Level of completion:
Sewing (under 50% completed)
This is another quilt that will wait in the wings for a while. It's been waiting for a while already, and can wait a little while longer. The fabrics were a gift from Jacob, who last year hunted for a set of fabrics that would challenge me.
In our friendship, we've adopted the acronym OCP to refer to Iain Banks' penchant for referring to unexpected, difficult problems as "Outside Context Problems." Meaning, problems you simply aren't prepared to solve easily or quickly.
So, what he bought for me was food fabric. Lots of food fabrics. Berries, fruits, vegetables, all intended to be 'blender' fabrics to bridge a gap between one color and another. Instead, they were my focus fabrics.
['Eat this quilt']
Moments like these are why my co-workers settle in to read my trouble tickets with amusement:
There are notes in the code that specifically indicate the maintainer hasn't written all of the security-related code yet. (Um. WHAT?) The integration issues wouldn't grind our server to a halt if the module actually was respecting access permissions, because then the errors would only be happening for about 3 users. This simply isn't acceptable, so I've disabled the integration until I can get a better handle on what's going on with this module. Or stalk the maintainer. Whichever.
...and that's just one ticket. It's not even 9:30 yet. I'm thinking it's going to be a banner trouble ticket day.
I sent this through my work account just now. It makes me angry that such things even have to be said at all.
I'll spare you all the gory details and give you the roundup; after round one of layoffs at the library, all full-time employees will be taking two one-week furloughs, one in second quarter 2009 and the other in Q3 2009. I'm looking at using my Q2 furlough to head west to do some Drupal work with some friends. My Q3 furlough is likely to take me to Seattle. Plans are still nebulous on the latter one, though.
Nebulous yet nefarious, I might add.
As for us, we're okay; my job has never been the main breadwinner, which helps. Some of my co-workers, though, are not so lucky. For them, I'm worried.
Might as well make the best of it; camera + time off = Tales From The Furlough.
I've been thinking about my colleagues today. This article pretty much says it: "Public libraries see more people, but are having to slash costs"
"There are more people, and there's been an increase in computer use," said Kristal Holmes, director of the Auburndale Public Library. Holmes said she has seen many people applying for unemployment and filling out job applications on the library's computers, as well as people filling out forms for Florida Department of Children and Families benefits, such as food stamps, Medicaid and temporary cash assistance.
It's a nasty double whammy. As soon as people can no longer afford to buy books and DVDs, they remember public libraries ... right around the time that library funding gets decimated due to falling tax receipts.
Jeff and I have talked off and on this week about work distractions. I've been having a lot of them lately, and it didn't hit me until a couple of days ago that they had something to do with my level of frustration at work.
My job situation dictates mental agility. To handle it properly, I must be able to repeatedly switch tasks, thought processes, and often even styles of work on very short notice. Write a press release, then debug a server configuration. Study up on how new software works, then whip out a graphic. Write code. Answer phones. Pitch in on troubleshooting calls if I know the answers and our hardware person isn't free.
The problem is that not all of these are short-attention-span projects. I'm really there to write code, and therein lies the rub. Libraries are not typically havens for programmers, so the mindset is foreign to anyone outside the IT department.
I normally don't do this sort of thing, but I want to ask a favor of my book geek friends.
Are you planning on going to Barnes & Noble anytime soon? If you are, a moment of free kindness on your part can help out a library system I care a lot about:
Ever have a moment where you read over what you've just written and realize why your co-workers think you're a little touched in the head? I just did:
This coder is new to me. This means I can't vouch for his development style. I have no idea if he uploads barely-finished dev versions expecting the userbase to do major crash-testing, or if he is cautious and only makes code available right before a stable release, expecting only minor tweaks from the userbase. 3.x could be barely usable or it could be almost finished. Dunno.
Later on...
[module] released an initial, alpha version for drupal 6 this morning. You should assume that it will explode your computer and eat your children, and as such you should not use it for anything mission-critical.
One a.m.
"This is a good life," I whisper to myself. I'm not certain I always believe it, but tonight I think I do.
Stephen's DCTV shoot was today; I got up this morning and headed cross-town with Jeff for a taping of scenes for a live-action version of 'Code Monkey.' I tired rapidly in the latter half of the shoot, and was grateful when Stephen rearranged the shoot order to get the backing band (read: Jeff, among others) finished up.
Dinner was at 5:30 at Stephen and Misty's. We didn't get home until a little after four, and I suspected I was making an imprudent choice when I lay down for a nap, but I did it anyway.
I woke up nearly five hours later, and was grateful to learn that jeff had brought back some of Misty's soup for me. I ate it on the couch while re-watching a favorite TV episode with Jeff. We talked, absently, of our upcoming trip to Seattle. Of food. Of life in general.
Amy: "You're such a cliché, Charles."
Sherry: "Yeah! There you are, with your Admiral Ackbar profile photo, sucking down your Mountain Dew while eating your chili cheese Fritos."
Amy: "..and are those Converse you're wearing?"
Charles: "Yeah, but they aren't Chuck Taylors, so it's not totally bad."
