Long time, no see...

Sorry for the delay in posting anything, folks.  I was sick (see prior postings) and then I was very busy getting caught up with work.  And, I've taken on a side project with a team of developers to produce a new SaaS application.  So, I've had my hands full lately.

I will, however, resume to making daily posts soon.  But, I've got a new domain that is private (as in, not hosted by Blogspot) and I have to get the Wordpress theme set up.  I'll do that as soon as I can.  Then, I'll be posting there from that point on.

Anyway, check back here in the next few days for the link to the new blog.

Thanks and have a great week!

Still sick.

Day four of this miserable sickness.  It's moved into my chest now, so I'm coughing more.  I can't taste anything because my sinuses are swelled shut.  My head hurts and I'm aching all over.  To think this all started with a scratchy throat and slightly stuffy nose.

I've had to use nasal spray every night just to be able to sleep.  I think I'm getting immune to its effects, though, because it doesn't seem to last as long as it's supposed to.  I end up waking up way too early because I can't breathe through my nose.  Which, of course, makes me very, very tired.

I may go take a nap now.  I'll use the nasal spray and hope it lasts long enough for me to get some rest.  I hate colds.

I hate being sick.

Ugh. Saturday, I started getting a scratchy throat and stuffy nose.  The pollen count is up, so I'm guessing that was the cause.  Sunday, I started getting very congested with sinus pressure.  Today, I'm all discombobulated. I don't know if this is a cold, and allergy, or some sinus infection.  But, I just feel bad.  I didn't even go into the office.  I could've worked from home, but I can't even keep my thoughts straight, due to the headache from the sinus pressure.  I need some chicken soup.

Stay gold, Ponyboy...

If you've never seen the movie, "The Outsiders", you should.  I saw a quote today from astronaut Chris Hadfield, that reminded me of the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" that featured in that movie.  Here's Hadfield's quote:

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you'd be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don't let life randomly kick you into the adult you don't want to become.

 What that quote means to me, to put it bluntly, is to do what makes you happy and start taking steps to make it so. If you want to spend your days surfing waves, start taking steps to do that.  If you want to open a pizza shop, take your first step to doing just that.  Basically, stop putting it off, and start taking steps to make your dream happen.

It's the last line of the quote above that reminds me of the Robert Frost poem. To me, it says "Hey, stay young, stay gold. Don't let life's worries and stress wear you down. Don't live in a cage of society's making. Don't mold yourself into someone else's expectations. Live like you want to, and be happy."  I may be totally misreading what Chris Hadfield was saying, but that's what I get from it.

For reference, here's Mr. Frost's poem :Nothing Gold Can Stay"

If you've seen the movie "The Outsiders" then you'll understand the context in which that poem is used. It's a great movie, I think.  If you get a chance, check it out.

Wikipedia: The Outsiders

And the winner is...

<drum roll> Dave!  Dave, I'll be sending you an email shortly to request your mailing address.  I'd like to congratulate you on your winning and also I want to thank everyone that entered the contest!

I'd also like to say to keep an eye on the blog because I will have little contests like this from time to time.

Just a quick update.

Just a quick reminder that the Moon Medallion contest will be ending at 5 p.m. EST today.  If you haven't already, leave a comment on the original post to get a chance to win this piece of America's space history!

Ugh. So sick.

Well, last night, I kind of went off my diet.  I blame my lack of will power.  But, indirectly, I also blame my wife for getting me hooked on Fung Bros. videos on YouTube.  You see, the Brothers Fung travel to various parts of the U.S. and Asia and sample all kinds of cuisine, and make videos while they're doing it.  Their videos, in my opinion, are awesome because they are informative and very funny!

Another YouTube channel my wife got me hooked on is Off The Great Wall.  These guys have excellent videos related to Asian food.  So, I've been watching all of these with my wife and, to be honest, they make me extremely hungry.  Especially since I've been trying to follow a very calorie restricted diet for the past few weeks.

Well, last night, I couldn't take it anymore.  I was very hungry, and couldn't stop thinking about dim sum. There is this restaurant in Orlando called Ming's Bistro.  From the Yelp reviews, they seem to have the most traditional dim sum in the area. So, we decided to go there.

Long story short, the food is awesome.  Granted some of the dim sum I picked was a little strange, and some of it was an "acquired taste" kind of thing.  But, it was all totally excellent.  The waiter brought us a menu and a list of dim sum items.  Basically, I checked almost everything on the dim sum list, and then we ordered Beef Chow Fun and Shrimp Chow Fun.  Not too long afterwards, our food started arriving.

We had turnip pudding, spicy braised chicken feet, fried meat dumplings, shrimp and eggplant dumplings, sticky rice in banana leaves, roasted pork buns, steamed pork buns, shu mai, spicy beef tripe, chive dumplings, a couple of spring rolls, crispy pork, taro dumplings, egg custards, and the two aforementioned chow fun dishes.  This, my friends, was a LOT of food.  And I ate a lot of it.

The food, simply put, was delicious.  Strange taste combinations (shrimp and eggplant?) and outright bizarre pieces (chicken feet?) made this meal quite an adventure.  There was just So. Much. Food. My wife advised me that I might have over done the ordering a tiny bit.  Maybe <shrug>.

Obviously, we had leftovers.  There was no way that we could've ate all this food in one sitting.  But, it wasn't for lack of trying.  My craving for dim sum was at an all time peak and I wanted to consume as much as I could. My daughter, the Hater of All Things Vegetable, had a surprising favorite: the chive dumplings.  These are, basically, dumplings stuffed with green stuff (chives?) and shrimp. But, seriously, this was the last thing I would think that she would eat and like, but she loved them so much that she claimed the three that were left over as her own.  So, they're sitting in the fridge at the moment, waiting to be eaten by her for lunch.

This morning, I'm paying for impromptu feast.  My tummy is rumbly, as Pooh would say.  And, I feel a little queasy.  But, that did not stop me from having the following for breakfast this morning:

• One fried meat dumpling
• One turnip pudding
• One sticky rice cake
• Shrimp Chow Fun noodles (all I had left was the noodles and bok choy)

Seriously, the food at Ming's is awesome.  We'll definitely be back.

Also, one good thing did come out of this excursion.  I got to practice my Mandarin a little bit.  When we walked in, the owner said "Hello! How many?" and I said "Nín hǎo! San" which meant "Hello! Three."  One of the other Asian customers said "Wow, this guy knows Chinese" when we sat down at a table beside theirs.  I said to him "Wǒ zhīdào yī diǎndiǎn", which means "I know a little."  His wife smiled and nodded her head in approval and said "Right, yī diǎndiǎn!" like she was impressed.  So, that made me feel good.  The waiter asked what we'd like to drink and I said "Shuǐ yībēi", which means "A glass of water".

Anyway, it was an awesome chance to get to use my burgeoning Mandarin skills.  But, I'd be lying if I said that was the main reason we went there.  Nah, it was for the dim sum.  I did it for the dim sum.

Here's a few links to some of the things I talked about in this post:

• Dim Sum - Wikipedia
• Ming's Bistro Facebook Page

Also, here's a couple of videos from the Fung Bros. and Off the Great Wall.

Free Official NASA Moon Medallion Contest Ends Tomorrow

Just a quick reminder: The little contest I'm having on my blog will be ending tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. EST.  I'll have the drawing for the winner shortly after that.  If you'd like a chance at winning the moon medallion, leave a comment on the original post.  You'll have to have a Blogger or Google+ account to do so, but it only takes a few seconds to set that up.

The Rosetta Stone

Last night, I dropped some coin on a purchase of some software called "Rosetta Stone".  Now, if you remember from your World History class, the original Rosetta Stone was a stele (slab) of rock that was inscribed with three sets of scripts in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek.  Because each different script was basically saying the same thing as the others, this allowed for someone knowing Greek or Demotic to figure out what the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were saying.  The stone was discovered by a soldier in Napoleon's expedition in 1799.  It took scholars until 1822 to fully translate the hieroglyphs.  Before then, Egyptian hieroglyphs was a mystery to scholars, as no one knew how to read or translate them.

Read more about the Rosetta Stone here: Wikipedia - Rosetta Stone

So, this software, aptly named after the stone in question, has a system that teaches you a new language.  It basically throws you into the deep end.  Everything you see and hear in the lessons are in the language that you've chosen to learn.  So, the software may start out showing you a picture of a man, with the Chinese characters 男人.  The software will also pronounce the characters for you.  In this case, it's pronounced "ny ren" (phonetically).  Speaking of "phonetically", each of those symbols has a phonetic sound associated with it that's written in a system called "pinyin".  The pinyin shows how to pronounce the Chinese character by including little marks that tell the speaker what "tone" to use.  So, in pinyin, the 男人 characters are sounded out as "nán rén".  The little tick marks indicate a short, rising tone like saying "what? what?" in English.  So, when you say "ny ren", say it like you're asking a question: "ny? ren?".

Anyway, the software starts you out with simple picture/character/sound associations and moves you into simple sentences.  I started my first lesson with Rosetta Stone last night at 9 p.m.  I finished at 12 a.m. midnight.  I was having a blast!  It's neat, because the software will ask you to repeat or read a sentence or word, and it listens to how you sound, giving you feedback on making your pronunciation better.

So, with this software, the Chinese pop music that I'm already listening to, the language apps on my phone, and video lessons on YouTube, I should be well on my way to knowing enough written and spoken Mandarin by the time we get to go on our trip in 2017.

Learn Chinese: Rosetta Stone Chinese (Mandarin) - Level 1-5 Set

Learning Mandarin Chinese.

拼音

(您好。我是凯文·) Ni hao! Wo shi kai wen! Or, in English, "Hello! I am Kevin!".

The two symbols at the top of the page represent the characters for "pin yin" Chinese.  They literally mean "spelled out sounds".  I'm learning Simplified Mandarin Chinese (pin yin) for our planned trip to China in 2017.  I've spent an average of about two hours per day this past week learning how to read, write and speak Mandarin.

So far, it's not too bad.  I'm using a combination of various online videos and one paid Chinese course.  Also, while I'm working, I'm listening to "T-Pop" (Taiwanese pop music).  Already, I'm able to pick out words in the songs I'm hearing!  The course that I am taking indicates that I may be able to understand at least 79% of written and spoken Mandarin once I'm through.  Since I have almost two years to practice, this may be a very attainable goal for me.  I'm also using a neat free mobile app called "ChineseSkill" that's a little like DuoLingo, if you're familiar with that app.

The one thing that's a little different with the Chinese language is that tones can change the meaning of a word drastically.  In English, you can say the word "apple" using many different tones, and it still means "apple".  In Chinese, you say the word for "ugly" with an even, flat tone.  If you say the word with a rising tone, though, it means "stinky".  So, you have to be careful with the tones when speaking and listening.  There are only four tones, though:

1. A flat, even tone (kind of a higher tone)
2. A short rising tone (like saying "what?" in English)
3. A "roller-coaster" tone (drops, then rises)
4. An abrupt, dropping tone (like saying "No!" or "Ha!", starts strong, then drops)

So, anyway, it's a little bit of a challenge to learn to listen for (and speak!) those tones.  It's not impossible, just different.

I'm enjoying the learning, though.  It's something a little bit different from coding and I believe that working a different part of my brain by trying to learn a new spoken language, as opposed to learning a new programming language, can only help me in the long run.

Want a free Moon Medallion?

I work at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, so I get some access to some pretty cool swag.  For instance, they have these "moon medallions" that are made from metal that has been to the Moon and back on an Apollo lunar mission.  That's right!  The coin actually has metal that has been to our nearest celestial neighbor!

Here's a picture of one of these medallions:

So, to celebrate the recent Chinese Lunar New Year and the start of my new blog here, I am going to have a contest.  Anyone that leaves a comment below will have a chance to win an official NASA Moon Medallion!  That's right!  Just by leaving a simple comment, you can own a piece of our nation's space exploration history!

Now, there are a couple of rules:

• You cannot leave an anonymous comment and win.  
• You must live in the contiguous United States.

So, if you can meet those simple requirements, you have a chance to win!  I'm having the drawing at 5 p.m. EST on February, 12th.  Any comments posted after that time will not be eligible to win.  The drawing will be entirely random and the winning entrant will be picked by a computer program.  I will announce the winner after the drawing and contact the winner so that they can provide me with their mailing address.  Only comments on this blog are accepted as entrants (The comment has to be on this blog, not on another site with a link to this blog post).

Also, one last thing, I reserve the right to remove any derogatory comments.  I want this to be a fun event!

Good luck!

NOTE: You will have to create a Blogger account or a Google+ account to leave a comment, if you don't already have one.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy New Year!

恭禧发财

Gong Xi Fa Cai!  It's the Chinese New Year and this year is the Year of the Monkey.  Actually, this year is the Year of the Fire Monkey.  Each year is associated to an animal in the Chinese zodiac and one of five different elements: Gold (Metal), Water, Wood, Fire, or Earth.

My birth year was the Year of the Earth Monkey.  Both the sign and element of your birth year are said to reflect your personality.  According to Chinese lore, my birth year means that I'm supposed to be frank, optimistic, and fearless.  I'll leave that up to the people that know me to say whether that's true, or not.

The Lucky and Unlucky Things for "Monkeys"

• Lucky numbers: 4 and 9
• Lucky days: the 14th and 28th of any Chinese lunar calendar month
• Lucky colors: white, blue, gold
• Lucky flowers: chrysanthemum, crape-myrtle
• Lucky directions: north, northwest, west
• Lucky months: Chinese lunar months 8 and 12
• Unlucky colors: red, pink
• Unlucky numbers: 2 and 7
• Unlucky directions: south, southeast
• Unlucky months: Chinese lunar months 7 and 11

Upping my fitness plan.

Well, I'm joining Planet Fitness today.  It's right down the road from me and I have run out of excuses to not work out.  I've lost a lot of weight over the past couple of years, and since I find myself with a lot more energy nowadays, I think I need to put it to good use.

I may sign up for the "Black Card" membership.  It's $19,99 per month.  There's a lot of amenities that go with that. But, the main reason for me is that I'll have unlimited guest privileges.  That means that once per day I can bring a guest with me to work out.  So, I'm planning on taking my wife or my daughter with me.

I did the "Body for Life" work-out years ago, and it worked well for me.  It was an alternating daily schedule of upper-body, cardio, and lower-body work-outs for six-days per week for 12-weeks.  Sunday was a free day.   Now, on that plan, I could eat whatever I wanted on Sunday (because I was following a limited diet during the week).  That worked well for me.  But, since I'm already following a particular diet for the next several weeks, I think I'll just co-opt the work-out portion of BFL, and use it.

While I'm happy with the weight that I've lost, I feel that there's more that I can do to "tone up" a little.  To be brutally honest, the weight loss has given me some sagging skin issues so I'm hoping that a moderate weight-lifting routine will help, at least a little, with that problem.

Anyway, I've heard good things about the Planet Fitness that I'll be going to.  I'm looking forward to getting in there and sweating a bit :-)

I got a couple of new toys today.

When I work from home, I like to sit on the couch and use my laptop.  I have it on a laptop table whose legs go under the couch, so I can pull the table close to me.  It's nice being able to be comfortable while working, right?  I even have a little stool under my table so I can stretch out my legs and rest my feet on it.  Ahhh, so nice!

One thing I didn't like, though, was that I only had the one screen, my laptop screen.  At work, I have multiple monitors that I use.  I can test a program on one screen and debug the code for it on another.  It's nice!  So, I wondered if someone made a "portable" LCD flat panel screen.  I figured that if they did, I could use it in conjunction with my laptop.  Sure enough, a quick search on Amazon resulted in a few hits for "USB portable LCD screen".  

Wonderful!  I found one that I liked (linked below) and ordered it.  However, if you remember, I'm on a laptop table at home.  There's no real estate there for two monitors.  So, I also did a search for some type of stand that would let me put my portable screen above my main screen.  I found something that worked perfectly and ordered it, too (also linked below).

Well, they both arrived today and within minutes, I had a dual screen set-up on my laptop.  You wouldn't believe how thin that LCD screen is!  It plugs directly into the USB port on my laptop, so there's no need for an external power source or power cord.  Here's a picture of how it looks from the front.  I don't have that great of a camera, so forgive the quality, please.

The cool thing is, I can carry the whole set-up (the laptop, the portable screen, and the screen stand) in my laptop bag easily.  The stand folds flat, and doesn't take up a lot of space.  The portable screen came with a slip-case, so it'll be protected while in the laptop bag.  I work from home three days a week, but I can easily work from anywhere with my two screens, as long as there's reliable wifi.  No need for an extra power plug-in, either!

Man, I love technology!

ASUS MB168B HD Portable USB-Powered Monitor with USB 3.0

VEYEM Portable Ergonomic Stand for Laptops

A change of plans... perhaps.

After talking with some expats in Shanghai, it appears that Taiwan may be the best place to have our first overseas adventure in the Orient.  I'm not completely sold, yet, but there were some great points that they mentioned that I wasn't aware of.

One major thing is that was brought up was that Shanghai is three times more expensive than Taiwan. Also mentioned was that Taiwan was a lot more "foreigner friendly".  Of course, that's a subjective reason, but several of the expats mentioned this.  Another reason, and it's a big one for me, is that Taiwan has awesome night markets.  I assumed that Shanghai would have awesome night markets, too, but was informed that the night markets in Shanghai are a pale comparison to the ones in Taiwan.  I watched a few videos on YouTube that seem to bear out this assertion.  The Taiwanese night markets are a lot more lively, and seem to have a lot more shopping options.  The Shanghai night market seemed to be a lot smaller  (if you're unsure of what a "night market" is, check out some videos on YouTube).

So, anyway, at this early stage it's easy to change our mind.  Nothing has been committed to, yet.  I'm going to do some more research on both Shanghai and Taiwan and get a general consensus from expats in both areas before making a concrete decision.  Either way, in October 2017, we're going to be in the Far East.  Exactly where is still up in the air.

On a related note, several friends have expressed an interest in joining us.  I'm all for having a large group of friends travel with us.  The more, the merrier!  Right?  Hmm... group discounts?

Top 10 Night Markets in Taiwan

Night Markets in Taiwan (Wikipedia)

Being a programmer is like being an artist.

You know what's cool about being a programmer?  It's the same thing that makes being an artist cool.  The ability to envision something, to see it in your brain, and then write code to make it manifest into reality.  That is what's cool about being a programmer.

We're working on an app at work that started from nothing but an idea.  We looked at an old, outdated app that needed replacing, and envisioned ways to make it better, more modern.  Slowly, but surely, we've built that app, piece by piece.  Our thoughts, our words in meetings, our emails, they've all been poured into a creation that, for a time, only existed in our thoughts.

Same with web design.  If you can think it, you can build it.  Saying it that way, I guess you could apply this to almost any job!  But, still, I think it's cool that someone can just have idea and with a little perseverance they can produce something that exists in reality.

So, think about this: If you have a computer, and can program in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, you can probably find a lot of businesses that need your help.  Think of how nice it would be to be able to work from home, doing work for companies as a freelance web designer and getting paid for it.

If this sounds interesting to you, and you're willing to put in the time equity, you should check out Free Code Camp.

Free Code Camp has over 800 hours, a year's worth, of tutorials and lessons that teach you how to be a web developer.  The best part is, it's totally free!  No contracts, no signing away your first born.  All they ask is that while you learn your skills, you help a few non-profits with their web problems along the way.  That's it!  You get online training AND real-world experience, for free.  Just for helping out.  And, if you don't want to help, you don't have to.  You can take the entire curriculum, learn at your own pace, and never have to help a non-profit.  But, you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice by doing that.  You don't want to miss out on what working on real-world web problems can do for your skill set.

Anyway, if you're inclined, check them out.  Learn some new skills, help some non-profits, and get started on an awesome path to a new career!

How I'm Learning to Love Public Speaking (well, not really love...)

I'm giving a presentation today to the Safety Council here at KSC.  I do one every so often to help out the chair-person of the group.  At first, giving these little presentations were scary.  The research involved in putting together a presentation was nothing.  But, having to speak in front of people is something that unnerves me a bit.

However, one thing that I've noticed is that I'm actually getting to the point of looking forward to these presentations.  I think they're helping me to break out of my comfort zone.

I've also been doing demonstrations of the latest app that I'm working on.  Here at KSC, it's usually the project manager that does the demo, but since the start of this project, I've been the one doing the demos.  I was asked to do so, the first couple of times.  But, I've volunteered to do them all the time now.

I guess by exposing myself to a fear of mine (public speaking), I have slowly, but surely, made progress in getting over that fear.

Oh, the reason I chose a beach scene for the graphic above is that my safety presentation today is all about staying safe at the beach! :-)

Twittering away...

I'm trying to figure out how to get Twitter to update when I make a post on my blog.  Since my Twitter account is also tied to my Facebook account, that means it'll post to Facebook, too.  Do not mistake this as me being back on Facebook.  It's just an automated thing and I won't be responding to comments on Facebook.  Feel free, though to comment on my blog :-)

Look what NASA gave me!

There was an awards ceremony today at KSC.  I got an award for a project that I worked on when I first started here.  For almost a year, I worked on the Circuit Information Management System.  It is an AngularJS-based application.  The biggest challenge was getting the old data, spread across numerous legacy systems, imported into CIMS.  Seriously, I wrote data migration programs that parsed spreadsheets that were almost 30 years old to get the data needed for this project.  On a related note, I can't believe that Microsoft Excel was released in 1985!  Wow.

Anyway, even though this award is only an honorable mention, it still means a lot to me.  I poured a lot of hard work into this project and it's nice to be recognized.