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Why I find facebook freaky.

So let me make 1 thing clear, I am addicted to facebook and at the time of writing this post I am signing up for some 12 step program to eventually delete my account. But let me explain why I have a hard time pulling myself away.

I use facebook, for the train wreck that it represents. First, I like the whole re-connecting with friends angle that it has and for whatever reason it seems like everyone (including their mothers) are on facebook. However that is not the reason why I am sucked into it. Also, I enjoy watching people’s walls who is meeting up with who and who is having sex with what (yes, you heard me… WHAT).

I love watching people who just don’t understand that other people can easily see what they do. For example, some old co-workers who post their freaky weekend photo get-aways (which is most times fun to see) or update their status messages about how their STD is really starting to spread. Usually my first reaction would be to cringe and then browse away, but for whatever reason I look and am just freaked out and yet I continue browsing.

3:05 am 1 Comment

Dude, I totally learned… like, stuff!

Working at Rouxbe is like being in a million roles all at once: CTO (heh!), project manager, business analyst, developer, systems admin, and consultant. Here are a few tips and tricks/lessons that really helped me get by.

A project plan saves everyone’s sanities! Oh God yes, project plans are TEH SHIT! It does 3 things: (1) it organizes you, the coder/project manager/CTO, (2) it organizes everyone around you and (3) it makes sure that everyone knows how much work you’re doing. Did you see that the development team has 20,000 things in the project plan? Yea, thats right 20,000 items. And where would you like me to schedule your 1000 items?

Panic is something that trickles down. So you think you look calm and collected? But your deadlines are not being met, the to-do list seems to be growing exponentially ever hour as well as that bug report with that IE7 CSS bug that seems to keep coming back? If you start a panic attack, everyone will get it. You may look calm, collected and composed from your internal monitors but when externally you look like you’re about to commit suicide, slit your wrists and overdose on Valium, it doesn’t help anyone.

My suggestion is find a way to catch yourself when the panic starts. Fix it internally (somehow), then go and help everyone else. Your team will appreciate you more.

Make your first instinct: ‘yes’. My developer instinct always seem to initially start with: Oh Hell! No! This results in negativity and seems to bum everyone out at the same time the defensiveness starts to fester in everyone’s tone. However, saying ‘yes’ first seems to keep my mindset in a more open tone. It helps me understand the ‘why’ of the problem rather than the ‘do-it-yesterday’ part of it. Of course, a dancing chicken in the middle of a web page really does suck and a ‘Oh Hell! NO!’ response would be completely appropriate in that situation.

I mean seriously, a dancing chicken? C’mon now.

Turn off your phone and email at 10pm 11pm. Although it might not seem logical to many people, this tip is very much a lifesaver for me. I made it a point to start unplugging by 11pm. No more ‘work’ related items unless it is some sort of a production problem. I will deal with things tomorrow morning and because I knew that I was going to stop at that time every night, I worked more efficiently and spent less time procrastinating.

Get the right tools! Have you ever tried to gouge someone eyes with a spoon? Doesn’t work that well, try a melon baller. It works wonders! Trying to code Ruby code with TextEdit doesn’t work as well as BBEdit or VIM. Trust me!

12:19 am 5 Comments

It’s never easy. (to come up with a post idea at 2am)

It’s 2am, I’m sick. My 3rd night in a row looking/writing code, firing off e-mails and reading my textbooks. At this time of night, everything is quiet and you’re left with just your thoughts and a blank wordpress post.

So what do I do? I pick up the book that I got from the Epic Expo, cause I’m all about the sustainable living. Especially after Al Gore allegedly brainwashed me into thinking that the north and south pole will most likely melt tomorrow. I joke, they probably already melted.

But that obviously doesn’t work, so now I’m in an epic chess match against Eve (my trusty *shiny* MacBook). But since I’m stuck on what opening to use…

Today my classmate noticed that I had World of Warcraft (WoW for all you hardcores) installed in my laptop. He asked me, “So how does it perform on the MacBook?” Me having completely low standards in Video cards and resolution only means 1024×768 (the usual standard screen of a web user) responded, “Oh… It’s good! Performs fine by me! *grin!*” To which he said, “And how long have you been playing for?” I said, “Just a few months, I’m not really that big of a gamer and I got sucked into it cause of my friend.” And the eventual question, “And what is your level?”

I think he’s still laughing at me and that was from 3 days ago. How embarrassing! I think they’ll eventually revoke my geek license.

1:45 am 1 Comment

Academic Type?

Let me shatter people’s perceptions of me. I’m not an academic. Yes, I’m Asian which means that my family (and/or culture) puts a high value on getting that paper. When I say paper, I’m not talking about money, I’m talking about that degree/diploma/masters/PHd. It’s about the perception that if you have it, then you have a better chance of succeeding in life.

That being said and sarcasm aside, I am working towards mine and I do see personal value in it (this from the guy taking a robotic programming course… just for fun). But I’ve never been the ‘Academic Type’, I’m a late bloomer Nerd.

In all honesty, I was actually quite the slacker in high school. A jock even. *gasp!* See, I was only enrolled in the advanced program because that was the only way I could be in the school’s tennis team and be in the provincial championships. Back then, I was all about: girls and sports (and skipping class). It honestly couldn’t have been further from the nerd-dom that I suffer today.

So to all you jocks out there, there is still hope. I mean look at me, nerdy old me (although I was in the 90th percentile in the physics and math provincial exams). Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go put on my headgear and study.

11:22 pm 1 Comment

Sometimes I wonder…

Why did I decide to go back to school when I’d be up at 2:30am studying for my 2nd midterm this week. And slowly realizing that I’d probably have to do this tonight again. Or how I managed to drink that last cup of coffee and still manage to sleep 5 minutes later. Sometimes, I also wonder how much time it takes for my sanity levels to drop back down to ‘normal’ levels. It’s about the same time I realized that other people are out of my control.

When people say “It’s impossible, it can’t be done” to me. My first reaction is always, I guess you apparently don’t know what I’m capable of.

7:36 am 2 Comments