Kicking Tires

Posted on by

This week, I’ve started working on my delayed projects again.  I feel exhausted from the week.  But I also can not wait to play around with my projects.

Learning Qt

I’ve always admired the KDE and Qt developers.  They make some of the most innovative and interesting technology in the consumer-desktop-mobile land.  I’ve decided to pick up learning Qt and C++.  So far I’ve read the beginning of C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (1st ed).  I need to play around with C++, which I plan on doing it while using Qt Creator.  One of my first major Qt experiments might be getting the TEA text editor working on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.  I know that Nokia just released the tech preview  of Qt 4 for S60 devices.  But I’ll give it a shot.  Hopefully the GUI will port over nicely.

Completing justCheckers

Yes, the project that I left for dead still lives.  I want to work on it, as portfolio material.  I first plan on building a website in PHP (or maybe JSP?) that renders beautiful CSS and XHTML.  And then I need to give the project much love.  But I owe it to myself to finish this application.  I won’t build any crazy game servers.  But I want to make something totally configurable and fun.  And in the process I want to create something that proves that I am a strong Java developer.

Writing A Collection of Shards

I am going back to writing.  Unfortunately I need to start almost from scratch, since many of my written sections simply will not work.  The ideas are there.  I just need to get them down on paper.

Driving License

This one is the ultimate in the tire kicking sense.  I plan on getting my driver’s license really soon.  Aside from parking, I feel comfortable driving.  Once I figure out all this parking stuff, then I’ll be ready.  I’m exciting since this will give me a lot more mobility and flexiblity.  I’ll be able to solve a lot of problems and have even more time to do things in the day.  And I’ll be able to sleep and live in normal time periods.

Hurt and Tired

Posted on by

I hurt my foot in taekwondo yesterday, after sparring with someone who clearly didn’t understand the hypocrasy of telling me not spar as if I were competing.  The hypocrasy being that she acted as if it was a competition.  So while I’m limping back into shape, I’m going to take it easy on myself the next few days.  Not only am I injured, but I’m tired from lack of sleep.   I pushed myself for the past weeks, but I need to tone it down a notch.  I plan on doing my essential work as it should be done.  But all my other nice-to-have tasks and projects, I will treat as nice to haves.

I’ll Be Right On It

Posted on by

It is a bit early in the morning to come up with material to write about.  And I did not get much sleep this night.  Today I probably wouldn’t be able to stop yawning.  And insane amounts of coffee will only keep me from trying to take a nap on the new office’s couch.  All that said, I am on track with my current work: personal, professional and long-term.  I’ve even managed to get to those much delayed tasks.  Yesterday I restarted my coding projects.  Today I will dedicate some time on building a portfolio: in writing, graphics and coding.  And I really need to clear the dust off my resume too.

The key statement for expressing the feel of these past few days should be: I’ll be right on it.  And I will.  Things get done and on time.  The only thing missing is sleep, but I’m sure that will return if I keep at it.

As an aside, I played Alpha Centauri this morning.  What a difference lower the difficulty a single level makes.  At the moment I’m kicking ass and taking names.  I can also verify that what they say about state theory is true.  It is all about power and domination over a territory.  It takes incredible restraint to not exercise aggressive military power, especially when you know you can get away with it.  Hmm… that should prove a great uncurrent theme in my novel.

Final aside: I have to rewrite the first chapter of my novel.  I can’t adapt any of my previous writing to it, in any real degree.  I can use some ideas and elements here and there, but regretably it looks like the first chapter needs a rewrite.  The overall plot and characters feel strong.  The setting needs some thought, since the terrain in reality does not work a 100% with my idea.  Anyways, I plan on just writing the rough drafts first.  Then I brace for painful edits later on.

Best Laid Plans

Posted on by

1

My best laid plans always seem to flow so well together.  But give things a bit of time, and then complications arise.  And with complications come delays and reschedules.

I planned on being further along with my writing today.  Also I planned on having already dealt with a number of tasks.  Finally, I planned on moving forward with my summer vacation plans.  Instead I slept, and made a long-term investment.  All well and good, but not planned for at all.  However the inflexible only complain, the flexible reschedule and replan.  Thats what I’m doing this morning.  I plan on moving forward today, possibly badgering a few idle people in the process.  Also I will redo my vacation plans.  As for the writing, I think I will find ample time to write in the afternoon.  Everything all due to circumstances beyond my control.  All I can do is work around the obstacles and work with what I have.

Dawn on an Alien World

Posted on by

1

Went to a fantastic party hosted by the Huddarts, Friday night.  I enjoyed myself throughly.  Meet new people, had a few too many drinks, and had a lot of fun.  Some of the conversations ended up as discussions about my novel.

I’m at an impasse with my novel.  I have to decided the setting of my novel.  The setting turns out crucial when developing the plot, since I desire to keep things realistic  The novel can either take place on a post-nuclear war Earth in the near future.  Or it can occur on the planet Mars about 200 years from now.  In both cases, a central element of a swarm of military drones and a covert ops team trying to infiltrate a ruined city works.  However the Mars plot called for  starships (the original plot).  These starships act as vehicles for the plot: one gets shot down, another acts as a carrier to launch fighters and a third acts as a spaceborne heavy weapon.  And they play pivotal points in my plot.  The last two can be replaced with either a land-based facility or an orbital platform.  But I can’t come up with a plot element for the first one.  I need a reason why a military group finds itself under fire from a swarm.  And said military group has to be far from safety, carry some sort of important mission-critical cargo and needs extraction.  Being dropped from a crashed starship explains it all.

Now in the post-nuke Earth starships don’t exist.  At least not in any large form.  However with a near future plot I can use real life experience, existing technology and current events to make the story more realistic.  I also face the danger of offending readers if I make things too realistic or tie my story too close to the current world.  And I’m not in the mood to deal with snarky, political vigilantes and their poisonous e-mails.  Besides I do want to give the story a sort of a ruined future in the desert feel.  The Mars plot nicely abstracts all that away, but I lose realism.  The Earth plot bases itself in realism but I’d have to do a balancing act to keep the plot neutral and interesting.

So what should I do?  Stick with the easier to write but more space opera Mars plot?  Or a realistic, gritty Earth-based plot that needs a good explanations, and realistic equivalents to my Mars plot?

Update: Played a bit of Alpha Centauri, and I would absolutely love to write my novel in such a setting.  But a Earth far from Earth comes with its own set of problems.

Tagged, Balanced and Categorized

Posted on by

I think I just hit a new milestone in my organizational efforts.  I just finished tagging and categorizing the last of my blog posts.  A long effort but finally done.  I almost want to take a moment to step back and admire my handiwork.  But unfortunately, today I’ll be heading off to party hosted by the Huddarts.  So I don’t have time to stop and celebrate, at least not until tonight. 🙂

In addition I finished balancing my accounts and ledgers this morning.  This could not of been possible, if I had not yesterday filed away most of my papers.  The expanding file idea seems like a stroke of genius now.  I can easily find everything, takes up less space and I feel organized.  I managed to compress space and create time.  And this all thanks to a bit of time, money and effort.  My next goal will involve clearing out the junk and clutter I’ve collected over the years.  With some effort, time and perhaps a bit of money I’ll finally be able to live neatly in the small room that I own.

Still this week my schedule suffered from my efforts.  I have walked around sleep deprived.  I put off tasks that need to finish.  But at least I can safely say my long term goals and projects seem closer to realization.

OK, moment of reflection over.  I need to plan for tonight.  And I need to acquire breakfast.  Also I need to get to those defered tasks.  Maybe I can find time to move my projects forward too.

A Productive Day, Lacking the Space

Posted on by

Yesterday proved to be a productive day.  I am pleased with the expanding file I bought.  I could finally find an organized place for all those bills, receipts and miscellanous loose leaves of paper that clutter my room.  In addition I am caught up on my correspondence.  Looks like I’m making progress in the dating game too, something I thought would never come about.  Of course I will not for sure until I know for sure.  Still as the amount of near-misses increases, so does the likelyhood of a hit.  All in all I am at ease.

I still need to organize more and clear up both my physical and digital clutter.  The digital clutter only requires time.  But I am severly lacking space in the physical world, and I am not sure how to deal with this.  I have to either consolidate something or get rid of a large volume.  Nothing really comes to mind that can help me with this.  I do have some ideas.  When you are dealing with a small space, you have to get real creative with managing space.  And no the answer is not digitizing as much as possible, since that takes too long.  I might need to do some research into this problem.

For the most part, I’ve dealt with my lack of time problem.  I make time and tunnel out chunks of free time when I can.  But making space eludes me at the moment.

UPDATE: I read up some interesting ideas for saving space.  Need to get rid of stuff especially out of date things, unused clothes, and old pointless notes.  Also I need to see if I can convert objects into money, as that will help motivate me to cut deeper.  Hmm… this is gonna take some time and effort.

The Day After

Posted on by

Today marks the first day of my 26th year of existence.  So far I feel quite pleased.  I have some progress in my various goals.  I go out more often.  I talk to more people.  I have found a few girls who have taken some sort of an interest in me.  Life goes on without missing a beat.  In my mind, my writing is shaping up nicely.  Programming is left to the side, for now.  But I plan on working on that fairly soon.  Getting a license and a car is within my reach.  For once I can see myself living an ordinary independent adult life.  For various reasons I’m doing anything crazy like moving out.  Or spending vast amounts of money, or doing silly things in general.  My time management, project management and organizational skills are far better than they were a year ago.  And most importantly, I still see a glimmer of hope of my eeking out a prosperous existence on this rock.  My situation is not the simplest or the easiest, butI still I have room for maneuvering.  All in all, the day after and the coming days looking promising.

26th Time Around the Sun

Posted on by

I made it!  I made it around the sun for the 26th time.  Quite amazing that I made it in one piece too, considering how fast the Earth travels around the Sun.  Hopefully, I’ll repeat the same feat next year.

Caroline asked as we walked on the Toronto Island on Saturday, how do I feel about being one year older.  I went into a long winded philosophical debate with myself.  And then I shortened it down to: I don’t feel differently than I was a year before.  I gained some more experience.  I feel that I’ll better handle the future thanks to said knowledge.  And I’m fairly happy with where I am in life.  It could be better, but I can’t complain.  Still I look around me, and can’t help but feel a tinge of anxiety.  Many of my friends have moved on to the next stage in their life.  And I’m just drifting along, occasionally kicking forward frantically without much success.  And the inertia worries me, because one doesn’t grow if one is not moving forward.  But again I’m not in a bad position or place.  So I have mixed feelings about my reaching 26 years of age.

I did enjoy my weekend though.  I saw my brother succeed in Air Cadets.  I walked around the gorgeous Toronto Islands with my friend Caroline.  I got to play a wargame with my coworker Shehan and his wife yesterday.  I didn’t conqueror the Polynesian Islands as I planned to, and the game dragged on.  But I enjoyed myself throughly.

So what do I want to do before I hit 27?  I guess more of the same.  Get closer to achieving my long term goals.  Work on being a better person.  And experience in the world more.  This next year should be fun.

Upgraded to WordPress 2.8

Posted on by

1

I am continually amazed by the ease of working with WordPress.  Not only do the themes and plugins just work, so does everything else.  I upgraded my WordPress install to the latest and greatest 2.8 .  Simple, clean and issue-less upgrade.  This is how technology should work.  Get out of the way and perform the tasks the user needs to do.  And perform the tasks quickly, efficiently and perfectly everytime all the time.

In addition to that, I can proudly say that less than 20% of the older blog entries remain “Uncategorized”.  I plan on tagging, categorizing and editing the remaining entries.  With any luck, I have this blog configured perfectly before my upcoming birthday.  Hurrah!