All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

     It’s hard to keep track of phases any more.  Actually, at this point I think the whole phase system has completely broken down.  What I’m trying to indicate is that I finally have gotten something of a harvest.  Sort of.  So here it is in all its glory:

     Yup, about twenty pea pods.  Woo!  There’s about six more that might mature still and be edible.  It’s tough to say.  I might also say that the pods themselves are hard to spot.  They don’t stick out much so each pod was like hidden treasure.  I still haven’t asked the bishop what to do, if anything, for tithing on my bounty, but I don’t think 2-3 pea pods is worth trying to give back.  Perhaps I’ll just be five cents or so more generous in tithing from my next paycheck.

     On a positive note, they didn’t taste too bad, though some weren’t exactly sweet.  I’m sure the corn will turn out better.  Oh please let the corn turn out better!

     This started out as a comment, but became too long and thus would seem impolite to post as one.  It is in response to Hilton’s discussion on the 30-1 ratio gap between the productivity of “awesome” programmers (to use his usual term) to sucky ones.  The general idea I have gotten is that those in the programming field seem to think that they are unique and inherently different from every other field, some how, and that this statistic proves it.  To me, I see this kind of disparity in every field, but it’s not always easily measureable and so it doesn’t always show up in the statistics that get published.  So the following is my response.

     I still hold to my position that this vast difference between the “greats” and the “sucks” is not unique to the field of programming.  Part of it is due to programming being a very young field.  A lot of it is still being explored and is still unknown.  I’m going to propose that many of these “30″ programmers oftentimes seem incapable of teaching the “1″ programmers what they know.  Sometimes this is because their ego gets in the way, other times because it’s still a bit intangible.

(more…)

     I hope I don’t get struck down for my numerous plays on scriptural/religious phrases.  It’s all in innocent fun.  This is just a little update on Project Eden, showing what week nine looks like.  For those of you at unawares, I gave up Janus for adoption on Saturday.  I’m still coping with that, which is why I haven’t been able to post about it (since I’m sure you are just aching for me to do so, anyways).  I plan on doing so soon, including a picture memoir of our time together along with the experience of dropping him off, but I still need a little more time.  Project Eden, however, is still an emotionally neutral topic and something I can have fun with.

     It has been hot.  Really hot.  Admittedly, there are places in the US that are hotter, but I don’t really care because it’s hot where I am now and I am not dealing with it well.  Were I in those places where temperatures are ten, or even twenty degrees warmer, I would probably have long since packed up and moved out.  I am from Idaho Falls and I spent just about all of my life there.  This means I am accustomed to snow-covered winters, windy springs (not my favorite and I don’t miss that so much), and temperatures that are, on average, ten degrees cooler than in Provo.  I’m serious, for as long as I can remember I have compared temperatures between Idaho Falls and the Salt Lake Valley and noticed that they are consistently that much warmer.  It never ceases to amaze me how different the weather can be over such a short distance.

(more…)

     Unless something completely unexpected happens in the next day or two, I have no other option but to go to Salt Lake and give up Janus (maybe Minerva, too) to the Utah Humane Society for adoption.  This will happen either Friday or Saturday before 5pm, since that is when the society closes (so really before 4pm since it takes some time to get there).

      Anyway, for what are probably obvious reasons, I don’t want to go alone.  Is there someone who would be willing and able to go with me?  I’ll work around schedules, since that is my luxury to a degree.  I would really appreciate the company on that long trip.

     KUER is doing a new program called Selected Shorts where a couple of short stories are read by famous people in theatre.  Leonard Nimoy read an interesting one about a hitman I enjoyed, but what really struck me was the second story read by someone else.  At first it sounded like a science-fiction story with perhaps visitors from another world coming (the main character notices an object on the moon), but it took a turn I was completely not expecting.  I felt physically shaken after hearing it, so sad was the story and so deeply did I ache for the protagonist.  Even now it troubles me.

     Tamra and Faith came by Sunday evening to play games and I had just barely finished hearing the story on the radio when they knocked on my door.  I was completely shaken and had no coherent thought process, and indeed in order to deal with the intensity of feeling the story had elicited from me I asked if I could read it to them.  I promised I would post a link to it, and I’m asking the rest of you to read it as well.  I would truly like to discuss it (though a forum such as this may not be the best).

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/ohenry/0902/brockmeier_ceiling.html

You know your day is going to suck when the first thing you do upon coming into work is accidentally blow away a very important file.  Then you have to field a dozen or so calls, explaining to each person that the reason they can’t log in to a certain program is because you blew away said file and that you are feverishly working to recreate it.  I’m glad I have excellent typing speed and accuracy otherwise I probably just would have gone home and cried.

*LATER NOTE*

     However, it was largely cheered up after finding the following joke on a relative of mine (he’s probably a cousin somehow, as that seems to be the trend of late in finding relatives):

(more…)

     As you may have noticed, I installed a little map-thingy on the right of my blog.  It’s supposed to tell me where people that come to my blog are from (roughly).  The big dot around Utah is obvious, but I appear to have a few visitors from the Houston area, and what appears to be one Canadian.  Would you mind posting or something?  I’m very curious to know who my visitors are.

     I found some pictures I took last week of the trellis before I put it up so I made a whole new post for them.  I’m sad I didn’t find any of the garden that showed the weed problem.  Anyhow, for the garden pictures I also uploaded the behemoth pictures so you can click on those two pictures to see the bigger versions which allow you to see more detail.  I’d like some feedback as to whether or not you actually like that.

(more…)

I would like to remind everyone I still would like help if possible.  I just don’t want this new post to push it out of everyone’s mind.

     I spent all of my afternoon and evening until sundown today weeding.  There were a lot.  A LOT!  I mean, I have had more plant matter in weeds than in what I planted and wanted to grow.  It was a lush green carpet of…weeds.  Until the past week I’ve been pretty busy and on days I didn’t have something else calling my attention, they were usually days I had work at stupid in the morning, so I came home and napped instead.  While my last day off (the 4th) I used to de-nastify the house a bit, today I took to the garden pulling weeds.

(more…)

     So if any of you happen to find that you have some time to surf the Internet upon checking this, I actually have a request.  My flower/herb patch is over-run with weeds.  This is nothing new, but while pulling them I’m afraid of accidentally taking some of them with the weeds.  I have no idea what these new weeds are, they are entirely different from what was in the garden patch (with most of the ones I’m familiar with also growing here).  I know they’re weeds because they grow ALL OVER THE PATCH!  Grr.

     So I’ll post here a list of the plants and what I’m trying to find are pictures of them as little seedlings, after they’ve sprouted.  There are a few that I’m fairly certain are not weeds, but I’m not sure.  So if you have the time to do a brief Google search and post a link of where to find the picture, I’d appreciate it.  I’m looking for them as well and will post what I find, but it would go faster if I had help.  Trying to find pictures of some of the vegetables as seedlings made me realize it’s not as simple a project as I would have thought.  There might be a somewhat central repository for these things, but I haven’t found it yet.

Flowers:
Coreopsis, Sunburst [Coreopsis grandiflora]
Petunia, Fire chief and Violet Blue [Petunia hybrida]
Daisy, Livingstone Mix [Dorotheanthus bellidiformis]
Bachelor’s Button, Polka Dot Mix [Centaurea cyanus]
Zinnia, Dahlia-Flowered Mix [Zinnia elegans]

Herbs:
Mint [Mentha piperita]
Parsley, Curled [Petroselinum crispum]
Catnip [Nepeta cataria]
Basil, Lemon [Ocimum basilicum citriodorum]
Cilantro/Coriander [Coriandrum sativum]