zacharyc

One of the best things about being back on the East Coast is that I’m much closer to my brothers and their kids. I get to be the uncle I want to be. Well, at least I get to try to be the uncle I want to be. During this break, I’ve spent a bunch of time with my family for the holidays. The number of times I’ve been surrounded by four kids under ten this week is a new record. While most of my friends consider me a high-energy person, spending this time around the young one saps my energy like no other. I’m coming into the New Year Holiday tired. I don’t regret any minute I spend with the kids, but they are intense. I don’t even feel like I use too much energy with them, yet when they leave, I’m done. I want nothing more than to sit on the couch and nap. It’s an enormous effort to get up and do other personal goals. ...

As a software engineer, you tend not to trust code you don’t write yourself. Or even if you have written it yourself, there is a tendency to think we could write it better this time. Eventually, you run up against a project that is too complex to write from scratch. You will look for libraries and tools to help you solve the problem. Once a library has been located, the questions only grow. Is the library safe? What dependencies does this particular library have? How do I know I can trust it? ...

As a dog daddy, I have a lot of fears. I’m afraid of how I support her life. I’m worried that I won’t get her out enough. No matter how much I get her out, I’m always afraid it isn’t enough. When we go out, I’m worried that I give her too much freedom or not enough freedom. I’m embarrassed when she does something terrible and proud when she does something good. ...

Merry Christmas to All! This is a very special holiday many people around the world. It celebrates the birth of their savor. As someone who is jewish, I was taught in herbrew school to accept that there are multiple paths to G-d, and that mine isn’t the only one that matters. So while I don’t believe that Jesus was the messiah, I respect the fact that others do and I wish them a joyous celebration of their of the birth of the chosen one. ...

Recently the presdient of the University of Pennsylvania was let go from her position because her position on chants of “intifada” on campus. Her argument was that free speech should always be perserved. In the same round of testimony, the presidents of Harver and M.I.T. were also questioned and also answered that while the phrase translating to a Jewish genocide was horrible, it shouldn’t be stopped because of free speech. ...