It had to be different this year; something had to change. Winter in Minnesota requires and demands both physical and mental resilience, even for people who’ve lived through it for many years. The cold and darkness takes a toll in so many different ways that even the hardiest of residents will complain about it at some point. February of 2014 for me was one of the lowest points I’ve experienced in my life and I wasn’t able to put a finger on exactly what pushed me there other than the brutal conditions. I haven’t really been able to enjoy or appreciate winter since I was a kid, especially the dark months of January and February, and I likely have seasonal affective disorder. With that in mind I decided to look into heading south for an extended period of time last winter and I was lucky enough to earn permission. While ...(Read More)

No matter how many years of experience you have, it seems that there is always something new in the world of programming. It’s a constant process of learning, as programming languages, scripts, tools, software, methods and best practices evolve. Depending on the project, the work can also become abstract and quite challenging; especially when trying to come up with something unique or doing something new for the first time. Every programmer occasionally gets stuck and sometimes documentation isn’t enough, searching doesn’t reveal an acceptable answer and co-workers don’t have any helpful clues. While it may not work for every programmer, I’ve solved several of my most difficult coding issues away from a computer. Not in front of a whiteboard or with a notebook, but by completely taking a break from trying to solve the issue. This concept certainly isn’t anything new and the sudden insights achieved away from the task ...(Read More)