Speaking of Bob Balaban... (2nd Time Post)

I mentioned talking to Bob Balaban a few posts ago. I am thrilled to say my employer was lucky enough and smart enough to hire him for a bit. I have gone from self-taught-struggling-newbie to self-taught-struggling-newbie who is working with Bob Balaban!!

Can you tell I’m excited? It’s like a dose of Lotusphere every week for me!

The best part is that he hasn’t looked at my applications and said “Oh my god, you’re a complete moron, this is crap”. Not that I was afraid that was what he would say or anything…

[ETA: Sorry, again, this was another post that didn't make it to Planet Lotus, reposting - I think blogger.com must take weekends off]

Half Marathon Coming Up (2nd try)

So I suddenly realized today that the Great Bay Half Marathon is 9 days away (now 6 due to repost). That’s coming up quick! It’s close enough that there are weather forecasts! Not that they’ll be accurate, but still, there are forecasts! (High of 50F and “Few Showers”, if you were wondering).

[ETA: Apologies to those that have already seen this post, but Planet Lotus didn't pick it up for some reason and I am such an ASW that I am re-posting it).

This will be my second half marathon. My first was the Seacoast Half Marathon, last November. My time was 2 hours, 11 minutes, 45 seconds. I way overtrained for that race. It was much warmer than expected that day. I only drank the water I brought, and none from the water stations. I made the BIGGEST newbie mistake, I drank a cup of Gatorade even though I had never had it during a training run. RULE #1: Don’t try anything new on race day. I knew that, and in my dazed state at mile 11, did it anyway. I felt horribly sick the entire last mile of the race. Anyway, excuses aside, even though my time was right in line with what I wanted to run that day, I felt like CRAP. It wasn’t enjoyable. Mile 8 I think I started hallucinating. Mile 10 to the end was terrible.

My goal this race is simple: enjoy it. I am going to run slow. I am going to drink lots of water. I am NOT going to try anything new on race day. I am going to run with my sometime running partner, which should really help in the enjoying myself category. I will probably have a slower time than last race, and I am completely fine with that.

That all being said, it doesn’t mean I won’t panic between now and 9 days from now! :)

6 Days to Half Marathon

Eek. 6 days left. Weather forecast for 56 and Sunny. Just a few "short" runs between now and then. Deep breaths. I need to figure out what I'm going to wear. Not so much from a fashion standpoint as from a comfort and the weather standpoint. I *am* going to be wearing these clothes while running for two+ hours!

And there WILL be professional photographers there. Let's just say last half marathon, I looked like I felt. :P

Defensive Programming

I need to improve my defensive programming. This kind (the third bullet from Wikipedia): “Making the software behave in a predictable manner despite unexpected inputs or user actions.”

I use the tools that are available to me. I make fields that should receive numbers into number fields. I make required fields, well, required. I use field validation and translation. I don’t allow pasting or deleting in applications where users shouldn’t be pasting or deleting. I use drop down lists where possible and don’t “Allow Values Not in List” wherever possible. I use Julian Robichaux’s awesome OpenLog for error handling. The list goes on.

I test the applications. I test them myself first. I test them with actual users. I BEG them to try and do what they would normally do. I ask them (dare them) to try and break the application during testing.

And STILL those pesky users find ways to break the application *after* the final release.

I swear the UI could include a blank screen with a giant button in the middle that says “Click Here” and users will still say it doesn’t work because they clicked on the menu, and tried to select “Create” and do five other things besides hitting the giant button. . Maybe it’s my fault. I told this to Bob Balaban and he said the button should say “Click Here TO DO EVERYTHING”. :)

So my goal is to improve the ways in which I can program defensively. Yes, the onus is on me. I have to get better for a couple of reasons. 1) It is actually my job. 2) It makes my life easier (less complaints, less training, less calls).

On the other hand, complaining about users is a lot of fun. ;)

Help me find new music!

So I’ve realized that since I’ve had an ipod, I rarely listen to the radio, which means I don’t really hear new music. I put my CDs on my ipod and I listen to them. I don't hear any new music. The only new music I buy is new music from the artists I already listen to. Occasionally, the iTunes store makes a recommendation that I might try out, but not usually.

Oddly, I don’t listen to music while I run, but I do listen to music at work. It does not have to be work appropriate. :)

So, what new music should I be listening to?

My music taste is all over the place. Really. On my ipod right now, in the order they appeared on shuffle…

No Doubt
The Police
U2
Cake
Marvin Gaye – seriously, is there anything funnier than listening to your ipod at work and hearing the first few bars of “Let’s Get It On”?
Tenacious D – always makes me laugh
Bruce Springsteen
Weezer
Bob Marley
Dave Matthews
Eagles
Kid Rock
Simon & Garfunkel
Stevie Wonder
Wham!
INXS
Sheryl Crow
Daughtry
Live

Like I said, all over the place. Given that, got any suggestions?

Only 10,000 hours to master Lotus Notes!

I just finished reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. I’ve been obsessing a bit about the 10,000 hours thing. I'm not doing the book or the idea justice, but he asserts that most “masters”, regardless of what they are master of, have amassed around 10,000 hours at their specialty. He uses violinists, computer guys, hockey players, etc. as his examples. This is actually good news for me. I’ve been doing Lotus Notes development full time for four years now. Let’s see…four years, 48 weeks (gotta subtract out vacation), 30 hours per week (that’s probably generous, although I’d like to say I devote all my time to development, I don’t, I can’t, there’s meetings, helpdesk calls, etc.)…that’s 5,760 hours. Sweet! I’m halfway there! That's actually encouraging.

Poor Twitter

I coincidentally got two new followers (that appeared to be junk) seconds before Twitter died today. And is it just me or does EVERY TV show/news broadcast mention Twitter in an effort to come off as cool? Doesn't that mean Twitter is completely lame?

I hope not because I am totally addicted to it. I love that I get both useful information and entertainment out of it. I have nothing insightful to say about it. Just that I love it and am sad that dorky "newscasters" think they are cool because they mention that they were Twittering the other day.