Just a (Very) Quick Update

My stuff is sorted.
My stuff is minimized (well, kinda).

I really recommend Mari Kondo's method in her outstanding book "The life-changing magic of tidying up". I really like this book.

My key take aways:

1. Process by category, not by room.
2. Put everything on the floor. 
3. Keep only the things you really like. Or, as Mari put it: "Things that spark joy"
4. Store those items vertically.
5. Avoid "clever" storage solutions.

So long,

Lorenz

So, what to do in 2016?

I have a hard time deciding what to do.  There are so many options. Waaaaah!

Should I learn a new language? A new programming language? Some frameworks? An instrument? Juggling? How to solve the rubics cube?

The possibilities are nearly endless.

So, what is really important to me?

My family is. Getting better at things I love to do. Getting my shit together. Living a healthy live.

So, my priorities for the upcoming year:

• I want to live healthier than the passing year. I want to look at the mirror and not think about the beer belly I have to look at. Hence I want to lose weight. Not something too crazy. But by June 30th, I want to weight 75kg. (Last time I stood on the scale, it showed something like 86+ kg).

• I want to build stairs in my garden so that the front part is not just a piece of mud anymore. I want to finish that project by 30th of September. Wake me up, when September ends.

• I want to clean up my house. Yep. I want a clean basement. I want t clean living room. Yes, I know I have kids. Yes, I hate hate hate hate messy places. Anyway: The rules that seem appealing for me are:
• Nothing lies on the floor
• Every item I am responsible for has a designated place to "live".
• Cleaned up before 28th of February.

Actually, those are the first three items for this year. There's a lot more at my "to do later list". See last year's resolution. See my "watch later" playlist on YouTube. See "to be sorted" folder on my Desktop. It all can wait. First the things I wrote here.

2015. My year of unfulfilled resolutions. And my some thoughts on my new years resolution.

Sigh. I wanted to learn so much stuff this year. Exiting stuff. Great stuff. Of which I accomplished only a small fraction.

Let's take a closer look at all of those items I wanted to learn.

Programming languages:

• Python
• Rust
• Go
• Ruby
• Haskell
• Prolog
• Scala

Frameworks:

• Ext JS
• Spring
• Spring MVC
• EmberJS
• Express
• Ionic
• MongoDB
• Docker
• Node.JS

Let's look at the programming languages one by one. I have learnt Python a little bit. So much, n fact, that I was able to write DubbelVla. But not that much, that I would apply for a job demanding Python experience.

Rust, Go, Ruby, Haskell, Scala weren't touched by me at all. My progress in PROLOG resulted in writing some half-assed code failing to load contents from a file.

Now let's look at the frameworks. I haven't touched Spring. I wrote just a little bit code in Spring MVC, just enough to get some stuff done on the job. EmberJS, Express, Ionic, MongoDB, Docker I haven't touched at all. I used NodeJS to write some mini script for some special task I don't even remember any more. The framework I learnt best is ExtJS. I know ExtJS pretty good today. The others not so much.

So, how do I go from here? First, I have to realize, I was waaaay too ambitious. I thought: Hey, that would be cool to learn. I would be cool if I knew Docker. Perhaps comparable to some teenager boy who thinks he would be cool if he learnt to play the guitar.

The problem is, it had no real value for me. Being cool for the sake of being cool just does not cut it.

Another problem is: If you want to do so much, there's alway some shit that you don't do. When I learn ExtJS, I can't learn Docker. I completely lacked any priority.

But that's not enough of problems: My resolutions also completely lacked any scope. What the heck does it mean to "learn Ionic"? Read some shit about it? Surf their website? Create a multimillion code-line app with Ionic? I had no clue and I still don't.

So. Now What? Avoid all new year's resolutions? Nah. Don't want to.

I have to come up with some new year's resolutions. Some that are meaningful. Some that are scoped.  Some that are well chosen and not just a bunch of random items. I will do that tomorrow.

DubbelVla is ready for dessert

It feels great. I just "finished" my first Github project: DubbelVla.
It lists identical files in one directory.

I learned a little bit of Python for this one. Although I don't know much Python, those were the things, that made me like this language:

• Syntax. It just so beautiful. I wish, JavaScript had this great syntax
• OMG, it's functional. Did not expect that. Something more to dive in.
• Maps with JSON-like Syntax. Like. +1.

Update on My Learning

Hi there,

I'm going to specify more on the stuff I'm going to learn this year.

So, for the seven programming languages:

It's really tempting to buy just the book "7 Programming Languages in 7 Weeks" and do just that.
That would be sensible in many ways, and perhaps I'll do that.

So: These are the seven languages I'm going to learn this year:

1. Python
2. Rust
3. Go
4. Ruby
5. Haskell
6. Prolog
7. Scala

Currently, I'm learning Python. DubbelVla will be my the project to be implemented in this newly learned language.

For the other languages, I will decide when I finish DubbelVla. I will think about a new project to learn each language.
I don't know about Swift, about R and other cool stuff, that's on my personal hype list. It would be great and learn all of them but I don't think I have the time.


So, what about the seven frameworks, libraries, whatever?

1. Ext JS
2. Spring
3. Spring MVC
4. EmberJS
5. Express 
6. Ionic
7. MongoDB
8. Docker
9. Node.JS

Yup, now I named them. I can't decide which of them to take. Anyway, I will have at least learned seven of them.

Challenges for 2015

So, after an awesome year 2014, filled with interesting challenges, I have learned a lot.

• I did not know that I enjoy hot drinks that much.
• I did not know that you might get used to almost anything
• I did not know that drinking water each day was really good
• I did not know that not drinking alcohol was not really a problem
• I did not know that I am so incredibly lazy
• Sleep deprivation is an experience I do not seek again.

Nevertheless, I decided to take a new approach:

Instead of monthly challenges, I will have just some goals to be fulfilled this year.

These will be:

1. Learn seven new programming languages
2. Learn at least seven frameworks, libraries, whatever. This will be mainly web frontend related stuff
3. Finish seven projects and put them on GitHub. (some of them are already existent in my GitHub account, but no commits yet.)
4. Cook a new meal for my family once a month

Let's bring it on!

One Month Without an Smartphone

This month was sometimes weird, sometimes it just sucked and sometimes I did not miss a thing.

The Good

• Its easier to focus on conversations with the other person when you're not constantly distracted by some notifications and habit-shaping glances on your phone.
• It's easier to realize what's happening around you

The Bad

• I did miss an appointment because I did not take a look at my calendar that day. So I disappointed one person, who did need my help.
• My online communication via WhatsApp was nonexistent this month. So I might miss something urgent. But I think, if it might be something important (not to be confused with urgent), The people had plenty of other ways to contact me.
• I forgot my phone way more often at home than before. One time it resulted in a awful misunderstanding between me and my wife. This sucked so much.

The Ugly

• My wife uses Pintrest since yesterday. It did suck up about one hour on my life to stare on her screen.
• Writing text messages with T9 sucks so much, I will never miss it any more. I have to admit, I really hated it.
• I still wasted some time with playing a silly game (coded in Java for Embedded Systems, good old times).
• I tend to adopt an "better-than-thou"-attitude. "Hey, you still use a smartphone? You social outcast instant-gratification monkey!". That is a attitude I really had to watch out for and capture it, not letting any room to breathe.