Andrews Joint Service Air Show

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My lovely wife and I went to what was previously known as Andrews Airforce Base, now called Joint Service Base Andrews for the annual Air Show and Open House. All branches of the military were there showing off their hardware and I brought my cameras along. Steff and I had been wanting to go for several years but kept forgetting to or would have other plans already made on that weekend when we found out about it. We managed to have a free weekend this year and decided to go. We came back with over 650 pictures and a nasty sunburn (72 degree day + cool breeze makes one forget about the sun). You can view the entire set of 680 photographs but first scroll below to see some of what I think are the best shots that I embedded here. Also, if you scroll entirely to the bottom, you'll see a video I put together from some clips of the Air Force Thunderbirds show that I shot on my iPhone.

Video of the Air Force Thunderbirds show.

Programming Is Like Juggling, or Why Open Office Environments Are Programming Hell

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  <rant> Programming is like juggling. When I'm coding, I usually have Chrome, Transmit, BBEdit, Kaleidoscope, and the developer inspector in Chrome all open at once. I have gotten myself into a mental state where I am troubleshooting, which CSS class or id is influencing which object on the page, trying different parameters or structural hierarchy to manipulate the object on the page into doing what I want it to do. I'm usually also listening to an audiobook or podcast with my noise canceling earphones on, to block out noise and minimize distractions. You see, music is too repetitive and my mind wanders, but something in the background to listen to keeps me thinking while I'm thinking. That might not make sense to anyone but another developer but just trust me that it matters. I have both hands on the keyboard or keyboard + mouse and am using 2-4 programs at once with overlapping or side-by-side windows so that I can quickly switch in-between them. Again, programming is like juggling. Remember that. We have an open office environment. I hate it. Open office environments tend to give people the false impression that it is okay to wander about the office and stop from cubicle to cubicle to make small talk. For me, each time it happens, I have to un-pause my audio, take off my headphones and completely set down the 4-8 balls I have up in the air at the time in order to see what the person wants. Sometimes it is for a legitimate reason - they have a question that is necessary to communicate not over phone or email, but in person. That's fine. I understand that. But remember, programming is like juggling. Occasionally, only about 6-10 times a day, someone will come up behind me. I hate this, and usually because I'm concentrating to hard, it's akin to someone sneaking up behind you in the dark and screaming "boo!". Sometimes they come around my cubicle to stand on the other side of it, facing me, so I can plainly see they want my attention. I sigh inside my head. I un-pause my audio, take off my headphones. The person just stands there with a smile on their face. Finally, I ask, "Yes?" to which they will just wave and say, "Oh, just wanted to say hi." They turn and walk off. Seriously? Programming is like juggling, and open office environments are like trying to juggle in the middle of a day care center where the toddlers keep walking up to you tugging on your shirt every 5 minutes to ask you to watch them do a somersault. If you work in an open office environment and one of your co-workers who is a developer has their headphones on and it appears there is code on the screen at the time, please don't disturb them unless you have a good reason. Saying "hi" is not a good reason. </rant>  

Cranking

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Stop what you're doing. Actually, you don't have to stop what you're doing, right now, but please reserve a few hours of listening time over the next day or so in order for you to do these things. 1. Listen to Back to Work, episode #12 - "Chewie's Medal Is Not Canonical". 2. Listen to the 'After Dark' portion of the show. 3. Go read "Cranking" on 43folders. 4. Listen to Back to Work, episode #13 - "THE KID'S GREAT". 5. Listen to the 'After Dark' portion of the show. Merlin is awesome.

Lightning Video

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I shot these clips in about 30 minutes time standing in our apartment window facing south towards Huntington. We live just off Eisenhower Avenue, across the street from the USPTO. This was just at the beginning of the storm. If my arm had not gotten tired from holding my iPhone 4, I probably could have gotten a few other really good shots. About an hour and a half after shooting this (while editing this together, in fact) a huge strike happened just a few hundreds yards from here, just outside our window.

Day 5 Mid Day: Even Better

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Let's go for a walkThe pain lessens and worsens every few hours around the time her meds wear off and it's time for more. She woke up early this morning at 6:30 and has been up since, with a brief nap around lunchtime. She's moving around even more now and has a little more flexibility in her arms. It is very hard for her to raise her arms above shoulder length because of the nature of how that pulls & stretches the back of her neck (the wound). She's going to attempt to take a shower for the first time since Sunday this afternoon, after we walk down to our apartment lobby to pick up a package. I offered to do it but she insists on coming too (I think she's beginning to want to get out of the apartment some). She is disappointed that they're calling for this possible snow/cold weather this weekend because it means she wont be able to get outside any. Her stomach was upset last night, all night long, but cleared up this morning around mid-morning. She's starting to use her new MacBook Pro now and even managed to type out a post of her own yesterday afternoon. When the pain doesn't have her in bed clutching a pillow, she's getting back to her regular self. Her sense of humor is back. Her appetite is back. She's watching TV and using her iDevices regularly now. Oh, and we scheduled her follow-up appointment with the wonderful Dr. Weingart. She gets her staples out next Thursday. Oh, and she kicked me out of the apartment this morning long enough to scavenge the barren wasteland that is the shelves of northern Virginia stores that sell iPad 2's for long enough for me to acquire one of my own.