My blog. Personal thoughts, anecdotes, and musings.
I’m on schedule to have my book indexed and ready for one final beta before printing. I’m extremely excited to be almost done. I have some cleanup to do this weekend though. My editor wants me to be a little more assertive. I have no problem with asserting my opinions, but I thought that maybe my readers might. Turns out that’s just want my editor wants me to do, so I’m going through and making things just a little more… well, let’s just say forceful.
I miss being in shape. I used to work out every day. I’d practice karate, go running with Ana, and do some occasional weight training. It was part of the routine and I felt great. But then Ana started school, my consulting practice picked up, and of course we were blessed with Lisa. I found I had less and less time to get any workout time in. When I went to RailsConf in May, I was immediately shocked by the way Chad Fowler, one of the conference organizers looked.
My two-year-old DLP television died around April 18th. It’s getting close to a month now and after several phone calls and one failed attempt at at-home service, I am still unable to watch my television. I paid for a service plan which is supposed to cover this kind of stuff, but nowhere was I told that it would be fixed whenever they feel like getting around to me. I spent a long time on the phone with various agents.
First off, apologies to my cousin Kevin and his lovely wife. I’m sure there are lots of things to like about Las Vegas, but I just didn’t enjoy myself in the City of Really Expensive Everything. I went to Vegas for a conference, and luckily enough for me the conference kept me quite busy and mostly away from all of the wonderful distractions the strip has to offer the person who has too much money and time on his or her hands.
This site’s theme (and some of its content) hasn’t really changed since 2005, and with everything else going on right now I figured it was high-time I change that. I started by ripping off the theme I did for the Web Design For Developers web site. It’s a nice clean template that I hope will be easier for everyone to read. I’ll be making modifications to this over the next few days, but I have to get some of the other pages up too.
For those of you who watch this blog and wonder what I’m up to, I am a lot more active on Twitter than I am here. Follow me! The last few months have been interesting to say the least. I’ve recently did some work for Inacom Information Systems, where I helped bring a derailed project back on track. It was great to get to work with my friend Jon, who was swamped and overwhelmed by the workload.
Lisa turns one year old this Saturday. I can’t believe how fast the first year went. Looking back, we had a pretty lousy year. Six eye surgeries, nine casts, and three pairs of shoes. Not to mention countless bottles and diapers. Lisa’s also a biter, so that can be kinda painful. It took nearly six months before Lisa would really let me spend alone time with her, and even today she’d rather be with Carissa if she’s within earshot.
My book Web Design for Developers is now available in Beta form. You’ll learn how to design a web site from start to finish, and you’ll use many of the techniques and thought processes you’ve come to rely on as an application developer. You’ll learn some color theory, some typography basics, some XHTML and CSS, and how to incorporate Photoshop and Illustrator into a work flow that works for you, not against you.
Yahoo thinks you should. Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!
Lisa has surgery on Thursday morning. This is going to be the sixth one and I’m getting really tired of this. It’s expensive and nerve-racking, and I really hate putting her through it each time. Ana’s gone this week again, and I miss her. Things are moving so fast and yet I feel like we’re going nowhere.