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In Rememberance Through APEX #JoelKallmanDay

It was a sad day when I had heard Joel had passed.  I was gearing up for another day of working diligently on an APEX app for one of my customers when I saw the news.  I knew I had to do something by which to remember him.  I'm not the cleverest of APEX developers, but I do like to have fun and create a lot of our internal applications.  And if someone tells me they don't think APEX can accomplish a certain task, I have, for the most part, disproved that claim. I ended up creating my own challenge at one point.  One of our internal applications required some creative thinking on our part, but we were successful in finishing the application and designing it the way we wanted.  Several internal groups became interested in this application and wanted it for their own.  I wanted to make sure our team got credit through a hidden Easter egg.  A little JavaScript, some SweetAlert2  magic, and an old gaming console cheat code got the job done.  It was the simplest of ideas but powerful
Recent posts

Half a year makes us whole . . .

My wife and I made it. 6 months. It's not as bad as everyone says it is. It's challenging, but so is everything in life. She is our world, our life, our everything. Our daughter has grown so much, and surprising us in new ways every day. Last night she gave us a gift for her 6-month birthday . . . 8 hours of sleep. First time she's EVER done that. Hopefully, it's a sign of more sleep to come. We shall see. She has been such a wonderful daughter. We watch her coo, fake cough (yes fake cough), stick out her tongue while trying to speak, and scream high-pitched at random. We laugh at it all. It makes us realize how lucky we are . . . and how we worry about life too much. She'll be crawling soon . . . then talking . . . then walking . . . then growing up so fast it'll blink by in an instant. But I look forward to interacting with her more. Talking to her. Teaching her what I know. And just plain enjoying being with her.

A new beginning . . .

One phone call was all it took for me to rush home and get Angela to the hospital. We didn't think "today was the day", but the doctor told us otherwise. Nerves kicked in with both excitement and anticipation. I never thought it would be a 22 hour labor, but our daughter's birth led into the next day. She was a surprise (we did not know the gender), and I couldn't be happier. For all those non-parents out there, I can't even begin to describe the feeling you get holding your own child, a person you helped create. It is an amazing feeling, and I am utterly overjoyed. Life literally changes overnight. No question about it. When my daughter, Addison Marie, arrived last Tuesday at 11:40 AM (she's a week old today!) my life, my wife's life, and Addison's life completely changed. And my wife and I are completely happy and welcome that change with open arms. She has become the most important person in our lives. As many sleepless nights and st

Time to say goodbye . . .

15 years ago, I was in my parents' backyard (I guess it was my backyard too) mowing the lawn, earning my allowance. Underneath my Dad's work hut, popped out a little black kitten. She looked a bit hungry and I fed her a little milk, which she lapped right up. I had no choice but to keep her, and hesitantly named her Axl. That changed to Cat after I realized "he was a she". And so Cat lived with me most of the time (she stayed with my parents while college -- allergic roommate -- but got her back when I kicked the roommate out) climbing up screens, laying on my chest when I came home from school, begging me to feed her every time I got home, and just providing some great companionship along the way. She has given me some great years and I am happy to pass her along to the next owner. I would love to keep her, but I have a baby coming and do not want to risk the cat interacting with the baby. This was one of the toughest and hardest decisions of my life. She ha

Already a football fan . . .

Well, how about that? My little one is already a football fan . . . he/she knows how to do the Wave. No joke. Just watch my wife's belly and you'll see for sure. One minute her belly is a nice, round pregnant-like shape, and the next thing you know you see a hand/foot/elbow/knee poke through and move fluidly from one side my wife to another. He/she is pretty packed in there. I can't wait to meet my child. Wondering what he/she will look like. I'll find out in no time. Only 6 more weeks to go (give or take a week or two)!

Rumblings from the belly . . .

No, it's not hunger. It's not a stomach ache. It's a fully grown baby in there. My wife is now close to the six-month mark, and her stomach is doing flip-turns and soccer kicks every time she eats ice cream (the baby is his/her father's son/daughter). The baby started moving right around 21 weeks, and he/she hasn't stopped. It's unbelievably surreal, yet there is a living human being moving around inside my wife right now. Our entertainment for the evening is watching her belly pop, shake, and roll. Yes roll. One of the baby's extremities pokes out and rolls right across the stomach. It's quite exciting to see the baby move right before our very eyes. This makes it real (not that it hasn't been real). This makes it a baby. This makes it a life. The baby hasn't made me nervous yet even though I do worry a bit about Angela. It's just my nature. She's my wife and I want to take good care of her. The rumblings make it exciting

Hello, I'm no longer a PC . . .

. . . user. This is it . . . I made up my mind and I'm ready. No more regedits, no more BSOD (yes, they happen in XP), and no more driver downloads. In the next few weeks, I will move from PC User to Mac Geek. I will be the proud owner of a brand new iMac, and no longer a slave to the Windows PC world. Not that I can't handle Windows, but I just refuse to move to Vista. It's no longer an option. I cannot face another ME debacle. And I think my security skills are fine as they are, thank you very much. I don't need Windows telling me what I can and cannot view. I look forward to being an Apple geek -- I already own a couple of iPods. Now I'm ready to move on to the big dog!