Getting a Tangent

Routine testing at work, it was a nice sunny warm day so at lunchtime I looked at my to-do list and on it was a trip to Custom Audio to have them fix yet another thing on the car alarm. So far each time they fixed one thing, they broke something else. This time it was the lights did not flash when the alarm armed and disarmed. It had been working before I brought it in to them last weekend to fix the auto-arm not working and then a few minutes later the radio going dead.

It took about 20 minutes for the guy to find he had crimped a wire in such a way that it broke, so he re-attached that, and off I went. Stopped for lunch about 3 miles down the road, when I got back to the car it would not unlock. The alarm would disarm, but the doors stayed locked. Back to CA and it took half an hour for him to fix yet another broken contact. It was a nice warm sunny day, and I stood outside through all these repairs, so at least I got some vitamin D and skin cancer enhancers. I think we're done, but one never knows. I've had the car out twice and the alarm seems to be okay, except the remote is showing PST instead of PDT. BFD. I'm pretty sure I can fix that myself.

Back to work, and soon after I'd run one fun test which "forced" me to listen to a variety of music channels for half an hour, automation guy asked me to join him for lunch. Lately he has been eating lunch at 4, because between meetings and scripting that is usually his first chance, and if he doesn't eat the lunch his wife made, she hurts him. Not really, I've met her a few times, she's very sweet. Which is a better reason.

And then he picked my brain for about 90 minutes on various things. Which is when I noticed that the apartment had emailed - I had two packages to pick up, neither of which should have required a signature. So I wrapped things up on the computer and got those.

Home, previously cooked turkey leg with sliced apples, which I put on a little bit of sourdough bread. Once again forgetting to cut up the celery in the fridge for appetizer. Tomorrow.

Tried to refill a Kaiser prescription online, but the prescription web site was still down (it's been down for at least 2 days. I think they sent a memo, but it was so long ago I forgot what it said).

Took myself out to a night club, watched the pretty dancers, managed to not be asked during my 2 hours there if I wanted a drink. Staff also was not clearing empties off the tables. When they started playing jungle music with highly obscene lyrics, I left.

Still getting a steady stream of pings from the Thai dating service. So far only three were spam - all from countries other than Thailand inviting me to hook up with them on Yahoo Chat.

I have an email conversation going with someone whose handle is Thai for "polite". Her real nickname means "a cut" or "a wound" - I know it sounds weird but it's not about hurting herself, it's usually something about a mark or blemish she was born with. She asked if I really spoke Thai, and I recorded a video of me doing that for 30 seconds (the site limit) but so far it has not been made public. I suppose I should put something on my web site. Audio may be better. Easy enough to make an mp3.

The packages were a new pair of Brooks shoes, to see if they fix the painful knees from the New Balance shoes, and 20 packet of cat treats. Domnio goes through one every two weeks, so they will last a while. They don't go stale, and even if they did she would still eat them.

Plans for tomorrow:
work
Maybe hang out at Starbucks

More Hum Than Ho

Come to think if it, I used to work with a guy named Than Ho. Small world.

Interesting day at work, highlight was one of the more knowledgeable test engineers visiting me, scratching his head, because he did not understand the reason for a new feature which was mine to write the tests for. I had the same problem when I was assigned to the test cases, because the engineers gave it the wrong name. They chose a name which has been an industry standard for decades,  for something a little bit different than what the feature is.

After I explained it to him, and gave him a demo of how the feature really worked, he understood the tests, but was still scratching his head over how an engineer with deeper network training than us could have chosen that name. I would bore you with the details, but the feature is still confidential.

I am walking through the test cases, hunting for ones I can do, but spend more time looking through the database than testing.

Meanwhile, the annual ping-pong tourney is in its final stages, and for the second year in a row the guy who is (IMHO) the least skilled at his job is beating the crap out of all comers. I wish I could participate, but when I try to play, arthritis in my left knee tells me to sit down and watch.

Lunch was at the bad Chinese fast food place next to Starbucks. The girl working there looks 16, and even though this is a family business she must be older because she was working there 5 years ago, part time. I wanted to sit outside, 75 degrees and sunny, except for the outside table is in a wind tunnel which is in the shade all day.

Called EVA Airlines' 800 reservations number to try to change my return flight date, but the guy on the phone said there were no flights for that day or the next at the times I had booked. I went onto their web page and started a test one-way flight search, and there were definitely flights and seats available. When I asked him about upgrading to business class for my BKK-Taiwan leg, he said I would have to go to a ticket office. I thought he was a ticket office. I think tomorrow after work I may take Caltrain/BART to SFO and see what I can do at the ticket counter there.

So that and work will be my plans for tomorrow.

Domino meets RoboCat

Found this on the phone, from a couple of weeks ago.