Stuck in a Rut
Wow, it's been a LONG time since I visited this thing. Oops. Don't worry, you haven't missed much. Well, maybe you have. I've actually gotten to travel quite a bit this year, and look forward to traveling even more. So far, in 2008 I've been to (in chronological order) Missouri (St. Louis and Columbia), Italy (Rome, Naples, Livorno, Venice), Monaco (Monte Carlo), Greece (Santorini/Oia, Mykonos, Corfu), Turkey (Kusadasi, Ephesus), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), New York (NYC), and New Jersey (Atlantic City). Whew. It's been fun seeing how different the world is than Camarillo, where the houses were all built in 1970 onwards and the city has a "master plan."
Once classes start this semester, however, the traveling will have to slow down a bit. Yep, I'm going back to get my Master's Degree in Computer Science at CSUCI. I'd rather go somewhere else where it's not considered "extended education" but that would require either paying an insane amount for CLU, or relocating, which I'm not willing to do quite yet. Oh well.
Anyways, so the reason I come back to my blog... I'm stuck. I've been learning all sorts of new things, and I STILL cannot get past my mental roadblock of creativity. I've learned Python and Django. I've almost completed Aaron Hillegass's awesome book on Cocoa programming for the Mac (and, indirectly, iPhone). But... now what? I still can't seem to come up with anything innovative.
One of my friends was pushing me to develop an iPhone app that was an SSH terminal. "Great!" I thought. "There aren't any others out there yet, and I could definitely see it being useful." Turns out it wasn't so easy, and, sure enough, somebody else beat me to it. Plus, I then had the realization that SSH on a phone would suck. I would sorely miss my tab completion, and even toggling the keyboard to use the '/' key would be annoying.
I'm noticing a trend. Sometimes I think that I'm just plain getting bored here. I eat at the same restaurants over and over. I fix the same problems at work every day, and have for almost 5 years now. I sleep in the same room that I did when I was 9 years old. The glue from the 8th grade science fair project is still on the carpet, reminding me just how much time I've spent here. I've visited all the major tourist attractions in SoCal (I think). I thought my 2 week vacation abroad would help make this boredom go away. And sure, it did, for about 2 weeks after my return, after which the feeling of monotony returned.
Telecommuting might be nice. I'd have all the benefits of being paid a California wage, but be able to spend it somewhere with a lower cost of living. I could afford a house large enough to have an office in, with nice furniture and only the noises I choose and nothing more.
I've also been working on an informal, mental list of "things I want to do." Perhaps now is a good time to work on it; I'll post it once it matures a bit. This concludes this random, rambling entry see you again in a few months!*
*hopefully not, but with my track record, you never know
This entry has 2 comments:
Tyler says:
It's about time you posted! I've been dropping in every now and then to check and see if anything new had come up. I am jealous about your trip. I am desperately trying to save up vacation time so I can take 3-4 weeks off for a trip to Japan. I somehow have to fit that into my schooling as well. I start my masters in the spring after the academy. You'll probably finish well before I do since I'll be doing the degree through the distance learning program at school. That's the only way I can work full time and still finish it. After that I'll apply for a transfer and apply fresh to a few schools for some additional learnin'. It's good to hear that things are going well, despite the monotony. If you ever want to break the routine, give me a call. I am sure I can show you some things in Southern California you haven't seen yet.
Dan says:
The Masters in CS sounds cool. I was hoping to do the same masters program this fall (at CSUCI), but it just didn't happen. Maybe next fall, or even this spring, it will happen.