, as well as a fair understanding of Java, so life has not been overly frustrating of late.

Time To ‘Splain
A few weeks ago I started “Unfollowing” people on Twitter. The people that I “Unfollowed” were people with whom I was friends on Facebook so I knew that the majority of the information that they produced was duplicated, and I just don’t have the time to read updates twice these days. What I also knew is that there would be some backlash one people realized that I “Unfollowed” them. At last night’s Tweetup I found myself explaining this decision to more than one person who felt that I had slighted them by “Unfollowing” them. Social Networking can be so darned complicated…

ITP Flickr Pic
Nothing again. I promise that will change starting next week.

Dammants!
Well, this is one way that I can lose weight…

Before last night’s Tweetup I stopped at the East Atlanta Farmers Market and picked up two loaves of bread. I love locally-produced artisan bread, and managed to have two small chunks prior to going to bed.

I woke up this morning with the plan to split the bread, freeze some, wrap some in plastic to save it, and take some in to work for breakfast. Sadly, as soon as I picked up one of the loaves I noticed that there was a stream of black ants marching to and from the bread. Dangen! I don’t know about you, but once something like this happens I cannot fathom eating the bread, so I promptly threw out the loaves.

Other than providing nourishment for anteaters, what is the purpose of the black ant in the world? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Ich bin ein introvertierter
In one of yesterday’s comments I mentioned the “I Word,” no not “intercourse,” nor “iPod,” but rather “introvert.” Yes, it’s true I am an introvert, which probably explains why I try hard to express myself through this blog.

OH YEAH….
And for those of you partaking in tomorrow’s East Atlanta Beer Festival:

  • Congratulations, it looks like the weather will be great
  • Enjoy, but drink responsibly (unless you can stagger home)
  • Wear sunblock. You will be outside in the bright sun for hours. Don’t wake up Sunday with a hangover and sunburn
  • Have fun in my neighborhood and keep us in mind for your future drinking plans

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good, but fat
Current Music – listening to the “Cranky Geeks” podcast
Website Of The Day – Who knows, once I relearn the computer technology that I’ve forgotten I’ll go back and relearn the things I learned in high school by going to Brightstorm.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 19 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 27
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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12 Responses to An Old Man Returns To A Younger Man’s (And Woman’s) Game

  1. Hey, check out today’s Amazon Deal of the Day — it’s BACONNAISE!

  2. Martha says:

    You beat me too it, they seem to have the entire J&D bacon product line on sale, some of it is available with free (Amazon Prime) shipping as well.

    I’m looking forward to tomorrow it does look like it is going to be a great day. I’m being very optimistic, I told Jerry to make sure he brings his gear since I’m planning on running Sunday as well. Will you have potato salad set out for me?

  3. brenan says:

    At $7 a loaf, it’s obvious the black ants have expensive taste! Btw, have you tried the cheese offerings there at EAFM? Mmmmmmm…. Happy coding!

  4. Sorry, no potato salad this year. I’ll be meeting Cheese Nips for breakfast in Marietta tomorrow morning and then I’m going to find photography locations, heck I may go hearth hunting, before coming home for a quick shower and heading to Little 5 Points for the Jonathan Coulton show at Variety Playhouse.

    Yeah, sadly I tossed almost $11 worth of bread. 🙁 And here I thought I had rid myself of the ants. Grrrr! I’ve purchased cheese from the cheese monger in past years and will be again before the summer’s end. Also really tasty is the honey being sold by the honey farmer(?).

    Thanks! Today I will be dipping my toes into the pool known as JavaScript. 😀

  5. sal says:

    Well, if you’re going to be in Marietta…they always have a little farmer’s market in the square Saturday mornings…you can get some honey and bread and even some farm eggs to go with your bread and honey.

    Martha…you should have signed up for the Sweetwater 50k…you would have done fine!

    Happy Friday everyone.

  6. Martha says:

    ah Sal, thanks for the vote of confidence but my running isn’t where I would like it to be, I’m pretty unmotivated right now. I’m heading back to bootcamp next week, hoping it will push me a little. Maybe next year, if it doesn’t fall on the same day as the beerfest. Good luck!!

    I haven’t had too much trouble with the black ants this year…I think the fleas have scared them away.

  7. brenan says:

    Yeah, I was happy to see the Hidden Springs honey guy there yesterday. I picked up a 16oz bottle of the cotton honey which is actually sweeter than any of the others.

  8. Hidden Springs? So they are the same people whose honey I photographed a few years ago for “March of the Honey Bear Soldiers”. I think that I’ll talk to them next week about getting them a copy of the photo if they’d like one.

  9. bob says:

    No beer fest for me this year, had to choose between beer fest Saturday and pub crawl on Sunday. I’m getting way too old for back to back drink fests like that.

    So Paulie, no post fest drunken cookout this year?

    Trick is picking me up from the pub crawl and we are doing dinner intown somewhere, care to meet up? Although we eat at old people time so it would be more like happy hour for you.

    Also there is a hearth on our bike ride for you to shoot, I’ll email you the location.

  10. Bob, call me when you all plan to eat dinner. If I’m anywhere nearby I’ll join you.

    Another hearth? Sweet! I just might get a book out of this after all! 🙂

  11. Barb says:

    With all of us on the look out for your hearths – you should have plenty of pictures some day. You just need to go find them all…….

  12. Well, if the weather continues to hold up and I stop booking myself solid I’ll be able to find and photograph all of these hearths. I’ve added the ones sent to me recently to my Free Standing Hearth Google Map so I should be able to pull up their locations at any time.

    Woo Hoo!

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