What G-Mail theme do you use?

I asked this just about a month and a half ago to my Facebook friends list. The results were actually quite interesting… A programmer? Classic. An airline pilot? No interface (go-go mobile). Someone in medicine? The sunset theme. Someone who has fully embraced their inner child? Ninja theme. Me? The Android theme.

The theme fits the person, in every case, and the more you know about them, the more it makes sense why they’d choose what they’d choose. Heck, I chose mine because I find the colour scheme more calming than the stock one, but it maintains the clean straight forward crispness I seek as a developer. It really got me thinking about when it comes to my work, how much customization to give. Sure, it’s always a nice thing, but when is enough, enough? It’s never something I add early on, and moreover it’s something I only really play with when I have the extra time and am not working on something bigger. But I’m at that point in one project, so I’m trying to think this thru…

As I sat here tonight, attempting to work thru another UI design, this thought process came thru my head, and I must admit I think writing this out helped me a bit. Designs are intended to be simple, but at the same time just customizable enough to allow people to have their own “feeling” without destroying the functionality of the item.

Now granted, I won’t go as far as some people who think that just because a system is customizable that it is an ugly thing by default. But in the end of things, that’s what the people wanted to make it now isn’t it? Hmm, more to think about…

Oh well, just kinda rambling. Hope everyone is well, and I’ll write more later.икониикониПравославни икони

I feel ashamed.

Tonight my twitter, my Facebook, my circle of social contact is spammed with the messages of cheer that a single individual has been martyred. Sure, okay, he did bad things, really terrible things. I’m not denying that in the least, there are some insanely powerful people out there doing stupid things with their power and causing countries and people worlds and worlds of hurt. But let me lay something out there for you:

A life, no matter whose life, is something worth respecting.

I almost laughed when I saw people who are devout in their religious beliefs cheering at the death of another human being. Did your book and faith not tell you that’s wrong? From my works in theology, even a simple person like myself knows it’s wrong to wish death upon someone… and yet here they are, doing it blindly, as though to scream out “Amurica, fuck yea”… But this isn’t even a religious argument. It’s simply a moral one…

Hell, if anything, you should be more afraid. A simple history lesson will tell you that every time an evil is defeated, a bigger, more bad evil is just around the corner.

Maybe I’ll make some people upset with this, maybe I’ll make some people mad. But if I make just one person think before they jump on the bandwagon, then my work here is done. Who knows, maybe now we’ll actually fix what’s been broken within our own borders during this “war”… I can only hope.

(Sub-note: I want to make it extremely clear before even one person suggests otherwise of my statements. I completely support our troops, I believe each person over there made their choice, and I support that decision with 100% of the person that I am. I just don’t believe the ends justified the means. How many sons were lost so that people could sit at home for a brief moment and believe that one less boogy man exists in the world? How many? Imagine if it were your husband/wife/son/daughter/father/mother/neighbor/friend.)

For those who don’t know, from the 5th thru the 12th of April, I was up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 12 hours each direction of flying, and let me tell you that’s a story that’ll be covered later on in this post, but never the less… you really get an appreciation for the length of the travel when you hear it in terms of hours in flight. My trip over there was quite relaxing, on my hop from Portland, Oregon to Toronto, Ontario, Canada the plane was even only about half full! So we had plenty of room to stretch out and actually enjoy the flight instead of being all cramped up. Quite enjoyable, and make the trip seem less painful as I plugged in my laptop and enjoyed a movie and working on a couple projects.

Then I landed in Halifax at about 10:30pm local time. As per norm for me travelling, I hadn’t slept the night before, so I had been up for going on 40 hours at this point. But I was alive, I was enjoying it, and I was happy to be there. Erin, whom I had gone on the visit to see, was there to meet me, and we used a transport service called Driver Daves, which if you’re ever in the Halifax area and need a ride to and from the Airport? I highly recommend! We gathered my luggage and set off for her place. Getting back to her place about 11:30pm, my travel had finally come to an end. It was so nice to just be able to stretch… ugh, finally.

Over the next couple days, we explored Halifax, and I got to witness first hand this city I had been hearing about for over 2 years. My only regret? That I didn’t stop to take more photos. But I’ll admit I was completely unprepared for the wind portion of the weather there and as such it was rather nippy you might say. It still surprises me as I think back on it how much the area reminded me of a smaller version of the Seattle area I grew up in. Nice people, culturally diverse, wonderful food, wonderful atmosphere, just all around good times.

Over the weekend, we took the 4 hour drive north to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and visited her parents for a night. PEI has a remarkably small population for a province, only something like 130,000 people live there, and as you’re driving from the Confederation Bridge across to Charlottetown you really get an appreciation for all the farm land that exists out there. Then we arrived… and it was almost immediately obvious I was in for a bit of a surprise. (Granted, I knew it was happening, but I had no idea to the extent) I was flat out shocked at the sheer amount of amazing food they decided to make. I could instantly tell it was something her parents enjoyed doing, and I felt honoured and humbled by the entire experience. Not exactly something that happens a lot to me.

It was on the way back from PEI that I had what I’d consider a moment of clarity. Ever have one? Where everything in your world just feels right, everything is going according how you’d think, and you just know? Yea, had one of those…

Needless to say, the end result is, Erin and I are now engaged.

I’m working on getting everything in order to move up (or down as the case may be) to Halifax. I’m working on getting everything locally in order, and I’m going to be leaving Northern Idaho. It’s a big move, and it won’t be without bumps, but it’s something that feels right, and it’s something that I want to do. So here’s to it.

And you know? There was more I was going to say, but that feels like a pretty good place to close this post, and I’ll save that for another one. So in closing, here’s a couple pictures that I took while on the trip. Enjoy.

Идея за подарък

For the last 3 years, I’ve been increasingly active in Earth Hour, which is to say I’ve shut my lights off and encouraged others to do so. It’s really a simple concept: for one hour, one day of the year, you shut down your electrical hold on the planet. You don’t have to go anywhere special, you don’t have to do anything above and beyond, you just have to kill your power for at least an hour. And let me tell you, it’s actually quite enjoyable…

See, for all that I am a technology based person, the things that matter the most are the ones that I do when unplugged. Spending time with someone, spending time sitting there drinking a wonderful drink and scribbling in a notepad, getting away from the electric world and going camping. And that’s just the start of the list. It’s ironic to me that I send this message in a completely electric medium, but the simple fact of the matter is, the more people get away from technology in their lives from time to time, the happier we are. We sleep better, we dream better, we smile more, and most importantly, we see so many things that we often just let slip past us.

This year, the good people at Earth Hour are encouraging people to take steps beyond the 60 minute mark. You’ll see their logo listed as “60+” everywhere, and it’s a statement of more than just extending the time of darkness, but doing things that will have an effect on your entire year. Personally? I’m going to support the businesses that are doing amazing things to make a difference in our world by getting us away from our dependence on petroleum. Some examples? Coca-Cola and Pepsi have both already designed and begun implementing bottles for their products that are made from plant-based materials. This is huge if you’ve ever stopped to consider how many of these bottles (despite the efforts of the recyclers on the planet) end up in land fills. There are so many other companies making strides like this that are going to have lasting and positive changes to our planet, and my resolution for planet Earth this year is to support them at every available opportunity.

The question is, what are you going to do?

I’ve spent some time doing some light reading up on the area, and it’s remarkably similar to the area I grew up in for being over 3200 miles away (~5400 km, for those in metric! Oh yea, learning that conversion in my head quickly too). Surrounded by water, city on a hill, only real thing missing is the amazing mountain shots. But by the same token, Halifax has a music and food culture that I’d just about kill for. You don’t realize how little you have around you, until you really take a look at somewhere else. Maybe it’s the fact that Idaho has almost nothing in comparison, maybe it’s that I just need a change of pace, or maybe there’s something I haven’t quite said here yet that is really driving me. Odds are really good it’s the last one, but that’s a story for another post now isn’t it?

At any rate, April 5th I leave for Halifax, and return about a week later. After that? Who knows now, but things are looking good, and I’m super excited for this trip. March is going to be a very long month indeed, any suggestions for speeding it up a bit?

In closing, I want to point out to everyone something that was linked by my friend Andy on his Facebook account. In this article by the Huffington Post there is an amazing video showcasing some of the beautiful things that make the Seattle area so incredibly special. I urge everyone to go check it out, and see just how wonderful an area most of the people who know me grew up in. I was so taken back by the music in the piece, that I went in search of a full copy, and Erin actually found the link I’m about to share. Enjoy some just damn good music.

Mat Kearney — City of Black and White

Til later.

For those who haven’t heard, I’m in the process of moving across the continent, to Canada, to start my life a new. It came out of nowhere, and it’s an opportunity I’d be a complete fool to pass up. I won’t make that mistake again, I’m grabbing life by the horns, and doing this. Tickets are purchased, I’ll be flying out for a visit in the beginning of April, and then attempting to make the move sometime there after. I can honestly say I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. It excites me, fills me with energy, and gives me reason to fight thru each day with a smile on my face and a passion in my soul.

While I’m there, you can be sure this site will be filled with photos, experiences, and memories I wish to share with the public. My Canon PowerShot SX20 IS will be taking the trek with me, and I’ll be snapping many many pictures of the new area. It’ll be my first venture living outside the northwest, and I look forward to the different experiences it will bring me. Moreover, since I’ll be moving out of the country, it’ll be even more entertaining, let me tell you what… the process of immigrating is not one I wish on anyone. E-gads.

I guess I’m writing this to catch up, to say yes, I’m alive and well now. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, thinking about what might happen, and I’m ready for it. There’s more to tell, so much more, but for now I’d like to close this one, and save those stories for another day.

My inner muse has returned in part, so you should be seeing more frequent updates from me on this site. I hope everyone is well, and if you want to, drop a line in the comments! I’d love to hear from ya’ll.

Til then.

As a society, we spend too much time running around, not taking time to treasure the moments that allow us to just enjoy the moment for what it is and not worry about what the next will bring. I urge you, take the time this week to just sit down and enjoy a moment. You’ll thank yourself. Hell, grab a friend, and go get your Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal from Starbucks this weekend on their holiday drinks.

In other news, I learned a couple of things… Evidently the gas gauge in my car is off a bit, and I let it get a bit low. Mental note to self: Quarter of a tank == refill. Car wouldn’t start this morning. Oh well, I’m sure it’s happened to more people than just me.

I also learned of this amazing website… Simply entitled: youparklikeanasshole.com. I’m gonna print out a few of these and see how many I can get away with posting on people’s vehicles. Cause damn… I don’t know about where you live, but up here a lot of red-necks with their F-350s that don’t seem to understand there are white lines that separate parking spots. Who knows, maybe they’ll listen, maybe they’ll get offended, but either way, I’ll feel like I’m doing my Boy Scout “Good deed daily” by letting them know they’re being an asshole.

At any rate, today has been a good day thus far, lets hope for many more in the future. I hope everyone out there is ramping up for a great holiday season, and I’ll definitely be posting more as it goes along. I’ve got a lot on my mind.

Til then.

Monday night, I open my door only to find a “We missed you” card from the post office. It listed for a parcel, and I hadn’t exactly ordered anything, so my mind started running thru the gambit of things it could potentially and logically be. Wrong address? Doubtful, I live in Idaho for petes sake, I mean really now… Package from family? Well a) it’s a bit early in the season for that, and b) it was marked with delivery confirmation, which no one in my family would typically do, so nope, not that. Well what else could it be? I was totally stumped. Oh well I figured, I’ll just go check it tomorrow, and figure it out.

Sure enough, 10:30am and I was down at the Coeur d’Alene Post Office to pick up my mystery package and finally put an end to this confusion. And then I got the biggest shock of all. A friend, a very good friend, who is one of the people I can talk to things about, decided I needed a bit of a pick me up and sent me a care package. I was … to put it mildly … in shock. I don’t typically get such things, and I honestly had no way to know how to react. Irony is, I’ve sent quite a few of them myself, and I’ve often wondered how people take getting such a thing, but it’s never stopped me in the past. Now as I sat there with box in hand, I realised exactly how that felt, and you know what? As I lay here unable to get back to sleep, I now know that simple gesture turned around my faith in humanity.

It’s the little things that make the biggest difference, and as we head forward into the holiday season, I’d like everyone to remember that. It’s not about what we’re expected to do, it’s not about what we’re planning to do, it’s the little things that happen each and every day, the little surprises that happen every once in a blue moon, it’s those things that keep us remembering that this is a life worth living and enjoying to it’s fullest each and every day. If you take nothing else from the ramblings of this red headed wacko, take that with you, please, and share it.

And to that person, I just want to say yet again. Thank you.