Coding and Beer

I haven’t blogged much lately.  A lot of things have happened in my life in the last year that focused my efforts elsewhere.  I thought I would go ahead and jot down some notes.

Being a supervisor, I rarely get to code much anymore.  Lately I have been getting to do so on a project I wrote a while back.  I needed to add new functionality to it and it needed to have a design overhaul to accommodate the changes.  You know how you always have the “I would totally change that if I were to write it again” thoughts after finishing an application? Well, I get to make those changes to this app.  The new functionality isn’t a priority to finish fast, so I get to work on the app in-between other work.  This allows me to slow down on it and really update it correctly.  I’m removing a bunch of jQuery based javascript I wrote at the time and replacing the client UI interactions with a binding framework.  I chose KnockoutJS for that.  I also removed a bunch of CSS and leveraged BootStrap a lot for layout and base styles.  These two improvements required me to dig in and learn some new things, but the amount of CSS and javascript has significantly dropped on this project so far.  It has a responsive design now which will be great for mobile device use.  I love re-sizing the window and watching the elements flow correctly.  The rework will extend all the way to the database table structure, so I will be plowing through the ASP.NET MVC and SQL database layers as well by the time this project is over.

On a personal level, I started working out again.  It feels really good.  I have dropped about 15 pounds over the last year.  I hope to drop 15 more to get to my ideal weight.  It’s really hard because I love eating good food and drinking great beer.  We are still a cable/sat free household.  Netflix gets used more than I would like, but at least the price of that is small in comparison.

Spring is here, so it is time to start planning the garden and summer projects.  My wife asked me to build a pergola before July.  That should be easy, but I also have other large landscaping projects in mind as well and they also need to be finished before July.  Just got to figure out how to fund it.

Well, it has been a few months since we decided to get rid of our DirecTV subscription and I thought it would be good to provide an update.  The title might be slightly misleading, we still have our physical TV, we only use it for DVD’s, Netflix, and games now.  We no longer subscribe to a traditional TV service like cable or satellite.

What’s changed?

• It’s quieter around our house.  The TV isn’t always on making the house louder.
• I’ve been doing more productive things around the house.  Family, yard, hobbies are getting more of my time.
• I’m busy!  I don’t even know how I watched TV at this point.  I have been so busy doing stuff I just don’t know what I was doing before and how I fit TV into my life.
• I’ve read several books.
• I’m missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  I’m getting over this as it happens, but I do love hockey.  I can still go over to my brothers house to watch it if I want.  Maybe some of the last few games…

Overall, I recommend getting rid of the TV service.  You really don’t miss anything.  Actually, you experience a lot more because of it!

At the dinner table today, the family decided it would be good to get rid of DirecTV.  The idea was brought up by our daughter which made it better.  We all agreed that it was a time waster, and we received more than enough media from online resources such as Netflix.  Going to check on our ‘contract’ tomorrow, and if we are outside of it, we will let it go.  If not, we will start the count down clock.  $80 dollars back in the pocket each month along with the extra time that comes with it.