And to a less extent – this.
Who will I play? Kirby? Or Mega Man? >_< It’s like asking which of my children I like best. They make Mega Man look. SO. DAMN. COOL. In the first video. I’ve never seen them handle Mega Man so coolly. Like, when his arm cannon switches to his hand, or when he takes out Metal Man’s power. I will say that that every time I see Kirby, he’s the only thing I’m looking at. He’s so cute!! And I die a little inside when he gets hurt. Is that normal?
Probably the last 14 years!
When was my last high school gym class?
Went to play tennis with some co-workers today. Definitely not as good as I thought I was/remember I was.
Need to improve:
Serves
Hitting it hard AND in
Volleys
Backhand
Spins
…..
Forehand?
So. Everything.
Sucks, I know I used to be pretty good when I was younger. Totally won a doubles tournament…in like, grade 2. That was 24 years ago but you don’t forget tennis…right? Right?
Going to get a grip tape and some tennis balls later this week. Practice serves in the really crappy court beside our building.
I want to improve!
Was telling this story to my co-workers earlier today. Thought I’d share.
When I was in high school, probably around grade 10, I went to fly alone to visit my brother in Calgary. At the time, my calf muscle would occasionally cramp up if I would do a lot of walking/running (I think it occurs if your calf muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen). It’s pretty painful – but you can save yourself the pain if you’re quick to react and point your toes towards you/heel away from you. Pointing the toes away from you/heel towards you will cause excruciating pain if your muscle starts to cramp; it’s one of the most painful things I’ve physically experienced. Sometimes it would cramp up while I was sleeping. Waking up to that pain is not fun.
So anyways, I’m in Grade 10ish and I go through the metal detector in the airport. I put my wallet in the little basket so that it doesn’t go through. And I forget to pick it up. I go all the way to the plane and board it. Sitting in the plane, about 2 minutes in, I realize I’ve forgotten my wallet. I quickly make the decision: go get my wallet and possibly risk missing my flight or travel without my wallet. The latter’s not really an option (you need your wallet!). So I ultimately decide to tell the stewardess I have to run back and get my wallet at the metal detector and to please wait for me. It’s a pretty good distance away.
I figure I have about 10 minutes to do this before the plane is set to take off.
I basically sprint for a straight 4 minutes to the metal detector to get my wallet and sprint for 4-5 minutes back, just making it. Sprinting for 9 minutes like your life depended on it is no easy feat. And I’m heaving for air, super hot and sweaty upon returning to my seat, wallet in hand.
I’m sitting in the seat resting when one of my calf muscles cramps. I’m not quick to react and the excruciating pain ensues. A second after the first calf muscle cramps, my second calf muscle cramps. I’m basically sitting in this plane with two cramping calf muscles. And because I’m all hot – my nose starts to bleed.
So now, I’ve got two cramping calf muscles and a bleeding nose – and I basically can’t move my legs to go anywhere (like the washroom) so I’m stuck holding my head up to stop the bleeding and sitting there thinking ‘omg, This CANNOT be happening to me’. Physically, probably the most FML moment I’ve ever had.
It took about 15 minutes of sitting there with my head tilted for the pain to go away in my legs, for me to cool down and stop sweating bullets, and for my nose to stop bleeding. It was a rough 15 minutes…..
Looking back on it, it’s pretty funny :P (At least my co-workers thought so).
Hopefully that’s the worst flying story I ever have.
My new role is taking some adjusting to. I’m finding that as a dev, I’m a “like to get this done, quick, and out of the way” type person. I look for immediate gains/fulfilment. The feeling like I “accomplish” something. I think I stayed at work late yesterday, tediously sorting computer wires simply to feel that again.
But in my new role, all my accomplishments will not be short term. In fact, quite the opposite, they’re mostly long term. I find myself trying hard to stay focused and on track as there’s so much to do, but no way to do it quickly.
It was easier when I could do my day job as a dev and chime in where I need to. But now, the responsibilities are greater, and different. I have a lot of great ideas but finding they’re difficult to start….
.
.
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I’ve been trying to sleep earlier lately so that my mind is sharper (and I’m nicer) for work. It’s been working out. I think yesterday, I got too much sleep (10:30-8:30) and that left me slow and groggy throughout the day. Even today, I slept around 9? 10? but woke up around midnight due to a stomach ache (so much cheese for dinner >_<) and have been up a couple hours…plan to sleep soon though. . . . Oddly enough, finding myself suddenly bombarded with recruiters contacting me for dev. Where were you 2 months ago?! I got other things to deal with now! Just kinda ironic I guess… I miss being a dev and often think back at it – I definitely made the right choice (career wise) but I guess the grass is always greener… Dev was honestly, so much damn fun. And now it’s kinda more…responsibility. I have a huge responsibility and weight on my shoulders having a team. The problem (kinda) is that they’re already an awesome team, which makes my job harder to do (because I have the responsibility to not only maintain, but grow that awesomeness). Tough shoes to follow…
Didn’t know it would be announced so soon but…drum roll please?
I’m now a development manager with a pretty large team. Pretty crazy! O____O
I know I wrote a bit about management lately but those were pretty coincidental. I had been feeling this “what should I do next?” kinda feeling for over a month now, spoke to my manager a few weeks ago and it all sort of planted its own seeds from there. I had no idea things would be official so soon. I’m totally not prepared. (like, seriously, i wanted to read about stuff more and prepare more first – but there’s always time for that).
I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately – basically, ways to make things better. I’ve seen the dev side and I think we could really use certain things (says the dev side of me) and hopefully that will be filled by whatever path I help choose to accomplish them (says the development lead in me). I think it’s awesome because I already have a pretty good to great relationship with the devs so I really want to focus on assisting in their growth as my managers and peers have done with me. I know the change in me within the last 7 years is dramatic and I feel crazy thankful to everyone who has influenced me – either shown me what to do, or even shown me what not to do (it was hard to be thankful for that, but looking back on it, it was useful).
My last two managers were/are both super great and I want the way I saw them to be the way my team sees me. I just want to follow their lead but provide some technical guidance along the way as well. I guess that’s my big goal – to not screw it up and to help my team wherever I can. :)