Happy New Year Plus Life Hacks

Published: 01/01/2021

Happy 2021!!! Hopefully this year is better than the last. It will be for me; that’s what I resolve to do. In the past 7 years, my wife and I have done a series of planning sessions at the end of each year to plan for the next, and we fell short in 2020 in many ways - mostly in reading the Bible more, eating out less and traveling. This year we have a set of new goals to focus on: work on the house, focus internally on wellness, and enjoy living. 2020, you weren’t so bad. You brought me ever closer, in time and space, to my wife and family. Farewell, 2020, and praise the Lord we don’t have to write /2020 on checks or legal documents, instead a simple /21 will do!

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Almost a month in! Status update

Published: 12/24/2020

Life has never been better. I’m 27 days into my new lifestyle and I’ve lost a whole toddler in weight! Yes, a toddler worth of weight. I’m surprisingly happy, healthy and excited about the future.

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I used to be fat

Published: 12/12/2020

Oh man, 2 weeks ago, I started on this journey, the great potato famine. I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but I quickly let that go and made it to the front page of the Hacker News. I posted “I am not fat”, and oh boy people were mean. Some people listened and I even got new Linkedin connections because people are curious or excited about what I’m doing. Today, I’m going to share my results, talk about what’s next and address some of the common feedback.

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Day 9 of I am not fat

Published: 12/06/2020

Today is day 9; I’m about to close it, it’s been a interesting week. My goal wasn’t to blog everyday and I’m glad I didn’t otherwise I’d have failed miserably. My fat is disappearing at a speed I never could have imagined. It’s totally transforming my life. Today is a recap of how things are going.

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Day 6 of I am not fat

Published: 12/02/2020

Today is day 6. Not much to report. The weight had no gain and no loss. Grated potatoes is delicious and probably unhealthy, but its becoming my preferred way to eat them. I’m learning that microwaving potatoes tends to dry them out, so I need to find a solution to that problem. Was very tempted by the potato chips at Starbucks but I resisted the urge, I got a grande black pike instead; was going to go to Panera, but last minute switched to Starbucks because they have the Christmas Blend, well, they stop serving that at noon. Bummer. Apparently grated sweet potatoes burn in the oven after about 30 minutes, they cook really fast… Its interesting and weird at the same time, this potato diet. Finally a bunch of people on the internet don’t approve of my approach, but who cares what the internet says?

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Day 5 of I am not fat

Published: 12/01/2020

This is probably the most consistently blogged ever in my life. Well, my friends on the internet, this is my public journal.

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Day 4 of I am not fat

Published: 11/30/2020

This is probably the most I’ve ever blogged, but all the feedback in this crazy loop is good. People keep telling me they’re proud of me and believe in me. I’m going to do it.

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Day 3 of I am not fat

Published: 11/29/2020

It’s been 3 days. Potatoes. Just potatoes. Today I woke up at 7:30, the garage door repairman was coming to fix a stupid issue; I let the door crash into the trash can and break some bolts on the door. Oh well, I was his first appointment of the day, which was great.

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I am not fat

Published: 11/28/2020

I’m not fat. There I said it, I should feel better about myself, right? Size is just a number. Right? Come on you know it’s true, size, weight and all that jazz is just a BS figure on the scale. That’s what we tell ourselves to make us feel better.

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Day 2 trying to eat potatoes

Published: 11/28/2020

This is day two. I wrote about day one, on day two and that was hard, hard to remember all the amazing things that happened yesterday like all the food I did not eat. But today, it’s easier because it’s fresh in my mind. This might be boring for some of you, so feel free to skip along.

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Contracting and taxes explained

Published: 11/05/2020

Ever wondered what the differences between a W2 and a 1099 contractor is? Ever thought about going 1099 but were scared because of taxes? Well, today I’m going to demystify the whole process to help you understand what might be the right path for you.

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ClassNames drives me crazy

Published: 10/07/2020

I’m not a hater, but there are some things in the modern javascript community that drive me bananas. These are stupid, small, minor things but I keep scratching my head as to why do they do it this way? So I wrote a ranty post about ClassNames in React. It’s enlighting and silly.

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Can I really be an engineer?

Published: 09/16/2020

A friend of mine recently got in touch with me, I was catching up with him and we were talking about our lives and careers. He’s struggling to make a living without much clear direction, I suggested he should become an engineer because the starting salaries are really good and you can build cool stuff. He’s a creative so it makes a lot of sense.

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What happened to August

Published: 09/03/2020

July 30, that is the last day you posted. Now 3 posts in 3 days? What is going on MAN? Glad you asked, rather I asked it for you. August was a whirlwind of things:

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bash creating scripts to do cool things

Published: 09/02/2020

Bash is awesome. Specific, useful, sadly can’t use it on windows; but its a powerful tool. I wrote a script to allow me to easily generate markdown files in the correct format with all the correct inside guts, so I can quickly & easily write blog posts. Doing things allows me to forget about “How do I format the document? Whats the right file naming convention?” to “Lets write, I’m feeling inspired”.

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Adventures in consulting

Published: 09/01/2020

I’m a consultant. Up until recently I was working for MBO partners. They contracted to one of their clients to me, they’re more of a middleman. Basically MBO acts as my employer, paying taxes and providing insurance coverage. Its good and not good at the same time. They provide all the legal coverage I need but take a hefty fee. They’re restructuring the service I’m on and because of that, I’m going to be getting a 1099 from them instead of a W2.

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Lets explore console log

Published: 07/30/2020

Console.log is an effective and useful tool for debugging, but have you read the documentation or dug much into it? I did and I wanted to share a few neat tricks for you to make your debugging more effective.

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Lets stop being stupid about security

Published: 07/26/2020

I hate it when I run across what is reported to be an epic hack involving Russians, Chinese or spies only it turns out the hacking victims were not taking any form of basic security seriously. Its like asking Bonnie and Clyde to rob a bank where the combo is printed on a large banner outside the vault and there are no keys to any safe deposit boxes. Or it’s like letting the fox get inside the hen house.

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Free Fuel

Published: 07/17/2020

What if I told you that you could get free fuel for the next two months? What if this deal was better then getting a fuel discount at the pump? What if I told you this is better then pumping red bull into your blood stream?

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Just ship it already

Published: 07/14/2020

There comes a time in every developers life when they have to decide “Do I work towards the best solution or just ship what I have?”

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