I know it's been quite a while since I've posted here. To be honest, I've had a lot going on, and maintaining this blog hasn't been the topmost priority. I just recently got over the flu (the actual flu, not just the common cold. You know, the kind that typically sends you to the emergency room).
I've been focusing really hard lately on trying to keep my Japanese studies up as well, and to me that ranks higher than updating this blog. On an unrelated note, I've been trying to learn to play guitar on my spare (ha!) time. Man, that crap is hard!
First and foremost, though, I have been working on sharpening my skills as a developer since that's what brings home the bacon. After all, without bacon, what is there?
All jokes aside though, I am still working toward my eventual goal of fluency, but not at the same speed as I once was. After the couple years' studying I have come to realize that it's not speed that's important so much as the quality at which you study (to an extent). That being said, I still believe that touching Japanese often is the way to go. Even if it's only for a few seconds at a time. Ten to fifteen minutes at a time would be ideal, but it's not always easy to make that happen when you have other responsibilities.
I am also working to migrate this site to my own content management system instead of being based on a heavily modified version of the CMS software I use now. There are a few reasons for this:
- Speed and performance. Trimming the fat (all the bells and whistles that I don't use are a lot of overhead. Eliminating them will make everything faster).
- Moving platforms. Since the environment which I work professionally is all Windows server based, it made sense to have my software be as well. It allows me to further sharpen those skills I need professionally through...
- Practice. As I mentioned before, I'm trying to improve my skills for my job. As such, taking on a project such as rolling my own CMS with the features I want is a great way to get that practice and end up with a product that I actually have a use for.
- Consolidate servers. Right now, I've got projects spanning multiple servers and environments. Due to budget and other concerns, it's time to consolidate everything to one place. This will likely include domain names at some point, as I am actively using and maintaining 4 domain names. More information on this will be available once I've decided what domain I want to use in the end, but I'll likely be reducing it to 2 at some point.
I do have a few articles in the works coming (actually, they've been in the works for some time). I'm hoping to get those posted in the next month or so. Thanks for sticking around, and I'll have more up soon!