Only time for a quick one today. Between packing up the things we will keep, numerous trips to the Goodwill, buying a new car (more on that in a future post) and all the other aspects of daily life I just haven't had much time.
Here in the Midwest, there is one thing we are not short on - space. I wouldn't say our house was large. I think we only had something like 1200 square feet of living space. After the last couple of weeks I'd say we were only really using half that. After living here for the last 8 years we have done nothing more than accumulate things "Just in case". In our packing we even found boxes of pictures and keepsakes that we haven't touched since the day we moved in.
So as I sit here surrounded by bags of items destined for the thrift store I invite you to take a look around. If you have actually used everything within five feet of you I would like to congratulate you. I have a feeling most people will quickly be able to spot several things they just don't need. For a society so bent on consuming, I find it amusing that we hold on to so many things that we don't need.
As for me? I'm going to be much more discriminating with the space I allow to be used. Well to be honest I wont have much of a choice. Have you looked at rental prices on Maui?
>Surf + Sand + Code
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
The Every Day Challenge
Recently I was reminded of the fact that my proficiency level with Java is about on the same level as my proficiency level with Mandarin. To the lay-person I'm fluent, but in reality it seems I only know enough to get myself into and out of some sticky situations. So I'm going to challenge myself. For the next year I'm going to take some time everyday to write code and speak Chinese.
You might be asking yourself "What does this have to do with a Move to Hawaii blog? I cam here to be inspired." In my opinion, the decision to move to Hawaii is a life changing decision that has and will continue to touch every aspect of my life. I've had to make a lot of changes to get where I am, and if I want to be successful in my move, even more changes are needed. For one, I need to make sure that I'm an invaluable member of my team here in Omaha, Nebraska. While a remote worker doesn't use many resources in the daily operations of the home office, there are still added expenses that need to be dealt with. Extra fees from payroll companies as they now have to deal with taxes for another state, added expenses from flying me back to the office every quarter or more as needed and a shiny new laptop which will become my permanent workstation and any number of things I'm sure I haven't thought of. I don't want them thinking I'm more trouble than I'm worth, so I need to stay at the top of my game. The best way for me to do that is to become a better programmer. I need to evolve and grow beyond a simple set of job requirements. I need to be able to handle any situation that comes my way. So for my own benefit, I'm going to spend a little time each day writing some code. Specifically for a game. I'm not really sure what kind of game yet, but I'm sure it will have something to do with Hawaii. I'd like to make it available so that people can kind of check out my progress, make suggestions and comments. The game I'm imagining will require that I familiarize myself with technologies and libraries that I've had no use for, but will help me to become a more well rounded programmer.
As for Chinese, that's another story. I think as a whole, my Mandarin is solid until I'm speaking to someone who isn't from Beijing. All of the sudden when you throw in a regional dialect and regional slang, I'm lost. I need to work on this as well as my ability to just talk about any subject on the fly. I'm sure that in Hawaii I'll actually run into more Japanese speaking people than Chinese but I feel I need to master Chinese before I dive back into Japanese. So if I can just spend a few minutes each day actually speaking Chinese, I'm sure my everyday conversation will improve. I think what I'd like to do is supplement my blog posts here with a vlog where I only speak Chinese. Who knows, that could open up a whole new audience and help my language skills to develop at the same time. For the time being, just trust that before I go to bed, I will have spent at least 10 minutes talking about my day using only Chinese.
Its funny a couple of years ago, I set a daily reminder on my calendar. Every day at 9:00 am I'm reminded that I need to do the following: "Move to Hawaii". So everyday I'm reminded of my goal, and honestly I think it has really helped me get as close as I am right now. Everyday no matter what was happening, one of the earliest things I'm reminded of is my goal. So here I am setting another calendar event. Every day at 10:00 pm, "Write some code and speak some Chinese"
You might be asking yourself "What does this have to do with a Move to Hawaii blog? I cam here to be inspired." In my opinion, the decision to move to Hawaii is a life changing decision that has and will continue to touch every aspect of my life. I've had to make a lot of changes to get where I am, and if I want to be successful in my move, even more changes are needed. For one, I need to make sure that I'm an invaluable member of my team here in Omaha, Nebraska. While a remote worker doesn't use many resources in the daily operations of the home office, there are still added expenses that need to be dealt with. Extra fees from payroll companies as they now have to deal with taxes for another state, added expenses from flying me back to the office every quarter or more as needed and a shiny new laptop which will become my permanent workstation and any number of things I'm sure I haven't thought of. I don't want them thinking I'm more trouble than I'm worth, so I need to stay at the top of my game. The best way for me to do that is to become a better programmer. I need to evolve and grow beyond a simple set of job requirements. I need to be able to handle any situation that comes my way. So for my own benefit, I'm going to spend a little time each day writing some code. Specifically for a game. I'm not really sure what kind of game yet, but I'm sure it will have something to do with Hawaii. I'd like to make it available so that people can kind of check out my progress, make suggestions and comments. The game I'm imagining will require that I familiarize myself with technologies and libraries that I've had no use for, but will help me to become a more well rounded programmer.
As for Chinese, that's another story. I think as a whole, my Mandarin is solid until I'm speaking to someone who isn't from Beijing. All of the sudden when you throw in a regional dialect and regional slang, I'm lost. I need to work on this as well as my ability to just talk about any subject on the fly. I'm sure that in Hawaii I'll actually run into more Japanese speaking people than Chinese but I feel I need to master Chinese before I dive back into Japanese. So if I can just spend a few minutes each day actually speaking Chinese, I'm sure my everyday conversation will improve. I think what I'd like to do is supplement my blog posts here with a vlog where I only speak Chinese. Who knows, that could open up a whole new audience and help my language skills to develop at the same time. For the time being, just trust that before I go to bed, I will have spent at least 10 minutes talking about my day using only Chinese.
Its funny a couple of years ago, I set a daily reminder on my calendar. Every day at 9:00 am I'm reminded that I need to do the following: "Move to Hawaii". So everyday I'm reminded of my goal, and honestly I think it has really helped me get as close as I am right now. Everyday no matter what was happening, one of the earliest things I'm reminded of is my goal. So here I am setting another calendar event. Every day at 10:00 pm, "Write some code and speak some Chinese"
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