So how might a long-time .NET programmer and architect find themselves in the land o’ Ruby? Well, it’s all about the current.

See, with .NET the current is against you. Granted, this is less true than it was even a few years ago, but it’s still true. A quick survey of the .NET landscape is all it takes to see that in order to do things well in .NET you’ve got your work cut out for you.

On the other hand, programming with Ruby on Rails is the opposite. You’re only a modest learning curve away from swimming with the current. In fact, the most common criticism I hear is that the current is a bit too fast and it can be frustrating to keep up with everything.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to implementing more projects with Ruby on Rails and, in the end, I suppose that’s the single best measure of a language and a framework.

The story of my Montare begins when I moved from Houston back to Oklahoma. For a variety of reasons, I wanted a bike that could, at once, allow for short commutes, longer-distance fun rides, and occasionally pound some dirt. I walked into a shop that was in the same shopping center as Raypath Studios, the camera shop that I owned, and told the guy what I was after, and after a moment’s contemplation he started pulling parts.

Now, when I say he pulled parts I’m not kidding. See, I didn’t want to drop a ton of cash on this experiment. After all, I was a business owner and every dime counted. Empathetic to my needs, he grabbed a used, bare Gary Fisher Montare frame and then we began to make a bike out of it.

In the end, I spent somewhere around $200 for my new ride. It had quirks… a lot of the gear was either used or relatively low-end. Still, the geometry really fit my body and I fell in love with my new mount. It took some time to get used to riding again, but not so long that I wasn’t completely entranced.

My trusty steed followed me from Oklahoma to Maine. There it served me well as I cruised the dry snowmobile trails and streets of Fort Fairfield. It was my companion while I got in better shape and it provided solitude ex machina time after time. I have fond memories of crisp mornings burdened with heavy dew struggling for survival against the dominant sun that found me straining to climb the next hill.

When I left Maine, it became my companion in Minnesota. I didn’t ride as much as I wanted to, but eventually I found the time to hit the streets. Not long after I dusted off the cobwebs I splurged on a Gary Fisher Sugar 29er. That Sugar was the epitome of technology, but despite its glaring technological superiority, it was never capable of matching the fit and thrill of the ride it replaced.

Once I had the Sugar, I loaned the Montare to an extremely good friend of mine. Eventually, I sold the Sugar and my stable of two became empty. Today I asked my friend if he was still using the Montare and, if not, if he would ship it to me (at my cost) and he agreed. Frankly, I couldn’t be happier and I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of a dear old friend.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve put any real effort into blogging, but I’m finding more and more that I miss it as a vehicle for my nearly incoherent rambling. I have no intention of bringing forward any old posts from the past. I may revisit the topics, but it seems a waste of time to drag them along.

For a long time, I used ExpressionEngine with great success. I switched to a more maintenance-free solution with Blogger. This time, I’m giving WordPress a legitimate shot and, so far, it seems like a good compromise between those two extremes. I like that I’m back in control of the hosting environment. I also like that WordPress is pretty straight-forward and simple to use.

So we’ll see how it goes. I may post every day. I may post every month. No matter what, I’ll do my best to make it entertaining. Thanks for reading!