Something Similar

In the past few months, I’ve allowed myself to slip. I haven’t been making many public commits, nor discussing much where others can see. It has me feeling like a bodybuilder who hasn’t touched a set of weights in the same amount of time. My work and my writing has atrophied. My ability to maintain code that other people depend upon has suffered, and my ego has, as well. Time to sharpen up.

The first part of this new commitment is that I’ll be making a minimum of 3 commits a week to rFeedParser, no matter how small. This one is a stepping stone to taking on more of a workout, and It gives me time to reacquaint myself with the code base. rFP has weird and hairy parts in it because the problem it was solving was weird and hairy. However, there are a good number of ugly parts that were created because a) I wrote it with the Python version in the next window over causing me to write with a strong Pythonic accent; and b) I wasn’t as skilled in Ruby as I am now.

The module hierarchy alone proves I was diving in and not giving a fuck. At a certain point, I was just trying to get it to goddamn work and not caring what kind of hack-and-slash maneuvers I had to pull off to make it happen. With the distance from the problem and the clearer head I have now, I can piece together how it should be done.

The second part is a commitment to one commit a week to one of my public side projects. Right now, this consists mainly of the strictly-for-fun-and-I’m-keeping-it-that-way-fuckers framework I’m writing called Recess. Everyone writes a web framework, and I’m going to be That Guy, too.

I’ll try not to be too snooty about it, but if the framework turns out well (or, at all, really), I probably will be. Like I’ve said before, my ego knows no bounds. But, remember! It’s just for fun. Really. Really.

As my plans and projects grow and adapt and interests wax and wane, there will, of course, be a call to change this commitment. This two-part commitment is only the first of what will be a series of changing, and, likely, growing vows to myself. Look to see a lot more work from me.

I begin the long move out to Los Angeles this Wednesday. I join a long line of nerds who make it good from a bit of code they wrote after finishing their shift at whatever shitty, shitty job they pay the rent with.

Mine was a Paneras. Before that, a Wendy’s. This is post-graduation. I worked at Wendy’s for 3 months after receiving my B.S. in Physics. I’ve never been able to communicate to anyone how truly horrifying that was.

Horrifying, in part, because I demand something damn near perfection in everything I do, even in my blog posts. And I haven’t written here for so long. My posts here and in my old blogs were kept short because I thought the writing was just terrible.

As you can tell, I’d given up on writing well for a while.

So, I’m moving out to LA this Wednesday. I was recruited for a position in the ActiveMedia Group at ICTV and the job is totally fucking sweet.

I’m working on a Ruby on Rails application and the group is being run, essentially, as a start-up within the larger ICTV company. We’re tying together web video and cable television in some startlingly cool ways. Think of everything everyone has said you should be able to do across the two mediums, and that’s what we’re doing. The weirdest part is how obvious some of the cooler ideas are, but only after you hear about them for the first time. I’m going to start keeping a list for when we can go public with it all. While I’m not sure what’s covered under my NDA, we are getting bids from $MAJORCABLECOMPANIES and it all seems to be out in the open.

Coolness kept secret sucks.

The job and myself will be located in Encino, CA (a suburb of LA) right in the heart of the Valley. No, not the Silicon one, the “like, oh my god” valley. It’s absolutely gorgeous and the Mexican food? Divine.

I’m having a hard time leaving Ohio. Here I gathered up the closest, richest set of friendships I’ve ever had. They are the most talented group of people with such most startlingly divergent abilities. We could easily take over the world and rule with a velvet fist.

Anyway.

I was recruited after Bob Aman of FeedTools fame saw me hyping my translation of Mark Pilgrim’s FeedParser from Python to Ruby, and thought it was pretty good. The translation, of course, is called rFeedParser and it really is pretty good. I’ll have a post on that soon. First, I want to fix the silly options bugs that I was turned on to a little while ago.

Anyway.

I just had to write again. If only to tell the story of the 3 day trip that turned into 5 that turned into a day at home and then 11 days back. That will be coming soon. You’ll love it.

• “Ask more questions.”
• Agnostica
• <QM|Fun>= 1

Some that know me might think the first absolutely ridiculous considering current behavior, but they are very wrong. Sorry, guys.

You don’t get many chances to start again.

I’m giving one a go.