ping pong in the office

So, all of the Engine Yard offices I've been in have ping pong tables. Secret to our success? Maybe. There is something about taking a break to do something physical while you're thingking really hard on a problem for a long time. Moving around makes you forget some of the rigidity you had built up around the problems, and you have headspace then for solutions. I don't really play ping pong, but I pace, I dance, whatever works. Sometimes I just need to stare out the window for a little while. Really, it's stillness of mind that you're after, the not-thinking. It's the creative headspace, the white canvas. The moment of quiet before ideas come rushing to fill it. Beginner's Mind: Stretching that moment out is Zen meditation (and one of the reasons I have a zen symbol tatooed on my arm). The longer you can stretch that moment out, the louder the ideas get. Sometimes, something really brilliant will come, other times, it's just a solution to a tricky process problem. I know I should just post single images to twitter, but that's so much harder to get to later, and this format makes the photos look better. Also, this is a good excuse to air my stupid ideas.

david's dinner

Man, this guy can cook. App, Main, Dessert, all delicious.

can't think of a title

Cool folks in the Dublin office though. This was day 2, I think. Maybe day 3?

Then I went to Ireland

So, I did a first blush edit of the pictures I took in Ireland, and got it down under a hundred; don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them. I'd really like to get it all into 3 or so posts. The trip out was fairly uneventful. I couldn't sleep on the plane, so I shot pictures out of the window to amuse myself. The first one here was the best of the lot. I wonder what some of those lights are. Some of them tally as reflections off the window or lens flares. At least one doesn't. By the time I arrived, I'd only slept 2 hours in the previous 36, and I was a bit lagged. Even so, I was in a new place, and filing thoughts away for later. One thing I noticed was how there seemed to be some thought put into almost every structure. A bridge isn't just a bridge, but an opportuity to show off. Even the corner liquor store was less molded plactic and stamped metal than you'd see here. The plan of going to brunch on arrival turned into go to lunch, and then stagger across half the city after a SIM card with Long (one of my co-workers). The nearest phone store was 3 (named when 3g was a new thing). It was in a big open shopping area, a street lined with shops whose name I forget. The fake fakir, levitating, was there, with just about the worst sunburn I've ever seen.