[Construction] Foundation is finished
Last week, Bob the Builder finished the foundation for our new addition. Below are some pics. Nothing has changed (so far) this week - but I expect to see a floor pretty soon.
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The Angular Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with Angular. You'll learn how to develop a bare-bones application, test it, and
deploy it. Then you'll move on to adding Bootstrap, Angular Material, continuous integration, and authentication.
Spring Boot is a popular framework for building REST APIs. You'll learn how to integrate Angular with Spring Boot and use security best practices like HTTPS and a content security policy.
For book updates, follow @angular_book on Twitter.
The JHipster Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with hip technologies today: Angular, Bootstrap, and Spring
Boot. All of these frameworks are wrapped up in an easy-to-use project called JHipster.
This book shows you how to build an app with JHipster, and guides you through the plethora of tools, techniques and options you can use. Furthermore, it explains the UI and API building blocks so you understand the underpinnings of your great application.
For book updates, follow @jhipster-book on Twitter.
10+ YEARS
Over 10 years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Since then, I've authored books, had kids, traveled the world, found Trish and blogged about it all.
RECENT ENTRIES
Snowing...
Just when I got my office and network all setup and I was getting ready to start hauling the last bits over - it starts snowing. This is typical in Denver. One day it's 80 degrees, the next it snows. I've seen it happen in the same day. In college, I once went to a movie when it was 75 degrees out, and when I left there was 2 inches of snow on the ground.
My new office is about 1/3 of the size of my old one - so it's kinda cramped in here - but I do have a window seat. Now I can watch it snow - which is huge compared to the dungeon/basement I used to be in. It'll suck when it's a beautiful day and I'm stuck working - but that's what getting up at 4 a.m. is for - done by noon!
Unfortunately, we get to do this all over again in 6-9 months. Next time it'll be a lot worse since we'll be +1 family member. Oh well, at least it's only next door. It's kinda cool moving from a small house (675 sq. ft.) to a bigger one (900 sq. ft.) and then to an even bigger one (1700 sq. ft.).
Moving
We started moving yesterday afternoon - and we're almost done. It sure is convenient simply moving into the house next door. Four good friends showed up around happy hour and helped us out for a couple hours. Kitchen, living room and both bedrooms are done. The only thing that remains is my office, desk, networking, etc. Phone and Internet transition was extremely smooth (Comcast rocks!). It all happened yesterday and we only had about an hour outage on each. I got my wireless network setup quickly and was able to use the neighbors (strong reception upstairs) when it was out. I'm dreading office setup, but I'd better get on it. You'll know when I'm done b/c demo.raibledesigns.com will be back up.
BTW, did you know that Eclipse 3.0 M8 is out? I wonder when MyEclipse will support it?
[Construction] Basement wall falls off
Our builder and I were in our front yard swapping lies this afternoon - when all of a sudden, the existing basement wall fell off! It didn't look like it was holding the house up at all, so I kinda just shrugged my shoulders and said "oh well." We're planning on moving out this weekend anyway. Bob (the builder) took a quick look and determined the wall (and former wall under it) was not holding the house up, so we both chalked it up to no big deal.
However, after a closer look - he determined it was an important wall and I should get out of the house. So now I'm at DU's Library. I don't think our house will cave in because the wall just fell off. Who knows though - it's kinda freaky walking around in a house that has a chance of collapsing. The 2nd picture below is kinda funny - he was going to prop the house up, but decided it wasn't gonna work. Hopefully, I can go home in a couple of hours and all will be patched up - so I can continue working there for the next couple of days.
 Basement wall falls off |
 Propping it up ;-) |
The Riding Season begins....
It's been so nice (75-80s) in Denver this week that I've dusted off my mountain bike and started hittin' the trails. Below are a couple picks from Sunday (South Platte) and yesterday (Red Rocks). It's great to be back in the saddle again...
 South Platte Trail |
 Red Rocks Trail |
Carpal Tunnel
When I finished hacking away on Roller this past Saturday, my fingers hurt from typing so much. Who knows why, I didn't add that much code. Must've been all the keystrokes to run Ant, start Tomcat, and test stuff. Yeah, we need more tests - but those won't help tweak CSS. Yesterday, all I did was review Hibernate in Action, so no coding, but a fair amount of typing. By the time I went on a bike ride yesterday afternoon - my left hand's left-most fingers were curled up naturally and my forearm was aching. Carpal Tunnel has set in quite nicely in my left forearm. I can still type, as evidenced by this post - but it definitely hurts and it seems like I could do some serious damage if I keep it up.
Herein lies the problem. I took this week off from my regular gig to concentrate on the Spring book. So I need to be typing like a madman all week - but my body is not cooperating. Rather, it's trying to tell me something - "you're not cut out for this this much coding/typing." So what should I do? I've had these same symptoms before - and when I did, I got a massage and took a couple of days off. That's a bit difficult this week with my livelihood depending on a pain-free left arm/wrist/fingers. I've booked a 10:00 massage - let's hope that gets me through the week. I definitely need a longer-term solution though. It'd be nice to write this book w/o typing, just talking.
Related: Carpal Tunnel in March 2006.
[Construction] Swimming Pool almost done
This last week, Bob the Builder has been digging our new foundation like a madman with his little Bobcat. It's been quite humorous at times - this little machine struggling to crawl the mounds of dirt in our backyard. One time, I saw him take 8 or 9 runs to get to the top and dump the dirt. We have no more lawn (front or back) and there's large mountains of earth everywhere. Here are a couple of shots - we've been telling the neighbors we're "putting in a swimming pool." ;-)
 Bob and the Bobcat |
 The Swimming Pool |
2006 Dodge Charger, Dukes and VW Buses
Heard on the radio this morning: Dodge is bringing back the Dodge Charger in 2006. Remember the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard? That's a Charger and here are pictures of the 2006 (or at least the concept car). "The Dukes" was one of my favorite TV shows growing up.
Since I grew up without electricity (hence, no TV), people often ask me if I've seen certain shows. I had friends, I watched TV at their houses. Also, my grandparents (who lived 10 miles down the road) had a TV. Night Rider and Dukes of Hazzard were shows that I went out of my way to see. However, there are shows like Gilligan's Island that I've never seen.
I won't be buying a new Charger, but I do plan on restoring an old VW Bus in the near future. I restored a couple of bugs in high school and college and I really enjoyed it. Right now, I'm looking for a late '50s or early '60s 23-window bus. I plan on dropping in a Porsche 911 or 914 engine, wrapping it with some Porsche wheels, and generally enjoying the whole process. It'll probably take me 2-3 years to complete the project - but I definitely need a new hobby. Being on the computer so much just isn't healthy. Besides, kids can participate in a car restoration. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures like this in a few years.
[Construction] Garage Demolition
Today, the builder started tearing down the garage and pouring the foundation for the master bath. It's pretty cool that all this is happening during my week off!
 The Garage demolition begins... |
 There goes the roof! |
 Master Bath Foundation begins... |
 Styrofoam Moldings for the foundation |