Here's a list of software systems that ostensibly help manage agile projects. I'm looking at using Rally for our next project at work. Anyone have a good argument to try something else?
Our past two projects used the Scrum framework and were run with a combination of sticky notes, index cards and an Excel spreadsheet. Everything worked great except for a) tracking the sprint burndown, b) reordering the priorities, and c) making sure the spreadsheet had a high visibility.
Some other prerequisites: Free or low cost, secure, uses less time than sticky notes/spreadsheets.
I've left Rational and Primavera off the list. They're too expensive, and too "heavy." I've also omitted Microsoft Project: that's great for setting up and planning a waterfall project, but it's heck to use that for ongoing tasks.
Quite a few twitter accounts are based on pi. I tried all these urls and almost all are registered twitter users, except pi to 8 significant digits and 15 significant digits. Is this a secret pattern?
I found this Mason Cat in my kitchen. I will keep him and feed him butter and pickles and call him Beans. Or maybe I'll feed him beans and call him Pickles.
In the book "The $64 Tomato" the author asks the rhetorical question "Why garden?" and then tries to examine his own motives in a series of essays.
I have my own personal answer to the question: the tomato. I want to be able to eat a tomato that's as fresh as possible. One that's never been refrigerated, chilled only by the Portland's cool summer nights. I remember years ago buying a tomato from the local grocery store and cutting it open. It was red, but where was the taste? I almost cried while I ate the stiff tasteless fruit, longing for the fleshy, winey, red specimens I could pick up at almost any market in France. Why do Americans put up with such bland produce (and bread, but that's another story)? The only reason we have these tomatoes is because they're easy to ship across the country and let ripen in the truck or in the back room of the supermarket. I wanted something that was delicate and tasty, warmed by the sun, from the vine to my kitchen.
So, I started a garden. That was 17 years ago. The first year I started all my plants from seed, but a 4'x8' plot won't hold twenty tomato plants, let alone bush beans, lettuce, spinach and hot peppers. Since then I've bought starts in 4" pots from Portland Nursery, tilled some compost, and let them grow in well-turned soil.
Last year I took photos and made notes of which tomatoes were successful, and which were... eh, not so much. My perfect plan was to take this list to Portland Nursery and get exactly the tomatoes I wanted, and then I could shoot in the dark for fillers to replace the less successful plants.
I immediately ran into problems: Portland Nursery changed the layout of their tomatoes, and they were promoting more organic plants. I needed help finding the heirloom tomatoes, and then they had at least three different "German" varieties. I had less trouble locating the Legend tomatoes, but couldn't find the other tomatoes I wanted. I ended up choosing a random Roma, and some other varieties.
In total I bought 8 tomato plants, a cucumber, three hot peppers, three basil plants, and a summer squash. One of the tomatoes (the German Striped) was 100% organic in a compostable pot and bag for $9. The rest were between $1 and $3 a pot. Add to that two cubic feet of Bumper Crop compost and the total outlay for my garden this year was $41.
The results? Mixed.
Early girl didn't live up to its name, ripening a week or so after the first Legends. Also it didn't have nearly as much fruit this year. In fact, except for the Romas I got almost half as much fruit this year as last. I don't know whether to chalk that up to the heat wave in late July, my change to the watering system (from sprinkler hose to drip hose) or to my compost. Usually I buy chicken manure, but this year opted for the Bumper Crop. Bumper Crop seemed great for the leafy green stuff, but I think I'll stick w/manure for tomatoes and peppers.
Of all the plants the Romas were the best producers. Starting in early August and still going in late September I got enough for several batches of spaghetti sauce (they also mix with other tomatoes to make a good salsa).
But, for taste, the heirlooms were the clear prize winners. You'll never find either Pineapple or German Striped tomatoes at any grocery store. Both had thin skins, lopsided shapes and ripened into something between yellow and red. The Pineapple tomatoes grew so large my son thought they might be small pumpkins. Unfortunately the thin skins made them attractive to the slugs (who hardly touched any of the other tomatoes), but I had enough to share. A single Pineapple, a half an onion, and some cilantro was enough to make a healthy bowl of fresh salsa. The German Striped tomatoes were almost sweet, and I blended up one to make a sauce for a pizza that the family said was "the best ever."
Thus endeth my gardening log for this year. Next year we'll see if I can find any of the same tomatoes. In the meantime, my final answer to "Why Garden?" is "the secret is in the sauce."
I'd read about cheesemaking on the internet, and had looked at some mail order sites, so this seemed like a fair price and a fun project. I'd also made yogurt and labneh before, so while she also had kits for chevre or paneer, I felt like Mozzarella was the next step for me.
The pamphlet says you'll have mozzarella in about an hour, so I gave it a try. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. I used a gallon of whole milk and it made almost a pound of Mozzarella.
Here's a shot of the curds while they're cooking. This is about 20 minutes into the process:
The end result isn't very photogenic, but tasty: She suggests you can add herbs, pepper flakes, or sun-dried tomatoes to the cheese to zest it up. I plan to try some tomato, mozzarella and basil paninis (I used some of the leftover whey to make some no-knead bread).
I approached "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger with a mixed mind. Normally I love time travel books, especially ones that explore the possibilities of travel within your own lifespan, and contrast theories of free will vs determinism. But this wasn't your normal semi-obscure sci-fi tale lurking in used book stores or found in an old pulp magazine. I was getting recommendations from people who belonged to book clubs, and it was prominently displayed at the local independent bookstore. Is this some attempt to mainstream the time travel story? So, despite the title (more on that in a bit) I decided to pack it with me on my vacation.
Just as in the plays of ancient Greece where the stories had certain ritualistic elements, but each author chose to tell them with different styles, in time travel books the plot isn't as important as how it unfolds. That said, here's my summary: a guy, Henry, has a genetic problem that gives him fits, sort of like epilepsy, but instead of blacking out he's displaced in time. He arrives in the new time naked, and usually doesn't know where or when he is. He can't control his jumps, but he's drawn to places and times that have strong psychological ties for him. In this way he meets his future wife, Clare, when she's only six, and then at random intervals through her life.
I had some problems with this book, the least of which was the title. It seems like there are too many books called "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" or the "The Zookeeper's Wife" or the "Cheesemaker's Niece" (OK, I made up the last one). Moreover, the story isn't about the time traveler's wife: it's about the time traveler, but I figured some editor probably changed the title to fit a publishing trend.
Another issue was that the non-time travel problems seemed to be falsely inserted into the story, and then easily resolved. Clare's mom is an alcoholic and was forced into marriage by an unwanted pregnancy, but it turns out OK in the end. Henry's dad also drinks, and ruins his career as a concert violinist, but we know from time traveling he'll be happy in the future, so it's all good. Even the wedding scene had a false sense of tension that was too easily resolved.
Which brings me to the biggest obstacle in the plot: Niffenegger's conceit is that Henry can't change the past, but only observe it. Yet his appearance to his to his future wife when she's six years old has a weird vibe. As Henry pops into young Clare's time line he teaches her chess, French and other his other interests, forming her into a person that will love him. It's almost as if Niffenegger had taken the premise for the old game of Mystery Date, and turned it into a literal plot. Who will Clare marry? It's all pre-ordained: a muscular dark stranger from the future, who will know all her inner desires, and will be her soul-mate. Does anyone else find this a little trite? Sure, it's a common romantic dream, but presented this way I thought it was also anti-Feminist -- a romance novel disguised as sci-fi where the female lead can only watch the adventure.
Despite the problems, I still liked reading the book. The story is told from the points of view of the two main characters, and annotated with dates and ages (eg: "Saturday, April 8, 1989 (Clare is 17, Henry is 40)") so you can track whether Henry is in or out of time. The first 200 pages speed along as you learn the history or future of Henry and Clare and their friends and family. I like how Niffenegger presents their out-of-time meetings from the different points of view. The plot cleverly clicks together like a puzzle as they meet for the first time in real time and piece by piece the whole picture forms.
Niffenegger also does a great job of exploring the possibilities of Henry's particular form of time travel. I don't understand how they conclude it's a genetic disease, but that's a minor bump. From there she asks various questions. Can a time-traveler drive a car? What sort of person does it take to appear in a city, naked, without any resources and survive for couple of days. Can a time-traveling condition complicate a pregnancy? (Answer: and how!)
The final question she poses concerns death and dying and whether life after death exists. The last couple sections of the book I lived with Henry as he approached his end and even though he'd seen his own death, Niffenegger added interesting twists and details based on time travel. And because of the time travel, Henry's possible appearances into the future leave us with literal metaphor (is that possible?) of memories of loved ones living on with us.
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