Murphy’s Lesser-Known Laws
Posted by jimako on January 25th, 2008 filed in Self ImprovementComment now »
- Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
- He who laughs last thinks slowest.
- Those that live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.
- Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
- The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
- The things that come to those who wait will be the things left by those who got there first.
- Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll sit in a boat all day, drinking beer.
- The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.
- A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
- When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.
Time to take time to take leave…
Posted by jimako on January 25th, 2008 filed in HousekeepingComment now »
Recently, I needed to cancel some leave to get a jump start on some requirements gathering and design work over the holiday season. It wasn’t a real problem as I had not made any real plans — in fact, I had planned specifically not to schedule any activities or tasks for myself so as to allow me to take some down time.
I haven’t taken more that a week of in a single stretch for almost three years now, so I was looking forward to a solid four weeks away from software development. I thought to myself that postponing that break by a month or so was no big deal.
Boy, was I wrong!
While it was absolutely the right decision at the time (for a set of very real commercial considerations), I have found that my effectiveness has plummeted over this period. I don’t know how much of it was just burn-out and how much was related to the last-minute change of plans, but the effect has been very real and very noticeable. I wake in the morning and just can’t be bothered going in to the office. I can’t get excited about what is going on. I can’t even be bothered to go out and socialise with our friends.
I was already a little off my game, which was why I had planned to take the time off, but in the month or so since I postponed that leave I am sure that my performance has steadily declined. It’s hard to quantify, but if I take a wild guess that I was at 90% effectiveness in mid-December, I am probably now at 60% (in late January). At this rate, if I don’t take the time to recharge, I’ll go into negative effectiveness sometime in March or April…
So, I will definitely be taking time off in February, probably the whole month.
And who knows, I might even get back to doing some more regular blog postings. 
The Perfectionist’s Prayer…
Posted by jimako on October 18th, 2007 filed in Self Improvement1 Comment »
Dear God:
Help me not be a perfectionist. (Did I spell that correctly?)
Help me to relax about insignificant details, beginning tomorrow at 7:41:23 a.m. EST.
Help me to not try to run everything — but, if You need some help, please feel free to ask me.
Help me to consider people’s feelings, even if most of them are hypersensitive.
Help me to take responsibility for the consequences of my actions, even though they’re usually not my fault.
Help me to be more laid back, and help me to do it exactly right.
Help me to take things more seriously — especially laughter, parties, and dancing.
Give me patience, and I mean right now!
Help me to finish everything I sta
Help me to keep my mind on one thing — oh, look, a bird — at a time.
Help me to do only what I can, and trust for the rest. And could I get that in writing?
Keep me open to others’ ideas, misguided though they may be.
Help me follow established procedures. Hey, wait — this is wrong …
Help me slow down andnotrushthroughwhatido.
Thank you. Amen
— Author Unknown
Peace
Posted by jimako on August 3rd, 2007 filed in Self ImprovementComment now »
Peace.
It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
— Anonymous
Sometimes I just despair at some people…
Posted by jimako on June 20th, 2007 filed in Off the wall, Rants and Raves, Self Improvement2 Comments »
Just a few minutes ago, while I was out at lunch, someone left the following comment on the last post. I was about to delete it but thought better of that action. I did not approve it (as it really does not relate to the post at all) but let me copy and paste it here in all its glory:
Author : Ioustinianos (IP: 85.195.123.22 , 85.195.123.22)
E-mail : yourdeath2007@gmail.com
Comment:
You bloated GREEDY sATAN worshiping slothful PIG !
Is that all you can think about you disgusting blemish in the sight of Christ Yashua ?!You filthy slimy sleazy scumbag , you are a member of that sATANIC jEW club for your own material gain.
Money money money ! You sick sick man , do you know what you are getting yourself into ?
OK. Extremely insightful comment, that. I assume the commenter is referring to my membership in a Masonic Lodge, something that I not only do not hide but of which I am very proud — indeed a quick look at even the front page of my web site brings up that information.
So, what exactly is this person criticising? What is he (or I guess possibly she, although I doubt it) actually complaining about?
Do me a favour, read the previous post first. You will see that I pose the question: if you want to develop some software that can be provided as a service, what would that be? So this person fires back with:
You bloated GREEDY sATAN worshiping slothful PIG !
Ummm. OK. Let’s leave the “sATAN” worshiping part out of it for the moment. Bloated? Greedy? Slothful? Pig? What is this based on? I work hard — have done so all my adult life. I have not been handed anything on a plate; my parents were poor immigrants who worked for minimum wage so that they could afford to support my sister and me through school. I am married with 3 kids, all in school, and so I of necessity need to work to support them and myself. Greedy? I live in an average suburb. I drive a 15-year-old car. Slothful? I work well over 50 hours each week (while on a salary, so no overtime) and I do at least 10 hours of community and charity work each week too.
Is that all you can think about you disgusting blemish in the sight of Christ Yashua ?!
No that is NOT all that I can think about — if it was I would be rich.
Look, anyone can be rich if that is truly the top priority in his life. I don’t want to be rich badly enough to do what it takes. There are other aspects to my life that are far more important to me than mere money or material possessions: my family’s welfare and health, their happiness and well-being, the effect I have on my community and my world. All these things are truly important to me.
I need to be able to be satisfied with an honest answer to this question each and every night before I go to bed: Is every person I came into contact with today better, or at least happier, as a result? If the answer is no, then I have failed to live up to the yardstick that I have set for myself.
Making money is not how I measure my worth or my success. Of course, I do need to make enough so that I can offer my family a reasonable level of comfort and security, but beyond that it just doesn’t matter enough. What the previous blog post was referring to was a feeling that it is time to build a recurring income stream that can free up some time to enable me to become involved in some major, long-term projects that will actually cost me money but which I think will benefit many of the most needy people in my community. I can’t tackle them without sufficient time and funds. That is what this is about, not some desire to be rich. Heck, I am rich in so many ways: I have my health, a loving family, a roof over our heads and enough to eat and stay warm. I don’t need anything more. I don’t want anything more. So this comment:
Money money money ! You sick sick man , do you know what you are getting yourself into ?
well, I’ll just leave that alone.
Now, let’s get back to Freemasonry. The writer uses these terms:
… sATAN worshiping slothful PIG !
… you disgusting blemish in the sight of Christ Yashua
… member of that sATANIC jEW club
… for your own material gain
… do you know what you are getting yourself into ?
Caps-lock-induced dyslexia aside, Satan-worshiping? Satanic Jew Club? Come on now, does anyone still buy into this claptrap? I am not going to go over all this again, not because I can’t but because it has been done so many times before. Look, check out these pages on our own Lodge web site for a starting point, and if you have any sane questions please ask them here (or better yet, phone your nearest lodge and talk to someone — this “secret society” is in the phone book, so they aren’t that secretive!).
For the record, I am a Christian. Many of my brothers are Jewish. Many others are Muslim. A few I know who are Hindu. It doesn’t matter — we are all equal brothers, work together in harmony for the good of our broader community without trying to convert each other. Does this unsettle the commenter? Why? Maybe a little introspection is called for here.
As for my “own material gain”, anyone who knows anything about Freemasonry (or anyone who actually knows a Freemason) will know that being a Freemason costs a man both in terms of time and in money — just ask my wife! There is no other way to put it: if you thought you were going to gain materially from joining Freemasonry, you were very, very wrong. Many times throughout the joining process, each potential and recent member is forcibly reminded of that fact and admonished that seeking personal advantage from membership is not only frowned upon but can lead to discipline, punishment and even expulsion.
So why am I a member of a Freemasons’ Lodge?
Simple: because I was a Freemason in my soul first. Whether by nature or nurture, I fundamentally believe that there is an absolute concept of good and evil, and men know in their innermost being how to recognise it. I believe that good men are good regardless of their religious persuasion. I believe that tolerance, open communication and cooperation are a good and proper way to interact with others. I believe that I have an obligation to render myself of service to the world around me, and that in doing so I am acting in accord with the will of the Divine (whatever name each individual wants to use).
I believe — no, I know — that what I have become by being a member of a Lodge, and the continuing process of personal development and growth, makes me a better father, a better husband, a better employee, a better workmate, a better friend, a better citizen… a better man.
If I didn’t know that, if I didn’t believe it deep where I live, then I would not still be a member after nearly 25 years.
So, let me turn the last quote on the commenter. When you ask me:
do you know what you are getting yourself into ?
I can answer you with a clear, confident and categorical YES.
Do you know anything about this subject at all?
Hopefully, this post will help, although there is a Greek saying that goes like this:
On a deaf man’s door, you can knock forever!
which I suspect is appropriate here.
What to develop?
Posted by jimako on May 16th, 2007 filed in Software DevelopmentComment now »
You know, I am getting to the point where I want to do something for myself. After many, many years developing software, I want to develop something where I own the IP.
There are two ways to make money with this sort of thing. One is to try to sell software, for as high a price as you can get away with (and some of the prices paid in the enterprise space are just amazing). However, I am not keen on this. I have been involved in this type of sales process, and I have yet to remove the sour taste it left in my mouth.
I would rather look at developing an online service, and ask people to subscribe to it. Get just 1000 people world-wide to pay $10/month, and you have a reasonable salary. Make that 10,000 and you are talking serious income. In today’s global market, neither figure seems absurd.
So, what to develop? Does anyone have any good ideas? I’d love to hear from you.
What online service would you be willing to pay $10/month for? What about $20/year?