Dzikipedia

… is all you need.Last week, Rich Miner visited my school to talk about his life journey and how he ended up where he is now (Managing Partner of Google Ventures).  The talk was heavily focused on what it takes to start a business and to be entrepreneurial-minded.   Afterwards, it got my mind ticking, and trying to find the niche that interests me.  I’m going to start to try and write down my ideas and think more “big picture” rather than “this is a cool piece of software”.  Overall, it takes a little spark every so often to sort of reorient me to get back into focus, and we’ll see where that leads.until then, I’m stuck in a hotel room in Jersey for work, waiting for the drive home tomorrow night.  But there will be another good walking and talking demo tomorrow, so that’ll probably help me out a bit.

I’ve been busy with work, school, baseball, buying a house, etc, but will now try to devote at least 1 night a week to write something here.  I’ll be starting off with a display of the home renovation work that Julie and I have been going over after the home purchase, as well as some real estate thoughts from the point of view of a first time home buyer.

It’s been over a year since the last post, and I really do want to get back in the habit of posting.  Since then…

• I’ve taken 4 more classes, and am 3 away from my Masters in Comp Sci.
• I’m 1 day away from buying a house.
• I’m 3 days away from riding in my third PanMass Challenge.
• Julie and I have made it to the 2-year mark.
• Work and I have made it to the 3-year mark.
• My car is still quite fun.
• I’ve been working on a trip tracking website that I’ll post here in a few days (ok, probably after August 10th, when back from vacation.

Apparently, it’s been about 5 months since I actually posted anything here.  Funny thing is I’ve actually started writing 3 posts.  Maybe I’ll actually get those out.

In any event, some friends and I are going to Martha’ Vineyard for the 4th this weekend, and I get to come back Monday night to some baseball.  Baseball season is upon us again, and I’ll be keeping track of my stats once again.

Also, the PMC is coming near.  If you stumbled upon here and want to donate, feel free to help out!

Also also, got a nice new car.  2007 VW GTI.  There’s some nice pics over on my Flickr page.

Once I get back, I’ll set up that baseball page, till then, have a fun Fourth!

There’s this little barber shop in downtown Woburn that I go to, and they do the ol’ “Lather and straight razor” your neck thing. Normally, I don’t mind this. However, when he’s in the middle of shaving, and “Stuck in the Middle With You” starts playing, let’s just say that I was having some immediate fears. Mostly, I blame Tarantino for this random nightmare. In any event, you try being in that position and NOT being freaked out

Tonight I’m twittering the World Series Game 1 tonight. Feel free to check it out:

http://twitter.com/dzikipedia

Earlier today, the other Adam and I were chatting about how both of our names are pretty distinct, and that when you google either of our names, there isn’t very much variance in the people it returns. This sent me into a google frenzy.

First off, Google: Adam Dziki. This returns 2 distinct people (as far as I can tell). Myself, and a Polish proctologist. While I don’t believe there is a direct familial relationship, my parents told me that when I was born, they heard that there was a Polish doctor with the same name. Now, with the overall accessibility of the internet and information available on the ‘net, I can see exactly what he does, as well as w

hat he’s written and taken part of. The interesting thought is if this other Adam Dziki has sat down and googled himself, and thought “who is this American software engineer with my name?”.

Secondly, Google Image Search: Adam Dziki. The scary thing is that Polish Adam Dziki and my father, David Dziki, have the same exact hair. Straight from the 70’s! Here’s a comparison:

Adam Dziki	David Dziki

Now that I look at it, it’s closer than I thought. Freaky.

What was also freaky was that Adam noted there was another Adam Darowski out there who was also 29 years old.

I had a similar idea a while back when Joseph Dziki friended me on Facebook. Joseph was my grandfather’s name, so I was very confused to see that name friending me on Facebook.

Small things like this go a long way to show how much the world has changed with the invention and availability of the internet. 30 years ago, I might not have known about a Polish doctor with the same name as me, or the other contingent of Dzikis out in the mid-west.

This post was originally supposed to be live from the finish line, but my phone and wordpress do not get along.  Anyways, here goes!

So I’m sitting here at the finish line for the PMC’s Wellesley to Wellesley route.  I finished about an hour and a half sooner than I planned.  So the people who are planning on coming down aren’t here yet.  I’m pondering going back out, but that’s just wrong. There was some sign confusion in the loop, and 10-20 of us ended up missing a solid 12-15 miles of the loop…. suckfest.  Oh well, I’ll make it up next year.  In either event, I raised $2100 (and counting!) this year for the Jimmy Fund, which is awesome.  I’ll need to get $3600 next year :-p

The ride itself was fine, there was only one point where I actually feared for my life… stupid van.

Also, hills suck.

Anyways, back to welcoming the fellow riders across the finish line.

WHEW!

So I’ve been playing baseball in a 21+ league for about a month now. I’ve only got 2 games in so far (one rained out, one I skipped to go watch Lowell Spinners). I decided to keep a personal scoresheet for the games I’ve been in. You’ll notice the “Baseball - ‘07″ link up top. Yes, the page is ghetto-tastic. Yes, I’m 0-2 so far. But one was a good shot to center, and I walked twice, so I’m only regretting striking out terribly that one time.

I’ll spare you all the Schilling-esque pitch by pitch of every game, but I’ll try having next week’s game listed up there so if you wanted to come out for some baseball, you’d know where to find me

Till then, I need sleep. 3 days till the PMC! (well, more like 2.5)

The PMC is a week away (Sunday, August 5th). Last weekend, I did a practice run of the route I’ll be riding. 4 hours to ride 47 miles. Not too shabby. Just about the same average speed that I’ve been getting on the shorter rides.

Completing the practice run did a couple of things. Firstly, it got me a little more familiar with the route so I had a better idea of what I should look out for next week. It also proved to myself that I can do this; even in decent time.

So looking forward, I’ll be getting ready for the ride. An hour or two on the bike every day, eating better, etc. Next Saturday I’ll probably do about 36 miles in the morning (Lowell and back), and then carb-out Saturday night in preparation for Sunday.

The interesting thing about this whole ride is that, before last October (yes, I started road biking last October in New England), I hadn’t been on a bike since I was in 8th grade. I took a pretty nasty spill on a dirt road and really didn’t feel like biking for a long while. So from October of ‘06 to now, I’ve gotten back on a bike, got myself up to 47 miles, and am ready to go.

Lastly, but not leastly, I want to thank everyone who has helped me out so far in raising money for the Jimmy Fund. It’s such a great cause, and the PMC is a great way to donate to them. If you haven’t donated to any causes this year, this is certainly a good one to start with.

http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=AD0092