Today, Reading, and Stress

Today was exhausting.  I worked on bug fixes for the application that I built (using Access) all day.  Then an Excel report broke and I have to fix that first thing tomorrow morning.  

Tonight I'm going to forgo reading Expert PHP.  I'm simply too tired.  But I'm not too tired to do anything, I'm just too tired to do that.  I don't know what you call it but just a bit mentally drained.  Tomorrow I hope will be better.  Maybe tomorrow I can do some PHP reading.  Maybe ten pages or so.

But strangely enough I feel very balanced these days.  I don't feel off kilter at all.  It's actually not strange.  I've started doing tai chi on a regular basis and I'm very excited by it.  It works really well for me.  

I feel more in tune, more balanced, and just generally better.   Tai chi is wonderful.  

As for PHP I'm feeling pretty good about it.  I finished up to page 270 and I'm skipping up to page 370 because I don't feel the need to read two chapters right now.  I feel that they're not of much use to me right now.  So I'm skipping them.  But I still have about 140 pages to go before page 500 and 200 pages to go before I'm done with this book.  I'm shooting to be done with it by next Sunday, October 16.  :D

Then it's onto setting up my server and getting it really online.  Then setting up a RESTful service.   Then building the iPhone app into that.  :D  :-| :-/  I'm happy, nervous, and everything else in between because I want to get it done right.  So much to think about in context of this. 

So what's on deck.

1.  Finish PHP Book.

2.  Get Linux Server out to the world.

3.  Build Restful web service.

4.  Build the rest of the iPhone App.

5.  Read jQuery book.

6.  Read GIMP book (quick primer)

7.  Redesign Front end of GFM.

8.  Read CSS/Web Programming Book

9.  Redesign JQuery code.

10.  Redesign PHP Code on the backend to be OO.

11.  Implement APC.

12.  Implement Memcache.

13.  Implement Perl scripts for broadcasting assignments.

14.  Optimize the server using Apache.

15.  Test the application.

16.  Build Flying Fifty Two.

Future Vision

Now I have a vision for my future.

I see myself as a wise, well dressed, capable man.  A man with a family but not a family man in the traditional sense of the word. 

I'll have a wife that I love, two or three children (hopefully three), and a fine home where I can study, work, and be at peace, my wife can be serene, and they can run and play.  A well-ordered life.

As far as my life I see a future of martial arts, kung-fu, mui thai, yoga, boxing, gymnastics, and kendo.

I see myself having a large successful software concern where we design and program various stable bread-and-butter products, some where we are the principal and others where we are not.  As time goes on our endeavors will become more ambitious.  But they will not be funded by fiscal rocket fuel.  Rather we will build our ventures organically, with an eye toward stability. 

I envision a life of balance, community, progress, stability, love, friendship, and responsibility.

The Connections

Last night I went out drinking and the night before.  One night I can handle but two in a row ... not so much.

Nonetheless, I went out.

Today I went to work and felt noticeably weaker.  Spiritually weaker.

I am either in charge or not.  I felt as though I was not in the drivers seat today.  

Why?

Well, after I went to tai-chi, I can feel my energy and my thoughts more clearly than ever before.

A very simple thought came to me.  It said, "Squarehead, you poison your own well and then are confused as to why your water is distasteful."  Then I figured it out.

Your soul has two parts:  a container that protects it (like a cylinder) and the actual water that's inside it.  

The cleanliness of that water depends on what you do.   If you drink and party and generally sin the water gets more and more poisoned.  That's the water you have to drink from.   Your entire system drinks from it.  No matter what though something in your system will give.  Your mind will get sick.  Your body will get sick.  Something will get sick if you keep poisoning your life force, your chakura, your water, your energy.  That energy flows throughout your entire system.

But the alternative is that you can strengthen it.  If you work out, if you eat right, if you do the right things, laughter, if you listen to your conscience your energy will get stronger and it will flow more cleanly through your chakara network (the network that allow life to go from your soul to the rest of your body and keep you alive.).

Who are you?  You are the way your energy flows.  Your personality, the way you think, the way you act, the way you eat, the way you live all flows from the configuration of your chakara network.  If you poison your water though your network gets weaker and you lose your way.  You'll become lost.  

People are repulsed by bad energy.  People stay away from it.  It's instinctual.  However, people are attracted to good energy. 

Do you want to know what women look for?  Energy flow.  If you have strong energy flow then you'll be fine with women and in life.

Different people have different energy traits.  Some people can drink and party and do all types of things at a much greater level than I can and their energy flow is still fine.  Some people can do much less and their energy flow is fine.

Doing what you love is another way to keep your energy flow very strong.  If you love something it's the same as when you eat.  When your body craves a particular food it's because it knows that something in that food will nurture it.  When your soul loves something it's because it knows something in that food will nurture it.

Over time it naturally gets weaker.  That's why people get old.  Their energy gets depleted.  That's why it's important to stay active, live somewhere that feeds your soul.  For me it's the sun and the sky that feeds me.

It's very simple.  Life is based on strength.  Strength is based on energy flow.  Energy flow is based on chakara networks and chi.  Chi is based on activities, whether good or bad.  That's it.  

Know your limits.  Keep your chi pure through activities that fit your chakara network and everything will be fine.

And don't listen to the world.  Listen to your chi!

Bloomberg Podcasts

Bloomberg Podcasts

The Importance of Staying the Course

There is so much excitement in doing something new.  That's what most people do.  Hell, it's often right at this moment what I'm tempted to do.  Right now I'm reading about Expert PHP.  I liken reading about computer science (I'm starting to advance past basic programming and into advanced programming and inevitably the science of computing) to weightlifting and football.  

It's boring.  Anybody would rather be playing.  I'd rather be programming.  But I'm not right now.  I've got reading to do.  The plan is simple:

1.  Read the Expert PHP book.

Update: 10/10/2012: So I've read up to page 500 in a 566 page book.  I'm almost done.  I may read another 10 pages tonight but then I'm done.  By next week it should be onto the Linux book.  Progress is a good thing.  

Update: 10/13/2012:  So I've finished reading Expert PHP.  

Things I have to purchase:

a.  An Internet card for my Linux box.
b.  Whatever it takes to get a LAN card working.

2.  Work through the Linux book and get a LAN running in my apartment.


Update: 10/13/2012: This is done.  Now it's time to move on to task number two.  Working through this Linux book and getting a LAN running in my apartment.  The first step is to read through the first sixty pages of Linux.  Now my room truly has to become a work area.

Update: 12/23/2012:  Forget the LAN.  It's unnecessary and can be solved by using a web hosting solution.  That's what I did.  Web hosting and done for a year.  Wasted a lot of time trying to build everything myself.  

Lesson: Speed and Momentum vs. Internal Development.  Outsource whatever you can and stay focused on the goal of getting a product to market and revenue generation.  Go back and get deep when it's necessary (if it's necessary).

3.  Get the CGI/RESTful application working with the first screen of the iPhone Application.

4.  Read the Expert JQuery book.

Update: 10/13/2012: While I'm at work in order to best utilize my time I really have to start reading this book.  This will allow me to move on relatively quickly with redesigning the site when task number 5 is done.

Update: 11/12/2012:  I've got to do some more reading in the Linux book.  Sixty  Forty more pages but I'm almost there.  I'm going to read twenty tonight  (done!) and maybe the next forty tomorrow.  Then I'll be there.  But good news!  My two servers have arrived.  They're here.  And I'll be ordering the electronic gear I need shortly (Switch and a KVI Switch and some ethernet cable).  I'll keep you posted.

Update: 11/15/2012:   Just finished reading the Linux book.  Now it's time to work through the rest of it while reading the JQuery book.  Then it's onto setting up my LAN with the dedicated MySQL server and the dedicated Memcache/Gearman Server.

Tomorrow's Goals (11/16/2012)

1.  Work through Page 240 in Linux book.
2.  Read 40 pages in JQuery book.



2b.  Buy a computer switch, a KVI switch, and the necessary Ethernet cable.
2c.  Get all three working together to network Abigail (my web server), Bethany (my dedicated MySQL server), and Cali (my memcache/gearman server).  

Update 12/23/2012: Did this.  Waste of time.  HUGE WASTE of TIME and now I've got to sell half this stuff.  Great.

5. Build out the complete iPhone application with the integrated data model (Core/SQLite/RESTful calls).

6.  Read the AWS books.  Update: 12/23/2012: Skip for now.  Unnecessary.

7.  Read the scalability book. Update: 12/23/2012: Skip for now.  Unnecessary.

8.  Make the site (GFM) go live.  Test it on multiple browsers.

9.  Build the FlyingFiftyTwo site.  OOP.

9b.  Harden the server.

10.  Make that site go live.

11.  Build the functionality out on that site completely and get it to making me $100.00 per day.

12.  Rebuild the functionality in GFM to make it Object Oriented and Scalable. Update: 12/23/2012: Skip for now.  Come back when necessary.

12b.  Build another FallingFiftyTwo site and build out the FlyingFiftyTwo at the same time as GFM.

13.  Build out more functionality in the FlyingFiftyTwo and the FallingFiftyTwo and bring in my first employee. Object Orient.

14.  Read a book about SEO.

15.  Drive revenue to FlyingFiftyTwo and FallingFIftyTwo and build IndexBreakdown site.

16.  Drive more revenue with the goal of bringing in $1500.00 a day in revenue.

17.  Build DryCleanMe iPhone App and Website.

18.  Launch DryCleanMe site and App.   Also Hire second employee.

19.   Drive all three websites.

Consider building EZTickets.com.  It's a online ticketing system for software development or other development.  Update: 12/23/2012: Don't do. It all ready exists.  Skip.

20.  Roll out DryCleanMe through out Manhattan.

21.  Build Bodega Buddy.  

20.  Save and begin building launch plan for GFM.

21.  Launch GFM beta on the Upper East Side.

Okay.  I'm okay now.  I always get frustrated if I feel I can't see the future.

Why MySQL Blackholes

So why would anyone need a no-op storage engine? The answer is simple enough if you consider that writing the binlogs, which are the basis of replication, is done by a different part of MySQL (i. e. not the storage engine). So it is possible to set up an "intermediate slave" which applies the desired filtering operations on the incoming replication data from the master and writes new, much shorter binlogs itself. TheMySQL manual contains a brief description of this procedure. However it is far too short to provide ready-to-go instructions. I will try to do this here.

Complete Explanation Part 1

Complete Explanation Part 2

PS.  I know it can't be a complete explanation in parts.  Don't be a wise guy.  Just enjoy.  It's one of the smartest applications that I've seen.