Today is: Thursday, 2nd September 2010
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Technology, Web Development and Saltwater Fly Fishing, not in that order.
And now for something completely different…
Ministry of Silly Walks – Monty Python. Because its definitely that sort of day…
A Day at the Beach
Misquamicut Beach was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it. The state beach closed early and word was out there wasn’t a grain of sand to be seen between the blankets.
the girls had a blast. MacKenzie playing in the surf while Madison dug the biggest hole I’ve ever seen. she could dig foxholes for the army.
Thoughts on Hitting the Half Century Mark
It’s official, I’m now 50 years old. So get off my lawn, ya darned hippies! Get a haircut!
The transition to “grumpy old man Cahill” is now pretty much complete. In addition to a new found desire to buy a straw fedora, drive 40 in the fast lane on the Pike, and hit the early bird special at Denny’s, I’ve also got some advice for all you young whippersnappers
- Get better by being better – talking about it is one thing. Actually making the changes that are needed to improve is much harder. In the long run, the harder route is often the best.
- Surround yourself with the best – you can’t do it all, so try to have the best team around you.
- Find a mentor and be a mentor – I’ve been lucky to have had some great people like David Churbuck, Max Jordan, Marcel Badowski, Ed Andrews and others help me in the past. I try to return the favor every chance I get by helping the younger team members.
- Humor helps – there’s so much in life that can tear you apart. Keep your humor and it’ll be that much more bearable.
- Find problems and fix or eliminate them – life’s too short, don’t tolerate the crap. Make it better or make it go away.
- Keep your friends and family close – in the end, the time you spend with them is the time you cherish. Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while today, or better yet, go and see them.
- Crush your enemies coldly and without mercy lest they rise again – what did you expect, all puppies and unicorns? When you need to do something, get it done!
For anyone that’s interested, we’ll be celebrating the birthday Saturday night at the Point Breeze in Webster at 8pm. Come on down if you’re in the area!
Random Thoughts
A bit of randomness…since I’ve been working like crazy the past two weeks.
- Once again we have a foiled terrorist attack and the media immediately blames the usual suspect, middle age white guys. Talk about racial profiling…
- The striped bass have hit Boston Harbor. Personally, I want to head to the Cape and try the rivers for schoolies this weekend.
- I’m laying off the Red Sox tweets for a while. Still watching the games, but I see we’ve still got exactly the problem we had last year: streaky hitting that makes for decent personal stats and an early Fall golf season for the players.
- I’m shocked and dismayed that everyone is complaining about Arizona trying to enforce immigration law. Who would honestly suggest a full open border policy, especially with the drug crime alone our southern border? When our national government decides it will selectively enforce legally enacted laws, we’ve got a big problem. If immigration law is a problem, fix it, don’t ignore it. It sets an nasty precedent.
- Sutton, MA, where I live has one of the highest property tax rates in the state. They want to build a new high school, and honestly, they need it. The old one is in horrid shape, I’ve been there recently. The funding battle ought to be interesting…
- WordPress 3.0 will be out soon. This merges the WordPress MU fork and regular old WordPress. It ought to be interesting. I am looking forward to getting rid of one MU setup I have laying around in favor of the more familiar main branch of code.
- I’m particularly feeling the lack of a boat this season. I REALLY want to get something…
Lack of posts…
I’ve been ultra-busy as of late. I’ll be posting over the weekend so look forward to some new and substantive content soon.
Show a Little Pride
I’ve been working with software engineers for a long time. The best are all united in one common attribute: pride.
Not pride in the sense of the deadly sin, no, I mean the good kind. The kind that makes them make that extra effort to ensure their product works right, or their website stays up, or their system isn’t going to need constant care and feeding.
Most of these folks (and I say folks as this certainly isn’t males only crowd…) would be utterly chagrined if I called them out here, so I won’t. What I will do is call on everyone else to try to be more like the best. Show the pride in your work!
Some things to do:
- Don’t leave your problems for other people to sort out later.
- If you see something broken, even if it isn’t yours, perhaps you ought to consider fixing it. Or starting the ball rolling towards a resolution…
- Don’t stand for lousy architecture, esp. just because “we don’t have the time to fix it.” We all know you’ll spend more time in the long term maintaining junk.
- Lead by example – show the other team members the way to success, esp. the junior members. At the very least it’s less time you’ll spend in the long term fixing problems they make, but more over, it’s your duty. Someone at sometime helped you…now it’s your turn. Make someone else better!
Further, the general suggestion works well throughout your life. You’ll find yourself much happier when you are proud and help the people around you. Trust me on this…
iCoffin
I’ve got no words for this one. Brilliant…
I’ve been using Twitter now for 2.5 years. Honestly, I’m still grappling with the question: what the heck is Twitter?
16 Aug 10 | 












