Jim’s Blog

Remember those guys who tried to bring liquid explosives onto planes and made it so that no one could bring liquids on any planes, even though they completely and totally failed? NONE OF THEM WERE EVER CONVICTED.

Check it out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7606892.stm

It’s clear that all things involving flight have gotten out of hand. All liquids? Honestly? When they first invented that rule, I was convinced it was a scheme for airports to force people to buy toothpaste, shaving cream, and delicious water.

I’m glad Virgin is standing up to ridiculous rules like this, even if their ISP wing totally rolled over for the man.

Who knew Mitch Hedburg had something coming out. What took so long?

Site Update: I hooked it up so I can upload photos from my iPhone. I’m still working on the twitter updates thing, and I think the photo galleries are coming down. Maybe I’ll switch to Flickr or Picassa. Gallery is just too much of a hassle.

I’m on my way to Xenia, and thought I’d do a quick update. I had a beer float last night and it was amazing.

It’s been 4 months since I’ve posted, making this the longest I’ve gone without blogging since I started over 5 years ago. I stopped posting because I was pursuing a new job opportunity. Too many companies have a difficult time understanding that employees can have personal lives separate from professional, that the opinions they express most likely have no effect on their work, and that their feelings do not represent the company in any way. I didn’t want any of my thoughts to have a negative effect on being hired.

I’ve come to realize that I don’t want to work for a company that judges me by my blog, and doesn’t trust me to keep my personal and professional lives separate. I’m convinced that I’m not working for such a company.

That being said, there are people who can blog about work well. There are people who can’t. Some companies rock, and some suck. It’s a wide world, and I’ve made a decision for myself. I’m not here to judge.

I did get that job, and will not be saying much about the company or what I’m working on. I will be posting about my general thoughts and accomplishments as a developer. (I’m doing some TDD! I mostly hit my estimates!) I am a mac developer now, fulfilling a dream I’ve had for about as long as I knew what a mac was, and things are going well.

Some reasons I haven’t been posting:

• I have a lot less free time. I’ve picked up an hour commute each way with my new job hottness.
• I honestly don’t have a whole lot to say these days. I’ve been pretty focused on improving myself, and my adventures have been few in number.
• Wordpress kinda sucks.
• I don’t get a lot of web traffic.

Thankfully, I thought of a ton of stuff to say on the way home today. Here’s what’s been going on in my life:

• Began and completed the 8th annual change of address. Still in Ann Arbor.
• Ian talked me into joining Twitter. I think it’s cool, but ONLY because a lot of people I know are doing it. Expect a sidebar item when I get time.
• I’m developing an iPhone app. Look for it to be done sometime in 2015 at the rate I’m cobbling together hours to work on it.
• Going to Spain in February. That’s Febrero to you, bitches.
• I’m going to give brewing beer a try… You know, when I get spare time. (Noticing a theme yet?)

I can’t think of anything else right now. I’ve got a few ideas for posts, luckily. Here are some tentative titles: “Why Joe Biden is a fuckface”, “140 Character Haikus: My Thoughts on the Twitter Revolution”, and “Mainstream American Beer Sucks and So Do You”. So, keep a look out on what is sure to be a touching series of posts.

I spilled the last of my coffee grounds today, and was thusly p0wn’d by gravity once again.

I’ve gone from trying to learn Cocoa to writing Cocoa. I think I’m finally over the hump.

It’s a paradigm shift, to be sure, but it’s all starting to click, and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve let Paul’s flickr stream take over my AppleTV. The photos that come across fill me with confusion, fond memories, and the desire to high-five Paul.

“In an artificial world, only extremists live naturally”~Paul Graham 

Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox.

Growing up is an interesting experience. The real tricky thing about it is that things that seem completely normal at the time end up striking you years later as strange.

Today, I was sitting in my office, and I heard a series of electronic beeps. Something flashed through my head. I wondered who was walking into the bathroom. To you, the reader, these two things are completely unrelated, and might have caught you by surprise. That thought, as it drifted across my brain, certainly surprised me. But, as I thought about it, it made total sense.

I lived in the dorms for two years. The bathrooms in our dorms had a key access code that was loud enough to hear in my room. For two years, whenever I was in my room, I heard a series of electronic beeps every time someone walked into the bathroom.

It’s been 3 3/4 years since I moved out of the dorms, and that association is still inside of my head.

It’s a strange life.