Falling off the Wagon

Written by Richard. Posted on August 23, 2010. Filed under life. 2 Comments.

So once again I have fallen off trying to post once every day or so. Sticking to something is one of the things we all struggle with. I can’t stick to my diet. I can’t stick to my workouts. I can’t stick to anything. The only solution is to accept that fact and get right back in the game. So many times I would have a blow out meal and think “What’s the point in even trying to get back on track.” and then have another blow out meal, and another, and another. We all have hiccups now and again. Sometimes life sets us back when we were right on track. When you get knocked down, all you can do is get back up.

Using SCSS with Webby

Written by Richard. Posted on August 21, 2010. Filed under programming. No comments.

To get webby using HAML/SASS’ SCSS rendering engine I added the following to my Sitefile. No doubt there’s a cleaner and quicker way of getting it working, but this works.

  Webby::Filters.register :scss do |input, cursor|
    opts = ::Webby.site.sass_options.merge(cursor.page.sass_options || {})
    opts = ::Webby.site.sass_options.merge(:syntax => :scss)
    opts = opts.symbolize_keys
    opts.merge!(:filename => cursor.page.destination)
    opts[:style] = opts[:style].to_sym if opts.include? :style
    Sass::Engine.new(input, opts).render
  end

There has always been a man in the missile turret…

Written by Richard. Posted on August 19, 2010. Filed under games, starcraft. 1 Comment.

There has been quite a few posts on Reddit recently about a man being in the missle turrets in Starcraft 2. This comment by empath75 on the topic just blew me away.

There has always been a man in the missile turret. Just as there has always been a missile turret. I’ve lived in this village for 20 years, and the turret on the hill has been there. Watching over us.

When I was young, I asked my father, “Father, why is there a man in the missile turret?” He said, “I don’t know, son, he’s just always been there. He was there when I asked my father the same question, and maybe he was there before that.”

“Does anyone ever talk to him?”

“Nobody, Son.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Of the man. And the missiles.”

Well I was not afraid of the man. Not any more. It’s my 20th birthday today, and I’m going to talk to the man. And ask him why he’s always been there. I’m standing on the cliff over looking the village now, and the man and the turret are just 50 feet or so behind me. The wind howls around me. I can almost feel it trying to push me over the cliff, as if warning me. Warning me to stay away, warning me to leave things as they are.

I turn around and walk towards the turret. I yell out for the man, but the wind steals my voice, and I don’t know if he can hear. I hold my hand up above my eyes to shield them from the sun. I cannot make out the man’s features. He must be at least 70 or 80 years old, by now. Maybe older. Nobody in the town remembers a day when he wasn’t there.

Finally, I approach the feet of the turret. As I do, I can hear it whir to life as the turret turns to face me. There is a man in the turret. There has always been a man in the missile turret.

He is as old as I expected him to look. Wrinkled, wizened, balding. He looks down at me. He doesn’t say a word. I don’t say a word either. He just looks down at me, and offers his hand.

I have always been the man in the missile turret.

Don’t get bogged down in the details

Written by Richard. Posted on August 17, 2010. Filed under life. No comments.

A lot of the time we can’t see the wood for the trees. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in the details of what we’re trying to achieve, while missing the big picture. I know I do this a lot. In the gym, I tend to focus on what exercises and weights I’m lifting as opposed to what my overall goal is. With my diet, I tend to focus too much on calories and macros, rather than whether I’m trying to lose weight or gain. With my business, I tend to focus on slick features, rather than what features move my business forward. We all need to take a step back more often and evaluate where we want to be, and whether or not what we’re doing is actually getting us nearer to our goals.

Move on, to move forward

Written by Richard. Posted on August 14, 2010. Filed under life. No comments.

I’m moving gym this month, and while the new place I’m moving to has a lot more equipment than my current gym, that’s not the reason I’m moving. If I really wanted to, I could probably achieve all my physical goals at my current gym, but I’m starting to feel stuck. A change of scenery and new challenges is what I need. Sometimes you’ve just got to move on, to move forward. The same is true at work a lot of the times. It’s very easy to get comfortable. To turn up day-in day-out, do your work and go home. But when we do that, we don’t grow as people. That’s what this is really about, growth as a person. One must take in new experiences and new perspectives. Not always to give us a better understanding of the world “out there”, but to also give us a better understanding of the world closer to home. Seeing how people live half way across the world may not interest you, but it can have a profound affect on how you live your life back home and give you a profound sense of appreciation for the things you have and have achieved.