The personal blog of Michael J Pierce
The time flew by so fast, because I had work that I enjoyed, and great people to work with.
Erica, Shani, Mollie, Valli, Manuel, Josh, Ed, Michael, Evgeny, Eric, Chris, Trung, and John-> I will miss you!
Here are the final stats:
Lines of code over time
I made commits every day of the week between 7AM and 7PM
Time to turn my thoughts to my next job: Digital Ads
Numbers 11:11
He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?
Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test. Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” is heaven-born faith. The Lord afflicts his servants to glorify himself, for he is greatly glorified in the graces of his people, which are his own handiwork. When “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,” the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues. We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress; nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed. The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered by the trials through which his vessels of mercy are permitted to pass. Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights. Could we be so supremely blessed in heaven, if we had not known the curse of sin and the sorrow of earth? Will not peace be sweeter after conflict, and rest more welcome after toil? Will not the recollection of past sufferings enhance the bliss of the glorified? There are many other comfortable answers to the question with which we opened our brief meditation, let us muse upon it all day long.
Go Dawgs!
Well, my time with the NBA.com development team is drawing to an end. My contract was up at the end of September and I got notified it was extended a month last Friday. So I was happy for the weekend.
But, I had already interviewed for another job, and after careful consideration, decided that I would take it, if offered. There were things there, that I wanted to learn. And today it was.
I like where I am. I prayed about it. I thought about that every time I think about being ABLE to specialize in something, I get driven back to the generalist role. And then the thought came to me that I could come back someday. “Better. Stronger. Faster.” I will know what drives the industry that monetizes a web site. I don’t know that I will, but it’s comforting now, because I liked it.
I think sometimes that you’re guided to the point that your will and God’s will are the same, if you’ll be quiet and listen, and maybe this is one of those times. I owe Him the benefit of a doubt. At least I can still have lunch with my old team. 🙂
I sitting here on a foggy Sunday morning, after getting early and catching up on things. I can’t explain how 2 months have gone by since my last post, but I’ll tell you this story.
I saw the gap in time, and so I thought I’d post something, since I’m out back on a quiet, foggy morning, and I intended to devote some time to my spiritual well-being. So I logged in and first was obliged to upgrade the site, because it was out of date. That lead to having to update some of the plugins, one of which I had to do some research on to make sure it was compatible before I installed it. After 30 minutes, I was able to start writing this
And that is how things have been going, before I can do this I have to do that. But it don’t mean nothing, not a thing. That’s why I’m here. There is a lot going on in the world, and when I need guidance, there is nothing better than Proverbs, so I’ll leave you with this one:
26 Give careful thought to thepaths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
I had the opportunity to meet Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, thanks to Turner. The sessions I attended were a keynote presentation and technical breakout session. It was very inspiring, so I wanted to capture the event, and recap the key take-away learnings for posterity.
First, it is hard not to respect and admire the guy. Dries is very smart, and his personality has a unifying effect. He has a PhD in CS, so technically he is Dr. Dries Buytaert, but he is too modest to utilize his academic success. Drupal is the largest and most successful open-source project. If you click on the link above, you will go to his personal blog, and I hope you are as impressed as I am at the amount and quality of information he willingly shares. I couldn’t help thinking he embodies what Steven Covey called the Abundance mentality.
Key Points