#365Gratitude Day 312: Wern Pernt

I changed technical disciplines about 18 months ago. For years I had been a Lotus Notes developer, even though I had earned my Java certification around a decade ago. 

But Notes has "sunsetted", an industry term for "no one gives a #%@! about it any more."​

So I lucked into some refresher training, and got back to working with Java. Since then, I've also begun learning Java frameworks like Spring, and now Grails, and working in agile development environments. ​

One of things about agile work is that tasks are divided up into tickets, sometimes called "stories", and given a point value based on how hard the group thinks they are to do. 

Yesterday, I got a 1 point ticket. I volunteered to do it. Even though it was in an area of the application I hadn't worked on yet, I had high confidence that it was a simple thing to do, and I would fix it quickly. ​

Turned out I was right. I knocked it right out. It was simple.

I love when stuff like this happens. 18 months ago I was super rusty, and didn't have a clue how Grails worked.  Now, slowly snd steadily I can see my skills growing. It feels good.  

#365Gratitude Day 311: Not According to Cannon

Yesterday Richard, Missy, Kate, Ollie, and I went to Gettysburg to go play Ingress. It's amazing up there. The historic battlefields, the monuments, and all that walking around are hella fun. 

There was also something really gratifying about being there to play the game. 

We weren't the only ingress agents there. We actually ran into a very nice couple who played for the opposite faction. Against their better judgement they even shared gameplay tips with us.  

But there was something cool and fun about doing this covert, oddball thing that the vast majority of the world was unaware of.  

At one point Ollie and I went out of our way to snag a hard to reach portal.  I was able to stretch my long arm far enough inside to get it. Ollie wasn't and actually climbed a fence to creep close enough to tag the portal.  

It's a funny, not exactly grown up sort of hobby. I'm grateful I get to share it with likeminded friends.  

#365Gratitude Day 310: Handy Pillow Talk

So, like you do, my wife Missy and I were laying together in bed  this morning, drowsily cuddling. 

Let me add, at this point, that cuddling is one of my wife's superpowers. If cuddling were an Olympic event, she'd have taken the gold at both the Winter & Summer Games. (In Winter Cuddling you leave the window open and use a heavy blanket.) 

Anyhow, so we're laying there and I'm being all bed octopus all over her, which she never minds, and we hold hands, and she grabs my thumb. 

I laugh a bit, and remark how I love her tiny hands, and how my thumb fits in her whole fist. So then of course, we had to compare them. 

Moments like this are precious to me. We'll have been together a decade this January and to me sometimes it feels like it's been ten minutes.  

I'm so grateful for Missy.  

Immortality

If you could be immortal, would you take the option?

Answer the poll, then tell me why you picked that choice. 

#365Gratitude Day 309: Pay to Play

I don't talk about my day job much in my blog, for a variety of reasons.  But today I'm grateful for it. Basically, I'm paid to play with toys for a living. 

Not these kind, though. I work in Information Technology. I've been various things over the years, a trainer, a help desk tech (absolutely the most thankless job in technology), a network administrator (second worst), a technical writer, and a developer.  

All of which essentially have this same one thing in common: I'm paid to play with toys for a living. 

I love computers.  I think they're amazing tools.  I know that the work I do with and on them isn't trivial either.  

But I will say I'm extraordinarily grateful to do this sort of work.​

​Years ago I used to work for this very slick salesman, M.  He was one of the Very Big Dogs at the consulting firm I worked for.

He told me a story about appreciating the work we do.  One wet, cold, grey, wintry day he was driving into our office.  He was driving his very expensive car, wearing a very expensive suit.  He was talking  on his car phone, complaining to another Very Big Dog about the difficult day ahead of him, filled with meetings and sales calls, and all sorts of troublesome things. 

Not that guy, but you get the idea 

He pulled up to a red light, where this utility worker in a bright colored jumpsuit, was in a hole in the road, working on some electrical something as he stood in about three feet of cold, muddy water.  

As M. sat at the light, he watched the man work. Sparks flew out of whatever he was working on. A car came from the opposite direction, splashing dirty slush all over the guy, who sighed, wiped his face with his arm, and kept working.  

After M. saw that, he said he would never complain about anything about his job ever again. 

I feel much the same. I'm not going to tell you that my job doesn't have its fair share of frustrations and annoyances. But when I get really grouchy about them I remember that story, and find myself grateful that no matter what sort of hole I'm in at work, that it's not a literal one like that guy.