Category Archives: Personal
Switching Teams: A New Chapter At Automattic
Ever since I joined Automattic three and a half years ago (I can’t believe its been that long already), I’ve worked on our VIP team providing support for our VIP hosting service. This work involved answering questions from our client’s developers as well as doing reviews of all of their code to make sure it will scale well and be secure.
However over the past 6 months to a year I’ve come to realize that as amazing as the people are on the VIP team, I want to get back into writing more code. Writing code is what got me into the WordPress community and Automattic itself in the first place and it is one the things I enjoy doing the most. I enjoy the challenge of designing and executing a coding project.
So on February 18th, I will be leaving the VIP team and switching to a team we call Janitorial. No, I won’t be sweeping up our hallways (that would require having offices!) but will instead be working on projects that slip through the cracks and don’t really fall under the umbrella of any of the other teams at Automattic. This includes making cool internal tools for all my great coworkers to use, something I’ve done a bit in my freetime previously and have really enjoyed.
I’ll miss working with all the great folks on the VIP team but I’m also looking forward to the new challenges that await me.
San Diego Road Trip Final Route
Just for fun I put together a map of the route I took to San Diego and back in my Viper. It was long (over 3100 miles!) and gas was expensive ($851.02, 16.3 miles per gallon) but it was 110% worth it. Thanks again to Stephane and Evan for riding shotgun with me on the way down and the way back, respectively. I had a great time!
WordPress License Plates
I moved my “IM STIG” license plates over to my Dodge Viper so I had to get new plates for my Ford Mustang. What to get on my plates this time around seemed like an obvious choice! 
UPDATE: It looks like I’m the fifth sixth person to get WordPress license plates! Ryan Duff (Pennsylvania), Jonathan Dingman (California), Michael Torbert (North Carolina), AJ Morris (Michigan), and Jesse Friedman (Rhode Island) also have them. Awesome. 
Fulfilling A 17+ Year Dream
Ever since I was 10 years old (if not longer), I’ve wanted a Dodge Viper. I fell in love with the car as a kid and had models of the car growing up. I even picked my username based on the car. Never did I dream that I would actually own one someday though but thanks to saving for years and having a great job, I finally accomplished my 17+ year dream.
I took delivery of it a week ago and am so happy!
You can find more details as well as video over on the page I have dedicated to the car.
-
- That is a lot of engine!
-
- One of the coolest car badges
-
- 200+ MPH speedometer
-
- 13.6 inches (345mm) of rubber, iPhone 4 for scale
Yesterday I Learned
Yesterday I learned that when my 2001 Ford Mustang is running, the key fob is disabled and will not let you lock or more importantly unlock the car doors. I started up the car in order to warm up the cabin, took the key fob off my keyring, and then locked the door behind me. I was only going to be a few car lengths away from it but I didn’t want anyone hopping in it and stealing it. This turned out to be a huge mistake. One call to AAA and 45 minutes of car idling later, they showed up to jimmy a door open for me so I could turn it off. 
Interestingly my dad’s Ford Explorer, which is only a few years newer than my car and shares many common Ford parts, doesn’t do the same thing. It’s key fob works perfectly fine with the engine running. Hmm.
New Computer Table From IKEA
Among the many things I bought from IKEA over the weekend was a new computer table. With some help from my dad who dropped by this evening, we assembled it and moved over my monitors and stuff. I think it looks quite good and it’s very sturdy.
Next up is a proper mouse pad to avoid wearing out the table (using a sheet of printer paper meanwhile) and a proper computer chair, probably a Herman Miller Aeron or something.
Go Kart Racing In Budapest
I was in Budapest last week for the Automattic company meetup and during that meetup a bunch of us went out go karting. I took my GoPro HD Hero 1 with me and mounted it onto my go kart using a suction cup. The videos turned out pretty cool (although lighting was an issue) so I thought I’d post two of them here.
The Opening Race
I had gone to this place a few days before so I already knew the track and the karts but most of the people I was racing against where new to the track and karts, hence the speed differences.
The Championship Race
The people who posted the top 7 best lap times were put into a starting grid and had a final race off. The track’s narrow width made it nearly impossible to pass but it was still quite fun!
The final lap (starting at about 8:20) was a victory lap which is why I was goofing around and trying to powerslide.
My Awesome New License Plates
Check out the badass new license plates I got for my car:
They’re in reference to Top Gear’s Stig character, an anonymous racing driver who’s identity is unknown.
2001 Ford Mustang GT
After two months of driving a beater in order to get good at driving stick and better at driving in general, I’ve moved on to a significantly better car — a 2001 Ford Mustang GT. I picked it up last Saturday night and it has a 260 horsepower V8 with a 5 speed stick shift. It is amazingly fun to drive and is really quick (at least to me, heh).
More pictures can be found over in the thread I made on some forums I run.
Here’s some video I made using my GoPro. It looks like I’m going slower than I actually am due to the wide angle lens and because I have it mounted on the top of my windshield. 
