Robots Don’t Sleep

With MIX09 come and gone, I am back home in California loving the cooler weather. I realize that the kind of lifestyle that I experienced while I was in Vegas was fun, but ultimately I am glad that my stay was only 4 days. Any longer than that, and it would not have been fun anymore. Now, I am eagerly anticipating my first trip to San Francisco next week! I will be there on behalf of my company and Microsoft to show off some multitouch demos with Windows 7. I have been told that I will just be sitting there at a booth, giving demos. I know, I know, that sounds a bit boring, but it’s something that I’ve never done before and it will give me yet another chance to work on my social interaction and networking skills. Additionally, San Francisco will be significantly more low-key than Vegas, which is definitely a plus in my mind.

Oh yeah, yesterday was also my birthday. So, I am now 22 years old. Cue confetti!

This year, my birthday was significantly more laid-back than last year. As of this time last year, I was recovering from a long night with friends crawling bars in Albuquerque. I also had to buy a new phone because I dropped mine into a toilet that I decided was a good place to pass out; definitely memorable, but not something I’d like to relive. This year, I decided that I wanted good sushi, some good sake, and some wine. I got exactly that, plus I caught up on two episodes of Lost. Overall, it was a very relaxing, enjoyable, calm birthday.

On a final note, I just realized today that my blog is the first search result for “Ryan Abreu” on Google. Very interesting. I really need to keep this blog in top form if it is going to come up every time that someone Googles my name. That means no more late-night drunk posting. That means more meaningful content. That means more posts!

So watch out, internet. I may just follow the footsteps of my friend Joshua Arnold and start shaping my online identity. Does that mean I need to completely redesign my blog? Does that mean I need to start geeking out in my posts? What do you think? How does someone reshape their online identity when it’s clear that their personal site is no longer so personal?

I wanted to post a quick update to show off a slightly facelifted blog. I mostly fixed a lot of css issues that I had been meaning to fix, as well as adding a Twitter widget on my sidebar. I was partially inspired by Josh’s recent blog facelift, so thanks Josh for letting me critique your designer skills. Anyway, I need to go to bed. I hate this stupid time change… it’s completely unnecessary and I hate adjusting to it.

“I’ve got knives in my eyes.”
- Brendan Frye, “Brick“

Also, as a not-so-quick aside, I’d like to point out how much I loathe IE CSS hacks. I am also completely disgusted at Microsoft’s decision to give Internet Explorer 8 a “compatibility mode” so that people can continue to view websites the way IE7 rendered them. Super job at trying to push web standards, guys. There is also a recent CoDe Magazine that is entirely dedicated to IE8, and one of the big articles tries to explain their reasons behind making that decision. Honestly, If I had a birdcage, I would line it with that article.

One last thing - IE Developer Toolbar sucks!

That is all.

This isn’t exactly news, but regardless, I am very excited. Please bear with me.

I am well aware that this may not mean anything to anyone that may read this blog, but I have something special to announce. I have waited at least a month to say this, but I am very excited to announce that in less than 2 weeks, I will be making a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! I was lucky enough to receive a free ticket to MIX, a Microsoft conference that has a strong focus on the correlation between current internet technologies and design. The talks are presented by very high-profile speakers in the industry, and I actually follow a lot of these guys on twitter, or I subscribe to their blogs on Google Reader.

The code that I write is lagely inspired by the things that these people write! I know it’s super nerdy but c’mon!

I am not only excited to make my first trip to the real Vegas, but I am really looking forward to the chance to network with some of these bigwigs in the industry. I can’t believe that this opportunity just fell in my lap out of nowhere. At the same time, however, I am extremely humbled at the fact that I will be representing my company (along with my CEO and boss) at such a huge technology event. I have even considered entering in a Rock Band competition.

Besides the fact that I haven’t worked with very many web-based technologies as of late, I still believe that I have an interest in where a lot of the current trends are going. For example, I have been doing Silverlight 2 work on and off, as well as giving talks at SoCal Code Camps and participating in Silverlight labs in Irvine. Most of the talks that I am planning on attending are either Silverlight 3 or Expression Blend related, and I have been advocating on the behalf of Silverlight almost nonstop since it was released a few months ago.

It’s time to switch to the dark side, Actionscript Nazis!

Wow… haha. But seriously, all joking aside, I think that this year’s MIX Conference will be extremely rewarding and I’m very lucky to be given the chance to attend such an event so early on in my career.  To make this blog post that much more boring, here are some of the sessions that I am planning on attending:

• What’s New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Integrating Microsoft Expression Blend with Adobe Creative Suite
• How’d they do it?  Real App.  Real Code.  Two Weeks.  Nothing but .NET (Scott Hanselman!!!)
• From Concept to Production: Microsoft Expression Blend
• User Experience Design Patterns for Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Deep Zoom++ : Build Dynamic Deep Zoom application with Open Source
• Touch and Gesture Computing, What You Haven’t Heard (Joseph Fletcher!!!)

I’d like to add that almost all my former classmates from school do web-based work with their companies, while I have done hardly any web-based work so far at all.

So… yeah, it’ll be nice to rub it in their faces when I get to meet a lot of these famous Microsoft people face-to-face.

Haaaaah, it’ll be great.