Ryan Martinsen's Blog

Cities I visited in 2011

2012-01-02T22:30:00Z

These are the cities I spent one or more nights in during 2011:

Adirondak Loj Wilderness Campground (okay, it's not a city, but I spent a night there)
Barcelona, Spain
Berlin, Germany
Corolla, North Carolina
Disney Cruise, Eastern Caribbean (yeah, I'm totally counting this as a city)
Disney World, Florida
Düsseldorf, Germany
Eagle Mountain, Utah
Florence, Italy
Interlaken, Switzerland
Kaysville, Utah
Los Angeles, California
Madrid, Spain
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Milan, Italy
New York, New York
Palo Alto, California
Paris, France
Riverton, Utah
Rome, Italy
Washington, D.C.

Notable places I visited, but didn't spend the night:

Boston, Massachusetts
Venice, Italy

Where did you go?

An all new blog

2011-07-28T19:45:00Z

It's been a really long time since I last made major changes to my website. It's also been a long time since I posted here regularly. One of those two things just changed. Hint: the former. I make no promises regarding my post frequency. That never ends well.

So if you've never been to my site before, the design you see here is drastically different from what it used to be. I've wanted a change for a long time, but every time I tried I would get caught up in the design. I tried too hard to do something fancy, but in the end I went for the minimalist approach you see here. I came up with it, I wrote it. It's simple and I'm happy.

I started this blog in September 2004. That's 6 years, 10 months, and 25 days on Wordpress. Today is day 1 (for those who struggle with math) on nanoc. No, there's nothing horribly wrong with Wordpress. I just don't like updating it all the time. Also, I want to write posts in Vim or TextEdit or whatever I feel like. I wanted version control for my posts and pages. I wanted to learn something new. I like static content when there's no real reason to have dynamic content (i.e., Wordpress runs off a database and builds pages everytime you load them, whereas nanoc builds your site only when you tell it to). Yes, you can cache with Wordpress. I just like this solution better.

Do I recommend nanoc to others? Only if you're a nerd. And even then, it's not for everyone.

Sources of inspiration: BenCrowder.net, justin hileman dot info, nvie.com, and Steve Losh.

What about comments? They're coming. I've got something of a crazy plan for them which I'm pretty excited about. Stay tuned or whatever.

Note: I'm still working out a few bugs here and there. Let me know if you find anything odd.

Coming soon

2011-07-05T14:27:17Z

My first forays into web development as a job were centered around static content generation for e-commerce sites. I thought then and have ever since that websites, especially e-commerce ones, should stop this progression to more and more dynamic content and use static content wherever possible. So the fairly recent obsession with bloggers turning to "baked" website solutions has made me quite happy on the inside. You know, all warm and fuzzy. Now only if e-commerce platforms would head in the same direction.

So why am I still on Wordpress? And why am I still using this old theme? For one, I've been on an extended I'm-going-to-do-absolutely-nothing vacation for a little over two months now. Yes, the first few weeks of it were in NYC, but the following almost 2 months have been in LA, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Interlaken, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and now the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I'm over a month behind on uploading photos. In addition to just being gone, I was quite burned out. I needed a break and had been planning on taking this trip for over a year.

It's been quite fascinating, as an observer of myself, to see and feel the difference this trip has made in my desire to build things. Before this trip I hadn't had a new idea for something to build in years. Now, I'm bouncing around 7 or 8 serious ideas. I feel like I've found my soul again.

Anyway. This will soon be a nanoc-powered blog. I can't wait to get rid of Wordpress.

Update: I've ported ryanm.info and ryanware.com to nanoc. I'm getting really close on this blog.

Ron Paul: Lying is not Patriotic

2011-02-24T22:30:43Z

Ron Paul is the only* politician I've heard speak any sense regarding the Wikileaks Secret US Embassy Cables.

* Granted, I haven't listened to many. Political rhetoric drives me mad. Thankfully, Ron Paul isn't just touting a party line in order to get votes.

Growing is Forever (video)

2011-02-04T00:15:14Z

This is beautiful.

Growing is Forever from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

My 2010 cities

2011-01-04T04:51:14Z

These are the cities I spent one or more nights in during 2010:

Boston, Massachusetts
Eagle Mountain, Utah
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Kaysville, Utah
New York, New York
Orlando, Florida (Disney World!)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Riverton, Utah
San Jose, California
Washington, DC

Didn't stay in these cities, but visited them on a 7 day cruise:
Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Reasons for Fall to last longer

2010-10-27T14:26:45Z

It's not as cold as winter.

It's pretty.

It's not as hot as summer.

Pumpkins.

Food and treats made with pumpkins.

No really. Jamba Juice's Pumpkin Smash Smoothie. 16 Handles' Pumpkin frozen yogurt. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin cookies. Chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. Pumpkin creme brulee*.

* Haven't tried it yet, but I fully intend to.

The worst day

2010-10-12T15:57:57Z

Today.

Dear Hallmark, I have [a card idea] for you today. A drawing of a bashful puppy with a comical bandage around his fluffy jaw. Inside text: It kills me that you're afraid of me now. Maybe someone at your offices can help me [with this]? It doesn't seem like enough. I wish there was a card that could fix things. -source

I'm sorry.

Oh, Hi.

2010-03-19T17:04:32Z

It's been a while.

In the last month I...

Went to a dance event in Boston
Turned down two job offers
Accepted a 3rd offer and started a new job
Went to Disney World for my birthday (I am now 28)

I'm really excited to be doing something new for work. I'll talk about it when we launch the new website.

Disney World was awesome and I wish I was still there.

Visited Cities

2010-02-12T23:27:48Z

Inspired by Justin's post, these are the cities I spent one or more nights in during 2009:

* were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Bear Lake, UT
Boston, MA*
Eagle Mountain, UT*
East Wakefield, NH
Kaysville, UT
Monteverde, Costa Rica
New York, NY
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Riverton, UT*
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Stony Point, NY
Washington DC

And for the previous four years... I think this is all correct.

2008:
Denver, CO
Eagle Mountain, UT
Island Park, ID
Logan, UT
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY*
Orem, UT
Queens, NY*
Redlands, CA
Rigby, ID
Riverton, UT
San Diego, CA
Seattle, WA
Sacramento, CA
Wilton, CT*

2007:
Denver, CO
Eagle Mountain, UT*
Logan, UT
Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis, MN
Provo, UT
Riverton, UT
San Diego, CA
Sacramento, CA
Seattle, WA
Vernal, UT

2006:
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Eagle Mountain, UT*
Logan, UT
Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis, MN
Moab, UT
Rigby, ID
Riverton, UT
Sacramento, CA
San Diego, CA
Seattle, WA
Vernal, UT
Washington DC

2005:
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Denver, CO
Logan, UT
Los Angeles, CA
Rigby, ID
Riverton, UT
Sacramento, CA
Vernal, UT
Washington DC

2004:
Las Vegas, NV
Rigby, ID
Riverton, UT
San Diego, CA
St. George, UT
Vernal, UT