Yup … got fired

Well here I am.  Sitting here contemplating my new future.  Why you ask?  Dunno.  All I know is that with each new opportunity in life there are important lessons to be learned.  And sometimes these lessons can be pretty harsh.  Take my life for the past 7 years.  Yup, seven long years.  What can be done in 7 years?  Lots of things really.  What can be wasted in 7 years?  Well … even more.

I am not going to go into gory details or lay it all out there what happened, but what I am going to say to the three people reading this blog, you need to keep your priorities in line because no one else will.  What does that mean? Well, if you think that doing the right thing thinking that someone else will reward you for your good deeds, you are wrong. Hoping that others will fill your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will leave you without a pot to piss in.

That may appear overly cynical, but it is the truth. Ok, there may be a few cases where people are actually good and that rewards for hard work really happens, but not in my case jack.  I got the shaft, the heave-ho, the “don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out”  As my old Army Company Commander so eloquently put it, “I got a buttered ass and no reach around.”  Yup, I think that sums it up pretty well there.

And what really sucks is that I don’t even know why I was let go?  Why have I been placed in this horrible situation after so many years of devotion? I am not in denial, I really wasn’t told.  I was not given a reason for my dismissal.

So after 7 long years pouring my soul into a company that tossed me aside like an empty beer can I find myself sitting here trying to figure out what do to next. Oh yes, I have been through all the stages, at least twice now.  But I think that the sheer panic of the situation is where I am at now. What will I do next?  Where will that next paycheck come from? When is the house payment due? Cutting off cable? What - not my iPhone?  crap.

Of course my friends all tell me that I think to low of myself and that I am a plethora of talent and that there are great opportunities out there.  Funny thing though, I don’t feel that way.  These are dark and lonely days.

Oh well.  Merry Christmas.

IE 6, really?

Ok, I know that some people are slow to upgrade, but 25% of you are still using IE 6? Really?

I may have to face the fact that a majority of you are using Windows, but IE 6? Come on. There are so many things that you are missing by not upgrading. It is like always looking out a cracked and dirty window.

Do yourself a favor and please upgrade to FireFox or at least IE 7. I mean, IE 8 is almost out and you are still using IE 6? Well, at least IE 5 has finally been put to sleep. But to those using IE 6, I am sure that you have realized that the design of this site is not really supported by that browser.  And sorry to say, it never will ;(

Don’t make me take drastic action

Enough Coda for Everyone

Well, I have made the switch, and this was one not taken lightly.  I have been a Dreamweaver user since it’s first beta back in the 90’s and have held true ever since.  But the fact of the matter is, I have never used Dreamweaver for all its ‘features’, but more so as a text editor on steroids. Truth be told, the world of web developers has evolved and I am afraid that Dreamweaver has not.

I have watched CODA from afar for a while now.  I have always been a fan of Panic’s software and what designer does not know the Panic site?  This first version of CODA was nice, but just not enough to get me to drop Dreamweaver.  But as of late I have come out of my creative hiatus and have re-engaged my development side again.  Very exciting, but long story there.  Anyway, being back in the development pit again required getting up to speed with Subversion.  So now what?  Glomp on another app to support subersion?  Use a Subversion client from a PC.  Ummmmmmmm, no.

Like Photoshop, I feel that Dreamweaver has lost its way. Ever since Dreamweaver became the super app and incorporated Ultra Dev, it just has become a bloated application.  I don’t use any of the WYSIWYG tools, and like any of that stuff works for modern XHTML development these days anyway.  You know, it was great when I was starting out, but I have kicked off the training wheels long ago and it is time to move on. And not to mention, I am in NO WAY going to drop another $700 to upgrade to CS4 to get Subversion support.  Sorry Adobe, but you guys need to re-tool.

Well, while searching for a Subverison client I came across CODA again. Man, this really is a tight little package.  If you are a web developer and want to get back to basics of coding without all that extra junk that Dreamweaver packs in, CODA is for you.  The UI is clean, the features are simple and to the point, and as the tagline states, it is a one-window web development app.

One feature that really sold me was the split window screen. Man! This is gold. I can’t tell you how many times I would have killed for this feature in DW. Editing the HTML and seeing the CSS in the same screen, TIME SAVER! And unlike DW that tries to render the HTML as a WYSIWYG, CODA has a browser built in for previewing your work. As handy as that is, you still can’t beat previewing in FireFox with Firebug. How did we ever really get along without that?  Darkages man.

Ok, more CODA features. Spell checker. COOL!!  Anyone reading my blog will know that I am typo king, so this feature will really help me out. Live collaboration using the Subetha Engine. This is pretty cool. With tools like this, do we really need to work in an office any more?

Anyway, that is my rant.  Do with it what you will.  If you are a coder and use a Mac, I highly suggest giving CODA a try.