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Urban Flower: A Haiku

Urban Flower

upon the roadside
waiting for the bees to come
embracing sunlight

My Response to Today’s Word of the Day Challenge: Fresh

suburban wanders
as fresh cut grass’ scent dances
memories awake


Today’s Word of the Day Challenge features “fresh”. As it’s spring here in the suburbs of Seattle, and I’m listening to a mower’s drone, this flowed from my keyboard.

Earthbound Blossoms

Earth bound blossoms

petals scattering
memories of fading spring
summer whispers “soon”

Watching the trees shed their blossoms’ petals is both beautiful and sad. Summer comes on the death of spring.

My Web Developer Evolution

List of Programming Languages

I was just thinking about the programming languages and environments I’ve studied over the past year.

  • The first one was Visual Basic. I have a basic understanding. Not sure how much additional effort I should invest in expanding these skills.
  • Though there’s some argument about whether HTML and CSS are programming languages. I’ll accept that they aren’t languages, but I’ve studied them, and they’re critical to web development. I expect I’m at an intermediate level with these.
  • The last of the web development trinity is Javascript, which is a true programming language and a lot of fun. I don’t know anywhere near what I want to, and so will be continuing in that.
  • With javascript, this quarter I’m studying frameworks, and I’ve been focused on jQuery. I really like how much cleaner it is than straight javascript. I’m just over a month in and enjoying this. Looking forward to continuing to build my skills.
  • Also, this quarter, I’m studying PHP. This has been a lot of fun. This language makes so much more sense to me, at an intuitive level than javascript.  As I’m only 4 weeks in, I’m looking forward to growing that knowledge.
  • At other points in my life, I’ve explored Java and C/C++. This knowledge is quite old and was very basic even in my hey-day. I’ve also explored Fortran and Cobol, but that really just entailed reading some books. If I have the opportunity, I want to explore these deeper.
  • I’ll be diving into tools like SQL and MySQL in the next few quarters. I also want to add Python to that list.

This is just my programming journey. I’ve also explored tools like Access, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Visio. All of this, for me, is fun. I must be a nerd.

Mists flowing the trees

mists flowing through trees

moisture upon the petals

dreaming of the sun

Did You Know Keanu Reeve’s Was In Paula Abdul’s “Rush, Rush” Video?

I loved this song back in the early 90s (I probably still have this CD somewhere in my “stuff”). I remember the video. I don’t remember Keanu Reeves in it, though. Someone else shared this today, which is when I noticed him.

Who would’ve guessed, looking at Keanu Reeve’s early work (yes, that’s Keanu in this video), that he would become the powerhouse that he is now? I certainly didn’t.

Word of the Day Challenge: Traffic, A Haiku

Along The Road

feet moving southwards
a moment free of traffic
memories of the road

Today’s Word of the Day Challenge is Traffic. I took the photo above on one of last week’s daily walks. Memories of long-ago road trips. That moment of breaking free from the urban, of the slog of traffic, facing the freedom, and cruelty, of the road. Washington and Oregon’s backroads, where one goes for miles without seeing other cars. When you do, only the briefest intersection, a burst of rushing wind, abruptly quieting to nothing. Only my engine’s hum remains.

A Walk In The Woods

A Walk In The Woods

underneath the trees
sunlight and clouds dance above
feet upon the earth

Kissed by Sunlight

Rhododendron bloom

kissed by the sunlight
dancing upon the spring breeze
the arc of petals