Posts tagged life

Mini Review: 2009

What They Call The “Real Life”

  • 2008 ended with me getting unemployed. The decision being made for me was a catalyst to finally make my move. I was planning to get out of employment in 2009 anyways, so, you know. Thank you, Yahoo!.
  • Early in the year I went freelance. As mentioned, I had played with the idea for a while by then, so that was pretty cool. And scary.
  • Got a few clients, and managed to keep a good “client work vs. own projects” ratio. I’m not getting rich working like this, but I’d like to be truly happy in my job for once, so it’s important for me to keep the balance there.
  • My first freelance project, a WoW-related site named CharPool, was a personal success, but failed nonetheless. About a month after launching it other sites with similar functionality came out and kind of crushed it. I guess I had waited too long to act on the idea for the site. So, in December, I’ve turned the server off. Well, live and learn.
  • Speaking of learning, I’ve learned a boatload of new things this year. Lots of Ruby-related things, of course, but also a lot of *nix stuff. Fun!
  • Among other things, I rewrote my Twitter contact management site TwerpScan — and had the chance to give a quick talk about it for a mixed audience here in Munich. Another first for me, and I’ve enjoyed it.
  • Got myself two ebook readers, a Bookeen Cybook Gen3 and a Amazon Kindle 2. Both nice, but the latter wins, hands down. What a refined piece of technology!
  • I’m currently knee-deep in RubyCocoa code, which I consider a road to MacRuby, which I need for my next big project… Loving it!
  • Finally got me an iPhone.

Friends & Family

  • In August, I had the honor of being best man for M & E. Beautiful, beautiful wedding. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend. I love you guys. :)
  • We went up to Northern Germany for a nice vacation, including hooking up with my man Hendrik who showed us his hellhole of a city the (mostly) pretty parts of Hamburg ;), and a visit to the BUGA 2009 (i.e. the annual “German Federal Horticultural Show”).

Games & Movies

  • Biggest surprises this year: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed II. Both games I knew about but didn’t have much interest in, until Mike would lend them to me, and then… I really didn’t see them coming, but they hit me hard. Good stuff. :)
  • Also notable this year: the two GTA IV DLC packs, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Wars.
  • Avatar — holy shit. That movie really hit the spot for me. Also great: District 9. A good year for scifi, methinks.

Verdict

  • Awesome year. Really, really good. :)

Here’s to 2010. May it be as good as 2009 was.

2009 — My Grand Experiment

As mentioned earlier, Yahoo! decided to shut down its entire Munich engineering department. So since January 1st, I am officially out of a job.

What a downer… or is it?

After some deliberation and discussions with Dana, I’ve decided to concentrate on the bright side: I have a few ideas for products (read: websites), and now I finally have the time to work on them. I’ve always contemplated building them in my spare time while still being employed, but apart from a few small experiments (which were fun to write but are hardly my personal “next big thing”) that concept didn’t work out so well.

Thus, I’ve decided to concentrate on my own stuff in 2009 — full frontal self-employment. That’s right, I’m an entrepreneur now.1

I plan on spending about half a year to bring my ideas to life, and then taking on freelance jobs later on to bolster the income these site will (hopefully) generate. My ideas are related to gaming, both because it’s something I love and because I am definitely seeing a market there. I think my concept is sound, and I know I can build this …thing. It won’t be easy, but I have no problems working for my money. ;)

I don’t know whether it will work out or not, but I want, nay, need to try. The time certainly is as right as it gets. Actually, one could argue that I’ve waited a bit too long with my idea, since a “contender” appeared on the scene a short time ago.2 But I don’t see this as a showstopper, quite the contrary — it’s good to have competition as it keeps you on your toes. :)

So, 2009: it’s going to be my year. It’s a grand experiment, and while working alone I won’t be alone, as my wonderful wife and my friends are supporting me. Still, I don’t know yet whether I will succeed or if this kind of thing will be working for me. Quite honestly, this makes me a wee bit nervous.

Nonetheless, full steam ahead!

Yes I can.

  1. Actually, officially not yet, as there’s still a bit of paperwork to work through with a small number of different parties, but this won’t have any effect on the decision already made. ↩

  2. I could say he stole my idea, but that’d be bullshit: I didn’t tell it anyone, and besides — ideas are cheap, they only count when you pursue them. ↩

Mini Review: 2008

  • I was promoted. Then I lost my job. But I came to a conclusion, and found new goals. (More on this later.)
  • I had planned on running 250km, then hit that goal in October, and ended up doing 400km.
  • My granny passed away, and I miss her.
  • My faith in the USA was partially restored (the Obama campaign and its success even gave me hope, and I don’t even “count”).
  • We’re done with the bulk of the renovating of our 2nd floor. I’ve installed the floor tilings. w00t!
  • I was overly surprised by a videogame — GTA IV. I’ve spent a lot of time on that one. Wonderful adult entertainment.
  • I got me an iPod touch — which turns out to be a good reading device, thanks to both Instapaper Pro and Stanza.
  • I’ve tried to bring Child’s Play to Germany, and failed. Oh well, it was the first round. Better luck in 2009.
  • I’ve launched a few smaller projects — Twitter Twerp Scan, escaloop (which I’ve shut down a few months later) and Random.li.
  • I came to love GitHub. Great site/service.

Verdict

  • A really good year.

Posts

I didn’t write as much as I had planned on doing, but nonetheless, here are a few of my “better” posts (subjective opinion, YMMV).

Have a good 2009.

Going Paleolithic

In his thoroughly enjoyable Science In The Capitol trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson (who happens to be my favourite author) talks about a concept called “The Paleolithic Life”; something he also spoke about in a Google Tech Talk on Climate Change (at ~50min in).

The idea is that there are certain activities engraved in the mind of every human, which result in joy and happiness. These are the things the paleolithic man did during his waking hours, things nature rewarded him for by making him feel alive and capable and good, thus helping him evolve and aiding his development.

Mr. Robinson compiled a list of these activities:

  • Spending the day outdoors
  • Walking and running
  • Looking for things
  • Making things
  • Throwing rocks
  • Cooking and eating
  • Talking and listening
  • Singing and music
  • Dancing and sex
  • Finding a mate
  • Raising kids
  • Looking at fire
  • Seeing by moonlight
  • Killing animals
  • Being killed by animals
  • Making beds at night
  • Exploring new land
  • Feeling emotions, including terror, religion, right and wrong, etc.

Especially when you spend your waking hours in an office job, most of these activities are not part of your life anymore. We do not need to hunt for food anymore, we’re seldom being killed by animals1, we don’t throw rocks. But the engraved patterns, the subconcious memories of our ancestors life in the paleolithic, the biochemical reward mechanisms are still within us — just unused.

What a waste.

Having doubts about this? Here are some quick tests: If you have the chance, find a fireplace in the night and stare at the flames for a while. Or get out at night, take a walk by moonlight. Or meet with friends for self-made dinner. Or have good sex. (Or all of the above, at once.)

KSR’s proposal is picking up our old habits again, raking in the old rewards, in order to lead a happier life. In a slightly modernised form, of course. Throwing rocks is awesome — until someone is crying, that is. Which should be avoided. So, how about Frisbee or Baseball? You throw things at things, with less chance of killing people by accident! And think about walking, running, building things with your own hands…

Intriguing, no?

(His theory doesn’t seem to be entirely fresh or new, tho; I think it has influenced some of the storylines in his wonderful Mars books, even though it was not specifically mentioned (it was in the aforementioned Science In The Capitol books). Some of the characters find some inner peace when doing more or less mundane tasks; Nirgal just wanted to run2, Nadia was happiest when she could build and make, John was at the top of his world when he could talk with and listen to people, etc.)

So, long story short, I’m trying to get a bit more paleolithic in my life.

As mentioned, I have started running in April, and it’s actually pretty cool. I feel really good after most of my runs (not during them, mind you) — my new-found ability to run 5km straight is nothing short of a miracle to me, really.

Since I don’t feel like hitting and paying for other peoples’ stuff, but want to throw things at things, I bought some Frisbees and already took them out for some hilarious practice games with Dana, we had a blast, and I will try to make it a regular activity. I actually want to give casual Disc Golf a try; we’ll see.

Already I try to spend (a little bit) more time outdoors, mostly by walking instead of taking the bus, watching my surroundings, i.e. walking with open eyes. Good for the health, and sometimes you’ll see interesting things, really. And next week I’ll go kayaking. Gonna be interesting.

And I will try not to be eaten by wild animals.

Opinions?

  1. The feeling of successfully outrunning/outsmarting a predator was where the reward and joy lay, KSR mentioned in his Google Tech Talk. ↩

  2. Quite honestly, the figure of Nirgal, especially his recurring wish to “just run” deeply resonated with me. I’d even say he was one of the big influences that made me pick up running. Don’t laugh, please. Interestingly enough, Science In The Capitol’s Frank Vanderwal’s excursions into “running frisbee golf” read so good, it made me order two discs. :P ↩

Pleasant Memories Of Times Past

Trying to keep track of the last one or two weeks…

  • Running again! Avoiding tarmac, thank God there are many forest roads around. Using light weights on my hands now, too. Fun. The most interesting part of the down period was that I was actually missing my runs, and that I was looking forward to start running again. I think it’s official: I like it.
  • Found out I can watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart & The Colbert Report freely and legally on the web,OMG. Thank you, Comedy Central. Too bad there isn’t an RSS feed. Or is there?
  • Jeremy Zawodny is leaving Yahoo! – and so is JR Conlin. Bummer, two of my personal heroes gone. Well, I guess ~9 years at the same company is enough for anyone. All the best, guys!
  • Using FriendFeed now. It’s not bad, really; then again, I mostly use it to have a single place where all my loose threads come together. I really like the stalking helper imaginary friends feature. Makes it easy to keep track of pals who don’t use FriendFeed themselves. I’ve tried subscribing to the combined feed of all the people I’ve subscribed to on the site, but it’s like being fed by a firehose. Unusable, sorry. As I’ve said before, the idea to build a social network on top of peoples’ lifestreams is a bit too meta for me.
  • Discovered Goodreads. Nice.
  • I love GTA IV. Incredible game. So many lovingly crafted details, amazing.
  • New iPhones! Dope. Want. And a revamped .mac! Let’s hope it works as good as it looks in the presentations. The current .mac web implementation is useless for me. It just doesn’t cut it.

Out Of Energy

A bit over a week ago, my grandma passed away. (More about her maybe later.) The week between her crossing over and the funeral service I’ve subconsciously kind of “held my breath”.

Since we got back from my parents place, where the service was held, I feel somewhat …deflated, for lack of a better word. Out of energy, burnt out.

I guess this is normal?

Happy International Day of Awesomeness!

It’s true! Have a nice one, and act accordingly.

Christmas Cheers

Christmas Cheers

Calm down. Christmas isn’t about freaking out and panicking, it’s about not giving a damn about anything other than having a good time.

If you’re stressing yourself out, you’re doing it wrong.

Quick Note Of The Day

I like my life. It’s not perfect, but I don’t care. It’s pretty cool. I could do so much worse, seriously.

w00t!

Meh

Dana is rebuilding our lovely little garden behind the house. We’ll get our new car on Friday (YAY!), and I’m having a frickin’ ear infection, which caused my doctor to cram some tissue and gel-stuff into it.

It seems to help, but I’m basically half-deaf now. At least temporarily. I’m allowed to get rid of the things tomorrow, but daaaaaaamn, it sucks. :P

So, I’m a little cranky. Weeee.