Coasting toward Christmas
We had a release today that went well. I think everybody learned something whether they wanted to or not. I know I did, but I expect it.
Not much going on so I’m pretty much forcing myself to write tonight. I have lots to say but most of the time I’m just babbling about something that doesn’t matter much anyway. Like my ramblings on Truth. I spent a lot of time thinking about truth and what it means and how it relates to religion and philosophy. An epistemology class in college got me started. That was forever and ago so why am I still hooked on it?
Cause truth is all there is people! I could capitalize it but I’m getting tired of making such a distinction. Truth is what is. That which is right now. Why make a distinction? Because understanding it this way means you can’t really be sure of anything unless it is happening right now…and even then an understanding of truth makes you realize you can’t be sure of even that. Which is the right idea. Closer at least.
But I won’t go into my musings on truth tonight. I’ve been up since 3 am and just don’t have it in me. W. has a cold now and mine is on the way out. Poor girl. Alas the common cold is all to common these days.
I really appreciate not having anything to read or worry about any assignments that are due. Being on break is a nice change of pace from the last 4 months. School has a way of making you appreciate those times when you don’t have to be focusing on school stuff. Here am I, enjoying my coasting through Christmas.
Image: This is a picture of my in-law’s deck and the reindeer that light up at night. I liked the picture because of the snow, the deer (in daylight of course), and the flag in the background. Northern Michigan in the winter I call it. Some just call it Kalkaska.
Families and the Final
Our trip north was one of the best in recent years. We were able to visit with family on both our sides. Everybody seemed happy enough. We spent time with the in-laws and the cousins from W.’s side of the family. Spent time with a number of children. My Mother hosted dinner and had us all over to visit. It was nice to see everybody together. We played Wii and took funny pictures that made us laugh.
I came down with a cold on the way up and still have congestion and a sore throat. Drinking lots of water and taking it easy. Gave myself lots of time to accomplish what wouldn’t normally take that long; completing my take-home final exam. Which I have. I’ll review it one more time tomorrow morning then submit it. After that my peer review and I’ll be done.
The nephews and nieces that used to be little are becoming adults. This is interesting to see. It reminds me of how old I am. There is this weird doubling when I realize I’m almost twice their age. I am beginning to refer to things like Thundarr the Barbarian that prompts blank stares.
So the next couple weeks aren’t going to be school focused. I’ll be pushing myself at work until the holiday break at which time I plan to relax by reading a few books and reflecting on the year. Lots going on all the time so some idling and lateral drifting might not be so bad.
Coming up next year will be the Works of Art Series (WOA). I’ll be developing my creative side by documenting my efforts through a twelve month series of watercolor paintings.
Image: The cold beer was just outside the dining room slider where it was about 28 F. It was warm inside the house so stepping outside was refreshing. Curious for an interesting shot, I took a couple and got one with someone looking out just as I took a picture1.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Word to Owen’s Mother. [↩]
Two down, one to go
I finally sat down with W. tonight and wrote out a few holiday cards for friends and family. She did the majority of them over the last couple weeks, while I spent my evenings on campus at group meetings or attending class. Again, W. comes through.
After that I sat down and pounded out an answer to the second of three questions on a take-home final for my class on computer supported collaborate work. I’m putting a lot of thought into my answers so I hope they aren’t crap. Crafting answers often involves a little filibustering, but I’m really trying to concentrate what I’ve learned into 750 words or less, per question. We’ll see how it goes.
I went out to see how W. was doing and found her crashed out on the couch with two fuzzy cats pooled around her legs. This made me think of a friend and his wife that recently lost one of their beloved felines. I don’t know them that well outside of work but have a lot of respect for them both. I’ve been following his wife’s blog for a bit now1 and through this learned of the situation with their cat. Chatting with the Mr. at work has kept me filled in on the situation from a different angle. Blogging is such an interesting phenomenon, don’t you think?
So anyway, when I went out to check on W. and saw our two cats puddled around her, I had to take their picture for this post. They are warm and fuzzy and friendly and we sure like having them around. I can only imagine how my friend’s wife felt losing her cat. Losing is cat is different than losing a spouse or parent, I appreciate and recognize the differences, but losing anything you love hurts. I could spin off on attachment and how it relates but I don’t think I have it in me tonight and I don’t think it would be worth reading anyway. Mostly those rants are me trying to condition myself somehow.
Image: Ozzie and Bailey sleeping sound huddled against W.’s legs taken right before I started writing this post.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Because her writing is good and she has a sharp wit. Plus she introduced me to this footnote plugin. [↩]
One down, two to go
The take-home final for my CSCW class is due next Tuesday. We’re visiting family over the weekend so I spent most of last night working on the first question and hope to complete the next two before Friday. Since it’s an exam, I can’t say much more, but it is going well. I like take home exams because I can ponder the entire semester and craft my answers after having spread out all the articles, notes, and lecture material across my desk. There are three questions to the exam and I have two more to go. Yeah, its big fun.
Speaking of fun, I met with the Best Group Ever tonight for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor to celebrate the conclusion of our project. Dinner was wonderful and the company even better. Each person in the group has such a unique personality and character. What more can be said?
The Waltzing Bear was on a mission today to bust my chops and he nearly did. We sprinted most of the day, pushing, prodding, and stirring up the team. We have code lock-down this week so everybody is on edge. Its almost like the fates know this because the strangest things start happening, like weird errors that are hard to reproduce. But with the dogged persistence of dancing Kodiak, reproduce he does. Then we scramble to fix things. Very exciting way to pass the day. Most of the time.
I’m reading “Managing Humans” by Michael Lopp, also known as Rands. His writing style is sharp, clever, and direct. The book is about biting and humorous tales of a software engineering manager. The stories, fictitious (mostly) characters and situations are so familiar I can’t help but be amused, consoled, and encouraged. Rands, you rock.
And with that, I’m off to my place of padded slumber where I’m going to read a few pages of my latest Neal Asher sci-fi book before lapsing unconscious. Next thing I know, it’ll be another day and I’ll take at run at things again. Maybe try a few things differently. Like brushing my teeth with my left hand. And you heard it here…blogs are so exciting.
Image: I took this when I started this post. I had planned on using a picture I took over the weekend of a lighted tree on top of building in Ann Arbor but it just wasn’t capturing the mood I was feeling. I still have work to do before I can close the book on this semester, and it’s all over my desk. I figured I’d let you see for yourself.
Context, Focus, and a Final Report
Here it is, the end of the semester and I’m doing exactly what I found myself doing last year; scrambling to finish writing assignments while W. works her a$$ off doing Christmas cards, cleaning the house, and wrapping presents. This classwork is so time consuming that my weekends tend to be nothing but work. Well, not work like I get to do during the day. That is almost a vacation compared to this.
Most of Saturday was spent stitching together into a single document the various sections authored by my group members. This took considerably more time than I thought, but I couldn’t stop until it at least resembled Frankenstein. You don’t even want to know how it looked at first. On Sunday1 I met with my group and we spent a few hours reviewing our report and including references to course readings to give it much needed legitimacy. I then spent a couple hours after that reviewing, updating, and putting together our works cited page. At last, I think I am done. I sent it out for final review.
The context for this report is the subject of computer supported cooperative work and whether we have learned enough throughout the semester to be able to effectively evaluate a system and whether it is meeting the needs of those using it. The focus was on Google Docs. Google Docs rocks. ‘Nuff said.
All that remains for me to do to round out this semester is to answer three questions as part of a take-home final exam. I hope to start on that tomorrow night. At this point, I’m pushing it just trying to come up with sentences for this post.
Image: I’d like to thank C.B. for this most awesome image of her cell phone showing my previous blog post dealing with focus+context on my cell phone. This is focus+context taken to a whole new level. Thanks so much for sending me that picture C.B….you’re a hoot. You had to know I’d use it for a blog post. How could I resist?!? Though I must admit, I almost used this one. 
- That would be today…but time is a weird thing in a blog so I’ll just say “Sunday” [↩]
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