2006

 To recap last year... still working on getting our baby. Chinese adoptions are slowing down, but we are in the queue. Book is basically done, just one last big push (final proof review). Used the boat, alot, 2 trips through the locks and 120 hours total run time. Didn't quite hit my dive goal, however I still owe the blog a write up on my Maui trip. Patio is still under construction, but getting close. No new hobbies, mission accomplished. Didn't get much done around the house.

Overall, of my 2006 goals/objectives/resolutions - batting about 50/50. I'm happy with that.

2007

This year I'll get to see my book in print. That will be very cool. It's been a long road, but I think it will be worth it when all is said and done.

Work is going amazing. My new project is very exciting, my team is great, and I think Microsoft overall is just absolutely kicking ass. Vista and Office released this week. I love my XBox 360 (and my Wii). Smartphones are taking off. It's just a great time to be working in the technology industry.

I think the odds are better than 50% that this calendar year we will get our referall for our daughter. I'm super excited about becoming a father, and I can't wait to finally meet her.

The last two years I've talked of balance in my new years post. I'm happy where I am. I leave work at a reasonable time, I'm putting in around 45 hours or so, leaving me a lot of time to spend with friends and family. I like that I've managed to spend some big hours working on projects like the rail for the patio.

Life is good.

07 goals and objectives...

• Use the boat
• Dive
• (new hobby alert) Learn Mandarin
• Blog

I'll think of more later...

Historical

I just finished watching the Battlestar Galactica mini-series. I remember watching various parts of the show when I was a kid, it was slightly before my time, but I can still remember the cheesy effects, bad hair, and out-of-this-world dialog. I hadn't gotten into the show when it aired initially, but then Erick got sucked into it and lent me his copy of the mini-series.

Wow.

I was pretty blown away by it. A super dark, smart, sci-fi series. I only hope they keep the quality of the show up in the regular season. I've ordered seasons 1 & 2 on NetFlix.

A little scary, a little funny, but it's pretty cool that our interns have enough creativity to do videos like this.

An explanation for two of the inside jokes:

1. "t-" is the prefix that intern emails get, and sometimes can be used in a slightly hazing way (but always open and respectful <G>)

2. People often use creating ways to get the body part that their badge is attached to close enough to the reader, hence the part in the video where they are innapropriately touching the pole with a reader attached

I will say, I hope they can code/spec/test, because N'Sync shouldn't be too worried ;-)

Too many spammers, so alas, comments are gone. If I can ever figure out a better mechanism than removing all links, the web service API, and finally implementing a captcha system, i'll bring them back. But until then, this will have to be a slightly more one sided conversation.

In addition, given my infrequent posts (and relative lack of content), no one but the spammers were commenting anyway :)

Don pointed us to Caustitech... awesome rants, sometimes *way* over the top, but generally there is a grain of truth in most of these. Since I have the "Architect" title, I really appreciated the description:

"ok, here i must admit that i've actually had this label attached to my name over the course of my career in software development. just shows how meaningless the word really is because i still have no idea what the hell it means. when i'm introduced to somebody who is the "Architect" i think to myself - "oh...somebody who couldn't code worth shit, but was in too deep to leave the tech industry." personally i'm of the persuasion that if you are calling yourself an architect you better be able to write some pretty fucking great code, or it's back to the drawing board for you, buddy. as a software developer how can you have any respect for somebody that is designing (no, architecting) a system and can't tell the difference between a for loop and a do...while loop? are you kidding me? it's been my experience that when developers need help with an implementation or integration detail, or have questions, they are going to go to you...and telling them not to bother you because you're working on something more important or that you don't have time isn't going to cut it."

This weekend I spent some time building a new framework ontop of the Avalon core... it felt really good to write some code. I must do more - it's always good to be reminded of that.

Great, Scoble has created yet another blog. His Longhorn Blog died out relatively quickly, i'm guessing this one will also. Not subscribing. Don't get me wrong, I read Scoble every day, but don't make me chase your content around the web.

No, Halley, you aren't the last to know, but these are pretty popular... I started reading the Left Behind series several years ago, but I never finished them. Initially the plot intrigued me a lot. What would happen if revalations really came true? If suddenly all the "christians" vanished and the antichrist was about to sieze control.

I'm not a huge "organized religion" fan, so normally I wouldn't read a preach-y book, however the first book in the series seemed more like a Stephen King novel than a religious text. Unfortunately (for me) the books became more and more preachy the farther along in the series, so eventually I stopped reading.

The idea to consider what would happen, what would *your* reaction be, if portions of the bible would suddenly start occuring in your daily life. Regardless of your religious view, the idea is a really interesting one to consider.

John posted Trump's rules... in summary:

1. You have to be born with enough brainpower.
2. Once you have that, you have to love what you're doing. I've never seen anyone succeed who didn't love what they were doing.
3. You cannot stop. If there is a concrete wall in front of you, you have to go through it. You can never, ever give up or even think in terms of giving up.
4. Confidence is a very important thing. But confidence isn't something you just develop by saying "I'm going to do this or that." You really have to believe it.
5. I love pitting people against each other. My whole life is based on that. It brings out the best in people and the worst in people. If the worst comes out, you don't want them working for you.
6. You have to remain cool under fire and let criticism roll off you. Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it.
7. You must work well with others and be loyal to your team. Disloyalty is the worst of all traits. I seldom use the words "You're fired!" in business, unless somebody is really scum and stole from me.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious... but I still can't get out, and I have watched the video the whole way through... hmm...

Crimson Room found via Sean.

This is the funniest thing I've seen all day...

"facts:

• Nokia has recently released a combination phone/portable gaming system.
• In phone mode, you have to hold the device "sideways" to talk into it.
• This is weird.
• People like to make fun of weird things.
• Looking at people making fun of weird things will make you laugh.
• Pictures of people making fun of Nokia's design should make them rethink their decisions." [from Objective]

"Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors:  This is a wonderful set of Zen short stories." link from Doug.

Not always the biggest fan, I found Wil Wheaton's blog to be pretty interesting... I especially like that he had to take over his own lawn management after his gardner screwed it up... Good to know that my horrible lawn is in good company!

Link from Dan Gilmor.

This is pretty cool... [from Randy]

Today (at 10:26pm) I have 10629 hits on my site... unfortunately about 10100 of those hits are aggregators... I really (really!) need to fix my RSS feed to stop the constant pinging... I'm ringing up well over a gig per month of traffic for my site, but clearly not generating nearly that much content... ugh...

"Dervala did a post last week about the Myers-Briggs test which helps you determine what your personality type is. She talks about how they use it in MBA programs. She puts her "type" on her resume.

Here's the free-version of the test.

Here's her post about it." [Halley Suitt]

I decided to try the test, I've never taken one of these before. I tried to go through the questions quickly, taking my first instinct for the answer. I know that I answer some questions in conflict with each other, but... I'm not getting graded on this, so what the hell...

ENTJ

Hmm... D. Keirsey describes this as a "Fieldmarshal", someone that "cannot not build organizations" and "cannot not push to implement their goals"...  J. Butt describes this with a quote: "I don't care to sit by the window on an airplane. If I can't control it, why look?"...

I haven't read anything about these profiles, but I've heard people quoting them... Is ENTJ a good thing or a bad thing?

Since Sean is going to be in town, maybe we need another blogger get together in Crossroads? Or we could hit the Redmond Town Center and do something there... mmm... Claim Jumper... mmm...

"not work-related but this is very interesting (from MSNBC ): http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003_03_01_dear_raed_archive.html#90955865 "

Chris calls me on my frustration with IEPs... I have to say he makes a compelling argument. Comparing IEPs to goal setting for students is an interesting one. In fact, after telling my wife I posted a rant about this she called me on the floor for it also :-)

Perhaps I am attributing too much of the "victim syndrome" that we see today to IEPs. I have an image of IEPs as a way that a student can say "actually, I have a hard time listening to lectures, I would prefer that you provide me with a written transcript of the lecture at least two days beforehand"... I know of at least one IEP that required lesson plans from the teacher for the rest of the school year - most teachers are lucky if they keep a week ahead, let alone a year.

"IEP's, in actuality, are a tool for developing short and long term goals, and tracking a students progress towards those goals. Parents, Teachers, and evaluators (speech, learning-impaired, etc) have equal share in building a students IEP; an initial IEP is completed, and then reviewed annually to track the students progress." - Chris

Sounds great. Provided that IEPs aren't used as crutches and try to transfer more work from students and parents to the teachers, I will withdraw my frustration...

I lost my link to UrbanPotato when I added OPML support... Since Brian hosts me for free, at least I should send him some links!

You knew it was coming... Mike posts about Habit 6. For those of you familiar with the 7 habits, Number 7 is "Sharpen the Saw" which basically refers to constant improvement - or, spending time learning the other 6 habits... Let's see what Mike has to say about that.

"Scylla: Some blimps are better off dead.

I laughted so hard, tears came out of my eyes. Thanks Ingo!" [Sam]

oh my god this is funny!

That's not bad money, but it's split four ways, or $40,477.25 each, about the same as a city sanitation worker with two years' experience, without health benefits, vacation and retirement fund. But with, of course, groupies. [Daily News, from MichaelW]

I'm not in the business, but what I continually hear is that (for the band) it isn't about the record sales (because of this kind of break down), but all the other swag around the band - concerts, t-shirts, etc.

It doesn't suprise me that the vast majority of bands just get by, not making a lot of money, but doing it for the love of music, travel, and performing. The few super star bands get all the money.