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happy hour learning
Friday, September 29 2017
I finally managed to release my new email editor onto a server where it could be tested today, though Cameron (the person who would be testing it) was too busy to get around to it. So I plinked around, sending a couple important emails and fixing a partial environment for testing secure API calls from the new store.
At 6:00pm on Fridays, we in IT are supposed to all get together and have a video chat about the things we've been "learning," things that are hopefully expanding our knowledge from those typical of our working day. (This whole thing was devised without my input while I was in Uganda.) For the last few weeks, we haven't done any "learning" sessions, and today we were wondering in Slack if it was still a good idea to keep doing it. Last week as I'd unilaterally canceled learning (Nicole had been taking the day off, so I was the undisputed head of IT for the day), I'd jokingly told everyone they could start drinking early. This primed today's Slack conversation with pro-alcohol notions, and it was eventually decided we should have a "learning happy hour." So we all got on videochat, some of us drinking, and shot the shit for an hour, actually talking very little about the things we'd learned. We spent a long time talking about the sort of person who can successfully infiltrate an animal processing facility to document abuses. At some point Allison more or less admitted that she was brushing up on her French as part of her planned Halloween costume, so of course I mentioned a perhaps even more all-in Halloween project: my Ahmed Mohamed clock of 2014, which is always a crowd pleaser. By then I was sipping Jack Daniels from a ceramic mug.
Meanwhile Gretchen had been slaving away in the kitchen, assembling a multi-course meal (mushroom soup, rice-noodle fettuccine alfredo, and apple crisp dessert) for tonight's "family dinner." This would be our first entertaining of friends since Gretchen's recent hospitalization. Susan and David and Carrie and Michæl were supposed to be coming over, though Susan canceled at the last minute due to a migraine headache. I broke out of my "happy hour learning" meeting at 7:00pm to join our guests, and the weather was cool enough for me to build the season's first fire involving the burning of firewood.
Dinner conversation spent relatively little time on Trump (aside from a brief mention of his failures related to the ongoing post-hurricane Puerto Rico disaster). Michæl talked some about his job as sculpture professor at SUNY New Paltz, which will soon be extending him and Carrie health insurance. Later he also mentioned a possible project for an installation in a desert park in Morocco that may or may not involve solar panels as decorative elements.
Another subject was the continuing saga of the lemon of an SUV that Susan & David's VW Tiguan has turned out to be. Apart from the actual troubles of this particular vehicle, its bluebook value has dropped from $18,000 to just $6,000 in the three years they've had it, a result of the European emissions scandal (even though it's not even diesel-powered!). But then there's its specific problems. The vehicle once broke down with an expensive gasket-failure requiring the pulling of the engine, and a water pump failed on Route 17 in New Jersey (David had to drive down and help Susan deal with that one; fixing it cost $900). Most recently it experienced a failed turbo, another ordeal costing more than $1000. Every time David has to deal with this, he delights in calmly reminding the VW people of the vehicle emissions scandal and the toll it has taken on his investment. Occasionally he's even thought about bringing up VW's role in the Holocaust. "I realize I'm turning into my mother," David concedes. The harm to VW's brand is considerable from this one vehicle. If Gretchen and I ever consider buying a VW in the future, we will surely remember David's ordeals. And if anyone we know considers buying a VW (and we know a lot of people), you can bet we will caution against it. It would've been better for the VW brand for VW to buy David out and make him happy. Meanwhile, of course, VW's loss is the other brands' gain. It definitely came up in this conversation that we've never had to do any expensive repairs to any of our cars, all of which have been Hondas, Toyotas, or Subarus.
Meanwhile, as us humans nattered on about such things, Penny the Dog was obsessively staring at tiny Janet the Kitten, who was mostly unconcerned as she rolled around adorably in the lap of a dining room chair.
As for the meal, the soup was really good, as was the cole slaw Carrie and Michæl brought over, but I found the fettuccine alfredo kind of disgusting. (I don't think I've every been a big fan of pasta with cream sauce.)
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