What’s Our Aggravated Defect Backlog Sitting At?

At the beginning of our weekly development status meeting last Wednesday, Brian, our Release Manager, got on his soapbox and was fussing about the defect backlog to the various Scrum Masters. He was clearly agitated and was establishing a pretty stern tone ( stern at least from the perspective of software engineers anyways – it is all relative).

Brian was threatening that we would stop new Story development and institute daily mandatory 8:00 Eastern Time Defect Management meetings for all the Scrum Masters if the backlog didn’t get some focus. Fair enough – I had no issue with what he was saying – but you generally don’t hear that sort of tone, so the atmosphere in the room was a little tense.

I was sitting in the “Heather Spot” in the Conference Room next to one of our Test Leads, Gary. The Heather Spot is this location at the end of the conference table where one of our former colleagues insisted on sitting at the Wednesday status meeting.

After the little diatribe last Wednesday, Brian looked at Gary and said: “Now I’d like to get an aggravated view of the defects from Gary.” Of course, Brian meant to say aggregated. I almost burst out laughing and it definitely broke the tension a bit.

Bulls vs Tides – DBAP – April 15, 2011

The day before the great tornado scare of 2011, I took in a minor league game at the DBAP between the Bulls and the Norfolk Tides. For some reason, I only made it out to Durham for one game last year. I hope to do better this year. This was the second home of the game of the year for the Bulls (hence the banners around the park from previous day’s Home Opener ceremonies).

It was a quite pleasant cool evening and the tree pollen (which gives me all sorts of problem this time of year) didn’t bother me that much. Seats were primo – between 3rd Base and Home in the second row of the Terrace Reserved section of the ballpark.

Really impressed with Desmond Jennings of the Bulls. With Manny done “being Manny”, it appears that Jennings will finally be getting a chance to be an everyday player in the Major Leagues sometimes this year. Bulls won 8-3. Here are some shots from my Flickr Slideshow.

The Ultimate Badass or Just a Lucky Idiot?

For your consideration, I offer the following video captured by North Carolinian Steven Hoag as he chills out in his truck while a tornado rips through Wilson, NC on Tornado Saturday. Be sure to have your audio enabled while viewing this video.

Coverage You Can Count On Indeed

While I had cable service during Tornado 2011, I was bouncing back-and-forth between the local ABC (WTVD), CBS (WRAL), and NBC (WNCN) affiliates for my coverage. My rationalization was that more data points on the approaching rotations would be helpful to my cause. Which was kind of silly if you stop to think about it – if the damn thing ends up blowing your house apart, does it really matter if you knew ahead of time?

Wow, Look at That Inflow Notch!

During Storm Saturday, I noticed that I gravitated toward a state of heightened intellectual curiosity for any information concerning my (potential) impending doom. From about 11:00 until my Internet bit it and I barricaded myself in the pantry, I was foraging online at Weather Underground and Weather.com.

There is a whole vocabulary associated with these severe storms that the meteorologists like to toss out while they are real-time interpreting the Doppler. It comes so natural to them and, while you might think this is just geek-speak, the good ones at least throw you a bone with some context and explain what these terms mean to you. In some cases, you even learn something.

The jargon and terminology that I picked up on while glued to the tube and laptop most of the afternoon included: hook echo, velocity signature, inflow notch, super cell, and mesocyclone. I quickly came to the amateurish conclusion that almost all of these terms mean you are pretty much in deep shit. (That last paragraph sounds like I have been channeling Dave Barry sub-consciously here.)

For what its worth, I came across a well-written blog that explains how you too can recognize rotation on the Doppler Radar. While I found this article quite clear and useful, it strikes me that if you find yourself, as a layman, becoming fairly proficient at the application of this type of knowledge, you might be better served finding another place to live. Quickly.

In Case of An Emergency

When the North Carolina Tornadoes of 2011 were bearing down on me, I had to figure out the best space in which I could hide. Y’all have heard the familiar words of wisdom when the tornadoes are coming:

• Get in the basement.
• Get to an interior part of your house.
• Get to a room without windows.
• Get in a first-floor bathroom with a tub and cover yourself with a mattress.

I have an open floor plan with a ton of windows, no basement, and no full bath on the first floor. So the ideal options of laying low in an interior room with no windows or a bathtub weren’t really practical. The only tubs are upstairs – believe it or not, taking a 15 foot ride downhill in one of those bad boys was not on my Bucket List (even considering that I could take a mattress along for the plunge).

Saturday Afternoon Destruction

The total randomness of natural disasters never ceases to amaze me. April 16, 2011 will live in infamy in North Carolina for the historic collection of tornados that arbitrarily steamrolled through roughly half of the entire state. As is typical with these deals, the assessment of the total damage won’t be complete for awhile. For example, when I went to bed the night of the tornadoes, I had never heard of Bertie County, NC and I have lived in this state since November, 1988. When I woke up Sunday morning, the news reported that 11 people died in this dirt-poor farming county when an F3 rolled through toward the end of the long day.

It is sort of surreal to go through this sort of thing first-hand and to try to comprehend and make sense of it – I can’t figure it out and certainly can’t make sense of it.

No Pressure, No Diamonds

On June 8, 1975, our family drove over to Pittsburgh to attend a doubleheader between the Bucs and the San Francisco Giants. I recall it being abnormally cold and windy that day at Three Rivers (confirmed with a quick check of Weather Underground) and it was a pretty long afternoon sitting through a double-header that day under those conditions. Dad had to work outside in crappy weather – he was none too excited that day about the chill – and I even recall shivering myself (in shorts) a bit during the second half of the second game.

Good Game

Electronic communication is fraught with all sorts of opportunities for disconnect between the two parties communicating. Because of the difficulty of conveying non-verbal attributes like emotion (sarcasm, kidding, seriousness), tone, and body language in an electronic exchange, miscommunication and ambiguity can often result. But ambiguities and misunderstandings can even arise when two communicating parties are using the best interface ever created: the direct face-to-face protocol.

In other blog posts, I have complained and taken little pot shots about the traffic and high cost of living in he DC Metro area. While these impressions are authentic and were formed while working in Gaithersburg and Rockville and living in Montgomery and Frederick Counties, there were actually plenty of positive attributes to that area that I did enjoy in my four years there. Chief among those characteristics of course were proximity to family, Pittsburgh, and Altoona.