This Is My Day Today
Books, Personal, Programming, Work September 29th, 2009
I’m going to try and write the most boring post ever.
I woke up a bit late this morning.
I skip the shower.
I brush my teeth and wash my face.
I change and head outside.
It’s cold outside. It feels like winter is upon us.
I go to Potbelly’s for my morning bagel. They are out of bagels. I leave and go upstairs to work.
In my cubicle, I work on completing my project.
I chat with some friends in between. I miss them.
I almost miss lunch again. I get Potbelly’s. I eat my sandwich and read my book. I go back to work.
My project is finished. I work on the next one. It involves Ruby. It was a bit of a brain buster. I figure out a vital function. I leave the rest for tomorrow.
I leave and head out to the bus stop on Dearborn and Jackson.
I take the bus north to the Newberry Library. The author of The Time Traveler’s Wife is doing a reading from her new book, Her Fearful Symmetry.
I get in line with my copy of her new book. The lady in front of me has one copy. She wants to get another copy. She asks me to save her spot. I do. She leaves and gets another copy. She comes back.
She soon changes her mind and wants a third copy. She asks me to save her spot. She leaves and gets another copy. She comes back.
I pay for the book. I find a seat in the room. I’m early, so I read The Time Traveler’s Wife some more.
Audrey Niffenegger soon comes. She reads the first chapter. SPOILER: The main character dies in the first chapter.
She does a Q & A. One question is if she follows a writing regiment like Stephen King. Her answer, “Stephen King is a real writer.” LOL. I want to ask her a question, “Was there anything you cut out or rewrote in Time Traveler’s Wife?” I’m not sure if it’s polite to ask such a question, so I don’t ask it.
Another question is what’s her favorite book. She makes a ‘book club recommendation:’ Was by Geoff Ryman. I like anything Oz related, so I wrote it down to add to my list.
Afterwards, I get my copy of Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Tearful Symmetry signed by Ms. Niffenegger. I’m all giddy cuz I get easily starstruck.
I take the bus back home.
I make pizza on naan bread. It is yummy.
Then I write a new blog post. It goes like this…
Tags: Audrey Niffenegger, Programming, Ruby, The Time Traveler's Wife
Doing What I Like
Computer, Work September 24th, 2009
I guess I can talk a little bit about my job.
When people ask me, “What do you do?” I usually respond, “I’m a producer for a website.” It’s basically a site for visitors to search for a home or property to buy. As a producer, I help a lot more with the front end stuff, working with HTML and CSS. Lately, I’ve gotten some extra projects that involve javascript and ruby, which has been a blast to work with. I do some basic coding and not any major programming, but I’ve been really happy working there. This is stuff that I usually did in my spare time during college and my last few jobs. I’m kind of psyched that all that work and learning I put in on my own time has finally paid off. And this job offers me new stuff to learn as well as the opportunity to sharpen my skills.
So yeah, I love coming to work. The people here are awesome. The environment is pretty lax; I love wearing jeans to work. Currently, I have a 10 minute walk to and from work, but that’ll change once I move to my own place. Work may be farther from my new place, but I think I’ll love the area that I’m moving to. And I’ve also grown to love working on an actual ‘product.’ This is a site that millions of users utilize, and it feels great to know that I’m putting something into that. It almost feels like something I’m a part of helping to create. If I could, I would work on websites as my career… Google, I’m looking at you! 
It’s a great job. The only downside is that it’s a contract job. They’ve extended it, which was really awesome. But I would really like to be there full time with benefits. However, I’ve been getting more and more projects that are a bit outside of the scope of the original role they intended. So hopefully working on these projects will show them how much value I can add to the team. Keepin’ those fingers crossed. 
Tags: CSS, HTML, Javascript, RoR, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Web Design, web development, Work
Some Progress
Blog, Internet, Programming, Site Update, TV November 20th, 2008
I’ve been working on the sites the past half year and I’ve finally decided to roll them out into the wild. I chose to make battlerobo.com my one blog; it was just annoying to have different sites to decide where to post. At first this site was going to be more personal with jasonaniceto.com being more professional and job-search friendly. I think I can accomplish both on this site. Anything that’s way too personal I’ll just password protect. The private, members-only security has been removed, too. All that plus a new layout!
Ionburn had been dormant for a long time, but I had been working on it for a while. It’s now updated. When you first go, it may look the same, but hang around for a minute and then you should notice something. There were more features than what’s there now, but I’m still working the bugs out. I made that one from scratch so I hope you like it.
JayNCoke got a total makeover as well. I made that one myself; and I’m really proud of it. I really want the site to be a sort of online portfolio more than a blog. I had to incorporate some nifty javascript fade effects as well as some full-on AJAX navigation. Also on the home page I created a sort of “lifestream” to pull my various web activity and put it in one place. There are several sites that do this to varying degrees, but I thought it’d be a cool project to do on my own.
So that’s it for now. Like I said before, I got some posts in the works as well. Hopefully I can keep my promise and update regularly now. If not, someone please remind me with a nice kick-in-the-butt.
Tags: Javascript, lifestream, Web Design
Computer Techs
Computer February 1st, 2008
As the computer savvy person in the family, I’ve often been drafted to help solve their computer problems. It’s frustrating sometimes to deal with, but I do my best. I’ve dealt with spyware and virus removal, Internet connectivity issues, and even hardware failures. I’d like to say that I’m an expert, but I still look online for solutions from time to time (mostly for fixes for malware problems).
I just got finished watching this investigative news report: Peeping Techs?. Basically they purposely unplugged a power cord in their computer and took it into several computer repair stores, including those of big chains Circuit City and Best Buy, and see what they would do. A lot of them overcharged like crazy. One even lied about how they fixed the power cord problem, saying they had to replace a “fuse.” Any computer person would catch that lie right away. But the investigative team also installed some monitoring software which basically captures any and all operations done on the computer, recording whatever actions are done. And I wasn’t really that surprised by what I saw: a lot of them went through their personal photos and documents. What an invasion of privacy… Actually, Best Buy had been the subject of this kind of practice a while ago, so I was glad to see that they had stepped up and actually did their job responsibly.
So what do you do when you actually do have a problem with your computer (which I think is probably inevitable)? First, I would suggest you try and get in contact with someone you trust, friend or family, that actually knows about computers. I say this because it’s easier to deal with someone you know than with a stranger. And if you don’t know a lot about computers, hopefully your friend/family member will do you right and solve the problem for you the right way. (And maybe treat him/her to dinner, huh?
If the problem is beyond their capabilities, then I guess take it to a professional technician. I don’t have any good experience with calling tech support. It’s just too frustrating on both ends: neither of you will probably be able to understand each other. So I say, go in person and judge for yourself if that technician is on the up-and-up. There’s all sorts of problems with different solutions, so I can’t really say how long they should hold your computer and whether they did a proper job. That’s when I would say to have your computer-savvy friend handy when you get your precious PC back. Hopefully the technician can explain the problem and their solution clearly enough so that your friend can say they did it properly or just BSing you.
It’s kind of tough. Computer technicians don’t have to be licensed or bonded. They really aren’t held accountable for their actions by law. I want to say stay away from the mom-and-pop stores, because they don’t have to answer to a corporate office… but I’m sure there are some honest ones out there.
Ah… technology. 
Tags: Computers, Tech Support, Troubleshooting
Shake Hands With A Firm Grip and Make Direct Eye Contact
Computer, Programming, UMBC, Work September 25th, 2007
Oh geez, I am exhausted. I am beat. I didn’t think I was going to be this tired afterwards, but damn! It’s been about four hours since I got back and I am still a little sore.
Today was UMBC’s Career Fair. It was brutal, but I think my overall experience was positive. And I only say brutal in that there was a lot to see and do—I didn’t think it was gong to be that intense.
About
