Sunday, February 21, 2010

New Books

We don't get out much. After 8+ hours of programming and meetings every day, I don't often go out and something exciting. I'm happy to have dinner with my wife, take the dogs out, and watch an episode of something or other. When I put it in words, it does sound rather drab.

Yesterday was the first Saturday that I've slept in since before we moved. I decided to mess with my graphics card a bit, and in the end, the easy way out was to reinstall my operating system. The up side is that I was prepared for such drastic measures. I now have Ubuntu 9.10 running on "Extra Visual Effects" mode--which means some of my windows are transparent and I can make my windows wiggle when I grab them with the mouse. It's the little things in life.

Last weekend I enjoyed reading and skimming, and I realized that I don't have any story books that I'm currently reading (and no such books that I want to read on my shelf). Saturday was also the first day in several weeks above freezing, and I hadn't been on a good long walk since Christmas. In response, we killed (or at least seriously injured) two birds with one stone--we walked to the nearest bookstore. The round trip was about 2.8 miles with some sidewalks, some snow-walks, and some roadside-walks.

After looking through a few books (Ubuntu, The Number Phi, Mind Hacks, and Nicoli Tesla), I asked one of the guys who worked there for some recommendations on science fiction or fantasy books to pick up. He was rather surprised that I hadn't read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He recommended a book called Red Mars about colonizing Mars, so I'll read that after Hitchhikers. I also picked up my very first Linux magazine--Linux Shell. I'm already learning about all the wonderful things I can do with Bash scripting.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Weekend of Rest

My first three weeks of work have flown by. It seems like last week we were passing boxes through the window and wondering if we'd make it to pay day. Not many people have saved enough to move from one state to another and fly round trip across the country without being paid for two months. We have been blessed.

My job is right up my alley. I didn't know at first how interested I would be programming radios, but there's so much going on in a radio. After three weeks, I still don't understand it all--which is what I need. I need something to wrap my brain around for a few years. I was also concerned that programming for work would sap me of any desire to code for fun, but I think my job has stirred up in me a new excitement for coding (previously burnt out of me with schooling). I started working on a multi-threaded neural net. Just for fun.

Today I reorganized the office to better facilitate my desire to read and do relaxing hobbies. I skimmed the remainder of The Art of War (the less renown one by Machiavelli), read two chapters of Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey, and a chapter of Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. We have three bookcases to accommodate our library. The tall shelf is full of reading books, split into fiction and nonfiction. The other two shorter shelves are reference books (Becca's and mine). For a newlywed couple, we certainly have a decent library, everything from Computer Organization and Design to Wildwood Dancing to The Silmarillian to Educational Psychology.

It wouldn't be a complete blog entry on Valentines day without a brief recap of the day's festivities. Last night I read several of the tales from Arabian Nights to my wife, and this morning I made her French toast with strawberries in the shape of a heart. I have a wonderful wife--without Becca, I would not be where I am or who I am today.