OK, so the code release was only supposed to go until 6pm or so according the schedule. That’s how it was on paper. In the end, we finished at around 9. 
To be honest, that’s not so bad. Of course, the fact that were fed Swiss Chalet is probably clouding my judgement.
Can we really be so easily soothed or bribed with food? Well…when we’re stuck at our desks staring at our monitors for around 12 hours…yes, yes we can.
At work, there are so many processes in place that make my job as a developer kind of simpler. We’ve got scripts that automate things. There are reports that alert us when things go wrong. And, when push comes to shove we have our project manager and team lead to point us in the right direction. I wouldn’t say that these resources make us lazy, but it allows us to place our focus on other things, which is great when time is a commodity, you know?
Today though, I’ve been forced to realize that once in a while these resources just won’t be available and that we will have to do the tasks on our own every now and then. It’s almost easy to forget that fact. Today we were supposed to initiate one of our code releases. I came in early and expected things to go smoothly. When I checked my email, I found out that my project manager had to call in sick today. He has the same cold that I’ve been afflicted with, but it looks like he was hit harder. To be honest, we’re both it rotten condition. Anyway, we would have been alright without him, but there was an important meeting with the client. Without him, it meant the team lead would have to spend most of the day in the meeting in his place. So, I was sort of on my own. I can handle the code release procedures. Being alone isn’t that bad, but it’s also a good thing to at least have people with you just in case something blows up. Luckily I was joined by a few of my colleagues within an hour. As I started to run the automated scripts, I noticed that they were failing–the connections were dropping more than expected. After a few failed attempts it was decided that we’d have to do the tasks by hand. Whoo. I haven’t had to do that in a long time. Doing it by hand tacked on another hour to our schedule. It was frustrating, but we managed.
After the first phase was done, my colleagues and I were watching our emails intently hoping that nothing was broken. Without the team lead and the project manager I was a little on edge. “What if,” you know? And, with the client in the building, we didn’t want anything horrible to happen. I think that we handled it all very well, all things considered. I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a little bit more normal. The release process continues into tomorrow. If all goes well, I’m hoping we’ll be out of there early.
I’ve made it to my one month dental appointment for my braces. I can see some really minor improvements, but since I see my teeth every day it’s kind of hard for me to notice anything significant. My dentist however was pointing out things here and there saying that I was coming along nicely. All I can do is agree, I guess.
When I started out, I asked for grey bands because I was hoping for the grey to not draw attention to the fact that I’ve got an appliance in there. However, to be honest the grey didn’t really do anything in terms of visibility. It’s not like they we’re imbued with some magical power that suddenly made the metal invisible. So, today for the new bands I decided to go for a dark red. When I look at them in the mirror right now, even these coloured bands aren’t all that visible. Heh. I guess it doesn’t matter, does it? Changing the band this time has been alright. I’m sort of half-expecting to feel like I’ve been punched in the mouth tomorrow, but I’ll be ready.
This first month has been interesting. I’m now used to eating with them. Sure, I wouldn’t say eating is as enjoyable as without them, but it’s certainly interesting. I’m always having to think about whether anything I’m biting is going to dislodge a bracket or if there’s going to be some tough gunk stuck somewhere it shouldn’t be. It’s usually nothing that a good swish of water or tongue acrobatics can’t take care of. I can feel my bite patterns morphing over time. Every week or so, when I bite down I can feel things in different positions. At least it’s a sign that it’s all working.
Well, one down, twenty-three (or less) to go. No problem!
There’s a lot of fuss out there when it comes to the idea of spreading sickness to your colleagues. I mean, temporarily losing one person to an illness is one thing, but when several people go it is really a detriment to productivity, right? If you think about it too, the people that you’re in contact with most at work tend to be the people in your department. So, when illness spreads it’s usually centralized and has the ability cripple a single group. Currently, my project manager and I are the people who’ve looked like hell all of this past week. Prior to that, there was just one guy who was feeling like crap, and I have the feeling that he transmitted the problem to the two of us. I’m hoping that I don’t spread it out even more, so I’m doing my best to be vigilant.
So, that’s what happens at work. However, is enough focus being given to spreading illness at home? I don’t think so. In my case, all three of us here at home have come down with a cold. It’s been pretty miserable here this weekend. We’re all feeling kind of gross. You know what? I feel guilty about it because I brought the cold with me back home. It’s not like I can barricade myself in my room and cut off contact with my family. And now our family life has been affected.
Once again, just like last week, I’m tempted to take a day off to speed up my recovery. I need to see how I feel in the morning.
Oh my freaking hell. I’m not feeeling mysel right now. There was a bottle of white wien at my table and not one really liked it. Frankly ikt was a little ibt tart. In any case, i thought it was wrong to let hte bottle go to waste so I took it up[on myself to drink it. Figure.s, you know? As well, people were givoig me their drink tickets. It was thoughful of them but not really a good idea, I gather. I think I had a vodka/cran and a screwddriver. However, you know what, after the screw driver I freaking’ drew the line. No more alcohol! No good for someone like me. I don’t norallly drik!
What can you do though?
The cab ride home was relatively smooth. Thanks, Amjad! You rock! Nothing vomit inducing which holy hell I’m so freaking thankful of. i so don’t want ot be puking all over the cab. That would be so disgraceful. He got me back hoe in piece which is os freakin’ awesome. here i am. i’vr already gone ot the bathroom trying ot get rid of these toxins. I sot of want ot drink water but i so remember the last timme i tried ot top mself off with water so that i would’t get hung over. the results were not so good. I don’t want ot be pukignall over the place–not with famnily here.
Anyway, I so apologize for this blog entry. I shouln’t be blgging in this conditio…but here I AM. ! I’m sure I”l regret it tomorrow morning..but…well, such is life, eh.
Man. It looks like a 2 hours trek via public transit to make it to this company party. I’m all dressed up and wearing a tie. Maybe I’m a little bit thankful for this event, if only because it gives me a little bit of a reason to dress up. However, why in the world does it feel like work? I know some other members of my team were echoing the same sentiment yesterday. Well…what can you do? Let’s hope it goes by without me making an ass of myself. I can take some comfort knowing that it will be over in another six or seven hours.
I’m not sure how to take this. Maybe my occult powers are growing. I say this in jest, but there’s some other evidence for this which I might delve into in a later entry. Or perhaps I just subconsciously fulfilled my inner desires.
Well, last night, I was perusing eBay for batteries. I saw an 850mAh battery which was minutes away from closing. I’d forgotten how powerful my current battery was so I wasn’t sure just how 850 would compare. Instead of ordering, I decided to have a look. I brought out my mini screwdrivers and opened up the sucker like I did in April 2006. I popped out the board and saw that it was a 750mAh battery. Nice! The 850mAh would be an improvement. So, I was getting ready to place a $1 bid on the battery. Before I did so I started putting the iPod together again. As much as it was easy popping the board out, putting it back in proved to be a little bit more difficult. Something was getting caught, preventing the board and components from sliding back in easily. Damn. So I looked around my chair for something to stick in there to push the board down while I slid it in. I didn’t find anything too handy except for a nail clipper with a small knife attachment. I told myself that I was just going to be careful and use it. So, I stuck it in the case and pushed the board down.
Unfortunately for me, I saw a bright flash of light or two from the case. Oops.
I was able to slide it in. When I closed it up, I noticed that the only way I could turn it on was by squeezing the top and bottom of the unit. I probably don’t have to say this…but that’s not how to properly operate the unit. When I did get it to turn on I noticed that the click wheel was no longer responsive. After a few more squeezes, the iPod refused to stay on at all.
Dead. I murdered my iPod. So apparently I got my wish. In all seriousness, I wasn’t intending for it to go out this way. As my friend pointed out to me last night:
(10:45 PM) H.Z.: dude why’d you do that? You gotta stop pretending you love engineering.
Indeed.
My iPod has once again gotten to the point where it is unable to hold a good charge. Even at full power it’s only good for an hour or so before dying on me. Inevitably it dies out during a song that I had started getting into resulting in a heap of frustration. At work, I can only use it while it’s plugged into my computer, leaving very little mobility while I’m engaged in my music.
You know, secretly, I’ve been hoping for it to just die out and not come back to life when I plug it in. If that were the case, I’d have very good reason to go out and get a newer 8GB model. My 4GB is already crammed, forcing me to pick and choose what I want on there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it forces me to have only what I really want on that thing. I got it back in December 2004 with a bunch of gift certificates. It’s dinged up and scratched, but it’s served me well over the years. I’ve already replaced the battery once in April of 2006. The process to do so was pretty easy. Knowing that I can do so though is sort of both liberating and a burden. I mean, I can get batteries cheaply off of eBay. They’re just a tiny fraction of the cost of buying a new unit. So, why bother getting a new one? I don’t have to spend that much cash anymore! Thing is…what if I do want a new one? I can’t buy one in good conscience when I know that changing the battery is just as effective.
That’s why I’m sort of wishing for its demise.
It looks like it won’t be any time soon though. So, I’m just going to hunt for a cheap battery on eBay. I’m sure I’ll revisit this issue in another…1.5 years.
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