Friday, January 02, 2009

I tried to pick Python. It took me four days to read the tutorial (because I had to constantly remind myself the little differences with Ruby). I'm the kind of guy who mix languages if I don't remark every variation. Like lists being inmutable. Or a comma at the end for 1 element tuples.

Anyway now I know the syntaxes and read the PEP8 which looks like Python's greatest innovation. I can't imagine a project I want to do that would benefit from Python so it will be in the freezer for a while.

As I had extra time I decided to take a look at Haskell. To tell you the truth, I choose Python instead of it in the first place, because I'm tired of the FP-hype. I know Erlang and Scheme so I truly believe I know my FP. Anyway, it took me a couple of hours to read that tutorial. All made sense pretty quickly. I can't pretend to be a Haskell expert but it looks like Erlang without the concurrency plus a more expressive syntaxes. If I recall correctly, Scheme does have a delay function. Anyway, I like it and I can see myself doing something with it (that I would have usually done with Scheme). Yet, I miss Sexp.

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Thursday, January 01, 2009

How was 2008? I'm not fond of idealizing the 12-month cycle, but hey I do respect cycles. We, humans, are addicted to them. I think it is a bug in our firmware, but hey it is fun. My year was great, thanks for asking. It had a blue note but that's life.
What did I learn last year? Let me see... at the professional level, I got much more "do what your passion tells you to do". I had plenty of terrific experiences, working in my first MapReduce/Erlang project, meeting great guys at RubyFringe and working with RmbrMe. I finally created a FB profile :S I actually finished the python tutorial. I have yet to find it a purpose (having Ruby...). My love life is another story. It was much more linear. I love her and '08 was a catharsis-thingy year. She went away and that gave me time to think without my heart pounding over like a teenager. People tell me how cold I am, they have no idea. After all, it was a good break. My mind and brain were fighting too much and distance made many things much simpler, hence easier to discuss with myself. I can confidently say I love her the healthy way. I am not a knight rescuing a damsel in distress. I love her for the right reasons, and the right emotions. I'm fully in-line in that scope. (That's a bummer for the sitcom, but hey writers will find something else.) My social life went narrower. I intended 2008 to be a primordial year, and that's what happened. I see less people and that's a tad sad. However, I know it is for the better. Quality over quantity. I will reclaim some friendships but I had to simplify my kernel. In a couple of years I will surely explode again, but for now, all is good. I won't talk about my family. For my inner Memo it was a hard year. I didn't really attempt new things and he loves to be utterly lost.
In brief, Did I regain some patience? Yes, a fraction. Am I more happy? Yes, a lot. 2008 was a success.

So what will you do next year? Mmm, let me think. I want to say it is time to reap it. But no, life isn't ready. I want to create my house, but I like having themes. Perhaps Creation, once more. Three years ago I choose it. Then Conservation. And last year was Cancellation. Allan and juanjo have this theme about growing out. This rite of passage. I'm not convinced but people is starting to expect that from me. Maybe I should support a meta-creation. I have a long history of thinking about thinking. Or about living by being worth of living. Or of dreaming about being epic. Maybe this year I should concentrate in building a strong common life life. I mean, it is fun to be worried about the Omega number while others are worried about the economic crisis; Yet, I should be more mundane. Like not forgetting to pay the bills. Or making time in my schedule for a medical check. I'm all so good to jump to the no-meat wagon but I haven't ever considered the biological impact. It was just the right thing to do. I am neglecting my daily life. The boring bits are dull, but hey I wouldn't exist without it and maybe once there I will see some obvious fixes that will make my life ten times better. So my purpose for this year is being Conscious of the now. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

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