So I was remote pairing with my partner at work today. We use Skype to talk and VNC to share the desktop. I have done this at another company previously and it worked pretty well there, but I notice that I behave differently when pairing remotely.
Normally, I am a little chatty and a little flirty (I am not outright flirting...just gentle teasing), but it seems that when I am remotely pairing I get more outgoing. I am funnier, more willing to say things that come to my mind, and more willing to just be myself.
I haven't figured out why this is, but I have noticed it before when I did remote pairing at another job. I know you are probably thinking that I am attracted to my partner which is why I am being more flirty (since he isn't there to visibly reject me). This is absolutely not the case. I am not in the least attracted to this person. I don't want to be mean, but he isn't terribly attractive.
So, tomorrow I get to do the whole remote pairing thing again. I think that this is going to be good for my ego anyway. I needed some time to build it back up after it was crushed for no particular reason.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Got my groove back
So, I wrote the other day about feeling down on myself...somehow, I am feeling much better now.
Yesterday, I was still feeling a little down on myself, but was feeling somewhat better. We worked through the crappy code that started off the whole thing and made a lot of progress toward making it not suck, but by the end of the day, we had not finished the card (which was originally only supposed to take 4 hours).
But, last night I worked at home on fixing up some other parts of the code that I had started this weekend, and managed to get the changes in, and in the process found and fixed a bug. So, I went into work feeling pretty good about myself since I had finished up a little piece that we had all wanted done, and had fixed a bug along the way.
We started off the day with a very long discussion about the stuff we were going to work on this week, as well as talks about the state of the code in general, as well as where different classes belonged, and where we had things right now. I was very engaged in the conversation and felt like I actually contributed more than usual.
After lunch, we got down to work with our new pairs. I am working for the first time with our Business Analyst playing developer (he has a lot of experience as a developer). I thought I would be kind of nervous working with him, and I thought I might feel intimidated, but I didn't. I was actually fairly at ease, and didn't worry about saying things that came to mind.
I think that tomorrow will go fairly well as well. I will be working with him over Skype tomorrow and Friday since he works from home 2 days out of the week. I am actually looking forward to this, and I think it will be good for my ego to feel at ease about saying ideas that come to mind instead of worrying that I am going to say something dumb.
Yesterday, I was still feeling a little down on myself, but was feeling somewhat better. We worked through the crappy code that started off the whole thing and made a lot of progress toward making it not suck, but by the end of the day, we had not finished the card (which was originally only supposed to take 4 hours).
But, last night I worked at home on fixing up some other parts of the code that I had started this weekend, and managed to get the changes in, and in the process found and fixed a bug. So, I went into work feeling pretty good about myself since I had finished up a little piece that we had all wanted done, and had fixed a bug along the way.
We started off the day with a very long discussion about the stuff we were going to work on this week, as well as talks about the state of the code in general, as well as where different classes belonged, and where we had things right now. I was very engaged in the conversation and felt like I actually contributed more than usual.
After lunch, we got down to work with our new pairs. I am working for the first time with our Business Analyst playing developer (he has a lot of experience as a developer). I thought I would be kind of nervous working with him, and I thought I might feel intimidated, but I didn't. I was actually fairly at ease, and didn't worry about saying things that came to mind.
I think that tomorrow will go fairly well as well. I will be working with him over Skype tomorrow and Friday since he works from home 2 days out of the week. I am actually looking forward to this, and I think it will be good for my ego to feel at ease about saying ideas that come to mind instead of worrying that I am going to say something dumb.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Feeling Down
Hey everyone-
I am feeling kind of down today. As I have said before, I am back at my old office and we aren't pairing with the other company any more. We are back to having 4 developers (we had 3, but our Business Analyst is sitting in as a developer so we can get some stuff out the door - he used to be a developer).
I like being back, for the most part, although I do miss the guys from the other company. But, I am feeling down on myself now that I am back.
I am feeling like I suck at what I do. I know that it isn't true, but I am feeling that way right now. The other guys that I work with are REALLY good at what they do. They have an excellent grasp of what makes a design good, great understanding of patterns and what anti-patterns to avoid, and I am just trying to get a good grip on these things.
I am always feeling like I am this stupid junior programmer that has very little to add to conversations. When we are talking about issues I feel like the suggestions I have are going to be laughed at (although, I highly doubt that would really happen). I just feel so simplistic and naive.
To make things worse, we have been talking about different places in our code that are written poorly, designed poorly, etc, and today we found another place that is really bad, and it is something that I wrote. I found myself apologizing for the poor code profusely and feeling like an idiot.
I am not sure what I can do about things to make myself feel better. I feel stupid asking them to approve of how I'm doing, and feel needy when I ask for things like that. So, any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks for reading!
-Honest (and slightly depressed) Fairy
I am feeling kind of down today. As I have said before, I am back at my old office and we aren't pairing with the other company any more. We are back to having 4 developers (we had 3, but our Business Analyst is sitting in as a developer so we can get some stuff out the door - he used to be a developer).
I like being back, for the most part, although I do miss the guys from the other company. But, I am feeling down on myself now that I am back.
I am feeling like I suck at what I do. I know that it isn't true, but I am feeling that way right now. The other guys that I work with are REALLY good at what they do. They have an excellent grasp of what makes a design good, great understanding of patterns and what anti-patterns to avoid, and I am just trying to get a good grip on these things.
I am always feeling like I am this stupid junior programmer that has very little to add to conversations. When we are talking about issues I feel like the suggestions I have are going to be laughed at (although, I highly doubt that would really happen). I just feel so simplistic and naive.
To make things worse, we have been talking about different places in our code that are written poorly, designed poorly, etc, and today we found another place that is really bad, and it is something that I wrote. I found myself apologizing for the poor code profusely and feeling like an idiot.
I am not sure what I can do about things to make myself feel better. I feel stupid asking them to approve of how I'm doing, and feel needy when I ask for things like that. So, any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks for reading!
-Honest (and slightly depressed) Fairy
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Disney Vacation
So, I promised I would write about my trip to Disney World.
My husband and I decided that my son (5 years old) was old enough to go to Disney and enjoy some of the rides and also hopefully remember the trip when he gets older.
The day we were to leave, we got up and finished packing and loading the car and had a few hours to kill before we had to be to the airport. So, we decided to run some errands before we left and figured we'd stop somewhere and have lunch before we got to the airport. We ran to the post office to drop a package in the mail and I ran in with it.
When I come back out, I see my husband sitting across the street in the van looking rather grumpy. When I get over there, I notice that he has turned the van off, so I asked him, "What's wrong?"
He tells me the van won't start. I noticed as I was getting in that there was something on the ground, but it didn't look like oil. He believed that it was transmission fluid leaking from the van. I thought that the stuff on the ground seemed to have a reddish hue to it, so I believed him.
I called AAA to get the van towed somewhere so we could have it fixed while we were away on vacation and my husband decided to walk home to get the car (it was maybe a mile or so from home, in a small town).
So, I'm on the phone with AAA and they are ready to send a wrecker to come get me and they tell me that I haven't paid for my membership and I'll need to do that before they can send service. So, I get transferred over to talk to someone and pay for the membership. After being on the phone with them for about 15 minutes, I am finally all paid up and they are going to send the tow truck...however, they tell me it could be up to 45 minutes for me to wait! By then, we'd be pushing getting to the airport on time for our flight so I let them know this and they said they'd let the tow truck driver know.
So, I sit there and wait for help and finally the wrecker arrives (in only about 15-20 minutes). He, of course, asks what happened and I tell him. He checks out the spot on the ground and tells me that it is gas. I had never even considered that it might be gas since it appeared to be reddish and it was in the front of the van. Thankfully, he had seen another van like ours with a similar problem. Apparently, the gas line on the van is plastic, and there is a coupling on the line that is also plastic, and if it is not tightened properly the line can slip right off.
I was very thankful to the driver, but extremely upset with the dealership. You see, I had just taken my van in for a tune-up the previous week where they replaced the fuel filter. Apparently, they didn't tighten things up like they should have.
Anyway, we got to the airport on time and made it to Florida with no troubles. My son, on the way down commented that this was the best day of his life since this was the first time he had ever ridden on a plane.
Disney Proper
So, after all of the hassle of the previous day, we are ready to go to Disney and have some fun. We made it to the park without any trouble (we purchased a GPS unit for the car, well worth the money!).
We spent 3 days at Disney, and while I enjoyed the time there, I was less than awed by the whole thing. I have been hearing about how great Disney is for years, and have family members that absolutely love the place, so I had high expectations going in.
I felt like it was just a hyped up Cedar Point (without the great roller-coasters). There were some cool things and some neat effects on some of the rides, but a lot of them had rather old animatronics that were just lame. ("It's a Small World" was about the lamest ride in the world!)
However, I am glad that I went, and my son absolutely LOVED it, so overall it was a good vacation. I don't think I'll be going back any time soon, however. For the money that you pay to get in, and the fact that it is Disney, I just expected more.
My husband and I decided that my son (5 years old) was old enough to go to Disney and enjoy some of the rides and also hopefully remember the trip when he gets older.
The day we were to leave, we got up and finished packing and loading the car and had a few hours to kill before we had to be to the airport. So, we decided to run some errands before we left and figured we'd stop somewhere and have lunch before we got to the airport. We ran to the post office to drop a package in the mail and I ran in with it.
When I come back out, I see my husband sitting across the street in the van looking rather grumpy. When I get over there, I notice that he has turned the van off, so I asked him, "What's wrong?"
He tells me the van won't start. I noticed as I was getting in that there was something on the ground, but it didn't look like oil. He believed that it was transmission fluid leaking from the van. I thought that the stuff on the ground seemed to have a reddish hue to it, so I believed him.
I called AAA to get the van towed somewhere so we could have it fixed while we were away on vacation and my husband decided to walk home to get the car (it was maybe a mile or so from home, in a small town).
So, I'm on the phone with AAA and they are ready to send a wrecker to come get me and they tell me that I haven't paid for my membership and I'll need to do that before they can send service. So, I get transferred over to talk to someone and pay for the membership. After being on the phone with them for about 15 minutes, I am finally all paid up and they are going to send the tow truck...however, they tell me it could be up to 45 minutes for me to wait! By then, we'd be pushing getting to the airport on time for our flight so I let them know this and they said they'd let the tow truck driver know.
So, I sit there and wait for help and finally the wrecker arrives (in only about 15-20 minutes). He, of course, asks what happened and I tell him. He checks out the spot on the ground and tells me that it is gas. I had never even considered that it might be gas since it appeared to be reddish and it was in the front of the van. Thankfully, he had seen another van like ours with a similar problem. Apparently, the gas line on the van is plastic, and there is a coupling on the line that is also plastic, and if it is not tightened properly the line can slip right off.
I was very thankful to the driver, but extremely upset with the dealership. You see, I had just taken my van in for a tune-up the previous week where they replaced the fuel filter. Apparently, they didn't tighten things up like they should have.
Anyway, we got to the airport on time and made it to Florida with no troubles. My son, on the way down commented that this was the best day of his life since this was the first time he had ever ridden on a plane.
Disney Proper
So, after all of the hassle of the previous day, we are ready to go to Disney and have some fun. We made it to the park without any trouble (we purchased a GPS unit for the car, well worth the money!).
We spent 3 days at Disney, and while I enjoyed the time there, I was less than awed by the whole thing. I have been hearing about how great Disney is for years, and have family members that absolutely love the place, so I had high expectations going in.
I felt like it was just a hyped up Cedar Point (without the great roller-coasters). There were some cool things and some neat effects on some of the rides, but a lot of them had rather old animatronics that were just lame. ("It's a Small World" was about the lamest ride in the world!)
However, I am glad that I went, and my son absolutely LOVED it, so overall it was a good vacation. I don't think I'll be going back any time soon, however. For the money that you pay to get in, and the fact that it is Disney, I just expected more.
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