Cafe Bucky

Ok, that’s enough of that. I’m having a pretty geeky weekend. Random bits:

My contract took a turn for more interesting. I’m still at AOL, and can only say that I’ll be getting into a lot of XML + XSLT. … and other stuff. I’m under NDA, as per usual.

So.. anyyyyyyyyway. I’ve been:

* installing AOLServer on my PowerBook
* adding a dash of the tDOM package
* and I wrote a “workbench” in Tcl of 3 frames that lets me endlessly tweak .xsl and .xml files, and see the resulting html output, all from a browser.
* loading up slots of my Safari subscription with all manner of XML-related titles.

Music: I’m off to the Apple Store to see if they have an Airport Express in stock. I’m pining to stream my collection to the decent speakers in my apt (5.1 Acoustic Research - S-20’s)

And another geeky thing I’m pining for… I’ve been wanting an electric guitar (I’m so out of practice!). I’m not all code & command lines. The creative side wants to do more than photography. Hoping for a Strat copy (or Mexican Strat?) that I can route through GarageBand. (yes, I still have my Edirol PCR-50 keyboard, and it’s great, but it’s still not a guitar)

More random:

Movies:

* I really enjoyed the silliness of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
* and am glad that The Bourne Supremacy came out so well!

Paper:

* Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy is something I picked up, almost randomly. I’m glad I did. It’s putting a lot about philosophy into context (and sequence). Fun and informative.
* Is it my imagination, or is Wired Magazine turning into an ongoing ad for BioTech?

My resume is updated: resume.daniel.org

This version is bound to get updated over the next week. I’ve had some good feedback from an old friend, and know that I’ll get some more input.

The basic thing to note is that I have moved away from a static resume. Click the top line, and the whole document toggles between short and long versions. Click any section heading, and that particular part toggles. Resume as Demo. I know I’ll be tinkering with the balance of short/long.

The other part of the project is to integrate a way to say a little more about certain gigs (perhaps as a popup layer?)

In an ideal gig, I’d get paid to bring together the FlexiPhoto and ThereThen addressing ideas - photos/time/place.

I’ll have more to say soon! cheers.

One of my more emotionally draining days, starting in Glumville, population 1.

… Which evolved into one of my days where quick technical chops I had in my 20’s came back to me in waves, on the train, at work, and in Starbucks, in Tcl and in JavaScript. Total focus. Really on. Fingers can’t keep up. One part of the brain telling the other to simply shut up and help concentrate, perhaps?

My resume will get posted soon. It’s interactive, but doesn’t shout “interactive”. You can toggle each section between a long and short version. Resume as Demo.

I was originally going to entitle this “Nazi CSS Punks Fuck Off”, in the spirit of the DK’s …

“Punk ain’t no religious cult
Punk means thinking for yourself
You ain’t hardcore cos you spike your hair
When a jock still lives inside your head”
- Dead Kennedys

But suddenly hit with a wave of mellowness, I backed off from that.

(more…)

well, soon.

Now that I’ve given my wife a little promo, it’s time for me to update my resume. So that’s what I am doing. As always, my resume hangs out at resume.daniel.org. I’ll do something more interesting (than this!) as a pointer to my resume when it’s time.

Stuff I’ll be adding includes:

* I did tech review of a couple of books for Prentice Hall. Both were XML-related.
* I worked at AOL (again!) on the tv/movies/music channels - specifically the photo galleries, and more recently, a re-architecting of the tooltips. That work was in Tcl & AOLServer.
* More to say about ThereThen addressing.

I am likely to tie in a way to give additional info about various projects by clicking on the comments in the left side. The goal is to keep the look nice and clean, but provide a way to drill down a bit.

My objective right now is pretty much:

* get away from Tcl & AOLServer, and back into the LAMP side of things. I am afraid of going on too much of a detour, skill-wise. On the other hand, never say never - I’ll do an interesting project in LOGO if need be! It’s all about context.
* work in NYC or the SF Bay Area (bicoastal - can be available soon in either place)
* work with people that are enthused about what they’re producing!

July. Heat. Humidity. But still bearable.

I’ve been in New York since last October, with a couple of months total spent back in California.

So, in other words, I’ve spent a lot of time in NYC lately.

A growing murmur in me says “forget it, cut your losses, go home to California, it’s not working out”. Reality stares me in the face, in the form of a 1 year lease, and some non-trivial bits of furniture I’d have to deal with somehow.

It is hard, financially, socially, and in other ways. I miss my family, I miss having some space, and a lot else. There’s one thing in particular about New York that’s swaying me:

It’s a Glass Wall

Where I work is extraordinarily cliquey. I mean, obnoxiously so. I think it’s the office where I work (in White Plains), and not strictly an East Coast thing. But where I live is also a sort of Glass Wall. After all this time in Manhattan, I still feel like an outsider looking in. People are hard to meet here, and I’m happy to know a couple of friends. The city confers upon its populace a sense of anonymity. This is all fine, well, and good, but New York takes it to an extreme. My hunch is that once you meet a few core friends, and start meeting their friends, things pick up. My other hunch is that I am not going to last that long to find out if that’s true.

So adding it all up, I’m nearly at zero. I’m having lots of doubts as to why I thought this would be a good idea.

(discussing a hellish server-side operation that takes gobs of time)

programmer: I tried just outputting the bare minimum HTML. I just had the word “hello” in there. That’s as short as you can get!

me: well, the word “hell” is even shorter