Which is why despite the market we currently reside in, where hirers have far more power than seekers, it still surprises me when one doesn’t consider the order of steps in the process. Especially for a job hiring coders.

This morning I applied for a job. It had some minor red flags that stood out on the description, but overall it seemed legitimate including being – supposedly – from a domain that would require a fair amount of investment to obtain. However after applying the next steps were:

1. Required to watch a 5 minute video describing the process, in order to trigger the next step.
2. Required to take two assessments – one a generic comprehension test and one apparently a technical test.

All before even talking to a human being and being able to ask questions to even see if this job is right for me and worth investing time from my one wild and precious life to do all that work. Just to “earn” the right to talk to an actual human.

This was further compounded by a sales pitch that consisted of the introductory email outlining all this telling me it’s because I’d “earned” the right to move forward by being “assessed in the top 10% of applicants”. All within less than 3 minutes of applying. Which seems impressive, if not impossible.

I guess my point is that while the power dynamic shifts with the market this is a two dimensional conversation – you’re selling me why I should lease my time to you and I’m selling you why you should lease my time over someone else’s. So doing it in this order with a pitch and approach that seems right out of “this is just something to prey on desperate job seekers to give free labor to train our LLM” leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I have, at least currently, the privilege of not wondering how I’m going to pay rent / mortgage or buy food next week. So I reported it as fake, which it seems to be, marked the emails as spam and moved on – other than writing this.

My point is mainly that there is an inherent social contract at play here. So if you have the same privilege and encounter this, please show courage and do similar. So that, hopefully, there’s less of this to take advantage of those that don’t have that same privilege. We need to look out for and support each other as best we can. Kindness matters.

I see it in reminding yourself that a layoff is not a failure on your part, but on upper leadership – even as you struggle to land your next opportunity. In not listening to the impostor syndrome living in your head, but believing past colleagues when they say, or write recommendations, that you were valuable – both in your work and as a person. In believing in yourself and risking hope, despite a wave of rejection that pushes you towards despair. In helping others – with encouragement or kindness or recommendations to remind them how awesome they are – even when you grapple with how to help yourself.

We have minimal control over the challenges we will face in Life, despite our best efforts. The only real control we have is how we respond to those challenges.

There is a really great Instagram I was introduced to. Basically it constantly reminds you that a bad day does not equal a bad life, that life is hard and sometimes you need to rest and recharge, and you are not broken even if you feel like it sometimes. It reminds me that resilience and success are imperfect and not a straight line. And that often our own worst critic is ourselves.

As I get older I feel like I’m less sure of what I know, paradoxically. One thing that has served me well for a while though is to put the energy into the world that you wish you received. Not in the sense that it will be circular and necessarily make its way back to you – it often doesn’t. Simply because society is an interconnected organism and if we truly want the experiment to succeed we’re always going to need more kindness, empathy, grace, and humor.

Finally I think resilience is about community, as it builds your support network. That could include family – immediate or extended, a church or faith organization, friends, pets, neighbors, or however you find belonging. I’ve felt most resilient when I felt I belonged somewhere. When I don’t is when I struggle the most with believing in myself.

Be kind, show grace, and have empathy – for yourselves and others. Try to find humor, even in your darkest moments. Find a few moments of joy and small things to be grateful for every day. Love those that you care about fiercely and remind them of that love regularly. I think if we do this as best we can each day, we are showing resilience.

A few jobs ago I was on an email with my team, my direct manager, and a design vendor we were using. We were exchanging ideas and critiques. My manager asked me to basically make a bunch of design changes – something I could do, but not nearly as efficiently or quickly as the vendor, especially since it was in a design tool I had just started learning. Noting this was a non-ideal solution, I recommended we allow the vendor to instead as it would save a lot of time.

The next morning my manager got on a call with me and expressed displeasure that I would bring that up in front of the vendor. I’m not sure if they felt it sacrificed leveraging power or what the reason was. I listened, took accountability, apologized, and said I’d take care of it the way he originally asked. Then I went back to work.

A few minutes later we went into standup. After our usual initial rapport my manager took the floor and proceeded to very aggressively admonish me in front of our entire team for the same thing we had just talked about privately. It was demeaning for me and uncomfortable for the rest of the team, as they reached out privately to me after to express and console me.

I immediately started to reach out to my network and left the company within a few weeks. 

No matter how experienced you are, you are going to make mistakes. It’s important to take accountability and learn as an individual. But as a leader it’s even more important how you address those mistakes. I have left more lucrative jobs due to poor leadership and stayed at less lucrative ones because of good leadership.

As a developer you are also likely giving code review. As a senior developer often to junior colleagues. This also applies here. Make it a conversation, not a directive. You don’t have to make their code perfect (as subjective as that even is) but simply try and steer them towards incremental improvement and growth – understanding that code review is seen by the entire team as well. Things like: “Why did you choose this approach? Did you try [this other approach] and ran into an unexpected tradeoff?” or “That’s an interesting solution. In the past we’ve done X, what is different in this case?”

Sometimes you learn from a colleague who in their passion found some new tool or approach you hadn’t seen yet – so you level up and they build confidence. Sometimes you “rubber duck” it when they have to explain it a little further, and they see something they missed and fix it earlier in the process without having an issue in QA and more eyes seeing it.

Be the kind of leader you’d want – kind, empathetic, and patient. The world, and especially the corporate world, could always use a little more kindness.

I’m good at detecting “smells” and asking probing questions to encourage discussion and further thought

Code smells, design smells, specifications smells – something that seems off or begs the questions “why are we doing this specifically” or “what problem are we really trying to solve”? As a colleague recently, kindly, pointed out I tend to use years of experience solving problems to ask probing questions. “How does this adapt when it’s on a smaller screen”, “what happens when we get an error on this part of the form”, “what fields are actually required and necessary here and what can we make optional to streamline progress”, “if this is so important, why is it behind additional steps”, “why are we using this pattern and not this other pattern”?

People tend to be afraid of friction and too much friction – or friction just for friction’s sake – isn’t healthy or good. But the right amount of friction, especially at the beginning can save a lot of time down the road. It can make sure we’re building solutions to real problems, not just a bunch of features. I can think of over a dozen – maybe several dozen – times where asking a few questions made people pause, rethink, and refine, saving the team a lot of time and churn. 

Experience isn’t everything, but it helps.

I’ve worked on various size teams over my career

I’ve built freelance brochure sites with designers I’ve partnered with for small businesses. Worked on startups wearing multiple hats on development teams single digit in size. I’ve been a senior developer on a design system team for a Fortune 100 company building a library used by dozens or perhaps hundreds of developers across the organization. Sites I’ve worked on have seen anywhere from a few dozen to millions of visitors a month.

All this has required me to think about problems and solutions in different ways, to understand audiences and risk tolerance, and to build to different types of needs. Each has their own tradeoffs, challenges, and rewards. So regardless of the size of your team, whether you’re an industry powerhouse or a small startup trying to disrupt in an interesting way or something in between I think I have something to offer.

I have very varied experience and an unexpected skill set

Working in all those types of places I’ve had to wear many hats as I said. I’ve deep dived, learned and advised on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). On accessibility, adaptive devices, and meeting WCAG guidelines. On UX and usability, understanding how users are using the site, working with usability teams and data, and designers doing competitive analysis to spec out and build new features. I’ve educated colleagues on how to use systems I’ve contributed to, as well as taught them on all of the above – UX, SEO, accessibility, etc – in refinement / grooming. A long time ago I designed flats and features in tools like Sketch and Photoshop. I greatly enjoy and have done a lot of writing in a variety of formats – technical, blog / article, and just for fun. And of course, coding and code review for peers which has been the main focus of my career.

All this allows me to approach problems from various angles with various needs in mind. Often sites or teams have conflicting stakeholders / interests they have to try to meet. Also most solutions involve tradeoffs – I’m fond of saying “everything is a tradeoff” honestly. All this varied experience has allowed me to be, I think, a valuable colleague.

Strong technical skill set

As I said previously it’s unexpected, but also I’ve been at this for a bit so I’ve touched a lot of languages, libraries and systems. From jQuery to React to vanilla JavaScript and a few in between. I’m extremely interested and educated on CSS, SASS and HTML with a lot of experience specifically in using Bootstrap. I have a fair amount of accessibility experience including building WCAG 2.1 AA compliant components for the last several years. I’ve also worked with Ruby on Rails and PHP to a fair degree. Finally, although I haven’t developed much on it in the last decade, when I did freelance I had extensive experience building with WordPress including developing custom themes and features with well over a dozen sites – including my own – built on the platform.

All that has given me enough experience and breadth of skills to quickly learn new frameworks or languages that I might not have used before – or in a while – as many overlap with something I’m already experienced with but may just use different syntax.

Ambitious but empathetic

I still have the drive to learn and grow my skill set in order to solve interesting problems and make people’s lives easier. But I also truly find great joy in building people up. Teaching them about things I know in order to level them up. Mentoring them on challenges and offering advice from my own experience. Always focusing on kindness.

I care deeply about recognizing people and promoting their wins so that their success is noted, often during retrospectives or stand ups. I think it’s important to use the great privilege I have to advocate for people and their ideas or to ask questions they may be uncomfortable to ask in order to get answers they need. I think inclusivity, empathy and kindness make teams stronger and more connected. We are leasing our time to a company in exchange for productivity, experience and skills. But we are also people and life is a great gift, so the time we have is precious and since we spend a fair amount of it at work it should be as pleasant as we can make it.

Growing up I really enjoyed Mr. Rogers and as I’ve grown older I’ve really grown to appreciate what a good person and role model he was. He has many quotes I’m fond of but one of my favorites is: 

“There are three ways to ultimate success: 

The first way is to be kind.

The second way is to be kind.

The third way is to be kind.”

Kindness matters.

I come highly recommended

As I said I really enjoy recognizing people and writing so one of my favorite things, especially when I’m having a hard day, is writing them a recommendation on LinkedIn. Spelling out what I think is special and unique about them, reminding them why they are or were a good colleague, and generally just putting a little joy out in the world. It’s something another set of role models for me – the Green brothers Hank and John – taught me. Don’t be afraid to show love, especially platonic love, to those you care about. This is one of the ways I do and am comfortable with.

Along the way I have also collected my share of recommendations. As of this writing I have 16 from former colleagues that share many similarities in what they point out about me. Passionate, skilled, dedicated, inclusive, caring. I think more than my own words those of people that have had to spend a lot of time with me matter, as humbling as they sometimes are.

I have very reasonable needs

I don’t need a fancy title or a huge salary. Fair benefits, market value pay for what’s required of me, decent work / life balance, trust, and the opportunity to help others and to solve interesting problems. I think honestly that’s what most of us want. I also tend to be steadfast. I’m looking for a place to spend my next 5 or 10 years if possible, not to flip it into my next job.

In conclusion

What I’m really asking is for a chance. I get it, hiring is expensive and no one wants to risk a bad one. Interviews and recruiting are imperfect – especially with ATS / AI involved which seems to be deeply imperfect and have a lot of gaps. The market is challenging right now especially for remote positions where there’s often a flood of real and AI generated responses.

So I’ve tried to lay out in basic, human terms what you’d be getting from me. If it sounds good, let’s have a conversation and start there. I’m a bit socially awkward and sometimes that comes across there, so if you’re still having doubts but feel there may be promise – give me a 90 day contract. It wouldn’t be the first, or likely the last, time I’ve had to prove myself.

I know I can provide value for the things I do well. I know I can help people and solve problems. I know I can be a good, kind and valuable colleague. I won’t tick off every box – no one does, again “everything is a tradeoff”. But based on what my past colleagues have told me I think I’ll be worth it.

All I’m asking for is a chance. Thanks.

Entry level / junior developer

Don’t be afraid to ask questions because you feel like it might make you look unskilled or like you don’t know something. There’s a lot you’re not expected to know right now and a lot of mistakes you’re unfortunately going to have to experience to learn from rather than being handed that wisdom. And that’s okay. 

Your role is to figure out what problems excite you or that you’re particularly adept at tackling. To learn and explore and share the new technologies, frameworks, ideas, and tools you find with more experienced developers who might have a bit more Life responsibilities that don’t always allow the freedom to do that. Also frankly they might be a little more cynical and jaded and therefore not as open minded as you are. That’s not to say that everything you find is going to be valuable or used. But if you find even one tool or plugin or whatever that saves your colleagues a lot of time and effort not only will you be helping your team but people will notice and that will help your career.

You should also be seeking out mentors. They don’t have to be much more experienced than you. Just someone with similar vibes who you can build rapport with. If you are a white male presenting developer I’d strongly suggest you seek out someone that isn’t the same so that you have exposure to a viewpoint you might otherwise not be granted access to. It will make you a better developer but more importantly a better person. There are also countless examples where homogenous development teams have blind spots. See early iPhone face ID.

Mid level developer

You should be even less afraid to ask questions and many of them should be around gaps you need to fill to get that next level up, which not everyone achieves. You should also be wary of the trap many fall into at this point of overconfidence and its dangerous transition sometimes into being dismissive of others less experienced or non-coders. You don’t know what you don’t know yet and being humble about that will make you a better colleague and help you succeed. Regardless of level there is always someone smarter than you or with a better understanding of certain problems.

You should still be learning and exploring new things, although it’s understandable that it may not be to the amount of earlier in your career. You should be focusing on growing niche skills that excite you and trying to mentor and build up less experienced developers. Growing your code review skills here is both mandatory and immensely beneficial as understanding both what to critique and how to do so based on the individual will be an invaluable skill that also translates to other paths if you decide to branch out of being a developer. It also makes you look more critically at your own code, which will make you a better developer.

You should start the transition from “how do we solve this problem” to “should we be solving this problem” / “what is the real problem we’re trying to solve”. This is often the key unlock for moving from mid level to senior, in my opinion. It’s not easy and you’ll never fully grow out of it, but being able to take a step back and think about things from a higher level is good for your career and personal growth. 

Finally, and this is more subjective and possibly just my opinion, you should make sure you’re starting to have something – hopefully several things – that give you joy and purpose beyond coding. A partner, kids, hobbies, pets, faith, volunteering, community, etc. Career and financial stability are important but they are not the only important thing. Of all the important things career may, arguably, be the least important beyond achieving some financial stability. Also these things help your mental health which makes you a better human and, therefore, a better developer.

Senior Developer

This is where things can really get interesting and frustrating. You’re going to be asked to do a lot more non coding things, mainly meetings. So. Many. Meetings. A good skill here is getting good at saying no and having the courage to do so. To unnecessary meetings or features. But tactfully, not blowing it off outright but thinking about what the real goals may be and suggesting solutions towards those. Could that meeting be once a week instead of three times a week? Could it be something asynchronous like some shared documentation, a slack thread, email, wiki page, whatever?

By now you should have mastered, or be close to mastering, the idea of solving the right problems, not just the ones presented to you. Of identifying the real pain points and fixing those, which sometimes – but don’t always – match up with what you’re asked to build. You should be mentoring and reviewing code more than you’re writing it. Your job is not to write code. Your job is to level up the next generation to their maximum potential. I know, it sucks, you’re at the point in your career where you’re the most adept at quickly solving problems more optimally than you ever have before. But you solving one problem is not as valuable to your team as teaching several others to solve multiple problems better. Be humble, be kind, be patient, and be curious.

Ask your younger colleagues, especially ones near the beginning of their careers what excites them out there. Then dive into it, possibly pairing with them to do so. Pick it apart. Let them show you what they think is cool about it. Show them some of its limitations that they might not have grasped. Don’t destroy their enthusiasm, this is again about teaching – teaching them to think critically about new frameworks, libraries, tools, etc. 

Shower your colleagues with praise, sprinkle them with criticism. In retros, meetings, code reviews, or pairing. If they contribute something cool or find something useful make sure managers know it. Help them in their career. Be the champion you wished you’d had when you were in their shoes. 

Tech Lead

I dabbled at being a tech lead, but I was never really one. So if I’m being honest I’m not entirely sure what it really requires since I could only observe it from the outside. But for the ones I worked with that I liked it was mostly what a Senior Developer would do with the added responsibilities of thinking more broadly around architecture and tooling – with the idea being to make your developer colleagues’ lives more productive but, more importantly, easier. 

Also just sort of acting like a buffer from bad ideas. Sometimes a stakeholder or management will get a “big idea” that you know is going to be a boondoggle. Either from experience seeing something similar tried in the past or just understanding that not all people in charge are there because they’re good leaders. Unfortunately, some are just the loudest in the room or the most adept in corporate politics. You can’t always save the team from these but sometimes you can take on doing a spike to show feasibility – which sometimes leads towards them realizing that it’s not really worth it or not really what they want with a much smaller investment of time and frustration. Sometimes you can draw on past experience where you did something similar, it didn’t work, but you eventually settled on a better solution and using that anecdote to make them pause and, hopefully, rethink.

One thing I will say is if you have someone like that on your team, and I’ve had a few, make sure you let them know how much you appreciate them. Because it’s gotta be exhausting and draining sometimes and knowing that it’s actually helped others makes it easier to suffer. 

I have a lot of challenges in standing out from other people going for the jobs I apply to. I’m at an age where people, especially in tech, often don’t want to give you a chance anymore. I’ve always been a bit specialized so while I have JavaScript skills in various libraries and frameworks I’m not very confident in my skills. I have to always double check my syntax or look up what exactly it is to turn the algorithm I know into something that it will run. That lack of confidence shows in phone screenings and interviews unfortunately. Finally I’m very socially awkward which throws people off until they get to know me better.

So I worry. That even though I know I have valuable skills, I won’t get a good opportunity. I’d like to say it’s impostor syndrome but the longer I go between jobs the more I worry that maybe the data is validating my doubts. 

I try to draw from the evidence of my career for confidence. The dozens of heartfelt, kind, and generous recommendations colleagues have given me over the years on LinkedIn. The fact that I’ve worked for a half dozen companies from startups with less than a dozen people to Fortune 100 giants. That code I’ve written has powered sites from freelance brochure sites getting hundreds of visitors a month to ones getting millions. 

I look at the length and breadth of my career. From working on sites that used tables for layout and had hacks for IE6 to the birth and growth of responsive web design and device agnostic sites to flex and grid and JavaScript frameworks. And everything in between. 

I know my heart and that I’m still passionate about solving interesting problems and helping users get done what they need in as simple and intuitive ways as possible. That I enjoy making sites that are accessible and responsive. That I’m driven to work with other smart, talented, passionate people who I can mentor and learn from. That I believe I’m a good colleague willing to build people up, be kind and empathetic, and always understanding that while we love what we do it’s a job and that life is more than just work.

But still I worry. That I won’t be seen in an ocean full of so many candidates, including a lot of fake AI ones. That my networking and social skills will be lacking to get me that crucial second look. That with everything going against me I’ll have to be perfect at every step and even one mistake will doom me.

I often see how confident some of my peers and colleagues are and wonder if they ever feel the same. If they never ask “why me?” but always think “why not me?” I wish I could be like that. A long time ago in what feels like another life I sold Cutco and my managers there always pushed the concept of “acting as if”. Acting as if you’d sold a million dollars of it, that the sale was a given it was just a question of what they’d decide to get, that the person you were calling with just a name of a friend as a way in would give you their time and not hang up on you. But I never really could then either.

I feel like I’ve spent my whole life grinding but never really breaking through to that, perhaps mythical plane, where you’re successful, respected, and looked up to. I’ve always felt like I had to prove myself every week or every day and that eventually someone would figure out I’m a big fraud and it would all come crashing down. Lately it feels like that’s happened.

I try to have hope. I fully realize how lucky and blessed I’ve been to have had the career I’ve had and have always been very careful to secure myself as best as I could in case it did end unexpectedly. But it’s disappointing to feel like you have so much more to offer and so many goals that seem just within reach, yet you just can’t seem to get traction. It reminds me of a quote from a movie I like, “You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move… you can’t breathe… because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.” I feel overwhelmed and discouraged and hopeless.

So I worry. And I pray to the universe. And I try to stay ambitious and driven about learning, reading, and staying up to date on what’s going on. Even when it feels utterly pointless. When you spend a half hour making an account in Workday to apply to a single job that is exactly what you’ve been doing for the last decade… and less than five minutes later you get an auto rejection that basically says you’re unqualified. Even when you know that it’s not true, but it’s hard to keep the faith in that belief.

I don’t know what’s next or what I’m going to do, and that possibly worries me the most. I try to focus on what I can control. I try to remind myself that I’m not defined by my job or my career. That I’ve sold knives and cleaned cages and stocked shelves. And while I might want more than that there is always that if I have to. That pride doesn’t get you very far and often causes more problems than it solves.

So I worry and I write and I dream and I hope. Tomorrow the Universe may listen and care. But for today all I can do is live the best I can in this precious gift called life.

I’ve always struggled with the traditional office environment. Harsh lights that gave me headaches. A hum of noise around distracting me so much I often had to have headphones in listening to music, usually louder than my cubicle mates would appreciate in my younger years. People stopping by my or neighboring desks to ask questions that could have been sent in DMs and looked at during natural pauses in flow.

I’ve thought a lot about the concept of flow, that sort of zen like state often spoken of in reverence that developers get into. While it is a thing and often directly correlates to developer productivity level there’s also the cynical part of me that looks at it from the outside. How so often developers are given an air of mystique – going into flow, solving great problems, whiteboards full of cryptic notes and diagrams. Again all of it does have a core of truth in it but I often think how much we play into it for our own benefit. Or how it’s not that different from anyone else just having deep focus on a problem. But I digress.

Going back to productivity and the core of what I set out to talk about I think companies and leadership have it wrong right now. As I write this we’re deep into the “return to office” (RTO) movement in that most large companies are pushing to limit if not do away with remote and even hybrid work to a great degree. One of the things I often came back to in meetings when we seemed to be spiraling without arriving at a solution was the simple question of “what are we actually trying to solve?”

With RTO it seems to be two things – control and productivity. Control in the workplace has always been a battlefield where the front line moves back and forth between employees and companies. When there’s more need than workers we get more mobility, benefits, and pay. When there’s not, we have to make compromises and sacrifices to support ourselves or our families. But productivity I think is the more interesting one. It directly relates to something that employers focus on – return on investment (ROI). If I’m more productive for the same salary, they get more. So often their goal is to make us more productive which they feel RTO does. But the data I’ve seen implies different and we saw this in the unwilling experiment we were all enrolled into during the pandemic.

When the pandemic started I had already been working remotely for about six months and working hybrid before that for years. Having all of my colleagues join me remotely was even better for me. I’ve often struggled with when to interject in conversations which means I really struggle during meetings over a certain size. But with all of us in Zoom (or Teams or whatever) your ability to read body language and the room was limited, so we all sort of naturally fell into the tools built in like the hand raising feature. So if I had something to say I could use that and it felt much more natural and comfortable for me. 

After people started to initially go back into the office I struggled again. Partly because of that – people wouldn’t look for the hand notification as naturally anymore instead focusing on the people in the room – but also because as with most companies I worked on distributed teams. Even if we were all in the office there were multiple offices – NYC, Boston, India, etc. So now you not only had side conversations going on in a room but multiple ones and they couldn’t see each other.

During the pandemic we also utilized DMs, emails and other asynchronous forms of communication because you couldn’t lean over a cubicle wall or walk to someone’s desk. And because we were all in the same boat we grew comfortable with focusing on tasks and then checking them during natural breaks in focus (or flow). Once people started going back into the office that changed back as well with more desire for immediate responses.

One of the things I noticed most is that during the pandemic the teams I was on were very high performance. Our productivity was much higher before some of us returned to the office. Communication and rapport were also better before RTO. I had an interesting dichotomy as I worked on two teams. One that was distributed and hybrid and one that was almost fully remote. The fully remote team continued on being very productive and cohesive – even though many of us were (like myself) not 100% assigned to the team. The hybrid team tended to coalesce around office locations.

I noticed this most with two of the more junior developers on the team. During the pandemic when everyone was remote both got guidance and mentorship about equally. After we went back to the office because of the distribution of the team, one was in our main office with both tech leads and another senior developer while the other was on their own even when in the office. I don’t think you need many chances to guess who tended to get more mentorship after RTO.

And that sort of gets to my point. Remote work always felt more democratic and productive to me. We’re all on the same level so we all have the same voice and attention, not just who is in front of tech leads, management, etc. So mentorship and promotions at least feel more fair. Bonds are made not by proximity but by rapport and respect. Finally you’re able to have more control over your focus so you can do more deep work.

If you were observing me in the office versus remote it may look like I was more productive in the office, but there’s an illusion there. I wouldn’t argue that if you compared time directly in front of the computer I was probably doing that more in the office. And it was because of being in the office, but not because people were watching me. It was because I couldn’t control interruptions, would get pulled out of flow, and then have to get back into it. The same problems I could solve in 1-2 hours at home where I could just be heads down would take me 3x (or longer) in the office. Unless I sequestered myself in one of our “phone booths” or jammed my headphones in and ignored everyone who didn’t directly tap me on the shoulder or sit on my desk – but at that point what is the value of going into the office anyways?

I get the arguments against it. Managers are able to see us more in the office. But they weren’t during the pandemic and most of the data I’ve seen says that was some of the most productive times for companies. Maybe that’s skewed a bit because we literally couldn’t leave our houses, but even as things started to open up the data I’ve seen seemed to hold. It seemed to do wonders for retention too because, surprisingly, when you treat people like adults and look at their results and not whether they’re sitting at a desk in some office somewhere for a requisite number of hours they feel more valued and trusted. Which makes them want to stay and, ironically, work to keep that trust. They value the natural joy of actually building and accomplishing things, of having purpose.

I also get that for junior developers it’s harder to be mentored virtually than in person. It helps to sit next to someone rather than sharing a screen on Zoom. But now there’s a huge push towards AI and pair programming (or vibe coding or whatever the next buzzword will be) which is basically exactly the same thing as virtual mentoring.

So again I go back to – what are we really trying to solve? As humans, with our one wild and precious life, what do we really want from our work which will take up so much of our lives during some of the best years? Why can’t we have a little more trust, empathy, and kindness for and in each other? Or are we all just doomed to being “resources” that capitalism can extract as much productivity from before they have no more use for us and toss us aside? 

I know the type of company I would build if I had the wealth, ambition, and skills to. But maybe that’s just me. 

I have been of two minds lately. Part of me has been critical of myself. I should have been using this time to improve and keep my skills fresh. To learn new frameworks, contribute to open source projects, take on new freelance gigs, or finally crank out that CSS Zen Garden example I’ve always thought about. To set myself apart from all the other developers out there in the same situation.

I keep thinking about how when I do finally get an interview – yes, after months and dozens upon dozens of applications I’ve barely got phone screenings, never mind an interview despite having been doing this for a long time – I’m going to be rusty, look unprepared, and fail miserably. That I’m going to lose out on some opportunity. That I’m going to fail and lose everything I’ve been working for in my career.

My other mind is thinking of how burnt out I was towards the end of my last job. How difficult it was through and even several years after Covid. How being remote and often forgotten as people went back to a hybrid schedule left me feeling isolated, especially after having moved 700 miles away from most of my family near the end of 2019. How hard it was to find joy and satisfaction in my work some days. 

So instead I’ve been spending my time reading, playing with my cats (including my new adopted family member Elsie), playing video games, watching movies and tv shows that have sat too long in my watchlists, going to museums, walking, thinking, and writing. Which has caused me to think a lot about that poem The Summer Day by Mary Oliver. About how this decade of my Life has been one about great challenges and resiliency. Of loss and starting to feel old. And how even when I get a job again it will likely be at least 20-25 years before I’m granted an opportunity like this to just… live.

I want to feel more guilty. I do think about how it will likely cost me in lost future income and wealth generation. But I also think about what is the point of all that if I never get to live to enjoy it. How I’ve lost friends and family that were younger than I am today. How at this point in his Life my Dad only had 15 years left. About my recent car accident and how many close calls I had on my motorcycle before I stopped riding a few years ago and how I don’t know how many more tomorrows I may get. 

So I try to show myself grace. I try to draw peace and hope from a post I recently saw that talked about how maybe you don’t need a wizard or rock star or 10x developer, but just someone boring and experienced. Someone that feels a lot more like me. Someone who will probably never wow you but has delivered and done their best to be a good, empathetic and kind coworker.

I don’t really regret the jobs I didn’t get or the money I didn’t make, not at this point in my life and career. But I do regret the life opportunities I missed. Part of moving away was a sense of “carpe diem” after a friend of mine died five years ago, right about the same age I am now. I had big Life plans that, sadly, didn’t quite work out and in hindsight may not have been worth the trade off. But the spirit of that – to live, to find joy, to savor this precious gift we call Life – I think I may have forgotten it until being granted this opportunity to slow down and think about what I really want.

So no, I haven’t become a better developer during my unplanned sabbatical that this has become. But I think that’s okay. I think I will be okay. 

“Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

Had 3 developers on calls for interviews today. Had canned / AI generated answers to questions. Don’t developers know they need to prepare for these and be willing to go the extra mile, especially as a mid level / senior developer?

On the one hand, I sort of get it. Recruiting is expensive and hiring the wrong candidate costs a lot of time and money. So I understand the goal. My gripe is with the solution – what I hear is something I’ve always heard “devs must be willing to jump through hoops to prove themselves to me.”

But, why? What makes your company so special?

Hiring is a two way street. As a candidate I’m interviewing you just as much as you’re interviewing me. Which means the more friction you create, the more candidates you lose out on. My premise is – a lot of those ones you’re driving away might be really good candidates.

Some of the best developers I know are “lazy developers”. The ones that see a repetitive problem and write a script that automates it saving hundreds of hours. Or sees us doing basically the same bit of code multiple times in different places and moves it all to a function / component with parameters so they don’t have to change it multiple times the next time the requirements change, it all changes in one place (also they write a test around it to know if any future code breaks the assumptions). The ones that look for simple, reusable solutions that make everyone’s lives better, including stakeholders / customers, rather than trying to show off how much code they wrote or how many PRs they opened that week.

What I’m really asking for is a bit of grace for both sides. Because yes it sucks trying to recruit good, talented developers. But it also sucks from the other end. Sending out hundreds of applications to hear back from a tiny percentage many of which then grill you on technical questions that if you encounter on the job any good developer is going to look up anyways to remind themselves of the common solutions or make you build a sample application that isn’t something the developer can showcase on their github nor the company use in any meaningful way. All in an effort to prove yourself as a developer.

I sort of get this for entry level positions – you want them to show a basic understanding of the necessary skills. But even there a lot of it is going to be teaching and mentoring on the job, so I would argue to keep it to a bare minimum. But for a developer with say 8-12+ years experience, which seemed to be what this person was looking for, I find it unlikely that they’re going to have fooled companies for that long. I’ve met a few developers in my career that have “failed up” repeatedly. But it’s a rounding error. I’ve met way more really sharp developers that are just burnt out from the grind – both in a job and looking for jobs – that they’re mostly checked out. The lost productivity and creativity from all that is far greater than the few that got jobs they shouldn’t. And it’s amazing when you throw a problem in front of them that sparks their interest and then they just light up unexpectedly. 

For me, based on my experience, it’s things like that original post that sort of feel like flags to me. That it’s likely a company that will worry more about RTO mandates than how many problems are solved. Or that people are “in their seats” (virtually or physically) for a certain number of hours, rather than other far more useful metrics. And my claim is not “you’re missing out on me, your company is doomed”. My point is – if I’m picking that up, all the people I know that are far, far more talented than me are as well. They’re the ones you should worry about missing out on. They’re the ones that will make everyone around them better.

My suggestion therefore is just to have a little faith in a body of work someone has and spend that time interviewing not forcing a candidate to prove their technical skills with LeetCode questions but whether they’re interested in the problems you’re facing and are a good personality match for the team you’ve already built. I already talked a bit about this in a previous post. Ironically in that process you’ll likely get them to open up and be a lot more excited about sharing how they’d approach solving real problems you’re working on – which is exactly what you want in the first place. Oh and keep the whole process as short as possible, because we all have but one precious life and time is our most valuable resource that none of us knows the remaining balance of.

Or maybe it’s just me and I’m seeking a way to justify my laziness or low tolerance for BS. I honestly don’t know.

1. Be kind. Mr. Rogers is a big hero and inspiration of mine and probably said it best: “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” Everyone is going through something, often something you don’t know about. Try to be empathetic. Give people grace when they have challenges. Be the person you’d want to encounter when you’re struggling the most.
2. Build people up. Compliments are free, sincere ones are invaluable. We all are a bit unsure of ourselves. Try to be observant about what you like most about your colleagues, then tell them about it – preferably in front of others. Remind them that they’re awesome. Build confidence in others, even if you struggle to have it in yourself.
3. Offer solutions, not just problems. Often as a developer I’m presented with a solution to build. Sometimes it’s one I feel is non-ideal. But we have to be mindful that everything is a tradeoff. There is an adage I enjoy that basically says: “good, fast, or cheap – pick two”. So when presented with a solution that you feel is non-ideal or you’re not sure will solve the problem, try to offer an alternative and why you’re suggesting it. Not just “we shouldn’t do that” but “we should consider doing this instead and here’s why”. Sometimes you just have to dig deeper too: “what is the problem we’re really trying to solve here?”
4. Strong opinions, held loosely. This was one I struggled with for too long in my career. We should have and offer opinions, and be able to justify why. But we should also recognize that we work with a lot of smart people that also solved a lot of problems to get to where they are on our team. So we need to be open to new ideas, information, and be willing to compromise. There’s always someone smarter or better than you, even if (especially as a developer) it’s hard to admit that sometimes. Some of my favorite colleagues over the years were low ego – they would tell what they thought, they would back it up with data or examples, but if you went another way as long as they had a voice at the table they didn’t take it personally. Those are some of the best developers to work with.
5. Accountability. Admit when you’re wrong or don’t know something, especially when you’re a senior colleague / developer. People earlier in their careers think it’s bad to say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out / research it” when presented with a problem. They often feel it will hurt their career. So if you’re a senior developer and you can admit you don’t know something or that you made a mistake it gives them permission to do the same. Which allows them to grow and become better colleagues. Plus having a team where it’s ok to do this prevents people from hiding things only to find out about them at a worse time – like when something goes to production. Also, ancillary to this, as a developer QA is one of your best friends. They are literally helping you look better. Be respectful of and thankful for what they do.
6. Be additive. For this I can only mostly speak to developers and code review. Offer good, useful constructive criticism. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just a little better is often good enough. Leave things better than you found them – if you’re working in a section of code and it’s non-ideal, don’t just fix the thing you were there for, clean up that function / component. But also don’t rewrite the whole application. Finally you’re often going to have to make non-ideal solutions for some reason – document why that compromise was made. Others coming after will appreciate it, including future you who will have forgotten why you did this and be very critical – until you git blame and realize it was you.
7. If you have privilege, use it responsibly. Magnify others, talking them and their contributions up especially in front of stakeholders or skip level leadership. Listen to them. If they mention in private conversations questions they have but might be uncomfortable to ask, ask them yourself without mentioning their name so they get answers without risk. Offer advice, especially what you might have done differently at that stage in your career. Admit past mistakes. We’re imperfect and the sum of our mistakes. That’s a feature, not a bug. 
8. Mentor. Pass on knowledge, tricks, tips, why you do things or use tools you do. Make it easier for the next generation. Advocate for them – more responsibility, better title, promotions. Write them recommendations and help them build their network. You had help along the way, pay it forward. Not everything has to be transactional, sometimes it’s just about putting good out in the world and hoping that it improves for all of us collectively.

I know, nothing new or mind blowing. All just a flavor of Wheaton’s Law or the Green brother’s “don’t forget to be awesome” or really all the things Mr. Rogers taught me growing up. Still, I think it’s worth repeating and being mindful of. 

The problem is that I’ve noticed a lot of the ones that I’m highly matched for are not positions I’d consider myself very qualified for. Now I know your first thought might be, could that be your impostor syndrome talking? While it’s possible, I don’t think it is as some of the skills it was saying I was proficient in were not ones I would consider myself proficient in to any degree. In fact several were ones I had zero proficiency in. So obviously there was something going on somewhere and it got me curious. If for no other reason than the fact that I like to live by “underpromise, overdeliver” rather than the inverse. 

My first assumption was – obviously I had been recommended for skills by others that I don’t have or aren’t confident in my ability and hadn’t noticed. So I looked and the handful that had stood out to me recently weren’t there. Digging into the feature at the bottom of job posts, I found LinkedIn offers an article into how it determines the skills you have and how well you match. There I found my answer. It uses two sets of skills. First the ones listed under your skills section. The second is what they call “implicit skills” which they define as:

Implicit skills: Skills that are extracted from text within any section of your profile, such as the summary, position description, title, and headline. Implicit skills are extra skills that are not directly editable. Any skills on the matched list that were not added by you are considered “implicit skills.” 

I’m not certain if it’s bad descriptions by me or inferences from job titles I’ve had – which the way companies make up and assign job titles is a whole topic on its own that I have some opinions on. But either way, this feels like a code smell. 

I understand the value of automated screening systems. But if it’s making bad inferences, it’s hurting both sides. Candidates seeing jobs that aren’t a good match, and possibly not seeing ones that are because they’re further down the list as a result. Companies potentially getting candidates that don’t really match what they’re looking for, and missing out on ones that do because they’re further down the list.

It’s possible it’s still a me problem. Maybe I just need to rewrite my resume again, making it more succinct and focused. Maybe I need to omit some of my job titles that may have poorly described my talents, but I had no control over.

But to me it still feels like a code smell or possibly even a bug. If nothing else, I feel it’s a problem others might have been feeling but were unclear why. So if this isn’t just me having a “senior moment” and you’ve encountered this issue as well, hopefully this sheds some light on why and possible ways for you to alleviate it.

With no further ado, on guilt:

Guilt is a powerful emotion. It’s a form of self evaluation in which we introspectively criticize ourselves for past actions. Guilt is interesting in that it’s self applied. While others can influence our movement towards in inherently we must assign it to ourselves for it to have meaning.

So what is the meaning of Guilt? It’s a learning tool. When we feel Guilty about something mainly it’s because we feel that a past action was not handled in a way which we are proud of. We feel that we could have done something more or different and changed the course that we’re on now. It’s Potential – we feel Guilt because we surmise that by changing that action we’d be on a better course than we are now or a better person for doing more – even if it didn’t change the eventual outcome.

I’ve come to two realizations. One is that even if I reiterate some points that others make – specifically by attributing them – that it’s beneficial as it shows and builds my understanding of the issue as well as – by attribution and, therefore, SEO – strengthens the views expressed by the “giants” of my industry. Second is that sometimes it’s ok to “remove the mask” and show the human side. Reading the blogs of my peers and mentors has shown that they have a willingness to showcase not just industry knowledge. Through this I’ve gained an appreciation for both the person and their skill as well as a better understanding of them as a whole.

This second realization is what I wish to touch on today as the last year saw two life defining moments for me.

The first was one many here in the US felt. For almost 5 years I was the sole and principal UI developer for Helium. My code still exists everywhere on their site. Last July I lost my position with Helium.

For many, especially myself, we are defined by our jobs. First because in having a career it validates us to have a job. It shows that a company trusts our skill enough to validate us by paying us to do something we love. Something we do on our own – often without compensation. Second because it gives us purpose. Having a job is a responsibility – a reason to get up every morning, get in our car, and drive to an office. We have responsibilities to our fellow developers and to our users – something that all (good) developers feel and are motivated by.

Fortunately, in my case, this was actually a good thing. At the end of my time with Helium I was spending a good portion of my week working from home and sleeping very little. This was because I was spending most of my hours as the primary caretaker for my dad who was under hospice care. On August 3, 2011 we lost Dad.

Dad had suffered a stroke and heart attack back in 2004 and almost died then. He was never the same after the stroke but he was living and happy – and that was good enough. For the year or so before he passed Dad had been acting erratically. We didn’t realize how serious it was until he ended up going into the hospital in May and they told us. We had a scare in June and then in the beginning of July, after much cajoling – as Dad was always stubborn – we convinced him to move in with me so I could take care of him.

Losing Dad was difficult. However, in the eulogy I talked about something my Faith has taught me – seeing the blessing even in the bad. Losing someone I was close to changed my perspective on life. Different things are important to me now. I don’t worry so much about things that aren’t worth worrying about. While I falter sometimes – as we all do – for the most part I know to focus on what is really important and not to let the small things in life get me down. I’ve learned to count my blessings. For that part of it, I’m thankful.

• Marketing position – involves either designing e-mail campaigns include HTML e-mails, which are not fun at all, or some sort of SEO / social networking skills to drive traffic to the site.
• Jack of all trades – involves 7+ years experience in design (Adobe Suite), front end (XHTML & CSS), middleware (PHP, Java, Ruby, etc) and MySql.  Basically able to design web applications from the ground up.

So, I don’t know.  Maybe I’m looking with the wrong terms or in the wrong places?  Doesn’t anyone just need a good UI developer nowadays?  I mean I have excellent XHTML and CSS skills.  I can design for cross browser compatibility.  I can quickly turn design flats / mocks / comps into UI code.  I’m learning quickly when it comes to design skills (Adobe Suite) and I have a Commercial Arts background – granted it was in high school but I studied art and drew art by hand for 4 years.  I’m willing and eager to take on the design part of the UI – something I haven’t been able to do in my previous positions.  I have some Javascript – including Prototype and jQuery – skills and would be interested in eager to take on more with regards to the UI aspect of these (effects, etc) although not really the parts that go more into middleware (form handling, etc).  I have some middleware capabilities as they pertain to the UI – logic checks, loops, role checks, variable insertion, etc in Ruby, ColdFusion and PHP – as well as experience building on the WordPress framework in PHP.  I have experience in SEO including crafting with web standards and internal linking strategy to maximize organic SEO as well as instructing a user base on social networking strategies to grow inbound links.  Finally, I have experience working with and educating a large user base as well as identifying usability issues for that user base in future design features.

So, being a realist, I have to assume the deficiency is with me.  However, I’ve worked for two separate professional organizations and both needed someone that was only a subset of what I’m looking to take on.  So is there no middle ground?  Can you only do the icing or the whole cake?  I hope not.

The main issue lies in that to be a good UI developer you have to focus on the changing field.  New browsers are released every year and updates are made.  You have to be aware of what bugs exist in major browsers – especially Microsoft ones – and understand quickly how to fix the rendering issues in those.  You also have it identify web trends (web 2.0 design, AJAX integration, etc) and include them in beautiful and usable designs. By broadening focus too much – to middleware or backend development – you lose the ability to do that.  I realize you don’t want to be too specialized but I feel crafting a beautiful design, coding it with web standards and cross browser capability in mind, and inserting any jQuery effects that add to it is a pretty big slice of the pie, so to speak.

Also, design and UI work is more artistic versus middleware / backend which is much more logical and analytical.  So it’s very difficult to be of those two minds.  I just feel expanding the focus to that is going to dilute the whole output.  Finally, it really is of no interest to me to design controllers or write queries so I feel my output would not be as useful or good as something I’m passionate about like the front end.

So I don’t know what the answer is.  But I’m discouraged moving forward.  It does make me wish I had taken more time to grow my freelance portfolio as this would be the perfect time to make that jump and see if I could make it on that.  Unfortunately, it’s just not an option.

Advice or insight welcome.

In actually making a theme, instead of modifying one I found, I learned a great deal about WordPress. It’s a very interesting and powerful tool. And the WordPress codex is invaluable in getting the full power out of it.

I’ve also been playing with some other open source stuff including a wiki, forums, comicpress and buddypress.  Depending on how useful I see them being, I might bring them public on one of my domains or subdomains.  I also have 2 new domains, one of which I hope to make as destination page for all things me – which will then link to my various efforts like this blog (including my portfolio section which needs updating), my open source contributions, my social media (delicious, twitter, etc).  But until they’re ready, I don’t foresee making them public facing just yet.

As for the open source software I’m really impressed with Buddypress – and the forums that you can tie in which I actually like a lot better than SMF, which I use for familiarity.  Buddypress basically allows you to use the wordpress-mu (multi user) to create a social network.  Who needs more social networks though, right?  Well, I have a niche one that might be interesting.  Or it could be closed off to only my family/friends if they’re interested.  Either way, it’s a fun and interesting tool.

Going back to the forums thing though – if you have a more useful tool than SMF I’m listening.  I’ve tried PhpBB and was not impressed.  I forget the one that ties in with Buddypress – I only have it locally configured on one of my boxes now – but, as I said, it was interesting.

So that’s about it for now.  All that takes time so updates will be infrequent to this blog.  Although they’ll be more frequent than recently (i.e. not once every 6 months or so hopefully) but less frequent than I was when I really used this.  Granted though, my aim is to use it for meatier topics – talking about new open source projects I’ve developed (themes, plugins, etc) and web design – rather than the more mundane topics in the past.

If you want to know about the more mundane aspects of my life or what’s caught my interest (and until I tie them into my site and/or blog) feel free to check out my shared Google items, my twitter, or my delicious.  Be warned though that they are more personal than professional.  Given that I have a cynical and sarcastic nature that I tend not to show on professional endeavors you may not like, or maybe even be offended, by some of the things on there.  I apologize if so, but it’s a simple fix – don’t read them.  I don’t anticipate it to be so in most cases but in this “PC” world, you have to be careful.

My thoughts are that overall, we’re all flawed and human. The more transparent you are – within reason and privacy concerns – the more people can understand you.  Perhaps seeing my cynical side, myriad of Magic the Gathering links, or other personal aspects of my life will make you enjoy my work more.

Or perhaps you’ll think I’m a tool.  That’s the risk we run when we share.

Random Tidbit: P2 is an interesting use of WordPress.  It seems that WP is becoming a very popular platform to expand on because of it’s open source nature and large community of developers expanding it.  It’s basically – if I understand it correctly – a group blog that combines aspects of Twitter and Basecamp.

By the way – if anyone knows an open source tool like Basecamp, especially if it’s written on the WP platform, please let me know.  I’m cheap.  I know they have the free Basecamp plan but it doesn’t really meet my needs.  We use it at Helium and it’s – to be frank – amazing.  37 Signals is a bright group of people.

I had lost 3 other ferrets at this point. Mugsy had been the first in my family and the last to go. She was the most loyal pet you could ask for. She would always cheer me up when I was down. Somehow she always knew how I was feeling.

People will judge you for being too attached or close to a pet, but I don’t really care. I had her for 7 years and, except for a few trips I made, was responsible for her care every day. She came with me to Virginia Beach and kept me company in a place where I knew no one. She was my navigator for the many trips home as well.

Like any pet owner I have many regrets – things I should have done or shouldn’t have done or should have done more. But you do the best you can and hope that it’s enough. I think my ferrets had a good life. I hope so.

Unlike my other 3 ferrets who died from cancer, Mugsy had survived cancer for several years. She had a different type that we were able to control. But she was getting old and her vision and hearing was not as good as it used to be I think. A friend was holding her, I picked up a plastic bag and the noise was enough to startle her. She leapt from my friend’s hands and hit her head on the floor. I think he blamed himself, but I never did. I did blame myself for a long time because I scared her and because I didn’t check her well enough after. She seemed ok, but shortly after my sister said something was wrong and when I looked at her my heart broke.

I spent that night with her on my chest, talking to her. I couldn’t sleep and she couldn’t really move. The vet gave me hope – I thought she would be immediately put down – but as I mentioned before that hope was dashed one year ago today.

I thought after losing the other 3 ferrets, after almost losing my dad and after my brother’s accident it would somehow be easier. It wasn’t. After I said goodbye and saw her fade, I went numb. I don’t think I felt anything for a week. I had to puppy sit for the next 2 weeks and I was so numb that as my friend lost her dog – the mother – and 5 of the 6 puppies I just couldn’t grieve anymore. I felt bad for her but my heart couldn’t hold any more pain.

It’s funny because all the things I used to get irritated about sometimes – having to take hours out of my day to let them out and make sure they didn’t get hurt, stopping them from getting into or breaking my stuff, etc. – I miss. They could break anything I have if I could see them one more time. I still wake up sometimes and think “ugh, I have to get up and let the ferrets out.” When I realize I don’t have to it only depresses me.

I don’t know what else to say other than I miss my ferrets everyday and I hope that this will never change.

Mugsy and Me – taken just a couple of weeks before she died

All 4 of my ferrets in happier times

Compilation – scanned from 35mm prints, forgive the low quality

Not So Random Tidbit: The Rainbow Bridge

My uncle was a deacon, a father, a husband, a brother and above all else a good man.  I didn’t know him as well as I wish I had, especially considering the fact that he was my Godfather and my father’s big brother.  But from what I do know about him I know that I respected him a great deal, that he had a great sense of humor that could make you laugh at the oddest times at the oddest things, and that if when I die if they say I was half the man he was then I can consider my life worthwhile.

My uncle wanted his 4 brothers to be among his pallbearers but my father suffered a stroke a few years ago and was not able to.  I was given the honor of taking his place.  At the reception afterwards, my aunt thanked me for what I had done and I was too overwhelmed at the time to correct her – that I should have thanked her for letting me pay my respects to him and honor him in that way.

When my father had his stroke, I prepared myself mentally because for awhile, it looked like he would not survive.  I was lucky in that God saw fit to grant me more time with him.  After many years of bad blood between us we had just recently, at the time, started to make amends.  The passing of my uncle led me to think of the fact that soon my parents might follow.  I wish I could say I am a strong enough man that the thought didn’t scare me to my core – but I can’t.

My uncle was a man of faith and his faith in the face of cancer strengthened my faith.  I hope that he knows that.

The added irony is I added a friend from high school… and they didn’t believe it was me.  If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is.

I know, MySpace is horrible.  I actually use Facebook more, but I keep the old MySpace around for I don’t know what reason.

As for everything else, no I’m not dead or have given up on the site.  It’s been heads down at Helium and we’re helping my brother with my niece nearly every night.  That plus other stuff has caused my site to drop in priority unfortunately.  I do have some new templates photoshopped – I just have to code them up.  They’ll probably go to OSWD or OWD as well.

Random Tidbit: Use WordPress to host your site/blog?  Check out Smashing Magazine’s WordPress Plugin and Tutorial article.

I did want to announce that I am the proud uncle and godfather of one Victoria Madison.  She was born around 5pm.  I have never been more proud of my little brother – which is saying a lot because though I may not tell him enough, I have always been proud of him.

No random tidbit today.  Possible pictures once I get permission and my Flickr integrated.

Anyways, the sites are:

• Grinding Tapes Recording Company
• Mobile Man Boston

Get well soon Jason.

5. No other pet will be more loyal or make you laugh more. I’ve had dogs. I had a very good dog. But my ferrets were the best. They knew me by name and face. They were always happy to see me. I was the best thing in their eyes. Their antics and the stories I have still bring a smile to my face.

4. They are always happy. When I let them out of their cage it was like I was giving them the greatest gift in the world. When I chased them, they only liked it more. My only regret is that I thought I would have more time and didn’t do more of either.

3. The only thing more fun that one ferret is two. Or three. Or four. I had only planned on getting 3 ferrets and ended up taking a fourth one in. He proved more work than the other 3 combined. But he was awesome.

2. You can’t help but smile when ferrets get going. I have so many stories of them tackling each other, of the smallest dragging the largest by the scruff after he tackled her, of them getting so agitated by my sister putting their toys away that they’d actually come over and dook (scold) me, and of them teaming up on my cat that I can’t even go into detail on them. I still smile whenever I think about it.

1. You can’t say you’ve lived a complete life until you’ve seen a “weasel war dance.” When a ferret gets extremely happy and/or excited they hop around, tossing their head and expending energy frenetically. It’s extremely hard to explain the weasel war dance. But I dare anyone but the most cold hearted among us to see this in action and not want a ferret in their life.

I cannot get more ferrets at this time. But after much thought I’ve decided that when I do get my own place, I think I will get more “carpet sharks.” I’ll never be able to replace my original foursome, but that’s not really the point. I hope after reading this you give ferrets a chance. They’re not stinky rodents – it’s more like having a kitten that never grows up, but many times more energetic.

Random Tidbit: A collection of weasel war dances found on YouTube: one two three

My ferrets in a happier time:

So if you’re a developer looking for a great company, feel free to come on over.  We could use the help and we’re definitely going places.  You won’t be sorry you did.

Random Tidbit:  I found an interesting article about how Microsoft is dead after fighting with a Vista box that wouldn’t behave (or maybe it was and the behavior it’s supposed to have is illogical, who know’s right now.)  This article takes a different slant than others in that they still make a lot of money, but they’re no longer the big scary monster they used to be – Google is – and the only way to get back up there is to acquire a lot of the top quality startups.  Pretty interesting.

One thing I have been reading more into is mash-ups and pipes.  I hope to have more interesting thoughts and ideas on that in the coming week to ten days.  I’m still trying to find if there are any legal problems with this type of site – I’m assuming if I have no ads and no income generated from it, likely not, which is how I plan mine to be – but I want to research it a little more.  If you have any knowledge on this, please feel free to let me know.

I have also, as I mentioned, stumbled into the wall of providing unique and interesting content on a regular basis.  Unlike most blogs, I don’t see this as a sort of diary.  It’s purpose is more as a guide to web design from a beginner to intermediate level with tips, ideas and thoughts on css, accessibility, web standards and search engine optimization.  I have been thinking of changing or merging it with interested writers in like subjects to form a more well rounded and more frequently updated information source.  The same sort of people you would find on a development team – database gurus, development (php, ruby on rails, cold fusion, etc), and possibly even a graphic designer viewpoint.  I’m not sure if there is the interest out there or even if my audience constituents those types of people, but I’m curious to see if that might be a better solution and provide a better product.  Otherwise I may have to consider scrapping my blog and simply using my articles as content on my site – which I look to be updating and expanding again soon.

Random Tidbit: I found a blog containing an interesting look at different brand name logos redesigned with a web 2.0 feel.  Very interesting.