Is it wrong to goof off at work on a day you were supposed to have off but had to cancel because off last minute requirements and changes needed on a project that all of a sudden became the top priority?
Author: Kevin Lawver
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How can you tell your
How can you tell your sinus infection is gone?
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Spending Time in QA
At work, I deal with our QA (it stands for Quality Assurance for the unitiated) group almost daily. When I make changes to any of our search products, I have to give the QA folks the code and then fix any bugs they find before it can go into production.
The QA process is weird. I work with the same two people all the time, and we have a rhythm. If the changes are fairly minor, we work on just that until it’s done. The problem is it’s like playing tennis with a medicine ball. I send the code over, they look at it, do their tests, send me a list of problems, I fix them and the process begins again. When we’re really moving, I can’t work on anything else. It’s hard to switch gears fast enough to remember what line of code does what and where to find the code to fix whatever bug’s been reported. So, I spend a good part of the process trying not to think about anything else. I do a lot of blog surfing, looking for new sites to read. It’s a weird feeling, reading but trying not to get too into it so I can react quickly to the latest list of bugs that could show up at any time.
That’s what I’m doing today. Until my QA-Buddy clears my latest Opus to the Search Gods, I’m writing (which is distracting me) and surfing. Yes, boss, I’m working! I’m QA-ing!! I swear!
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Lawvers Around the World
I am now on a quest. Since I started this site, started checking search engines for it, and other people have found me because of the domain name, I’ve become fascinated by all the Lawvers in the world that I never knew existed.
I guess that wouldn’t surprise a “Smith”, “Brown”, or “Black”. Lawver’s not a normal last name. It’s weird. I didn’t think there were many of us out there, because once a name’s been out there for a while, people start to recognize it and don’t mispronounce it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been Kevin Lawyer. I’m sure the other Lawvers can raise their hands in agreement.
I always wanted a normal last name growing up. I wanted my mom’s maiden name: Cookson. There was always a lot of history wrapped up in. There were the stories of the guy who came to New York in the 1600s. We went to see a chest he made in a museum in Utica when I was in high school. Thomas Buell was his name. There was Lord Dalrymple the Earl of Stair who started a war in Ireland because he forgot to relay a message (or something like that). On the Lawver side? Zip. We didn’t even see my dad’s family. There were no great family stories. So, I thought we were alone in the world, a little Lawver Ship floating in a see of giant SmithLiners and BrownTankers.
Back to the present. I’ve been contacted by a Lawver who has a really cool first name (Tone, yeah, really). There are a couple Professor Lawvers. There’s a chiropracter Lawver, a racecar driver. There’s a type of soil called Lawver. There’s weather station in Wyoming called Lawver. There’s a Lawver Post Office in Campbell County, Wyoming. We’re all over the place.
There was a Lawver I know nothing about who showed up in a Google Lawver search who lived in Rawlins County, Kansas in 1900.
I like seeing that there are more Lawvers than I will ever know. It’s nice to know that on both sides of my family, I go back farther than the eye can see. I can’t explain as eloquently as I’d like, but knowing that I come from a long line of people who lived, worked, did their people things and died long before I existed makes me feel like I’m somebody. I’m standing on a mountain of people who’s essences came together, got distilled, jumbled and mangled to produce me. The farther down the mountain I go, the more people there are. The more lives lived and stories that I have yet to hear.
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I just found out that
I just found out that this big evil project that’s been the bane of my existence since August is clearing QA today. It means I’m done, done, done for a while. No more bugs to fix. YES!!
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Huddled In The Rocks
Monkeybutt, and the joys of being 10. It reminds me of walking home from school in Iceland. The school and our apartment house were about 150 yards apart across a rocky field (they call it “tundra”, which is the perfect word for it). There were a couple of us who went to the school (A.T. Mahan K-12) and lived in our little apartment house or the one next door. In the winter, the wind would whip across that field between the houses and the school at about 30 miles an hour. To combat this, my little group of friends made a leanto out of rocks about halfway across the field. We’d run for the windbreak, collapse into it and catch our breath for the rest of the trip. It felt like an odyssey every day. Mr. Wilson wishes he was 10. I wish I was 7, sitting in the little leanto all bundled up, puffing steam laughing with my little brother.
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Government says women have no
Government says women have no right to drug (from Salon). Wow… and I thought we were bad.
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ems and ens and things.
ems and ens and things. I had no idea.
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My A-List O’ Bloggers
Dave’s post about the “A-List” got me thinking about the blogs I read that really fall into my own private list. I started out with the people Dave listed, but I’ve since moved on to other people. I think it’s mostly because most of the A-Listers that I read don’t update often enough. So, here’s the KP-List:
- Open Brackets: She’s twitterpated and is probably the best writer among all the blogs I frequent. She can break your heart in a paragraph.
- OddFellow: He has a son a who’s a little older than Max and lives in Texas. His writing always rings true, and a lot of it makes me laugh. He’s the kind of guy I’d hang out with if he lived down the street.
- Jodi: She gets bitten by the “woe-is-me” bug sometimes, but when she’s on, it’s fun to watch. Funny observations about single life in Minnesota.
- Bluishorange: She’s a college student in Texas. She paints a window into a world I don’t know, never knew, and am fascinated by. If she weren’t such a good writer, it would be just another blog, but she’s good, very good.
- The Norm: I know, I know, it’s a comic strip. But, it feels like a blog. Again, it rings true, which is a must-have. Oh, and funny. I like funny.
That’s it. That’s my A-List. I wanted to keep it short. There are a lot of people I left out that I read daily. But, these guys are the ones I check frequently. Is there one thing that sets them apart? Looking over my descriptions, my list is filled with people who are good writers who write the truth. Whether it’s fiction or not, it rings true. They offer a window into their lives and don’t shy away from painful topics. I hope they keep it up.
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Because I was starving this
Because I was starving this morning, I gave the cafeteria’s homefries yet another chance. Usually, they’re underdone. This morning was noooo different. The omelette was great, as usual. The potatoes were half done. Guys, come on, it’s crunchy on the outside, soft and comforting on the outside, not the other way around.