Monthly Archives: July 2014

Moving to Seattle!

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It’ll probably be a few weeks before I make another post, because today I’m moving to Seattle to start working for Microsoft as a Program Manager.

This will now be the sixth place that I’ve lived in so far. Some of the other places include: the Dominican Republic, New York, New Jersey, Phoenix, Tucson, and now Seattle. So I’ve never really had the experience of having a single city that I’d think of as my “home” town, nor have I ever felt the need to have a “home” town.

If anything, I think moving around so much has at least made me more appreciative of my time in each of the cities and communities that I’ve lived in, because you’re just more likely to enjoy your time somewhere if you accept the fact that you won’t be there forever. So since I’m in the habit of making sure to enjoy the limited time that I have with friends and family, I usually don’t have many regrets when it’s time to move away from them again. Plus moving away isn’t even that big of a deal anymore, since modern technology does a great job of helping people keep in touch.

Here’s hoping that my time in Seattle will be a good one, however long it may last.

Why I love Green Lantern: The Animated Series

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I have to admit that I probably have weird taste, since it seems like my favorite shows and movies are usually aimed at kids. I’m not sure why I find this genre so appealing. Maybe I just like the nice, positive vibe that these shows give off, since shows aimed at adult audiences are too often pretentiously “gritty” and “dark”.

If you haven’t seen or heard of Green Lantern: The Animated Series, it’s a CG-animated, 26-episode, adventure story that follows the crew of a ship called the Interceptor as they travel the universe fighting evil. Part of what I love about the story is that the writing is very economical—every single episode moves the story forward. Since the story rarely loses its momentum, by the time you reach the final episode, you can really feel just how far these characters have come and how much they’ve evolved since the beginning of their journey. I also found myself getting very attached to these characters, which is a sentiment that I haven’t felt this strongly since Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show also focused on some really strong and well written themes, many of which resonated a lot with me.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series was nominated for the 2012 Annie Award for Best General Audience Animated TV Production, and the music for the series was nominated for two Annie Awards and one International Film Music Critics Award. The show was created by some legendary people, including Bruce Timm (who co-created Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, and Justice League) and Giancarlo Volpe (who directed episodes for Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars).

The rest of this post will be a spoiler-filled analysis of the series, in which I’ll try to explain why I loved the show so much. The show is currently on Netflix, if you’re willing to give it a try.

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11 Unconventional Tips for Improving your Programming Skills

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There are plenty of good resources out there that teach the technical skills that are necessary for becoming a good programmer, but I’ve seen only a few that give you the more personal lessons that you often only learn through experience or trial and error. In this article, I’m going to share with you some of my own habits and skills that I’ve gained over the years to help me do better work.

This article is based on a post I made over a year ago on the UA CS Facebook Group in response to someone’s question about how you can become a faster programmer. Instead of posting about tools and keyboard shortcuts, most of my tips are about how to get yourself to think faster, along with a few tips for avoiding time-consuming mistakes.

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