My Learning Log

Blog

  • Learning and adopting to change

    I am starting to get some freetime at work. Finally. But it’s a bit scary as well. Things are really, reallybad out in the market. I mean it’s brutal. I don’t know if any company isactually hiring now. I don’t think it’s that bad in the IT industry, but it’sjust a bad feeling all around.
     
    With this free time, what am Idoing? I started reading again, which is a good thing. I started working on mypersonal things again. I am migrating this blog to MT 4. It’s a good excercise.But I need to start working on some sort of a project that will keep me engagedand will also make sure that I’m learning. I love to learn. I love to experimentwith new technologies. I also love to read. Sometime non dev related material. Ineed to stay disciplined and not do that.
     
    It’st this time that defines meas a person. It’s the use of the free time to my benefit is what distinguishesme from many other (majority) of developers. It’s my time!

  • Act soon – especially with gains

    I am still learning about investing, but there are some lessons I just have to learn, and learn fast! When I have a hunch, I should act on it! When I feel that stocks are overpriced, or have gone up too quickly, I should make a move. And I should move fast!
    For instance, I know some time ago, a year or so that stocks are overpriced. I should have moved to bonds, sold a lot of overpriced stocks and move into safe heavens lie Walmart, GE, Johnshon, PG, etc. Something safe and something that does not go down that much.
    One other lesson, I saw stocks go up 18% the past week or so. I had some gains, for instance Honda going up 20% or more, Brazil, Mexico and others. I knew things were not going to keep going up. So what did I do? I kept things intact. And where are stocks in the past few days? DOWN!
    Sure, things could have gone up and I would be pissed too, probably. But I had my gains that I needed to make.
    I just have to learn to act sooner, especially on selling the gains. Almost always that meant a good decision.

  • Launched!

    We have finally launched all of our sites! It’s really exciting. The best was the first launch. But today we launched NY! And that is big news! It’s really going to create something special. It’s really an exciting event for our startup. We have reached our milestone. And we’ve done it on time! It’s big. Hopefully now we’ll find things to do. I think it’ll still be exciting. There are things to do, items to complete. We still need to find/improve the user experience on our sites. It’ll come. Our beta site is very cool, IMHO.

  • launch

    Things have been crazy today. It’s one of those days. We had 3 launches today so we had to report at work at 8AM. That means leaving home at around 7AM, still dark. It’s not that bad, but I like it much better when I start at 9. Launches today went fine. Not too much craziness. On Monday, it will be over and things will be PROD only. It’s going to be a big shift in how we work here. But I’m excited!

  • Trouble ahead?

    Things are starting to heat up. And I think they will only get worse! We are getting close to our production launch, and with that, when things break, there’s going to be a lot of pressure to finish things up. We might even have to stay for after hours to finish things.
    I like a bit of pressure. It makes working on things more fun. It make the time fly bye. It’s more exhaustive, but I think I can handle a bit of pressure. Plus hard work is not that bad. I think it will be interesting to see how the company reacts. It will be interesting to see how things are handled. It will be interesting to see how things are handled when there is an emergency. One nice thing ist that our current sites are a big mess.

  • Learning

    I am starting to get some motivation to improve. It’s been hard to really stay focused and motivated. After the vacation in Poland, and even before that, I had lacked a sense of purpose. But I need to get back on track. I need to, because I have to start looking ahead. I have to get ready for my next position, something that I will be striving for. Plus, I need to prepare for the worse. And, I need to be myself! That’s what I want to be doing: constantly improving, constantly learning. This is Stanley Kubasek and I am getting on track. I will work hard to land my next dream job, whether this is going to be in my current position, or outside, I need to be ready. And I know I will.

  • learning

    I am finally getting back to the natural flow of waking up at 5:45AM, reading tech for almost an hour, and then reading non tech. I really need to set this in stone. I still watch some TV in the morning, but it is allowing me to stay focused and not go back to sleep. It’s a risk that I am sometimes tempted to go back to sleep. By turning on the TV, the risk is much less. But ideally, I don’t want to waste any time in the morning. I have to stay awake and do as much learning in the morning as possible.
    I am still not comfortable with telling a story. I get my adrenaline or pressure up there when I talk. I should relax. I should treat talking in a group just as I would be talking to a single person. I think this is key for me. I cannot overpressure myself.
    I am making improvements and I think that’s the most important thing.

  • my ice breaker – again

    I am speaking again today. It’s been a while since I last spoke. It’s not easy. Never easy. Especially when I’m doing it without much preparation. But I cannot bail out. I cannot say that I will not speak. So I was picked, and I will deliver a great speech tonight.
    I am a bit nervous. I think that’s healthy. I think I’m putting a bit too much emphasis. Relax a bit, stas.
    I should feel and act relaxed when I’m speaking. I’ll be soft on voice. I’ll be maintaining great eye contact. I will move when I change a point. I will deliver a great speech. I’ve had a lot of preparation to deliver an ice breaker. Plus, I’ve done it before!

  • time to socialize

    I should really try to find ways to relax more. I should just find some time few times a day and go talk to somebody. I should not care about wasting time. I’m not really doing that. I am helping to get my focus back. I am helping to socialize. And I’m improving my speaking and skills. It’s a win win. It might seem like a waste of time, but I don’t it is.

  • interesting trip with my son

    I was really tired yesterday at around 10PM. So I layed down on a couch… and woke up at 4AM! Not so great. Not that there is something really wrong with that. But when I feel tired, the first thing I should do, even before I do my excercie is do go wash myself and brush my teeth. That way I refresh myself and I can then do the exercice more easily. I have to be more disciplined.
    I went to a store with my son yesterday. He’s lots of fun! He behaved very well. He pushed my cart. He picked up food and put it inside the cart. And then he was happy when I opened cookies for him. But one thing that is really interesting is that he started talking while we were driving. He is really picking things up quickly now. Lots of fun!