New Year's Resolutions

A couple of years ago I made a resolution to maintain a healthier lifestyle and live more in the present instead of living for the future. The past year, instead of making any new resolutions I soft of adopted the ones from the year before and made them mantras for my life.

And how did that turn out?

I do think I lead a healthier life than years past. To be honest, college wasn't a very healthy time for me. College parties, late night cram sessions, and a terrible diet really took a toll on my body. In contrast, I have put several thousand miles on my bike each year, go for a surf when I can, and rarely drink alcohol.

For me, the difference has not been made by simply a change in attitude, but by setting distinct goals.

Two years ago, there were two significant events that triggered this change in lifestyle. I was in Alabama spending my new year's at a climbing haven and was also in the early stages of training for AIDS LifeCycle 6, a bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Being in Alabama on a trip that revolved around climbing, I realized something really important. By basing a trip around an activity, I was naturally inclined to live healthier the weeks or months leading up to the trip.

With AIDS LifeCycle 6, a trip that would demand even more physically (560 miles over 7 days), I was able to resist the temptation of late nights at the bars. Although I would still meet up with friends at bars on occasion, knowing that I was constantly in training gave me the will power to order cranberry juice instead of beer.

So with that change in place, what's the resolution for this year?

I've been reading some blogs in search of inspiration and really liked this post. I'm going to shoot for simplicity and focus. I find that 'clutter' from things piling up physically around my house to mentally in my thoughts causes a lot of distraction. I'd like to start breaking things down to the bare minimum.

And I am also learning that it is good practice to have a new year's resolution for your blog as well. Sometimes I feel that my blog can be anything and everything depending on the particular day and would like to simplify and focus my blog as well. For me, the blogs I enjoy reading the most are the ones that are consistent with their topics and motivate me to 'do'. Some topics that I am interested in and would like to write about are small business, web technology, and practical ways to staying in shape. So keep posted!

Velomobile

This past semester I have been taking a course in entrepreneurship at the city college and tonight I give my final presentation. The main task we have been working on all semester has been to pick a business idea and turn it into a viable business plan. The presentation is supposed to mimic what we would tell investors or lenders.

Starting the class I had a whole list of ideas. The ideas ranged from importing custom suits from China to launching a video surveillance forum to manufacturing a modified recumbent bicycle. Each idea was sparked by conversations I've had in the past with family and friends, so in essence each business plan already had a partner in place.

The idea I ultimately chose to nurture was a vehicle designed by a good friend of mine, David Parrott. David is an industrial designer with a pretty killer track record. He has worked for some very respectable companies and is sort of a Dr. Frankenstein if you will. Not only does he come up with some brilliant ideas, but he's the type to really dive into an idea and make it a reality. His resume says, "fabrication in ALL materials," and he really means it.

The proposed business is manufacturing velomobiles. A velomobile is a combination of a recumbent bicycle, an aerodynamic shell (fairing), and a motor. The idea is not completely new, as they are gaining popularity in Europe, but it is something that isn't hugely popular in the US...yet.

David's design can be seen by visiting his site and viewing the 'Capstone' project in his portfolio.

David is currently taking graduate courses and working on his design for his thesis, so the timeline for this project is a little ways out. In the meantime, we will be working on refining the business plan and plan to field test his designs in March by riding from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco.

So look out for us on the road and for velomobiles in your neigborhood!

Two Left Feet

...well more like two right sleeves.

Tonight I was out and about. I had plans with my girlfriend, Kate, to go to a holiday/birthday party. I put on a nice shirt, some jeans, and sneakers and was off.

When I say nice shirt, I mean something with a collar. This particular shirt I bought at Ross. And I'm sure it said 'irregular' or something to that nature, but I'm usually one to ignore the little details.

As it turns out, I noticed something strangely odd about my shirt. Looking at my right sleeve, then my left, and then my right again; something seemed a bit out of place. Staring for a few more moments, I noticed that I had two right sleeves. Yes, that's right! Two right sleeves!

Guess there was something irregular about that shirt. The funny thing though is that I've had the shirt for months and have never noticed. And what's more, it probably won't stop me from wearing it again.

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

For quite some time now, I have been following all the hype of application frameworks. The analogy is that if a programming language were clay, an application framework would be the tools needed to mold that clay into something beautiful. Of course you could make something beautiful with your bare hands alone, but the tools aim to help speed the process.

From what I have been gathering, Ruby on Rails is the framework of frameworks. For a proper introduction, visit the official site. Ruby is a scripting language that was largely influenced by Perl. I have read that the name Ruby comes from the birth stone of July as Perl (Pearl) is the birth stone of June. No one seems to claim they know for sure, but it is a popular theory. Ruby has been around for some ten years, but it wasn't until about three years ago with the release of Ruby on Rails that the movement behind Ruby really gained momentum.

When I first saw Ruby, I was a bit confused to be honest. In retrospect, when I saw my first programming language, I was a bit confused. Ruby appears to be a very elegant language. It is purely object oriented, which I won't discuss now, and can almost be read like a sentence.

The Rails aspect, is even more intriguing. The framework has loads of features built right into it, making development as easy as typing in a few commands and filling in the blanks. But what I think is the most fascinating thing about Rails is it's dominance. I don't think the Ruby programming language was even in the top ten programming languages until Ruby on Rails came along. Additionally, it is THE framework for Ruby and has inspired a handful of frameworks in other languages.

Speaking frameworks in other languages, I have investigated a few PHP frameworks. I was hoping to get similar functionality of Ruby on Rails, but still be able to code in PHP (which I feel more comfortable in). A couple that share similarities to Ruby on Rails and are fairly easy to get up and running are CakePHP and Code Igniter. But still, they have a long ways to go to catch Ruby on Rails.

This leaves me with an interesting scenario. Do I dig deeper into Ruby so I can learn more Rails or do I try to navigate through all the documentation for a PHP framework and lose some of the cool features of Rails? I've scoured internet forums for answers and there are people on both sides of the fence. Not an easy decision if you ask me.