You may have noticed that my blogs seem to get shorter and shorter. As you can imagine I’m busy wrapping up things for this year. In addition to all that, I want to spend more time writing my novels and articles. Plus I need to catch up on my coding projects as well. You should still expect to get your daily dose of Dorian, but in shorter form for the time being. I’ll keep you posted on my progress with my various projects.
Category Archives: Life
First Snow, Last Month
I got up this morning, and saw light snow cover on the rooftops and ground. The sun shone and so the snow-that reminder of December and winter-disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Today marks the first day of the month of December and the second day of the week. Nothing of particular relevance in the grand scheme of things. Maybe I tie too much value in a particular day or time of year. Still as I looked at the snow, I felt I had come full circle from last year. A year of running around, of trials, tribulations and experiences. Feeling older… am I wiser for it? I do feel I am colder and less accepting.
As I stared at the snow, I wondered if all my efforts in the various aspects of my life simply melt away under a harsh sun. I wondered if I made in-roads at work, at parties and in my life. An answer forms in my head, but not a clear resounding yes. But neither a draining no. Rather a confused jumble of yes and no, some gains but at what losses.
As I stared at the snow, I realized how little time I have left before Advent rushes by. Soon Christmas and New Year’s Day will arrive. There is so much to do and I want a new start in the new year. Time flies and each day disappears like last night’s snow in a year’s sun.
A Weekend of Fun
Had a fun weekend. Lots of partying, some clubbing with my man Przemek too. Met a lot of new cool people, and I hope we stay in touch. I want to thank Troy for organizing everything. And it was good to see old friends again: Barbara & Nick F., and Rob K. Funny how both venues’ name’s started with ‘C’.
As the Year Wraps Up
Less than 37 days or so remain in this year, and so I almost want to look back at this year in nostalgia. A lot of personal growth happened, even if my plans only now are starting to get realized. I discovered the fullness of what it means to be human: love, life, hate, death, joy, sorrow. A million different feelings and it has been quite a ride. I feel better equipped to handle whatever the future brings. And I want to thank all those who I met, got to know and taught me many life lessons. Some were joyful, others painful. Still I can not say I am not thankful. In retrospect, I would of done things differently. But I would not trade those memories and lessons, for anything.
Life happens. Life is messy. Thats the beauty of it.
As for my projects, and my obsession with completing them… Well I am at a stage that I wished I was at back in February. So I feel a little anxious of how long things take. But I’m hoping that I can wrap up this year in this month and in a bit, with some tangible achievements.
Anyways… back to work… there is so much yet to be done.
Update – A Week in Review
This has been quite a busy week in hindsight. I managed to build up my portfolio and work on my professional image. I managed to restart my coding and writing projects. And I’ve finished up on my correspondences. I look back and I’m quite proud of my achievements. I just wish I could move such mountains on a regular basis.
News – The Future of Nokia N-Series Phones, IP for Libertarians, Animating the Death Star
Once again, Dorian has dropped off the side of the Internet to work on stuff. So instead of an update, Dorian sends some interesting bits of news he found on the Internet.
Maemo is the Future of the Nokia N-Series
Just when you thought Nokia planned on using Maemo only for their experimental line of phones… future N series phones will run Maemo! This is great news for all the Maemo fans out there. And it looks like this will be happen in 2012. So all you who follow the Mayan calendar, while be able to ring in the new Mayan calendar cycle with nice Maemo-powered phones. 😀
Intellectual Property from a Libertarian Perspective
This is not news so much as a well written article by Stephan Kinsella discussing Intellectual Property from a Libertarian perspective. So if you’ve been following the news concerning the mess that is intellectual property, this article premises that it doesn’t make sense to have it, makes sense. Patents cause the most amount of problems, being so broad in scope. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the question should or should not the owner of a physical property have exclusive rights to their property. The fact it cause loss for a content creator or it is not acceptable behaviour by “society” is a moot point.
Dorian’s thoughts: Thats why all that I publish is under the Creative Commons license. I’d rather just putting things in the public domain. Unfortunately there is a double standard of what an individual’s rights to that of a corporate entity’s, and thats why some restrictions to protect myself are needed. I’d hate to go to court over something I originally published, being picked up by a corporation and then being hunted down by their lawyers for some IP infringement.
Animating the Death Star in Star Wars
Think computer animation is hard nowadays? Then check this video of animating the attack on the Death Star in the old Star Wars. Amazing.
Updates – justCheckers Open for Business
An update from the justCheckers website:
Cleaned Up and Open for Business
2009, November 17 – 18:02 — Dorian Pula
It took a while. A much needed upgrade, some changes to bring this site back into the larger multi-site effort I’m involved and some re-integration work back into SourceForge… and justCheckers is back! Finally there are no more blockers to getting back into coding, and hopefully moving this project forward. The plan is to finally get around to implementing the work I’ve meant to implement for so long.
So justCheckers is open for business… and is seeking new developers.
And some other updates:
I’ve restarted work on my stealth project as part of the “larger multi-site effort”. In addition, I’m almost caught up on responding to everyone’s e-mails and messages. I should be free enough to restart my writing and work on other long-term projects. I’m really excited with the progress I’ve made, and I hope it continues this way.
Lest We Forget
Today is Remembrance Day. Take a moment of silence for all those who have fallen or crippled by that most horrendous of man’s machinations: war. Thank for those who fought for freedom and end to tyranny. And promise them and future generation, that we shall fight the good fight, that will remember are veterans and that we will do what it takes to end war. Thank you.
For those of Polish descent today is Independence Day. Remember the sovereignty of our nation was fought for by with blood, sweat and tears. And let us not give our sovereignty up so easily and never out of fear nor convenience.
Building a Portfolio
Yesterday I started revamping my blog, and building my portfolio. Now I don’t really need a portfolio, since I chose a career of software engineering over graphic design and writing. However just because my current occupation doesn’t need my more artistic talents, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any. And it surely should not imply that I do not like to create art or to display it. So I’m putting up a few pages dedicated to a portfolio of my various works and ideas in: drawing, computer graphics, writing, user interface design and organization. How extensive this portfolio will be, depends on how much time and effort I can dedicate to this. It will definitely take sometime, so I don’t expect to finish overnight. Still, I should of done something like this years ago. More often than not, in a professional setting, people show interest in my talents outside of programming. So putting up a portfolio also makes sense too for career advancement. Right now I’m not too worried about that aspect. Rather I just feel like showcasing what I have done so far, and what I plan to do shortly.
Excuse the Dust
I apologize again for the silence earlier this week. I meant to post a few posts earlier on, but I did not get around to it.
Also you may have noticed that I’m updating this blog. In fact in general I am updating and cleaning up my “Web” presence in a big way. Hence I’m working on refreshing the look and feel of this blog. I’m plan on modifying the current theme into something I built myself. And I’ll building out my portfolio, something I should of done ages ago. Hence I’ll try to keep updating this blog frequently, but I might be a bit too busy for daily updates. Also the e-mail subscriptions ARE going way, please switch to using RSS feeds.