Vanderbrew

There’s just something about changing your own oil, filter and belts that makes one feel like a “real man”…

I received a new iPod for Christmas as my old 2nd gen device had a sketchy battery life and a tendency to forget where I was in an audiobook. Going from 10 gigs to 80 gigs is really a neat experience and it let me feel like I could branch out into more material than just carefully selected music and a smattering of audiobooks.

In the last few days I’ve been really listening to podcasts a lot. Any time I’m driving or washing dishes or doing some other monotonous task without my family around (since it’s rude to listen while there are others in the room) I tend to listen to an audio book. I’m trying to expand my tech horizons this year and tech podcasts seem like a good avenue to support that.

I’m currently subscribed to several of them including:

• Audible Ajax
• FLOSS Weekly
• No Fluff Just Stuff Podcast
• Thoughtworks - IT Matters Podcast

There’s been some great stuff from each of them and I’ve got plenty of listening material as I work through back catalogs.

Far and away, though, my favorite has been FLOSS Weekly. Randal Schwartz and Leo Laporte have put together some really interesting and engaging sessions that discuss both technologies and languages that I’m familiar with as well as those that are knew to me. Each and every session I learn something new and I’ve started keeping a tech journal where I keep track of bits of info that caught my interest.

If you’re interested in tech podcasts with more of a Unix/WebDev/Open Source flavor check out FLOSS Weekly (not that it’s really weekly, that was just the original intent) or any of the others listed above and I think that you’ll find something interesting to listen to.

Any other tech (or other) podcasts that you listen to? I’d love to hear about them.

I came across this group today (via) and they’ve got a really neat sound. Some incredible cello playing (not that I’m much of a judge, but I’m impressed).

You can check out their YouTube page or their home page.

Definitely worth a listen.

I built a dog house for our dog, Joc.

Rules of Thumb is a neat site with some fun information.

I’ve never been much of one for New Year’s resolutions. I don’t tend to make them and so I don’t need to worry about keeping them. Lately I’ve been wondering if that’s really a good thing. If you don’t keep reaching for something then how do you grow?

“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” I don’t remember who said that (and hopefully I’m not taking it out of context) but it seems like a good thing to keep in mind (balanced of course with “The un-aimed arrow never misses”…).

I feel like I’m having more and more trouble remembering little things lately. I’ll think about them and focus on them - and then my mind moves on to something else and I totally forget. With that in mind, I’ve ordered a planner/journal for the year. It’s organized by weeks with the week on the left page and journal lines on the right. I plan to use the journal side for notes and lists of things I need to do while tracking obligations on the left side. I’ll also jot down ideas for first lines or other story bits in the journal areas.

I’m also focusing on growing in the web development/programming sphere. It feels like there’s a lot going on right now - but then I guess there’s always a lot going on, it’s like the cusp that we’re riding never actually peaks. In the last couple years I’ve been interested in Ruby (initially for Rails, but lately for its own sake). I’ve never really taken the time to learn and understand the language and I’m going to focus on that this year. With that in mind, I’ve already purchased the PDF version of Everyday Scripting with Ruby.

In addition to Ruby, I’m interested in learning Python (both for Django and for its own sake) and possibly Smalltalk (for Seaside). I don’t know if that’s too much to bite off or not. I guess that I’ll start with Ruby and keep Python on the backburner for when I need a change.

There’s also the house to work on so I feel like I’ll have my plate pretty well full. I’m already planning on reducing the amount of time I spend reading fiction (because not sleeping really isn’t much of an option). I still think about Latin and want to get back to it but I think I’ll hold off until the house is done. Once we’re moved into the house I’ll start back up on Latin and begin reading the Great Books.

The car’s headlights blinded Frank as he walked around it.

“Character assassination is a delicate task.”

“And how would you like your news today, sir? Liberal bias? Conservative slant? Independent streak?”

Brandon’s coffee cup shattered as he set it down.

Standing hunched over the body of the unmoving salaryman, Harvard Oxford Princeton Oliver The Third felt even more than usual that he’d let his parents down.