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.

Math

April is math awareness month! Check out these interesting articles, topics, problems, and facts about math:

Math, Origami, and Protein Folding from the NYTimes.

Are we wired for math? from the New Yorker (warning: long).

Math Education from the NYTimes.

Monty Hall problem - a classic that beats intuition.

Paul Erdos - my favorite mathematician.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers - my favorite popular math book (biography of the aforementioned Paul Erdos).

Topology - my favorite subject.

Pythagorean Theorem - a proof?

I'm going to get some chalk so I can tag the side walk with some proofs.

Capital Crescent

Another bike ride this weekend. With an ominous email sent out friday afternoon, "ride will be canceled if it's raining at 8 am," the ride was in flux, but the rained stayed away just enough to make for a pleasant day.

We met for breakfast in Georgetown. On my way to Georgetown, I saw Mayor Fenty spectating a little league game at 9 am with a red tie and an overarching umbrella that could have kept the entire dugout dry. I wanted to shout good job and give a big thumbs up, but I restrained myself. 

By the time I got to Dean & DeLuca, the slight drizzle cleared away, and it was nice enough to sit at their sidewalk cafe to enjoy a blueberry muffin and some coffee. The bike rack overflowed and the rumble of clip shoes pounding away on the brick sidewalk dominated the early morning noise. 

With a few instructions, a count of people, and a couple snippets of advice we were on the Capital Crescent trail. The trail follows old railroad tracks along Potomac and through the leafy parts of the city. At mile 6 we split off from the tracks and headed up MacArthur blvd into the heart of the prestigious suburbs that comprise Montgomery Co. I peddled and peddled, past the mini mansions and let their fancy cars power by me. The ride ended at Great Falls Park which unfortunately I didn't have enough time to explore. 

We headed back to Georgetown, this time down hill, and got lunch - lunch after a forty mile ride tasted pretty good.

Also in the news of today:

I bought Rock Band.

I made Granola.

I clean my apartment to make room for Rock Band.

Today was eventful.

Technology and me

Let me digress. Coming in the workforce without experience, a day doesn't go by that I don't learn something new at work. Code aside too, I'm being pushed. The applications I make replace systems - systems built with oracle forms, access, SQL Server, and other mismatched technology. People's jobs and daily tasks depend on the work I do, and I take pride in the quality and usability of my applications. However well I feel I do, the legacy systems seem to creep along rolling over small unappealing traits that the user expects. "It used to look like this. Why does it now look like this? Why is the button here? What are my roles? Do I have access to this. Well, no I don't use it, but sometimes if they ask me this then I could find the answer there." It's nothing personal with what I developed, it is just what they used everyday for four years and now it's completely different.

I decided to take a similar adventure - learn something new. A language, a new framework, a new idea, and see how I do. With the elite jumping off the Ruby on Rails bandwagon, I decided there was room for me to jump on. I didn't know any Ruby and never used rails. A simple google search, "ruby rails os x," reviled a quick tutorial. Installed Ruby, RubyGems, Rails, and MySQL and I was off. Wait, I've learned my lesson before - bookmark the Ruby and the Rails docs. Okay now search "ruby rails os x." Generate a migration script, fill in some fields, and type the word scaffold. Then "oh! There is my first ruby on rails webpage. Not too much exciting just Create, Read, Update, and Destroy (CRUD) functionality. I explored further. What else does this get me? Pagination. A few more lines of code and I got some validation. Let's take this a little further. For the first few tasks the general work flow was google search, cut, paste, edit, try again, try again, oh I see, try again, and works. Without much experience I navigated around the RubyOnRails magic. I didn't jump in, just dabbled and took things in small steps, a change here does this, a change there does that.

"Convention over configuration" or Ruby magic are RoR's unofficial slogans; at first, it was frustrating - this unexpected behavior. Eventually, I found out that if I want to configure I can, but it just takes investigation and google to find out where. If Ruby On Rails was someone's first framework, it hides the MVC standard. I can live with that as long as we don't end up with a generation of PHP hackers.

The Scene

I earned double hipster points this week. Once on thursday by showing up at work with a Black Cat stamp on my hand from the Jens Lekman show, and once on Friday by the Black Cat stamp on my hand from the Les Savy Fav show.

Hipster points this month: 2. Good start to April. I'm not positive how the scale works, but I might get a bonus point because both shows were sold out. Tickets to a sold out show are always a great fact for a formulated conversation at work.

"What's that on your hand?"

"Oh, yeah I tried to wash that off. It's from the Black Cat show last night."

"I heard that was sold out! How'd you get tickets?"

The Jens show was fun. The band was dressed in black rather than white, and the airplane dance moves warmed my heart again. Most everyone in the crowd seemed to be in love with Jens; don't blame them.

On Friday, Tim Harrington, the Les Savy Fav singer, spent time in between songs parodying the show 24 and it continued after the encore from backstage. Through all his antics on stage he manage to hold on to the microphone even when he changed light-bulbs while walking on top of the bar - professional. He owns his own textile company.

Long walk today. Got an empanada, and then found the new Target.

Bicycles and Cherry Blossoms

Saturday couldn't have shaped up to be a better day. Around 8 am, I pumped air into my bicycle tires after a winter of neglect, and found my way into Rock Creek Park. I met up with Ryan in Rosslyn, and rode down the Potomac for breakfast in Old Town. After a light snack and a few introductions, the cycling team was off towards Mt. Vernon. The trail winded along the river, in and out of trees, and over the marsh on wooden bridges. After relaxing with George Washington, we made our way back to the District; however, Saturday was the perfect storm for the National Mall. With a moderate temperature and a bright sun, the cherry blossoms peaked underneath the mass of kites flowing in the Kite Festival wind. The traffic was worse than Tuesday rush hour.

We rolled over the 14th St bridge, moving casually towards the bank of the Potomac that was painted red from the fully bloomed cherry blossoms that sat below the swirling kites and Washington Monument. Baseball caps, wind-breakers, camera straps, and sunglasses dominated the scene. With excitement everywhere, people wandered in any direction; cross walked signals were ignored, because the streets had turned into a parking lot of running cars. 

On the way home, we passed cars on the left (surprisingly is legal), and some large tour buses just started to follow us and ended up in the opposite lane. We turned off 15th before we found out what happened to the buses.

I didn't have my camera for the trip, but I was able to just enjoy yesterday. I've been told this marks the beginning of tourist season, and the lines return any day now. Until then I'll just enjoy my bicycle. 

I need a bell.

Google search

Google search: "Charles Hagman"

One of the first results: a video entitled "Crazy Crazy Dancing Charles Hagman."

My first thought: this is probably me.

It was.

Software

I get paid to create software, but I haven't paid for software for years. Strange that it works out somehow.

My Thoughts while running

Outside: "Google maps lied. This has to be longer than 5 miles. This would be easier if I was chasing a ball. Not another hill."

On the treadmill: "This is the longest commercial break ever. When will it end? Worst 2 minutes of my life. TV is terrible. Another commercial break? That's it I'm changing the channel. Which button is channel up. Don't look, don't fall. Found it. Commercial! Screw this I'm going to read a book on the bike."

This week

This week started with a federal holiday turned training event for us. We received name tags with a colored dot on them. The color of the dot corresponded to the color table we should sit at for the morning session. The idea to network. The usual games, find what you have in common. I found that I had nothing in common with them. "We all own cars, right?" "Oh oh of course. We're not crazy, write it down." "Ah, actually I don't."

"We are all the oldest sibling." "No, I'm the youngest."

"We all came from the big four." "No, I just graduated."

Annoyed by my unintentional nay-saying, the conversation turned to me listing my traits trying to find some agreement. "Saw Juno? No. Read Kite Runner? No. Hm. Read the paper daily? No. Lived in another country? No... Like baby carrots?" In the end we found some, but nothing remarkable enough to compete for the most unique, which should have been won by the all participated in Rocky Horror picture show table.

At the end of the day, around 1pm after a free lunch, we were released. All in all, I spent 6 hours in Bethesda, MD and arrived home to take a midday nap. I miss naps.

This week is Jeporady Teen Tournament - garbage.

Netflix allows you to have friends, share your queue, make recommendations etc... No thanks. I don't need someone judging me about my tastes in movies. I'll keep that private and hidden in the gaudy red envelopes that arrive weekly.

Training schedule for this week:

Monday: Rest day. Yes. (0 minutes)

Tuesday: Walk 1 minute, run 8 minutes, three times (24 minutes)

Wednesday: Walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, three times (30 minutes)

Thursday: Walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, four times (40 minutes)

Friday: Rest day. I like rest days. (0 minutes)

Saturday: Walk 1 minute, run 11 minutes, four times (48 minutes)

Sunday: Walk 1 minute, run 14 minutes, twice (30 minutes)

Dinner

Chili is what's for dinner. I just made 6 -8 servings. I'm 3 for 3 on bringing my lunch to work this week.

Welcome to 1965:

Welcome to 1998:

Welcome to the future:

Mr. T

I've had a long standing obsession with Mr. T. He consistently found his way in to school projects, stories, and just about anything else I could make. His legacy seemed to fade away despite the release of the A-team DVD's. I just witnessed Mr. T in a world of warcraft commercial where he claimed that he was good with computers and created his own character mohawk elf. I'm glad Mr. T is back. Maybe one day he'll be on Conan again.

Evaluation

As a young college student, I strove to figure it out. How do I write a good paper? Wait too fast. How do I start a writing a good paper? Well alright now that I tried, how do I revise a bad paper? My thoughts and ideas outpaced my ability to write, but that didn't discourage my optimism. A sporadic day after the assignment was due, the professor would rumble into the room juggling more than usual. The early morning murmurs would trail away as students eyes shifted to the door to catch a glimpse of a flustered professor fumbling one too many items. Attention was stead fast as the extra item - the fat stack of papers - slammed the barren desk. "I've finished grading your papers. You'll receive them at the end of class." A cacophony would ring out when a few members of the peanut gallery grumbled, came to terms with the beginning of class, shifted in their seats, plopped open their binders, and clicked their mechanical pencils. Cliffhangers were not popular amongst this bunch.

Largely, it would slip my mind until the last 5 minutes. I'm not going to wait after class to get this paper. This better wrap up soon I'd think. On occasion I'd softly pack my belongings and convince myself it was imperative that I leave on time. My eyes darted between the professor and clock. Get the hint, get the hint. Finally. "Thanks." I'd thumb through the paper catching the tone of the comments scribbled in the margins, survey the grade, slipped the paper in my bag, and stroll out a few minutes early.

One paper I received with clean margins had just two markings - "B please rewrite." There was nothing particularly bad about a B, and in fact B meant good; however it was class policy that the first paper less than a B+ had to be rewritten. I had 48 hours. Back in my room, I flipped on the cold lamp situated above my computer and rested my paper next to the keyboard in the dull yellow spotlight. What to change? There were no comments. Stupid rewrite. I ended up changing a bit here and there - sprucing up the language. The paper was nothing remarkable, but I remember it because of the questions I pondered with the blank B I received.

It was not about the B. I was not in college to figure out how to get B's and A's - a simple evaluation. I was there to think for myself; to be educated, not just evaluated. When I got over the evaluation I received, I was able to think for myself. For whatever reason there were no comments on that paper (probably because the paper was a B; it was just hard to say why), I took something from it. These four years are about my growth, not my scores.

We should focus our efforts on the methods and culture surrounding education, rather than the results. We need to eliminate the stigma of a kid with a book or doing math problems is nerdy.

O'Hare

1. Grievances
-Airlines have had trouble getting my flights off the ground on time. My past 6 flights have been delayed an hour or more. David Sedaris's reflections article about transcontinental air-travel kept me sane.
-Bookjackets are an infuriating invention. I don't like reading with them on the book. With each turn of the page the book wiggles a bit in an attempt to free itself from the loose confines of the jacket and its pretentious quotes. Removing the  jacket is a bold move, because me and my neurosis do not like to lose them. I can't get over the feeling of falling into a soft chair, wrapping a blanket over my legs, hearing the suttle click of the reading lamp the rifles through the silence, and feeling the cloth like binding and thick pages sandwiched between my thumb and index finger.

-What did they call the index finger before index cards? Wikipedia has no answer.

2. People at Airports

-Please don't wear velour jump suits; you're in public.

-Look where you are walking

-You do not need to wait for somebody to help you at the self-check-in.

3. Internet

-I laughed at the amount of online profiles someone had, only to realize I had more. This is out of hand - Google, Yahoo!, Start-Up, Google purchased start up(now two id's same profile), Start-Up, and so on. I need to consolidate. Web 2.0 is Web Out of Control. I'm looking forward to when the phrase web 2.o is left in 1995, or wherever it came from.

4. Things I'm waiting for

-A consulting firm that specializes in Facebook and OpenSocial apps.

-Another online profile

-To read the books I own

-When I learn to use punctuation properly or at all