Gummesson.net

The story of a webdev & life tinkerer who just try to figure out this thing we call life.
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32 days ago Nicklas wrote

There and back again

Howling snarls from outside. Rows and columns of heads. Get bored of counting. The old man’s wrinkled hands crossed over a thick book. Wrinkled due to time or from hard work? Hard to tell. A ring on a finger that suggests that the woman he gives a few words every now and then is his other half. The smiling woman turns of the red light but touching it and give something to the tall woman who was just shouting something in a language I did not understand. Safety instructions on a slippery paper. Open a magazine. Ads for rich people, useless junk I don’t need. Who buys this stuff, really? An article about Italian islands. All in German. Put them back in the pocket in the seat in front of me.

Close out distractions. Sun rays that shoot out like sharp stripes over the silhouettes. Silhouettes that transform  into sugar wool just below the dark purple soup. The rays do not seem to reach through there. Look tangible and soft. Think about what happened the last days. Smiles, touches. Friends and moments that will never come again. Now only memories, if I let them stay. I find myself smiling when thinking of things that never actually happened but that the fantasy let me believe could have been the alternative story line. I believe so too. Didn’t that cloud just look like a face?

Through the ocean of fluffy wads I see pearls and other formations of yellow and intense lights. The sun rays are now gone and the only light that hits my eyes are from the neighborhoods reading light on the instrument panel above. Gravity is the only thing hinting me that this is not the sky filled with stars I am looking at outside the window. Reasoning tells me there are street lights. Maybe some houses here and there. I want to think of them as something else.

The sea of white disperse and reveals patches of colors that appear to come closer. Colors in shades of brown and green. Rivers in lanes of red and white, moving slowly. Looks like the thin path I starred at and followed the other day. This time with eyes instead. Sooner than I want to admit I find myself back on my two feet again. But I know, that the next time the swirling feeling in the stomach take off, I will recall all this again. Because it is there I decided to put them.

How do you want to live your one, wild, and precious life?

53 days ago Nicklas wrote

Boiling frog

For the last months or so it has been a little bit of that kind of period when things just have run smoothly. A little bit too smoothly perhaps. The kind of easy way of Work-Eat-Sleep kind of routine. But it is not what I wanted. And even though I really do enjoy my work (I consider myself lucky to find one where I can spend time doing something I love) I still believe there is more to life than just work. Isn’t there? Well, from all bad things also comes some good. And with less time so comes the need to focus. I have had time to think through some things and to get going and actually have some measurable progress I tried to defined some first projects that I want to get started and back on track:

  • Study an iPhone dev course now during the summer. The course started today and will continue for two more months. Hopefully will broaden my skills a bit and learn some new tricks to put up the sleeves for future works.
  • Considering my body is still in same good shape and weight as when I was 15 I have had trouble to motivate myself to exercise on a more regular basis. Although, I feel like I should take better care of my body for the long-term and roller skating a few times each month is not enough. So from today me and some friends have started out on the “one hundred push ups” and “two hundred sit-ups” programs to begin with. I managed to 33 push ups and 20 sit-ups on the initial tests and the goal is as stated on the pages to be able to do 100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups within 6 weeks.
  • My room-mate and friend has decided to move back to Sweden so in middle of July I will also move. Not back to Sweden, but to a new apartment. I already found a temporary one to ease the move in which I promised to stay until end of September. After that I want to find something of my own.
  • I want to get started with music again, more specifically with the drums! Ever since I sold the drums I had in the parents house when I was a teenager I have regret that I did not play more and continued. And now I can actually afford some expensive ones of my own. I just need that apartment with enough space. So to begin with – read up on drums to find some suitable ones. Suggestions?

Well, there are actually some more goals I have set up but I think I keep those for my personal record than to put here for everyone to read. Nevertheless there are goals and dreams that just need to wait. Rome was not built in a day and it sure helps a lot to focus on a few things rather than scatter the energy on too many things.

    And other than that my summer is more or less planned before it even started, and I kind of wonder how that did happen. But I don’t feel so sorry about that considering the upcoming events that will take place. Now closest, in a few days two friends will be visiting, I will have my 26th birthday, and a Rage Against The Machine concert I been longing for is going to take place.

    I have many reasons to be really, really happy. :)

    59 days ago Nicklas wrote

    Wait, stop, break!

    Being a child sure have it caveats but if circumstances are the right ones there is not much trouble. When summer arrived it was usually with a big relief and longing for enjoying the days with friends and whatever came to our minds. If I ever had a something planned for more than a month ahead it was more an exception than a routine.

    A decade or so later I found myself having more or less all summer planned before it even started. Sure, I have come a long way in my life plan but somewhere I feel like I took a wrong turn. I could need a break and by that I don’t mean vacation.

    Time for some spontaneity. Tomorrow I leave for a few days to go to Sevilla.

    68 days ago Nicklas wrote

    In the eye of the beholder

    The World by Ángeles Santos Torroella
    “The World” by Ángles Santos Torroella.

    Art is really a subjective matter and as such of course everyone has their own opinion. For me I would define it as an expression to show what is going in before your inner eye. To show the world more than what we can see with our eyes alone, so to speak. How that is projected is another question, apparently.

    The reason my thoughts got running on this was because me and some friends went to the Reina Sofia museum the other day. It was not my first visit (I only live 10 min away after all) but I visited some new rooms this time. The thing is that even though I know art is really a personal matter and there is a variety of choices to what to look at I cannot help to be astonished how many objects, paintings and what-not there inside a museum that apparently have been valued good enough to be place there. I find myself being more interested in why the object came to be there rather than the object itself. I cannot for my life understand how a canvas with only red paint, a piece of fence hanging in the ceiling, or a video of a man toasting marshmallows and smearing on a map can be called art. And even less understand how it can be appreciated enough to be put in a national museum of art.

    Sometimes I wonder if I am out of sync with the world or if I am just not part of it.

    76 days ago Nicklas wrote

    Everything goes in cycles

    Last year me and my room-mate was trying to live a little more green and planted a lot of seeds in some pots. Turned out we did not have so green thumbs after all so the plants rapidly died before we could harvest our precious fruits. Although I blame the heat… damn you, sun!

    So we left the pots be on one of the balconies and soon there after jumped on to new projects. But since a month new plans have started to grow. Who would have guessed?
    Growing plants

    Welcome to the world. This year I will take better care of you.

    80 days ago Nicklas wrote

    Live consciously

    Seek truth with open eyes. Courageously accept your discoveries and their consequences. Rid your life of falsehood, denial, and fear of what is. Make truth your ally, not your enemy. This isn’t easy, but it is correct.

    Share your love openly. Connect with yourself and others by tuning in to the connection that already exists. The risk of rejection is overshadowed by the rewards of loving connections. Whenever you feel disconnected, reach out and connect with another human being. Remember that you’re always loved.

    Fully develop your human abilities, and use your power in honorable service for the highest good of all. False power corrupts, but true power elevates. The more you resonate with truth and love, the greater your ability to wield power wisely. No one is served by your refusal to shine.

    Embrace your unique path of growth. Use your intellect and emotions to guide you in the conscious pursuit of truth, love and power. Invest in creative self-expression, service, and contribution, and you will suffer no scarcity. Your greatest gift to the world is to share who you really are.

    Enjoy your incredible human journey. Accept the highs and the lows as equally valuable. Recognize that your deepest sorrows reveal your greatest joys. Share your stories with others, and know that you’re not alone. Be grateful for your time on earth.

    Live consciously.

    ***

    These are the last words of the book Personal development for smart people by Steve Pavlina that I finished during my trip to London during the weekend. For some years back I have read quite a few ones on the topic of personal development and despite the corny title this is by far the best one I have read. Hell, I think I can even consider this one of the best books I read all-time! Not only for the content but also for the message he wants to transmit. Truth-Love-Power are core topics in the book and even if they may be fundamental ideas they can need to some thoughts upon to be really in use in life. If you look around, is it really that you see? Maybe among the friends you choose, but in my humble opinion it is not the case when it comes the world at large. The world is not what it could be.

    Instead of writing a long review I’ll take it briefly. If you (like me) want to make the best of your life, need some (really, really) good advises, and a little helpful nudge to get going in the right direction then this is the book for you. Change does not come easy but with the right mindset and tools it sure gets easier. If you still hesitate I recommend to read his blog.

    Does your path have heart?

    88 days ago Nicklas wrote

    Adios Eclipse PDT, Hola Netbeans

    As a PHP developer I have tried out a few IDEs (Eclipse, Netbeans, Zend Studio, Aptana, vim, emacs etc) during the years but in the end I have always ended up with me going back to an older version of Eclipse PDT. Not because it is the best editor per se but mainly because of one little nitty-gritty feature that none else seems to care about. At least considering I cannot really find any articles, blog articles, or twitter messages about the matter.

    The feature I was missing is the outline displaying inherited members and methods of super/parent classes, as seen in the two following screenshots. This was implemented by the PDT team sometime in first stable version but then magically vanished in the release of PDT 2.x, apparently without anyone missing it except for me.

    Quick outline view, triggered by CMD+O (mac) CTRL+O (win/*nix).

    I’ve requested this feature on the PDT mailing list as well as voted in on bug reports in their track system a while back but so far no luck. Because of this I have stuck to the older version of Eclipse which of course has it drawbacks. But considering this is the main feature I use to navigate around the code base (which is rather big at work) I cannot live work without it.

    Well, this was the frustrating truth until recently since it now actually seems like Netbeans finally implemented this feature. I have discarded this IDE earlier because I considered it to be too slow and unresponsive with a larger code base but maybe that has improved as well. At least I hope so. Tomorrow I will give it a try and see how it works out. An IDE comparison might come up at a later point.

    Sorry Eclipse PDT, but finally it looks like we need to go separate ways.

    89 days ago Nicklas wrote

    If Dante’s inferno was Internet…

    …then web development would probably be the third circle (gluttony) – we want it all and we want it now, no matter the consequences.

    Anyone who have worked in web development for some time knows about issues that comes with the job. Never ending CSS quirks, cross-browser issues, programming limitations, and so on. That’s also part of the challenge to solve of course. In 2008 Joel on software wrote an ingenious analysis of the browser situation, its cause, and the close-by future that awaits us who choose to continue in this area. The browser wars of 90’s may have some fault to it but still we don’t seem to have learned from the dark past.

    Since last week I have started to work on our web-based mobile site at work. This area is pretty new to me but still just after a few days of work I think I just realized that things could be even worse. The same problems as above still apply, go figure. But on top that add vendor and device specific APIs, device limitations in infinitive variations, and so on… the list can grow bigger.

    Some days I wonder why I did not choose an easier path. But hey, at least we got a nice challenge ahead.
    I just hope I get through all levels before it is over.

    99 days ago Nicklas wrote

    React or proact

    Today when going through my RSS feeds I found a really interesting article to act upon those creative ideas that pops up sometimes (in my case usually when brushing my teeth, taking a showing or observing people on the street). Five tips for making ideas happen. The title was intriguing enough to get my mind going. Some of the things mentioned here are of course as always was of course kind of obvious but there is always something to pick up or learn.

    Working in a high pace internet company sure has it perks such as interesting people, creative and fascinating work, nice benefits (not that many people can play rock band or ping-pong on daily basis :)). But even so with all that is going on in the office and being constantly online on social networks it is sometimes really hard to cool down and really hard concentrate on a problem that needs are to be solved without being interrupted. What I realized when reading the article above is that I am one of those that fallen into the reactionary workflow. Even though I am very good at managing my own time and get things done (but how I achieve that is something I plan write about in another post). Maybe it is not really that surprising how many ways of communication and things poking on our attention all day but sometimes we need someone to put it right in the face to realize what needs to be changed. I now clearly see this is something I can improve.

    Shutting down all IM apps, email, open social networks, and mobile phone sure seems tempting. The question is how much the colleagues would like that, considering the need for communication among the team during the day. Just one way to find out.. If nothing else, I think this is something I will try to apply in my spare time.

    How do you make sure that you get your things done, both in work and in private life?

    114 days ago Nicklas wrote

    First impressions last longest

    When I was around ten years old I had my first 3D gaming experience. The game was Wolfenstein 3D and the game play was basically based on being an agent infiltrating and exploring a castle and shooting nazis on the way the to final boss. I remember this first time oh so well because it was also the last time I played this game. My dad was not as keen to see his 10-something-years-old kid playing violent video games so when he saw what me and my older brother actually were playing he was not late to tell us off. The game was deleted never to be seen again. Oh well, that is the official story. ;)

    This was around 1994 and just to be able to play these kind of hot games with mosaic-like graphics and jerky movement you had to buy a, with today’s measurements, gigantic computer that looked more like a square box and that cost a smaller fortune. And yet, we were amazed by what this new world had brought us.

    The reason why I am really bringing this up is because the other day I stumbled upon the very same game that brought all these memories back to me – implemented in JavaScript! I find it really fascinating that something that was so amazing and demanding just a few years ago now can be run natively on basically any available computer with a modern browser. Especially in a language that man developers still consider to be a toy language.

    This also intrigues me in another way, namely how will things change in the next 15 years or so? Even though that is probably very hard, if not impossible, to foresee I still hope I will be just as astonished as this time.

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