I've been writing more lately. Emails, tweets, chatting, texts, tutorials, etc. Its mostly work related and I've been analyzing what I'm saying. I use weasel words professionally more then I'd like, ie at all. I've done a good job of removing 'just' from my lexicon but I've replaced it with squishy phrases.
Things to remove from my writings and speech:
- in general
- it seems
- basically
- mostly
I'll try and add more as I go. I've become a team lead in the past month so my words feel heavier. With this weight I feel my words should be more direct. Conserved in some way. I am trying to do this by removing the weasel words and phrases. This may come across as false confidence so I will need to keep things squishy I'm unsure of. If I remain direct even with my uncertainty I believe this will create the effect I'm looking for.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
middle class musicians
Jon Bon Jovi: you're old and rich. Unsurprisingly you fail to understand the depth of impact that the democratization of music is having. You are correct to say that the old music industry is dying. This is a good thing.
The pre-internet music industry was controlled by a handful of companies who operated like a cartel. They controlled everything about the music industry and made a tremendous amount of money doing it. Good for them, they created an excellent oligarchy and reaped the rewards.
The internet lowers the barrier for entry to all musicians. You don't need to borrow a few million from a record label to get started. You can self release, self promote and create your business completely under your own control. This makes every band a small business. Oh hey, the internet has turned an entire industry into a small business generating machine?
You're fucking welcome, you old rich assholes. Hah! no idea when I wrote this but I echoed this commentary in an email thread yesterday. OUT YOU GO DRAFTYMCDRAFTERSON
The pre-internet music industry was controlled by a handful of companies who operated like a cartel. They controlled everything about the music industry and made a tremendous amount of money doing it. Good for them, they created an excellent oligarchy and reaped the rewards.
The internet lowers the barrier for entry to all musicians. You don't need to borrow a few million from a record label to get started. You can self release, self promote and create your business completely under your own control. This makes every band a small business. Oh hey, the internet has turned an entire industry into a small business generating machine?
You're fucking welcome, you old rich assholes. Hah! no idea when I wrote this but I echoed this commentary in an email thread yesterday. OUT YOU GO DRAFTYMCDRAFTERSON
state choice
I've often heard, and desperately believe, that companies can enact stunning turnarounds when they focus on their core competencies and only those. Are you a clothing superstore? awesome. Please don't let your IT dept. convince you it needs to build an office productivity sweet from scratch. Those dudes are not pulling you in a good direction.
This is a fairly common refrain and I was wondering how you would apply it to governments. Governments are historically very good at amassing powers and getting into wars. Also incredibly important things like providing and ensuring a stable environment for private individuals to conduct business. This includes shepherding the environment and enforcing contracts. But there are many things they do which I think they are terrible at: running companies is the first one. This is a partial thought that is interesting, don't remember when it went into drafts, out it comes!
This is a fairly common refrain and I was wondering how you would apply it to governments. Governments are historically very good at amassing powers and getting into wars. Also incredibly important things like providing and ensuring a stable environment for private individuals to conduct business. This includes shepherding the environment and enforcing contracts. But there are many things they do which I think they are terrible at: running companies is the first one. This is a partial thought that is interesting, don't remember when it went into drafts, out it comes!
Up and down and up ...
While I always enjoy my delightful spin up the happiness mountain, what with its socializing and being extroverted, the recharging period of mental weakness and timidity are a bitch. Its not depression I don't think, but its not terribly enjoyable.
This is why I hesitate to engage, why I keep the world at arm's distance. For all of the dazzling joy and energy I feel on the way up, balance must be restored. Balance restoration suuuucks. I never seem to get depressed first and then get happy. Well, I suppose I wouldn't know if that was the case as its a cycle. And when a follows b follows a, the original state is not derivable.
And now that I have entered a state of self-analysis, I can probably go write some more code. Wooo. Not sure I'm up for responding about job hunt stuff though. Maybe tonight with a beer or three in me.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Giving up my dog - Charlie
Charlie has been a revelation to my life these past three months. He snuggles and cuddles with me. He's a bit of a box of rocks and looks at me with these deep, sleepy eyes. "huh? yeah, I guess I can go over there. hold on a second..." as he trundles around. But he has a problem, he doesn't get along with our other dog at all.
They are both rescue pugs and so there is a lot of risk with both of them as they come from fractured backgrounds. But hey, my love and I are up for challenges and there's no love like someone you've gone through some challenges with. We got Greta, we got serious about taking care of another life (no more drinking irresponsibly, gotta wake up for bathroom!) and saw the wonderful rewards of that life loving you back. Of loving you so much in its puggy little heart that it would do anything to protect you. Both of us.
What we know of Greta's background is sketchy. Her original owner died suddenly. Greta and his other pug were found with the dead owner three days after he died. We know that Greta doesn't like seeing either of us, especially CBot (love of my life) sleeping heavily and unresponsive. Its a trigger. She thinks she's alone again. Upshot for CBot: can't get hangovers anymore, Greta gets skittish and unhappy. Kind of an upshot, less ruined mornings.
We could have thought more about this, probably should have thought more. We could have thought about how Greta would react to a new dog. And we did. We thought, 'Greta lived with a dog for years both with her original owner and in foster care. She'll be fine.' We figured with two of us there would be enough laps to go around. Four hands to provide belly rubs and four thighs to plunk against as they fwump down into a snuggle position.
This isn't how dogs work. That is how rational and expressive beings *can* work. It is possible to convince a human who has the faculty of speech that this new, strange situation is okay. That its a good thing because there are now more of us in this family and more is good. We can support each other and offer love and kindness. Hey, if you play cards right, kid, you'll have someone to snuggle with all the time! Even when CBot and I are out for the day or the week. You'll have each other.
Or you could give the two of us warnings from day 1 that you were not okay with this new dog living here. You did, we ignored you. That may be harsh on us, as we did notice and respond, but we responded poorly. We didn't get help, we didn't try anything other then a pat on your head and an admonish to, 'be nice to your brother.' That's not her brother. Greta had litter mates but she never had a brother.
Its a guarding problem. She views Charlie as a threat to take her humans away. Nothing could be further from the truth but I can't sit her down and tell her (I've tried) or cry into her fur asking her to be a nicer pug (tried: doesn't work). Its possible we could work for months to try and get a small improvement. As it is, Greta gets angry and starts sending out warning signs when Charlie is in the same room as her. But these are older dogs. They are rescues. They have who knows what else going on in their heads and who knows what other behaviors that are going to come pouring out if we can overcome these.
If they were younger and we knew their complete histories, we'd try more. But we know the shell of Greta and nothing of Charlie's. We got Charlie from the rescue, he apparently got surrendered during a divorce/re-marriage scenario. What else has he seen and what else is he going to exhibit that we haven't touched on yet? Can we make a happy home for these two loggerheading pugs?
We're saying no, no we can't. We're saying that their guarding behavior is impeding us from providing them with a fulfilling life. We're saying that we are not up to the task of constantly managing their interactions as more of these trigger points are found, tripped and a fight breaks out. We're saying we don't want to see them get hurt because we can't provide them safety from each other.
We're giving up Charlie, the new one. We're going to take him back to the rescue and say, 'this is the best, gentlest pug we've ever met. he'll be great anywhere but with us.' And we'll do out best to not be angry at Greta. And we'll move forward stronger and with better tips for making your eyes hurt less after crying (put cold water on cotton balls, place on eyes: charm!). And we will miss Charlie every day. He's my first dog and I have never felt this much pain before. I have never felt so terrible and not been able to do anything about it.
The rescue is a good one and he was in excellent shape when we got him. And while we have failed to provide for him, it wasn't because we didn't love him. It wasn't because we didn't try. We needed to take stock of the duration of their lives and ask: 'what's best for them?'
These guys: http://www.seattlepugs.com/ are getting our pug back. Check it out, maybe you can find a great dog or send them some money as they take care of needy, wonderful dogs who did nothing wrong except want to be happy and safe.
They are both rescue pugs and so there is a lot of risk with both of them as they come from fractured backgrounds. But hey, my love and I are up for challenges and there's no love like someone you've gone through some challenges with. We got Greta, we got serious about taking care of another life (no more drinking irresponsibly, gotta wake up for bathroom!) and saw the wonderful rewards of that life loving you back. Of loving you so much in its puggy little heart that it would do anything to protect you. Both of us.
What we know of Greta's background is sketchy. Her original owner died suddenly. Greta and his other pug were found with the dead owner three days after he died. We know that Greta doesn't like seeing either of us, especially CBot (love of my life) sleeping heavily and unresponsive. Its a trigger. She thinks she's alone again. Upshot for CBot: can't get hangovers anymore, Greta gets skittish and unhappy. Kind of an upshot, less ruined mornings.
We could have thought more about this, probably should have thought more. We could have thought about how Greta would react to a new dog. And we did. We thought, 'Greta lived with a dog for years both with her original owner and in foster care. She'll be fine.' We figured with two of us there would be enough laps to go around. Four hands to provide belly rubs and four thighs to plunk against as they fwump down into a snuggle position.
This isn't how dogs work. That is how rational and expressive beings *can* work. It is possible to convince a human who has the faculty of speech that this new, strange situation is okay. That its a good thing because there are now more of us in this family and more is good. We can support each other and offer love and kindness. Hey, if you play cards right, kid, you'll have someone to snuggle with all the time! Even when CBot and I are out for the day or the week. You'll have each other.
Or you could give the two of us warnings from day 1 that you were not okay with this new dog living here. You did, we ignored you. That may be harsh on us, as we did notice and respond, but we responded poorly. We didn't get help, we didn't try anything other then a pat on your head and an admonish to, 'be nice to your brother.' That's not her brother. Greta had litter mates but she never had a brother.
Its a guarding problem. She views Charlie as a threat to take her humans away. Nothing could be further from the truth but I can't sit her down and tell her (I've tried) or cry into her fur asking her to be a nicer pug (tried: doesn't work). Its possible we could work for months to try and get a small improvement. As it is, Greta gets angry and starts sending out warning signs when Charlie is in the same room as her. But these are older dogs. They are rescues. They have who knows what else going on in their heads and who knows what other behaviors that are going to come pouring out if we can overcome these.
If they were younger and we knew their complete histories, we'd try more. But we know the shell of Greta and nothing of Charlie's. We got Charlie from the rescue, he apparently got surrendered during a divorce/re-marriage scenario. What else has he seen and what else is he going to exhibit that we haven't touched on yet? Can we make a happy home for these two loggerheading pugs?
We're saying no, no we can't. We're saying that their guarding behavior is impeding us from providing them with a fulfilling life. We're saying that we are not up to the task of constantly managing their interactions as more of these trigger points are found, tripped and a fight breaks out. We're saying we don't want to see them get hurt because we can't provide them safety from each other.
We're giving up Charlie, the new one. We're going to take him back to the rescue and say, 'this is the best, gentlest pug we've ever met. he'll be great anywhere but with us.' And we'll do out best to not be angry at Greta. And we'll move forward stronger and with better tips for making your eyes hurt less after crying (put cold water on cotton balls, place on eyes: charm!). And we will miss Charlie every day. He's my first dog and I have never felt this much pain before. I have never felt so terrible and not been able to do anything about it.
The rescue is a good one and he was in excellent shape when we got him. And while we have failed to provide for him, it wasn't because we didn't love him. It wasn't because we didn't try. We needed to take stock of the duration of their lives and ask: 'what's best for them?'
These guys: http://www.seattlepugs.com/ are getting our pug back. Check it out, maybe you can find a great dog or send them some money as they take care of needy, wonderful dogs who did nothing wrong except want to be happy and safe.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
learning python the hard way: day 1
I'm working through lpthw with the lady type. Its a tremendous amount of fun so far. We are both laughing and enjoying the way @ZedAShaw is presenting the material. I cut code for food and the lady has always been interested but this is her first language. Its a great way to get started.
Every time she finishes another exercise (through 3 so far), she smiles and enjoys it a little more. There will be hard parts for sure and at points it'll frustrate me (I'm an old Perl guy, python is strange to me). But it looks to be fun.
bewhahahahaha... direct quote, as she shakes her fist at me, "You people up there... acting all lofty with your ivory towers!" She has now discovered that python's print evaluates boolean expressions to 'true' and 'false.' This is gold, so gold. Because: she's right! Especially the tower bit!
Thanks Zed!
Every time she finishes another exercise (through 3 so far), she smiles and enjoys it a little more. There will be hard parts for sure and at points it'll frustrate me (I'm an old Perl guy, python is strange to me). But it looks to be fun.
bewhahahahaha... direct quote, as she shakes her fist at me, "You people up there... acting all lofty with your ivory towers!" She has now discovered that python's print evaluates boolean expressions to 'true' and 'false.' This is gold, so gold. Because: she's right! Especially the tower bit!
Thanks Zed!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Following Sports as Hobby
I'm having trouble following sports as most of the writers I used to like are gone. ESPN.com used to have a deep stable of excellent, thought provoking or enjoyable writers. Rob Neyer, Bill Simmons, David Thorpe, Wiley, Law, Hollinger, Stark and more. Some of those guys are still there and I simply can't stand them anymore. Stark has turned into an abominable shit-stirring for no purpose other then shit, Wiley is dead, Thorpe seems to have only haters he feeds constantly and Simmons is evolving and exploring and I don't care.
Law is still around and his chats are great but I only care about prospects a little, so I can't stay too focused. Hollinger is great like all of the time but the NBA just finished a great post season and will now go fuck itself up real hard for a year or so. That should make for excellent reading: still no games. Sorry guys!
And Neyer left. Neyer was why I started reading everything at ESPN back when. Its why I have an insider subscription. And I can't follow him to SBNation. ESPN might be an ad-whoring mongrel of a site but its got nothing on SBNation. Giant, page covering gilette ads? check. Oh, those ads mean if you click anywhere but the text of the article you end up on the ad landing page? awesome. And those ads are ugly as fuck? trifecta hit. Where's my sad sack of cash?
Luckily for me I'm getting into programming as a hobby as well as my job. I'm finding I want to explore the programming ideas I ignored for years. I imagine it will make me a better programmer but I don't think I care. Its like, 'hey! you're better at your job!' Okay? Neat. I enjoy reading about compiler's now. *shrug*
I hope I don't turn into a language zealot now. I was able to stave that off by not getting involved or too close to my field. I hope I can maintain emotional distance as I decrease intellectual distance. We'll see!
*this was supposed to be tweet, couldn't quite get all that emotion in. Also, additional bitching about Neyer is needed. He was more enjoyable at ESPN when he had a muzzle. He kind of sounds like an old punk who's been trotted out from storage but is still shouting about the sex pistols even though they've been irrelevant for two decades.
Law is still around and his chats are great but I only care about prospects a little, so I can't stay too focused. Hollinger is great like all of the time but the NBA just finished a great post season and will now go fuck itself up real hard for a year or so. That should make for excellent reading: still no games. Sorry guys!
And Neyer left. Neyer was why I started reading everything at ESPN back when. Its why I have an insider subscription. And I can't follow him to SBNation. ESPN might be an ad-whoring mongrel of a site but its got nothing on SBNation. Giant, page covering gilette ads? check. Oh, those ads mean if you click anywhere but the text of the article you end up on the ad landing page? awesome. And those ads are ugly as fuck? trifecta hit. Where's my sad sack of cash?
Luckily for me I'm getting into programming as a hobby as well as my job. I'm finding I want to explore the programming ideas I ignored for years. I imagine it will make me a better programmer but I don't think I care. Its like, 'hey! you're better at your job!' Okay? Neat. I enjoy reading about compiler's now. *shrug*
I hope I don't turn into a language zealot now. I was able to stave that off by not getting involved or too close to my field. I hope I can maintain emotional distance as I decrease intellectual distance. We'll see!
*this was supposed to be tweet, couldn't quite get all that emotion in. Also, additional bitching about Neyer is needed. He was more enjoyable at ESPN when he had a muzzle. He kind of sounds like an old punk who's been trotted out from storage but is still shouting about the sex pistols even though they've been irrelevant for two decades.
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