Words On Wednesday

As a software engineer, I've written a lot of code through the years and forgotten most of it. Some bits, though, I remember vividly. One routine in particular sticks out in my mind as simultaneously the best and worst code I've ever written. Picture this: we have a set of official forms used in nursing homes that need a UI to set the configuration for each form. There are three types: Physician Order (A), Medical Administration Record (M), and Psychotropic (P). For reasons I can no longer remember, there were two categories: the first had only Physician Order and MAR forms, the second had all three. With me so far? Herein lies a cautionary tale against the "it's just..." reasoning. The request probably sounds simple so far. It's decently easy to explain and understand. However, because of the complexities around that functionality, I wrote a routine that persisted in that code for probably a decade or more until the project was officially deprecated and shut ...

I expected February's Thirsty Thursday Eve to be another cocktail, probably a Cuba Libre. However, much like getting laid off from work, sometimes unexpected things happen. Beer Cart was a Lima staple. When we were in office, it was the highlight of the week. After we went remote, I still went in occasionally on Thursdays when it lined up with manager training or an important meeting with the IT department. Over the past few months, I started trying to go into the office at least once per week for visibility and collaboration. If it wasn't on Coffee Monday, it was typically Beer Cart Thursday. As I left the office on Thursday, January 8, I had no clue it would be my last Beer Cart. Earlier that afternoon, I sent a picture of the beer fridge to some friends to gauge what I should get. I wanted a Ranch Water, but the officially branded ones weren't available. Instead, the Senior Director of Operations and official beer stocker recommended the High Noon Tequila Seltzer. Good ...

For a long time, my only investing was through regular 401K contributions through payroll deductions. Recently, I made a brokerage account through Wells Fargo and I've started to dabble in stocks. First of all, let me point out that I am not a financial advisor. I am not equipped to give financial advice. You're welcome to follow my methods, but I cannot guarantee profit or financial success. This is simply what I've chosen to do with some discretionary funds. I've always treated the stock market as something like legal gambling. Yes, I realize that the market tends to increase over time, and that investing your money properly will make it grow while leaving it as cash in checking and savings account will lose value due to inflation. The problem is I don't know how to properly invest. My 401K seemed like a safe bet, and a reasonable way to prepare for retirement. I contribute some from my paycheck before I ever see it, and my employer matches that. It's a great ...

As I was considering what book to cover for February's Book Report , I received the news that my position was being dissolved and I was being terminated from the company. It felt fitting, then, to read the book written by the co-founders of Lima One Capital. I'll wax poetic about my time at Lima later, but reading 'Lead Like a Marine' was a cathartic exploration into that shared experience. I never met John (Warren) in person, but I met Top (Thompson) several times and worked closely with several of the first few employees mentioned in the book. Chris Wilhoit participated in my team's daily standup for months. This book wasn't just recounting the history of some people at some random company; it was my job for several years, with people that I knew personally. The general pattern of the book is a military anecdote from John and Top (typically from Ramadi, Iraq), followed by the principles they learned from that experience, and then how they applied that to their...

The first "Thirsty Thursday Eve" of the new year, but certainly not the first in this series. I arrived at a somewhat unexpected drink for January. The AI recommendation went in some fairly standard directions for January: either low-calorie drinks to appeal to resolutions about health and weight loss, quintessential winter drinks, or "classics" for some reason. January Theme 1: New Year, New You.  Focus on lighter, low-sugar cocktails or drinks made with invigorating, fresh ingredients like citrus or herbs. Theme 2: Winter Warmers.  Explore boozy hot drinks like a Spiked Hot Chocolate, a Hot Buttered Rum, or a Chai Toddy. Theme 3: The Classics.  A great time to revisit foundational cocktails like the Old Fashioned, a Martini, or a Manhattan, as people are often cozying up indoors. I already did  spiced buttered rum , so that's off the table. I make hot chocolate with Bailey's or eggnog for my wife frequently, so that was an option. However, the most attract...

I've been playing around with Bluesky lately and building a bot to automatically share Words on Wednesday posts to that platform.   I'm not stranger to social media automation, but it's also never been my strong suit. Back in August of 2017 , I had automation set up for a few social media platforms with presumably OnlyWire . That worked for a while, but by August of 2018 , I had swapped to dlvr.it for my social media sharing needs. At some point along the line, probably around September of 2024, dlvr.it stopped sharing to my Words on Wednesday Facebook Page . Either that, or I was manually sharing those posts each week and just gave up. In either case, that page has been basically dead for over a year now. In the past year or so, I've made a point to visit Facebook less. It was my sort of default state when I would unlock my phone to visit Facebook and doom scroll for a bit. I recognized that because the algorithm prioritizes things that make you angry, I was s...

Fourth Wing isn't what I expected when it was recommended to me by my favorite librarian, but I'm not mad about it. I love new book recommendations. When someone recommends a book to you, it says a lot about them. Sometimes the book doesn't fit my personal preference, but I try to give an honest attempt at any book that gets recommended to me. This is especially true for people like librarians, who tend to read a lot of books. When the librarian recommended Fourth Wing, it moved immediately to to the top of my reading list. Unfortunately, it was already at the top of a lot of other people's reading list. The five copies of the audiobook that my local library had in circulation were already heavily requested. It took several weeks before I was able to get my digital hands on it. Near the beginning, Fourth Wing comes across like pretty standard fare high fantasy fiction. There's a little drama, plenty of magic and dragons as one would expect, and just the general feel...

I hate new year's resolutions as a matter of principle, but I am overweight and unhealthy. That needs to change. If that coincides with the beginning of a new calendar year, so be it. I've expressed a lot of pessimism before about  new year's resolutions . It seems pointless to wait for a new year to begin if you're making a resolution to do something good, especially when most people who make resolutions over-promise and under-deliver. I *know* how flaky we are as human beings, so I *know* there isn't much point in making a resolution at all. Validity of new year's resolutions aside, I need to lose weight. I've struggled to maintain a healthy weight for most of my life. I was big as a kid. When my blood pressure tested high at the beginning of 10th grade when I was 315 lbs, I spent basically a full year drinking tons of water, eating healthy, walking about 4 miles every day, and playing an absurd amount of Dance Dance Revolution. By my junior year, I was d...