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.

I apologize for not updating more frequently in 2009. I don’t really have an excuse, but I will say that I will be posting much more in the coming months, especially when I make my first ever trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for MIX 2009! I am very excited about this opportunity and I can’t wait.

I am kind of questioning what to do with this blog… If I should keep it more personal or technical or some weird mix of the two. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Also, I wrote this post from my iPod Touch using the Wordpress app. It’s actually really nice and I hope that this will make me post a little more often.

I had this strange realization this evening… I woke up from a nap on the couch and I stumbled around groggily for a little bit and I realized that I have been extremely blessed this year. So, I spent a little bit of time going over my entries from this year and I decided that these are my personal top 5 biggest moments of 2008:

1. Graduating Magna Cum Laude from Neumont University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
2. Moving to Carlsbad, California and working for an amazing company doing work that I love.
3. Voting for my first presidential candidate.
4. Turning 21.
5. Adapting a more active lifestyle.

I knew that when I promised myself that I’d keep up with yet another blog I wasn’t going to keep that promise. As with my others, I made a few posts at a fairly decent frequency and then my mind started wandering on to other things. But, it’s ok. I am going to try to figure out a way to keep myself writing and convince myself that I’ll keep it going.

I started working on a new project at work two weeks ago and now it is coming to a close tomorrow. Work has been going great and I’ve really started to find my groove. I realized the other day, however, that some of my skills in certain areas have been dwindling because I’ve been focusing on other things for a bit. I found myself making dumb mistakes that I remember making when learning these skills, and I came to a realization about how important it is to revisit these sorts of things. I need to keep myself from straying, which should be getting easier as I’m becoming more and more comfortable with where I am in my life. Good luck with that, self.

Another thing that’s been on my mind recently is politics, but I won’t get into that too much here. I will say that I am finally a registered voter in California, which is a great feeling. I’ve known who I was going to vote for since at least last year, so the only thing that’s really kept me interested is the way that things are playing out as November 4th gets closer and closer. I’d say that it’s kind of like a bad soap opera, but I think it’s becoming more and more like a freaking circus. I will just say that I am a fervent supporter of Obama and I have no doubts that the McCain/Palin charade will turn out to be all for nothing.

Well, my thoughts are starting to become more and more jumbled, so I continue this another time. It’s actually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what to talk about on here, especially since right now I am at a point where things are going great. I need to take my bike out for some fresh air a bit more frequently, though. I put some road tires on it last weekend and so far I’ve only used it once. I’m hoping that after tomorrow, when this project is over and done with, I’ll have a small window where I can dedicate a little more time to writing and biking.

Until then, here’s a trailer for what will surely be the greatest Disney movie of the year!!! Sarah Palin in… “Head of Skate”!

Well, the new blog is up and running, and I think I have the layout at a place that I like at the moment. I really like playing around with CSS, but for some reason I always forget what time it is while I’m doing so. For example, Saturday night I got to a good stopping place and figured, “Alright, I think I’ll head to bed now… it’s probably around 1 or 2 in the morning.” Nope, I was wrong. It was 4am. Things like this happen when I get intensely focused - I lose myself in trying to accomplish a task and forget everything else.

Anyway, WordPress is all set up and I added a little RSS button in the top-right corner of the page. I’m hoping that maybe this attempt at blogging won’t be a miserable failure like my past attempts. Maybe people will actually read this time.

Now that I’m done with school and working, I can see how some people start aching for a side project to jump on. During school, it was always really hard for me to focus on getting my homework done and do work for a side project. Now, I’m finding little projects to do like upgrading the Media PC to Vista, swapping out hard drives, and installing themes and applications on my brand new phone. Oh, that’s right. I got a new phone and I love it! It’s an HTC Mogul and it is awesome. I also got on the Sprint SERO plan (1200 minutes, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data) right before it died, so that made me extremely happy. Only 50 bucks a month! Whoo!

Uh oh… time to go to the gym. Today’s my last day with my Personal Trainer unless I buy more sessions, which I won’t be able to do for a little while, so hopefully he can show me the workouts I need to do until I’m able to afford some new sessions. My goal is 20 pounds in 10 weeks. Let’s see how that goes.