Yay! Winter has arrived!

It has finally dropped below freezing for the past few nights, and there is a lot of talk about snow and ice tomorrow.  I am glad since it gives me the opportunity to trim my Crape Myrtle.  I did a soil test last weekend on the soil under my cold frame.  The dirt is severely low on nitrogen.  I'm not surprised since that part of my yard is mostly weeds.  Weeds like clover thrive in low nitrogen soil.  I'm going to mix in a bunch of crushed egg shells to help fertilize the soil before planting.

The cold did come surprisingly fast.  Lethargy has crept up on me along with the cold.  Bike riding was especially challenging.  I might have freezer burn on my scalp from yesterday's ride.  I wore a scarf over my face, but I had nothing to block the air from coming through the holes in the bike helmet.  Super-fast, concentrated cold air hurts!  Next time I will wear a bandanna under my helmet.

While I hide from the cold inside, I'll be brushing up on my computer skills.  I have developed an obsession with Python and Django since I started using them at work.  The Google app engine also favors these (as a Java alternative), so as I work with them at home, I do so with Google tools.

Oh that's right, I'm a programmer

While it's fun to spend a lot of time designing gardening schemes and plotting a healthier lifestyle, I feel that can wait until Spring is closer.  In the mean time, I'm going to focus on my bread and butter.  Right now, programming pays the bills.  Developing my coding skills is an investment in the long haul, even though it doesn't directly improve my overall health.  Programming only feels like work when it becomes repetitive.  I'm more fascinated by how computer languages work than what they do.  Learning new languages satisfies that curiosity and keeps boredom away.  Boredom leads to burnout.  Anything I can do to prevent burnout is a good thing for job security.

At my job, I've had many different computer languages thrown at my head.  I've also had a management change up which was confusing for a while.  My last manager wanted us to be a Microsoft shop, working only with Microsoft development products.  My new manager is very much a fan of Linux for any small project that isn't big enough to need customer support.  I like the new approach because it's very old school, and at my work place, I have been deemed a "legacy groupie".

I installed a virtual machine with Ubuntu and then heard that they recently fired Java.  Last time I programmed in Ubuntu I was using Java a lot.  I see this as an opportunity to pick up a new (to me) language to work in.  Using Microsoft Visual Studio the obvious choice is C#.  The first programming language I learned was C++, but I like Java for it's modularity.  C# is like coding in C++ with Java's sense of organization.  The catch with working with a new language is that other people have to know it, too.  Otherwise I would spend 10% of my time writing code and 90% of my time explaining what I'm doing.  Either that, or I would just have to scrap all my work and rewrite it in a different language anyway.  I work with a lot of legacy code, so now is a good time for me to pick up an older language like Perl since I have a few coworkers that work with that language already.