Weekend, Coding, Dogs, and.... Babies?

It has been a little while since my last written update from my personal account...

D'awwwwwwwww'gs
Most of my updates have been from using my Exhaust (shameless plug) project -- I think this is about 50% due to the fact that I'm really excited about working on it, and 50% due to the fact that at the end of the day -- I'm just not a great writer / blogger, and I don't have much of interest to say....

Definitely a fan of logging my workouts. Not only is this an easier format for me to share my random thoughts and feelings -- but I feel like the act of getting out and moving around encourages me to think and clear my head bit.

Having a nice slow start to Saturday morning over here -- a few cups of coffee, scratchin' the pups, and trying to get my God-Daughter Pepper to warm up to me. Easier said than done, it seems. She seems to be pretty generally un-friendly towards dudes at this point, which is a shame, as it's absoloutely destroying my ego. Who knew that I so desperately wanted to be accepted by a little human that can't even say my name -- though instead of "Mark" she says "Bark", which is actually just as good as most Starbucks Baristas these days.

WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME!?!?!?

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DJANGOOOOO!!!

As I've been working on my @exhaust project -- my coding (read: 96% python, and the remainder would be JS, HTML, CSS, SQL) skills have gone from what I would call "piss poor" to "somewhat useful, but still pretty embarassing" to "Hey this actually is starting to work, and doesn't look too gross either!".

I see a lot of "coding" tutorials / examples on here -- maybe if there's interest, I could do some write-ups about Python / Django in the near future. Lord knows I'm going to have to go back and clean up my code sooner or later, so that might be a good time to do it...

It has been a pretty interesting process to say the least. I've got a fairly "techincal" / "Math-oriented" background, so a lot of this stuff comes naturally to me, which is nice -- but I'm starting to become more and more certain that the trades-people of the future are going to be coders. For those of you that have read / seen some of my other posts, you may recall that I work as a civil engineer, and get involved in construction projects. These are the trades-people of today, and even the past in many cases -- though, construction equipment is rapidly becoming more technical.

• New, cutting edge excavators have GPS nodes on each corner of the bucket, and operators are trained almost like playing a video game, with digital dashboards -- and they're able to get within millimetres of design grades with ease.
• Drone pilots are becoming surveyors of the future.
• Construction managers need to know how to run optimization software.
• Design software is slowly starting to integrate with Virtual / Augmented Reality hardware for design / presentation purposes...

I got a little off track and into the weeds there, but I think it speaks to how quickly the world is becoming more technical and it illustrates why I'm interested in developing (pun not intended) my own coding skills. It started off pretty intimidating, because you feel like you have to "invent the wheel" for each project -- but the more you dig around, the easier it is to find that someone else has already made great strides in a module that ticks off one of your little boxes.

Source: XKCD
This comic, while always pretty funny, never really made that much sense to me up until a few months ago.

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What Drives Me | AKA - What is Entrepreneurial Spirit?

At my work, we speak a lot about understanding, encouraging, and fostering the "entrepreneurial spirit" and how we can embolden or create "vibrant communities" -- I was out for an easy jog with a coworker the other day, and we started talking about what we each though that meant. At the end of the session, I was homing in on my personal definition of what "entrepreneurial spirit" is:

To me -- entrepreneurial spirit, is just following ones own passion and spirit.

To be fair -- it's harder than it sounds, and it relies greatly on having the opportunity to follow ones passion. I'm a pretty big believer in the idea that if:

• People are freed from the requirement of needing work a job that they don't care about (which is likely bad for the planet at the same time), then;
  • It will allow them to focus on what they're passionate about.
• This starts to cascade into something that at the very least, is less destructive than a tedious job -- and could lead to creating something beautiful (art, writing, family, community).

For those of us lucky enough to find a job / career that we enjoy, I think the same thing applies, and is hopefully easier to execute. If you spend some time focussing on your passion, it might eventually bubble up into something applicable with your work -- for me it's slowly starting to happen. I'm learing a bit about python wrappers for stormwater modelling, 3d-model reconstruction from drone footage, and VR presentations. My Exhaust project might even start creeping into my work environment a bit too, if I flesh it out well enough. At the very least, the GIS mapping and database management I'm learning is pointing towards something useful.

That's enough rambling, and at this point, I have some hot food in front of me. So I'll sign off and leave you all with this takeaway questions:

What does entrepreneurial spirit mean to you, and, what -- if anything -- are we able to do to encourage it in those around us?