I just got back from a weekend software symposium that was refreshing for me as a software developer. I attended the great-bang-for-your-buck NoFluffJustSuff software symposium over the past weekend and I had a good time. It wasn't on the same level as the previous ones I have attended but it was a really good experience. Some of my favorite presenters were not there, Jason Hunter and Jared Richardson for instance.

I ended up attending a bunch of Ted Neward's presentations on Performance, Scalability, Threading and Concurrency for the most part. I went to an advanced Grails session that was pretty impressive. I also went to a bunch of sessions on Agility and Project metrics and stuff. I learned quite a bit and as usual got a bunch of reading/research assignments.

Books to Read:
- The Pragmatic Programmer - Dave Thomas
- Secrets of Consulting
- Einstein's Dreams
- Stumbling on Happiness
- Normal Accidents
- The Logic of Failure
- The Design of everyday things
- In Search of Stupidity

Plus, I have lots of technologies to try out: Maven, FindBugs, PMD, Groovy, Grails, the java.util.concurrency package, JConsole and much more. I will need to organize and review my notes.

I've got a couple more books to add to the reading list from... yeah, the radio.

I also need to put some words down on the need to organize life and family activities to reduce frustration quotient.

My sunshine arrives in less than two hours. God is great!

Maybe it's the dust and grass, or perhaps adult onset allergies, or maybe sleep deprivation. Whatever it is, it sucks! I hate being sick or sickly. Sick-like. It puts me in a bad mood, or at least a worse mood than normal. I get irritable and want solitude and a bed more than anything else. I usually do not get it, and that just feeds the cycle of irritability.

I am on the meds and vitamin c and water. Hopefully this will pass.

My dad told me how proud he was of me today... for being a good father. That's a great compliment for me because my father is perhaps my biggest hero of all time. I stopped aspiring to be like him a long time ago and aspired to be as true to myself as possible. So for him to acknowledge my path is gratifying.

I hope I can be a good father through my children's tougher years. It's easier when they are little, obedient mini-me(s).

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold
Each possessed a stick of wood--
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
But the first one held hers back,
For, of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next one looked cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of wealth he had in store,
And keeping all that he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For he saw in his stick of wood
A chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain,
Giving just to those who gave
Was how he played the game,

Their sticks held tight in death's stilled hands
Was proof enough of sin;
They did not die from cold without--
They died from cold within.

-- James Patrick Kinney

Pure Servlets - A anovel idea on how you can take your precious MVC framework and shove it!

I confess to being an NPR-Public Radio listener. I prefer to listen to Morning Edition in my car on the way to work and Marketplace or News and Notes on my way home rather than the musical drivel on the commercial cookie cutter stations.

A couple of times this week I have heard News and Notes panelists make comments that rub me the wrong way - relating to Africa. It is probably my delusion that Black people in the diaspora and continental Africans will eventually come together and improve our collective lot. I believed that in my lifetime I would see the development of substantial economic links between individuals and organizations on either side of the Atlantic that would harness the overwhelming abundance of human and natural resources on the continent and the economic power and access held in the diaspora.

Perhaps it is because of my childhood. I was once an idealistic and fiercely nationalistic youth. Then I watched my country deteriorate over my short lifespan, as successive civilian and military regimes continually defrauded the nation for personal gain while developing and instilling a culture of corruption that has been filtering deeper and deeper into the national conscience and has jaded national identity.

I also remember being shocked and disappointed by the views and ignorance of my American brothers when Africa was a subject of conversation. It was either feast or famine. Africa or Afrika is either a barren wasteland of potbellied children with flies tapdancing on their eyeballs or it was a mystical land called (Kemet or Nubia) of glorious kings and queens and warriors. No in-between.

Equally, I have been absolutely disgusted by the superior-holier-than-thou attitudes of continental negroes who think african americans should get over slavery and such other drivel.

...

Feels like I have way too much on my plate at the moment. Having to multi-task and juggle priorities is expected of any reponsible adult, so I do not feel unfairly burdened... just stressed. I have a major trip coming up. It should be a vacation, but I find myself feeling more anxious than relieved. I am taking my firstborn, my daughter who is turning 7 in a couple of weeks back to Nigeria for the first time.

I have not prepared her for what she will experience. I don't know that she is resilient enough to handle the drastic changes she will experience. I wonder if three weeks will be enough for her to grow to love the places and people that I grew up with. She's a brave girl so I know she will do her best in difficult situations but in the end, I know she will adapt... to power outages, mosquitoes and daily harmattan dust deposits.

My parents have been looking forward to this trip for YEARS. I want it go well for them as well. They miss their grandkids immensely. And rightfully so, I make great babies. My daughter is a wonderful, wonderful child. Growing up so fast, though. Hard to believe it's been so long since she first smiled at me. And my son seems like a mini-me, same stubborn temperamental demanding demeanor crossed with giving heart and an easy smile. I love him. Both of them are so damn smart, it hurts to know I haven't done EVERY possible thing to nurture their intelligence, curiosity and creativity. But that's another post.

Beyond the trip, my wife is between jobs/careers for the second time this year and as sure as I am that this is the way things were meant to play out, I cannot help but feel the added pressure of less income for the household - during the holidays. Any unnecessary spending seems frivolous. I am not a proponent of the act-poor-until-u-get-rich mentality that says you need to keep cutting and saving every possible penny for a bountiful rocking good time when you are a septegenerian. But we are certainly cost-conscious. Anyway, there are money pressures as well.

Let's see, I am also in the sixth month of a my new job with a dope team. everyone on the team is a hardworking, impressive contributor and we are a high-impact team. For various reasons, I feel as though I have not represented myself well enough on the team, not in a competitive way, but in the quality of my work. I feel the added pressure to make sure I get my duck in a row before I leave on this trip, so it doesn't get picked apart in my absence. I have a few dangling tasks and plenty documentation to write. Matter of fact, I'm bout to jump off this joint and get to it.

Hollah!

Sometimes I think I am too subdued. Like I need to take the time to just breathe slowly. Put down the water hose and let some fires burn out on their own. I am so greatly blessed but I lose sight of just how much sometimes.

This weekend is a gym weekend fo sho. Football should keep me in there for a good two hours. I hope.

I had a crazy few weeks at the gig, but it appears that the worst is behind us... I think I have made apparent my value to the team. I also think I rated my teammates too highly in our Peer Assessment. I am expecting this whole raise thing next year to be proper for a brotha since I made a lateral move and couldn't get more in the door. Next time the stock market slumps it would be nice to be able to throw some cheese in. All that said, it hasn't been a bad year.

I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break so I can spend some time with my family... recharge a bit. i appreciate all the new music I have received lately. Good lookin out, Rob & Oke!! Y'all got me aggressive again.

Sometimes I wonder what in the world I am supposed to take away from dreams.

About 2 weeks ago, I had a dream about me and the devil. I was a part of a team with a specific significant mission - which I cannot recall - but my job was to fight the devil. Physically fight the devil. Crazy, right. The scene was an apartment somewhere, in someone's living room. I had a bottle of water in my hand and and I was in the process of setting it down on the coffee table wen the door opens. Some white dude in a dark hoodie walks in and I instinctively know it's him. So I race to the door as fast as I can. He starts pulling off the hood and I start wailing on him... he doesn't look all that devilish-just like a bald headed mid twenties white supremacist dude. I am punching him as hard as I can and as hard as I can... body-head-body. I tried to throw in elbows and knees as much as possible... I tried to stay close to him... his arms were longer than mine. I tried to ignore his blows as they landed. I kept telling myself to remain focused and aggressive.. I wanted all his attention so that the rest of my team could play their respective roles. don't know what the grand scheme was, just that I was the distraction. I didn't have to win the fight, I just had to keep his full attention and commit all of mine to the fight.

I was also forewarned about his ability to morph into other beings as a psychological weapon. big surprise... the devil has always been liar. He morphed into a midget, a kid, a woman... I knew I couldnt let up. So when he became a little person I picked him up and slammed him into the bookshelf... when he became a child I kept punching... I had to keep telling myself to remain focused- that the rest of the team depended on me to succeed. I figured I must be winning if he was trying to psych me into slowing down. I was surprised that I hadn't stopped punching because we had been going at it for a while. I woke up before the fight was over or my "team's" objective was accomplished.

All I know is I fought the devil, and I took it to his ass.

I would drop a YouTube joint on ya but the site is down right now... go there... search for Keith Olbermann. I still ain't gettin cable but this dude's monologues on MSNBC are FIYAH!

I just watched him take the administration to task - right along with the right wing extremists driving this country off a cliff.

TRANSCRIPT of his monologue on the occasion of Bush signing the act that makes it OK to torture bad bad men...

I liked his wisecracks on SportCenter back in the day but I never knew he dropped jewels like these.

I finally got off my ass and put some work in... 5 miles on the elliptical thing and a lil this and that for the chest shoulders and abs... all while watching football on a slow Sunday afternoon. Awesome!

So it's only been one day, but I feeel good that I got off my ass and did something for a change... more to follow. I just have to figure out how to get a work out in on weekdays.

JEAH!

Who or what evil is behind the apparent explosion of Black Conservatives in America?

Perhaps, some of these mofos.

Man! I am reading again and it feels GREAT!! I miss having (read: making) the time to read novels all through the night.

While in Chicago a couple of weeks back, my wife and I were lured into a used book store and I picked up a title by a familiar author. Jeffrey Archer's "As the Crow Flies" reminded me that I loved to read novels. I enjoyed the story- poor kid with spunk makes good in a mean world. but I enjoyed the experience even more. I read over 400 pages one night! And I paid for it dearly yesterday.

The last novel I read was "The Pride of Carthage" sometime last year. It was a historical novel about Hannibal. I think I heard the author on NPR earlier and the subject was immediately appealing. Around the same time I heard that Vin Diesel was supposed to be in a movie about Hannibal some time this year... thankfully, that hasn't materialized... yet.

I have recently resolved to get a hold of a bunch of African Writer Series books... My parents had a few of them in the house when I was growing up but I was more interested in Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett and Frederick Forsyth. While I suspect I would enjoy those writers works even now, I regret overlooking truly wonderful writing that was sure to be more culturally relevant to my development... Not that I never read Wole Soyinka, Cyprian Ekwensi or Chinua Achebe... but I didn't delve outward to the other African countries. That is truly a shame.

Anyway, I still have a few Ben Okri joints that I love... gotta stockpile more! If anyone has any suggestions as to which continental writers I should consider I am all ears!

So this is nothing new... or surprising. I mean, I'm knocking on thirty... I no longer play soccer or Capoeira, No longer run outside, I no longer take walking breaks at work, I don't go to the gym anymore and of course my diet isn't all that.

So over the past couple of years my health and fitness have definitely deteriorated - immensely. I'd say over the past 2 years my average weight has gone from 150lbs to 165lbs. I wonder of all the excuses I could conjure up, which could have some validity... I guess over the past couple of years a few life changes could have contributed to my newfound lethargy... oh well.

I do not find myself really motivated to go to the gym to get my cardio on. I did make a token effor in the early summer - but only on the weekends. I feel busy but I know I am not that damn busy to squeeze in an hour or an hour and a half.

The key to getting in a rythm is to start it and not to buckle at the first couple of challenges to the schedule. if I can commit to a cycle for about 6 or 7 repetitions it is bound to stick. I guess another alternative would be to join a league of some sort where I am committed to others - and financially committed as well. I doubt the latter is going to go down. I am not even in touch withthe last group I used to play indoor soccer with.

We'll see - I'll start slowly - again - by simple cardio on Sat and Sun. I can watch football!

Lately I have been jonesin for something fresh to listen to... yes, I have heard the new Roots album, no I don't like Lupe Fiasco and no I am not on the Little Brother bandwagon. The last album I remember buying is The Richest Man in Babylon by Thievery Corporation so I am open to non-hiphop joints. I am not a big nu soul cat either... So if anyone has suggestions on good music readily available from damn near anywhere I am open to suggestions...

Thanks!