I've been having some motivational issues at work recently. Just the same old grind getting kind of boring. None of the work I do now is really new any more, and dealing with serial numbers and access codes can become a chore real fast. This quote from a site I was reading this morning did give me a little hope. It comes from a woman who has been working in a video store (with a large porn section) for a year:

The Zen lesson of my job is this: just because I do not want to be a video clerk doesn't mean I shouldn't be the best possible video clerk I can be.

That is my goal for tomorrow (because it's too late today). Tomorrow I am going to be the best possible web application developer I can be. I'm going to get so much work done; it will be amazing.

I found the poem Butt Prints in the Sand today. It's kind of a parody of the popular peom Footprints in the Sand. Footprints is the poem about this guy looking at his life and seeing God's footprints beside him all the way, only he notices in his lowest moments there are only one set of footprints and asks God where he was at those times. God replies that at those times there were only one set of footprints caus he was carrying him through the trouble. Footprints is nice in an Oprah, feel good kinda way emphasizing that God will never leave you. Butt Prints, however, emphasizes that God will not carry you on His back forever. There is a limit to the free piggy back ride and God will eventually drop you on your butt and ask you to do a little walking. I think the point here is that if you want to get anywere in your faith, to know God better, you must put forth some effort.

This is a funny horoscope from The Onion:

Aquarius: (Jan. 20—Feb. 18)
You have the freedom to choose, and therefore have the potential to transcend your very nature through an act of will, but you will only choose extra cheese.

Geeky Humor

Actually... I doubt this will be funny for anyone really, but what difference does that make? A common joke (maybe it's more of a comeback than a joke) among programmers, when you find something wrong with their code is, "That's not a bug... it's a feature"

Well today I received this email from someone in QA:

Could you take a quick look at this bug and let me know if you can think of any reason why the serial number KN106112UN0115 doesn't display any downloads but KN106112UN0113 does?

Well.. I'm happy to say that both of those serial numbers were displaying exactly the right downloads. Actually the one that didn't show anything is something we specifically added in, so I was able to respond in complete seriousness..."That's not a bug, it's a feature". It was funny to me. Sometimes I swear I could be only a couple steps away from being this guy.

DRS1 - Examined

DRS1 (pronounced D-R-S-1) is sort of a nickname I got in high school. My full name is David Richard Sloat, so I believe my friend Julio realized that my initials were similar to the rap artist KRS1 (Actually I'm gonna give props and joint credit to David Roberts for that one). I can't say that I'm familiar with the work of KRS1 ( I know one song that goes...wha da dang, wha da da da dang, listen to my 9 milimeter go bang), but I think I would like it. The name didn't really stick, but I always thought it had kind of a nice ring to it. Jim Condap, my roomate in NH a few years back, revived the DRS1 nickname and is really the only one who currently uses it. I guess it has too many syllables to be practical, but if I were to use a nickname for myself, it would be DRS1.

Now, thanks to Google, I have learned that DRS1 is actually the name of a protein. It's a "DEAD Box" protein and has "cold-sensitive mutation at 13 deg". I have no idea what this really means, but I feel enlightened... and you should too.

One Armed Man Hits Hole In One.

Golf and Skateboarding?

This was a good weekend for golf. Watched a little of the British open and then went out and played a round myself on Sunday. It's kind of funny to watch the Pro's play and then go out yourself. You get a really good chance to see how much better they are than you! It's not unique to golf, but consider this, I'll probably never face major league pitching, so I'll never really know what it's like to try and bat in professional baseball. Football, basketball, soccer... forget it; I can experience the slowed down mini version, but I'll never face the exact challenges those athletes go up against. When I go golfing on the other hand, I face the same shots that the pros take. Ok.. minus the millions of dollars worth of pressure, but the basic challenge is still the same. I think that's one reason I like to watch golf on TV; I can relate to it.

Why do I like to play golf? Hmm...There are soo many reasons, but let me expand on one surprising connection. First of all, you need to know that I grew up skateboarding. From jr high through my college years and beyond I have been skating. Now days I mostly just play the Tony Hawk video games, but skateboarding is close to my heart. The thing that is surprising to me is that in a lot of ways golf reminds of skateboarding. Both pastimes are very hard individual activities that require lots of repetitive practive to master. I find that the satisfaction you get from landing a hard trick in skateboarding is very similar to the satisfaction of hitting a nice drive in golf. You go out and skate with your bro's, you go out and golf with your bro's. Yeah.. there are obvious differences too. Golfing is a rich elitist sport and in skateboarding the cops chase you. Still, in a way that you probably don't understand or care about, I find the similarities very striking.