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A handful of people left my workplace in a relatively short time span. Never before have we experienced such a group exodus from our team. (Everyone left on good terms, for their own, personal reasons.) After we dealt with that distraction, we were told that a new business direction, set in motion over a year ago, would be put on hold pending government review. Rather than upset the environment and fill everyone with fear and doubt, this has proven to bring everyone together. Teammates that were working on the “new business direction” are starting to work with other teammates with no ill-will related to 18 months of work being put on hold. I’m enjoying the exposure to a 1/2 dozen different points of view and an impressive collection of expertise and experience.

I code. I’m a fair mix of frontend development and middle-end (php/xslt) skills. I work towards web standards and I try to keep up on the latest news and developments. I’ll be tacking my first “big” object-based project at work. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve developed objects and classes in php before, but I’ve never built a platform that will be built upon over and over. I’m looking forward to the experience.

At the same time, several co-developers in my office have begun to work with .NET. That’s cool and all, but between the IDE licensing, training, books, production hardware, and OS licensing, it’s a relatively large investment. (Although MS does a great job of spreading out the cost over time.) There are some nice bait and switch tricks, as well as “upgrades” requiring new IDEs. I have to give it to MS. They know how to get you hooked. Then you spend a little money. You want the “integration features,” so you spend a little more. It doesn’t quite do what you want, but you’re at the point where you either scrap the MS way (effectively wasting the time, money, and effort invested), or move forward into an “enterprise agreement.” This is where MS makes the money. Support contracts, software packages, “free upgrades” (as long as they don’t change the packages they offer… which they do often). At this point, you have locked yourself into the universe of MS. Going forward it will always seem easier to buy a boxed solution from them. But, each solution is designed to leave you wanting… needing a little more.

In other news, I will be crewing for Glenn (my father-in-law) while he competes at Nelson Ledges this weekend. As I understand, the facilities are quite “rustic”. This should prove to be interesting.

- Duane

On Monday, Gina and I will celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. I do have one fear regarding this upcoming event… that year-old wedding cake that’s been in our freezer. Although I’m excited about regaining some freezer room, I’m terrified that the aged sugar pile will have adverse effects on our digestive systems.

I’ve been tired of the blue-blah table-based layout of etcetera for a while. I freshened up the template system with some more standards-compliant code. More changes are likely to pop-up as development continues.

- Duane

This past week we observed the official last day of summer. I find it ironic that the weather for the past and next weeks are overall better than we had during said summer.

Juggling school, work, and my personal life is starting to take a toll. I’m trying to adjust, but am finding it difficult. Work demands that I’m avaliable all the time “just in case.” School demands that I’m done with my projects on time. Therefore, my personal life is destined to suffer most. My class for this semester is Fine Art Painting. A lot of liberal arts, science, and technology majors hear that and instantly think, “Painting, eh? That sounds like fun.” Nope. It’s Mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. 6 hours per week in studio at school and a minimum of 3 hours outside of studio are to be spent painting. Each project last about 3 weeks. It is difficult to just start painting. You have to be in a certain mindset… almost like writing a short story. Once you start, it demands your full attention. On top of the painting, we’re required to deliver at least one paper (albeit a short one) within the same timeline. It looks like I’ll be limited to one studio or 2 academic class per semester. With 21 credits to complete, chiseling off 3 – 6 at a time seems like forever.

- Duane

Update: The Ann Arbor News covered the Lego Sumo Event. Read all about it.

Sumobot6 was held at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum this past Saturday. This was my first attempt at building a sumo robot… I sure learned a lot. (Such as “What it’s like to be beaten by a six-year-old.”) I did pretty well too. The concept of my robot (named “YellowStreak”) was simple: move fast, run away. Photos will be available on the SumoBot6 site as well as the Lego Robotics Group of Ann Arbor site. I was resposible for video work at the event. If all goes well I should have something put together by the end of the year.

Gina and I visited Parmenter’s Northville Cider Mill on Sunday. The mill is on a beautiful plot of land a few minutes from our house. Uncluttered by “attractions” and rides, the trip was relaxing and enjoyable. We bought the usual cider mill fare, as well as some wine (very tasty), and of course cider (which we used to make Alton Brown’s “Apple Mac and Cheese“). [Local Link to Recipie]

- Duane

Last weekend, Glenn returned to Mid-Ohio with Gina and I in tow. He finished mid-field both days. The competition was was impressive… as was their equipment. Glenn expressed that he learned a lot about the course and logged his fastest time to-date. The paddock area was full of semi, fancy trailers, and very nicely painted and prepped racecars. A few of the big-money cars spotted include a Viper GT-R, a couple of SRT-4s (Chris, of Rogerbox “fame,” works for the team that preps these), a nice Porsche GT-4, a Camaro GT-1, a 350Z GT-2, as well as a flock of Vettes and Formulas.

I re-enrolled at Wayne State. Classes began last week. I have a handful of classes that I have to complete to get my degree, so I figured it’s now or never. So far, it has proven to be difficult to leave work in time to make it downtown. I hope the life-consuming projects at work don’t conflict too much with the workload at school. Fun.

- Duane