Rod On Life

This might be the first year I actually write some practical resolutions. None of that “lose weight, get in shape” babble that echos fighting the “war on terror” and not accomplishing anything. I know I’ll get to the gym as often as I have been for the past several years; I’ll get on a kick for a while, then watch it dwindle, then pick it up again, and the merry goes round.
But this year I do have some pretty concrete things I’d really like to put up front and center of my efforts (aside from my must-do’s). I’ll try to list a few here, but I’m sure new things will come up:

• Teach my children my mother tongue – I am really going to get a teaching system and a schedule down this year in order to teach my kids Portuguese. I’m also going to start talking to my 1yo in Portuguese only… eh… soon.
• Write, write, write – I had a crazy idea for a book and I began writing some of it down last year. I like what I have so far and I plan on keeping it going this year. I mean, Ghandi did it and that dude barely had any food. Maybe there’ll be a finished book by December?!
• Update ScreenTime to iOS 5 – I’ve started adding some requested features to the app (like the ability to add time without using the timer), which is almost done. I’m also working on adding iCloud support for device syncing and doing a revamp on the UI. I really dislike the UI now. I don’t mind the look, it’s more of the feel and the navigation. We’ll see what can be done.
• Get my blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – wow! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since I started doing Jits. Despite my recent break, I’d love to continue training and getting my first belt upgrade this year. Really, the only reason is so I can kick my brother-in-law’s can when I see him in the Spring.
• Plant a tree – Jose Marti said (I’m pretty sure it was him) that is part of what every man should do before he dies; have a child, plant a tree, write a book. Given the recent events in my front yard involving a wind storm and my 25 foot pine tree almost landing on my house, I think it might just be the right time to fit that one in.
• Dedicate a little more time to my old canine friend, Takoda. He’s getting on in life (he’ll be 11 in March!!!) and has definitely been kicked to the curb since all the kids started showing up. I can use the daily walks, too, let’s be honest.
• Rock more – last year I undoubtedly ruled but I didn’t quite rock. My 5yo says I rock all the time, but who really believes what a 5yo says, anyway?

Ok, I think that’s it for now. If I start adding too much to this list, none of it will get done.

I’ve been working on upgrading my apps to iOS5 and doing some Ruby programming as of lately, but I’ll be updating the site again soon.

I’m in the final stages of development of my first iOS app and the work so far has been very challenging but fun.
It’s really a whole different deal working on something for yourself in comparison to working on a project for a company or a client.

The good so far:

It’s been a lot of fun learning a whole new language (I’ve been doing VB/C#) on a different platform. Aside from the graphics, I’m doing all the work myself, including the UI design.  My app is fairly simple since I’m not using many of the api’s in iOS, but I feel pretty comfortable with objective-c now and feel I can at least ask intelligent questions on a forum.

Working on your own stuff definitely gives you a lot of flexibility, which can be good if you’re disciplined enough to stick to a schedule and not let things slide.  I have to admit that initially I was tempted to let my other priorities get in the way, but I pushed through and got a lot of work done in a relatively short amount of time (approximately 3 months since I started).  Having the product almost done now has been very rewarding.

Having entered a whole new community of developers, I feel like a new developer again and my desire to learn received a new boost.  For the past few years I’ve felt like I “had” to keep  up with all the changes Microsoft has made to its development suite, but now I feel like I “want” to keep learning and improving my skills as a developer.

The bad so far:

First and foremost, the hours have been killer.  I can only get to work on my stuff after 9pm or 10pm on most nights, since I try to sacrifice as little time as possible away from the family.  That means going to bed between 2am and 4am some nights and waking up at 7am.  Staying healthy has taken a toll as well, lately, so I’m sure I’ll have to cut back soon (uh, right after I’m done with my first app, right?)

Working with Apple products has been specially challenging since it’s a relatively smaller community of people and resources.  I’m used to tons of materials and books and I feel it lacking somewhat for iOS (but not entirely).  I have been able to make good use of sites such as StackOverflow and iPhoneDevSDK, IRC, and many books (4 good ones so far), so there’s definitely enough to keep me going.

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I really hope to have all development completed before the end of the month and have things ready for testing on the first week of November.  It’s a little overwhelming to think how much work I still have to accomplish; finish coding, create my test group, work on the app’s website, twitter, and Facebook page, create screen cast and screen shots, and market, market, market the heck out of this thing.

I have no dreams of making it big, obviously, with this app, but I want to feel that I’ve done everything right and build a good base for future work, be it for myself or for others.