Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

• Merry Xmas 2009

  Date: 2009.12.25 | Category: Personal | Response: 0

  Merry Christmas to you and yours.  2009 was a great year and I am looking forward to 2010.  Next year, make sure you stay off Robot Santa’s naughty list.
  

• Spanish: One Year

  Date: 2009.12.17 | Category: Personal | Response: 0

  I have had a lot of fun working on my Spanish at Pura Buena Onda and listening to podcasts from the folks at Notes in Spanish in 2009.  Today, I met with Carolina – who is an excellent, excellent instructor – to check on my progress and make some new goals for 2010.  In 2009, I just wanted to get better at conversation; improve my listening comprehension and pick up my pace and confidence speaking.  In 2010, I want to get to the next level and begin using Spanish in my work.

  These are my strengths:

  • Excellent comprehension.
  • Good vocabulary (actually she said “great”).
  • Great pronunciation of the letter “j”.
  • Passion for the language, dedication & willingness to use it.

  These are the areas I need to work on:

  • All verb tenses.
  • Ser & Estar.
  • The use of haber.
  • Pronunciation w/random words…often words with accents or many syllables.

  The good thing about all these things?  They are all grammar related.  ”All I need to do” is to study grammar more and I can bump up my Spanish to the next level!  Of course, easier said than done, but certainly achievable.

• The Wind that Shakes the Barley

  Date: 2009.12.02 | Category: Movies, Personal | Response: 0

  

  Wow! What an incredible movie! This is a story about two brothers who take up arms against the British during the Irish War of Independence and how they then become involved in the Irish Civil War that follows. It is a very sad movie and I imagine quite representative (I don’t know – I’m not Irish) of the repression the Irish suffered under the British. A truly a griping film that shows us how regular people can be driven to commit great acts of cruelty and violence to achieve an end that many people would consider “good”.

  To me, war is a force of nature like a hurricane, earthquake or a tornado. We have no control over its destructive power, where it goes, how many lives it will ruin or how long it will last. War corrupts and destroys everything it touches. I hate war with all my fiber because it is so evil and terrible. This movie shows these effects on the lives of the characters and how twisted everything becomes as a result of the war.

• G.I. Joe – Rise of Cobra

  Date: 2009.12.01 | Category: Movies, Personal | Response: 0

  This was a ridiculous movie, but in a good way.  The plot, acting and special effects were so over-the-top.  It is the sort of movie you have to watch when you are in the mood for big explosions, silly costumes, stilted dialogue and want to kill some time with mindless entertainment – like flying over the Atlantic Ocean at 33,000 feet.

  

• Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen

  Date: 2009.11.20 | Category: Movies, Personal | Response: 0

  If I told you a movie would have more robots, more explosion and more fighting, you’d say “sequel”.  But what if I told you the movie also dropped all the affable charm, humor and innocence of the first movie?  You’d probably skip the film.  Or you’d probably be like these stars wondering where their movie went?

  

  I wanted to like this movie since I really liked the first movie a lot.  So many things came together in the first movie to make it an enjoyable summer entertainment.  Unfortunately, some producer decided the sequel needed more robots and less people, so the movie ended up flat like a can of Coke left out over night.

  I guess what really irked me were the dumb Skids and Mudflap robots.  Why would an alien species of machines talk like 13-year-old boys complete with homophobic posturing and putdowns?  It is hard to be entertained when animated things are putting you down in a not funny way.

• Seems Obvious Now

  Date: 2009.09.14 | Category: Personal, Test-Driven Development | Response: 0

  Just wanted to reiterate the value of TDD – I am working on a programming challenge and was surprised how easy it was to add a hunting and killing algorithm to my program.  Since it was written using TDD, I had a nice suite of fast tests which allowed me to incrementally encapsulate my new algorithms and keep the system functional at nearly every step.

  At the most, I only had two, maybe three, broken tests while adding the new classes, pulling up fields and moving methods.  Not bad, not bad at all.

• Agile 2009: Touchdown in Chicago

  Date: 2009.08.23 | Category: Conferences, Personal, Travel | Response: 0

  I’m in town for the Agile 2009!  This is my first big Agile conference and I am looking forward to all the sessions and meeting up with some colleagues.  Of course, with any big conference there are just too many sessions to attend.

  

• Ibiza Es Paradis

  Date: 2009.07.28 | Category: Personal, Spain, Travel | Response: 0

  Mas de nuestras vacaciones.  Me encanta Ibiza y no puedo esperar visitar el ano proximo!

  

  

  

  

• Visiting Barcelona & Sitges

  Date: 2009.07.23 | Category: Personal, Spain, Travel | Response: 0

  Spain is one of my favorite places in the world to visit.  Here are some pictures from Barcelona and Sitges.  Since this is our second trip to Barcelona, next time we are going to take a look at some flats.

  

  

  

  

• Going to Agile 2009!!

  Date: 2009.07.15 | Category: Agile, Agile SD, Conferences, Travel | Response: 0

  I will be attending my first big Agile conference this year in Chicago from Aug 24 to Aug 28.  The program for Agile 2009 looks really good and some friends of mine, Lleywelln Falco and Dan Gilkerson, from XPSD are speaking on Approval Tests.  This should be a good time to connect with old friends and make new connections.