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What a lovely way to start the year - we have some new features I am working on. I love blending both hardware and software and working for tolino/Kobo we are one of the few that do both. I, thankfully, am part of the eReader team so I work developing the software for the device. I have had the experience now of working on a legacy device with Android 2.3.4 and newer Android 4.4.2 and upwards. Thankfully the features you can see are improving. I am excited to develop one that will mix my background having experience in Gesture-Based games that also blended hardware and software. Watch this space! Once I have the feature developed and it is on the market I can show it here. I am working on this entirely by myself so I am eager to see the research and development of the feature coming together. December 2018!December already! I have had a rough year so far with three operations since last December and other health issues rearing its head. I am glad to be finally on the mend. I hope the following year will be a lot more healthful. On other things, I am starting to settle into the Android development role now and enjoy learning something new daily. I wrote up my performance review recently and have been looking at how much I have progressed since July even with all the interruptions of hospital visits. I now have learnt a lot more about the inner-workings of the app and aosp. Next year I have a few goals that I hope to achieve. Last years goals were as follows:- Android development, B1 German, fix a medium bug and documentation by shadowing a colleague. I have achieved them in terms of the bug, documentation as well as on-going learning of German. I had to reschedule the B1 examination as I had the last operation in November 2018 and it was the same week as it was scheduled. Thankfully I have been learning a lot of German with Memrise, Duolingo and now an evening class two times a week. Next years goals I am looking at a few things in terms of work:- 1) Android development - completion of the nanodegree - paid for course. 2) B1 exam in November - completion of B1 and go to another course for B2 with a view to complete the B2 exam in November 2020. 3) AOSP and kernel development - fixing of a bug or feature development of a task in the AOSP - fixing of bugs specifically in AOSP in terms of gesture-based side of the system. 4) Re-designing of the app with UX and implementation of the MVP architecture - this will clean up the code completely, improve performance, reduce lines of code and make the code more readable. Personal goals include :- 1) A competitive run 2) Climbing a mountain 3) Travel to a country I have never visited before 4) Do a long hike 5) An adventure race at the end of the year As for relationship goals, I'll keep them to myself but yes, I would like to contact friends more - visit them more and keep in contact a lot more. We shall see how 2019 fairs. September 2018!This month last year I completed the Berlin marathon in a time of 4 hours 11 minutes. I was delighted with myself as I got a pain in my heart, not unlike a cramp. I walked an entire kilometre and had another cramp in my right left underneath the Brandenburg bridge within touching distance of the finish line. I finished the race and a week later headed back to Ireland to be told I had to get a heart scan. After the scan there were some issues. I had an irregular and fast heart beat. The heart rate issue started before the Paris marathon, I had a fast heart rate and the doctor signed me off to go anyway as she said it was only caused by stress. Little did I know it would be the start of a year long recovery session with two heart operations and a lot of upheaval in my life. I am stronger for it and have started back training - slowly! In this past year, I have moved to Germany permanently for a position as an Android Developer bringing along with me my PhD skills. I love the fact that I get to implement some ideas that I have including some that I have brought directly from the PhD. I am delighted to get the world reading and increasing literacy while also improving my skills as an Android Developer in my new role. Go Kobo! I am excited to see what the next year has to offer as I still keep in touch with research and focus on the development side of things. My next project is to improve my German while I am here. Paris - April 2017 Paris Marathon - 04:13:34 This was me in April - I did the Paris marathon in a record time of 4 hours 13 minutes and 34 seconds. I had a great weekend and the heat nearly killed me but I made it. It has been quite the adventurous year having completed Paris I went onto go to Japan and Thailand where I climbed a mountain, got my scuba diving licence and saw amazing sights. Japan - April/May 2017 Hang gliding over Fuji Hang gliding over Fuji was incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it. The views were spectacular and after that I went down to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Miyajima island, hiroshima, back to Kyoto and onto Tokyo.  Miyajima Island Japan was truly incredible and then onto Thailand where I went to Bangkok and onto Chiang Mai before going to Koh Tao. It was incredible. I did a scuba diving course and thoroughly enjoyed it where I got a licence and will hopefully get my advanced scuba diving accreditation too. Thailand - May 2017 Ziplining in Thailand Thailand was an adventure, ziplining, hiking and discovering the food. It was all part of the adventure in Thailand. The heat was incredible and thankfully hiking through the forest to visit the northern Thai tribes was an experience that wasn't riddled with any bug bites. It wasn't until I got from Koh Tao where I learned how to scuba dive for a few days and got back to Bangkok that I got a few bites. They were nasty ones too and took several days for the swelling to subside. Wales - Mont Blanc training - May 2017 This was incredible as the ancient victorians used to train here in order to climb other mountains such as Everest. This is where Shackleton trained and also Tom Crean - the famous antarctic explorer from Kerry. Gran Paradiso and Mont Blanc - June 2017 The top of Gran Paradiso  The top of Mont Blanc Serbia - July 2017 Serbia at EXIT festival 2017 - meeting new friends including some Irish that popped in. Berlin Marathon - September 2017 Berlin Marathon 2017 That's standing with the medal after collecting my finisher's t-shirt in the cold, wet, damp conditions for a few hours! :-D
I managed to finish in 4 hours 11 minutes and 47 seconds and even managed to get my certificate to allow me to get the medal engraved. I was happy but at the same time, I was glad to finish. I had cramped after 42km and hopped over the finish line. The last three kilometres took me double that of the others. I persisted and still managed a personal best. I am now hoping to get on better in the next race. I won't be going after a personal best for Dublin which is next month but I'll certainly enjoy running the race at an albeit leisurely pace. |
