{ StevenHaddox.com }

Since I’ve been tagged by my wife (katie.cupcake), I had to go to my pictures file and post the 4th picture in the 4th file and describe it a little and tag 4 other people.  Since I use iPhoto I just went to my fourth event ever created and grabbed my fourth photo from there. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought that it might be time to give an update.  I have been very busy over with the agile evangelists at Integrum Technologies and have been loving every minute of all the things I’ve managed to absorb in the past few months.  My conversion to Rails has been drastically better than my past experience of learning other languages.  Within weeks I felt confident enough to start my own side projects and dive head-first into things that I used to wait months to fully understand how to do with previous conversions.

I have come to gain a very solid appreciation of AJAX, as long as it is done unobtrusively. I’ve also come to love the purpose and structure that a good MVC framework can provide.  I’ve come to swear by TextMate.  I can’t imagine managing a web project again without it.  I’ve found that pair programming provides amazing benefits that can never be guessed at until you’ve tried it yourself. I’ve found that my errors and refactoring due to pair programming have been exponentially improved and that my development style in general has become more efficent, more detailed, and more well-thought than in the past (in much less time).  I’ve also found that agile methodology as a method of software development just makes sense (for me at least).  Software (especially web based applications or sites) are constantly changing in their requirements, goals, needs, and acceptence criteria.  Agile methodology ties in perfectly with this dynamic lifestyle of software growth.

As to the other things that I’ve been up to, well I’ve started at least three side-projects Read the rest of this entry »

As I woke up yesterday morning I was greeted to a loving wife who looked at me and said, “I’ll get her, you sleep in.  It’s Father’s Day.”  I had completely forgotten the occasion and was too tired (as I always am) to argue.  I gratefully rolled over and slept for another few hours while Katie took care of Paisley and let me sleep.

Katie made me a beautiful Father’s Day card from Paisley that was adorable.  I never could decide what I wanted for Father’s Day (seeing how the iPhone 3G doesn’t come out until July 11th).  Read the rest of this entry »

Katie just made the cutest and most adorable drawing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The symbolism in this piece of 4″x 5.75″ artwork is absolutely amazing. But first the art itself:

As to the symbolism, keep reading to find out about it all. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the big 20, welcome to no longer being a teenager and beginning the process of getting “old.” I know I’m supposed to be able to come up with cunning phrases about how your best days are behind you or you’re not going to feel the same you did say 1 year ago, but meh. I’m not in the most cunning mood right now and I think you’re every bit as perfect as you were 24 hours ago so screw all the sayings ;)

I’m so glad that we got to go to the renaissance festival (a real one, not like that 3 acre one in Virginia). I had a blast and look forward to going with you again as much as we can in the future. Thanks for making my weekend so fun even though it was your birthday celebrations!

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I love you and I hope you’ll have as good a birthday this year as you had last year and that I can make every birthday as good.

Wishing you the happiest birthday ever,

Steven