thoughts to blog

It took almost a month… but a Mii finally showed up in my Mii Parade…

funny

Nothing exciting to report… went out dancing, got my holiday shopping done (which my family will absolutely love my gifts!), and just chilled.

I’ve been trying to find ways to get away from my laptop as much as I can… as well as limiting my video game playing time. But due to cold weather… the only other things that are entertaining for me are watching TV and reading… :: shrugs ::

I’ll be heading down to Iowa on Friday (22nd)… so if you live down in the Burlington area… and I actually like you, let’s go belly up and get a drink or four! I can’t wait to see Jackie and Anne… yeah, that was random, but I’m really excited.

And maybe I’ll have time to pump out some real code… and actually release something. There I go again, talking about being on my laptop and writing code… yikes.

With all of the super sweet Halo 3 stuff floating around…

the Finish the Fight track from the trailers is now available on iTunes.

Check it

Yeah son…

I have a headache trying to figure this out…

We’ve all seen lots of movies/shows in our short lives… and we always have our favorites when we were young.

Most people don’t believe me, but there was a short cartoon… Bananaman, that was my favorite little toon right before dinner. To this day, nobody believes me… or with the the proof, has seen it. Think of it as super hero Popeye who eats bananas.

At any rate, what’s giving me a headache is those animated Dr. Seuess (type) shows that I used to watch as a kid. I’m trying to recall certain shows… and I’m having trouble

Of course there’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas… and The Cat in the Hat. And the politically charged, The Lorax…

But there were possibly two others that I really want to figure out… I’ll describe things I saw in each… and hopefully we can figure it out together.

The one that I remember most prominently is a animation located in Whoville (IIRC)… and there was a guy in the mountains who could forecast the weather… he ends up forecasting large amounts of wind… The people stayed inside. Lots of songs and stuff. They boarded up the town due to the weather. And a little girl gets lost…

The second one could possibly be the same movie as the first… but all I remember is a scary section of animation where there are LARGE animals and tube like creatures… more like a nightmare. Traveling to other parts of a nightmare landscape getting scared by all kinds of random monsters.

Does this shit sound familiar to you? When I told people about banana man, they all thought I was crazy. Yes… I did have a very strange, perverse imagination as a child, some say I still have it…

:: shrugs ::

UPDATE

The Lorax on Google Video

I have a problem… I write code too much.

It’s a common problem amongst passionate software developers who don’t have a wife, kids, or any major responsibilities outside of driving to work and paying bills and drinking.

Another problem I have is… I tend to write code and NEVER finish the idea/project.

I literally have dozens of ideas/projects that have starts… sitting on my hard drive, that I have no intention of finishing… mostly because of UI problems. I can’t do graphics for the life of me… and my HTML/CSS/Color skills are adequate for wire-framing, but not for actual design.

Sad thing is, I have one project… in which Hods did a fantastic UI for… but I don’t have data… Code is there, UI is there, it’s just a matter of data.

What I need is someone who is just like this, but on the design/creative side of things. Someone who’s quality of creative work comparable to the code I write… Someone who has spare time and likes shaping their skills and doing digital artwork but not writing code or worrying about implementation.

Anyone out there? Is this mic on?

The one sad thing is, there won’t be any financial rewards. I write code all day long…with no financial gain… so what/who benefits? Me: I’m a better developer and my knowledge/skills gain every day… Work: I’m more efficient. I save money for clients/work. Life: Chick’s dig guys with computer hacking skills…

Anyone else have this problem? How have you solved it? Any tips on just completing things?

(p.s. Does this sound familiar? I’ve probably blogged about this 10 times)

Here at space150, we have a lot of talent… and for this year’s Holiday Greeting Card, we thought we’d show the world our more interesting talents… check out the space150 Holiday Talent Cage Match!

Choose the winners! Anyone can vote!

Go check it out now!

Since I’m on this 3 post spree of media-less posts… I might as well add a fourth.

Farhan from the Twin Cities .Net User Group and Doug from the Chippewa Valley .Net User Group are both looking aggressively for speakers!

Here’s your chance to share your passion… and in all seriousness, these groups allow you the opportunity to showcase your skills… and get to know people in the area that share your interests.

Go to their sites and email Farhan and Doug… tell them that Jake Good sent you! =)

Cause last night… my long lost friend, who just returned from her tour in Iraq… called me from Texas to let me know she’s ok and back in the states!

Just a little background. I’ve known this girl for nearly 10 years… and she’s one of the many loves of my life :) The last time I had seen her was the day before she left for bootcamp (4 years ago) at lunch. It sucked to say goodbye but I’m so incredibly happy that she called.

I’m extremely anxious to go home for Christmas… cause she’ll be there! I’m excited to see her.

Yeah, I’m getting a little giddy… but when you haven’t seen someone in 4 years that you were really close to, due to circumstances beyond your control, you tend to have a large smile on your face.

I can’t wait!

Last night’s presentation went very well! The Chippeqa Valley .Net User Group really knows how to throw down a party! :)

Naw… actually it was a really great group of 12 people or so. They let me ramble on about WPF for over an hour, only to have a few more people to ask me to ramble about Ruby on Rails for almost another hour! Plus it was at Green Mill where there was pizza and beer to boot!

I like this group a lot more than the Twin Cities .Net User Group because of it’s size and attentiveness. I could actually make eye contact with the people and actually feel like they were listening to me.

As far as the presentation goes… my talk was WAY better than what I gave at the Twin Cities .Net User Group and the Twin Cities Code Camp… but once again, my demos failed me. This time my stupid Vista virtual machine wouldn’t boot… so I had no real time demos. But they still loved it! Then the talk on Ruby on Rails to a bunch of .Net guys went over well… they were all in amazement. Yessss… more potential converts! :)

Yeah… so I had to drive 80+ miles over to Eau Claire, WI… but in return they gave me a license of MindJet MindManager… how freakin’ sweet is that? It’s a neat brainstorming , idea capturing utility. When I was at the Twin Cities Code Camp, I won a copy of CodeSmith Professional as well… man, I speak/attend these user groups and I get showered with free licenses!

Everything went well… and I suggest that some of us Twin Cities developers head out there for a really good time.

A long time ago I got interviewed (while I was still with my previous company) about AJAX and Web 2.0…

More seriously, Jacob Good, a senior consultant for software 
developer Inetium, noted, "Ajax also gives the user a more familiar 
experience as the interfaces to [the] Web have typically been static 
and not as interactive."

The article finally got published. I’m big in Australia.

I taught my room mate how to play swing on the saxophone.