I am a firm believer these days in using jQuery. I got into jQuery after using Prototype for awhile. The good part about this is that I really liked jQuery. The bad part was that a few plugins I enjoyed under the Prototype regime didn’t necessarily have an equal partner in jQuery land.

Calendar Date Select by Tim Harper was one of those plugins that I really enjoyed using. I poked around in jQuery world to see what jQuery plugins existed for date and time but, didn’t find anything that gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that Calendar Date Select did. So, I decided to start working on a jQuery version that would work unobtrusively.

A little bit up setup:

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jQuery(document).ready(function($){
  $(".jqueryCDS").datetimeselect();
});

a dash of view code (input, span, or div’s work right now):

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<input class="jqueryCDS" type="text" value="">
or
<div class="jqueryCDS">&nbsp;</div>
or
<span class="jqueryCDS">&nbsp;</span>

and you’ve got Calendar Date Select in jQuery land.

Check out the plugin and a demo app over on the most awesome Github.

The functionality is there minus some of the various options. I hope you like it and feel free to fork and help fill in the gaps.

All too often we get caught up in everything we need to do, how much there is to do, and when it needs to be completed by. To make matters worse, the more things that pile up, the more constrained our time to finish it all becomes. Sometimes it can seem like a continuously increasing pressure that is slowly building up and weighing down on you.

I recently read a few things that stuck with me and have tumbled around in my head for awhile now. I’ve started to take them to heart and use them throughout my day to keep everything in perspective. I have to say that it’s made a difference. It has allowed me to shift my focus to what I can get done now instead of worrying about what might not get done in the future. The fact is, by focusing on what we can do now, you tend to waste less time spinning your wheels about what you think you can’t do by some arbitrary deadline in the future.

One Day at a Time

If you haven’t taken time to check it out, Chad Fowler’s, The Passionate Programmer, is a great read that will leave you with many points to ponder in looking forward in both your life and career. One simple question that Chad refers back to (Better Than Yesterday) in pursuit of his goals is simply:

“Was today better than yesterday?”

“Baby Steps”

One Week at a Time

1.  What will I try to improve on next week?

2.  What was I most proud of this week?

3.  What was my biggest accomplishment this week?

4.  What have I done to get closer to my life goals this week?

5.  What was hard for me this week, and why?

6.  What was my biggest waste of time this week?

7.  What did I do this week that made me ashamed?

Enjoy the Present

I tend to take a lot of pride in the things I do. Too often I strive “to change the world” when I take on a project or task. It is a great thing to complete something and know you did your best to produce a product that is better than most out there but, it can tend to work against oneself. So for me at least, I have to take time to balance everything and back off where practical. It’s not always easy to do but, it is effective when facing many pending tasks and deadlines. Simply appreciating where you are in the present versus worrying about what may not get done in the future sets you up for success on a daily basis. This my friend leads to less stress, less worry, and more productivity.

Its been a long time coming to this point. I’ve always been fond of computers and programming. As far back as I can remember I spent time with my Father on a Texas Instruments running Pirate Adventure off of a tape recorder. Since that time I’ve grown through systems and languages. Although I’ve got a degree in Civil Engineering and hold a Professional Engineers License, coding has always had a place in my heart as a curiosity and an outlet. I’ve never done it full time but, have always dabbled.

My first experiences were BASIC and Fortran. I became more object oriented learning VBA in Excel and soon saw the light of moving past macros. I grew into Visual Basic and naturally years ago Visual Studio .NET. In late 2004 I came upon Ruby on Rails and began to play around with it. As many others, I was instantly drawn in. Now 5 years later, I’ve become proficient with Rails and follow its improvements on a regular basis. I’ve used Rails to create applications within my job that is comprised of mainly project management of large engineering projects and budgets. Naturally, with Rails comes HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I’m also a believer in HAML.

Each to his own. Either way, this is my place for my own thoughts and discussions surrounding Ruby and Ruby on Rails as well as anything else I feel the need to expand upon or remember. In addition, this is also the site of my company Rails Signals. A place to show its work and code. Not original? A play on words? Regardless, the domain was available, why not?

If you need work or help with work, I’m available. In time, I hope I can become a valuable resource to the Rails Community. Its become a passion of mine and its time.

The only way to move towards a goal is to begin.

My Fiance and soon to be wife is the greatest Mother in the world. Happy Mother’s day and thank you for all that you do for our family.

My Mother raised me. I think enough is said there. Happy Mothers day and thank you for all the support you’ve always given me.