"In Motion..."
So these are just my thoughts. If you don't like them don't read them. If you do, great. Either way feel free to email me.
The Purpose of this blog is for me to do autobiographical writings about how I'm managing my life and things in it. I like to think this means I'm in motion....
I do photography professionally you can see some here
Finally here's me in a self portrait:
The archive is here if you're interested in reading some older posts...
~ Thursday, August 29, 2002
a pointer to a function...
I found out yesterday that a friend, and mentor had died very suddenly a couple of weeks ago. For me Ken Oliver died yesterday. I met him on my second internship in college. He taught me more than most people. He wasn't my boss. He wasn't a co worker really. He was in a totally diffrent department. Our cubes were near each other. He worked near me is all I can say. He taught me C. I made my money with what that man gave me. We played games... He usually won. I kicked his ass at go. Nothing pleased him more than being beaten at a game that took smarts. I remember we watching a ball game at the time. If there was a game that had a base ball going on somewhere in the world Ken knew about it. He was a nut. He read the sports only papers just for the baseball numbers.
He attended my wedding.
Now when most people teach you C or any other programming language the first thing you do it just kinda get used to things how the main program works, how to get it to run... Usually a "hello, world" project. Not Ken. Ken said to me "You wanna learn C?.... ok... do this... you got your book... so i want you to: Declare a pointer to a function that returns a pointer to a function". I looked at him. I wanted to impress him. I responded, "OK"... took me a better part of an hour to be sure I had it right, but I did. I think that impressed him because we hung out a lot after that. Lots of lunchs. He gave me more problems and we argued about this and that. I even think we went to a game, but I'm not sure. One of those noon time reds games. Actually now that I think about we did go to a game. We sat on the 3rd base line. He told me lots of stuff. I didn't know and still don't really know much about baseball.
Ken had dark skin but very white teeth. He smiled often and it really showed up. He was a guy who could smile with his whole mouth, unlike most of us who can only muster a smirk or a grin... Ken would smile.
I saw him just after fathers day this year. First time in probly 7 years. I was in boston where he had moved. We met with brenner, gina and potter on the lexington green. Funny thing was we thought we were gonna miss him because we assumed he was in down town and we weren't. By chance when he finally called (he wasn't the most 'on time' person out there, but he wasn't the latest either) I said that I couldn't get to boston in time for lunch. He said he couldn't either. I said ya we're out in lexington. He said no way. I'm 5 mins from you. Hold still. We met him by the rock on the green with the saying on it about let it begin here. We talked about stuff. Potter gave us the dope on Paul Revere. Ken laughed his jovial laugh. And then he told us about his kids, his family. You could tell what was first with him. Not work. Not even baseball... family. He talked about his son Ian who has autism. How they were (are) creating a school for Ian and kids like him. How he was raising money for the school so others could have the same attention Ian was getting. He showed us photos (I didn't have mine so we emailed some later). I won't go into how he died because i wasn't there. It was sudden.
Yesterday I got a call... I was at the zoo with my family. It was Terese. When I heard her voice I was already freaking out. I knew something bad had happened or Ken would have called me. She told me all about. I cried. He had 3 kids one of which is a new baby. He was burried with his Baltimore jersey on. He was an organ donor. Even in death Ken did the right thing.
If you read this and want to do something for his family, you can donate money to the Ken Oliver Memorial fund for the school of autism that he and his wife just opened. Just email me and I'll forward you the information when I get it in the mail.
I had only seen him maybe once in the last ten years. I had only emailed with him a few times over that decade. We were far away for most of it. But I'll miss him just the same...
I found out yesterday that a friend, and mentor had died very suddenly a couple of weeks ago. For me Ken Oliver died yesterday. I met him on my second internship in college. He taught me more than most people. He wasn't my boss. He wasn't a co worker really. He was in a totally diffrent department. Our cubes were near each other. He worked near me is all I can say. He taught me C. I made my money with what that man gave me. We played games... He usually won. I kicked his ass at go. Nothing pleased him more than being beaten at a game that took smarts. I remember we watching a ball game at the time. If there was a game that had a base ball going on somewhere in the world Ken knew about it. He was a nut. He read the sports only papers just for the baseball numbers.
He attended my wedding.
Now when most people teach you C or any other programming language the first thing you do it just kinda get used to things how the main program works, how to get it to run... Usually a "hello, world" project. Not Ken. Ken said to me "You wanna learn C?.... ok... do this... you got your book... so i want you to: Declare a pointer to a function that returns a pointer to a function". I looked at him. I wanted to impress him. I responded, "OK"... took me a better part of an hour to be sure I had it right, but I did. I think that impressed him because we hung out a lot after that. Lots of lunchs. He gave me more problems and we argued about this and that. I even think we went to a game, but I'm not sure. One of those noon time reds games. Actually now that I think about we did go to a game. We sat on the 3rd base line. He told me lots of stuff. I didn't know and still don't really know much about baseball.
Ken had dark skin but very white teeth. He smiled often and it really showed up. He was a guy who could smile with his whole mouth, unlike most of us who can only muster a smirk or a grin... Ken would smile.
I saw him just after fathers day this year. First time in probly 7 years. I was in boston where he had moved. We met with brenner, gina and potter on the lexington green. Funny thing was we thought we were gonna miss him because we assumed he was in down town and we weren't. By chance when he finally called (he wasn't the most 'on time' person out there, but he wasn't the latest either) I said that I couldn't get to boston in time for lunch. He said he couldn't either. I said ya we're out in lexington. He said no way. I'm 5 mins from you. Hold still. We met him by the rock on the green with the saying on it about let it begin here. We talked about stuff. Potter gave us the dope on Paul Revere. Ken laughed his jovial laugh. And then he told us about his kids, his family. You could tell what was first with him. Not work. Not even baseball... family. He talked about his son Ian who has autism. How they were (are) creating a school for Ian and kids like him. How he was raising money for the school so others could have the same attention Ian was getting. He showed us photos (I didn't have mine so we emailed some later). I won't go into how he died because i wasn't there. It was sudden.
Yesterday I got a call... I was at the zoo with my family. It was Terese. When I heard her voice I was already freaking out. I knew something bad had happened or Ken would have called me. She told me all about. I cried. He had 3 kids one of which is a new baby. He was burried with his Baltimore jersey on. He was an organ donor. Even in death Ken did the right thing.
If you read this and want to do something for his family, you can donate money to the Ken Oliver Memorial fund for the school of autism that he and his wife just opened. Just email me and I'll forward you the information when I get it in the mail.
I had only seen him maybe once in the last ten years. I had only emailed with him a few times over that decade. We were far away for most of it. But I'll miss him just the same...
~ Wednesday, August 28, 2002
How to stay in the groove... 2 easy steps
1. Plan. Plan your month, plan your week, plan your day. Plan!
I believe its true that every day you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. By not choosing a path you are making an implicit choice.
2. Blog.
shaken not stirred....
1. Plan. Plan your month, plan your week, plan your day. Plan!
I believe its true that every day you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. By not choosing a path you are making an implicit choice.
2. Blog.
shaken not stirred....
~ Tuesday, August 27, 2002
groove
Its all about the groove.... I mean really.
I've been off my groove as of late, but I feel it coming back. Flux is still a good word. The groove moves and you have to move with it. Get out of the groove? Don't fret, just get back into it. Proactivity means seeking the groove. It feels so good to find it again.
Worked all day volunteering at the school. Moving papers from stacks into envelopes... stuffing envelopes... 625 envelopes... Now thats groove. If you aren't flexible... you aren't in the groove.
Thats just it... the groove moves... if you don't you're gonna lose it... so be flexible...
Its all about the groove.... I mean really.
I've been off my groove as of late, but I feel it coming back. Flux is still a good word. The groove moves and you have to move with it. Get out of the groove? Don't fret, just get back into it. Proactivity means seeking the groove. It feels so good to find it again.
Worked all day volunteering at the school. Moving papers from stacks into envelopes... stuffing envelopes... 625 envelopes... Now thats groove. If you aren't flexible... you aren't in the groove.
Thats just it... the groove moves... if you don't you're gonna lose it... so be flexible...
