Time

Time is a valuable asset. We never seem to have enough of it to do what we want to do and yet find ourselves trying very hard to make it go by faster. This paradox of sorts has lead me to wonder about time and humanity's interaction with it. Most people want similar things out of life, we want a job that doesn't destroy us while we are performing it, we want a comfortable home life with all that it entails and we want to have the time to pursue our passions. For a few lucky individuals our life and our passions overlap and we can have both at the same time. However, most of us do something to put food on the table as the expression goes and leave our passions to be our hobbies. So we trade time away from the pursuit of our passions, whatever they may be, in order to earn the money that allows us to have a comfortable hom life. One might then conjecture that time is the ultimate currency in life as we pay for everything with it. Want to be rested? Pay a few hours to sleep and you receive the good of rest.

The Vicious Cycle of Complexity

I recently started a new job, which I truly enjoy. However, in my short time here I have stumbled upon one absolute truth. Business begets complexity, which begets support business, which begets complexity ad infinitum.

If you do not believe me, try to think of how enerprise class software works. There is usually a database, and a data layer, and a busines layer, and a platform layer and at some point the application layer. Now, I don't know about you, but with all those layers, that sounds like a good cake to me. So good in fact that eating too much might overwhelm you.

And so too is the case with enterprise software, if you use too much you end up with to much complexity and end up getting overwhelmed.  But why does this happen? One word: customers.

Customers want a variety of things, things outside of the original design, things that simply require hacks to work. And sometimes the new features are deemed worthy to be introduced into the core source code, along with the hacks. After all, we'll sometimes have the time to fix any issues.

But in reality the problems never get fixed, they just get worked around until they become too big to ignore. The workarounds become a regular part of life and complexity ensues with exceptions to the rules and weird incantations that must be performed to get the system to work.

This is a problem and enterprise developers need to monitor their environments carefully to prevent things like what I described from comin to pass.

LBJ China Cafe

Today, I had my lunch at the LBJ China Café. This is your regular run of the mill Chinese buffet with all the usual food found at such an establishment. Of note is that this eatery is a dollar or two cheaper than what is average and is located just off of 75 and 635 is north Dallas. It is a good value, is moderately busy, which means the food is fresh and the staff seem friendly without being overbearing. Definently a pick for a cheap work lunch.

For location information use this link:

http://tinyurl.com/9yyddj

The Obama Inauguration

Today was a historic day, a major world power peacefully transferred power from one set of executives to another.Some might say that this day is historic because President Obama is of African American descent or because of just how popular he is abroad and here in the United States. 

The fact of the matter is that he is a man just like the rest of us and putting labels on him defeats his message of progress through unity.  He gave a very moving speech in front of one of the largest audiences ever assembled and really didn't say much. What he did say is that we are going try and fix our country because in his opinion (one that I share), fixes are sorely needed.

I for one wish President Obama the best of luck with his new job and hope that he can make the right decisions in these tough times.

I am proud to live in a country the freely elects its leaders and where the rule of law can override hate and bigotry. Today, just like on every other day, I am proud to be an American.

Starting the journey

Welcome to the journey. Wait, no, that sounded pretentious. Let's try again. Welcome to my story, whereever it leads me. I decided to start this blog and share my thoughts with the world.

It is not that I think that my thoughts are priceless or that the world will be a better place because I blog, however, I might help one person figure out one thing through the sharing of my thoughts, then this will have been a worthwhile endeavor.

Regarding the format of this blog, I will only be blogging from my mobile phone and discussing anything from philosophy, to politics, to local eateries and the service I received. I welcome all input and if any of you have something you would like me to discuss, please post it in the comments.

So, let us begin.