Hi, my name is Joe, and I'm a 9-5 coder.

"Hi Joe."

I first noticed I had a problem after about 6 months at my current job.  I had tons of ideas running through my head and just no motivation to work on any of the projects I told myself I would do.  And now, it's even worse.

I started a pdf organization program over 4 months ago.  Nothing fancy, just moves and renames files.  But I hit a hurdle with third-party assembly that I was using to access the pdf info.  Then I had to start using a new set of comtrols at work and that was that.  Work: 1, Personal project: 0

So I thought i just needed more motivation to actually work on something for me.  So I recently (about a week ago) purchased my new domain name, MyGameList.net . I thought that buy getting my domain it would somehow light the fire inside to get more done.  So far it hasn't worked.

So I ask you, my fellow devs.  What's the best way to keep from getting so burned out with your work code that you no longer have the drive to work on your personal goals?

Ok guys, finally got the video ripped and converted.  Sorry it's in 6 parts, but YouTube has a 10min cap on uploads.

If anyone wants/needs to movie file on a dvd just shoot me a PM/comment.  Till next time......

Finally found my memory card with the photos that I got at C4C.

 

The whole Boy Scout Troop 813 team on the last day (minus me, someone had to be behind the camera :P

On my way to work today I decided that some major refactoring needed to be done to some code that I had written before.  There had been multiple changes made to the design and, due to time constraints, the code had not yet been cleaned up.  There was another developer who had been having trouble working with the code because, let's face it, most people don't write code the same way, even when there are standards for the company.  So in an attempt to make my life easier, my coworkers lives easier, and become a better programmer I started to clean house.

I realised soon after that scrubbing the code would also help to resolve a bug that affecting the program.  Which, of course, got me excited.  I just love it when things work .  So I talked to my boss for a minute about some of the changes that I thought we could make.  This is where things went bad.  He told me that "refactoring is a low priority right now".  Now, while refactoring is not the most important thing in the world alot of the time, it does make code more efficent and also could solve problems.  So i ask you, my fellow devs.......

As agile programmers how important is refactoring?  Is it something we should save for a rainy day, or something we should keep up on?  What do you think?

As some of you may know I attended the Coders 4 Charities event this past weekend in Kansas City.  And I must say, the event was awsome.  The combination of helping out the charities and being around other developers for that much time was a real neat thing.  I hope that there are more events like this in the future. 

On another note, I was at the ArcReady conference this morning in Overland Park.  3 of the other 4 members of our C4C team were there.  It was nice seeing them again so soon.  I'll have a link up to the Sharepoint site that we developed for Troop 813 up as soon as it's live.  I also have a video of the closing ceremonies that I just got converted last night so it'll be on YouTube no later than this evening. Stay tuned!