May 29th, 2010
I did it. I made the jump. I’m leaving Teehan+Lax.
Let’s just let that sink in.
Still with me? Good. This was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made, but ultimately, the best one for me at this moment. I joined the team at T+L in the fall of 2008, it was a bold move knowing the caliber of work and the amount of really f’n smart people that were behind it. We’re talking, like, really, really smart. I was coming from a place where I was THE front-end developer – the mack shit, if you will – and was quickly knocked off that pedestal when introduced the work of the other developers. Not just the work, but what they were capable of, and what was expected of them. These guys could build anything and everything – and in probably less than an hour.
Humbling? Hell yes.
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Posted in Work | 8 Comments »
April 21st, 2010
A few weeks ago, I met with Grant Van Gameren. This was the first time I had met him, but definitely not the first time I had tasted his tongue. You see, Grant Van Gameren is the co-owner and chef at The Black Hoof, and his Tongue on Brioché is quite easily the best thing I’ve ever eaten.
As much as I wanted to indulge in bone marrow and foie gras, this meeting was strictly business.
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Posted in Development, Work | 3 Comments »
March 27th, 2010
In the spring of 2009, I started a small project to help build my Javascript skills, and you know what? It’s kinda almost sorta completed – but not really. I wanted to make things extremely difficult challenge myself to learn the basics of Javascript, without the help of libraries and thought that creating a slider puzzle would be a great thing to build.
I’ve been fairly eager to share this project with everyone, and had planned on waiting until it was fully complete, but I started thinking that it would be interesting to document the project in stages.
Here’s the first iteration.
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Posted in Development, Javascript | No Comments »
March 15th, 2010
I was recently going through my bookshelves at home, trying to find some books I could sell or donate. After scanning past titles like The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan and Bitter is the New Black, I came across all my old textbooks. It got me thinking about my days in college and all the people I used to look up to when I was a student, people like Molly Holzschlag, Dan Cederholm, Elliot Jay Stocks, Derek Featherstone and Jason Santa Maria. I looked up to these people as mentors and inspiration, hoping that one day I would be just as bad-ass as they were. I remember asking myself on every project “How would Dan build this?” or “Would Molly be satisfied with how my site validated?”. At some point, I became out of touch with these people. I didn’t have enough time to keep up with their blogs. I didn’t read their new books. I lost interest. And during that time, I had somehow become ok with it.
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Posted in Inspiration, Ramble | 2 Comments »
February 25th, 2010
Oh. My.
Just got back from Las Vegas and here are a few things I never want to experience ever again:
1. Spending money – The whole idea of just spending money makes me feel really awkward now, and frankly, I’m tired of it.
2. Buffets – Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.
3. Total disregard for personal health and hygene – After spending a week walking behind obese smokers and sitting down at a restaurant to see someone order 2 main courses followed by 1 litre of soda and dessert, I have the sudden urge to spend the next month at the gym.
4. Complaining – I’ve spent the last week with someone who could not stop complaining about every single thing. In turn, John and I complained about him – in fact, I’m still complaining. Sigh.
5. Addiction – Just because you’re playing a Survivor themed slot machine, does not make it ok to spend all your money in the first day of your trip.
I’m sure I could go on… but it’s my birthday and I’m tired – photos up on Flickr.
Posted in Ramble, travels | 1 Comment »
January 16th, 2010
Looking back on what probably was one of the worst years of my life, I can say with utmost conviction, “Fuck you 2009. Pack your f’n bags, I don’t want to see your face ’round these parts no more. You dirty whore, you’ve done enough damage to myself, my friends and basically anyone else lucky enough to fall into your path of destruction.”
I could go on, but I’d like to keep things clean for the ladies.
Among the things that happened in 2009 (affairs, executions, injuries, death, war, famine, pestilence etc.), the one event that shook me most of all happened on July 14. I had been working on a project since mid April that required the usual suspects: HTML, CSS, Javascript. Now, most of you know that I’ve struggled with Javascript in the past, however, I felt this project was a perfect opportunity for me to dive head first into it. The functionality required seemed basic at first – a rotating big daddy carousel. Easy peasy! Surely I could figure this out. But wait! There’s more! Google Maps integration you say? Sure! I’ll learn that too!
I’m sure you can see where this is going. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to figure much of this out, so naturally, I asked for help as soon as I realized how far in over my head I was. Luckily, there was more than enough time left so that the other developers were able to jump in and help me out, finishing the project smoothly and on-time!
Oh how I wish that was how it actually happened!
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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
January 13th, 2010
I’ve gone done something foolish and made myself a blog.
Over the past month, I’ve spent time humming and hawing over potential themes or topics I could bitch about – I mean, write so eloquently about, not only for my first post, but as a reoccurring topic. I’ve thought about gaming, thought about movies, thought about code, thought about fashion – anything that interested me really. In the end, I’ve decided to not really pigeon hole myself, but to keep things open to anything I really feel like talking about.
I’m not going to try to be someone I’m not, nor will I pretend to be an expert about anything, and you can be rest assured that a post about social media and how great it is will never grace this HTML. I’m going to be honest, opinionated and I’m going to talk about things that I want to talk about, and if that interests you, then fantastic, we’ll be BFFs.
I’m eager to get people’s feedback and read your comments. Naturally, trolls will not be tolerated as I am, in fact, a Lvl. 29 Paladin and will exercise my mana if necessary.
Posted in Ramble | No Comments »