Videos I made for my band
Theses are some music videos I made for my band. I think they are pretty good:
Class of 64 Reunion video
Miramonte class of 64 reunion video
If the video doesn’t play open the video link in a new window
This is a small project I did for my parents. They hosted their 55th year high school reunion and I went around and shot some footage with my iPhone. I edited it together but I can’t host it anywhere except my own google drive because youtube and vimeo keep taking it down due to copyright infringement ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My house is falling apart
Because it’s made of dead plants and decaying rocks, my house, which was built over 100 years ago, is falling apart. I have been teaching myself how to do small home repairs and recently went to change the “wax ring” around the base of my toilet. My toilet was kind of loose and when I googled why that might be, I discovered that there is this wax ring that is crushed in between every toilet and floor that needs replacing every decade or so. I watched this youtube video on how to perform this feat. It took me about two hours and when I was finished, the toilet still wobbled. As I was wiggling it around and cursing the plumbing gods I pulled the toilet straight out of the ground, along with some tile and flooring. Here is a sad picture of me after I realized I was in far deeper than I had anticipated. That hole is where I used to have a toilet.
My floor was destroyed from dry rot and water damage and it looked like I needed to replace it in order to have a bathroom again. I found this guy’s youtube channel about remodeling a bathroom which I found fascinating and very helpful. He also has a lot of other videos about hunting which I don’t enjoy but you take the good with the bad.
He started by removing everything that was rotten or damaged, so, that’s what I did.
After removing the entire floor, I realized that a lot of the studs and drywall were rotten as well. The photo below is essentially everything I tore out before beginning to rebuild.
I removed everything that was rotten including the vanity. What’s left is the tub and a dirt floor. Those support beams that run across the floor have been there for a very long time and even though they were sitting in dirt, they had not been damaged by rot or termites, so I left them. The floor was very damp which was concerning but I figured I’d leave it for a few days to see if it would dry out by itself. After a few days of a floor like this, the ground was still wet and muddy. I couldn’t understand why until I dug around those pipes that are sitting in the ground. After digging a foot into the ground I slid my hand along the bottom of the pipe and discovered that there were holes in the pipes that I could put my fingers through. Yes, that is correct, those waste pipes are over 100 years old and made of iron. They had corroded years ago and were now brittle and broken all along the bottom, leaching waste water under my house for god knows how long. Below is a photo of one of the sections of pipe I cut out. It is now clear why everything was so water damaged and musty. 
This required me to replace all the plumbing which you can see in the photo below. I almost replaced it with the wrong type of pipe which would have been terrible but a helpful Home Depot employee named Joel, happen to ask me what I was doing and stopped from buying the wrong materials before it was too late. I guarantee he regrets doing that because now, whenever I go to Home Depot, I find him to make sure what I’m about to do won’t burn my house down or flood my kitchen. I actually have his work schedule memorized and only go during the hours he is working.
Below you can see the new black ABS pipe that replaced the broken iron pipes. I dug out all the muddy dirt too and dumped it in my backyard. For some reason, and I can’t really explain why, I bought a bunch of gravel and filled in the empty space left by the ground that I dug out. I didn’t see anyone do this anywhere and I didn’t ask Joel (huge mistake on my part) but it just seemed like a good idea. Hopefully it was.
Last weekend, with my dad, I framed the new floor and put down 3/4 inch plywood. Nothing interesting here except that I have never really done this and I was pretty proud of my handy work. Not to toot my own horn but… toot toot!
So there ya have it. I do other things than just sitting in front of my computer all day. (Pats self on back)
UI screen shots of my new App
I am finishing up a 6 week project and I’m going to present it for 50 companies next Wednesday. Below are a few screen shot of the views for the app. They have been improved since this photo but I still think they look sweet enough to share.
How to be a better engineer…
Below are some of the things I discovered while learning to code:
Being an island is a waste.
Understandably people like to experience the feeling and credit of single-handedly solving an issue all by themselves but never asking for help or being unwilling to accept advice from others is not a good practice. Having a good network of people willing to show you how to do something can save you hours of trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s worth utilizing them.
It is supposed to be hard.
Feeling lost and uncomfortable are the hard feelings that come with learning something. It’s easy to interpret these feelings as something being wrong, like thinking that you may not be smart enough to understand what you’re trying to learn. This is probably not the case. There is nothing to be done about these feelings. Just sit with them and know that they are normal.
Practice over talent.
Everyone starts out being bad at it. “It” can be coding, performing music, math, cooking, building a shed, anything. Steve Wozniak, Mozart, Frank Geary, Thomas Keller; all had to practice. Our society fetishizes innate talent but everyone who is better than you at something is so because they practiced. Don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t have the mind/gift/temperament for something because the person next to you can do it effortlessly. You have to practice to be good at something. You have to practice a lot to master something.
Take your time.
Often people will see a large problem in front of them and throw their hands up claiming the solution is beyond them. Taking some time to understand how things work is 90% of the solution.
Fail fast.
Failing results in two things. Firstly, it allows you to adjust your workflow. You can identify your misunderstanding about the system quickly and change it. Secondly, eventually, it reduces your fear of failing which is powerful. Letting go of the fear of failing allows you to attempt anything. Fear of failure has almost no value.
Keep your house clean.
What I mean by this is don’t let small issues turn into big ones, nip things in the bud. This pertains to your code as well as interpersonal dynamics while working with others. People shy from this for many reasons; it seems like a bad ROI, it’s awkward to bring up upset feelings with others, etc. However, problems rarely solve themselves and almost always get worse if they are neglected.
Be nice, be patient, be kind.
This is the most important one. Your most valuable currency is how you affect other people. Being right doesn’t win you as many points as being reasonable and flexible. If you are generally new and terrible at what you do, your kindness and likability can carry you far. If you are awesome at what you do but in general you act like an asshole then you better be really fricken awesome at what you do because people will only be tolerating your presence because of your skill. So remember, be nice, be patient, be kind.
Eden 