Women Are in Charge at Home

A current study shows that even through dudes are the boss at work, they aren't at home.

See article here.

Although, there are the 90% of those poor souls that are NOT a boss at work.  So they get the big chili where ever they roam.  I guess that is why a dog is man's best friend... because they can trained to jump at the snap of a finger.

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

This is an amazing article about why we do so many of the things we do.  "We", meaning, our human society of course.

Contents:

1. Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them)
2. Humans are naturally polygamous
3. Most women benefit from polygyny, while most men benefit from monogamy
4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim
5. Having sons reduces the likelihood of divorce
6. Beautiful people have more daughters
7. What Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals
8. The midlife crisis is a myth—sort of
9. It's natural for politicians to risk everything for an affair (but only if they're male)
10. Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist

Check it out!

A Day of Change

Today is a start of a new me. People that have known me would describe me as aggressive, easily angered, driven, etc. I think it is a part of my genetic makeup as most of my family has the same issues. I've decided to try and change this because I'm tired of hurting people with my anger, expecting too much from people and myself, etc.

I cannot say what I'm changing exactly, as it is an experiment. I'm keeping a mental list of what I need to make this change. If successful, I'll post it later for others to try. I'm a little worried because if all goes well, I may be altered enough that I might not be me anymore. But nevertheless, when I try something I go all out.

I'll try to keep this blog going concerning my mental progress as this goes on.

Man in a Hooters Shirt

There I am driving down the road one day. I'm at a red light waiting for the notoriously long San Antonio lights to change green and there it is.

Wait for it....
Wait for it...

A man wearing, what appears to me, to be a woman's hooters shirt while bicycling through the intersection. I of course had to snap a pic with my camera and hope that I had the highest resolution by default. Of course, I think it worked out OK. Do you all see it?

Vonage: No tech 'workaround'

I'm a little ticked at what's going on between Vonage and Verizon. If you haven't already heard, basically Verizon filed a lawsuit against Vonage. The federal courts found Vonage guilty of unintentionally infringing on 3 of 7 claimed patents that Verizon owns. Two of the three were about making calls to public-switched telephone networks, while one was for making wi-fi calls.



I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little sick of the old fashioned patents and copyright laws here in the US. I can understand if a company completely ripped some technological details off from another company that spent time and money into R&D, but come on.



There days people are patenting ideas and not putting viable work into them.  Or they are doing what the oil industry does and hold on to all the patents that could work against them just to keep out competition which I find morally sickening.



Either way, read this article from USA Today: Vonage: No tech 'workaround'

David Blaine 2 - Hilarious Video

My friend Kyle IM'd this link to me. It is so F'ing funny!! If you ever watched David Blaine, the street magician, then you can take a way so many funny things about this parody. I just like how creative these guys are. It's a little long but enjoy.

T. Rex Related to Chickens

An adolescent female Tyrannosaurus rex died 68 million years ago, but its bones still contain intact soft tissue, including the oldest preserved proteins ever found, scientists say.

And a comparison of the protein’s chemical structure to a slew of other species showed an evolutionary link between T. rex and chickens, bolstering the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. (more...)

My Own Personal Wired Magazine Cover

Boy I got lucky on this one. I got my wired magazine in this month and saw that you could get next month's magazine with your picture on it if you were one of the first 1000 people to submit a pic. I submitted the picture I have here on my blog (a larger version of course) and hoped for the best.

Here is the email I got saying I'm good to go.

Telling people what you think about them

One thing I could never understand is the logic that I hear from managers and from people I know outside of work.  If there is someone who is doing something you think is wrong, then tell it to their face.



I know this sounds like the moral thing to do, since we should be fair to each other and not talk behind each other's back, but does this approach ever work?



Everytime, I've seen this scenario occur, the individual doesn't get that revelation that they are wrong and give you the big thanks.  Instead, they get on the defensive and curse you (either to your face or behind your back).



So I wonder... what is the right thing to do?  I know what I do.  I stuff it down.

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Work at a Crossroads 2

Well, today seemed a little better at work. I did nothing but spend my time in meetings. So maybe I shouldn't say better since I'm not actually programming, but it just wasn't as depressing I guess.

Although, a friend of mine did give me this quote from his boss here before he left that answered a lot of my questions about this place:

"You are not software engineers here... you are application developers."

This was supposed to mean that we didn't need to do design and we shouldn't be wasting time looking into frameworks like struts or building reusable components.

Interesting I say.

Work at a Crossroads

I've been struggling lately about what I'd like to focus on in the coming years. For my entire career of almost 10 years of being a software engineer I've prided myself on my technical abilities. I've focused on knowing as much about computers, software, patterns, frameworks, etc. and being known as a "go-to" guy for advice on how to do things.

I'm at a crossroads as to what I want to do now. The current job I'm at isn't exactly the best place to be for the very technical. In fact, a lot of the best software developers seem to leave rather quickly. So we are always suffering.

The problem is that when the company hires IT employees, they look for highly seasoned, senior developers. When the developers finally start to work, they quickly realize they are doing about 5% software development, 45% business analyst work, and 50% application support (testing hardware/system upgrades, working on problem tickets, etc.).

I really like the company overall because of the all the great benefits it has. So I don't want to leave, but the work I'm doing now is not challenging and in fact very frustrating. So to keep myself challenged, I wonder if maybe moving to a new field would help, but stay at the same company. I don't know if this is a good or bad idea, but it seems like a way for me to not be so frustrated.

If I had my way, I would change the way the IT department is run. To me the kind of people being hired and the kind of work to be done is not compatible. I think a larger support personnel of non-engineers is needed along with a smaller group of true software engineers to create new software and update currently running software. This new group of true software engineers would be managed not my non-technical managers, but engineers who are true leaders. These leaders could ensure top-notch quality software and provide the business with faith in their systems that they depend on.

I'm may be wrong but I don't think so. I'm certain that we have so many improvements to make and in my opinion they are not happening fast enough. I'm sure I'll have more to share as my career goes on at my work place.

Life at 30

My birthday came and went. Tuesday, February 13, 2007, was the reason for so much hooplah! I basically had about 5 mini-parties/get-togethers/drinking nights. I have to say thanks to my wife, my family, and my friends for making me feel so very special.

I think a lot of my life, I've been more mature in a lot of my thinking than many people I've met through the years. And I've met thousands. I've known hundreds. Going from different cities to different schools to different jobs to different churches to different interests, you meet people... lots of people.

Since being 30 I've been called "old" more times than I have in my entire life before the turning day. I believe that people don't really come to know themselves until later in life, and even when they think they know themselves, really they are still changing and will be surprised even two years down the road. As much as it could come back to haunt me, and as much as these may sound conflicting, here are some facts about me, what I believe, and some wisdom that might help those that aren't "old".

• People are always growing.
• People don't change.
• People don't know who they are until much later in life.
• People look for love too soon.
• Life is fulfilled by little things (a cookie, sex, a glass of cold water on a hot day)
• Life is meaningful with large goals (meet the president, earn your first million, fly to the moon)
• Life would be simple for men if all men were gay.
• Life would be simple for women if all women were gay.
• Gay people have rights and are not lesser of people.
• Men are competitive but love comradery.
• Women love their girlfriends but are competitive.
• Men are too simple.
• Women are too complicated.
• There is more than one kind of love (Lover's love, puppy love, brotherly love, parent-to-child love, child-to-parent love, etc.).
• The English language is lacking for words that describe the different kinds of love.
• College doesn't necessarily make you smarter.
• College can make you feel more alive.
• At work, your job is to make your boss look good.
• At work, your boss's job is to make your work easier and give much of his/her thanks to you for his/her success.
• People don't quit jobs, they quit managers.
• People should work for 3 to 5 different companies/places before settling down.
• People are uncomfortable with change.
• People cause religion to change.
• God doesn't change.
• I want to believe there is a God.
• I don't believe Jesus is God.
• I do believe in the basic teachings of Jesus (and Budda)
• The Universe is too sophisticated and wonderful to not have been created.
• The Universe was not created in 6 days nor in 6,000 years.
• There is too much evidence to not believe in evolution.
• Science doesn't know everything.
• Science is not a religion.
• Without religion, society would not have become civilized.
• Religion can take civilization back thousands of years.