End of 2015 review

The end of the year has come so now's a good time to reflect on the past year.

I've really embraced two new ideas/concepts/practices into my approach on life.

The first concept is that every day (whatever I am doing) I am contributing one programmer day's worth of work into my life's work. So whether I am highly productive in building something, or just relaxing with my wife and friends, it's all added to the big tin foil ball of my life. Will it amount to something great? profound? underwhelming? I am not sure. I can only hope and work for today's contribution to be something of significance.

Along with the idea of contributing to my life's work day-by-day, I have embraced a daily routine. It's a simple yet powerful thing. It's something that I critique, review and then follow to make my life better.

So, onto resolutions.

I started the year with one resolution, to finish everything that I start. It's hard to know if that's true, because I've surely finished some things (like my 2nd android app and some DIY home projects) but there's probably countless things that I've left undone. Since my resolution was to finish everything I start, and I'm not sure if I've actually succeeded in doing this resolution, I'll resolve to keep on trying to finish everything I start for 2016 as well. Sounds like I'm in a bit of an infinite loop, but oh well.
Update I just signed up for a coursera course and plan on signing up for another one right after. By the time they are over, half of the year will be gone. I've started and never finished a few of these online courses before, so I resolve to finish at least these two this year.

A second resolution that I'd like to make for myself is to improve my personality. As a science major/engineer/software developer I think I gave myself the excuse that I was good enough socially for an engineer. But as I reflect on the year, I think I've let myself go too much, and that I should work towards being better socially. Similar to physical and mental health, it's not a good idea to not care about my social health at all. I think it will take some effort and uncomfortable-ness, but I hope it will make me a more enjoyable person and help to ground me in stronger relationships as well.

I have a lot of other things that I'd like to improve on (foreign languages, health, computer science skills), but I've already been working on those, so I don't think a new resolution is necessary, but those are still under active development as well.

Cutting Glass

A while back, we bought a light fixture from an outlet store. It was missing a bunch of glass pieces, which meant I could buy it for a discount, and that I had a DIY weekend project on my hands.

I ordered a whole bunch of pieces that were close to the sizes I needed from frame destination. From these starting pieces, I planned to cut the glass to size.

I had zero experience cutting glass before, so it was a bit scary. I was afraid that I might cut myself, create a huge mess and end up with cracked useless pieces of glass. I watched a bunch of videos on youtube, like this one, then I bought this cheap glass cutter, and just started scoring and cutting. I didn't need to be perfect, thanks to me ordering some extra glass and because the edges of the glass are hidden in the final product. In the end, after about a day of work, the project was done.

So, how does cutting glass compare to my usual coding weekend projects? They're awfully similar. Both require you to take some time and research about tools and best practices. Both are painful to do, but rewarding when you see improvements and progress. So, I approached this glass cutting project the same way I do coding (little by little). I started with some easier cuts and marvelled at my success or reflected on my errors; then I went at it again and again until I was done.

I love being a programmer, software engineeer, coder. I think it helps me whenever I do anything. And whenever I spend time working on something else, I find myself using the lessons I learned while coding. Hopefully I learned something while I was cutting glass today that helps me become a better coder.

For those interested in glass cutting, here are some of my personal notes:

• I didn't use any oil. This was a one-off project so I didn't care too much about maintaining my $3 glass cutter.

• I found a long hard cover book as a good tool for helping cut glass. I first used it as a straight edge to make nice long scores. Then, I used the book to hold the glass while I was cracking the glass. The book helped me apply even pressure while protecting my hands.