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April 26, 2000 |
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What is my work like? I won't bore you with the intricate details of
precisely what it is like to be a software developer. It is very rewarding
work. I remember talking to Suzanne.
I told her that engineering may be one of the most rewarding jobs. It is
both creative and logical. I enjoy being an applied scientist, it gives me
a chance to exercise my creativity.
As for how the day to day work is like? Projects are long, they last
months, sometimes years. The day to day work is obviously more immediate.
We look at features and bug fixes, prioritize them, and schedule them for
different milestones. I suppose I think of it as running a marathon. Not
that I've ever run a marathon, mind you, but that's just the way I think of
it. Your eventual goal is far away, out of your sight, at first it is even
tough to conceptualize finishing it. However, you continue, day by day and
step by step. The features, the bug reports, the milestones, they're the
things you would see immediately during the run. They could be the
equivalent to the other runners, the elements, or the terrain. Shipping
the product is the intangible result from all the work. If you think of it,
physically that last step in a marathon is not any different from the one
before, the difference is in the accomplishment.
For months, all we really see are the day to day issues. We care about the
product and the finished results, but we're just trying to keep pace. We
spend months just trying to keep our head above water, keeping just ahead
of the other runners. In a sense, that's all we see and that's what
consumes us… just keeping pace. It's often tiring and every once in a
while we stop or slow down to take a look, but mostly we just continue
running.
I had dinner plans with Nancy today. We had made these plans last week when we spoke on the phone. We typically get together once in a while just to catch up and see what the other one is up to. She came by at about 6pm; we had talked earlier that day about getting Mexican food. We ended up going to Casa Vallarta.
The actual dinner came and went quickly. The service there is always fast and efficient, sometimes it seems almost too quick and I can't help but to feel rushed. I always like chatting with Nancy. We worked together some years ago and know many of the same people. Since she is not an engineer, she has a different approach to the product as well as having a different relationship with whom we worked. It's a little like watching your parents' relationship with their siblings.
We talked about some of our other friends. She talked about her friend, Jay and his upcoming wedding in Las Vegas. I mentioned some things abou my girlfriend, Pam and some details about our relationship. We talked about pets and allergies. I have a fairly strong allergy to dust, which I often use as an excuse to keep my place messy. It really is pretty bad though, to the point where my friends can often tell when I've been cleaning up. She is allergic to many more things than I am. I suppose in that sense we were partners in misery.
She needed to shop for a friend at work and she wanted to go to Crossroads. She simply wanted to pick up some stationary as a present. On the drive to Crossroads, we listened to Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover by Sophie B. Hawkins. We went to the Hallmark store together and I looked around while she was shopping for the present. I was browsing through some fairly obnoxious musical cards, which I still found vaguely amusing. I briefly though about getting one for Pam, but couldn't find one that expressed the right sentiment.
I did find these adorable mini personalized piggy banks. They were maybe about an inch and a half in length and had a slot for one coin, presumably a lucky penny. I got a pair of them, one with Pam's name, the other with mine. I hoped she liked them, as it turns out she has a fondness for pig things.
Nancy wanted to get some CD's so we went to Circuit City. I briefly though about the idea of getting another VCR, which would be my sixth, but quickly dismissed the idea. She ended up getting that Sophie B. Hawkins disc. I looked through the stack of DVD's and picked up a couple:
The American PresidentWe departed shortly after. She was parked at my building at work, so I just walked her to her car. I stayed for a few more hours working. Always working. [Sigh]
Stepmom
April 26, 2000