Lifeaholics Anonymous

Its fairly common knowledge that at any time a major earthquake could rock California and cast it off into the Pacific Ocean.  Earthquakes that you actually notice are not a frequent occurrence here however.  It had been a couple years since the last time I recall being in an earthquake.  This passed Wednesday there was a minor quake with an epicenter just a few blocks from where I was and 7 miles down.  I’m going to try to recall the horror that sets in during one of these things.  Many people who visit say they want to feel a quake to know what its like, trust me you do not.

You’re sitting there watching the latest episode of PTI waiting for the new South Park to come on.  Suddenly there is a little noise seemingly coming from the living room walls.  All of the sudden it gets really loud.  You first think that someone is making noise in the condo above you. Then you realize that you’ve never heard any noise from up there before.  What the hell is going on?  Earthquake!  By the time you realize whats going on it is over. They only last a few seconds.  Theres no time to get into a doorway or whatever they tell you.  If that was a major earthquake, I would have gone down with the building. There is really nothing you can do to mitigate damage.   So yes, the first one you live through is pretty cool and you can then say you experienced an earthquake.  But every time after that when the ground starts to shake you have this relentless fear that this could be the big one and wreck your life and everything around it. Not fun at all.  Probably the worst feeling.

I got bored at work so I decided to make my youtube premiere. I like being on camera. Watchout

In analyzing the NCAA march madness, there exist conflicting interpretations on the impact the easy victories of 3 of the 4 top-ranked teams have been winning .  Some think its a sign of how strong those teams are versus the rest of the field and that its a good thing. Contrarily there is going to come a game in the tournament where those three teams are challenged and since  it will be the first time, winning easily in the past may be a bad think.

This title quote comes from Will Rogers.  Life is about dynamics and what we know today may have little bearing on what is to come.  Things can be going very well but if you do not continuously prepare for the future you are going to find yourself somewhere you did not want to be.   You could experience a drastic change in the next 24 hrs, days, months, or years - are you prepared to handle that?  I dont mean just financially, but also physically and emotionally.  Its important to tip the apple cart…to challenge yourself in a controlled way where the fallout is going to be minimal.  That way when you do incur some difficulty in life, you will know how to handle it effectively.

The term ‘on the grind’ would describe whats going on these days. Spring fever is in the air and I caught it heavily.  Working hard from dawn to dusk and getting out on the water before the sunset.  Havent gone out in 2 weeks to party. Just hustlin baby.

Burnout paradise is awesome.  Racing games are all so repetitive but this one has a varied selection of events, locales and cars to race. Plus the crashes are awesome and the stunts are wicked. Ill be playing it pretty heavily (in rotation with Bully) for the next month or so.  Rent a copy and find me on live: Spaceball Won

Rejoice friends! Spring is upon us.  We all made it through another winter. Time to exhale! Here in SoCal we managed to hop right over the springtime and got hit with summer. Not that there is much difference but it was a soothing 80 degrees on the sand in Newport this weekend. I was able to break in the new surfboard and shake off that winter yuckiness.   Wherever you are, I hope you can get out and get active.

What is it about the spring that makes the wheels get churning?  Suddenly everything is in motion at once where last month things were stagnant. Maybe the economy will even rebound?     Personally I have some things bubbling but it would be premature to go into detail yet.  I expect to make some announcements in the coming weeks here though.

Briefly after college I worked at Merrill Lynch.  The pain and anguish was unbearable and I think I quit within 2 months. It was a nightmare because I spent a good 90% of my day doing things a certain way because I was told that I should do them. There was no individuality, no challenge, no use of the old brain, at all.   I do not understand how people can exist like that.  A major factor behind me switching jobs every 9-18 months is the routine of the position wears me down.  If I’m not challenged and evolving, I’m miserable.  Almost any job is going to get stale once the novelty wears off unless it becomes dynamic in nature.  Most programming jobs are static which is why I have elected to get into senior management as quickly as possible to add some variance to what otherwise would inevitably become mundane.

I have been in three companies now which started out small and grew into medium in my time with them.  The same issues that clubbed me over the head at Merrill were invisible in the small stages. Then as the companies grew you can see the change in the culture brought about from brining on new hires with the big company mentality.   Staying late just for the sake of it, lack of creativity in management, more meetings, less risky strategy, these factors are what slow businesses down.   Once they start propogating they are the kindling to the wildfires (which we are all to familiar with in socal)  which bring innovation to a screeching halt in an organization, and where I must bail out.

In this essay Paul Graham talks about the difference between someone who pursues the small company/startup career development path vs that of going in to Google or Yahoo.   Its a great read and clearly illustrates what is missing from the lives of those brilliant programmers once their individuality is stripped and group mentality takes over.

“An obstacle downstream propagates upstream. If you’re not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. And vice versa: when you can do whatever you want, you have more ideas about what to do. So working for yourself makes your brain more powerful in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful.”

“a large organization could only avoid slowing down if they avoided tree structure. And since human nature limits the size of group that can work together, the only way I can imagine for larger groups to avoid tree structure would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to work together the way components of a market economy do”

According to the government, I need to rethink how I spend my money.

I got CREAMED in taxes last year. Making money sucks! You pay it all back to the government, what a sham.  Unless you buy a house that is, then all that interest and RE taxes are deductible.  If you are going to pay that money away to someone, Id rather it go to a bank and my local government than Washington.  By purchasing a condo I am going to save $12,000 on next years tax bill.  Almost all of that is not going into my pocket (and subsequently to the sushi bar), but at least I can see some value being returned for all money that goes through me

“There’s something to be said for…” anything.  If I hear someone say this, it means they have no clue what they are talking about. If there is something to be said, say it. If not then dont say anything.   Last week I heard: “Theres something to be said about staying at a job more than 2 years”.  OK, what?  Someone was sedentary, congrats.  Cal Ripken was mediocre in 2700 games or whatever, whoopdie do.  Dont ever speak that phrase to me.