Day 14,728

Today I started listening to “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”. I was wondering where this has been for the past 14K+ days I’ve been on this earth. I feel it’s something that a lot of people could have in their lives.

This is the thing. I’ve been contemplating a lot lately. I think I given way to many f*cks to all the wrong things. This needs to change. My task for the next few weeks? Find the right things to give f*cks about.

Well, now that that is out of my system, lets talk about something different. What is that you say? Public Speaking I answer. I am terrified of public speaking, as most people I know are. The few times I’ve done it I barely remember the events of the actual speech. The problem with this is… I kinda want to talk at conferences and give back to the development community. So, this will be my challenge this year. I plan on starting small. Either start my own meetup to talk at or find one that will let me talk. I’ll probably plan a “Tech Talk” for my company as well. Try to get some practice in. What’s the worst that can happen? … ….

Well, enough talk of me. I’ll leave you with a quote I just can’t get enough of.

“I’m not running away. But this is one corner of one country on one continent on one planet that’s a corner of a galaxy that’s a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond, and there is so much, so much, to see. Because it goes so fast. I’m not running away from things, I am running to them. Before they flare and fade forever.”

― The 11th Doctor Who

~ M

 

 

 

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Day 12,590 :: Card of the week

So today I picked out a transformation card from my wife’s “The Nature of Infinite Love & Gratitude‘ set. We try to pull out one card a week to see what we should focus on to better improve our lives. This week’s card for me was spot on. I am in the process of moving my Freelance business into an s-corp so lots of changes (and the accompanying challenges) are happening. I though I would share it here 🙂 I hope you enjoy!

I do not really have “problems”; I only think I do by the way I interpret my circumstances. A “problem” is an illusion. It is a limiting perception without gratitude.

Day 11,969 :: Wow, it’s been a while!

Hello there, It’s been quite some time since I posted. I got pretty busy with my freelance and wasn’t able to get to writing any new posts. I’m hoping to get back in the groove and give at least one post a week.

So what have I been up to? Well, work mostly 🙂 That’s a good thing though so I’m not complaining. I have some pretty steady clients and have been actively advertising on Facebook for more clients. Other then that I picked up a few more games which has re-inspired me to continue with my game development. I started a couple small projects using FLEX and the Flixel game engine. Flixel isn’t not too bad but it is in the very early stages of development. Check out a couple of the apps I’ve posted on my site! I’ve also resurrected my browser based RPG. I’m might start a new string of blog posts following my progress with that as well. It will be written in PHP/MySQL with supporting Javascript libraries like jQuery.

That’s about all for now 🙂 I’ll keep you all posted!

– Miah

Day 11,867 :: New Site Launched

Well here we are again. I can’t believe that four months have gone by since I last got a blog post out. Boy does time fly when you are busy!!!

First things first. I have updated my main website and finally put my portfolio section online. You can check it out here, http://www.igzactly.com. I am also including a new section for tutorials. These will be based on anything from PHP/MySQL tips and tricks to game development. I am contemplating publishing each here as well but I have not decided if that will be the case yet or not.

Some of the other things I have been busy with is integrating a couple API’s into a clients web application I have been working on and expanding. I finished a website for my fiancée’s father. He is a local musician and you can find his site here: http://www.juansarante.com. Another site I launched this past weekend was for a local companies annual award ceremony called “The Golden Peep Awards”. This was a fun site to do and I am looking forward to supplying some music to the actual events. If your interested in checking it out you can visit it here: http://www.goldenpeepawards.com. Most of the content is hidden behind a log in system. One more major site I launched  within the last four months was “The Best Damn Pub”. This is a listings site for bars and pubs in the Florida area. They have plans on expanding to more states in the near future. You can check out the site here: http://www.thebestdamnpub.com.

I have also recently found an excellent graphic designer to work with on my projects. She does an outstanding job and is awesome to work with. If you are looking for someone to do some design work please give Ruby over at Vellephant a shout! She will take good care of you 🙂

Well that’s pretty much it. I’m going to try to keep up with the posts but as I am extremely busy with work (that’s a good thing :)) they may not be new posts every week. Well see 🙂

– Miah

Day 11,088 :: Day of Depression

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything in here. I really need to make it more of a habit to write in here, anyways onto today’s topic… It’s only 11:05 am EST and I’m trying to get over this depression I’m in. I’m listening HUM and It might be working but who knows. This past week, month or who knows has been a tough time. I am now officially car-less and I don’t quite now what I’m going to do. I’m supposed to be getting a car from a co-worker but he moved to India temporarily and it’s been a mess ever since trying to co-ordinate things. My fiancée’s grandmother just passed away this past Wednesday and she flew up to Boston with her family. So to add to all the other things going on this is the first time in 7 or so years that we have been away from each other for even a day and it’s extremely lonely and I just can’t wait for her to get back.

Needless to say I’ve been preoccupied by a lot of things. I’m positive I’ll get through this. It’s just a hard time and I needed to put it all out in writing somewhere. So let’s try to move onto some happier things…

I’m going to be making some extra money since I’m finally able to start my freelance work. I picked up a few jobs from a past employer and I can’t wait to get the jobs done so I can get paid and move on.

I have joined this group of game developers from all around the world. We are all beginners and are trying to get things organized. Hopefully after these few depressing situations are done with It will move forward and we can get a completed game out of it.

Wow… is that all I can think of right now???? Once my Fiancée gets back there will be another good thing 🙂

So I guess I should move on today. I have Day job work and Freelance work to do as well as figuring out how I’m going to get home… Oh well… Life is a bitch, what can you do? Laugh at it! HAHA…

Later,
– Miah

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“To the left where up is down there stands a Zebra made of shapes of me and silver and the sun…” – HUM, Suicide Machine

Day 11,026 :: UFO

This Saturday started as any Saturday does. I brought Ines to work, came home and proceeded to use the computer. I played FF1 for a while, talked with my Brother and his Fiancée about building websites for there businesses, discussed dinner for the typical X-Files night, all very normal things.

Six pm came and I picked Ines up from work. We proceeded to Monty’s Pizza (tonight’s choice for dinner) and picked up out food. Stopped by Publix and grabbed some lottery tickets (yes we ARE a winner, just waiting for confirmation one of these weeks :)). Next it was off to Scott’s for X-Files. On the way there Ines noticed some strange lights low in the sky over Scott’s apartment complex. At first she thought they were the air traffic towers indicating low terrain but then realized that there are none of those around here. We lived in this apartment for over a year so we knew the layout of the area and what was around. She then pointed it out to me as it was just sitting there, not moving. I had my window down and I couldn’t here any propellers or jets that you would normally here if it was a helicopter or some other kind of plane. As we looked at it, it started to slowly move south. We could still not hear what was making this thing move but it was moving slowly and silently. It had a multitude of lights on the bottom and was not in the shape of any planes I know of. As we turned into the apartments it continued south then disappeared.

Needless to say I was excited and proceeded to tell Scott as soon as we got there. I then said we should call Muldor and Skully to investigate! After a brief discussion of it we sat down to eat and watch X-Files. Next week I’ll be sure to be watching to see if it reappears.

In my mind it’s definitely a UFO since I could not identify it. Now if it was just some secret military test plane or an “Alien UFO” I’ll never know. Either way it was pretty exciting!

Later,

-Miah

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“The bird’s dead, Dru. You left it in a cage, and you didn’t feed it, and now it’s all dead, just like the last one.” — Spike

Day 11,020 :: Last day of 2007

Well it’s December 31st, the last day of 2007. It’s been a very busy year. I’ve changed jobs, moved, gone through some life changing events, and I’m still here at the end of the year awaiting the new one, 2008. Things over this past year have gotten better. Overall I’m getting a grasp of the money aspect, a long time struggle, and things are looking up in all the other departments as well. My new job is with GravityFree, a local web development house specializing in ColdFusion. Now ColdFusion is not my choice of coding platforms but in the end it does the same thing, produce HTML. I would prefer to use PHP and in the near future Ruby. I’m starting a free online class to get the basics of ruby down so I can have a better understanding of how ruby on rails works.

As for the New Year I’m going to have a few resolutions on my list. First and foremost will be to keep on top of the financial and be ahead by the end of 2008. This includes being caught up on all my bills and finally out of the clutches of the annoying collection agencies never ending rain of calls from the likes of “Unknown”, 800-xxx-xxxx, and a whole slew of other numbers. I had at one point before I had my cell turned off collected all the numbers into groups so I can easily identify them. I had about 6 or 7 lists with 5 numbers each. That’s 30-35 different numbers I would receive collection calls from. You would think they would get the point but they need to ride the fence of harassment. Luckily for them I’m a pretty patient person and have an easy time ignoring them.

Another item on the list is to secure our wedding location by the end of 2008 for a late 2009 wedding. The place we have picked out is The Event Factory, Home of the Castle Ballroom. It is pretty much what I pictured, a castle wedding, the ceremony in the secret garden, mingling in an enchanted forest, and the reception in a castle ballroom, all for a price cheaper then renting a “Real Castle”! That reminds me of this past weekend at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre. That can contain a whole blog in itself. In a nutshell, Ines and I were the topic of conversation for the first 15 or so minutes of the show. It was great!

Typically I would place loosing weight on the list but not this year. I still want to and intend to loose weight but I’m going to pass on putting it on my list. I want to concentrate on a few items at a time. If these are successful then I can assure you I would have lost weight in the process.

Other things in 2007… I still have a mess in my mind about my game projects and my career. I like my job but at this point I can’t see myself there for more then a few years. Things are in motion there so that could change in the near future. Until then I’m going to try and put my focus career wise on doing freelance web work. I have plans of traveling the world and if I could secure a good freelance reputation I could travel and get paid! Also I WILL win the lottery this year!

Well that’s about it for today. I wish all who read this a very happy new year and the best of luck in 2008! Remember, anything’s possible as the power of the mind can make anything possible!

Till next time, – Miah

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Yeah, we came to warn you about the… angry puppy. — Oz

Day 11,015 :: Lack of Motivation

It’s the day after Christmas, and I’m not sure if this lack of motivation will stop anytime soon. I’ve had no real motivation to do any “work” for the past couple weeks. I have plenty of work to do but I just am having a tough time actually getting any of it done. Here is a list of projects I have on my mind:

• Central Nervous System (CNS): CNS is a CMS system I am developing in PHP/MySQL to help me with speeding up the process of building a dynamic website. Every dynamic site out there needs some sort of admin and this is my vision of that admin. It is in its most basic form now and needs some serious attention.
• Ever-Isle: This is my RPG (Tabletop/PC/Browser Based) that I have been trying to get to a playable state for a few years now (4-5). Every time I seem to make any kind of progress on it I seem to loose motivation after a few weeks. Not sure if it’s just the lack of assistance in the graphic department or my need for perfection when it comes tot he visual side of it.
• Igzactly News: This is my news engine I build a couple years back to help out my best friend on a freelance project. Is has evolved to an OK state and is used on a couple sites. It however needs a serious makeover.
• martinezreunion.com: This is fiancée’s aunt’s family website. I developed this in 2004 or 2005. It is in need of a major update and graduation to an admin-able state. It has been put on hold in hopes to be the first site to use the CNS system.
• Various Online Games: These include Hangman, Browser based version of Munchkin, Ever-Isle, and various others that pop in and out of my mind.

The list goes on but at the moment those are the ones that are on the top of my list, and the ones I can remember. On top of all that I have my Day Job with GravityFree. I have plenty to keep me busy there. Lately when I get home I feel like I need to not see a computer screen. I’m none to happy with that feeling lately as it takes away from my projects.

Whatever the cause behind my lack of motivation lately, I’m hoping that it will go away or I discover it to remedy it. Until then I’ll just keep plugging away at my work and do the best I can to get my side projects completed as well. Maybe starting a topic on each of my projects will help me out… I’ll consider that. Who knows, it may lend some help to someone working on a similar project.

Till next time,

-Miah

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“He’s shot! Are you okay?” — Willow
“I, um, I’m shot, you know. Wow! It’s odd. And painful.” — Oz

Day 10,994 :: The Vet

Today started of with the alarm on my phone sounding its daily call to get me out of bed at 7:00 am. I couldn’t snooze for an extra hour as I normally do since it was today that my cat Lexi had her first appointment with the new vet. I was only able to sneak in an extra 15-20 minutes in bed until I slowly rolled out of bed.

The morning consisted of me doing some last minute cleaning and waiting around for Lexi to produce the stool sample the vet kindly asked me to bring in. I have never had to get a stool sample before and as I waited patiently Lexi jut stared at me with no intention of coughing one up. She had her harness on (for her leash) and the carrier was in the middle of the floor. She new what it meant and had no intention of co-operating. 9:05 am came about and I couldn’t wait any longer.

After battling her to get in the carrier Ines and I left our apartment and headed to the car. We strapped Lexi in the back seat and proceeded to drive to the vet.

About 2 minutes into the drive Lexi got the idea she would repay us for making her leave the comfort of her home by finally giving us the stool sample… Right in the carrier… Now she has never done this before and she picked a day to start when she had a very pungent bowel movement. Needless to say we were embarrassed when we finally made it to the vet 15 minutes later and asked them if they had any wipes so we could collect the sample and clean Lexi up. The vet was kind enough to do these themselves. They had to weight her and get her temperature anyways so it kind of worked out. I say kind of cause Lexi was none to happy with the arrangement.

Now Lexi doesn’t hiss or bite much at all, especially to strangers. She’s generally a very well natured cat, not today. When she got back in the exam room she wanted nothing to do with the place. The vet was nice and he gave us some good diet tips for her. She is officially 2 pounds overweight. Not bad but we want her to be as healthy as can be. So she will benefit by having more laser chasing time! I’m sure she won’t complain. After the appointment was done she had no complaints getting into the carrier. I think she new this time it would bring her home. We get home without any stinky surprises and she struts out of the carrier happy as can be! She is so spoiled!

The rest of today was pretty standard. I got to work after eating some Dino’s Pizza buffet, Sat in a phone meeting with a client for a few hours, fixed some sites, quoted some work, and surfed the net for some tidbits of amusement to make me laugh.

It’s now 8:36 and in an hour I’ll leave to pick up Ines from work, eat some quick dinner, watch some TV and find my way back into the comfort of my bed. Tomorrow I hope to jot down a few notes on one of my many game projects, Ever-Isle.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of Lexi -Little Miss Kittyfantasico!

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“We’re your bosom friends, the friends of your bosom.” — Xander (duh!)