My Learning Log

Category: Uncategorized

  • learning

    I am trying to learn JPA.Reading Hibernate in Action is an overkill on JPA. I feel it’s focusing too muchon Hibernate and not enough on JPA. Plus, I want to first learn JPA, which is astandard. And if I can use that without Hibernate, I think that it is lessconfusing.
     
    JPA is gaining momentum. It’sEntity Beans done right, in my opinion. I should really learn it. By really, Imean I have to try it out. I have to write a couple of projects from scratch.That’s the only way I am going to remember it and actually get it. It’s whatprograming is. It’s the excitement in programming.
     
    That’s how I want to learn newlanguages, new technologies. I shall try to read a little, and then practice. Agood way to learn new stuff.
     
    One other technology I want tolearn is JavaScript OO. I still struggle in that regard. I got a good book byResig. I shall see if I can master the technology by reading it at work. Itlooks like a good book. It’s harder because it’s in PDF, but on the other hand,it’s easier to read in this group.

  • wife

    How many children do I want? Ithink I only want to have two. I love children. I really do. I love my son so somuch. He gives me a great joy and has given me a different meaning to my life.He has filled many voids in my life. And he is making me more sociable. It’sabout him when I’m with him, not only about me.
     
    But I learning that Karolinaand Piotrek want to have five kids. Are you kidding me? No. Their fourth is onthe way. And they’re not done.
     
    With a move to Poland, I’m notsure it’s a smart move. I guess it is. They love their kids and if they want tohave more, why not?
     
    Why only two for me? My wifeand I still have issues. I am not sure we’re be together forever. If things doimprove I doubt it. Our son is keeping us together, but when she gets angry, allbets are off. She can destroy everything. Plus, I can take it up to a certainpoint. I don’t want to be with somebody else just because I am married. It doesnot work that way for me.
     
    So if we have more kids, itwill just complicate things. I don’t want to harm them. I want to stay as acouple at least till they’re grown up.
     
    But I’m hoping things will turnup for the best and we’ll be a happy family. Then I’ll consider three kids.:-)

  • staying here

    The market is really bad. Itlooks like everyone is firing now, but over the past couple of weeks I’vereceived at least 3-5 inquiries about my availability. It looks like thingsmight not be dead after all. I got one today. It’s for a Senior Software Eng andthey offer 110-140K. Sounds really interesting. I don’t know too many detailsbut it does sound interesting. One thing that I am missing here at NBC is a truesoftware engineering environment. I’m doing more web development than I’d like.But I do get jquery and javascript experience, which isgreat.
     
    But my standard reply to theserecruiters is that I’m not looking at this time. I still like it here at NBC. Ihave gotten comfortable in this environment and I’m not in a position that I amreally bored. This is a company that has a good diverse, co-ed environment. Plusthe social life here is better than I’ve had anywhere. Actually, this is thebest I’ve had so far. The technical skills I have to work on. But I have thingsI’d like to improve upon. Better Javascript skills is one. Still better jqueryskills is another. CSS skills is another.
     
    Communication skills is thebiggest thing here. I feel that I need to improve a great deal there. I amhaving a hard time thinking on the spot. It’s almost impossible for me. I wonderwhy…  I also have issues in Toastmasters in that regard. But I’m gettingbetter and that’s the hope for me.

  • stuff

    I love it when I have stuff towork on. I am on a new project now, and things are really interesting. It’smostly a front-end project, but I know I will have a lot of input on it. I willadd a lot of my skills to it. I think I’m going to be a big contributor. Theyadded an extra guy to help, but I’m not sure if that’s reallyneeded.
     
    I took my son to the circus onSunday. It was great. He was so into it. He loved watching the animals. When theperformers got on stage, he was asking about the animals. He’s only two and ahalf but he understand a lot. He can count to 10+ now. He almost knows severalcolors. And he know to count in Polish as well. All in all, he’s developing veryfast and becoming a smart boy. My boy! I love him so much.
     
    I got to find a way to post tomy blog more regularly. I have to try to either do something every day, or comeup with a routine to get at least one post per week. Not sure how exactly dothat, but perhaps add it to My Morning Coffee on a day or two? Sound like a goodidea. I’ll try that.

  • new space

    We moved again! I think this isactually pretty good space. Space wise, we don’t have as much space as before.But after all, this is 30 rock. It is a premium space.
     
    It’s a bit loud, I think. But alot more social. We can easily see each other, talk to each other, and gatherquickly. That’s the big benefit of this space. It’s social.
     
    It has its downsides, ofcourse. To get work done, I have to put my headphones on. Otherwise, it’s justtoo distracting.
     
    Just a step outside, we haveice skating. Rockefeller center is cool, no doubt aboutthat.

  • goals

    We are moving tomorrow. Again.I think it should be exciting. We’re moving to the Rockefeller Center, which isa premium space in NY. I think it should be interesting. The space around itdefinitely is. I hear the space for each of us is kind of small, but itshouldn’t be that bad, I think.
     
    Am I folllowing my goals? Ithink at work, I am doing as best I can. I am trying to be a plorific worker asmuch as I can. I love challenges. I am working hard on the projects I’m on. Fromthe point of view of the current job, I think we have plenty to do. Things arelooking much better than before. Things are happening at work. I have to giveall I can and if the time comes along, I will take as it comes. I should alwaysbe ready for the next job. And that’s why I have to be on the edge. I have tostudy. I have to practice. I have to keep my dev skills sharp. That’s how I willdistinguish myself from the others. That’s who I am.
     
    Toastmasters. I think withSpeak and Lead, there is almost no hope. We’re struggling. Deepak wants to meet.I really don’t think it makes sense. I should find a club near work. It’ll helpme.

  • social interaction

    Interacting with other bloggersis fun. I think I need to do that more. I got contacted by a blogger girl acouple of weeks ago and now I seem to like the way she writes. I commented onher recent blog entries and of course, she replied back.
     
    It’s interesting not knowingthe person on the other side. I think she a 30+ girl. I don’t know whether sheis single or not. It does not look like it. I do wonder is she is good looking.Who knows. Who cares really. All I’m really looking for is being intellectuallystimulated. Intellectually challenged. I need to find friends like that. I needto connect with them, meet with them. That’s where I would like to meet. That’swhom I would like to talk. It’s too bad I’m not that social. But I will look.And one day I will find a nice couple or two for goodinteraction.

  • investing

    The economy will recover. Thestock market will recover sooner than we think. In times like these, the toughpeople invest. The stock market just reached a 12-year low yesterday. It’sscary. I was somewhat prepared to what we see now. I have started diversifying awhile ago. I expected things to get worse. I expected that stocks might take abeating. But I did not expect anything like what we’re seeing now. In any case,I hesitated. What should I do with the money? Right. That’s how I made themistake. I held on to stocks that do not do well. For instance, LTM. This stockis very volitale. I should have realized my gains and run for cover. Same withJOYG. Once a stock reaches an all-time high or recovers quite a bit, I shouldsell it. I need to develop that type of discipline. Same things with Amazon. Ireally like the stock. It has a huge potential. It was fairly low recently. Iwas thinking about buying. So I waited. They release very good earnings and thestock exploded from $50 to over $60. Too bad.
     
    Simplicity. That’s the name ofthe game for me from now on. I want to own stocks that I want to invest over andover again. I want to own stocks that I know and love. That’s how I can become asmart investor.

  • economy

    The economy is really divingoff right now. The stock market just reached 1997 levels. Are you kidding me?!Yes, we just seen this decade’s gains erased. Unbelievable. Really. But I sawthis coming in some way. I knew this cannot continue for too long. Houses weregoing up like crazy. People that were not qualified were buying. Banks werecareless. Left and right. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Andthat was the case with housing. House prices just went up too high, too soon.They’re on the downside as well. In NJ, things are not affordable yet. Houseprices have only come down a bit. Maybe 10% but not much more. There is another10 to 30 percent more to go. That’s what I think. I would like to buy somethingin 2009, but the way things are looking, and with the job situation not thatstable, though I’m not sure how much more stable it has be, I don’t want tocommit myself. to something I will have to spend a lot on. It just does not makesense to me. I am under a bit of pressure from my wife, but will wait it out atleast for another 6 months or so. If the economic situation improves, housingwill follow. But economy has to recover first.

  • learning track

    I am slowly getting back to a “learning fast track.” In this stage, I spend a lot of time at work, and also at home, learning. By learning I mean digging into the technology by reading and actually writing code.

    One such technology is Java Persistence (JPA). I would like to learn it. I have projects that might want to utilize it, and also learning it because I think it’s a pretty good technology, perhaps better than Hibernate. It’s on my to learn list for 2009.

    I am also cleaning up the house a little bit. I would like to store complete, workable projects in my SVN. And I mean projects that I can build in one click, and projects that work. I’m utilizing maven for that and it’s been working great. I am also building my own maven repo. It’s helping me a great deal as well.