wiredfool

What a weekend

What a weekend, what a day. Been on a blues kick. Maybe not blues per se, but sad songs. Counting Crows, Anna Begins. Jason Webeley, Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. The whole When Harry Met Sally soundtrack (Don’t get around much anymore, It had to be you…).

Finally killed off the garden on Saturday, turned under the last of the green stuff, spread some compost, and planted a cover crop. I see no need to burden my own land and waterways with excess chemicals on my garden. It’s not like my garden is logical from an economic standpoint; unless you count it as therapy. It feels good to deal with something real after pushing around electrons all day.

Then I went to see a band at the Elysian Brewery and made the mistake of drinking ‘lying bitch’. It’s a beer at the Elysian, named for the brewmaster’s ex-wife. Good Stuff. Approaching 13% alcohol. Even the foam tasted strong. Half a glass cost me a day of feeling human. And the band? Can’t say they made an impression. I’m not going to tell you to avoid the stuff, just that if you do have some, make sure that you don’t even have to walk home. You want a cab.

Then in two days of work, I manage 4 hours of coding. Interspersed with meetings and vigorous discussions about specs, schedules, and what is right, true and proper. But oh those hours. Two and a half today, and I’ve got the basis of one new feature done then polished off another. I love it when a new approach appears that turns a week of work into an hour. Hours hours, and the moments in between.

I’m becoming a believer in the power of specs for programming. You get a few people looking at what you’re going to do before you do it. Including yourself. If you can’t write a spec enumerating at least what you need to change, you have no clue what you’re going to do. And you will waste endless amounts of time doing things that you don’t need to do. Been there. Done that.

1 comment

1 Comment so far

  1. Commenter October 11th, 2000 1:24 am

    Totally agree about the power of specs. Gotta have one. There’s a whole, um, culture around specs.

    Try getting some people to buy into the idea of a spec, though, is a whole nother question. Some of my clients… sheesh. It’s like more in the client’s interest to have one than mine, but apparently it’s more work than they can be bothered with. Until they don’t get quite what they were expecting — so of course it pays to write as close to the spec as possible. Give em what they asked for.

    I could go on…

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