the week in me #3

Apr 23, 2019

It’s been a week for almost finishing things. I hate almost finishing things. It keeps me up at night – literally, I mean, because if I think I’m almost done with something I will stay up to finish it. And then if I discover there’s a little more to do, I’ll stay up for that, and pretty soon it’s hello, 3AM.

So I’m late publishing this week-in-review post because I wanted to finish just one more thing first. Which I didn’t. I hate that.

code

I’ve been thinking this week about asking for help:

This is so important. As a junior developer I was afraid to ask for help because I thought my employers would regret hiring me if they found out what I didn't know. Ironically what they should have regretted was the time I wasted not asking for help.
— Erik Ostrom (@erikostrom) April 16, 2019

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of junior developers make the same mistake – and, to be honest, I’m still making it too. Of course, sometimes taking the time to figure things out for yourself can be valuable. You can learn a lot on the way to the answer, and if you get it right, it might feel great! But on the other hand you could ask someone for help, learn something,
and move on to the next thing to learn. You’re not going to run out of those.

Some things I did this week:

slightly improved readability on the arts side of this web site
with my colleague Eric, started (and… almost finished) phase 2 of a client project
a new one-page site for Oncoming Productions… almost
wrote about the latest version of RubyMine, the IDE I use

Some things I recommend:

There are so many opportunities to make things better.

arts

This week we started adding music to our section of Five Fifths of Mary Poppins – figuring out where it belongs, where it doesn’t, what it should evoke, and how to evoke it. When we get it right, music adds depth and coherence to the scenes we’re creating. I love getting it right.

Other than that, all my arts action this week is future work I can’t talk about yet.

life

I rode my bike! I identify as a cyclist, but this winter, what with time stress, injury, and… well, winter, it’s probably been months since I rode anywhere at all. But the snow is finally gone, my ankle feels strong again, and on Thursday I biked to an improv meeting. And on Easter I took my first purely recreational ride in ages, around the edge of Bde Maka Ska. I wasn’t the only one – it feels like when spring hits Minneapolis, everyone comes out to play.

I’ve been watching a little Swedish television. It started with Al Pitcher på paus, a (mostly) English-language sitcom about a comedian finding his way through six months of Sweden’s generous parental leave. The first episode was a good introduction to the characters and tone, but episode 2 made me laugh out loud.

While I was on SVT’s site, I ran across Dips, which as far as I can tell is an unauthorized Swedish version of Veep, which is an authorized American version of The Thick of It. That is, it’s a faux-verité satirical comedy set in the halls of government. This one’s mostly in Swedish, and I speak very little of the language, but it turns out the phrase “disco-mustasch” and a well-timed edit transcend national boundaries.

If that doesn’t work for you, try this moose migration livestream.