New Year’s Resolutions are bork

I think if there’s something you want to do, and you wait until the new year to do it, it isn’t very important. There’s a reason that most resolutions aren’t kept - they don’t matter enough to maintain a sense of urgency around them.

If there’s something that bothers you, change it now.

I think days provide much better opportunities for resolutions. If you don’t like how you handled things yesterday, today you can start working to fix it. Obviously, you can’t fix it yesterday.

In short, if you want to lose weight, just start doing it (I realize this is published late, … Continue Reading

This is what happens when you blog drunk

Meezy’s incoherent rants ftw.

Rails/Web App Performance, Part 1 - Measurement

A performance writeup series holiday present to everyone. This is the first of a 4 part series:

Measurement
Backend Optimizations
Server Side Tweaks
Frontend Optimizations

Numbers, not Feelings
Before I started reading about performance, but was tasked with optimizing something, I’d go with whether or not it “felt” fast. While this is a somewhat acceptable way to determine if something needs to be optimized, it’s not a good measure of optimization.

After putting hard work into some optimization, you’re going to want to see improvement. So much, so, that if left only to your own senses, odds are you’re going to see improvement. Even if you’ve made … Continue Reading

Thank your arm, Bradford

I watched part of the Heisman Trophy Presentation last night. I thought Tebow should have won, with Bradford coming in second (McCoy is responsible for Texas’s loss - see: pick6). But Bradford gets up there and starts his acceptance speech saying he wants to “thank God, that’s how I’m able to be up here” or something like that.

He cheapened the award with that by appealing to superstition. Did a god really pick you, Bradford, to win the Heisman? It’s not a result of a rigid practice regiment, studying, and genetic gifts? Does that mean he picked the guy on the … Continue Reading

Baby Monitor++

Since we got pregnant with Nate, Sara had pushed a video baby monitor. She said it would be helpful in knowing what the kid was doing (obviously selling point). I acknowledged that it would be helpful, but said it wasn’t really important to see what they’re doing, you just have to hear it. Also, having a camera in our house is creepy, largely for the reason that you can’t be sure who’s watching.

I looked at video baby monitors, and found none that were encrypted. They broadcast different data over several frequencies, making it harder for someone to just pick up … Continue Reading

Backfired

Nate loves our remote control, but I don’t like him playing with it because he broke the previous one, and, well, they’re expensive. He just had it in his hands and had turned off the Cowboys-Steelers game.

I took the remote from him, asking, “Do you want to watch Bunny Town?” After securing the remote, I said, “too bad. You can watch after the game.” To which he responded by throwing a fit, and Sara made me put on Bunny Town.

Damnit.

That you, Santa Claus?

Reading the bajillion skeptic/parenting/atheist blogs I do, and with Christmas (that’s right I said Christmas, not that it really matters as long as there’s a tree and presents for the kids) time coming up, I’ve been happy to see several posts addressing Santa Claus (side note: I’m assuming it’s spelled sans ‘e’).

Sara and I had different experiences with Santa, from what we remember. Sara remembers getting big presents from Santa, and small gifts from her parents. I remember receiving a mix. Neither of us placed cookies by the tree.

I worry about going through all the motions and convincing Nate there’s … Continue Reading

Grand Finale

So the baby arrived, in good health and with already imposing lungs. Born with girl parts, her name is Evie Noel. She’s 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and was born about 7:30AM.

The delivery was complicated towards the end, as Sara’s epidural started to lose its effectiveness. She kept pressing the pain button, but it never delivered enough goods. Her delivery looked excruciating, and from her screams I’m pretty sure she’d say the same.

That said, the baby’s taking its first nap on Sara after her first bath. 

Sara just ordered her breakfast here, so it’ll be fun to see how that turns out. I … Continue Reading

8cm!

So, after a much needed nap, we’ve woken up to find that Sara’s 8cm dilated. 

In other words, baby incoming!

Even though she’s had the epidural, her contractions have gotten fairly painful. She’s having one about every 2 minutes.

On a fun note, I called Sara’s sister to tell her the situation and that she should probably come up with the hospital, and was met with an off-put, “are you joking?” Nobody likes being called at 6:15AM. Also, if I’m ever rich and am buying a hospital, I’m going to invest in guest-beds. This is 0 for 2 :(

Oh, and Sara was put … Continue Reading

Zzzzzzzz

We’re going to try to sneak in a little sleep. We’ll see how successful that turns out. 

I’ll check back in when I’m woken up by a nurse. Which happens a lot in these places.