What a long, strange trip it's been

About six years ago, I quit a job I'd been at for eight years. I needed something new, it was time to expand my horizons. I created this blog to practice my writing and to share with anyone interested the stories of my experiences. I wrote a bit about this and that, but then got busy with new jobs and life and stuff and things. It's been more than a few years since I even logged into my own site.

I'm giving writing another try now, and I am excited to share some of the lessons and tech that I've dealt with since my last writing. I've worked with several great companies and branched out into platforms and techs that I'd never even dreamed of using. It's been a wild ride with a lot of opportunities to work on things that were way, way outside of my existing expertise.

Through all the teams, and products and techs I've worked with, one of the most powerful lessons I've learned is to be careful with the labels that you apply to yourself and be ever mindful of how you're subconsciously affected by the labels other put on you.

As humans, we use labels and tags to classify and group things. They make it easier for our minds to anticipate how those labelled things act and interact, how they should be used, what they should be used for. It is a powerful tool for our minds to plan and anticipate, especially in the absence of other specific, detailed information.

We have titles and descriptions that try to define our roles in our jobs and relationships: husband, father, software developer. We have cultural and social titles that try to define how we relate to each other socially. Our minds label and tag instinctively and automatically: job title, relationship and family status, political and religious affiliations, core personality traits, and so on.

Labels and tags and titles, oh my! It isn't difficult to get wrapped up in the labels applied to you, from others, and from yourself. Easy sometimes to get locked into a mindset of "this is how I am labelled, so this is how I should act".

But here's the thing: no one, but you, can define who you are. And who you are today is not who you have to be tomorrow. Every day is a chance to reinvent yourself as the kind of person you want to be. Every day is an opportunity to start making a change - and it's never too late to start.

It's never too late to start.

LINQPad with Entity Framework Code First: Could not load file or assembly

LINQPad is 'the hotness' when working with LINQ expressions. A recent beta has allowed you to use LINQPad with Entity Framework Code First; however, I encountered a small hitch when trying to wire everything up.

If you're running into an "EntityFramework assembly not found" error when creating a new connection for "Entity Framework DbContext POCO", just find the "EntityFramework.dll" and XML file in your project\bin directory and copy them into the folder where you're running LINQPad from then restart LINQPad!

Oh yeah, and if you haven't checked out LINQPad yet, do eeeet nao! You'll thank me.

Entity Framework: Error migrating datetime fields

Using the Entity Framework with MVC3 backed by SQL Server, I need to change the name of one of my model's properties that is a DateTime type. Normally, I would just change the name, then use the console to generate a migration script and run it; however, this time the migration script throws an error The conversion of a varchar data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value.What's going on here?

Hickory Smoked Bacon Wrapped Pork Roast

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes per pound
Total time: Varies, depending on roast weight
Makes: ~1lb roast feeds a family of four.

Ingredients (amounts vary based on size of roast)
Lean pork roast (e.g. pork sirloin roast)
Thick cut bacon (about 4-6 pieces for a ~1lb roast)
Heinz 57 sauce (about 1/2c for a ~1lb roast)
Minced garlic (about 1T for a 1lb roast)
Olive oil (about 2T for a 1lb roast)
Salt
Pepper

Other stuff
Wood toothpicks
Charcoal
Hickory wood pieces or chips
Drip pan (I use cheap throwaway aluminum pans)

Steps
1) About an hour before hand, start soaking your wood blocks or chips
2) Start a chimney full of charcoal
3) Coat the roast with a thin layer of olive oil, then season with minced garlic, salt and pepper.
4) Wrap the roast with thick cut bacon, using toothpick pieces to secure the bacon to the roast.
5) Coat the bacon-wrapped roast with a layer of Heinz 57 sauce.
6) When the coals are ready, arrange them in your grill for indirect heat (pile all the coals on one halfof the grill).
7) Fill the drip pan about halfway with water, then place it in the grill on the side without the coals (it goes next to the coals, under the grilling grate).
8) Remove the wood pieces/chips from the water, shake excess water off of them, and put them on the coals.
9) Put the grilling grate in the grill and place the pork roast above the drip pan (not above the coals).
10) Cover the grill and adjust the vents to about half closed. You're trying to maintain an internal grill temperature of around 225F.
11) About half-way through the grilling time, reapply a coating of Heinz 57 sauce and turn the roast over (Keep it over the drip pan, never directly over the coals). If needed, add a few more coals to maintain temperature (I usually add 4-5 new coals at this point, if needed).
12) Roast is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 160F (or 170F if you're paranoid about pork).
13) Remove from the grill and let rest for at least five minutes.
14) Slice and serve, share and enjoy! (Remember to tell people to watch out for the toothpick pieces; or not, if you're feeding people that you don't like)

Five Whys - Getting to the root cause

Anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.

- Douglas Adams

Basic causality, cause and effect, is one of the cornerstones of addressing a problem. When something is broken, it makes sense to find out why it was broken so that you can fix the cause and not just this single instance of the problem.

Get started in "The Cloud" with Amazon Web Services (AWS)

A lot of us have heard about the wonders of "the cloud" and all of the ways that it can benefit us and our businesses, but until you take those steps to see how you could apply it to your situation its hard to really understand what it could do for you. I'm not here to sell any particular cloud service, nor am I preaching that "the cloud" will solve all of your problems and make you a better person. I just wanted to document my personal experience with setting up some web services in the cloud, hopefully it might help someone else who is trying out the cloud for the first time. So, here we go.

Beverage Review: Samuel Adams Alpine Spring

Bottle says: A bright citrusy unfiltered lager.
Brewer's description: Brewed especially for the season, this bright citrusy unfiltered lager is both satisfying and refreshing. It’s the perfect transition from winter’s heavier brews to the lighter beers of summer. Borne of our brewers’ many trips to Germany, Alpine Spring features a unique blend of lager attributes: the balanced maltiness and hoppiness of a Helles, the smoothness and slightly higher alcohol of a traditional spring bock, and the unfiltered appearance of a Kellerbier. The beer is brewed with Tettnang Noble hops to add a unique, bright orange-citrusy aroma and flavor.
Website: http://www.samueladams.com/

Alcohol content: 5.5% by vol.

Appearance: Golden and slightly cloudy

His opinion: Light, crisp 'beer' flavor with definite citrus notes and no serious aftertaste. Not a lot to say about this beer other than that it has a very good taste and that it feels very much like the kind of beer that I'd drink on a summer afternoon.

Her opinion: Like it a lot, light and refreshing. Definitely tastes the citrus flavors in it, very pleasant. A beer that you would want to drink on a hot day. Sweetness isn't noticeable while drinking, but the aftertaste leaves a very slight sweetness in your mouth. One of my favorites.

Overall verdict: We both enjoyed this beer a great deal and will be buying it again!