Author: Doug McCaughan

The weather is gorgeous. It’s tax free weekend. Whatever shall we do? Let’s sit inside and program on the computer!

Humans…we get in ruts because we like consistency. Change is good but for the most part, we silly humans despise change.

An eon ago I traveled to Dallas for consulting work. While there, my friend and I would tour mansions being built. (I grew up exploring houses under construction. I love the smell of the wood and imagining the final design.) I noted how the millionaires all seemed to have bedrooms with his and her (separate) bathrooms connected to the bedroom. These bathrooms were HUGE and often were part of a walk-in closet that is comparable in size to one of my children’s bedroom. This creates the opportunity for one of the couple to awaken, go into the closet/bathroom, closet the door, groom and get dressed without disturbing their domestic partner.

I awake before my wife. I try to be as respectful and quiet as possible. She interprets this as me trying my damnedest to wake her with loud talking to myself, banging, clanging, cursing, and spotlights…bright, bright, fiery lights. I use my cellphone to guide myself through the darkened room sometimes having to turn on the flashlight, go into the closet, close the door, turn on the lights, … you get the picture. I glance over at my sleeping beauty and she’s pulled covers and pillows over her head. I grimace but repeat the process the next day and the day after that and so on.

A couple of days ago, I thought I should begin my day by setting everything I need out the night before. This is a productivity habit that I should be ingraining in my children and exercising in my life anyway. This morning, I glanced at the wife with pillow over head and redoubled my commitment to really think about changing my habits. Then I arrived at work and eventually went to the restroom. Glancing in the mirror, I see a guy looking back at me in an orange button down shirt that goes nicely with the black pinstriped dress pants, and…the brown belt. I find it striking and out of place. My new habit begins tonight! (Now I just need a much larger house so I can have one of those his/her bathrooms and one of those clothing valets that you use to hang the next day’s clothing.)

Been trying to learn to meditate most of my life. Think I finally get it!

Why are holidays and vacations always exactly one day too short?!

This weekend entailed yard work including progress on what will be the foundation to the storage shed. The grandparents bought fireworks for the children and we took an evening to dine with them then have an explosive show. And computer work of course. I don’t take vacation from my clients so there was computer programming.

To learn how to cook oatmeal on the stovetop without it boiling over.

I swear if I ever run a company again, everyone will have their own enclosed office space.

I use a standing desk but I have never completely lifted my keyboard to the ideal height. I think I’m beginning to pay the price. After extensive typing, my right elbow (my mousing hand) is so sore that I am not sure I’ll be able to type today. ugh.

How do you begin using the metric system? You just start using it! I use Waze as my navigation aid. Been using it since the very early days. Cathy and I were the original #wazedate people. Today, as I drove to work, Waze announced a turn in "1.6 miles" and I commented to myself that I didn’t realize that section of road was that long. Then it occurred to me that if Waze was going to speak distances and I was going to learn them that I might as well do it in metric…and now Waze speaks to me in kilometers and meters.

I use a tool called Redmine to help manage my projects. https://redmine.dougmccaughan.com/ My first task today is to upgrade it to the latest version.

Update: And here is an example of the day to day frustrations that drive a computer programming into the fields of construction and bartending…something that should take moments potential becomes hours as it evolves from a simply upgrade to a research project.

[psxxxxx]$ bundle install –without development test
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/………
Resolving dependencies…
Installing rake (10.4.2)
Installing i18n (0.6.11)
Installing multi_json (1.11.1)
Installing activesupport (3.2.21)
Installing builder (3.0.4)
Installing activemodel (3.2.21)
Using erubis (2.7.0)
Using journey (1.0.4)
Using rack (1.4.5)
Using rack-cache (1.2)
Installing rack-test (0.6.3)
Installing hike (1.2.3)
Installing tilt (1.4.1)
Installing sprockets (2.2.3)
Installing actionpack (3.2.21)
Installing mime-types (1.25.1)
Installing polyglot (0.3.5)
Installing treetop (1.4.15)
Installing mail (2.5.4)
Installing actionmailer (3.2.21)
Installing arel (3.0.3)
Installing tzinfo (0.3.44)
Installing activerecord (3.2.21)
Installing activeresource (3.2.21)
Using bundler (1.2.4)
Installing coderay (1.1.0)
Using fastercsv (1.5.5)
Installing rack-ssl (1.3.4)
Installing json (1.8.3) with native extensions
Installing rdoc (3.12.2)
Installing thor (0.19.1)
Installing railties (3.2.21)
Installing jquery-rails (3.1.2)
Using mysql (2.8.1)
Using net-ldap (0.3.1)
Installing pg (0.17.1) with native extensions
Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb
checking for pg_config… no
No pg_config… trying anyway. If building fails, please try again with
–with-pg-config=/path/to/pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h… no
Can’t find the ‘libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
–with-opt-dir
–without-opt-dir
–with-opt-include
–without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
–with-opt-lib
–without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
–with-make-prog
–without-make-prog
–srcdir=.
–curdir
–ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
–with-pg
–without-pg
–with-pg-config
–without-pg-config
–with-pg_config
–without-pg_config
–with-pg-dir
–without-pg-dir
–with-pg-include
–without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
–with-pg-lib
–without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/lib

Solution (as I expected): commented out references to postgresql and sqlite in Gemfile

2015 has been an interesting year. As we reach the halfway point, I am not disappointed. However, I am unnecessarily stressed. Stressed to the point of near dysfunction. Starting today, I am focused purely on removing stress from my life. For me, a major part of that is putting finances on auto-pilot. This means that I will be working on my own websites, something I have ignored for 20 years. And I will be seeking more freelance work for evenings and weekends. And so it is written.