salarslist.com Writing About What I'm Going To Do In 2013

So apparently today is Blue Monday – the day that was calculated as the saddest day of the year using a combination of factors such as: Debt, time since Holidays, failed New Year’s resolutions, weather, and lack of motivation.  I’ve never heard of this until today, and I can definitely see how all of those factors could combine to make someone feel down.

But, I’m happy to say that I’m not feeling Blue at all.  I’m in the third straight weekend of getting up at 6am for workouts, I’ve been eating well, and I’ve been getting a lot of studying in.  I’m 3/4′s of the way done with the Ruby unit at Codecademy, and I’m really starting to click with the way the language is designed.  It’s so enjoyable to use and everything  just makes sense.  My understanding of Rails is getting better as well, and I’m starting to be able to figure out an app by looking at it’s source code.  I still need more practice, so I’m going to keep at it.

On another note, Jeannie and I were going to be leaving for Calgary/Banff in a few weeks, but decided to cancel that trip as it was adding up to be more expensive than we initially thought, and that it just wasn’t the right time for it.  I was really looking forward to seeing my family out there and doing some riding in Banff, but that’s the way it goes.  The good news is that instead I’ll be heading out to Vancouver/Squamish/Whistler!

I’ve got some friends that live out in Squamish, including a buddy of mine who I used to ride with that took a winter off work to spend out there.  I got my flight with Aeroplan points, and I’m staying at my friends place, so other than lift tickets, it’s as cheap as a snowboarding trip can get.

I’m super stoked about getting back to BC.  I haven’t been since 2010 when I was there to ride and watch the Olympics, and I was planning on moving out there when I met my wife Jeannie – so obviously that plan fell to the wayside.  Riding out in Whistler/Blackcomb is just unreal compared to riding in Ontario.  It’s about ten times bigger than anything we have here, and the options are endless.  I’ve been working out hard to prepare, but I need to make sure I get some more riding time in before I go.  It’d be a shame to be out there and still be shaking the rust off.  Plus, it’s just a relaxed environment in general, so it’ll be a good time guaranteed.

Anyway – I’m writing this while waiting for some files to upload, so it’s time to get back to work.  I’ve been moving forward with my goals exactly how I want to, so I just need to keep at, and the results will come in time.  No time to be blue, Monday or not!

This is my new mindset.  Saw this while on /r/getmotivated and it stuck with me.  I’m at 2 weeks of getting up at 6 to do workouts – and the 21 day mark is when something becomes habit and when it moves from becoming easier to keep going instead of stopping the momentum.

As I workout, I’ve been doing Ruby tutorials at codeacademy.com in between sets.  They’re all tiny lessons that take a minute or two each, so it works out perfectly.  Once I”m done with the Ruby set, I’m going to run through JQuery, APIs, and Javascript.

Forward!

Friday was one of those moments where I was reminded just how lucky I am to have an awesome group of friends.  It was my wife’s birthday party, and we had some people over at the house to celebrate and it was a great time.

I had a really good talk with my friend Candy on Friday about work and all the doubts I’ve been having, and it really helped me.  The more I talk about it with people, the better I feel about it.  She sent me a page from a book that she mentioned, talking about how moving on in your career isn’t abandoning your previous employer, and how it creates opportunities with them and allows them to adapt without you.  This was something that has been weighing on me, and I’ve been working on cleaning up my documentation to make my eventual exit as painless as possible.

I’ve been studying a lot of Ruby on Rails, and I’m now working in extra lessons at CodeAcademy. I found it very slow going at first, but I’m feeling like it’s finally starting to click and become more intuitive.  My main concern is wrapping my head around a completely different architecture.  Once I understand that, everything else can be looked up in a reference.  I’m going to look for a good resource to brush up my object oriented programming skills as well.

So in general, I feel good.  I’m feeling motivated to move towards my goal for this year, and now I’m just focusing on getting it done – one day at a time.

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

All I could do today was keep thinking about this quote and burning it into my head.  I really, truly, wish that I had listened to it, and today, I regret it.

I just emailed a client, turning down the opportunity to apply for a position with them as their Chief Technology Officer.  They are a startup with a very bright future, and they asked me if I would be interested in applying for the position.  I’ve been doing some work for them, and everything had been going well so far.  It would have been a great opportunity, and I really enjoy working with them and know they’ll do well, but in the end, I just do not have the confidence in my abilities to be able to fill that role at this point in time.

I read through the description they provided me, and looked up numerous opinions/descriptions of what a CTO should be.  I am confident in most of the soft skills required, but fell short on the technical side.  Their site is built on the Ruby on Rails platform running on Ubuntu, and while I’ve started the process of familiarizing myself with this, I am far from having a workable understanding of it.  I’ve also come to the realization that my knowledge of higher level architecture design is lacking – a big hole in my development knowledge.

It’s been a while since I’ve given myself a proper self evaluation, and this one was particularly humbling.  I didn’t like what I found out, and to be honest, it really upset me that I let it slide for this long.  I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time where I should have been more focused on improving and expanding my skill sets, and it doesn’t feel good.

There’s no point in continuing to be upset by it, so I’m going to move forward from here, and I have a plan to improve all of the skill areas that I am lacking in.  Now it’s just a matter of consistently working at them.  All I can do from here is move forward, and remind myself to not let this happen again.

A year from now, I plan to be in a very different state of mind and confidence in my abilities and career prospects.

After giving it some thought, I’m going to take a different approach to my list starting this year.  I’m going to focus on one big thing this year, and keep an ongoing list of other things I want to do, but more like a bucket list than a list of things I want to do just this year.  I thought that having the big list would give me a lot of different things to choose from, but after doing it for a few years, I noticed that it became more of a distraction than anything.

So this year, I’ll be rearranging this site a bit.  I’ll archive the yearly lists, and I’ll be working on putting together a list of things I want to do over my whole life – not just this year.  I’ll still have the same mix of small and large goals, with some longer term goals that will take years to work towards.

The main thing I’m really going to focus on this year though is to work on my career.  The last couple of years I’ve been finding that I’m not really happy with what I do for work any longer, and I am going to make the changes necessary to change my work situation.  The language I work with is obsolete, so I’ve decided to focus on learning some new technologies – specifically mobile app development and Ruby on Rails.

I started this process in December, and I setup my own little cloud server at Rackspace to use as a development environment and to brush up on my admin skills as well.  I’ve setup my old Macbook to use specifically for this type of development and I’ve started working through a Ruby on Rails tutorial.

All I need to do is to work at it every day.  Keep at it, and the little things I do will add up to be something big.  I’ve got a few project ideas that I am going to make happen this year, so once I’m a bit into these new development tools, I’ll be able to finally start them and get them out of my head.

Starting a proper vegetable garden was one of the things that Jeannie and I had wanted to do when we moved into our house from the condo.  We had a few planters on our terrace, but now that we had a yard and some space, we decided to go a little bigger.

We did some reading, but mostly just jumped in and learned as we went.  I built a 4×8 raised planting bed and filled it up with a mix of top soil and manure.  We totally underestimated just how much volume was in it, so we ended up only filling it about half way and hoped that was enough.

We did a mix of seedlings and seeds, planting beets, zucchini, summer squash, hot peppers, cucumbers, and 5 different types of heirloom tomatoes we got at Tree and Twig vegetable farm.

May 22, 2012, right after planting

A couple of weeks later, our little garden was starting to look alive!

June 3, 2012

I was amazed at how fast everything was growing.  Less than 3 weeks later, our garden was starting to look overgrown.

June 21, 2012

By the end of June, we had our first veggies that were ready to pick – a zucchini and a summer squash.  They were delicious!

June 29, 2012

Now that we’re halfway through July, the zucchini and summer squash plants have really taken off.  We’ve been picking giant veggies from them every few days and have been eating a giving away a lot of them!

The biggest one yet!

We’ve also picked one of the cucumbers, and there are a bunch growing.  Our cherry tomato plant has hundreds of fruit growing, and the other tomato plants are all doing well.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out when they ripen, as we really just picked a bunch of random heirloom varieties.

Black Zebra Stripe

Morado – as big as my fist and still growing

We’ve also got some planters going with a bunch of different herbs.  Nothing beats going out to the garden and picking some fresh herbs to use in your food.

I never thought I’d really like gardening, but checking out the garden has become one of my favourite things to do when I wake up.  It’s the same, but different, and it’s amazing to see how fast it grows and changes.

#108 - Plant a proper vegetable garden and learn gardening – DONE!

A few weeks ago, my friends Candy and Mike posted a picture on Facebook of a bacon turtle, and asked if I’d make one for the BBQ I was hosting in a couple of weeks.  I did a quick google search for a how-to, and accepted the challenge!

Since I made the smoker, I’d been making fatties, which are basically logs of ground meat, stuffed with whatever you can think of, rolled in bacon and then smoked.  It turned out that the bacon turtle was pretty much the same idea, just in a different shape, and with legs.

Before the shell

This particular bacon turtle was made out of hot Italian sausage, mozzarella, hot dogs, and bacon.  I took two thirds of a pound of the sausage mix and made a couple of thin patties with it.  I then cut up some mozzarella and put it in the middle of one patty, then put the other on top of it and sealed the edges.

Pre-smoking

I cut up some hot dogs for the legs, head, and tail and stuck them into the patty, then worked the bacon weave around them to cover the whole thing.  The finishing touches included dusting it with some of my home made BBQ rub, and then carving out the claws, tail, eyes, and a mouth.  This was all done at 1 in the morning the night before the BBQ.  I was smoking an 8 pound pork butt for pulled pork, so I started that at midnight the night before and ended up smoking it for about 13 hours all together.

The bacon turtle went on the 225F smoker at about 3pm, and came off 3 hours later.  Everyone thought it was hilarious, and it tasted pretty good too.

Done!

Food: gotta keep it fun!

Last week I posted about making some duck breast prosciutto.  It’s been hanging in the basement for just over a week now and they’re supposed to be finished when they’ve lost about 30% of their original weight.  I took down the smaller one to weigh it and it was at right about 30%, so it was time to test!

Still in cheesecloth and butchers twine

I removed the cheesecloth and butchers twine, and gave it the very scientific sniff test, which it passed with flying colours.

Unwrapped

Now, the big test – slicing it up and tasting it.

Sliced!

After slicing, it looked good and it looked to be properly cured throughout.  I have to admit – I was very apprehensive about actually eating a piece.  I’ve never cured meat before, and this has been hanging in my basement for the last week with no refrigeration.  Would I die?  I tried not to think of the word botulism as I slowly tried the first piece… and it was delicious!  It tasted exactly like prosciutto should, and hours later, I sit here with no stomach ache or signs of food poisoning, so it all turned out well.  I think I could have let it cure a day or two less, which I’ll try the next time I make it.

Now that I’ve successfully cured something without it rotting or making me sick, I’m feeling more confident about trying out other things.  Time to flip through my book and find the next project!

#18 - Make homemade duck proscuito – DONE!

Over the last weekend I did a lot of cooking.  Jeannie just got me a new cookbook, and we were having my family over for a Mother’s day BBQ, so I had just done a bunch of grocery shopping to prepare.  Knowing I was going to be spending a good chunk of time in the kitchen lit a bit of a fire under my ass and I ended up experimenting with a bunch of different recipes and trying some new charcuterie techniques out of the book.

Duck Prosciutto / Confit

I had making a duck prosciutto on my list, so while we were grocery shopping, I kept an eye out for duck breasts.  When I finally found them, they cost as much as a whole duck, so I got a whole duck instead and decided to make confit out of the legs.  I’ve never butchered a whole duck before, so I watched a few videos on youtube (is there anything you can’t learn there?) and then separated the legs and breasts, with the skin and fat put into a pot to have the fat render out for the confit.

The first step of both was a salt cure.  Both the legs and the breasts cured overnight, with the legs also having some garlic, thyme and bay leaf in the mix as well.

Confit curing

Duck breasts completely covered in kosher salt

After being removed from the cure and rinsed off, the legs went into a pot in the oven at 200F for 8 hours, after being completely submerged in duck fat.  The breasts got rinsed off, dried, then wrapped in cheesecloth and trussed.  Right now they’re hanging in my basement and in a week or two, I should have some duck prosciutto ready to slice!

Duck prosciutto wrapped and ready to hang

Duck confit, finished and ready for the fridge

Pork Trotter Terrine

While I was picking up the brisket, I saw a bag of trotters, otherwise known as pig’s feet.  I was reading about terrine making in Charcuterie and recently saw a blog post about a trotter terrine, so I decided to give it a try.  I forgot to take a picture of the pre-cooked trotters, so the squeamish are spared!

The whole trotters went into my dutch oven with a bunch of aromatics and spices and a pound of cubed pork belly, where they simmered for 3 hours.

Simmering away

After the simmering was done, I separated the meat and strained the stock, then set it to reduce until it was a quarter of it’s original volume.

Falling apart after a few hours

Stock reducing

While the stock was reducing, I set about picking the bones out of the trotter.  They were still pretty hot, but you can’t let them cool off too much, or the gelatin in them will solidify and the terrine won’t set properly.  This step was a mess!

I didn’t have an actual terrine mold, so I used an appetizer dish we had and lined it with plastic wrap.  I pressed the meat into it, topped it up with the stock, then covered it with more wrap and put it in the fridge with a plate on top to weigh it down.

Molded

The next morning, I popped one out of the mold and took a slice.  The texture and flavour were good, but it was definitely unseasoned.  My brother suggested using a smoked ham hock instead of the belly, so next time I’ll try that, which should add more salt to the mix as well.  I’m happy with it for a first try, but it’s a learning process and the next one will be better!

Out of the mold and sliced

Bacon

Last week I put a simple cure on some pork belly to make some home made bacon.  It’s been in the fridge for a week now letting the cure take effect, and when I got home from work today, I put it on the smoker over some hickory and let it smoke until it hit a 150F internal temperature.

Pork belly curing before being smoked

As soon as I took it off, it looked so delicious that I had to cut a piece, fry it up, and try it out.  It was delicious, but a bit too salty.  In my haste to smoke it, I skipped the step of frying up a piece pre-smoke to check the salt level.  Next time I’ll do that for sure, and if it’s too salty, I’ll soak it in some water first to leach some of the salt out.  There is definitely going to be a next time though!  I also discovered that a chef’s knife is kind of a pain to cut thin slices of bacon with… so I’ll be on the lookout for a used meat slicer or a longer slicing knife.

Fresh off the smoker

Just the way bacon should look!

So far I’m enjoying playing around with the charcuterie techniques.  The book is very detailed, but easy to understand as well and I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in trying this sort of food preparation.  We’ll see how these first few cures turn out and eventually I’d like to tackle something more complicated like a dry-cured sausage.  That dusty grinder attachment for my mixer will finally see the light of day!

Also – despite the BBQ feast on Sunday, and making (and sampling) all of this food, I still managed to drop some weight over the weekend.  Now at 241.4 – down from 280 at the beginning of the year, and 31.4 pounds away from my goal for the year.  With training for Tough Mudder about to amp up, I may even hit that before the wedding – or at least be close.

I just finished my smoker, and I had hosting a BBQ on my list, so for Mother’s day, we invited my family over to the house for our first BBQ of the year!

I talked to my younger brother, and we planned out a menu.  I was going to take care of the mains, and he would take care of the sides.  The menu we ended up with was:

• Atomic Buffalo Turds
• Pork Back Ribs
• Beef Brisket
• Corn Bread
• Grilled Veggies

I’ve never cooked a brisket before, so I did a lot of reading and the general consensus seemed to be that it’s one of the hardest cuts of meat to do right on a BBQ.  The best way to learn is to do, so I gave it my best shot!  It turned out that brisket’s reputation as a hard cook is well earned, but it was mostly still good.

The first thing we ate were the Atomic Buffalo Turds.  Ridiculous name, but possibly the most delicious appetizer known to man.  Take half a seeded jalapeno pepper, fill it with some seasoned cream cheese and cheddar, then wrap the whole thing in half a strip of bacon.  Mine included a piece of smoked sauce for extra measure.  They went on the smoker at 225F and took about two hours before the bacon was nicely done and the peppers were soft.

Atomic Buffalo Turds, pre-cook

These came out absolutely perfect and they got demolished pretty quickly.  It’s very unlikely you’ll make too many of these, and even less likely that there will be leftovers.

2 hours later

The brisket was going to be the longest part of the cook, so I started it the night before.  It ended up being on for 13 hours.  In the end, it has a good taste, but half of the flat portion of it was dried out, and the other half could have been more tender.  I think I ended up poking too many holes in the dry half of the flat that let the juices run out and it could have used another couple of hours if anything.  The other two thirds of it were still delicious, and I have a better idea of how to handle it the next time I try.  I’ll get the hang of it yet!

 

Brisket rubbed and ready to go on the grill

7 hours later

13 hours later, just before slicing

The back ribs were a little simpler.  I’ve done ribs a bunch of times, and I know the process pretty well: 225F, 2 hours on, 1-1.5 hours in foil, then 1 more hour out of the foil.  These ones came out perfect – very tender and easy to pull off the bone, but still meaty and not just falling off it.  I’ve been trying different rub recipes for ribs, but this last one might be the keeper.

Ribs, brisket slices, and cubed brisket point

Shayne cutting up the awesome cornbread he made

Feast!

I also made a couple of sauces: one with a ketchup / cider vinegar base and the other with a mustard base.  They’re both pretty good, but still need some tweaking.  My younger brother Shayne grilled some peppers and mushrooms, and made an amazing cornbread with bacon, shallots and minced jewel peppers.

All together, it was a great meal and a successful first BBQ.  Looking forward to the next one, and to many more this summer!

#53 – Host a BBQ – Done!