Blog

A little bit of fiction.

by bvkonline

So I whipped up this quick site to bolster my online presence and to force me to write more.  So enjoy! (or if necessary, mock incessantly and bring up 30 years from now when I’m running for mayor of something). I just wanted to start writing but didn’t want to get caught up with brainstorming proper nouns, so ignore the generic names and places and enjoy a more rambling, more fictional blog post than usual!

Proto opened his eyes and saw sky. This was quite unexpected but it made him happy regardless. His mouth tasted like plastic, which meant his armor had administered a drug but he couldn’t remember which one.  He was issued a special ops combat suit before the mission start and both operatives had scoffed at it. This was supposed to be an easy one. Make contact with the VIP, verify they had the data intel, extract them. Easy peasy.

He lifted his head to take a look around which made the HUD in his helmet light up. Location: Unknown.  Temperature: 27F.  He was laying in snow covered field scattered with smoking debris. He tried to move his right leg and felt hot fire shoot up his leg. “Warning: Medical attention required” flashed in bold red letters on the bottom of his helmet. Painkillers = Plastic, as the image of that in the instructor’s sloppy handwriting plastered on a whiteboard from just 6 months ago came back from a deep recess of his mind.  He sat up while instructing his suit to do a medscan. The HUD interacted mostly via scanning his retina’s movement, anything more advanced required using the brain-chip.  This was only Proto’s 2nd time using a combat suit other than in basic training many years ago. He was a veteran intelligence analyst of over 15 years, but the past 14.8 of those years had been behind a desk with minimal field work.  And the combat suits he trained in 15 years ago were large bulky things, the one he was wearing now laid comfortably underneath his clothes, waiting for his brain-chip command to spring out and cover his hands and face. Or would have fit over his clothes, a quick look revealed only smooth black metal, apparently his clothes has suffered the same fate as the burning debris all around him. “Diagnosis Complete:  Severe fracture of right Tibia, 2 sprained ribs on the left and multiple suit fractures”  His HUD gave him an overview of his body, noting the broken bones in red and about a dozen holes dotting his suit. He did a quick tech diagnosis and the armor around his leg seemed to be intact. Using the brain-chip he instructed the armor to support the broken leg and slowly got to his feet.

It was supposed to be easy. Intelligence had a deep cover asset stationed in Astro station. Rumors were swirling that something big was happening and they wanted the asset out. Since Astro Station was stationed so deep in Coalition space, the asset couldn’t risk sending data over Coalition controlled networks so would he would do physical data drops every year or so when he traveled. It had been over a year and a half and he was long overdue. Astro Station was the main hub for various criminal and terrorist organizations, as well as home to both a Coalition embassy and intelligence office. Having foreign intelligence assets there was a violation of about 6 treaties, but Military Intelligence couldn’t pass the opportunity, hence the deep cover of this particular asset.

The asset had been stationed at Astro Station almost 5 years. Proto and the other operative didn’t even know his name, which is how these things often went. Proto was traveling with Vets, who had 10 years of experience over him and had spent his time pre-intelligence as a Marine. Vets was a great intelligence officer and semi-famous if you were in the correct circles. There were rumblings that he had been a part of the Onassi assassination but no one knew for sure.  What they did know about Vets is that he was a highly decorated soldier in the Blackfield campaign before coming over to Military Intelligence.

Proto and Vets had taken a slew of PubTrans shuttles eventually ending up in Astro station fairly confident that they were alone.  Intel loaded up a shipping container with their transport and gear and shipped it here weeks ago, that was their first stop after disembarking their shuttle.   They grabbed their gear, donned their armor and noticed there was a small black vehicle in the large mostly-empty cargo container. Vehicles were next to useless in Astro station, the trains were faster and the few roads were kilometers away from most of the usual stops.

“Why the heck did they give us one of those?” Proto asked Vets while pointing at the vehicle.   Vets grumbled something about government overspending and he opened the door and fired up the engine, the car recognizing his implant.

END OF CHAPTER

 

Sideways Ideas

by bvkonline

Amongst the hustle and bustle of a busy Thanksgiving weekend I found myself with some free time (somehow!) on Black Friday. Due to naps and shopping the 12 people who had taken up residence at my parent’s house were all busy or otherwise occupied. Taking advantage of this I grabbed a beer, my trusty bluetooth speaker and headed to their hot tub (The suburbs aren’t always awful!)

Due to some weird echoes in our neighborhood I decided to not broadcast the gory sci-fi book I was listening to (Book II of Red Rising) for fear of forcibly subjecting any children in the area to the graphic book. I opted for one of my favorite podcasts, Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale. If you’re not familiar, Reid (co-founder of LinkedIn) talks to startup founders about how to properly scale businesses like Instagram and Netflix from a couple people with an idea to giant billion-dollar organizations. It’s chocked full of great business advice, even if you are just an IT guy at a ~90-year-old construction company and I would highly recommend it.

The episode I fired up and forced anyone in a nearby backyard to listen to was Episode #12 with Diane Green, co-founder of VMware. Diane and Reid talk about having a vision, starting a software virtualization company during the dot-com boom (Software is dead!) and the importance of processing “Sideways ideas.” This quote from Reid rang hit home:

” Quiet conversations among colleagues are critical for any idea that comes to you sideways.“

My team and I aren’t building the next Netflix, we’re not working toward an IPO and hoping Facebook acquires us, but this quote applies so well to our team and our process. So many of our ideas stem from “I was out walking my dog” or “On the way in I was thinking” and turn into quick hallway meetings that can turn into innovation. The importance of having solid company culture that encourages cooperation and free thinking is crucial to the success of any team, not just tech teams. I know I can bounce ideas off of my boss or other team members without fear of them trying to steal credit or sugar coating a potentially terrible idea.

Having people around you that you can freely bounce sideways or “crazy” ideas off of is what drives innovation. I might have an idea that I think is amazing and my co-worker will point out an obvious flaw I missed, or someone will have an idea they think is terrible and someone else will point out the benefit that the original idea-haver missed. Sure, there are ideas that are all-around bad and waste the team’s time in vetting them, but that time-cost is nothing compared to the time + innovation created by bouncing sideways ideas off of one another.

And in order to have these quiet conversations, you need to cultivate a community culture that allows it. That’s why it’s so important to hire for culture (Another Master of Scale podcast on that here) vs. only hiring on ability. It’s something to consider while interviewing candidates as well: “Is this someone I can bounce sideways ideas off of and will they contribute their own?” It is so important to create an environment in your team where anyone feels they can freely contribute ideas. Innovation drives the business forward, and without forward momentum the business will fall stagnant. So the next time an idea hits you out of nowhere, bounce it off your co-workers and see what they think, as it might be your next big innovation.

My A.D.D. embracing workspace

by bvkonline

I’ve noticed something when I work out of my office in Chinatown: I get fidgety. Around 3 o’clock I’m sick of sitting and my ADD flares up like a teenage boy’s acne before a dance. No amount of walking around or trips to the kitchen for more coffee or water helps subdue the wandering beast that is my ADD brain.

I realized that I don’t have that in Mokena (where I now work 4/5 days) and I started to wonder why (no doubt when I was supposed to be doing something important).  I discerned that my Mokena setup offers all sorts of positive avenues for my ADD to take without derailing my productivity.

When I started here in 2011 I was given the standard Herman Miller chair that’s all throughout corporate America. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great chair. There’s a reason it’s the staple in both startups and giant corporations alike. But it didn’t help me transition from the active college student to the corporate desk jockey as well as I liked. I was constantly sore and stiff throughout the day and my back and joints felt like I was 52, not 22. It turns out sitting for 9+ hours plus commuting in the car for another hour or two isn’t great for you. So I swapped out the expensive Herman-Miller chair for a $30 exercise ball.

Unbeknown to me at the time, exercise balls have a well-documented history of helping with ADD (especially in schools) and I can definitely feel the difference. The bouncing, rolling (and when over-caffeinated, occasionally falling off) serves my ADD as a positive distraction, giving my mind some leash to play with but not enough for it to run free.  And no more aches in my back and joints!

And speaking of over-caffeinated, caffeine has a similar history of helping both adults and children with ADD maintain focus, thus explaining my caffeine addiction (although there’s something to be said about my sleep habits, but hey I’ll take what I can get).

In my quest to eliminate sitting and feeding my ADD brain, a couple years ago I bought some cheap monitor risers, forcing me to stand or sit on my ball and crane my neck. When my team moved about a year ago, we all got IKEA standing desks and those have been extremely helpful. When I start getting fidgety I can stand up, (or depending on the music and caffeine levels, possibly dance) which burns more calories and give my brain another positive distraction.

standbvk

Music has always been a huge help in keeping my ADD under control. I remember trying to do my homework in 6th grade and arguing with my parents that my Discman helped me, it wasn’t the distraction they thought it was. Music has always been a big part of my life and it’s a constant aid in keeping me focused. Like the ball and standing desk, Music is another positive distraction. When my brain gets bored, it can think about the music playing for a little bit and come back to the task at hand, instead of going down an ADD spiral that ends up with me buying Gaffers tape on Amazon or on the Wikipedia page for John Wilkes Booth.

Since I’ve stopped medicating my ADD, controlling it has been a combination of self-medicating with caffeine and giving it positive distractions that allow my brain to run wild for a couple brief seconds before reigning it back in. And perhaps next time my ADD takes me to Amazon I should buy an exercise ball for my Chinatown office too.

 

 

 

There and Mac Again: a Surface Tale.

by bvkonline

Those of you who know me know that I have an affinity for all things Apple.  My daily carry bag always rocks an iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and my Grid-IT is filled with various white accessories.

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(The aforementioned Grid-IT)

That being said, I work in a mostly windows shop and have begrudgingly used an HP desktop since I started in 2011. I’ve been working remotely more and came up for an upgrade so decided to upgrade to a laptop, specifically the Surface Book. I was excited to see Microsoft’s flagship product and willing to jump ship after Apple’s lackluster offerings lately.

My primary mobile computer the last 5 years has been my personal Macbook Air that has gotten me through all sorts of off-hours maintenance, Microsoft classes and been a great travel companion.  We opted for a refurbished Surface Book with Intel Core i7, dGPU, 16GB of Ram and 512SSD with a Surface dock to see if it would change my mind.

My first impression of the Surface Book was great. The screen pops off and can operate as a separate tablet for up to 4 hours.  The screen is fairly high resolution (3000 x 2000), the keyboard is solid and the touchpad is pretty close quality-wise to that of my beloved Mac.

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(Surface Book next to some delicious cold brew and lemon pound cake from Everybody’s Coffee.)

Software is where things get dicey. Windows 10 is a good product. Microsoft fixed a lot of the problems with Windows 8 and created a stable, decent operating system.  Despite any stagnation Apple has had lately, they’re still winning in the little things. When I press Play/Pause on my Mac it will play or pause whatever media is playing at the time. The Surface Book does it about 10% of the time. I can connect to a new bluetooth device with two clicks on my Mac, takes about 7 in Windows 10.

Scaling is a mess. Since the display is higher resolution than most monitors, plugging in an external monitor (or two via the dock) will cause any open windows to resize, seemingly all picking the same random size that has no relation to any resolution being used.

The Surface Book is a great windows computer, possibly one of the best and I’m very thankful for the work-provided upgrade. However despite Microsoft’s solid offering if given the chance I’d totally pick up a new MacBook Pro instead.

 

Hello World.

by bvkonline

Hey all.

So the “Bryan who blogs” from 2007 is back with a bang! I launched this website in order to increase my web presence and to function as a staging ground for some new projects that will be coming soon.  So on top of that I thought I’d dip my toes back into the blog pond and see how it feels. As of now I have no concrete plan for a central topic or theme, just going to try and write consistently and see where it takes me. I’m assuming that will take me over a mixture of pop culture, music, cooking, SQL and whatever else is knocking around in my mind that usually only my family and friends get to experience. So welcome, dear reader to wherever this journey will take us.

Hopefully this will have less emo quotes than my 2007 Xanga but no promises.