training and twitter

This week I have been spending my time in Brookfield at a programming training class. It is a five day class. So far (it’s now Thursday morning) I could have stayed home as it has been WAY more a lower level class than I anticipated. It appears as though today we’ll finally be touching on some topics that I want to learn more about but rather than start to pay attention now, I’ve decided to put up a blog post.

Luckily, I have internet access in the classroom because otherwise I would have stabbed my pen in my eye by Tuesday morning. Now I know training classes are for learning, but out of the nine people in this class only one other person has had any programming experience in the past four years. And I’m not talking about with this technology in particular, but ANY programming in general. Brutal. Oh, and there's an older gentleman in here that has worn the same Adidas warm up pants every day, so there's that.

Anyway, this downtime has provided me an opportunity to try out something that I've been meaning to for quite awhile now, Twitter. Twitter is a (very) popular website/application that that allows users to post brief posts or "tweets" about what they are doing at that particular time. Users can also choose to "follow" (I think "stalk" is a better word) other users to keep up to date on what they are doing. Apparently blogs and phones aren't cutting it these days. So on the various tech-geek blogs I read, some people are really into Twitter thinking it's the best thing to come along since Starbucks. I didn't get it. It sounded like a pretty lame thing to me. Why would anyone care what I was doing at that particular moment. "Hey, I'm thinking of jumping out that window" or "Hey, those enchiladas are really wearing on me. Time to hit the can."

So this week, in order to keep myself occupied, I have been using Twitter to prove or disprove it's lameness and I'm happy to report that yes, it's lame...and sad. Now don't get me wrong, even though I don't really use sites like MySpace or Facebook, I see where they can be addicting or even useful, but Twitter just doesn't cut it in those terms. For example:


Who cares?! I don't get how this is "cool" or even interesting let alone addicting as some people claim it is. Anyone else out there use Twitter? Sound off in the comments if you have.

back, cottaging

Back from hiatus which was actually a nice vacation with a couple buddies out in Utah for a camping/hiking weekend in Zion National Park which was awesome. Definitely more to come on that. Speaking of camping...

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This past Memorial Day weekend, a group of friends that we have a yearly camping tradition with decided to upgrade ourselves from camping, to cottaging. Rather than tent it out in the wilderness like cavepeople, slaving away on a weekend that is supposed to be for relaxing, and remembering, the group felt that it was time. Time for the 30+ year olds to move up the food chain and rent a cottage full with the standard camping necessities like beds, showers, hot tubs and 42" HDTVs.

We rented a little cottage up in Poynette, Wisconsin near Lake Wisconsin and immediately any regret of the decision to upgrade was long forgotten. Kirsten and I arrived first out of our group and was welcomed by the owner, Dave, who was doing some work on the cottage next door which he also (recently) owns. He was great and made us feel very welcome. He has done an incredible job fixing up the cottage to be the rental property it is today. It sits on a little river that leads into Lake Wisconsin. He really thought of everything in regards to what a seemingly well prepared group like ours would forget when camping. Cottaging 1, Camping 0.

The weather was great all weekend except for a brief period of downpour on Saturday night. That only lasted a half hour or so though so no biggie. Saturday during the day was gorgeous so the guys packed up the sticks and went golfing. It was a shorter, yet very difficult, course nearby. Cottaging 2, Camping 0. Also, we did a little fishing off the dock most of the weekend and while the "other" Derek caught numerous, I stepped up and hauled in a couple beauties like the one pictured. I think something was wrong with our camera though, because I swear this one was like ten pounds and at least a foot longer.

Sunday we went to a nearby winery called Wollersheim and went on the tour which was pretty neat. I had heard of the winery before (it's the sister winery of Cedar Creek Winery in Cedarburg) but I didn't expect it to be as nice as it was as far as the buildings, grounds, etc were concerned. At the end of the tour they of course have a tasting (Cottaging 3, Camping 0) which they picked 4-5 wines off the list to pour and talk about. Pretty standard. But then after that was done, the guide went back up to the top and went through ALL the wines they had there for anyone who wanted to try them. No explanations this time, just tasting. Pretty sweet. The winery also served as the backdrop for our group photo for the weekend. (Notice Kirsten's little belly on the far left!)

So while camping always holds a place in my heart, the cottaging weekend sure was a great time. It just provided a lot more things to do which was great. A little something for everyone. I love camping, but the cottaging trip was a fantastic time.

brief hiatus

Brief hiatus until Sunday. I already have a post ready to go minus pictures. Be back then.

Have a good rest of the week!