ucantblamem

Last Friday I had a well overdue 12 month review at work, which really made me sit and reflect over the past year. As planned I have dedicated this time to really propelling my career, which I think was maybe a bit obsessive, but at least a little successful. One thing that really came out of the review process was that it’s high time I balanced out my focus and my life for that matter.

Retired reflection

So, I left the “city on a hillâ€?, at the end of 2005 for the big smoke, with only the hope of crackin the big-time. To my (pleasant) surprise I landed a job the same day we moved in and I set about rapidly learning the in’s and out’s of an established web-development firm. I’ve read umpteen billion books and read more RSS feeds than there are neurons in my head. I have been very blessed to make a meaningful contribution to the team and SM2 seem to be quite happy with my work.

The down-side of all this is that I’m still living at home, still without a set of wheels (of my own) and I’m a lot less social than I used to be. It’s such a contrast to 2005, when there was rarely a night to myself, from all the various goings on. I have met some pretty cool people here and I think I’m finally starting to settle into a church, so there are more good times ahead I’m sure. But, certainly there’s some work to do in unwinding the side-effects of my over-studious behaviour.

The music has really suffered this year… Big time! My poor Fender, which I sold everything bar my left arm to buy, is slowly rusting away under the bed and I’ve recently come to realise that I can’t pick the harmonies like I used to… :S

Ironically, I have bought a tonne of music this year; I’m expecting a frequent buyers card from iTunes any day now. Mostly scouted from Purevolume, I’ve tracked down some really great stuff and it’s kept me well isolated from the boring sound of clacking keys.

Sitting down for 8 hours a day has a certain effect on the human body, coupled with an un-pretty diet and a lack of regular exercise, I have put on a few pounds in all the wrong places. A few times over the last year I’ve scared myself and made swift changes to curb the corpulence, but this is proving to be one tough foe. I’ve been slowly learning how to count the calories (not literally), make more time for exercise and I’m hoping that freeing up more time will allow me to get out and use that expensive mountain bike I bought 2 years ago.

All in all, I have accomplished the major goals I set out to achieve and certainly I count 06/07 as a success. The reflection and introspection that I’ve done over the last couple of months has pointed out a number of new areas I want to work on and I really should put a new set of goals in place. (more…)

A few years ago some of the members of my old bands’ forum got into an in-depth discussion, which quickly escalated to an argument and finally a mud-slinging match over the age-old Armenian VS Calvinist debate.

It was pretty sad to be involved with, watching a bunch of men and women, united under Christ, flaming each other over a 500 year old debate. As a side-note, I should mention that I found it quite interesting that when all the cards were laid down, it turned to personal attacks. However, that’s not really the point I want to make today.

The reason I bring all that up again, God forbid, is because I find it a perplexing parallel to the “OS Warsâ€? that have been raging on over the last couple of years. You don’t have to search too far to find an argument between Linux and Mac users (particularly) over who’s OS (of choice) is better. (more…)

Today our designer at work put together a really beautiful looking mockup for one of our clients. It was just one of those simple, sophisticated; “Yum” designs that you wish you’d done yourself… Jokingly, as I was walking out the door, I asked if he would design something like that for my blog. In reply (and also in jest) he said that for $2500; SURE! I laughed and went off to lunch.

The point of the story though, is this: I laughed because I would never pay $2500 for a website design.

It was quite a shocking realisation, considering that building websites is what pays my bills. But, the obvious truth is that I wouldn’t pay, because I could just as easily whip up a design myself. Perhaps not on par with Marks’ work, but a design none-the-less.

Regardless of the reasoning, I still wouldn’t pay; yet that is exactly what I would expect of a client.

Hehehe… I know that’s a little random, but I thought it deserved a blog-post. Gotta love a good paradox once in a while. ;-)