If you followed my comment trail yesterday you know that it was not a day that I wish to remember, even though it was this blog’s tenth anniversary.
As I’ve alluded to recently I am being pushed to get a project out the door into the hands of beta testers. I don’t mind being pressured, it comes with the job, but the foundation on which I rely is far from ready, therefore I think the pressure is uncalled for in this instance.
My day started declining the moment one of my tests failed miserably and I decided wipe the iPad on which I was testing clean, completely forgetting that it held the only copies of two photos of copious notes I had made on a whiteboard over the weekend. Shame on me for not having these backed up, but hard work lost nonetheless.
My day steadily declined as I attempted to recreate a software build I made last Friday. First, my code had changed considerably. No problem, or so I thought. I fetched Friday’s build from the configuration server only to find inexplicable conflict markers. This should never happen.
Things went from bad to worse when I realized that one of the underlying tools I updated on Monday was also now presenting me with a wall that I would have to climb. This tool changes many of the settings inside the application build environment, so going backward was going to be difficult.
The straw to break on the camel’s back was when I thought, cleverly, that I could avoid all of these plagues by building on my office desk computer, only to recall that it is still running a previous install of Mac OS X and therefore is incapable of compiling a project updated for the latest operating system’s tools.
Paradise Lost!
SERENITY NOW!!!
After spending hours Googling and tweaking build settings and code I was finally able to get things to build again. Of course I know headaches lie in wait for when I attempt to incorporate these changes into the main line of the code base. But those are headaches for another day.
I could have chalked the day up to complete boneheaded disaster had I followed through with the plan I laid out yesterday’s blog. At the last minute I saw a sheet informing me that the Alliance Theatre has a gift for me being a “Larger Than Life” patron (I’ll assume that they are not referring to my weight) and realized that the play I was to attend was not at Horizon Theatre in Little 5, but rather at Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theatre in midtown.
After sitting in horrific traffic I still managed to make it to Woodruff Arts with enough time to grab a quick bite of dinner. I ate a tasty “Cuban” sandwich made with delicious roasted pork belly and pork loin at Table 1280. I paired my sandwich with a nice cold glass of Riesling, it must be this German thing I have going on, mostly because no beers listed on their menu appealed to my taste buds. Finally, something yesterday didn’t wind up a turd.
I didn’t let the fact that the theater did not have the gift bag promised to me available last night irritate me, and was karmically rewarded by having four incredibly attractive young ladies sit near me, including one of the performers from “The Tall Girls” which I saw performed in the same theater this past spring. To see one attractive young lady in the theatre is rare, four of them, all seemingly unattached, is unheard of. Did I speak to any of them? Of course not. Even on my best of days I am unable to hold a conversation with the opposite sex and considering very little played out as I had hoped yesterday my fear was that I’d mumble, spit, sneeze, or embarrass myself in some other way.
The play was fine, well acted, but its theme was not exactly my cup of tea. Also, my brain stirred with thoughts of fixing the problems I have with my work so I was not entirely focused on the play. There was a “Question and Answer” session after the performance, but I had “things to do” so I skipped this and headed home directly after the performance.
At home my app testing was a complete bust, with one of the servers on which my app relies refusing to supply me with data, so at 10:30pm I rang up my mother and chatted with her for awhile before giving up on what was left of the day.
What’s on tap for today?
Hoping for things to finally start working in my favor again and then playing a little racquetball with the boss. This ought to be interesting for I’ve done very little exercising of late. Let’s just hope that my heart doesn’t explode, of course, that would be one way to get the deadline for my project extended…
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I feel for you, I have had those days where everything I touched all day turned to shit and just wished for the day to end so I could start over the next day. Those are LONG days. Sounds like you had a bad one.
Today will be better (can’t be much worse :-)).
There are many ways things could get worse, I am hoping not to have to deal with these.
Oh Bob, I forgot to mention that last Saturday night I met your co-worker Janine when I joined the boss and a couple of the aquarium volunteers for dinner and a show at Smith’s Olde Bar.
One more thing. If you are free Saturday night and interested in hearing a little North Carolina bluegrass I’ll be going to Terminal West for the show. Raleigh’s own Chatham County Line is the opening act that night, which is unusual since they normally headline here. They take the stage around 9:30pm so I’ll be dining on the westside beforehand. I may even stay for the headliners.
hey all – yesterday was a day from hell for me, mainly because I’m off tomorrow & Monday as I’m heading to Iowa to visit the parents. OF course this time of year is busy in the shipping world, and a huge push of product out of Tijuana is making my life hell. And- I need to get someone here to understand the craziness, which is just hard to explain. (too many moving parts) I have a feeling I’ll get a few phone calls tomorrow.
Allan is having “fun” in a class this week (& next). boring stuff to study & memorize. But – that was his excuse to not got o Iowa with me….. so mom & dad don’t think he doesn’t like them.
flight is just before 7pm, I think I’ll leave at 4pm.
Have fun Barb!
Congratulations on keeping your head on straight. We have all had those days, but hopefully not too frequently.
My vertigo is back again. Yesterday I was packing test equipment to return to vendors and was up and down a lot, which did not help. I relaxed a bit when I got home before a bit of exercise and then off to dinner and a grocery run.
Today working from home until it’s time to head to the doctor (s). I think the oncologist will take some pictures (PET scan) and the urologist will play 20 questions and “the finger”! Oh. What. Fun.
4 women… that’s a tough nut to crack unless you can break into their conversation.
-FP
That one is easy Steve, “Hey didn’t I see you in Tall Girls? I really enjoyed that play”. Done, shows a love of the arts and breaks the ice. Unless it is followed by Can I have your autograph? Can I take a picture? Will you marry me?
Glad you met Janeine, she is a hoot away from work.
Smooth Bob, very smooth. (actually I forgot he mentioned that…)
Oh, I tried making eye contact for the “Hey I saw you…” line, as she walked right past me. She made no return eye contact and before I could open my mouth was approached by a friend (from the tone of the conversation they had).
I need an English major (or Jenka!)
I don’t understand why Word has a problem with the following sentence:
I’d be curious to see if the problem still happens using Firefox.
???
I tried to use a brick and mortar bookstore (Barnes & Noble) to buy a visual German dictionary and unfortunately they failed me.
Yeah, brick and mortar stores are in trouble. Amazon is so much easier. I was looking for handlebar streamers for a costume for my bike, went in to Sports Authority with no luck, went in to Toys R Us with no luck. 30 seconds on Amazon and the streamers will be at my door tomorrow. I like to support local business but driving around looking for something just sucks.
Amazon order placed, only wish I could have gotten it as an eBook too.
Heh re: English major!
That sentence should not be flagged by Word. Technically it is incorrect, as it should say, “I’d be curious to see if the problem still happens WHEN [or WHILE] using Firefox.” But Word isn’t quite that advanced and normally wouldn’t even notice that. My guess is that it’s confused by the noun-number agreement, because “the problem” is a single noun and “happens” ends with “s” and is therefore, obviously, a plural object. Like I say, Word ain’t too advanced.
Heh. Just tested out the sentence in Word. I tinkered with it until Word was happy, and this is what it thinks is correct:
“I’d be curious to see if the problem wills happening using Firefox.”
Yep.