Art of Growing Old

Most of you know that I’m quite the workaholic. I enjoy spending my time in front of a computer when it involves learning something new, pushing the envelope, and working on a project that I genuinely find interesting. You must also know that before this project, I’ve never had the privilege of working on a project like this for work. Instead, I would find projects to work on with friends outside of work that would engage me. So what happens when my job is to work on a project that I find interesting?

In short: I disappear for weeks at a time.

It’s been a rough past few weeks. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed every minute of this experience, but the overall fact remains that this immediate switch has taken its toll on me. It’s been a true test of my abilities to see this project come together — and we’re still only roughly 70% complete. If you asked me what I expected to be doing when I first started here, I would have never guessed I’d be managing and leading the development of a project from scratch.

I’ve expanded my knowledge of so much these past few weeks and I have every intention of sharing what I have learned. I’m in the process of moving http://blogs.rev-net.com over to the server hosting this blog, and I will begin my technical blog at http://blogs.rev-net.com/jmarnold (along with Dave’s at http://blogs.rev-net.com/ddewinter).

In the meantime, if you haven’t heard from me too much in the past month or so it’s not that I don’t love you ;). I promise, I’m trying to get into the habit of allocating at least half an hour to writing everyday.

I’ll be back soon!

I was almost gearing up for an entry a day situation but I didn’t exactly get a chance to write one last night…

So, this morning I woke up bright and early: 3:23am. I have absolute no idea why I woke up and I definitely can’t figure out why I wasn’t able to get to sleep afterwards. At least I had a fairly productive morning and I’ve been able to relax for a few hours before going to work. I still have a little over an hour actually.

I feel like having a great conversation. Unfortunately, everyone here (coffee shop) is talking on their headsets or actively participating in their own discussions. I have this craving to debate over issues that really matter to me. Whether it be politics, religion, technology, I don’t really care what the topic is. I just get so bored of small talk and the various other forms of b.s. you get everyday.

I miss getting passionate about design patterns and trying to force them on Ryan, ha ha. I miss the various discussions I’d have with Dave and how I would learn something new every time - even if it started with me explaining something to him. I miss the random thoughts that Rex and I would write on the huge white board and all of the miscellaneous projects we would start but never quite finish. I swear, I wish we all worked together. The possibilities really would be endless.

Even the small talk wasn’t bad at Neumont. We didn’t always have to be talking about something too intense. I had a great group of close friends and we got to watch each other grow in our skill sets and excel in the things we’re passionate about. It was really was the greatest two years of my life. I just wish it didn’t go by so fast.

I’m noticing that it might be one of those experiences that no one else can understand. Our way of thinking is so different than everyone else I’ve encountered. It’s hard to explain my experience in segments because I honestly believe that everything I learned is connected. It’s hard to explain taking XML with Matt Curland without jumping into how it helped me in NORMA. It’s hard to talk about NORMA without having to explain ORM…and the cycle continues forever.

I miss it all. That’s not to say that I’m not happy where I am, quite the contrary actually. I’m just realizing that I keep looking for what I had. More importantly, I’m realizing that I’m not going to find it. That’s ok, though.

It’s just all the more reason to bring us back together.