Blog redesign now enabled. Looks cleaner, fresher. Plus, it has more stuff to do in the sidebar!

Here’s what the site looks like as of today:

I stopped writing in this blog once I realized that people actually read it.  I received a few comments in one technical blog post.  They pushed me over a cliff.  Instead of publishing whatever popped into my mind regardless of the quality of the idea or writing, I hesitated over every agonizing sentence.  Every word strangled me.  I began to engineer my very thoughts to match that post’s style and topic, but I often failed and quit.  I have 28 abortive drafts in WordPress.

I truly enjoyed clarifying my thinking through writing.  So, I will write more.  Perhaps I will write something tautologically wrong or use dirty slang.  Irrespective of the quality, I will write.

Incidentally, Steve Yegge inspired me to start writing again.  If you program computers, you will love Steve’s Drunken Rants.  With his 20 years of programming experience, he cuts down to the bone of programming problems and programming triumphs.  He writes thoughtfully and completely; the rants often span several thousand words.  He wrote them, he claims, while drinking wine during the time when he worked at Amazon.

Now, he works at Google and has a more current blog: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/ .  The newer rants also require serious time commitments to read, but each one imparts to me incredible insights.  For example, I now love JIT’s.

This is a quick, short entry to show myself that writing in this blog is quick and painless.

I make another pledge to write in this blog more often than once annually. Over the past year, I have written over one hundred pages of papers for classes in far too little time due to procrastination. I have written hundreds of e-mails to tenured professors, CEO’s, venture capitalists, and students at the best school in the country. All of this experience has taught me to not flinch at the thought of writing 200, 500, 3000 words. Firefox’s built-in spell-checking also helps. At the least, I can write about what I learn every day, since I learn much both in class and on-line. So, I plan to write much more periodically, primarily for you, my family. Hope you visit often, Mami, Papi, Mark, Jessica, and Jennifer.

Now I know how to write a message in this blog.
Thank you,
D

If you register on the blog, I will make you an editor so that you can write posts.
j

You can always contact me by e-mailing blog AT jperla.com or by sending a letter to
Joseph Perla
228 1941 Hall
Princeton, NJ. 08544

I think, but I am not sure, that you can post onto this blog. You can tell me about what cool things may be happening at home, such as my brother, Mark, getting into FIU!!! This keeps things interesting.

I just noticed that I disallowed registration for this blog. Now, it is turned on, so please register and comment as you wish. Once you register, I can give you privileges to allow you to make new posts on this blog with information about what is happening at home!

Today is the Chinese New Year, the year of the fire dog.




I am reminded of a fortune cookie I once opened at Main Moon Buffet: “Someone will invite you to a Karaoke party.” Maybe this year I will be.

Please feel free to comment on this site. You may have to re-register, but commentling reminds me that you read this blog, and encourages me to write more . You can comment to ask a question, to which I will respond. I may even write a whole blog entry in response to your query.
   Thanks for your support and ideas,
           -joe

I have transfered this blog to a dedicated web server, so that the data loads faster and is more secure. Unfortunately, I had to delete all of the old posts again. HOPEfully this will be the final transition. Soon, I shall put up my schedule for next semester. Thank you for your patience.