Author: SK

Developing in Java is fun. But it’s also challenging. There are more options. More room for failure. I am finding that now. Things are not always working as expected. But it’s fun. And I’m learning. And that’s the bottom line.

Yesterday we had the BOE elections in Garfield. I voted a big NO for the school budget. 8% increase in the budget. That’s crazy. In this year of cutting, Garfield is adding 8%. For what? I hope they bring it down to 4% or less. Or I’m going to vote No again. Garfield needs to be accountable. They need to make some serious cuts. Public sector needs to share some pain. That’s the bottom line. A public sector in Garfield cannot continue adding more cost. People don’t want to pay so much for property taxes.

My wife is preparing things for our party. She’s great at preparing for parties. She takes care of everything. Plus, she always wants to do it the best way. Not always the cheapest. That’s one area I think she could improve. But money mgtm is not her forte. It’s mine. 🙂

I am now starting to write a journal entry earlier. So that helps me write for a little longer. Before, I started at 6pm or even after. I only had a few mins to write. I would like to spend at least 10 mins every day. It seems to be a good way to evaluate the day. It’s greeat to put some thoughts on paper.

It’s only 7mins now and I have written so much already! It’s just telling me that I really have not been wriing enough before. And I’m stretching myself now.

We have a Toastmasters meeting tomorrow. We are at a critical point again. A few of our members left. Bob and Hadi left. But I would still like to continue. During our conference call on Monday, we have made some changes to the meeting. I think that’s going to make it more exciting. It’s going to make it more challenging. But that’s a good thing. When I think that I might have to give impromptu speech tomorrow, I’m challenged. But that’s a good thing. Otherwise, I don’t think I have grown enough. I like being the President. But it’s not easy.

Another round of big changes at our company. Our boss is leaving! That’s big. As a result, 2 new leaders were promoted. That’s good how quickly he was able to promote new people. This is how Jack Walsch does things and how he recommends to move quickly in this situation. I like our leader. Greg is a good guy. I think what happened is that Brian did not like to report to anybody. He wanted more autonomy and I think that’s what led him to this decision.

How will things change going forward? It remains to be seen. I hope the changes are for the better. I hope the leader will bring new views and that their vision is a good one. We’ll see.

I have recently reverted to waking up at 6am and I don’t like it. I don’t have enough time. I am not reading enough because there is just not enough time. I am going to adjust the clock to 5:30 and my deadline to go to sleep by 10. It’s more reasonable I think. I just need a bit more time for personal development.

I bought a Kindle yesterday! Yeah! I think once I get it, I will love it. It’s a great device for voracius readers, which I consider myself as being.  Then only negative is that I have to wait a few weeks until I receive it. Not a big deal, but sucks. I got a reward of $250 over the weekend and that has made the situation possible. Money is tight lately because we have a lot of parties. But things should improve soon. Let’s hope. 🙂

My son Victor started smiling more and more. I don’t think it’s his born reaction. I think he is actually smiling. He’s not making any smiling sounds when he does smile, but it’s so nice to see it on his face. He is a happy baby. I love it.

I need to introduce more talking in our family. We need to talk at the table. I need to talk to my sons when I put them to sleep. I need to talk to my wife. I need to encourage my wife to talk to my sons. That’s how they develop. This is an excellent tip from reading Raising Lifelong Learners, which I’m reading now.

I got a new blackberry today! It’s really nice. I got a camera, and video recording built in! That’s really nice. I love it. Plus, the memory is expanded so I got around 100mb free memory. Awesome. That’s one very nice benefit I get from working at NBC. See. Good thing I never left! 🙂 We’ll see in a few months.

But I’m learning. I am learning mostly on my own. One the train to work, I get 40-50 minutes of reading time. Before, I used to spend the time reading news. I now read dev material in the morning. That’s great. I love it.  I do something similar when I get home. When I feel that I have enough energy and don’t have a headache, I try to read dev material. It’s really helping. I get additional hour or so. All in all, I get 1-2 hours of time that I can spend to improve my technical skills. This is the time I can use to better myself. Can’t go wrong with that!

My son Fabian is shy. I sense that. He’s not very talkative. I need to work with him. I need to break the shyness. It’s going to be a long, almost lifelong process. But I have to do that with him. That’s how he’s going to develop to get better.

One of the great books I”m reading now, How to develop Lifelong Learners. The author suggests talking as the key to kids development. Whenever I get a chance, I should talk to my son. Get him interested in other kids. Get him talking to me. This is something that I also think is very important. I need to incorporate that into our life.

I am definetely enjoying my dev time at nbc now. Developing in Java is so interesting. I love it. It’s not the same as developing in Velocity. I love making improvements. It’s just who I am. When I make things happen, time flies, things keep moving. That’s the way to go! Definitely. I love it.

I downloaded a few extensions for Chrome lately. One of them is Simple REST Client. I love how simple it is to test REST services. And since my current project is to develop REST services, this comes in very handy. I posted a question on FB about Chrome stats but no comments. However, when I posted a question about Taxes, I got 10 comments. I think that’s the most I have ever got. Lesson? Good to pose simple, practical questions. People like to contribute info that they know.

I am feeling better and better with my decision to stay at NBC. Sure, I’m taking some risk. Sure, it’s going to make it harder for me to change jobs. Why? Because my base is pretty high right now. But, on the other hand, there are some positives. Like what? Like I might be able to beat my longest tenure of 2.5 years. Like working on a new services project. Like being able to prepare for google. These are some of the things that I would not have at the new place. Plus, there is still a potential that the new positiion will be ther.

I am somewhat lost. I have been thinking a lot about my situation over the weekend. Friday and Saturday, I wanted to go to Media6. I was about to make contact with Jesus. I wanted to ask him whether the offer is still active. But on Sunday, I started to doubt this logic. One more thing came to my mind. Should I wait and prepare myself for Google? I am not sure what really happened but my thinking sort of shifted towards “I should stay.” We’ll see if it continues. I don’t know. I really don’t. Will this change? I don’t know. If I change my mind, I think I only have a few days left to really decide.

There was a terrible tragedy that happened over the weekend for Poland. Really terrible. I cannot believe that Polish president is dead. I really cannot believe it.

NBC
 + it’s NBC
 + erasing my short tenure label
 + I know it already
 – not learning much
 – average people
 – pipeline not looking too strong
 – feeling some politics

Media6
 + dynamic place
 + pipeline seems good
 + a java shop
 + good culture
 – not enough privacy
 – not everyone is excellent

I am starting to feel better today. It’s still fresh in my mind. The question is still there. Should I have gone to the new company? Did I make the right decision. I will not know for sure. Ever. But I’m feeling more comfortable today than I felt yesterday. Much better. I think I will recover. Plus, I’m doing the things that I like.

I decided to stay at NBC. I was feeling like this yesterday. Not today. Today, I’ve been wondering more of “what it would have been like.” Should I change my decision? This is difficult. I don’t really know for sure if I made the right decision. We’ll see. I do think that I should stay here for a little longer. But I’m second guessing myself. I hope things will improve in the next few days. If not, I should consider just contacting Media6 and just go. If they still would want me.