JRuby really rocks

Yesterday was day +38.

I actually got to do a tiny bit of programming at work yesterday!

We have some reports running in Confluence using JRuby as the programming language. As part of the plugin in Confluence, we have put in a fair bit of common code, including an old version of ActionView.

In some of the source data for the report there are these really long internal links, which mess up the column spacing. I first tried to get auto_link working to replace the link, but eventually gave up by the fourth module include. So, I wrote our own version of it. Short and sweet and solved the report format issue nicely.

Felt Good.

54 days to go

Day +25.

As the title says, I have 54 days of work left before School goes full-time. 

I am just friggin' excited about this. I am really looking forward to being able to focus my energies primarily on the research, with no work issues to distract me.

My office at home is now fantastically well set up, as I just got a new MacBook Pro (17") and Thunderbolt display. All on it's own, the thunderbolt display is great — the added bonus is that the thunderbolt connection makes it work as a FireWire and USB hub. So, as I take the laptop between home and University, I only have to unplug the power and the thunderbolt connection. Doesn't seem like a big deal, I am sure, but to someone who has been plugging and unplugging almost daily for the last two years, it feels big to me :).

At the U, I have a MacMini, so if I am just going in for an hour or so, I can just leave everything. I also have a spare display that I may bring for the laptop, or just use it's beauty of a 1920x1200 display.

I got to do a bit of Rails programming today. Always nice to move tests from "Error" to "Fail" ;). I think, however, I will have to curtail that soon. I've been working on a proof of concept for a friend and it has been quite a bit of fun. The issue, however, is that it takes away from the little bit of time I have for programming and research related to the PhD.

On that note — status check of the goals:

• Started the LQPL server - loads programs and single steps through code
• Did some "flow" documentation of the main modules created due to separating the server and client code.
• I've been exercising lightly and regularly the last week.

So, progress is happening (yay!)

Workin' 9 to 3!

Day +16.

This week and next, I'm working abbreviated hours, just cause I can :).

The loveliest thing about that is the walks we take after work. Today, we made it to a full 30 minutes. (somewhere around 3 aerobic points). Even lovelier, we get to really chat during the walks.

I used the Arnica gel and ran cold water on my leg afterwards and it actually feels quite great.

In the programming front, I finally converted my iPad app to ARC. It had a couple of issues with assign type properties, making most of them unsafe_untracked, but it was easy to flip those to weak.

I Wrote a Server

Day +15.

Today, I managed to set up the LQPL server to accept TCP connections and to assemble and load compiled LQPL programs. Part of the productivity was due to the greatness of Haskell, part due to being able to use some code from Real World Haskell.

I'm beginning to think my January goals for LQPL are a bit too easy. If so, I'll just do more on inverse products.

Work was non-remarkable. Processed about 90 emails. Had a nice lunch with a friend.

Noticed that carrying items in my pockets just spikes my hip pain immensely. Back to wearing the fanny pack again. We did a 20 minute walk tonight, which was really nice. I'm using an Arnica rub now, and ice, to see how well that can manage the pain. So far, so good, no Tylenol needed.

Exercise is Good!

Day +14.

Three things of note today.

First, my sweetheart gave me the best present ever by canceling a planned Boxing day shopping trip — even resetting the alarm in the middle of the night! This was great as it allowed my to do the first true check-in (via git) of a change in LQPL in a long time. I got rid of a deprecation, switched from mdo to do rec, and added the module that will eventually become the server.

Second, we went out for an early supper. For the last few days, I've been really cutting down on my wheat and dairy, to the point that I felt like a fog was starting to lift yesterday. At supper, though, I ordered a burger (with bun). I felt crappy after eating that. More evidence for me.

Finally, for the second day, I joined my sweetie as she did her exercises. It is a nice feeling. Afterwards, I iced my hip for about 20 minutes and it is probably the best it has been in quite a few days.

I Don't Like Sundays

Day +6.

Sundays seem to be my hardest day of the week. This one actually started off well as I focused in on the variety of household chores that had accumulated over the past few days. Being a Human Doing is always so much easier for me than a Human Being :).

Once all the finances were tracked, garbage was taken out and dishes cleaned up, I started working on my design for splitting up LQPL, my quantum programming language. My big goal for January is to actually get it working as four separate modules rather than the monolithic beast it has become. The Compiler is already available as a separate piece, so that is easy. The Assembler is not intertwined with the current UI or emulator, so that also is easy. The issue becomes when I try to pry apart the emulator from the UI. Those buggers are like conjoined twins. Separate major organs, mostly, but the circulation system is like one. I thought my first step would be to document the messages that should go back and forth, but after writing out a very few I quickly started feeling stuck. I'm going to switch it up over the next few days and reread the intertwined code again to think more about the actual connection points.

The reason for the title started soon after that. I find I often get vague feelings of crapiness on Sundays. When I get stuck like that on a task, it just makes it worse. I am expecting that as I get more in shape over the next few months, that will significantly decrease or go away. One can only hope!

A somewhat weird thing has been starting the last few days and grew quite noticeable today. Every once in a while it felt like I was stepping on something with my right heel. Whenever I would check, there was nothing there. As it turns out, I think it is actually the tendons pulling at my heel when I bend a bit. My right calf and tendon are so tight these days, it is always uncomfortable and offer a bit painful.

So, tomorrow, back to work for three days. I think things will be starting to wind down a bit, we'll have to see.

Until tomorrow!

Vauge feelings and expressing them

As a recent tweet mentioned:

Lately, I've had a vague feeling that I'm not accomplishing all that I want to - difficult to put it in words, though.

So - perhaps more than 140 characters will help...
Vague feelings. This is something that seems to occur regularly in my life. (Get ready for the usual "It all started when I ..." story :).

I don't remember ever talking about feelings as a kid, vague or otherwise. Likely had a lot to do with the mores of my family. They didn't learn how to chat about them, so how could they teach a kid to do so?

After my first divorce, I lucked out and started attending various self-help groups and going to counseling. Amazing transformations happen at these places.

The first few years after the divorce, the best I could do was to actually start identifying that I had some uncomfortable feelings. It took a while longer to actually identify them. The worst were when there was just the vague mass of blechh floating around somewhere in my gut. I don't think I ever really understood where that came from, it just started to fade out over time.

So, why is this germane at the moment?

Lately, I've been thinking about what I really want to do with the next few years of my career. My wife and I had come up with a plan and I was quite excited about moving it forward.

Then, the company I am working at now decided to go through a major physical re-organization. I've been assigned a role in the re-org process and it takes up all of my time and energy - or at least it has for the last two months. When you add that together with my obligations on research / school, I'm left with negative free time.

So this builds up and I start to resent it, but it is from a decision I made / accepted / agreed to, so I don't feel like I can complain / talk about it. Uggh!

I remember a book written by Heinlein that I read in my teens about a twin who is tricked into going on a star voyage by his other twin. Everyone, including the twin who goes, professes that it is so lucky and fantastic that he gets to go. Unfortunately, subconsciously, he doesn't want to go. Because of that, and that he can not voice that feeling, he becomes suicidal. Life works out (He gets the girl in the end, as is usual with Heinlein), after some psychotherapy.

So, how would I really like to spend my week? (After a few weeks of resting / relaxation / sleeping)

That's easy - programming. I adore programming - the creative aspects, the blend of "big picture" and multiple tiny details, the immediate feedback, the feeling of creating something useful.

Given that I've now burned up 30+ minutes just talking about this (to no one :), what am I going to do about it? Answer - get programming. I have a day off tomorrow and I intend to spend the day writing and creating. Let's see how I feel after that.