Posts tagged Life
How to Make Coffee Undetected
Feb 3rd
I love coffee. My wife loves coffee. Except when now that she’s pregnant (again). A few weeks ago I received a request to cease coffee making at home because the smell was a little much for my wife to take. Apparently baby on the way (#3) does not appreciate coffee.
This situation wasn’t going to work well because the logistics of taking my coffee making paraphernalia to the office every day is not ideal. Here’s my current set up:
- Aerobie Aero Press
- CoffeeMate coffee grinder
- 1 lb espresso & 1 lb decaf espresso, whole bean, in sealed containers (Kaldi’s or Mississippi Mud beans are the best)
- A collection of Monin syrups (almond, toffee nut, hazelnut to name a few)
I’m at the point where I have my “system” and I can make my coffee fresh each morning in under 5 minutes, including setup & clean up. I really enjoy coffee this way and I am determined to continue it.
I devised a new “system” based on some input from a coworker and trial and error.
Additional items needed:
- Ventilation fan above stove
- Spray bottle with white Vinegar
The new process takes a few extra minutes but minimizes the coffee odor and lessens its effects on my wife. I now perform the process under the hood of the stove with the fan on low. Prior to opening the sealed can of coffee beans and grinding it, I spray a little vinegar in the air near the kitchen doorway. After grinding the beans I spray a little more. The “puck” (as named by the Aerobie documentation) is discarded into a plastic bag with a sprits of vinegar and promptly taken outside to the trash.
In my first few trials my wife still complained about the odor. However, I found that if I do this about an hour before she wakes up and use a healthy amount of vinegar in the air it is far more tolerable.
Fortunately the vinegar odor does not change how fabulous the coffee tastes and I don’t have to deal with the daily grind minus my home brew.
Where Do You Want To Be In a Year?
Jan 1st
Tim Barcz posed a great question “Where Do You Want To Be In a Year?”. I’d like to echo Tim’s question and post my own answers.
Where do you want to be in a year?
My answers (in no particular order):
- Continue to get exposed to applying technology in different industries through my work as a consultant
- Learn more Silverlight, MVC and client-tier technologies that I’ve neglected (due to so much SOA work)
- Continue studying and applying good software design practices
- Continue my involvement with the St Louis .NET Community
- Attend/Speak at an out-of-state code camp or dev conference
- Read those books I’ve been putting off
- Continue writing
- Get my productivity system back in place and stick to it
- To be awarded with another MVP (I’m up at the end of June)
- To be the dad my kids need and the husband my wife needs (I think I do OK but you can always do better!)
Who else will step up and answer the question?
Lessons from being a ‘Dad’
Dec 15th
Fatherhood is not something that is covered in many academic courses. The few that attempt to broach parent hood just don’t cut it when it comes to the real-world where personalities and relationships add variables to an already unbalanced equation.
I’ve been a dad for almost 4 years now. I don’t know that I’m very good at it but I’ve learned a few lessons along the way.
Lesson 1: The call isn’t that important.
Neither is that E-mail. Or that tweet. Or that blog post. This was is the hardest one for me.
Lesson 2: Keep a schedule.
This helps you and the kids. Have quiet time, encourage them to go find something to do and let them go. Take the time for yourself. Our kids go to bed around 7. People think we’re crazy, but for me and my wife that is 3-4 hours of movies or hobby time before bed. Everyone wins.
Lesson 3: You can’t teach imagination.
For a long time my wife and talked about how to help our kids discover their imaginations. Then one day the kids pulled out all the pots & pans and had an feast with more imaginary friends than we could keep track of. It was a mess but it kept the kids busy for hours. We have parameters for when their imaginations go too far, but as long as the kids don’t cross that line they are free to imagine away. We’ll even help clean up.
Lesson 4: Dance.
I’m not talking about some choreographed work of art. Put on your favorite music and just let loose. Your kids will join you no matter how goofy you look and you’ll have some of the best moments of your life.
Being a dad taught me something about software development too.
Lesson 1
E-mail can wait. If it’s really important, come find me. Learn to know when you can interrupt your teammates and when you can’t. It’s not easy at first.
Lesson 2
We have a customer to deliver to and they have a business to run. Deliver results at regular intervals. Work with the customer to make the results what they want. If it helps them and their business everybody wins.
Lesson 3
Software developers are creative and we need boundaries to keep us in check. Those boundaries help grow our creativity; not diminish it.
Lesson 4
Life is serious. So is the impending doom of deadlines, missed features, broken dev environments, and changing requirements. Have some fun and write software too.
