Warren Shea - World of Warren

A busy weekend!

Sunday, April 28th, 2013 at 6:13 pm

First, let me say that my 1.5 year old G2420HD BENQ monitor “failed” Thursday night. I can turn it on, but it stays on one moment, and the shuts off. I talked to BENQ and it’s under warranty. But so much hassle to send it (I threw out the packaging) and I have to find the old receipt which I’m not sure I have. I think I need to do a better job keeping receipts. Anyways, I know it’s a capacitor issue. I’m going to try to fix it myself. I bought a soldering…gun…thing. Need to research/buy some correct capacitors and solder them on. Never done anything like that before but I want to learn!

I spent my Friday night going to Harlem Underground, follow by Mavrik to see a friend off. Was able to have an interesting conversation with a couple of my friends about being an elistist, introvert/extrovert and social skills and other things. Good conversation. Had to bail early, ended up sleeping around 11:30pm.

Woke up 7:30am to drive to the US. Got to the US at 9:30ish, went shopping a bit and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Got 3 appetizers: Deep Fried Mac and Cheese balls, Chips with Ahi Tuna and Avacado, and Crispy Crab Cake. Z got some pasta and I got a pork chop with mashed potatoes and spinach. Man, the mashed was buttery and Z’s pasta was salty. ‘MURRICA. Got some shoes and 2 shorts from the Nike Factory Outlet, was able to get a Spring Jacket, and spent $118 in junk food at Walmart. Drove back to Toronto, picked up my Squash Racket from my parents place in Richmond Hill, got some BBT and headed home. Crazy long day but handled it well. Got home a little after 8:00 I think..so a 12+ hour day, I drove probably about 6 of them and walked around about 3 of them :S Slept at 11:30pm…

and woke up around 12 on Sunday. 12 hours of sleep, but I needed it! Went on a “dwarf hamster” run, visiting 3+ petsmarts in Toronto. Went to the Richmond Hill Central library to read a bit, and then to Tim Hortons to read a bit more. And then I started blogging which leads me to right now! Using my macbook <3 It’s finally getting some love…I don’t use it too much but I’m glad I started reading books online with it. Maybe I don’t need a tablet after all? I don’t know…. Off to reads more….or maybe blog more…

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Reading textbooks + new blog?

Thursday, April 25th, 2013 at 1:11 am

I can’t believe it’s been an entire week since my last post >_< and here I thought I was writing a lot. I spent most of my free time the last week and a half playing dota...I do that every once in a while. But my dota phase is done and I'm back to reading and learning. I just finished Smashing Magazine Book II yesterday and I'm starting 2 books - The design of everyday things and a Learn Chinese book. Hopefully my next break will be when these 2 books are finished. I also want to read about Cameras, Cars and Cooking. So Chinese, Cameras, Cars and Cooking are the 4 things I want to learn/improve my knowledge of. (What a coincidence they all start with 'C'). . . . I've been thinking about starting a new blog. This one is more of a journal. I write about my day, I rant about people and work, I write meaningless or odd posts, tutorials or review. It's just whatever. My world. But I'd like to write something that helps/inspires, motivates, makes people think or makes people know and understand me a bit better. I hate shallow conversation. I hate talking about sports, politics, religion. I'd rather talk about philosophies, ideas, psychology. Maybe if I write a bit about that stuff for others to read, they'll understand me more and have more deep talks with me. I'd like to be social about this new blog. Post that I've posted something on twitter or Facebook. Something someone will read and enjoy or entice them to think. And I don't want to share this blog in particular…it’s too….personal. I would still have this blog, I’d just have another more “the face of warren I want people to see” type blog. And this would be more “the real warren” type blog. So what do you think? Should I do it?

I was pondering blog names last night.
wordofwarren.com ? (it’s a pun on worldofwarren.com…but minus the ‘l’).
wordsofwarren.com ?
thewordofwarren.com ?

i can’t think of anything more creative >_< i’m stuck on the pun and unfortunately, those are all horrible blog names…except for the pun of it all. . . . I’ve been thinking a lot about the next step in my career again. Mobile is definitely an aspect that others may want me for. Another – Development Manager. I just realized that while I love development, I’m not that good at it. So what does a crappy developer do? Become a manager lol. That’s actually a pretty serious thought. I would love to manage people. Again, it’s just the public speaking and meeting that I don’t care for – not the technical meetings or the one-on-one with developer meetings, but the others ones – scoping out projects or talking, I don’t know…money or something. Just trying to figure out where I belong I guess. I always thought it was dev but I’m starting to have my doubts. If only development came more natural to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talentless with development, I just know there are better out there. So why focus my life on something I’ll only ever be mediocre at. Practice improves, reading and studying improves, but I’ll always be slower to learn something than (a handful of people I’ve met). So maybe it’s not my ‘thing’. . . . Also, I really miss dwarf hamsters. I’ve been aching to get some…..memories of hamsters keep filling my head lately and it makes me yearn for them again. That’s right. YEARN. . . . Off to read more….about the Design of Everyday things.

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What’s the next professional step?

Thursday, April 18th, 2013 at 10:49 pm

I’ve been in the work force about 7 years (not including co-op). I’ve gone from a junior designer to a junior developer to an intermediate developer to a senior developer. I’ve been a senior developer for 2.5 years now and I think I definitely could have been the developer tech lead if wanted to be – but I didn’t. I wanted to stay a developer as I know there’s still more I have to learn. A lot more.

I’ve been wondering what the next step for me is. Part of me thinks management – I definitely think I could do it. I might hate the meetings and presentations but I’m good at putting fires out, get along with people, feel that I could mentor and guide them as well. I wouldn’t want to public speak – but I can do it. And I wouldn’t want the meetings – but I can do them. But I guess the real reason why I don’t want to be a manager is I don’t want to leave the development world yet. I still have a lot of fun doing it, it’s still my passion. I used to always think it was important to do what you love and get paid for it. And for me, that’s development. Do I start doing something I don’t enjoy as much for more money? Or because it’s the next logical step of progression? Maybe.

It’s funny, as strong as I am in development, I know I’m slow. In the last 7 years, stronger developers (and I’ve seen and known them) would definitely have surpassed me given that time. Development isn’t as intuitive to me as it is to others. Even though I might be the (or at least, one of the top 3) strongest developers on my team, I know that relative to others, I’m weak and slow. And again, web programming is still EZ mode compared to real dev. If I really want to be a better developer, I need to self-study more.

To be honest, I spent much of the day today making an unprecedented (for me) manager type decision. It was like I was a manager today, controlling the fate of someone on my team. It was kind of thrilling. The power, THE POWERRRRRR!!! But it gave me a glimpse of how a manager might think. And I liked it, but not as much as I like development.

I don’t think I’ll be doing dev forever. Not with my skill and the rate I learn. I can’t compete with the new kids who have lived development. I’m not out of the dev game yet but I have to start considering: what’s my profession after development? When I’m 50 and need to do something else. Possibly not even be in the tech field? Where do I go, what do I do? Something to ponder. Not now….but along the way…

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Checking in…

Thursday, April 18th, 2013 at 10:32 pm

Man, I haven’t blogged in a while and I know it. I was on vacation last week and I spent it getting sick. Who gets sick on their vacation? >_< sigh... Being sick took me out Mon afternoon to Wed but the rest of the week, I was still 1/2 outta it. But I tried to use my time as best I could, reading some books and studying. There are a few books I still want to read. I don't think I'm learning enough so I wanted to try doing more of that. I spent this week sleeping a lot/early. I still have a cough so I'm trying to take care of my body enough that I'm well rested. Don't want a lingering cough. Want to get rid of it ASAP. Been playing dota during the night but tonight, I'm gonna try to study more til sleep. Haven't worked on Secret Project KB at all this week, despite working on it last week quite a bit. Haven't done photography in a couple weeks. Need to start that up again... While I'm here, blogging, I think I'll write a bit about some other things...but we'll see how that goes >_<

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Secret Project KB updates II

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 at 10:02 pm

Updated my secret project KB site a bit more.

I’ve been reading The Smashing Book which I got a few years ago. Unfortunately, as with all web publications, namely that of one published in 2008, the content is somewhat outdated – and yet still somewhat relevant. It’s funny, they talk about things like IE6 and jQuery (as relatively new)…but they also talk about relevant things: optimization, brand, usability, brand, type, color theory. I realize I’m pretty bad at all aspects design; especially color theory and type. I’m going to try to improve those aspects. I realize now that I’m too narrow-visioned with development. I need to become an expert, I need to be more aware of the field as whole. Design and usability specifically. Honestly speaking, I would rate my design as a 2, my usability skill is a 3, and my development as a 6.5. While improving my development, I need to bring my other scores up.

Anyways, that is all.

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