#365Gratitude Day 274: Getting by with a little help from my friends (and co-workers)

So that same problem I got close to solving last night? 

Solved it. 

But not by myself, after all.  After a whole lot of tinkering this morning, I solved some of the related problems, but still got stuck on something related to a Regular Expression  (linked, if you really want to know, but you don't, trust me.)

Regular expressions are the devil's arithmetic.  They're complex, weirdly formatted expressions that manipulate text values.  They're often insanely complex, and just a total bitchfest to figure out.   

The good news is that I figured out that it was a regular expression problem.  I saw with my one co-worker, C. looking over the logs of the application, and he caught the critical error that pointed to that.  So I tinkered a while, and then C. called over two other developers, and we all hammered at it for a while.  Closer, but it still wasn't working. 

I reached out to my friend Sukima, who is a genius and a programmer, and asked if he had good "Regex-Fu".  He sure does. 

The following exchange happened. 

My amazingly humble, smart, selfless friend actually chided himself for not being faster and more efficient in helping me. 

How lovely, silly, giving, and wonderful. 

Really, I'm just in awe of how fortunate I am.   

1. I really do have the skills to do this stuff.  Sometimes I don't believe it, but I really do.  I did the majority of the heavy lifting on this problem. 
2. Part of having those skills is having the skill of interdependent thinking.  I knew when it was worth my while to seek help elsewhere. 
3. I'm amazed at the resources at my disposal.  There are total strangers, colleagues, and close friends all around who I can rely on to do the work I need to do.   
4. Because of #3 there, I'm in touch with a certain truth: the universe is not a malevolent place.   (It's not benevolent either.  Rather, if I'm paying attention, and fully mindful, I have more allies and advantages than I might otherwise realize.)

To celebrate my good fortune, I went out for sushi.  Where I got this good fortune: 

"You will be singled out for promotion." 

Man do I have a lot to be grateful for. 

#365Gratitude Day 273: The kindness of strangers

There's this famous Tennessee Williams line, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." 

Truthfully, I haven't done that.  I really put value into being more or less self-sufficient, and I try really hard to solve my own problems.

Sometimes though, you just have to reach out to other folks, even complete strangers. 

That happened to me at work yesterday.  I spent the better part of 5 hours trying to do something that on the surface appeared to be simple, but kept running into roadblock after roadblock.  I logged onto this sort of chat board for web developers, and one guy in particular, who I'd never talked to before, jumped in and offered to take a deep dive look into my issue.   

We did every possible thing under the sun to try to find the answer.  In the end, we still weren't successful.  But I understood the nature of the problem way better than when I had started. 

I was convinced I had eough knowledge to solve the problem myself now.  I told my new friend as much, thanked him profusely and offered to buy him a beer at a conference if we both managed to get to it. 

I'm grateful that a complete stranger could be such a decent person. 

#365Gratitude Day 272: Get real

It's important not to take yourself too seriously. 

I've been exploring the intricacies of version control for software projects using a really great, but sometimes confusing piece of software called Git. 

I had this head-thumper question about it I asked my friend Devin the other night.  We argued politely about it.  The next morning, on my way into the office I saw this car. 

License plate: "GIT REEL" 

It made me laugh very hard, and I shared it with Devin later that day. 

#365Gratitude Day 271: Flash flood

Yesterday I was grateful for two distinct things:

First, the cute little Flash figurine that Missy got me as a surprise.  I brought him to work, and keep him on my desk now.

He's really adorable.  I held him during our daily standup meeting, and announced what he was working on to the group, too.

"While I'm still working on my prototype application, Barry here is concerned with the gaping hole in the air over Central City."

This was met with laughter.  Excellent!

Second, I stayed at work a bit later, trying to get something to work, and did, indeed get it.  As I left, I noticed that it was just pouring down rain.  But, lucky for me, I had parked just underneath the last bit of roof on the level of the parking deck that morning.  So, even though the rain was absolutely flooding down, I was able to stay dry while I put stuff in the trunk and got in the car.  Again, excellent!

Sometimes gratitude is just about the small things that make your day great.

#365Gratitude Day 270: Techno-assisted nudity

I'm naked.  

Okay, technically not - I've got on a watch, glasses, and a necklace.  But as far as clothes go, nope, nada, zilch.  

I actually really enjoy being naked.  I could easily spend time at a nudist resort.  It's just comfy.  Often, when I'm home by myself (or when it's just Missy and me), I don't wear a thing.  

(Hey, if this is TMI for you, you're the one reading my blog, okay?)

That little blue dot is me, by myself, at my house, without pants.

I'm not inconsiderate about it though.  We live with my sister-in-law, who is super, amazingly, awesomely kink-friendly.  I've been around her in a t-shirt and a diaper, and it's like no big deal whatsoever.  

But I think that's a bit different than the full monty.

This morning when I got up, I wanted to go catch up my blog.  I also didn't want to get dressed.  

What to do?

I popped open my phone, and checked my Find My Friends app, and saw conveniently that  Marybeth had already left the house for work.  Success!  

You can thank the good folks in Cupertino, California for my ability to blog to you without the awful complication of underpants.  I sure did.