davidnunez.com

It begins

David Nuñez — Mon, 08 Jul 2002 00:00:00 GMT

I was in Framingham, MA over the weekend for a little reunion with some of the boys from Rice (second year in a row). Somehow, over a game of Skip-bo, the topic of web logs came up.

We talked a little bit about what they were and what they represented (ex. democratizing the medium, etc.).

The big question in my mind was, “Just how honest and forthcoming can I be in a public forum?” I’ve already noticed that the web logs that I read are somewhat unrevealing. These are not journals that are kept locked away in a desk drawer.

With a few exceptions, the “journals” end up being a listing of interesting nuggets found while surfing the internet, reading books, or watching television.

Sometimes, you’ll read about a major change in someones life (getting married, a layoff, etc.), but most of the time people write about ordinary things: something their friends said the night before, vacation notes, or what they had for breakfast.

Nevertheless, this is still extremely compelling and is enough to get me to check back constantly.

I would argue that it is actually very difficult to conciously and continually write compelling and creative pieces every single hour of every single day. You get a gem here and there, but all-in-all, most of it will turn out to be junk.

Regardless, this throw-away writing reveals much about a person’s personality and ideas.

So I resolved to my friends that I would try an experiment- I’ll put up a web log and see what I learn from first-hand experience.

This is a pretty good time to do it, I think. Having recently had a dramatic switch in careers, I’m an explorer in unchartered territory. I recently entered the non-profit sector after working as a software engineer. I’d love to share my experiences during this change.

I am also finally working on realizing some major art and technology projects which has led me to meet some interesting people and make some curious discoveries.

My parents have recently decided to build a new house in Austin. At the end of July, I’ll be moving into the new house with two of my brothers.

Hopefully these sorts of transitions will provide some fodder for the experiment.

Well, let’s see how long this lasts.

First Entries Brainstorm

David Nuñez — Mon, 08 Jul 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Why I'm worried about writing in a web log.

David Nuñez — Tue, 09 Jul 2002 11:52:40 GMT

My job is all about building relationships, deal-making, networking, and politics. Every day, I am privy to conversations which must be kept confidential not only to preserve the relationships’ confidence, but also simply to be successful with my work. For example, when I’m in the middle of negotiating a sensitive deal, it would be asinine to tip my hand and post behind-the-scenes information about my position online. The tension I feel is that this is an aspect of my life which is exciting and which I would love to share. It would be incredibly valuable to preserve and reflect on these experiences later. I have this conflict: I don’t think it is worth spending the time sharing my writing unless I am giving some value to the reader (entertainment, information, etc).
I’m also afraid that exposing myself online will give readers the impression that my life isn’t all that interesting. I don’t know whether my life is as exciting as I think it is. I’m happy, I’m starting to do things that I’ve been postponing for a while now (ex. Art projects, this web log, etc.), but putting the nitty-gritty up online would seem to put that to the test. Some of the better authors have established a following, which I assume is validation for their work. I can only expect that my friends and family would be interested in reading what I am writing… any strangers would be a bonus. Still, I feel like I will be worried about the impression I leave for anyone.
I’m a geek. I admit it. Very often I postpone projects because I feel I need to engineer an ideal solution to the problem. I’m probably not a perfectionist, but I think I would like to take pride in something that I would have the audacity to display to the world. The geek in me considers pre-built web logging tools like Movable Type to be a crutch. I certainly have the skills to design a tool at least as good as what’s already out there; I’d argue I could probably do a better job at it. My pride tells me that I’m not allowed to release a website unless it’s filled to the brim with fascinating content and has an elaborate, technical engine under the covers that I built from scratch. The compromise is simple and should have been obvious to me: incremental development. My first iterations of websites were all half-baked because my vision was larger than my time and energy. It’s easy to let yourself be discouraged when you realize it will take multiple lifetimes to create what you have in mind; hence, no more progress.

So I will start with a Movable Type supported website using one of their pre-built style sheets (“Trendy” is it’s name). First, I will redesign the look and feel of the site (probably resurecting my Unbearable Monkey design which I’m not even sure I ever published). Then, I will slowly replace the underside with my own engine (including the substantially more elaborate ideas management system I’ve developed, Tock… that’s a project which I’ll talk about here). I’ll give myself a year or two to do that, though, not just a weekend.

Quick Links

David Nuñez — Thu, 11 Jul 2002 17:38:00 GMT

MT-Search: Search is a vital function in my opinion.
“They don’t stand behind their products!”: Thanks Mike!

Take-a-breath Day

David Nuñez — Fri, 12 Jul 2002 12:24:46 GMT

Today is one of those low-key, mellow days - no meetings and no pressing deadlines. I have a stack at least 6 inches thick of my notes, articles, reading materials, and action items that I hope to demolish today… I will consider it a successful day if my inbox is completely empty by 5:00.

Friday here is unofficially “casual Friday.” In the software world, dress codes are laughed at. Here, business casual is required on all days but Friday.

I like it. I think it suits me and certainly makes me feel like I am doing important things.

The stack is down to 2 inches

David Nuñez — Fri, 12 Jul 2002 14:20:53 GMT

Well, I just culled out the low-hanging fruit (stuff I could throw away immediately or quickly file away)… Now I have 2 inches of stuff. Most of it is unintelligble notes and chicken scratches I need to translate. Others are documents which are more urgent and need to be dealt with in the next few days.

What a boring journal entry!

Snake-headed fish

David Nuñez — Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:25:00 GMT

We were joking about this story of a snake-headed fish over the weekend in Boston.

Meat-eating fish from China introduced to Maryland waters by pet owner
Fri Jul 12,12:01 PM ET
By ANGELA POTTER, Associated Press Writer

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland - Nearly 100 meat-eating fish native to China have been found in a Maryland pond where a pet owner dumped two of them in 2000, state officials said Friday amid concern that the fish will become a major threat to native species.

The northern snakehead can grow to be 3 feet (90 centimeters) long and has a voracious appetite.

The situation is of special concern to authorities because the Little Patuxent River is about 75 yards (meters) from the pond, and northern snakeheads can live three days out of water and even walk short distances on their fins in search of food.

“They can gain a foothold here and begin to proliferate in ways that would displace native organisms,” said Eric Schwaab, director of the Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service.

On Thursday, agency officials caught 99 young northern snakeheads by using an electroshock method that stuns them, causing them to float to the surface of the water.

“We’ve said all along that if there are juveniles in there, there would be hundreds or thousands of them,” agency spokesman John Surrick said Friday.

Two adult fish were released into the Crofton pond two years ago, police said Thursday. State officials learned the species was present in May, when an angler caught a suspicious fish and provided a photo for identification. Since then, biologists have caught several young fish.

State officials are setting up a scientific panel to investigate the problem and come up with recommendations to remove the snakeheads from the pond.

No charges were filed against the owner of the two original fish, whom police would not identify, because the statute of limitations has expired.

“They outgrew the capability of his care, so the individual chose to release them into what he felt was a safe environment,” said Capt. Mark Sanders of the Maryland Natural Resources police.

Trouble with site?

David Nuñez — Sun, 14 Jul 2002 14:23:00 GMT

Clay is reporting he is having trouble getting the Boston pictures:

“Dave: I keep getting “Cannot find server” errors when I try to get the Fourth pictures. Any advice?”

The link to the .zip was broken last week, but it should be fixed now…

This should be the thumbnails page: Boston Pictures
This is a link to the .zip: Zip File

Anyone else having trouble?

First week observations

David Nuñez — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:08:33 GMT

It’s been a week since I started my web log experiment. Here are some observations:

I’ve noticed that I am fairly obsessed with checking the access logs to see if anyone is listening.
It still takes a little time and effort to make an interesting entry that includes pictures and things (like the scorpion entry), but all-in-all, it’s pretty easy.
I haven’t run out of topics to write about, yet. In fact, I have a list in a note in Outlook with ideas for me to write about. I think I have enough ideas to last for a year! Now, whether or not those will actually be interesting is an entirely other story.
Right now, my audience is pretty small (just a few close friends from Rice and one from High School), so after a little bit of time (probably as much time as it takes me to redesign the site… probably after I move and establish a new IP address), I’ll widen the scope to my broader list of friends and family.
I’m not sure whether I should write things about the people I know… I question if that’s a violation of their privacy.
I need to figure out a way to increase feedback (hint, hint)… Except for a “way to get things started!” email, nobody responds to my writing the same way they would if it showed up in their inbox! Movable Type has a feature that allows me to send out emails whenever I update the page… but I think getting dozens of emails from me would make me seem like noise.I HAVE enabled comments on some entries. It could be the lack of experience my friends and I have with web logs that precludes us from using the comment system. It also could be that I haven’t yet written anything that inspires conversation. Maybe my friends have busy lives and simply don’t have the time to respond.

hmmm…

Additonal First Week Thoughts

David Nuñez — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:28:09 GMT

I feel like I’m more casual with my writing in this medium than, say, one of my short stories. I think I am even more casual than when I write some of my email! I’ll need to reflect on this and the permanence of web logs vs. email vs. ink & paper as time goes on.
I wish Movable Type had a tickler function that will remind me to revisit a topic. (Incidentally, Tock has that type of functionality!)
I wish Movable Type has a way to insert variables into web logs so that I can make global changes in one place… In particular, MT requires me to specify a domain URL for the web log (which, initially is 66.68.66.68). This means when I reference older entries (example), it automatically uses “http://66.68.66.68” for the references. When I move URLs (which WILL happen soon), then these links get broken.
Of the entries I’ve written so far, several have been “Here’s a link to a news story or something interesting” entries. The problem with those is that they could easily disappear. To deal with this, I’ve manually copied over some of that material to my server to maintain a cached or semi-permanent version. Thus, if the news stories or other sites go away, the entries are still relevant. This is something I’ve been struggling with when writing Tock. I think it’s important to maintain the link to the original source (because it could change, be updated, and maintains context-relevant links and information), but I also think that it is relevant to maintain a snapshot of the material that spawned a reaction from me (i.e. putting it in my web log).

Last Weekend

David Nuñez — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:43:00 GMT

I spent this past weekend starting to pack. I am aggressively throwing things away and putting things into the give-away pile.

I’m also following Theressa’s suggestion of taking pictures of things I feel emotionally attached to and then putting them in a scrapbook.

I have a grand scheme to create a large inventory of the Things I Own so I can run statistics, simulations, and visualizations over the data. (“What is the weight of all my things?” “How long have I owned that toothbrush?” “What clothes go together?”)

My goal is to get all my stuff, except big pieces of furniture, to fit into one small truckload for the move. So far so good.

My parents will close on the house on July 26 in the morning, so I should be moving in that evening… My apartment lease will end on July 31, so I will have about 5-6 days to move my junk.

I will be using my garage as a staging area for my boxes. My goal for the weekend was to clear out the front part of my garage to set up for the staging area. This was particularly difficult because I had been using my garage as storage for all of my experiments and art projects.

I got that mostly done. (I’ll upload a picture this evening).

I have a pile of papers and things on my bed and kitchen table which forced me to sleep on the floor last night in a sleeping bag. My goal for tonight is to clean up that mess so I can pamper myself with a mattress tonight!

5 pounds!

David Nuñez — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 17:44:00 GMT

I was shocked this morning to learn that I weigh 5 pounds more than I weighed when I got on the plane to go to Boston!

I knew I shouldn’t have eaten those 2 extra large Hershey’s bars…

Time to get back on the exercise plan!

Staging Area

David Nuñez — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 01:53:28 GMT

Here is the picture of my garage I promised.

I didn’t get too far in clearing off my bed though… I made spicy kabobs for dinner and then my dad and I watched Adam Sandler and Bob Barker fight in Happy Gilmore.

Today's Jam Session

David Nuñez — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 19:30:59 GMT

I just had a 5-hour long jam session with Lori, Carissa, and Patsy on Charters vs. Business Plans vs. Work Plans as related to Industry Clusters for Workforce Development.

Wait… it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, and I can honestly say I felt engaged in the conversation the entire time.

Carissa brought coffee and doughnuts and Lori brought some candy. I brought the ream of blank paper and a box of small toys to spawn ideas (bubbles, hackey sacks, flashlights, etc).

We worked through lunch, and since I’ve only had sugar and caffeine for nutrition the entire day, I’m suffering right now from some sort of withdrawl and drug crash. I can feel the headache brewing (so to speak), but I think I can make it the rest of the day before entering that realm of glucose drop that makes me feel like I’m going to pass out.

Nothing a Coke at Chuy’s with my parents can’t fix!

So the actual discussion about business plans was pretty interesting. We, as an organization, have to reposition ourselves to think more like a business and less like a charity. I think I already have the perspective coming from industry and being generally entrepreneurial, so I have a lot to offer this new approach.

It is a true shift of thinking, however, for people like Lori (who have lived in the non-profit world for so long) to start speaking in terms of ROI and bottom lines.

Yet, it’s simply not enough for me to walk into a negotiation saying, “Let’s all hold hands and make the world a better place.” It is CRITICAL for me to be equipped to say, “If you invest in our collaboration, you will cut costs and increase revenue.”

I think a summary of our discussion is in order, but it would presuppose a lot of background knowledge of what, exactly, it is that I do.

So tonight I’ll write a quick summary of my job and what my organization works on.

Then, I think the output from today’s session would make a whole lot more sense.

Drip, Drip, Drip

David Nuñez — Wed, 17 Jul 2002 01:22:35 GMT

For the last week or so, I am being driven crazy by the drip, drip, dripping of water out of a weird little pipe above my shower.

I’m not quite sure where this pipe originates, but the water it drips isn’t very clean. It’s leaving gross brown spots on my tub.

It’s not worth my taking the time to complain about it to the apartment people because I imagine I’ll be out of here before they fix it. The dripping is inconsistent: sometimes it’s a sporadic drop or two, other times its a dribbling stream.

I’ve put a bucket under it and it’s not dripping more than a bucketful every 24 hours… I figure if I take a few minutes off my shower time, I’ve broken even in terms of water usage.

However, I must admit something disturbing. It seems to drip more frequently right after flushing the toilet…

Too tired

David Nuñez — Wed, 17 Jul 2002 01:27:45 GMT

After Beef Fajita Quesadillas from Chuy’s, watching The Mole (it HAS to be Dorothy), and writing about 20 pieces of email, I’m too tired to write the summary I promised.

Tomorrow.

Quandry

David Nuñez — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 11:46:00 GMT

Shorter entries more frequently?
Longer entries less frequently?

Hmmmm.

Thanks to Alex, I have something new to mull over.

Part of me says I should just write however I damn well please.

However, if it is too tedious to read my log, then I won’t generate a readership.

As Alex put it, “Does changing your web log to get your readership
up defeat the purpose of having something that’s supposed to show the
“real” you?”

I suppose I need to rexamine the goals for the weblog. In my first posts, I said that this was just an experiment on “how honest I could be in a public forum.”

Does a few of my friends who will read whatever I write, regardless, a public forum make? Probably not really. To even run the experiment, then, I have to work towards upping the readership… Perhaps this is the validation I was talking about.

I don’t know. What do I need to do to make this interesting to an outside audience?

THIS ENTRY IS DEDICATED TO SEAN!

David Nuñez — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 21:42:05 GMT

Sean, I saw your comment below, and let me be the first to challenge you to start writing a web log. I, for one, would be enthralled to hear about your own transition into your new job… a job many people wouldn’t have the courage to try.

There is no doubt in my mind you will have interesting things to talk about and will be able to teach me a lot about writing and sharing.

Also, I have yet to come across ANY web logs from people living in Jesuit communities, so I’m certain there will be quite the myriad of wacky stories to share.

Anonymous Comments

David Nuñez — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 21:46:29 GMT

I have enabled “anonymous comments” so you are allowed to post without including your email address. Hopefully that will make it simpler to respond.

Now, before you get any bright ideas, the system tracks IP addresses of comment-makers, so I’ll be able to track down the “you suck” comments.

Archiving older entries

David Nuñez — Fri, 19 Jul 2002 12:00:45 GMT

Okay, the main page was getting a little long, so I’ve turned archiving on.

If you want to read any entries from more than 10 days ago, you’ll have to use the Archive links on the right.