Creativity

Unfortunately, in the world of business, businessmen don't understand software developers. Numbers, theories, and mind games don't interest them. Too often, businessmen are salesmen by nature. They need everyone to look sharp and say "Yes" when appropriate. Businessmen get disgruntled when programmers don't act the right way or dress appropriately. They don't understand the creativity required to program: creativity that has to express itself in other ways, such as appearance. Instead, they feel these people are just hoodlums; necessary vermin that should be locked away or forced to conform.

Truly great programmers are non-conformist by nature. They will break the mold subtley but significantly. In my opinion, you should cultivate that. In fact, successful technology companies do. Microsoft, Google, and Apple all cultivate creativity. IBM, for many years, did not. They eventually became a services company because their mindset was too dogmatic to allow creative geniuses to flourish.

How many of the following pioneers of computer science fit your company's dress code? Most of them are not freakish by nature, but each displays a creative flare, a hint of being anit-establishment.

Linus Torvalds
Bjarne Stroustrup
Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson
James Gosling
John McCarthy
Steve Wozniak
Leslie Lamport

Football pt 5

The next similarity between football and software development is that a great team player will always plan to have a successor. In any given season, a player may blow out a knee or separate a shoulder or have any number of other injuries. A backup will have to come in and perform just as well. A great team player will make sure that the incoming player will know everything he needs to know in order to play his best. A software development team is similar. People get pulled off projects, leave companies, teams, etc... At any given time, a programmer should make sure that his successor knows everything his mentor knows. This includes both project and non-project related knowledge. You can be a truly great player without doing this, but you'll never be a truly great team player.

Avoidant

I thought I would start examining some of the personality disorders listed in my previous blog and tell how they apply to me. The first is Avoidant.

Here is a description of Avoidant.

• avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact, because of fears of criticism, disapproval, or rejection


• is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked


• shows restraint within intimate relationships because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed


• is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social situations


• is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy


• views self as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others


• is unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarrassing

For starters, my occupation, computer programmer, allows me to avoid almost all significant interpersonal contact. Working from home increases that avoidance.

I've gotten better at bullet #2. In high school, I wouldn't even talk to someone unless they talked to me first. I still have a hard time establishing confidence in many scenarios, but it has gotten better.

#3 probably gets me in the most trouble. I think my restraint goes far beyond intimate relationships and into day-to-day relationships as well. I try to ensure that as few people as possible know anything about me (well, this blog breaks that mold, so that's probably a good thing). Even little things like what I want in a career are kept to myself, which makes it very hard for employers to make me happy; they have to guess what I would want, which is, most probably, what I don't want.

#4 just means that I don't talk in social activities because I'm afraid to say something stupid, which is true.

#5 is definitely on the mark. I usually feel that I don't measure up to most people - that I couldn't do as well a job as them or that I would never be able to fill their shoes. This keeps me from pushing too hard for a promotion because I feel I wouldn't do as well as the person there now.

#6 is actually true, I am socially inept, personally unappealing, and inferior to (most) others. If I did not have those characteristics, but I thought I did, then this would apply. However, since those characteristics already apply to me, then I'm justified in feeling that way. So this one doesn't apply.

#7 This one rings true as well. One of the reasons I didn't take a recent job offer is because the people there were much smarter than I and therefore I would look stupid in comparison to them. I don't have to be the smartest, but somewhere in the middle would be nice.

So, I think Avoidant suits me nicely. It doesn't really bother me, I can't say that I'm overly unhappy, so I'll probably remain Avoidant - at least for the time being.

Here's the results from my Personality Disorder Test. Turns out I might be heading for schizophrenia after all :-(

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Moderate
Schizoid:	High
Schizotypal:	High
Antisocial:	Moderate
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Low
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	High
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Information --

Disney World Eating Establishments

This will be the first of many blogs discussing Disney World. In this blog, I've chosen to discuss the very best and very worst restaurants in the World. I'll divide them up by Theme Park (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom). You'll notice that most of these restaurants serve very starchy, high carb foods. This is on purpose. They say you walk an average of 10 miles a day while you're at Disney World, so you'll need the energy.

Magic Kingdom - There's not very many restaurants that are worth eating in the Kingdom.
Crystal Palace - This one you shouldn't miss. I really enjoy the character lunch with Winnie the Pooh, but they also serve breakfast with Winnie. For breakfast, they have a traditional buffet with eggs, bacon, sausage, etc... For lunch they have a number of pastas, vegetables, and other buffet dishes. If you go, be sure to try their pink lemonade.
Cinderella's Royal Table - I really can't recommend the food here. The breakfast is plain and uninspired, but it is a character breakfast with the princesses. Typically, you have to make reservations 120 days in advance. If you're interested in a princess breakfast, you may have better luck with Akershus. To get a reservation here for breakfast, you must call within the first 15 minutes of the reservationist opening (1-800-WDW-DINE) 120 days before your expected dining date.
Pecos Bill Cafe - If you are looking for something quick, then this is probably the place for you. Pecos Bill Cafe has the best hot dogs in the Kingdom and the best condiment bar to go with them. Definitely not elegant fare, but good for a quick bite.
Liberty Tree Tavern - This restaurant serves its food family style. You get a selection of ham, roast beef, and turkey along with side items such as mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and green beans. You also get, for dessert, apple crisp with ice cream. The food is served on large plates and bowls and you get to scoop out your serving. It is also a character dining at supper with Mickey, Minnie, and an assortment of other friends.
Tony's Town Square - Italian food right inside the gates of the Magic Kingdom. It's not exceptionally good, nor is it exceptionally bad. My son really liked the calamari, but I'd avoid it for one of the other restaurants listed here. However, if you're trying to get a dinner reservation at the last minute, this usually makes a good choice.


EPCOT has the best restaurants in the World. If you go during October, be sure to try out the food and wine festival. It is a celebration of foods and wines from across the Earth.

Nine Dragons - I love Chinese food and this is some of the best I've ever eaten. I especially recommend it for lunch. They have a sampler/combo lunch that allows you to try many of their excellent dishes. It is definitely a must try.
Restaurant Marrakesh - This is a Morrocan restaurant and the food is magnificent. Furthermore, you are entertained with a collection of Morrocan music and belly-dancing. What more could you ask for?
Tangierine Cafe - This is a counter service restaurant near Marrakesh that serves Grecian fare. The food is very good when you're looking for something quick to snack on.
Akershus - Once again, a Princess breakfast with the same plain and uninspiring fare. However, if you have a little girl, these are must dos!
San Angel Inn - A lot of people highly recommend this restaurant, but I've never had good food or service here. It might be worth a try, but I recommend the other restaurants much more.

MGM Studios - The food here is respectable, but not amazing. There are a number of sit down eateries that are interestingly themed and therefore worth the time.

Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre - I've never actually eaten here, but it looks like a lot of fun. You sit in cars and watch a "B" movie on a big screen.
Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano - Not much on atmosphere, but the food here is really good.
50s Prime Time Cafe - This is a fun place to dine. You sit at a table and watch 50s reruns while you eat, and if you don't clean your plate then you're going to get made fun of! All in all, a fun place to eat and the food's not too bad either!
Hollywood and Vine - This is a buffet style restaurant that doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere, but the food is good and you can get in and out quickly.

Animal Kingdom - Animal Kingdom closes early, so you won't eat supper here often. For lunch, the best thing to do is find something quick and cheap because there doesn't exist a decent restaurant in this park. If you are interested in a character breakfast you can try Restaurantasaurus to eat with Donald and the gang.

There are also a number of great restaurants in the hotels of Walt Disney World.

Grand Floridian Resort and Spa - This has three of the best restaurants in the World.

1900 Park Fare - This is a character dining experience with an excellent buffet. I really enjoy eating breakfast here with Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins. Also, if you go, be sure to order a Mary Poppins to drink. It is fresh strawberry and orange juice and it is delicious!
Grand Floridian Cafe - If you're in the mood for soups and sandwiches, the Grand Floridian Cafe is the place to be. They have some exotic variations on the norm and it is all quite excellent.

Contemporary Resort - This resort contains Chef Mickey's, a delightful place to eat breakfast. The breakfast is buffet style and Mickey and his friends come around to your table to ensure you're having a great time.

Polynesian Resort - If you have time, you should definitely experience the Spirit of Aloha show. It is a luau dining experience that includes excellent food and an incredible show. I think my daughter was 2 when we went and she loved it. She even got to dance with the luau girls.

Animal Kingdom Lodge - The AKL features two great restaurants, Boma and Jiko. Boma is a buffet featuring fare from Africa. The food there is amazing, even for breakfast. Jiko is a more elegant dining experience, but has some of the best food in the World. If you're interested in a quieter atmosphere and higher priced food, this is the place to go.

If I've left something off the list, it is probably because I haven't visited there. If you're interested, just leave me a comment and I'll try it the next time I go.

Football pt 4

In football, you couldn't survive without a strong head coach. It is the head coach that ensures everyone is going in the same direction. It is the head coach that enforces 2 a days and creates schemes and studies the opposition. They make sure that the team only has to worry about studying hard and performing thier best. In software development, this is the Architect. It is his or her job to analyze the problem and get everybody attacking the right solution. It is his or her job to work through the team leads and make sure proper mentoring and "coaching" are being done. A team of head coaches couldn't run a football team properly anymore than an architecture team can create a product correctly. For good or bad, there must be a single person responsible in order to ensure a singular vision and consistency in the product.

Schizo

When I was in Junior High (I'm not sure of the grade, maybe 6th or 7th), I created a world. This world was one of my own choosing. I used to lie in bed and pretend I was in this world and I would "live" there until I went to sleep. It was my way of coping with the problems in my life: I would escape to my world and be happy. My world changed as I grew older and met new people and did new things, but I always went back there every night. In fact, I started spending more and more time there. During high school, I was asleep or in my made up world almost as much as I was in the real world. Looking back, I wonder if that is how schizophrenia develops? Perhaps it starts as a harmless escape that eventually consumes the escapee? For me, it became too depressing to leave my world, so I just stopped going. I assume if I went back it would be covered in cobwebs; but what if someone made a different choice? What if it became too depressing to leave their world, so they didn't leave? Does anyone else have experience with this? I'd love to hear your stories.

Football pt 3

As in football, a team is made up of individuals who must learn to work together. The reason why a football team can't be put together in one year is because they have to learn to "gel". They have to understand one another's upsides and downsides so they can play to one another's strengths. In addition, a team of all star players probably won't outperform a team of good players with the occasional all star. Too many all stars will get in one another's way (too many chefs spoil the broth). Therefore, a team must contain the right mix of personalities and talents. That's not to say you shouldn't hire exceptional people, just that the personalities should be taken into effect when creating a team. A team of prima donna's will never work. A couple of examples from the football world. First, the Kansas City Chiefs defense last year. Year before last the Chiefs defense was abysmal. The players were getting beat badly. They decided to keep all the players and only change the coach. This didn't work. You have to have great players in order to play great. Second, the Oakland Raiders defense last year. They brought in a number of really good seasoned veterans, but the defense never gelled. They had great players, individually, but as a collective whole, they could not perform. Third, the Indianapolis Colts offense. They have great players individually that are selfless and perform well together. They are one of the most dominant offenses in the league. Finally, the New England Patriots defense. They have a core group of great players and many other players that "fit the system." These players are not exceptional, but they understand their role and they play it well. The New England Defense was rated very highly last season and it was the reason they went to and won the Super Bowl.

Controlling Factors

As I think more about control I realize that the three root issues (Pride, Greed, and Lust) are just ways of grasping control from God. There is only one sin, disobedience of God which manifests itself in the form of you controlling your life instead of allowing God to control it. However, the ways it manifests itself are in the forms of Pride, Lust, and Greed. Of course, all three may surface for any individual, but usually one is more prevalent than others.

A prideful person is intent on controlling the past - either by reliving it or distancing themselves from it. A prideful person who is happy with their past may attempt to relive it through various means. These are the high-school beauty queens that never stop talking about that great day when they were crowned and how they expect you to bow down to them for it. However, not everyone is happy with their past. A prideful person who is unhappy with their past will do their best to destroy it. They will abandon pictures, change their appearance, distance themselves from friends or family, whatever it takes to start a new life. They will become obsessed with being a new person. However, it is still, fundamentally, the past they are trying to control. They don't realize that God has a plan for them and doesn't care about their past. They don't need to relive or distance themselves from it, because to God it doesn't exist.

A lustful person is intent on controlling the present. We discussed in an earlier blog that lustful people were impulsive and whimsical. They feel that by acquiring things now they will make themselves happy in the present. They are not relying on God to provide for their needs, they are taking matters into their own hands.

A greedy person is intent on controlling the future. They despair and lose hope that the future will be good, so they try random things in order to make it better. At the worst, they end up committing suicide so they don't have to face a future they can't control. They don't realize that God has a plan for them, if they will accept it. They must be patient and open themselves to his Word.

I refined much of this from Ventilation. I believe that I added enough of my own exposition to make it unique, but if not...Sorry!

Football pt 2

A second reason that Football is similar to Software Development is a physical and mental limitation. There is a particular amount of time that it takes to do X and you can't force someone to do it faster. For instance, if I run the 40 in 7 seconds, then you can't will me to do it faster. I could practice and practice and probably reduce my speed, but at any given time, your desire for me to be faster will not make it so. The same is true for SD. A manager may want me to create a program will all the great whiz-bang features in 1 week, but if I say it is going to take 3 months, there is nothing you can do to make it faster. There is a physical and mental speed limit in both football and software development.

Football

As football season approaches, I think it is worth it to investigate the similarities of a football team with a software development team. As it turns out, there are probably more similarities with a sports team than with any other. For example, as with software development, front-office management could not do what the team members do. In an assembly line, the foreman all the way up to the factory owner could step in and perform any job function. This is not so for a software development team. Front-office personnel could not replace the coaches or the players.

Each day I will try to post another similarity and also where and why and should differences exist. Check back soon.

The Talk pt 2

As always, The Talk is a wave with a beautiful white crest that is destined to come crashing into the shore. As it recedes into the ocean it takes with it the soft, silky sand leaving a garden of harsh, jagged shells.

Team Members

There are three types of team members: Those that provide value, those that do nothing, and those that provide negative value. Positive value can be provided in many different forms. First, a person may be a productive employee. He or she may create amazing programs that always work and are easy to use. Second, a person may be a valuable educator. They may challenge the employees to grow and to think outside the box. Third, a person may have intangibles that allow them to improve the morale of the team. A negative value may also be generated in many different forms. First, a person may be a negative influence, criticizing employees for doing important things such as learning or challenging the status quo. Second, a person may be a prima donna, working in isolation creating programs that work, but that no one can understand or maintain. Third, a person may generate negative productivity. In other words, people always have to clean up this person's messes. Are you a positive or negative employee?

The Talk

Once again The Talk has started. I always get my hopes up. "Maybe this time will be it!" I think. However, I always end up crashing down, wondering what went wrong. I tend to over-analyze, you know. Anyway, we'll see where The Talk goes this time, usually it is right down the toilet.

Suicide

What causes someone to commit or want to commit suicide. Obviously, it is a loss of hope. They believe that their life will never get any better so death is better than an ongoing life like they currently have. Hope would show the person that better times will come. As I blogged previously, Hope is not just trust in an afterlife, but a belief that you can be a part of God's greater plan. I don't believe that we are part of God's plan. I think God's plan for you is ever changing depending on the decisions you make, but I do think that if you trust in God, he'll give you the best life you are capable of leading from that moment on. If I believed that God had a plan, then I have to believe that those people committing suicide were part of that plan and therefore Hope wouldn't have mattered to them. But, I don't believe that. I believe that we can choose to be a part of God's plan or not and he will alter his plan whenever we decide to become part of it. Therefore, Hope, in essence is the realization that you are not taking part in God's plan currently and you can give your life to God and benefit from him.

This post has some practical value if you know someone whose root sin is greed. It might be worth talking to them about hope because I think they are the highest at-risk group for suicide.

The Apprentice

I've taken on an apprentice. I really don't know what to study with him. I've given him the required reading list and told him to spend 1/2 day every week just learning. It will pay off for the company in the long run. I know I will be going over his code with him and I'll also go over my code with him to look for things we like and don't like. I'd also like to find some good examples of source code on the net we could go through. I've heard that Scheme is a Software Masterpiece.

Are there other things I should be teaching him? How do I develop his sense of smell? How do I instill a sense of pride in his work? Skills such as test-driven development are much easier to teach than the intuitive skills required for great coding. It will be a challenge, but I'll report back on how it is going here!

Sirius

I have to take a brief moment to recommend Sirius Radio. With no other service can one listen to Papa Roach, Benny Goodman, and Kieth Urban all across the country. My favorite channels are Sirius Hits 1, The Pulse (90s music), Standard Time, Swing St, and New Country. I also love the NFL Channel. Sirius is amazing.

Software Development is People! PEOPLE!

If you've not seen the movie Soylent Green, you're missing out. Well, not really. Anyway, this blog is about software development. Intrinsically, software development is about invention. It is not an assembly line process. You don't just take component A and plug it into component B. You are creating art, or the lightbulb, or anything else that is about the inventor.

First, software development is about the person, not the process. Do you think Edison used the appropriate process to create the light bulb? Or Whitney had to use XP to create the cotton gin? No, they used what worked for them.

Second, great software development cannot be done with mediocre programmers. The lightbulb couldn't have been invented with 20 mediocre programmers. Instead, it required one creative genious. The same is true with gravity, relativity, etc... Often, a great invention is reached by two people at the same time, but rarely, if ever, does a group of average joe's create an invention worth mention.

Software development cannot be done with average associates, no matter what the process. That is just the nature of the problem of invention. It requires great minds to be done correctly.

Control and Closure

I have control issues. I can't say that I want to be in control, nor can I say that I don't. I can only say that I want the possibility of control. In other words I abhor closure. I don't want to be stuck. I want to know that I can pick up and do something else at any time. To be honest, this is very difficult to accomplish with a wife and family and I am much worse for the wear for trying.

My wife is in school. Obviously, we can't move across the country, she only has a year left. We have a mortgage on a house we're in the middle of fixing up, so it would be hard to sell it right now. My daughter has made friends and is about to start Kindergarten. All of these things conspire against my apparent desire for control. At the same time, I've given control over to God. How can I both want options and want God to choose? Many choices that were made in my life I made because that is where I thought God was leading me. In most of those circumstances, I had made my decision too quickly and backed out of it to take God's path. Now, I can't choose another path, even it if were God's. I'm stuck where I am for a few more years and that infuriates me. Why can't I let go? Why do I have to have other options and alternatives?

I feel, that by being in a state of change readiness, I can make it easy for God to push and pull me. Does God need the help? Could it actually hurt? I don't have any answers and mostly I don't even know the right questions. I just know that I want the possibility of change and I don't have it. I want control and I can't have it. Right now, others need the control and that is frustrating. Steve, on Blue's Clues, says that when you're frustrated, you should stop, breathe, and think. Well, I've been thinking for a few months now and I'm pretty sure I'm still breathing, but it is not working. Oh well, only a few more years to go before I have control of my life. But I don't want control of my life, I want God to control it. It is so confusing that my head hurts.


I want control of the fact that God can control my life instead of my surroundings controlling it.


Right now, my life is controlled by my wife's school, my mortgage, and my children. It is not controlled by God or me. Hmmm...there could be Gold in 'dem 'der hills. By reducing our dependence on worldly goods, we free ourselves so that God can control us. How much are we tied down and are therefore unable to follow God's path? When he tells us to let our mother bury herself and follow him, can we do it? There are some hard choices to be made, but I feel a little better knowing that maybe I don't have control issues after all; maybe God has control issues and I am trying to help him out.

The Unix Haters Handbook

Something you'd expect to see from Microsoft? Well, you'd be right - sort of. It was actually written before the author started to work for Microsoft, but with a name like that it's got to get you in the door. I haven't read it yet, but you can bet I will. You can find the link to the pdf here.
There's also some interesting commentary here.

Lust vs Greed

There are some interesting posts on Root Cause Analysis over at Ventilation. Amy basically breaks down our root issues into three core issues: Pride, Lust, and Greed. I've had a hard time with this because of the similarities between Lust and Greed. Both seem to be the illogical want of a material object. We all know that one can "lust" after a car, and having too many cars makes you greedy, but what is the true difference? How can you tell if your root sin is lust or greed? I can understand Pride's difference. A prideful person wants someone else to lust after them, the desired change is in someone else. With lust and greed, the desired change is a transfer of ownership (it could be a person or a thing). We could make an arbitrary distinction and say that lust is toward people and greed is toward objects, but God typically isn't arbitrary. Instead, I thought I would ponder this subject in my usual thinking spot: the shower.

What I realized is that a sin could be traced back to any one of the three root issues. A murder could occur due to pride, greed, or lust. Saying that lust was reserved for people and greed was reserved for objects was too arbitrary, just like I had intuited. Instead, you have to examine the perversion behind the sin. Greed is a perversion of Hope; Lust is a perversion of Love. I'm not entirely sure I understand either, but I have blogged before on Love, so I'll let those blogs stand. Hope, however, is a different story. At one time, I thought Hope was only about the knowledge that there was an after-life and that what we had in this world doesn't matter. That makes a nice antithesis for greed and I put it aside. But, recently I learned that there was more to Hope. Hope was also the belief in a Plan (not predestination - plans can go astray) and Hope is our believe that something better exists for our lives now if we wait for it. Hope is both pre and post mortem.

Armed with our knowledge and definitions of the root goodnesses, we can attack the root issues. Greed wants something due to a perversion of hope. Therefore, a greedy person is in a state of despair and disappointment. They want objects or people because they feel that nothing better is coming. They are buying the car because they think all the other car dealers are closed. This person must be slowly convinced of God's power and his Plan and then they can be set on the right path.

Lust wants something due to a perversion of Love. A lustful person doesn't take the time to understand when something is impulse vs acquired. They have three cars because they want three cars. They are not a car afficianado, they don't care if something better is out there, they just want the car. Oddly enough, this is what we typically think of when we think of Greed. However, it is exactly because they haven't stopped to think about Love and what it means to them that they are in this Lustful predicament. For the traditional definition, if a lustful person sees an attractive person, they want to sleep with that person - not because they love them, simply because "they are there." Contrast that to someone with low self-esteem who sleeps around because they need to feel loved, that is a case of Greed.

Once again, the important thing is that to understand the root issue, you must understand its perversion. A sin can belong to any of the issues; it is up to us to understand why the sin is occurring and then change our behaviours accordingly.

Good luck!

Software Craftmanship

I just finished reading software craftmanship by Pete McBreen, and I have to say I wasn't impressed. I should have been warned by the average ratings on Amazon, but I thought I'd try it anyway. Most of the book is spent arguing against Software Engineering; however, he doesn't cover the logic behind his rant nearly as well as other books such as Peopleware or Rapid Development. The other part of the book was supposed to cover software craftmanship; however, it was severely lacking. Instead of giving concrete examples and real life experiences (since craftmanship is about humanity, you would expect these things) he instead stays in the realm of theoretical possibilities. Even these he doesn't explain fully only saying that they will help. For instance, he would cite that craftsmen perform unit tests. Yes, unit tests are best practice, but what does that have to do with software engineering? My company has a software engineering approach and many of us write unit tests, so what? I don't believe software craftmanship stands in opposition to Software Engineering, XP, Agile, Scrum, or anything else. Instead, it is a mantra by which old programmers teach new programmers the best way to go about things. It is a way to be proud of your work and continue it for a lifetime. Pete's book does not capture the essence of SC, instead it is more of an apologetic for its use. I, honestly, do not recommend it.

My July 4th Memory

As we near July 4th (that's Independence Day here in the U.S.), I always think about my father. More than any other day, July 4th was special to him. It was always the first, and typically the only, day of the year when he would swim. He would come out in his swim trunks in the afternoon and hop in. Often he would just swim from one side to the other and then get out. If someone was swimming with him, he would stay a little longer. I have no clue why he picked this day. Maybe it was historically significant to him? Maybe it was that he was a farmer and it was hard to find time off? I never thought to ask; I'm sure he would have had a smart answer. I guess I'll have to swim tomorrow in commemerance of him - though I've already broken the tradition by swimming early this year. Oh well, there's always the next.

Running

Oh, no. I have to start running again. I'd started running in June with Mary. Mary is a friend of mine, more like a sister. I've known her and her family for 10 years; they are all best friends to me. In June, Mary and I started running. Well, not really running, more like attempted running on my part. Mary ran track for a number of years, so she's in great shape. I've won the national lard butt championship 6 years running, so I'm not doing too good. My primary goal, when running, is to not have a heart attack. I think her primary goal is to laugh at me. Last time we ran I ended up with shin splints for weeks. We stopped running when Mary had to go to a number of camps as a councellor. I've been busy, so we never got back into it. Yesterday, we took my son over to thier house to let them visit with him on his birthday. Mary hit me up about starting to run again. Of course, I caved. So now I have to go get some new shoes and pray that they help the shin splints. Oh fun.

Birthday

Today was my son's birthday. We took him to a Japanese Hibachi steakhouse for lunch. He seemed to really enjoy the salad and the fire. Afterwards, we took him to random family members' houses to try and rack up gifts. His party will not be until next weekend so that more people could attend. We were afraid that the 4th of July weekend would find people elsewhere.

Unfortunately, he hasn't yet got his presents from us. He fell asleep while we were getting supper and will sleep through the night. Regardless, Happy Birthday, Son!

My Son's Birthday

Tomorrow is my son's birthday. He'll be 2 years old. I couldn't imagine living without him, he's my buddy. Unfortunately, one of the nursing students that goes to school with my wife lost her son. He was a month younger than my son. They had just gotten a pool (not a big one, just a small one from Wal-Mart). They thought everyone had come inside, but he was still outside. When the realized he wasn't inside, it was too late, he had already drown.

I thank God everyday that I have my son and he is here with me and healthy. I don't believe God caused that boy to die, but I do believe that he can help ease their pain. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose your child. I can only pray that I never have to find out.

Apprenticeship

Wow, here is a lot of information on Software Apprenticeships. I'm growing more and more confident that a developer needs to go through an apprenticeship. This exposes them to a master programmer and gives them something towards which they can aspire.