Newest Pet Peeve
Blog Posted by kitt at 21:09 on 10 January 2017Okay, I have a new pet peeve. No, wait, this isn't new, but it is definitely a growing one.
Said pet peeve is when someone brings a laptop into a meeting and taps away on it all during the meeting, ignoring the meeting happening around him. Said tapping is worse when said "him" is a junior developer who needs to hear what is being said in said meeting.
If you attend a meeting, pay attention. If you're not going to or are unable to pay attention, don't come to the meeting. If the meeting is important, but you are dealing with an emergency, let the rest of the people in the meeting know what's going on ("I recognize this meeting is important, but I have 17 people waiting for this hotfix, so I'm going to push it live, and might be distracted briefly, here, wait, let me step outside to finish it."). Don't (DO NOT) spend the meeting working on something else that can wait the f---ing 30 minutes. You aren't going to magically figure out how to embed that f---ing graph while distracted in a meeting you need to be paying attention to what's being said, so f---ing stop trying and pay attention.
I've actually closed the laptops of people sitting next to me in meetings. If you need the laptop to take notes, let everyone know that's what you're doing. Otherwise, leave the thing at your desk.
Right Here
Blog Posted by kitt at 21:10 on 9 January 2017Going to leave this right here, just a small note to myself about a heart breaking, how sweet falling in love is, differences in perception, and the art of being alone.
Babylon's Ashes
Book Notes kitt decided around 17:19 on 8 January 2017 to publish this:
That this book took me a week to finish would have me concerned about my reading speed, except there are so many good parts, so many relevant parts, in it that I'm okay with my reading it slowly. The arc of the book is predictable, the character development is expected, the action is as imagined. What caught me in this book is the wording, the details, the smaller message, and the underlying lesson in the book.
That, and the relevancy of the book to today's politics. If I didn't know any better, I would swear that Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck KNEW how the election would turn out and published the book as a road map to dealing with the aftermath and provide comfort to rational, good people around. There were so many good quotes from the book, so many places where I had to stop reading and just think about what I had just read, that I highly recommend this book. Problem is, to read this book, you kinda need to read the previous five books in the Expanse series (including the one that just pissed me off).
I have been really enjoying the series (minus that one book), so yeah, have to say read it read it read it, but will temper it with, "If you can get through the previous five."
Should I Schedule Books To Read?
Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 00:23 on 8 January 2017
I have been carrying this question around on a card in my stack of index cards for I don't know how long.
Should I schedule books to read?
Given I haven't added anything else to the card, and haven't actually asked this question, I figure it's time to decide.
No. No, I'm not going to schedule books to read.
I have my goal of "Read a book a week." I managed 73 books last year, and 105 books in 2015. I expect 52 - 54 books a year to be the normal with my book-a-week pace, with that 105 books in a year being a reaction to my reading only 40 books in 2014. I really wish I had started tracking the books I read like decades ago. Alas, I didn't.
In early 2015 I had expressed my woe about reading only forty books in the previous year to Mom, and I was thinking of making the goal of reading a book a week. She said, don't put that stress on yourself, having to read to reach a goal. Reading is about the pleasure of the experience and the delight of learning something new. I might have thought, "And the temporary escape from reality," but I didn't voice that comment. Having the pressure of reading a particular number of words ruins the joy of reading, so, no, don't create that goal.
Turns out, the goal of a book-a-week is fine, but TWO a week, now that's a stress.
So, I have a number of books I want to read, but not the actual books as a list. I am good with this. I have my giant stack of books to read, my boxes of books I've read and the boxes of books I haven't read, and my wishlist of books I think I want to read. I like browsing my books to figure out what I want to read next. A book I bought six years ago might be interesting today, because now is the time I want to read it, now is the time I'm ready to read it. Scheduling books to read, no, that'll add the pressure I don't want.
Deciding no and crossing that task off the list.