Goal Setting to meet a Goal

On Friday, I had a driveway moment with NPR.

On my way back from picking some nerd equipment at Best Buy, I listened to Talk of the Nation: How to Make New Year's Resolutions.

The "self-help, write down goals, do better" camp never really worked for me. The slips of papers containing my life dreams would fall to the wayside or disappear amongst the perpetual clutter on my desk. So I listened; how do people keep their goals?

I swung a left turn between the snowbanks towering over the curb into my driveway. It wasn't quite over, but it was so cold. After nearly staying in the car out in the frigid air, I scurried into the house to finish listening to it in the kitchen with my mom.

In the end, realistic and measurable resolutions were often kept. It gave me an idea. A website that helps you with setting and meeting goals. 43 Things helps you create a list of goals, but often they're unmeasurable. For example, under the category "Money and Wealth" a goal is "Save money" not "Save $500 a month for 6 months." Or they're unrealistic, "find a job I love" rather than "apply to 10 positions at something I'm passionate about."

So, I purpose goal setting website where there is a time frame, a metric, optional reminders, and a final success/unsuccessful statement. Users could share goals, search for similar goals/advice, cheer each other on, but the rules would remain, realistic and measurable.

Feels a little bit like self-help, but hey I've got 10 miles to run in April; so, I better set some goals now.

Deals in the Amazon MP3 Store

DRM perplexes me. It attempts to prevent users from illegally sharing music; however, it just punishes the people who are legally downloading music. The downsides of DRM are well documented:

1. When something better than an iPod comes along, I might not be able to play my songs on it. Sony never made you play Sony Albums on a Sony Record Player.
   
2. What happens if iTunes shuts down its FairPlay servers? I could loose my music that I paid for. Universal decides to are only making movies; demand listeners give back their records.
   
3. Maintaining, implementing, supporting DRM costs money. Someone has to pay for it; the honest user using iTunes Store ends up paying for it, not the college kid downloading music on a torrent.
4. Keeping an honest user honest doesn't do much. Imagine security guards only checking the bags of the people they know aren't shop lifters.
   

Wired has a humorous write up of DRM applied to handbags.

This is why I download music from Amazon's MP3 store. All songs are DRM free. The songs cost less - most songs are 89 cents - and every Friday they have five $5 dollar albums.

Say no to iTunes, say yes to Amazon MP3. Deals deals deals. I love deals.

I'll Still Watch Next Year

This year there was no collapse, no black cat, no Billy Goat, there's just the Cubs. I know I watched play the Cubs play Dodgers this October, but it was not the 97 win best record in the national league Cubs, rather the Cubs - a Cubs team where a gold glove first baseman makes an error that leads to a 5 run second inning; a Cubs team who stranded 9 runners in a 3 - 1 loss; a Cubs team who's game one pitcher walks 7 batters. Now count it, 9 post season losses in a row.

During the regular season, the Cubs thought they could win every game - no matter the score - you could see it in their swagger, their faces in the dugout, they could win. In October, they didn't even show up.

Where to go from here, get better players? This team went into the postseason with no holes: solid pitching, explosive bats. Still here we are. Maybe we can get a player with enough confidence to over come the 100 year weight, to keep the dugout relaxed, and keep the team thinking/playing like they can win ever game. Maybe then the Cubs will forget about how their supposed to win every game.

For now, for another October, the North side is quiet, and I've learned my lesson: I'm not waiting, but I'll still watch next year.

Google and League of Women Voters Team Up

Google Maps and League of Women Voters have created a great website for the election. Enter your address and it gives you links to register, check registration, days left to register, voter hotline for your state, and coming soon your polling place. Vote.

The Elements of Style

I need the Elements of Style by William Stunk Jr. and E.B. White.

It's available for free online or in paperback. The Washington Post has a nice write up from earlier this month; it's a must read for everyone.

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

Chapter 3 part 13, The Elements of Style.

"...every word tell" resonated with me. No surprise, they taught Elements of Style in freshman studies way back when.

Voter Registration

Not every state has day of voter registration like Wisconsin, so check your voter registration, find your polling, or if you haven't registered register.

D.C.

Maryland

Virginia

Other

My first trip to the polling place, I looked over my poster sized ballot 100 times; swing state, no hanging chad, no butterfly mistake, that vote was going to be counted. Best time of the year.

More Books on the Shelf

A while back I finished Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America; after a few moments of introspection and a one over of the afterword, I set it on the shelf, paused, glanced back, stared down the spine of the paperback, pryed open my MacBook, and pecked away at the keys. I was writing a post about the Great American Novel.

Around the third sentence, three or four other windows were open. I was chatting, browsing my RSS feeds, buying pointless stuff; the post died shortly there after. I prefer to think I was mentally drained by the late hour or wanted to give it 100% of my focus; however, in part, it was my suspicion that my future-self three months from now would look back at my amateur attempt in disdain. The post is still coming someday; it could come out when I am dinner, waiting for the Metro, or lounging at a Wine bar - for now I'll keep reading.

Some highlights of what I've read recently:

The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth - What if Lindenburg, a Nazi sympithizer, won the 1940 Presidential Election? After that complicated assuption, the book follows a Jewish American family living in New Jersey trying to find its way in a changing America. It is a chilling, shocking, and dishearting story; I believed every word of the bizarro-1940 America.

The Breif Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Jaun Diaz - A vivid account of a ghetto nerd in 1980's who wants to be the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and can't get laid despite his best efforts. I read this cover to cover on my flight to SF. Oscar Wao deserves a spot next to Holden Caulfield and Scout Finch as a great fictional character.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan: Not a must read like Omnivore's Dilemma, but worth the slender 256 pages. But serious go read Omnivore's Dilemma if you haven't.

This Weekend in DC

Three events this weekend in DC.

Saturday:
On Saturday morning from 8 A.M. to Noon, 17 miles of the District's streets will be closed for BikeDC - a noncompetitive and fun ride for the joy of bicyclying. The ride is an exceptional way to see the city and show your support for cyclists. You can register online before Friday for $35 or day of for $45; proceeds go to Washington Area Bicyclist Association. All ages welcome.

National Book Festival, featuring over 70 authors, also takes place Saturday from 10:30 am to 5:30 P.M. on the mall. Among authors speaking and signing include Salman Rushdie, R.L. Stine, Richard Price, Paul Schieffer, and Michelle Singletary. Metro or bike are the best transit options; not sure if there is a bike vallet.

Sunday:
Crafty Bastards, an arts and crafts festival in Adams Morgan at the Marie Reed Recreational Center, features over 100 vendors hawking handmade items and crafts. Throughout the day, there will be be live music, DJs, breakdancing, workshops, and demos to help you make your own crafts.

Check out booth #59:
Bicycle Safety - The Bike Rack Booth
10am, 2pm Basic Bike Maintenance
12pm Riding Your Bike Safely In The City

A User's Best Friend

A browser's back button is a user's best friend, and a Webdeveloper's worst enemy. Every save, create, I live in fear of somehow someway a user will find a way to save this more than once. "Save. View. Back. Back. Back, Forward. Save" and somehow there will be two records. I live in fear for important records like payments, and use tokens and other tools to prevent replication; however , when I watch users interact with a system, there is a gravitational force that pulls their mouse into the upper left corner and clicks it repeatedly until there's a visual response.

"Oh there I am, that's where I want to be."

Sometimes there's no going back: hitting a back button will not retract a submitted form; however, users like the back button. It's nice; it's there; it's consistent. And let's be real, that nice "back to search results" link you made one boring Tuesday morning is never going to get clicked.

When viewing a list of results, a user should be able to use the back button - always. They are going to say and think "I didn't find it; let me go back." and click the back button to find their results again.

Lately I see many AJAX calls to view paginated results for a list, and, for example, the url looks like "http://www.website.com/results#pageNumber" The anchor and AJAX call do not work well with one another; the browser get confused and seems to look for it on the page. Who knows, but it makes my results disappear when I hit the back button. Annoying. This should never happen.

Painted Ladies

Hello (Painted) Ladies. I'm in SF taking a weekend off from the new cycle, trying out the mobile update. This is a picture I took from Alamo square using my mobile phone; they're called the "Painted Ladies."

I'm trying to surf here!

Does anyone appreciate going to cnn.com and selecting an interesting headline only to find that it's a 1:30 video with no accompanying description? I don't.

Video and multimedia are part of the Web's future; it's a multimedia platform including text, videos, sound bites, images etc. Don't make it one dimensional by not showing the associated AP article.

I'm not trying to watch TV. I'm trying to use the internet.

DC Ministry of Bicycling Congregates

DC now has a Ministry of Bicycling - a social group to promote cycling in the District.

With a dress code of "bike tie formal (ties, white button downs/ups, poufy dresses, bike grease)," their first ride this Saturday starts at 3 P.M. in Freedom Plaza, goes through Dupont, and ends at Red Derby in Columbia Heights.

Too bad I'll be out of town; Looks like a good time. I'll catch the next ride.

Check out their website, http://dcmob.org, if you're interested.

Upcoming Blog

I'm working a new blog - a lifestyle blog - a collaborative effort involving several people. I'm excited about it; I'm going to write my own blogging engine for it.

There are plenty of ready to install options out there which will be better than mine, but that's not the point. I want to get practice working from documentation, learning a new language, and design. I'm not planning on going over the top; I'll use markdown, reCAPTCHA, and other plug-ins, but I need a framework.

Framework ideas:

Django
The built in admin system for a multi-user system is almost too tempting to turn down. I also like the idea "Don't repeat yourself" and putting the data first. There are records and objects; how their retrieved or displayed, we'll figurre that out later. Python is a robust language with a lot of support. Django itself is at 1.0, not 1.1 or 1.26. Looking back at 1.0 products from 1.1, 1.26, or 2.1 shows some large imporvements.

Ruby On Rails
Used like before. Liked it. Makes sense to me. But is it still hip? Good support/documention. Seriously there's a tutorial on everything.

Catalyst
Perl, yeah well, it's worth giving Perl another change in my life.


Anything in Lisp? Google Web Toolkit? Any other suggestions? Thoughts?

Smart Bike around DC

--$3.33 a month for alternative transit.--

My SmartBikeDC credentials arrived in the mail last week. They came in an envelope slightly larger than a postcard that was filled the brim. Inside was my card, instructions about how to activate it, bicycle safety tips, bicycle laws, and the DC bicycle map.

Activating the card online was easy. Just about how any credit card works - sign up and enter the card number. (Note: I still have reservations about the security of the website.)

On my way back from another burrito lunch, I stumbled upon the stand at Metro Center, about half the spots were open, so I opted to take a bike for trip. I swiped my card, and screen showed #9. I raised it out of the rack, adjusted the seat, and scoped out my surroundings: sidewalks packed with pedestrians, cars, delivery trucks, and buses congesting the sidewalks. It was not an attractive sight.

With a lack of a destination, a waning lunch hour, and disposition for indecision I took it for the first thing that came to mind, a spin around the block. My joy ride was short, but I got a good feel for the bike.

The red an white bikes aren't made for speed or looks, but they are a three speed sturdy ride, easy to pedal, and are equiped with the all powerfull bell. Most people will have an easy time hopping on and ride a mile or two around the city.

Currently outside of the ocassional lunch time joy ride or the after work trip to logan circle, there aren't enough stations for me to adopt SmartBike into my daily routine, but I'm happy to pay the $40 a year to support the great program.

I've got a grainy cell phone video of the ride complements of Joris:




UPDATE: check out street films coverage of SmartBike DC. The bikes are 3 speed not one. Thanks dc2wheel.

Extra! Extra!

Saturday morning at 6:45 am, I was packed up. Most everything including utensils, food, and computer was in a box taped shut or secured in its carrying case.

In a daze, I drifted across the street in flip flops and a ragged t-shirt to McDonald's for a large coffee and eeg & cheese. Below the "On Sale Here" sign, I noticed the headline "Obama Selects Biden as Running Mate" I can't remember the last time I got breaking news from the print edition of a paper.

It was surprising, refreshing; the urge to dig through my pocket to find enough change and recall my order so I could purchase that paper too and desperately thumb to page A4 and consume the rest of the story before I puruse the rest of the section for reactions, comments, and realted news.

La Blogotheque

A friend shared La Blogotheque with me a while ago. La Blogotheque is a video blogger who invites artists to perform off stage in atypical situations - elevators, on top of roofs, in a ferry, or walking down the street - and sometimes without proper instruments. The videos are shot in one take on a handheld camera. The performances shine, and the camera seems to dance and float along with the artists.

This one of Sufjan Stevens is my favorite.



The website is in French, but it's a pleasure to browse La Blogotheque's YouTube page. La Blogotheque has posted videos of Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, and Vampire Weekend. Enjoy!

2 Amy's d.o.c Spells Delicious

I finally made it to the District's foremost pizza joint: 2 Amy's.

For months since moving here 2 Amy's has been the place to go. "Oh it's good. Yeah, you've got to go sometime. Well be careful the wait can be exorbitantly long, but ya gotta go." They were right.

After the Jazz in the Garden on Friday, we headed over to the Cleveland Park spot for a nice snack and glass of wine. A simple glass door opened into a lively dining room packed with families and friends chatting about the week and enjoying the authentic Neapolitan pizza over natural wooden tables sitting atop of the black and white tile floor. Even at 10 pm there was a wait, an excited atmosphere, and a wooden-burning oven cooking as pizza at full capacity. A few minutes and we luckily snagged a table at the wine bar.

I order the Margherita pizze d.o.c. with mushrooms. D.o.c. stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata; it essentially means certified by the Italian government as authentic - pizze d.o.c. uses only soft grain flour, fresh yeast, water, and sea salt for the dough (2 Amy's does a good write-up of what d.o.c. is.). But the bottom line is that 2 Amy's makes an excellent pizza - certified or not.

My pizza came out quickly. After it was situated infront of me, my eyes immediately sized up the pie - the center was genourously portioned with fresh mozzarella di bufala and basil and the crust was warm and raised along the edges. I started out eating the pizza with a knife and fork; however, after my first bite of the cripsy crust gave way to the warm dough hidden inside, I put down my silverware and just went for it. It was too good to wait around for all this cutting and preparing, it was there on the table, ready to be enjoyed!

I've been told that there's a lot more to be enjoyed there like the mussels, charcuterie, homemade ice cream, and a good wine list. Looks like I'll have to go back; the hard part will be ordering a different pizza.

Funfetti Cupcakes

Funfetti cupcakes: story of childhood or summer?

Germs are Everywhere

Everyday, every news broadcast, every paper churns the stories out like butter - "Surprise! More Germs on Shopping Carts than Toilet Seats" or "Study finds Keyboards Dirtier than Bathroom floors" There's no avoiding these stories - they spread like wildfire through the office.

The day after one comes through the wire from the AP to the local news, my every move could trigger the gossip to butt-in and cut me off. While I reach out for the after lunch mint, with a shorten breath and a slight finger jest, they draw my attention in an eleventh-hour attempt to save my life.

"Oh, I just heard..." and then story tumbles out in a condensed form before I infect myself.

They wait in bewilderment for a reaction, recognition of the heroic act, something.

Then I eat the mint. I savor it - the stale spearmint flavor and chalk like texture - and I make sure they know it. They gaze back at me like a superhero who just found out they saved a villain, possibly their archenemy.

I don't eat it out of spite. I eat the mint, because I've eaten them my whole life - well at least since I could see over the counter at Alfie's and reach into the bowl with my tiny little mitts.

Germs are everywhere. It's fact. Wash your hands before you eat, don't stick your hands in your mouth, get the flu shot, and move on. Or you could running your keyboard through the dishwasher.

Many times germs are good for you too.

Restaurant Week!

Summer Restaurant Week has been announced for Washington, DC.

Restaurant Week is August 11 - 17th.

You can make your reservations online at OpenTable.

Kindle for Kinder

When the Kindle was introduced in November 2007 by Amazon, it was a natural progression for books to the digital world, but it's overall scope reached beyond that, beyond any digital media player seen. Download new books over EVDO from anywhere, daily paper subscriptions, highlighting text, playing audiobooks to name a few features that caught my eye - a larger list of surprising features. I've seen it a few make apperiances on the Metro in the morning, and it's well received by reading enthusiasts.

Based on Amazon's track record of innovation - EC2, S3, and product reccommendation engine - they'll continue to refine and develop the electronic reader, but I've taken the liberty to do my own imagining.

There is buzz all over the net about universities and schools distributing iPods for podcasts of lectures or important announcements; however, using Kindle, in the same device used to store textbooks, novels, and periodicals, teaches could push content like lecture notes, podcasts, assignments, handouts, and anysort of paper material.

The Kindle could have a Scholastic OS where a textbook is not a book but a group of content that encompasses notes, chapters, lectures, assignments, highlights, and online supplements. Essentially, instructors would publish content and students would subscribe. While this could be done to an extent now through a related system of RSS feeds, podcasts, notebooks, and textbooks the all-in-one simplicity, ease of use, and portability of the Kindle could pull it off.

Rumor has it that Kindle v2 is coming out in October, since I'm not an early adopter I'm excited to see it.

Remember how heavy those textbooks were?

Second Edition Sunday

Friday evening, I attend the Jazz concert in the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. The scene was out in full force with every patch of grass covered with lively 20 somethings pouring wine into plastic cups, snacking on ham and cheese, and dipping their feet in the shallow fountain while palavering - just loud enough to be understood over the Jazz - about "how great it was to be Friday." I'm going again this Friday, bringing wine, and I'm sure I'll be happy that it's Friday.

Thoughts on Rock Band

If you were in a band would you rather play Rock Band or have band practice?

I'm in a Rock Band band, our band practice is Rock Band.

Depave!

This makes me happy: Depave! Especially the people on stilts. Check out depave.org.

Swedish fish were on-sale at CVS. Awesome.

Reflections after a Year

Lure of Big Paycheck Tugs at Graduates

After coming home from work at 10:30 PM tonight, this article resonated with me. It discusses graduates of elite colleges taking the position at a consulting firm or hedge fund as the safe option. A year ago when I accepted my offer with a consulting firm, I saw it as an opportunity to gain experience in software development. I've certainly done that, but I can't help feeling constrained, stressed, and a little directionless at times. Mostly it's because I get stuck in the details after long hours in the Dev Room.

At times, I struggled at Lawrence too, and in the end, it was the best decision I ever made. I was able to grow in any direction I pleased from putting together a radio show to solving abstract math problems. It just took time to figure it out.

I'm passionate about public transportation, fascinated by digital media, love writing, and growing an interest in usability. One day I'll figure out a way to put those together, until then I'll keep looking for places to grow where I am, and as long as those are present I'll make it through the week.

I graduated last June, it has taken a while to remember that a year is not a long time.

Internet and Money

As I settle into life here in DC, I've begun to look at buying a condo. Real estate is expensive here in Washington, just out of reach at the moment; however, the low interest rates have caught my attention. Zip Realty and Trulia are great tools for searching properties around the country. They're easy to use, see estimates, compare properties, get advice, and see trends. I curiuos to why it took a start-up to make an intelligent tool like this. Large real estate companies had all the expertise, information, and brand; however, they didn't push the limits and make something innovative to create more revenue.

Record companies are the same way they spend too much time fighting internet radio and digital downloads rather than figuring out how to effectively create revenue from them. Streaming music to moblie phones? A rhapsody client for the phone? Publish your own music channel to stream to friends or your phone? Rock Band to promote your new single?

Dear Record Companies,

iTunes is the largest music retailer in the United States. Get over it, you lost this fight.

Sincerely,
A Music Enthusiast

Lost in Email

A nice article from the New York Times about distractions at work. Several large tech companies have started a non-profit group to help fight the electronic information bludge and email overload. We'll see which company turns this into a revenue stream first.

My desk in the room of distractions.

iPhone 2.0: A Step Back

Despite adding a GPS feature to the iPhone, the new pricing model is pointing the iPhone in the wrong direction.

With the iPhone 2.0 coming out July 11th, it is assuming a more traditional pricing model for cell phones in the United States: carriers like AT&T subsidize the cost of the phone inexchange the customer must signup for a long term contract. Apple gets a fair price for the phone, AT&T gets a two year contract, and the subscriber pays less for the phone. Everyone wins, as long as the subscriber doesn't cancel, right?

For moblie enthusiasts looking for the phone to become the next personal computer this is step in the wrong direction towards an open network. Phones are once again tied to contracts. I wouldn't want Comcast to subsidize my laptop if I agree to have the supply internet for two years.

Until I stop associating my phone with a two year span, it will never become my device that I take care, never travel without, message, text, search, surf the web, and find revenue for all of those internet startups. The mobile phone will never be personal until I can take it with me for network to network just like me number. I'll never give up my "630".

Maybe Android will be the kicker, as Google tries to secure its place in the moblie (advertisement) market.

Brasserie Beck

Early in the evening Monday, after disastrous service at M&S Grill, my friends and I switched locations. We fought the 98 degree heat and made our way through the sun and humidity a few blocks to Brasserie Beck, a French restaurant on K St.

Situated in a modern office building with a simmering glass facade, Beck's large double doors opened up into an expansive restaurant. With high ceilings and an art deco decor, I wondered if I walked into a Parisian train station to grab a quick lunch before my 12:47 to Brussels. The marble-and-walnut bar was lined with colorful and rare taps from Belgium and the space was filled with chatty young professionals enjoying the beer. Any place meant to enjoy beer finds a special place in my heart.

We grabbed a table outside to enjoy the evening as the sun went down and it began to cool. The first thing handed to the table was a beer menu. Listed out by style I carefully perused the menu and descriptions of the eclectic spigots from the bar like I was looking for the right bottle to go with dinner. Half liters of Hoegaarden were the special. Size and price won out; I order a Hoegaarden. Next time I'll be more adventurous but for the warm evening on the patio, a wit beer hit the spot.

Brasserie Beck is worth the trip.

In related news, InBev, has offered 46 Billion dollars to buy Budweisser, which would make it the largest beer company in the world.

Facebook

I just noticed that Facebook's login does not redirect you an encrypted login page. Does this concern anyone else?

Information Overload

For two years, I've used Bloglines as my news aggregator; everyday the news from around the web filters into my personal page on the web. I'm able to check all of my favorites sites in one place, and stories are marked after I scroll over them. However, many times it throws too much in my direction. If I don't keep up for a day I end up with thousands or articles waiting at my electronic doorstep. Currently I have 2049 articles waiting.

I'm a news junkie, but even that is more than I can handle, and I've begun a search for alternatives.

Brijit publishes 50 - 100 word abstacts of articles from around the web, and the articles are given a rank. The numerical guidance to what's interesting is a nice plus considering the length of many of the New Yorker's articles. A bonus, for those ahead of the curve, if an abstract you submitted is published you can get paid anywhere from $5-8 dollards. Some of the magazines they focus on are The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Vanity Fair, and Harper's. Currently Brijit is not publishing abstracts since they have run out of funding, but the archive is still available and they are seeking new funding. For more info and possible updates check out their blog.

Addict-o-matic searchs RSS Feed from popular sites based on a user's query or predefined topics. The results are displayed in miniboxes grouped by site similar to the look of iGoogle. Users can move the boxes around or remove them to create their own custom page. The search needs some work to weed out the duds. After poking around a bit with there custom pages I found some new sites.

Unfortunately, I still don't have time to read every article I'd like or my own magazines, but at least I'm getting closer to sorting through the avalanche of information.

Jet set on Baltimore

I went to Baltimore today. Now can no longer use the line "I haven't been to Baltimore, but I've seen the Wire."

Camden Yards is a excellent place to see a baseball game minus the abundance of Red Sox fans. Not much to comment on from the visit, next time I'll linger longer.

We Stand on the Right

In Washington, DC opinions run deep and irrational when it comes to the Metrorail system.

"The escalators are always broken."

"Public transit? Try unreliable commuter rail."

"Waste of time. I'd rather just call a cab."

After living here for just under a year and cramming myself onto the redline at 8 am five days a week, I've learned many quirks the Metro. The sounds and announcements play on repeat in my head, I politely inform escalefters that "we stand on the right in DC," I can name most Metro sniglets, and for the stops I frequent I've scientifically - through a rigorous guess and check - determined where to stand in order to exit the train by the escalators and transfer points.

I thrive on the public transit, besides my bicycle it's my only transit. It has taken some work, but I've gotten around the broken escalators, the sporadic weekend construction, and my impulse to cab and found a routine:

After a subdued "Good morning" to the Express distributor, I grab hold of the escalator and my dress shoes scamper a top the metal as I advance past the tourists, commuters, and suitcases. Near the bottom, when the stairs begin to collapse upon one another, my head darts down just enough to catch the earliest glimpse of the illuminated sign displaying the elevator outages and next train information.

"Two minutes, got to hustle."

My SmartTrip card buried within my wallet glides over the sensor, and the gate's wings open up allowing me to slip through into honeycomb corridor. The yellow bubble lights blink and the train rolls into the station. The Metro opens its doors, and I diligently scuttle my way into car - last door on the second to last car. Stop Metro center. Exit 13th and G St NW.

Door to door takes roughly 15 minutes; with the warm weather coming, my trip length may increase when I walk slower to avoid sweating. But I wouldn't want to commute any other way.

How do you get to work?

Rare Form

It can't be called "rare form" if it happens three nights in a row.

INTP

In training, last August, amidst the flurry of activities we had to take a personality test. 70 questions and 15 minutes, then it shows you 4 letters and an accompanying paragraph for each letter. These four letters are you Myers-Briggs personality.

"INTP," it said.

Fine, so I've seen this before, myself summed up in one phase like when I was described as "crazy awesome."1 

Although, this was little different, I had to spend the next hour in an mega-conference room hearing a personality expert elaborate on those four letters and their permutations. I'm pretty adverse to training in these settings - a energized presenter, flanked on both sides by over sized screens that are illuminated by a powerpoint presentation, rhapsodizes to the audience and their reflective glasses about some dry topic.

Naturally, my arms were crossed and my mind wandered as I slouched in my chair. Slides and colors changed, and I sighed. Then we were moving. Feet shuffled, chairs growled, and audible rumble could be heard over the presenter shouting, "'I's on the left. 'E's on the right." In his black turtleneck his arms spun about directing traffic from the glaring stage.

Then that rumble moved. It moved along with the crowded to the right side. There they were chatting away. Asked a few questions to describe the other side of the room. Then, the exercise went on and we tried other letter combinations. As it went on, those four letters began to grow on me. Eventually, I gave up my perceptions and accepted the four letters, INTP, when I realized it's my preference not who I am. 

I can act like an Extrovert every once and a while, but prefer to be Introverted. Being an introverted consultant doesn't always quite fit, but understanding that I am helps me work around it when need be at happy hours or other events. 

Training pays off sometimes.

1 No citation needed. Common knowledge.

Coffee Houses in DC

Since I've moved to DC, I've tried and tried to find a coffee house, and the struggle continues; as of now, I've only found coffee shops and cafes. 

Washington's culture lends itself better to happy hours with colleagues or after dinner drinks with power players at old presidential haunts. Downtown coffee shops exist during the day to serve fresh coffee, and close up shop around 3 pm slightly before the commuters make their mass exit to the suburbs. Residentially, Busboys and Poets or Kramerbooks & Afterwords , in U St and DuPont respectively, require food purchases and the packed tables encourage quick eats/drinks with a fast turnover. Sidamo, in the Atlas District, seems promising, but their limited hours and distant location restrict it to a weekend trip, so I haven't quite made it yet.

I've had several friends inquire as to what I consider a coffee house. I've struggle a bit when I've talked about it. I watch the confusion grow on their faces as I stumble through a bumbling definition, "It's almost a communal living room. You can go and sit. No pressure; won't be bothered. Quiet, read, know people, blog." Nothing seems to get across. I've taken moment to think about it, and here's my best shot.

A coffee house is a place you can go by yourself (or small group) for hours at a time to relax and enjoy a quiet activity over coffee or tea, and you'll never surprised to run into somebody you know.

This weekend you might run into me at Brewed Awakenings in Appleton.

If you have any suggestions of where to go or an alternate definition, please comment below. 

Carbo-Load

The brakes have been pulled taut, derailer adjusted, screws tightened, tires inflated, and carbohydrates have been consumed. I'm ready for the ride tomorrow, hopefully the weather stays nice. Here goes nothing.

Bike Shop

I took my bicycle to CityBikes today to fix the derailer. If High Fidelity was written about a bike shop this would be that shop. Rows of bikes temporarily strung along the wall at varying heights and opinionated, off-beat, bearded employees' chit-chat fill the compact store. I definitely trust the employees and service department there. My bike is fixed as well as it can be; unfortunately, from the looks of it I'm going to need a new bike or install more aggressive shifting system. I'm going to opt for the new bike. It's the right time. My current bike played its part, got me started riding again, and I can still use it around town.

I'm living in the Office. I'm on a party planning committee and I'm helping out with office olympics in August.

Google and Search

About three weeks ago, I installed Google Analytics this blog. I installed it just to test out it's features - map overlay, length on site, or referring sources - but the tool has been so impressive that I've found uses for it. The biggest trend that I've noticed is just the obvious - the more I update the blog the more hits I get. I'm surprised by the hits I get; not many (a few a day), but on average that is more than the one or two people I expected.

I was conscious that people read this site and its a public site, but Google Analytics helped me realized it. Now I've added every analysis tool I can find for fun and in an attempt to improve my posts - feedburner comes highly recommended - and here's what I've found:

-On Saturday, I mentioned the Newseum and then I received three hits from the Newseum related Freedom Forum. So someone there must be watching the blogs for mentions of Newseum. In case they're wondering, the Newseum was incredibly well put together; I felt like I was in a news room saturated with media, and it was great to be reminded how the media influences and encompasses all aspects of our lives. They had an exhibit on emerging media that included some blog short films. The building stands boldly along Pennsylvania Ave amongst the Smithsonian Museums, and it's a welcome addition. I recommend it.

-Most of my friends have an internet connection from Comcast or Lawrence and own Macs and Jacob still uses Opera.

-Readers are repeat visitors, so I'm going to try to update more often. Thanks for reading.

I've added a new section, Subscribe!, with links to make it easier to add my blog to an RSS Reader.

Dance Punk Dance

Friday my profile picture was label by a colleague "Continental Charles" because it was taken shortly after I came back from Budapest. Strangely rather than reminisce about Budapest - which I do miss - it reminded me of my arrival on campus that winter term, and attempt to reclaim my spot as Resident Dancer. I fought my way through the dance-offs; in my tight jeans and Chuck Taylor dance shoes, my feet pounded away in crowded the rooms of Hiett, Trevor, the House, and anywhere else dance-punk played with cans of PBR lining the walls. It's been awhile since I've had a good dance-off.

Friday evening I took the situation into my own hands - 20 minute dance party.

Attendance: 1 person.

Duration: 20 minutes.

Location: Calvert House #922.

Best song: All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem

Claire and Veronica are in town this weekend. They're both shocked it's spring already. No lines last night, but every place was packed, Local 16 and Marvin's. 

Ethiopian tonight at Etete.

Bike DC

Bicycling magazine recently rated Washington DC the most improved bicycle city. With the new bicycle sharing program SmartBike, a single speed self-service bike rental, and increased bike lanes, the District is taking the steps in the right direction; however, at this point, I'm an experienced road cyclists, and I don't feel confident on the DC streets. The current bike lanes end abruptly and fail to connect with one another, cars park in the lanes or don't look while taking right turns, other cyclists disobey traffic signals creating a distrust between cyclists amongst motorists, and the multi-use paths aren't wide enough to accommodate joggers and cyclists. All in all it's nice to see the city gain support for cycling and get recognized for their first of many efforts. One day I hope to experience an extensive system of paths with physical barriers between the road; for now, to celebrate the first step I will observe Bike to Work Day on Friday May 16th, and the MS Ride that weekend. Thanks for all your support on the ride.

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I was on the phone with the client the other day. After a quick thought started, there as a small pause, and he asked "Charles, I hope you don't mind, but how old are you?"

Blindly I replied "22."

He let out a short string of laughs, and said "Wow. You'll go far." 

Startling, but it was a nice compliment.

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Last week I gave a presentation on web usability to my project team entitled "A Presentation: Don't Make Me Think" (The title comes from Advanced Common Sense). I put it together a little last minute - changed thoughts in mid-sentence or twirled my arms a bit like a dinosaur at times - but went well in the end. I'm going to work on sharpening it, perfecting the art, and giving it as a Brown Bag lunch.

Veronica and Claire are coming this weekend and planning on going to the Newseum.  Troy has already been.

April 21 - 27 2008 was the official Turn Off Your TV week; unfortunately I missed it. I will observe it this week starting yesterday.

Career Moves

A little over a year ago, when I was sent an info packet about Deloitte there was an exert from Business Week - The Best Places to Launch a Career - that ranked Deloitte #3. 

"Great," I thought, but that was all I thought. 

I never took a deep analysis to what it meant for them to be #3, or why they would send me this article. This word, career, has been used, talked about, presented throughout the year - "It's your career; take ownership. Mass Career Customization." However, now, as I've just begun the year-end process and started to look back on this year and forward to many that will come, I'm thrown directly into this conversation. 

What does the word mean to me. I must have this strange definition of the word Career, one that doesn't fit me, one that makes me take a stuttering breath to digest my thoughts before discussing it with my colleagues: careers are what parents, friends parents, managers, or business majors have. I'm just attempting something I'm interested in, something that challenges me to think critically - is that a career?

I don't want to sound pretentious here, building a career is great, but I've decided to define career and my interpretation of the word career. My career is not my vocation, my career is the skill set I bring to the table and how I want to use those skills.

I'm not to going measure my goals in benchmarks or highlights; I'm going to take a day to day approach. My career goal is that I constantly put myself in a position to grow my skill set, and stay open to new opportunities that will put me in those positions. I want to consistently take on new challenges. My five year plan is to improve and stay interested in what I'm doing everyone of those days. 

That is one thing nice about consulting all those opportunities are with one company.  In the end, this post kind of makes me want to gag, but I'm not going to lie and say "five years from now I want to be a tech lead or functional lead." One day I'll have to look further down the path, but for now, I'm happy saying that I'm not going become stagnant or take a step back. I'm going to keep progressing and see where that goes; so far it's gone a long way in eight months - since July 30.

This is not the Pony Express

On Tuesday I was tasked to track down information, and insure the appropriate procedure was followed for application change requests; unfortunately, the information was trapped in exchange server that I could only access through my Outlook 2002 client. There was this wealth of information exactly where I thought it was in one place - I had seen it, read it, noted it, replied to it, and talked about it just a few weeks early, but yet it was strewn about, unindexed, without a reg-ex search, and lost in the shuffle between every conversation I've had recently.

After a deep breath and a few random clicks on the menu bar I gave up; one by one I cycled through my mess of an inbox and other related folders. Outlook forces you to put your email into these silos of inbox, sent, drafts, etc...but really when it comes down to it each one is a message where planned, to me, from me, or about me. They are my messages, and they exist in this entangled web of response/receive protocol. This is one of the features I love about gmail - no folders just labels, and messages can have more than one label. They are easy to add and easy to see. Gmail enables me to see my mail in these chambers but I can knock them down, move them around at my will.

Outlook seems unwilling to change it's three panel view, and it has remained stale and bulking over the years; however, there is an interesting start up xobni (inbox backwards) that has a great Outlook plug-in. It has an index search, statistics about usage, and a intuitive sidebar with contacts and threaded conversations. Xobni is a great start, and has truly engaged a thoughtful discussion about the direction email is headed. I'm ready for the next step where email starts to shed its mail persona and take a more evolved collaboration approach.

My company has recently released an internal social network. Getting to the site is a pain - passwords are entered multiple times and pop-ups appear in every corner of the screen - and it doesn't have much beyond my basic info. The idea is to encourage networking - creating this online community; unfortunately, they have failed to realize the best social network they have is already well established in email. They already have my network - my contacts, their contacts, how often I reach out to them, and about what; they have my abilities - where I've been staffed, my role, and duration. Why can't I add a picture, interests, capabilities, or papers to my address card? Everything is there waiting to be used, waiting to be labeled, placed into threads, to-do's, reference...and it's just fading away when the email hits the 180 MB storage limit and it's not indexed. It's a sad day when  knowledge based company that depends on ideas let's them fall of the map into a personal archived oasis.

In its current iteration, Outlook is not the right client for this, but maybe one day. Gmail takes a great integrated approach, chat and email in one, and continues to set the pace. I'm tired of waiting for someone to do to the email client what flock did to the web-browsers. I want to see the weekly newsletters become an rss feeds, an integrated blog tool , document exchange, live search, group conversations, chat, and remove the silos. I want to organize my email vertically across conversations and horizontally across topics and projects. I don't have calendar events to be a group of emails sent out to the attends - I want it to be an event on the server that people are invited to, can see, and maybe update.

It's time to take control of my email.