What I've been doing

I admire those bloggers who are able to maintain regular posting. I mean it's not an easy thing, specially if you're juggling between work, family, friends, hobbies, sports, etc. When I'm into something, I usually put my attention to it, which makes me a poor performer in a multi-tasking scenario. I mean I could crunch code while talking to someone on the phone while chatting in YM and browsing the internet, but these could all be done while I'm sitting. I'm talking more of a broader scope. Like two years ago, I know I was so hooked to photography. Then my contract was gonna end so I realized I had to brush up on technical stuffs. I ordered books, bought a new laptop, and installed the latest version of Visual Studio. I had to learn about agile stuff - nAnt, rhinoMock, nUnit, iBatis, TDD. In two months, I managed to get up to speed and appear competent (really, I was).

The programming fire lasted for half a year and photography took the back seat. Then I got another two year contract and a new project. The laptop gathered dust since then and I found myself reading books or listening to them (audio versions). I got familiar with the voice of Max Lucado, Philip Yancey, Joyce Meyer, and C.S. Lewis' stand-in. I've probably read/listen to more than ten books in just a month. More than the number of non-technical books that I've read in my whole life! With all these, photography and agile programming (though note that I still program at work coz that's what I really do) are now sitting on the sideline.

Then summer came, and I got hooked to running. Bought a pair of great runners and a couple of technical gears, run for a couple of months and was already getting ready for a 10K run. So I had to slack on photography, agile programming, and book reading (except for reading books about running, hehe!). Then summer went, the mornings are cold and the sun is late, which kind of prevented me from doing my morning run before work. The precious garmin305 is now sitting on the drawer. My technical shirts are now just house shirts, and my runners get to see some light from time to time when I go to our recreation center to meet with my friends to play basketball.

Why am I playing basketball this time? Oh I forgot, we (our church) joined the fall basketball league, and because of my height (and not for anything else), I am part of the team. The other teams have been playing for years on this league and I (and most of my team) haven't touch a basketball for at least a year. That's why we have to practice =) Check out how we were annihilated in our debut game. And so there, the running became casualty, joining photography, agile programming, and book reading.

And then the unexpected. Two weeks ago I had to shoot our friend's wedding. Not just take photos, but I was the official photographer. Remember? I was doing photography two years ago, (go and read the early part of this post) and they kind of know I have one of those larger than usual digital camera. An SLR, but an entry level one which I won't dare use to shoot a wedding. Though I've been advised two months in advance, I brushed it aside and it didn't really sink in until when I am thinking of what equipment I have to use knowing that the wedding would be a lowlight photography. So I had to buy a new camera and a lens, rent a few more gears and managed to survive my first wedding shoot =) But in the process, I became almost two thousand dollars poorer! Oh and I just finished processing the last of the 600+ images that I shot that day, after hours and hours or RAW conversion, cropping and basic editing.

So ask me what I'm doing now… I'm putting the 2000 bucks to good use, and shooting again. And I have a bigger photography plan this time, so watch out for some breaking news. Also, I might start to update my photoblog again, which have been dead for more than a year. I wonder how this renewed interest would affect the other things that I do. Basketball should be fine for now as the league is still ongoing. Agile programming even have a big chance of being on the chart again as Edmonton .Net Code Camp is coming soon. I get to see and learn from great developers again.

So why am I posting again? Well, someone emailed me and reminded me that I have a blog. And honestly, I didn't remember that I have one! So to the regular bloggers out there, a salute you big time! To you, thanks for emailing me. And keep coming back, ok? If you get bored here, go to where I usually hang out:

Bo Sanchez's Preacher In Blue Jeans
James MacDonald's Awesome Walk in the Word
If you're into running: Ben M Chan's blog will hook you up with fellow runners in Manila
My local user group's Blogging On IT for techie stuffs.
If you're a developer: JP is the man. Dig into the archives! Awesome developer, great speaker, proud Christian!
Have you heard of a real estate bubble? I was thinking about buying a house recently, because of the crazy thing happening in our city (province, actually), and the pressure of being completely priced out. Good thing I didn't sign into a mortgage!
Chromasia and ddoi, two of the best photoblogs out there.

Have a good one!