Knickknacks, Swag, & Pieces of Flair

October 2, 2024 was my last day at my job as a Principal Software Engineer for Cloud ID at Synacor. Originally hired on September 3, 2013 as a Web Operations Engineer I was culled in the “Synapocalypse” in March, 2014. After re-applying for a Configuration Engineer position I was rehired on April 14, 2014 and kept increasing my position until it was finally obsoleted.

Over the 10+ years of corporate work I acquired a hefty lot of company bling. This posting is to go over all the captured “shinies” and reminisce about how awesome and excessive some things can really be.

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I Envy You, Alan Rickman

I recently learned about a book of Alan Rickman’s diaries that was published after his death titled “Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman“.

I, like many others, used to have a diary as a child. Mine started around 1995 when I was in 8th grade. I used to write 2-3 times a week in my 4″x6″ 3-ring bound diary, and there always seemed to be pages begging for more of my life to be etched into the pages. My later months when I was 16 found me burning the book and throwing it and the seared pages into a fast-flowing brook in Kennedy, New York. All those memories, committed to pages and easily referenceable now gone like the leaf travelling down the stream.

Alan Rickman, born 1946, started to keep a detailed progress of his day-to-day starting in 1992. He was 46 at the time. I’m 41, with a slap-in-the-face-2-weeks until I’m 42, and I’ve decided to begin to keep a diary as well. I’m not going to go buy journals with intricate designs from shops, no. I’m going to do it my own way.

https://github.com/mjheick/diary is my project, and it’ll be hosted. It’s currently in the infant stages of development, but I do have the database mockup done and I can add to that as frequently as I’d like to until the frontend is done.

I feel I have to do this, in my own way, in the style of how Alan Rickman detailed his life. The fact that he did it from 46 to his final breaths amazes me. My Grandfather did this as well until his last breaths, and then my Grandmother continued it on.

I feel nothing of value can be acquired of my legacy except by the people that stumble across it and find value for themselves in it, and that’s enough of a driver to do something as simple as this.

A quote from Alans diary sits with me:

14 September

11am Three minutes’ silence which we shared with Kiss Me Kate cast.

Supper at home. Watching more coverage. Still trying to understand something. Cannot remove the fact of 4 million starving in Afghanistan not to mention the innocents in Iraq. There is such political naivety in the US that it only takes one image of five Palestinians dancing in the street to obliterate the bigger picture.

Madly Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman

Presumption of Innocence

Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. It is a cardinal principle of our system of justice that every person accused of a crime is presumed to be innocent unless and until his or her guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt. The presumption is not a mere formality. It is a matter of the most important substance.

https://www.mad.uscourts.gov/resources/pattern2003/html/patt4cfo.htm

I’m sure a huge majority of American Citizens failed courses such as Civics or Government & Economics, or whatever flavor of “this is how elected positions connect together” since this basic tenant of their Human Rights are constantly misunderstood.

I’ve watched many YouTube videos about people being questioned by the Police department. I’ve seen them fall and repent under the constant pressure of basic officers upwards to grizzled detectives.

AttorneyTom did a reaction video called “Knowing Your Rights Can Change EVERYTHING”, where he does his best to not too worked up in defense of the person but he makes this specific point every time regarding interacting with the police:

These tests are not in your best interest. Field sobriety test is easy to fail if your sober. And guess what? If you pass them it doesn’t help you. It does not help your case. It can only hurt you. Remember, it’s the governments burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt you are guilty of the crime they are alleging. You don’t prove your innocence. They have to prove you’re guilty. There is a difference.

AttorneyTom, Knowing Your Rights Can Change EVERYTHING, 6:10
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Unfortunate Shock and Awe

Ahh, Fall. 22 of September, 2021. I was supposed to have court today but lawyers felt like it could be delayed another 3 months.

The first day of fall started off as any odd day would. Molly and I decided to take the newly minted 3-year-old to the Strong Museum of Play, eat some food and then come back to Buffalo. We jumped on the 490 in Rochester, sailed west to hook up with the Interstate 90, and then cruised at the normal pace. Due to the gas tank being a bit low we decided to turn into the reservation at Pembroke and fill up.

Travelling northbound into Indian Falls Molly noticed a tan pickup truck on the right side of the road, and I had noticed a huge white semi truck in the field and what appeared to be a mess/entanglement of a vehicle below the rear of the truck. We did not realize what we were driving by, and we thought it odd for such a situation to exist. Obviously there were not emergency vehicles around, no sirens or lights, and we were both questioning what we thought we saw, arguing over the existence of the semi truck/pick up truck. Regardless, we drove the next 4 miles off to the reservation, got some gas, and then departed.

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