I'm tired, I'm bumped up, I'm skinned up and I have learned a whole lot more than I intended to when I went in. Sounds like I got into a bar fight, doesn't it. Actually, I had a three round bout with my bathroom sink. The good news is, it's been replaced, it works as intended, and I know a whole lot more than when I first started this whole process.
A few weeks back, we noticed that the upstairs bathroom sink was leaking. Just a little at first, but over ensuing days, it got progressively worse, to the point that I had to do something about it. The last time this happened, it was just a washer to be replaced. Fairly simple, I can do that, and did a few years ago. This time, I went in and did the same thing. I put everything back together, and when I turned on the hot water, it came out as a trickle. What? What would be causing that? I looked at everything again, checked to make sure that everything was seated right, turned on the water again, and yet again, hot water was a trickle. Hmmm, this meant I was going to have to go under the sink to figure out what was going on. I never relish this process, not b ecause I'm afraid of plumbing, but because I'm afraid of finding what one of the previous owners of this house did to make the system work in the first place.
Some back story... when we bought the house fifteen years ago, there had been a number of remodeling jobs done to the house, including an upstairs addition and a partial kitchen update (mostly lighting. A couple years in, we decided we wanted to redo some of the kitchen, and we called a contractor to help us scope the job. The contractor brought an electrician over to help with the estimate, and when he saw the switches on our wall, he yelled out to his partner "Hey Kenny, come get a load of this!" Trust me, a sentence like that does not instill confidence. The switches that were being used were from an industrial site. They were not up to code, or even close to it. Turns out that the previous owner who did the remodels was an industrial electrician, and apparently he "scavenged parts from his various jobs" to do the remodels. We had to pay a lot extra to undo much of what they did. We had thought we'd seen the last of the surprises, but no, I got to see another one first hand. Under the sink was a range of snaking pipes, strange silicone wraps, and parts that looked like they'd been welded together, In addition, I saw what had happened, the copper pipe had twisted, and was constricting the flow, mainly because the pipe was wrapped around a tight corner. Again, I don't want to think of how this was put together, but now I had to take it apart.
An early morning trip to Lowe's (thinking about Mike Lyles the whole time and thinking he'd get the biggest chuckle out of this situation), I picked up a nice, modern, clean looking wide spread bathroom faucet, and then went home to read instructions and brace myself for the mother of all home repair fights. Yep, it turned out to be just about that bad. I had to cut hoses, break pipes, and pop welds to get the parts loose, not to mention gobs of silicone in the threads that made getting it out a royal nightmare. I pride myself on not cursing, but today, you would have hear my inner sailor loud and clear at pivotal moments.
After what should have been a fairly routine lunch time break, I emerged victorious, but a bit humbled, a bit bloody in spots and frustratingly realizing I may have more "sins of my predecessor" to deal with in the future.
All of this is to say, for those of you in the here and now, I know it may be tempting to take a shortcut, to avoid some area because it's too time consuming, or think that you are able to do something at an incredible discount because you have access to stuff. Truth is, parts misused can cause tremendous problems later on, and in most cases, the person cleaning up the mess will have no idea what happened or went on before, just that they have a royal mess on their hands and they get to be the person to clean it up. To that end I am really trying to be a good steward with my home, and also when I test or hack code. Pennies saved now, a little time shaved off here and there, in some cases are positive and efficient, but in other cases, they can be really tricky, really annoying, and potentially fill a future homeowner, programmer or tester with murderous rage, at least temporarily. When in doubt, figure out how to do it right, or at least as right as you possibly can. Don't make people in the future pay for your sins, it's really not nice.
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2014
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
An Odd Little Lesson and Life's Little Reminders
My son recently had a birthday, and as a present, my Mom and Dad gave him their older model 1997 Buick Park Avenue Ultra sedan as a vehicle for him to drive. It's a far nicer car than I ever had as a teenager, let's just put it that way.
However, we had some unusual problems with it as soon as we took ownership of it. Each morning, we'd come out and we'd try to start the car... nothing. Wouldn't turn over. We charged up the battery from a jump from my car, started it, drove it around for a bit, turned off the car, came back a few minutes later, restarted it, and it started fine. Next morning, again, nothing.
Hmm... maybe it's the battery. Called my Dad, asked him about how old the battery was. He said probably about six or seven years, so possibly the battery could be old and needed to be replaced.
We did.
All was good, we drove it for a awhile, brought it home... next morning, go to start the car... nothing.
What the...?!!!
At this point, I was about to leave for a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, so I didn't have time to look at it. We called and we made arrangements with our friendly neighborhood mechanic for a thorough inspection of the electrical system when I got back. As I was away, though, I called my Dad, a bit frustrated, and wondering what was going on. In this process, while we were talking, we both remembered something interesting.
Way back, as a kid, my grandfather had a 1963 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight (actually, my dad still has this car). A classic old school vehicle that was long, wide and just plain massive. I remember several things about that car, but the one that I always though was most amusing was the fact that you could pull the key out of the ignition while the car was running, and the fact that it had an option to "back tick" and turn everything on in the car when the car was "off". Of course, that "back tick" was dangerous because, well, it was easy to pull the keys out and think the car was "turned off" when it really wasn't....
Hang on...
I went out to the car, did yet another "long charge" from jumper cables from my own car. started the vehicle up, and then started to play with the key. Lo and behold, it came out of the ignition after the car was started and running.
Hmmm...
Was it possible that there was a "back tick" option as well? I turned off the car, and rocked the ignition back one more click. Sure enough all of the electric items in the car came to life, and as I pulled out the key, they kept running. Since I kept the radio on to test this, that gave me the confirmation I needed. This 1997 Buick Sedan, at least as far as the ignition and electrical system, behaves exactly like the 1963 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight.
With that knowledge, I needed to figure out a way to "key" my son in on this. Turns out, a sharpie marker on the steering column did the trick. Now he knows to look and see if the notch in the key housing lines up with the Sharpie mark. If so, then he knows the vehicle is turned off. With that, we have since had no surprises in the mornings. Car starts, all works fine.
This was a great little reminder that, sometimes, things we remember from long ago may help inform our actions here and now. Had I and my Dad not remembered that old behavior of my grandfathers Oldsmobile, we might not have thought to check for that. Since my Dad remembered it so well (in fact, still deals with it because he still drives the 1963 Oldsmobile and until recently drove the 1997 Buick), he never gave it a second thought. He instinctively knew what to do to prevent that issue. As for me, having not personally driven a GM car regularly since I lived with my parents (well over 20 years ago), I likewise might have never thought of it, save that time many years ago that my grandfather said "hey, here's a neat little trick with this car!"
Next time you find yourself testing something, and seeing a behavior that seems odd, but likewise strangely familiar, do some digging back into the memory banks. It's possible you might find a clue in something you learned, saw or remembered long ago.
Hmm... maybe it's the battery. Called my Dad, asked him about how old the battery was. He said probably about six or seven years, so possibly the battery could be old and needed to be replaced.
We did.
All was good, we drove it for a awhile, brought it home... next morning, go to start the car... nothing.
What the...?!!!
At this point, I was about to leave for a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, so I didn't have time to look at it. We called and we made arrangements with our friendly neighborhood mechanic for a thorough inspection of the electrical system when I got back. As I was away, though, I called my Dad, a bit frustrated, and wondering what was going on. In this process, while we were talking, we both remembered something interesting.
Way back, as a kid, my grandfather had a 1963 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight (actually, my dad still has this car). A classic old school vehicle that was long, wide and just plain massive. I remember several things about that car, but the one that I always though was most amusing was the fact that you could pull the key out of the ignition while the car was running, and the fact that it had an option to "back tick" and turn everything on in the car when the car was "off". Of course, that "back tick" was dangerous because, well, it was easy to pull the keys out and think the car was "turned off" when it really wasn't....
Hang on...
I went out to the car, did yet another "long charge" from jumper cables from my own car. started the vehicle up, and then started to play with the key. Lo and behold, it came out of the ignition after the car was started and running.
Hmmm...
Was it possible that there was a "back tick" option as well? I turned off the car, and rocked the ignition back one more click. Sure enough all of the electric items in the car came to life, and as I pulled out the key, they kept running. Since I kept the radio on to test this, that gave me the confirmation I needed. This 1997 Buick Sedan, at least as far as the ignition and electrical system, behaves exactly like the 1963 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight.
With that knowledge, I needed to figure out a way to "key" my son in on this. Turns out, a sharpie marker on the steering column did the trick. Now he knows to look and see if the notch in the key housing lines up with the Sharpie mark. If so, then he knows the vehicle is turned off. With that, we have since had no surprises in the mornings. Car starts, all works fine.
This was a great little reminder that, sometimes, things we remember from long ago may help inform our actions here and now. Had I and my Dad not remembered that old behavior of my grandfathers Oldsmobile, we might not have thought to check for that. Since my Dad remembered it so well (in fact, still deals with it because he still drives the 1963 Oldsmobile and until recently drove the 1997 Buick), he never gave it a second thought. He instinctively knew what to do to prevent that issue. As for me, having not personally driven a GM car regularly since I lived with my parents (well over 20 years ago), I likewise might have never thought of it, save that time many years ago that my grandfather said "hey, here's a neat little trick with this car!"
Next time you find yourself testing something, and seeing a behavior that seems odd, but likewise strangely familiar, do some digging back into the memory banks. It's possible you might find a clue in something you learned, saw or remembered long ago.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
It's Worth The Blood Loss! Sidereel Recruiting Video
This post is just for the fun of it today :)!
Sidereel is hiring. Specifically, we are looking for Full Stack Rails Developers, Front End Developers, DevOps people, and also content curation specialists (a Sidereel Content Editor, basically).
There are two faces to what we do. First is the Sidereel.com website itself, which is where you can search for television shows, watch episodes, and track what you have watched so you can be alerted when new episodes and shows appear. Making sure that new features and the everyday functionality of the site works, and trying to find creative ways to discover areas that need improvement, that's my job :)!
Another aspect to Sidereel is the original content that we produce. In addition to having it be embedded in our primary site, we also have an aggregation of our original content on Celebified.com. This contains news, gossip, previews, personal takes, interviews, and spoof/parody content. Some of our parody content in the past has been such things as making a Fast Fave music video ("Trunk of My Soul"), a sock puppet version of Jersey Shore called, appropriately enough, Jersey Sox, and we also did a parody on the Office meets True Blood called "Fang in there Bro".
It was the unexpected success of the "FitB" series that made us decided that we'd make our call out to the development community that we're hiring in a more, well, unique way. The net result is our short film "Working at SideReel: Definitely Worth the Blood Loss". We think it's funny, and we had fun making it, so here, for posterity's sake, is Sidereel's "Vampair" approach to Agile and programming. Enjoy!!!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Getting It Done, By Any Means Necessary
Often, we have the time to do things the right way, the clean way, the methodical way. I appreciate when I get those times and I try my best to leverage them appropriately. However, there are just some times where "ugly" has to do. I don't mean "ugly" in the physical sense, I mean that there are just times where you don't get the opportunity to put something together that would be elegant. Instead, you need to get results, you need them very fast, and you deal with the fact that the inelegant solution will get you over the finish line in just enough time with just what you need. Later on, you can refactor and make it pretty, but for right now, you just want something that works, makes the case, and gets you where you really need to be in a short amount of time.
Often, I find that I have a quick need to check and parse out if pages are displaying something. I could eyeball the pages myself, or I could use cURL to download and examine the pages automatically. There's a lot of potential links, and while in a perfect world, I'd be able to important variables parse for values, split them out and then use them as looping criteria, sometimes you just say "look ten pages deep, go through 100 sources, and check 2000 links, and do it before lunch". In those cases, the quick and dirty beauty of the command line shines through. It's times like this where I look at UNIX/Linux, smile and say "my stars, how I've missed you!" It's often not elegant, glamorous or even pretty, but when it gets the job done, I will not complain :).
Monday, March 12, 2012
My Kingdom for an Even Keel?
One of the interesting things about a relationship, especially one that you have had for over 20 years, as in the case of my wife Christina and I, is that you often overlook things that each other does. We had a discussion about this tonight during dinner. I'm not sure what precipitated it, but I was talking about how I had to get some stuff done, and that it would be a good time to "knock out some Pomodoros". I said this mostly to myself, but she heard it and asked me "what are Pomodoros?" I then proceeded to explain to her the whole concept behind using a timer to designate breaks and focused work. She nodded, said OK, and then we changed the subject, but I noticed she was a little on edge.
Later, as I was cleaning up the dishes, I asked her if everything was OK. She looked at me and said "You know, something between complete silence and information overload would be really nice sometimes." That's a paraphrase, and I don't meant to make it sound negative, but we were together making a point. This has been part of who I am most of my life. Either I am absorbed in quiet thought and non-communicative, or I am spilling out words at 100 miles an hour. Either I am running on all cylinders and blazing down the track with frightening energy and speed, or I am crashed out asleep. Well, not quite crashed out asleep, but there is a definite unevenness to the way I do a lot of things, and I have to be aware and careful of what I pick up and what I commit to doing.
I compare this to Christina, who works in a very different manner than I do. She is very middle of the road in the things that she does, and she has the presence of mind to know she likes it that way and works to make sure she can keep that "even keel". Christina is the type of person that will learn she is teaching a class at church in a month, and then spends a little bit of time each and every day working on her lesson plan for that one hour presentation. She doesn't do a lot at a time, but she does a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and spreads it out among the other things she does. By result, she tends to navigate her life in a fairly straight line.
On the other hand, I have been a creature of riding the waves. Often times I get into situations that will require a Herculean amount of effort, or that will have me engaged in several things simultaneously. Often I do well in this regard, and other times I crash into walls. The net result is that I am very much one who does a lot of high intensity, endorphin releasing activity, but it's also followed by fallow periods where I then have to build back into the frenzy. I realized a long time ago that this is a manifestation of ADD, and I'm OK with that. When I was younger, I used medication to try to control these wild swings and give me a more even keel, but ultimately, I decided that I liked the wild swings. With the even keel, I could be consistent, but I also felt a lot less creative, and I ultimately felt like my output was mediocre. It was certainly stable, and I could pass tests and get good grades, but I don't think that it would have helped me reach some important things in my life if I didn't have the waves to work with. I don't think I would have ever written the songs I did, taken the chances to be a musician, or gone in a number of other quixotic directions that ultimately informed and helped shape my life. It was a safe route, and I decided that I didn't want to play it safe. It's for these reasons I decided to not go the medication route, and just try my best to let people know that I rode waves and was very much aware of it.
It's been over 20 years since I last medicated for this, and while I will admit, it's still sometimes an all or nothing game with me, and I have to fight between being all in or needing to shut down for a day or two, I've come to accept that and take the good that comes with those challenges. Ultimately, I think I made a good trade. To those who have to deal with me on a daily basis, I guess your mileage may vary. One thing's for certain, I'm happy to have a wife who is able to drive a boat in a straight line... it makes it possible for me to surf the waves a lot easier, and I'm grateful for that fact that, most of time, she doesn't really mind :).
Later, as I was cleaning up the dishes, I asked her if everything was OK. She looked at me and said "You know, something between complete silence and information overload would be really nice sometimes." That's a paraphrase, and I don't meant to make it sound negative, but we were together making a point. This has been part of who I am most of my life. Either I am absorbed in quiet thought and non-communicative, or I am spilling out words at 100 miles an hour. Either I am running on all cylinders and blazing down the track with frightening energy and speed, or I am crashed out asleep. Well, not quite crashed out asleep, but there is a definite unevenness to the way I do a lot of things, and I have to be aware and careful of what I pick up and what I commit to doing.
I compare this to Christina, who works in a very different manner than I do. She is very middle of the road in the things that she does, and she has the presence of mind to know she likes it that way and works to make sure she can keep that "even keel". Christina is the type of person that will learn she is teaching a class at church in a month, and then spends a little bit of time each and every day working on her lesson plan for that one hour presentation. She doesn't do a lot at a time, but she does a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and spreads it out among the other things she does. By result, she tends to navigate her life in a fairly straight line.
On the other hand, I have been a creature of riding the waves. Often times I get into situations that will require a Herculean amount of effort, or that will have me engaged in several things simultaneously. Often I do well in this regard, and other times I crash into walls. The net result is that I am very much one who does a lot of high intensity, endorphin releasing activity, but it's also followed by fallow periods where I then have to build back into the frenzy. I realized a long time ago that this is a manifestation of ADD, and I'm OK with that. When I was younger, I used medication to try to control these wild swings and give me a more even keel, but ultimately, I decided that I liked the wild swings. With the even keel, I could be consistent, but I also felt a lot less creative, and I ultimately felt like my output was mediocre. It was certainly stable, and I could pass tests and get good grades, but I don't think that it would have helped me reach some important things in my life if I didn't have the waves to work with. I don't think I would have ever written the songs I did, taken the chances to be a musician, or gone in a number of other quixotic directions that ultimately informed and helped shape my life. It was a safe route, and I decided that I didn't want to play it safe. It's for these reasons I decided to not go the medication route, and just try my best to let people know that I rode waves and was very much aware of it.
It's been over 20 years since I last medicated for this, and while I will admit, it's still sometimes an all or nothing game with me, and I have to fight between being all in or needing to shut down for a day or two, I've come to accept that and take the good that comes with those challenges. Ultimately, I think I made a good trade. To those who have to deal with me on a daily basis, I guess your mileage may vary. One thing's for certain, I'm happy to have a wife who is able to drive a boat in a straight line... it makes it possible for me to surf the waves a lot easier, and I'm grateful for that fact that, most of time, she doesn't really mind :).
Monday, September 5, 2011
Speaking of "Labor Day"...
To see original comic, go to http://twoleafclover.net/?p=269
First, I want to wish all of my fellow testers in the United States a Happy Labor Day. For everyone else, hey, hope your Monday is going well :).
This is a first for me, in that it's a regular partnership with some one I know. Aaron Scott is a cartoonist and creates the strip "Two Leaf Clover". We were commiserating over the fact that both of us were spending "Labor Day" actually working (him on his next cartoon, me on the next TWiST podcast). As we talked, I thought it would be fun to share his cartoons with TESTHEAD readers, because he pokes fun at tech, things often being over complex, or just plain the silliness of certain geek appropriate things. In short, I like his sense of humor, and I find that sometimes his cartoons inspire blog posts. so I've decided when he has a cartoon that I want to respond to or delve into as a blog post, I'll feature the comic, talk about it, and have a link back to the original.
As for today, it's Labor Day, does this really need any more commentary ;)?
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