Posts in the “personal” category

Places I’m sending money to on Giving Tuesday: The Scala Center, Drupal.org, The Mastocytosis Society, my niece’s non-profit application, and Providence Zen Center.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread,
air, light, spring,
but never your laughter,
for I would die.

~ Pablo Neruda

CBS is reportedly working on a reboot of the Northern Exposure television series. The series had more of an impact on my life than any other tv series — I ended up living in Alaska — so more power to them.

Some people come into your life and even if they don’t stay in it for long, they make an impact that changes you forever. Happy birthday to two people this month, one who made my life miserable, and another who made it wonderful.

The New York Times has a good article about a “55 and better” living community called Latitude Margaritaville.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

I just saw that the first person to take a chance on me out of college — and a person who would become a mentor to me — passed away last November. Frank Jordan, thank you for everything you did for me. You are missed, and I’m sorry we didn’t stay in touch.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a thousand words about what the Republican and Democratic parties look like in the United States.

~ image from this tweet

This is probably the coolest and creepiest thing you’ll see all week: Baby owls in the loft.

Per Dr. Tania Dempsey, one of the leading researchers in the mast cell field, “MCAS/MCAD causes chronic inflammation in multiple organs/tissue/systems, with or without allergic-type problems and sometimes even abnormal growth and development in various tissues, and there can be acute flares of symptoms.”

Anyone who has seen the inside of my body through MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds will agree with that statement. (I write that with Surgery #8 coming up in about three weeks. As usual, a very experienced doctor used words like, “I’ve never seen that before,” “abnormal,” yada yada yada.)

“Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do.”

~ Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

I’ve been working on a Kotlin book on and off for the past few months, and this morning I pulled a Steve Jobs on myself and canceled the project, even though it’s about 75% complete (by chapter count).

The problem with the book is that at this point it doesn’t contain anything unique, although arguably my way of explaining things might be better than other approaches. Unlike the Scala Cookbook, which provides solutions to common Scala problems, and Functional Programming, Simplified, which provides a unique approach to explaining functional programming in Scala, I don’t feel like there’s anything new here.

So, in short, without getting into the details of what’s next, the “vision guy” part of me decided that there are better things to do with my time. (And if you’ve ever been on a project that was canceled and you thought it was hard to take, imagine canceling your own project.)

“Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.”

~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.”

~ Hafiz (here’s a link to the full poem)

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”

~ I’ve seen this thought come from many people, but this particular quote is from Steven Furtick

One tin soldier. :)

Speaking as a guy, a nice thing about the local JC Penney is that nobody seems to want to help you. I went in there to look at suits, and nobody bothered me the whole time, which was nice. I’ll ask for help if I need it.

Conversely, I went to the local Dillards to look at suits, and right away someone was all over me trying to make suggestions. Personally I don’t like that. I don’t mind if someone introduces themselves, but then (IMHO) they should leave you alone. Personally I’m much more likely to buy something if you give me time to compare things and make up my own mind instead of trying to sell me on something. As I wrote in A Survival Guide for New Consultants, a good salesperson is really a buyer’s assistant, and sometimes that means giving the buyer space and time to think.

(I left the Dillards pretty quick when it became apparent they weren’t going to leave me alone.)

“If you care about someone you have to let them be the person they are, not the person you want them to be. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

~ From an episode of “Death in Paradise”

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”

~ Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (as heard in Midsomer Murders)

“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

~ possibly by Thomas Jefferson