Came home today and worked all night making my PDF resume.
I had finished my warrenshea.com site (4?) weeks ago now, but never finished my PDF resume. “With all the content done, I can make my resume whenever I want” I thought.
Well…it was true. I’ve been working for like, 6 hours but it’s done.
It’s funny how many mistakes I noticed on warrenshea.com when making this thing, despite proof-reading the site 10 times.
I also did a slight text removal in the experience section as per one of my friend’s recommendations. The experience is now…5-10% shorter. 20% shorter on the actual resume. Not that much of a reduction, but an improvement overall.
Shows / Movies
Jiro Dreams of Sushi – Complete
Hell’s Kitchen – S01 – S04 [Rewatched] – In Progress
Gilmore Girls S2E04 – S3E11 [Rewatched] – In Progress Currently watching: The Legend of Korra, Young Justice, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, House, Thundercats, Avengers – Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – In Progress
Books & Manga & Comics
Hikaru no Go Vol 1 – 23 [Manga] – Complete
worldofwarren.com / warrenshea.com / secretproject kb
Secret Project KB – 29 Posts, 48 Pages created…need to fill them with content
Other
Car – Z and I have finally decided: Standard/Manual 2012 White Hyundai Elantra! We’re hoping to get this within the next 2 weeks :D Z and I both drove manual for 15 minutes or so and only stalled a couple of times. I think we’re both pretty confident we can start driving this asap.
Notes
I spent the beginning of this month working on Secret Project KB but the last week, I haven’t worked on it much. Stupid Diablo 3, among other things, like work.
I’ve been out a lot in the last week, social gatherings every day or two…
I need to regroup and start blogging again, as well as working on my Secret Project KB.
I can’t believe it’s “only” been 3 weeks since I released warrenshea.com
I’ve been working hard on my Secret Project KB almost immediately after warrenshea.com but there’s still a long way to go. This site, like warrenshea.com, is mostly content based so I can see things taking a long time. There is a blog portion and within the last 21 days, I’ve written 28 short posts, as well as deved the shell of the site. There’s still quite a bit that needs to be done.
I know I haven’t been blogging much but I assure you guys that I’m still working hard. And to be honest, that’s what really matters for me. It feels absolutely great working on a new project and I can’t wait til this is done and I can start another side project or my epic project.
On another note: That Zelda Symphony I’m going to in Sept is coming up pretty quick and I realize I haven’t been playing and beating Zelda: Majora’s Mask or Zelda: Twilight Princess like I wanted to. I’ve been thinking I should prioritize those games over my projects…but I really don’t want to do that >_< . . . It's been 2.5 years since I stopped playing World of Warcraft. I feel like I've done so much in that time. I've really looked hard at the people around me and who I want to surround myself with and why. I've discovered so much about life, constantly thinking about where I'm headed and how I want to get there. There are so many people that are still lost in life. Don't know what to do professionally. Aren't good at their jobs. Don't know what to do with their life. And while I might not be certain of my path, I know that right now, I'm headed in the right direction. Despite all my talk about job and career, I don't believe I'm professionally ambitious. I'm not working for the money, I'm working for the experience. For the love of this hobby/profession. Not very many people can do that. I feel very fortunate that since World of Warcraft, I've been able to dedicate myself to what I believe is a future worth having. All the time spent both free and during work, done with love and passion...for a goal that has no end. You spend 8+ hours a day working. How can you waste that much of your life doing something you don't love? I think the theme of my life the last 2 years has been improvement and motivation. Those 2 things have been the driving force in my life. Well, I think improvement is always something that’s part of everyone’s life but I’ve really been paying attention to those 2 things. And the people that help me achieve them.
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Sorry, I know this post is all over the place. Many topics. I’m just writing some things that have been on my mind lately.
Went to watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi last night. It wasn’t what I had expected. While it’s about sushi, it’s so much more than that. It’s about legacy, dedication and hard work, and improving yourself. It takes you into the mind of an unlikely genius and you get to hear his unique thoughts. It was way deeper than I thought it’d be, leaving me with many things to think about.
To try to equally compare myself to someone of Jiro’s character would be arrogant but I can’t deny there are some similarities in our personality.
He discusses 5 things that you need to become a great chef. I found, as he was listing these, how similar his thoughts were compared to my reliability and passion thoughts in the workplace.
His 5 things where:
1. Take your work seriously.
2. Aspire to improve.
3. Maintain cleanliness.
4. Be a better leader than a collaborator.
5. Be passionate about your work.
This is to be a chef. Mine 2 items re: reliability and passion are for how to excel at your job.
Looking at his points, I think they all apply to becoming an artisan of your craft (in Japanese, they have a term for that – Shokunin: mastery of a profession)
While watching this movie, it definitely inspired me. I’m at the point in my career where I think I understand what I want and where I’m going. And I think that’s critically important. I’m surrounded by people who don’t know what they want to do in life. Some who aren’t good at their jobs. And that’s all fine if that’s what they’ve chosen and they accept it. But not everyone is happy with where they are. And the first rule about being happy in life is that if you’re unhappy, change something.
I want to be an artisan of my craft: web development. It’s limited to front-end expertise and back-end familiarity and I want to be an expert in both. I still have much to do.
As I watch Hell’s Kitchen, and listen to some people at work, all they can talk about is money. They want to be rich. There are contestants in HK that want the prize money. And there are contestants that say that “this (cooking) is all they have in their life. What they’re born to do. They’re in Hell’s Kitchen for the experience to work with Chef Ramsey”. And that’s how I feel. While I don’t want to be poor, I think I live by the experiences. That I would take a job that doesn’t pay well if it will help me learn and grow in my path to becoming a professional.
I think Jiro’s 5 rules are something I need to live by to become a Shokunin. I believe I’m partially there:
1. Take your work seriously. – I only half do this. At work, I take my work pretty seriously. But I’m not learning as fast as I should, I don’t dedicate enough time to my craft outside of work
2. Aspire to improve. – I believe I have this aspiration, I’ve always had it.
3. Maintain cleanliness. – I believe I have this and it shows in my clean and organized code.
4. Be a better leader than a collaborator. – Unfortunately, I must be a collaborator…but the points in the movie are valid: leaders move faster and pull others along. Collaborators waste time going in different directions. As a leader, I have to do what I believe is best, despite everyone else. This is not always the case for me…but sometimes it is. That’s why I can be such a jerk.
5. Be passionate about your work. – I believe I have this as well.
So I’m kind of there. But I’m not as studious as I could be. Unfortunately, that’s always been my problem. That, and arrogance :P
Anyways. You can see that Jiro Dreams of Sushi left quite an impact on me. I’d like to rewatch it and take notes or something next time. I feel there’s much I can learn from Jiro.
worldofwarren.com rates – Jiro Dreams of Sushi – 10/10!
I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday night. I haven’t been playing Diablo 3 much.
I’ve spent the last 2 nights working on Secret Project KB while rewatching Gilmore Girls with Z. Then I’d watch Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef. Then rewatch Gilmore Girls. And then, once Z sleeps, rewatch Hell’s Kitchen. All the while working on my other site. Until like 3-4am. And I haven’t been napping after work cuz I’ve been working.
I was in a bad mood today. No doubt. My lack of sleep is affecting my behaviour and emotions. I know I need to sleep early to be less of a jerk. But I really like working on my projects. Like, I love it. There’s a great feeling of satisfaction, accomplishing tasks. Large tasks, small tasks, progress…it’s a great feeling and every night lately, I got to sleep thinking “nice, I got a lot done today, but I have a lot to do tomorrow”.
I can’t wait to get home and work on my projects. I can’t stand some of my work work projects that I’m on right now…really feeling unmotivated to do anything at work lately. All my projects sux0rs.
Anyways, off to watch Gilmore Girls and code. A creature of repetition, I am.
