Monthly Archives: December 2008

Ideas and Sorts

So Long 2008

As the country starts in the festivities to lay to rest this past year, many people come up with lists, a la “10 Best Somethings of 2008”. Sometimes the lists even expand to 25. And if you are VH1 and MTV, with little to no viewership and the most horrible shows on earth (BTW, I thought MTV and VH1 were supposed to show music videos, novel concept for a couple of stations name Music Television and Video Hits 1), then your lists go to 100 and there is pointless commentary along with each number.

However, this is not the way I wanted to end 2008, with a list of something. I could list off many things:
10 biggest mistakes in 2008
10 best code tips of 2008
10 best sites of 2008
10 worst stories of 2008

Or I could just say that this past year has been a great learning experience for me. From all the things that have troubled me this past year, to the successes, not-so much successes, illnesses, code projects completed, and what not. Just like my last post, there is always something to learn. This past year was a great year to learn many lessons. Some lessons I hope to never go through again, as the learning part was very painful and unpleasant.

But now as the new year is coming along, many people will make promises to themselves they will promptly break. My only real New Years resolution is to take down this Christmas Tree in my house. I do that, and this next year will be a success.

There are a few different code projects I am looking to complete this year. I also want to go back to school and learn some more. I want to get better at all aspects of the languages I use, better at security and performance to anticipate threats coming in 2009, and as DSL/Cable speeds up in America (about time freakin A) tune the applications to perform better and not lose functionality. I want to also learn Russian. I know a little, but I would really love to be able to write and speak it fluently. Maybe even Spanish and French as well. I also want to learn to play the piano. I know how to read music, now I ought to put that to use.

And I can never forget my kids. I love them so much. I am really glad I am able to be around them, and I want to be able to help them out, play football with them, and just be the best dad I can be.

So, thank you for all the memories 2008. Thank you for all the lessons as well. Hopefully 2009 comes in with success and prosperity for all.

Ideas and Sorts

Never Pass up the Opportunity to Learn

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Just a quick post, as this is now December and I have not posted for almost a month. But this is another simple, and easy, and sometimes forgotten idea among the web programming world. Never pass up the opportunity to learn something new. I know this sounds really easy, and possibly even like a “duh” comment. But there are so many times I come across people from all areas of life, and all areas of business who think that they have nothing new to learn. When they encounter something they have not done before, or something that is done different than the way they did it, then it is wrong, and it is not right, and it is not correct, that it needs to be scrapped and how much they could do it better. Now while this may sometimes may be the case, it usually is not.

Just because something is different, or there is a requirement to do something in a different way, then it does not mean it is wrong, it is just an opportunity to learn. On Twitter, I started to follow PHP Advent. There are many ideas presented in this that provide a great perspective. Some I would not have tried, just because I would not have thought of that approach. But I would not dismiss them just because of that. There is always something new to learn. Never “poo-poo” anything just because you are not familiar with it.

OK, soapbox post is complete.