Pursuit of Passion

I want to talk about passion and the pursuit of something that isn't presently in your reach. I learned this lesson when I worked for a Construction company as an Apprentice Carpenter. This was a 4 year process and fairly grueling, for a citified boy like myself. But I worked hard in the freezing Winters and hot Summers' of Colorado. But into my 3rd year of my career I was having difficulty getting mentally prepared for the job, the driving and difficult and albeit dangerous work were taking there toll. It finally snapped inside of me how much I knew I didn't want to be in this line of work, when I found myself tied off to a 100' lifeline on a roof 30 feet in the air shoveling snow. I remember clearly, the sense of dread when I would slip and start sliding off until my rope would catch. I was looking at all the office buildings around and thought to myself, 'look at all those people working in those nice offices, doing something.' (not sure what that something was though). But since God always knows exactly the timing and the things that you need, that weekend came my first step toward a different career.

What do you do?

This was the question I asked a man who was driving our priest up to our parish that Sunday. He responded and said he was the owner of a Web Development company. At the time I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I liked computers and it sounded like a great job. Well long winded story short, he gave me a programming software (Visual Studio 2005), and every day after work I would spend hours working on coding projects. My big break came right after I graduated as a Journeyman Carpenter when I went to see this friend and showed him what I had been working on. He gave me a huge opportunity by offering me a job as a Junior Developer, and from there I started this career I'm in now. If you pursue your dream and never give up you will find it. It may not be exactly what you thought it would be or it may change but bring your passion of something and go for it!

Twitter News Aggregator

I've been trying different Twitter client apps on my iPhone, and as of now using TwitPal. This is very nice application, it incorporates alot of user data that is handy to see. The only issues I have ran into are non-handling of ampersand's they come through as the &'s, and for some reason this buggy thing happens where you will get text that shows above the timeline in a fixed manner saying the content cannot be viewed because it has been marked private. This is very annoying, and I end up using the Echofon application for awhile, then when I come back it works again. The one thing I would like to either create in my own Twitter client app or see a developer produce has to do with articles and being able to view them at a later date. I find myself not being able to manage my twitter timeline throughout my day, but I find a ton of newsworthy articles or posts that I would like to view later. I know your thinking favorite, but the problem with that is the article is not my "favorite" it's just something I'd like to view. But if I am 5 hours behind there are 100's of posts and links that I do not have enough time to view. I was thinking of adding a "save" link, and then in a different page or even another client platform (a news aggregate reader) be able to read this material in my own time. How do you handle this issue with your Twitter timelines.. or is their just a premium client that has this type of functionality?

Get some style

I started reading the website ArtofManliness.com over the weekend. I find it strikes a chord inside, since I was raised by my dad to be a gentleman and the ideals of what a man should be. But going through college as well as single life in college I seem to have lost my way somewhat. Now I'm married to my lovely wife and we have 4 little boys, and I find myself not being the man I wish to be. So in my pursuit of my roots, I came upon this site. Initially my interest is in developing my personal style in clothing. As they say you are what you wear. First I plan on working on my wardrobe from the article how to build your wardrobe, for the casual professional. From the list that they have, I need to first go through all my clothes and determine what I have and what I need. Since we are always on a tight budget I will be browsing thrift stores and see if I can find some quality jeans, shirts, and pants. (I would have never thought I would say that) One of the things I'm realizing about style, is that you need to acquire items of clothing that are timeless instead of waving in the winds of flitting trends. I know that right now I change my clothing styles pretty much every couple of years, but since I'm in the professional world now I'd like to cement what that style is for the future. I did make my first acquisition of a Christian Dior pinstriped suit from a thrift store for an entire $6! I still need to have it dry cleaned but it is a very sharp looking suit. If there are other men out there who are also in the process of developing their styles, please comment and let me know what you are acquiring.

Not enough sleep

I am having some blurriness when it comes to my morning work schedule, having difficulty waking up and getting ready for the day. I have 4 little boys so you would think that is why I am so tired but it appears the cause is from sleep apnea. I had thought originally it was the amount of caffeine I had been drinking per day, or my diet but I soon realized those just add to my symptoms. These symptoms have been, moodiness, irritability, hard to focus at work and fatigue. I decided to research these symptoms as I realized I can no longer afford to feel like this throughout my days. My wife had been saying I have been a snorer for the longest time, but never correlated that this meant I wasn't getting good sleep. I have always believed it is the quantity of sleep versus the quality. Now I know 5 hours of restful sleep will do me tons better than 7-8 hours of interrupted sleep. So I after some googling I have decided to try and remedy this problem, first by sleeping on my side to reduce strain to the back of my throat which is causing the snoring, and second to cut out alcohol late at night. As I pursue my dream of a mobile technology company, I need to be able to work at my day job and then work on projects after the family is in bed. Has anyone else had these types of issues and how did you solve them?

To new beginnings

I'm starting this blog to expand on my thoughts about starting a business, as well as the path that I am taking to make a business a reality. I will also incorporate personal development philosophies that I enjoy. I will be leaving my main blog (found here)PenguinSamurai as it will be my more personal and content driven blog. Please leave comments as I further build out this blog on Blogger platform, I look forward to getting to learn more about you. Please follow me on Twitter, I'll follow back!