Posts by Liz

Herb Garden, part 1 aka “stopping to smell the roses” or whatever

Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from programming and was thinking on a little strength training session. But, it was beautiful outdoors – not too hot, nice breeze…so I combined a bit of strength work with the start of my herb garden project.

The “plan” for the herb garden is to smooth out the pile of dirt – topsoil pile left by the last owner and somewhat commandeered by Karl. (see King of the Hill )

The weeds and grass need to be removed. I am going to mow around the pile a bit and surround it with a rock border. I’m not sure what herbs or other things I will plant – I will wait and see what the nursery has when I’m ready. I hope to be ready to go to the nursery by mid-August when they put all perrenials, including herbs on sale. This should work well as I don’t plan on killing myself to get the dirt ready for planting.

This not killing myself to get it all done RIGHT NOW – this is a recently acquired “skill”. In my youth and not so distant past I would have decided it all needed to be done immediately. Yesterday, as I approached the dirt pile with my first wheelbarrow full of rocks and looked at the grass and weeds that needed to be pulled – and I was already hot from picking up rocks – I said to myself…”Hmmm, think I’ll just clean up this one little corner for today”. That’s when it struck me that I’d changed – and the thing is, it is a good change and a change that makes the project more fun than work! I don’t NEED to do it all RIGHT NOW. I can do a bit at a time – taking breaks in my work day to get outside and do something active. And I find myself looking forward to what little bit I might get done today – and enjoying thinking about how I might arrange rocks and what plants I might get…some day…

This change to doing projects a bit at a time – yes, partly due to the fact that it is not as easy at 52, almost 53 to work physically hard for hours, but it is driven more by an appreciation for enjoying the moment and the task versus a “just get it done” attitude.

I cleaned up the little corner of the dirt pile, dumped my first load of small rocks and took a moment to look at the progress. The sun warmed dirt and just pulled weeds and grass had that “working in the garden” smell. Karl was working on a stick nearby. It was a simple, joyful, moment – one I might have missed if all I had in mind was getting it done.

I’ve got plenty of rocks to choose from…

Enjoying the moment, smelling the dirt, feeling the sunshine…Herb Garden, part 1.

early light

early light on the mountains, the fields and through the clouds on the way to and along an early morning walk…

T.G.I.F.

I have had my fingers on the keyboard – “nose to the grindstone” for the last two weeks and am loving it! I finally have a bit of a handle on Visual Studio/.NET/C# (C Sharp) and the other development tools being used in the current project for UCLA. I am a consultant-programmer for a department of UCLA …since 1991.

Programming has always involved a constant re-educating and adding of new skills but every so often things take what feels like a quantum leap. The learning curve this round has seemed particularly steep. I took a look at the timesheets I submit with my invoices for the last several months – a lot of research, testing, reading, i.e. not much coding. There were days when I struggled to get a few lines of code to work and when it did it was more dumb luck than knowing what I was doing.

Currently there is another programmer and our “boss” at UCLA that make up the team working on the prototype for the new version of software. I have not been alone in the struggle to understand the new paradigm. We use a product called “Go to Meeting” (GTM) to work together. GTM allows us to connect via the internet and any one of us can be the “presenter” – showing our screen to the others. GTM handles the phone conferencing also. This “show and tell” as well as a bit of team coding enabled us to “divide and conquer” – each of us dealing with a piece of the puzzle and then sharing what we learned. It has been fun, interesting, frustrating and annoying all at the same time but now that it is coming together – all worthwhile!

I have not suddenly become a .NET expert, but I have written some code in the last two weeks…code that I understand, that I know why it works! And just as we are close to having the prototype ready for the “boss” to demo to his “boss”… a new couple of tools are close to being released. Tools that will solve some problems: XAML (“zamel”) and Silverlight. I am NOT afraid! XAML particularly is the programmers’ answer to HTML. Silverlight brings it all together in .NET. It is an exciting time to be a programmer even given the constant feeling that there is too much to learn.

But, today – on this Friday – I am grateful for the last two weeks – for the opportunity to learn and do something which is fun, challenging and oh, pays the mortgage! I am also very grateful for the team I work with – nice people – professional, interesting, caring – a great team! Still… T.G.I.F. – a good day today and then the weekend to play.

Just in case your eyes have glazed over because you don’t know and don’t care what .NET or XAML is…Bob shares your sentiments…