Most people strive all their lives for a work/life balance that is perfect, and I truly do envy those who have found it.

I have been working about 15 years trying to find my perfect niche, perfect career, and perfect place in life, but it has come at somewhat of a cost. With 5 month old twins, and a 3 year old son, it’s easy to see how my life could be a little crazy.

Here are some things that I’ve neglected because of my career:

1. My health
2. My sleep
3. Time with my family
4. A closer relationship with my wife
5. Time with friends

However, there have been some rewards. The quest for my career has brought me:

1. The feeling that I’m doing the right thing. I see so many people still trying to find themselves much later into their lives
2. Ability to make my own hours (yeah, right! In theory)
3. A career where I am constantly learning, sharing, and collaborating
4. I’m a geek, and I have a geeky job – I like that
5. Flexibility with regards to where I work
6. I get to buy cool tech stuff
7. I sometimes get to watch movies while I work
8. I get to work with some amazing people (yeah, that means you kitestring!)
9. Happiness, honest to goodness happiness

I think it will take time, but I’ll slowly chip away at those things I’m neglecting, and some day I’ll only have one list. Any recommendations would be welcome!

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I got the guilt trip from Chris yesterday…it’s been a very busy December. The projects at kitestring are going great, and life with twins and a 2 year old is draining me. Although, the twins did sleep for a full 8 hours last night! Amazing.

I am going to get my Christmas post out of the way now, and tell you what I’m thankful for this year. No techy stuff, just fluff.

I had a great talk with Jenn yesterday, and we discussed how things just feel right, like everything has fallen perfectly into place. I think we are some of the lucky people in this world who love their career, love their job, and love the people they work with. For that, I am thankful.

How many times have you said “I really love my job”, only to hear someone else say “give it time, you’ll hate it soon”. A very depressing sentiment, but unfortunately, for the most part, it’s true. I have had many jobs that started off great, only to drown slowly in company politics, gossip, red tape, and a sea of jaded, depressed people. Suffice it to say, those jobs didn’t last long.

I have been working with Chris and Jenn for over 5 years now, and it has only gotten better. We all respect each other, have fun together, and appreciate what everyone else brings to the table. And with the recent addition of Meg, whose energy and quirkiness are very contagious; it’s a perfect mix of fun and professionalism at the kitestring office.

I don’t know about you, but having a career that I love is a great gift. I’m also thankful for caffeine, my new best friend.

Do you love your job? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Have a happy holiday season!

It’s that time of year, where most people have their holiday shopping done, and I haven’t even started. You can ask my wife, and she will tell you that I have no clue what to buy a woman for Christmas, but let me shop for a Geek, and I’m all over it. I’m lucky that my wife is a Geek Chick, and this list can also apply to her!

So, what do you buy that special Geek/Gadget freak for Christmas?

1. A Smartphone – This one is a really bad gift unless you know they really want the commitment. Sure, you’re paying the up-front costs, but you’re also sticking them with a monthly bill of $60 or more. may be a good idea to offer to pay for a few months of usage. There are tons of models out there, and it will all depend on the person you’re shopping for. The safe bet is an iPhone, as it has mass appeal, is simple to use, and is also an iPod, so you can skip my next gift idea. I would buy my wife an iPhone if I was to get her a phone as a gift. For the geek out there, I think an Android phone is the way to go! If the person is all about work, and has no idea what the internet is, then go with a Blackberry.

As a web developer who likes to study and focus on usability, readability, and overall user experience, it pains me to see what people insist on including on their websites. With web users now having the attention span of a goldfish, you have to be very careful, and very specific as to what you put up on your site.

Some people like the good old “let’s throw it all on the wall and see what sticks” approach, including their life stories, complete history, and in-depth essays on why you should choose them. That may have worked 10 years ago, but the times they are a changin’.

Here is my personal list of things that I don’t think belong on a website. Keep in mind that this is a general list, and there is sometimes a specific need for some of these things.

As a web developer, part of my job is to test each and every website in multiple browsers. With so many browsers out there, that task is becoming more and more difficult. I generally test in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and the troublesome Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This is where it gets tricky. It seems that most people who use a browser other than IE tend to actually update their browser more than once every 5 years. This helps keep up with the momentum and progression of web technologies and techniques. This would be kind of like renting a Blue-Ray, slapping it into your VCR, and wondering why things aren’t working properly.

If you’re like me, you hate to miss any part of a movie, especially when you’re paying $184 for it (including popcorn and pop) at the theatre. Lucky for us, there’s now this hilarious new site called RunPee.com where they give you the best times during a movie when you have a window of time to…well…run and pee.

They are even kind enough to give you a rundown of the 3 minutes that you will away (it’s scrambled to avoid any spoilers).

A really good site for those who can’t seem to make it through a movie without going to the bathroom. Another example of a simple, silly, hilarious idea that actually has a purpose.

http://runpee.com

A few months ago, I had the unfortunate experience of a hard drive crash in my laptop. It was a fairly new laptop, so I had very little data on it, which was lucky, but, since is was fairly new, I also hadn’t had a chance to back it up.

It took me at least a week to get the thing back to where I wanted it, with all the sortware I wanted, all the tweaks I liked, and any settings that make Windows Vista tolerable to work on in a demanding environment. (that’s a whole different post altogether…).

Anyway, long story short, it was a horrible mess, even with a limited amount of data on it, and at least some data already backed up on a separate drive.

It’s amazing how much people live on their computers now! Family photos, e-mail, resumes, important documents, critical work/business files…you name it.

There are many solutions out there for backing up on both a file level, and a complete computer level.

On an image level, you can back up your entire computer, including operating system, settings, applications, pretty much a snapshot of your computer at the time you take the image! For this, in a Windows envrironment, I use Acronis’ TrueImage, which does a great job. I hear that iBackup is a pretty good solution for Mac users. But I’m not an Apple guy, so take this with a grain of salt. These applications both back up your image to a hard drive or physical location, so it’s still susceptible to physical damage.

If you’re just looking for just a file level backup, you may want to look at an online service. This way, your data is available from anywhere, and if your house burns down, everything is off-site, safe, and secure. Something like www.carbonite.com is about $5 USD per month, and works in the background, backing things up as you change them!