Blood donation fun

At the donation site giving blood and typing with one thumb. All done nose and I can use two thumbs. Makes the whole process quicker. I've been giving blood on the same day as I play hockey and I still consider it a bit of an experiment. I think it's better than going the day before because I get so dehydrated playing. Giving blood forces me to drink more so I think this the best choice. Plus I always have my car on days I play hockey, so it works out that way as well.

We're lucky in London that we have permanent clinic. Makes the donation process more of a habit than a travelling clinics can. I heartily encourage everyone in the vast reaches of this blog to donate blood. It grows back quickly and alcohol is more effective after donation - more bang-for-your so to speak.

Anyway, still looking for time to blog and this was as good a time as any. I'll have to try and be more consistent.

At the computer - surprise!

I am, somewhat surprisingly, sitting at my home computer whilst typing away at this.  Certainly improves the throughput quite a bit.  The inline editing I'm used to doing works better when one can erase and re-type a word without even thinking about it.  The little mobile keyboard works, but I definitely don't have enough practice under my belt to have the same facility as a full keyboard.  Or kybard as Dilbert once noted.

I have barely been at my computer for weeks now.  I'm still not sure why, but I'm going with it.  I suppose some of the people I used to play online games are wondering what the heck is up, but they'll figure out a way.  What I have to do is figure out a way to stop spending so much!  You can tell when I pay the bills, 'cause that's when I think about money.  I have to do a better job of managing what I have instead of managing what I want.  Maybe that's the trick.  Whatever it is, I have a job and that's good.  I have to stop digging at stuff and pay down debt instead of racking it up.  Easier said then done, given my past history in this matter.  And I know that I'm the biggest culprit in this manner in my household.  Ah well - I shall have to be more careful!

Anyway, I also need to make sure I get out the door on time tomorrow - hockey ahoy!  Plus I have to be at work for 9am, so I have to be careful with my time budgeting as well.  Maybe I'll get someone else to pick up the pucks for me... But the Wings and the Blackhawks are on, so I'd best go investigate that...

Meeting post!

This new app is so handy I can post while waiting for meetings to begin. Has not started well - we're threatening to jump off the bridge if people don't show up. Not much of a threat really because it is a phone bridge and no one likes meetings anyway. So, I can tap away at this.

Not much else to say for today - the novelty is enough for today.

More couch musings...

Not that there is a lot to see here, but I'm here on the couch. Saw part of the Pittsburgh Washington game. The Pens were ahead 4-0 in the 2nd. But I'm happy that the Pens pulled through.

Only had one goalie today. Kinda surprising - this guy is often late, but does not usually miss a game. We did get 10 skaters out which is also a good thing. A few more would be perfect but our goalkeeper issues are raising the ire of several people. One person suggested some changes to how we handle goalies not showing up. Use money to help people remember, but without forcing everyone to commit large sums up front.

I think I need to finish here before I simply pass out

That was an okay post

That went well enough that I'm going to give it another try. Too bad things didn't work out for Vancouver - those last two goals were real heartbreakers. Kane's last goal was pretty special though. I think that last crash into Loungo really threw him off.

Today I'm looking forward to Detroit looking good again. I think the last time I saw them was game two and the wings did not look good at all - maybe a little lost. But evidently they got it together for the last few.

I don't know why I just haven't been motivated to use the computer here at home. I am going to pin this on the playoffs, but who knows.

Not a great year for parents of my son's class. One little guy's mom passed away last night. I believe she had brain cancer and this was the third occurance and there was nothing left to do. Over Christmas another guy's father died suddenly. Poor guys. Way too much education about endings.

So far the game looks good, so I'm going to wrap things up. Like now. Really.

Another mobile post

Trying out a new post tool and we'll see if I can post more easily from the ole mobile computing platform. It's been tough to keep up with posting every day during playoffs. And all the different events that need attending. Not really too many of those, but it could happen.

Watching Vancouver play a spirited game -a lot of back and forth action. Vancouver is currently ahead 4-3, but we'll see what happens. Definitely more difficult to use this tiny keyboard, but if I don't want to get off the couch, what choice so I have?

Chicago just tied the game.

Chicago penalty. Hard to type and watch. Better finish up!

Got the boys out of the house on Mother's Day and bowling. They've been wanting to go again for some time, but this was the first time it was just three if us. Pretty busy weekend, but it worked out.

Vancouver penalty. 4v4 for 39 seconds.

Anyway, I'll see how this post works tomorrow.

Brother...

... I guess I changed to "every two or three days" for posting.  I don't know why, but I've been so very tired for the last few weeks.  I guess it's the going to work, getting stuff done.  Getting up and playing hockey a few mornings a week - plus watching hockey late... I suppose that would explain things a bit.

I've got to get a plan straight for this Saturday - Sunday is Mother's Day and I have yet to do my shopping.  I really, really need to do that and bring the kids along.  I'll have to think of something.  Privately - I know who reads this space!  But suggestions will be entertained ;)

I really hope Jim Balsillie gets his team.  I really, really dislike Bettman.  Especially his ideas of what needs to be done for the NHL.  I don't think that the league should keep trying to cram hockey down the throats of people that don't normally see snow on the ground.  I mean some places think it's great, but others - not so much.  If a team makes money, that is good.  If a team has been given a chance and still doesn't make money...  I guess I can't say how long is long enough, but I suppose the best way is to count owners.  Changes owners more often than the coach, probably won't be making money any time soon.  Anyway, it is disappointing that the shenanigans have to be deployed to try and get another team in Southern Ontario.  This area could easily support another NHL team and there would be a fan base and people willing to pay to watch hockey.  Not like some places.  Maybe Balsillie will outlast Bettman and then all will be well.   Let's hope so.

Long day...

I went a bunch of days without posting again!  What kind of sad commitment is that?  At least I was blogging at work - took quite a while as well.  I posted something on Friday, but it was only "part 1".  The part 2 ended up being pretty big, so I probably should have made parts 2-5 and part 6 later, but the issue is current so I felt I had to get done.

The topic of how to manage releases comes up every now and again and it shouldn't.  We should have a system that provides benefits for all the user instead of just some and then we won't have to ask the same things over and over.  Hopefully my postings at work will help illuminate some of the choices and get more people thinking about them.  One can only hope...

Whoa

Guess I should use my computer at home more.  Or at least some kind of better mobile blogging software 'cause I haven't written anything for 5 days!  That's pretty horrible given how I was doing before...  I just haven't been up to using the computer for the past few days.  At home at least.  It's been pretty busy at work, what with meetings and just so much stuff to do.  That is a good thing, but sometimes it leaves one tired and out-blogged.

One of the things I've been involved in is around our branching/release strategy.  It's funny because we've had this conversation too often as far as I'm concerned.  In the meeting we had to discuss it, we talked about the same old set of arguments about the basic different ideas.  It took a few days, but I think I hit why that was.  We were not establishing the correct base questions - we didn't know what all the root issues were, so we argued over the proposed solutions.  Also the arguments also revolved around the benefits of the proposals, not the drawbacks.  I wrote up my ideas, but the analysis of the problem hasn't been done yet.  That's probably something for tomorrow, but I think it is absolutely necessary.  Otherwise we'll end up with the camps of "this is newer/better - let's do this" and the "this works, why mess with it?"  Of course neither camp is that extreme, but hey analogies aren't fun if you don't push them a bit.

Anyway, I'm going to construct an analysis of the proposed solutions and identify if they can each meet the requirements and then see which one does the least harm.  Maybe show which provides the best benefits with the least effort - both good criteria.  I've been saying for a while now that the best way to evaluate a process - because that's what these solutions will be - is to pick the one that makes it hardest to wrong thing and easiest to do the right thing.

That is kind of tricky in the software business because you can change so many parts at once.  For software processes, it's important to pick the process/tools that make it hard to do the wrong thing and then make your process fit the process implied by the tools.

You may have noticed something controversial a few paragraphs back as well - that we were picking a process.  It doesn't seem like it because the choices revolve around different tools, but each tool implies a different process.  Picking a process implies picking the tool to use.

Wow - I'm writing this in a very abstract way.  I hope it's clear to other people what I'm trying to say... It's all that math training over the years - I tend to remove the parts that are irrelevant to an argument and replace them with variables or generics (when writing).  The more involved the process or tools the more abstract the references become so we end up with this gobbledy-gook.  Whatever - I wrote up something interesting to me and that's why I'm doing this.  You can read for your own reasons.  Individuality springs up everywhere.