Opposable thumbs are a great thing
You don't realise just how useful an opposable thumb is until you don't have one. I have had to spend the last three weeks asking the flatmate and various workmates to do simple things for me like open beer bottles, pick things up, change bike tyres etc because my right thumb is (still) a mess of bruise and pain.
The reason for this is a trip up to Canberra a few weeks back to catch up with Amanda and purchase a new mountain bike (shiny!). The bike was purchased and some training rides were had, which were much fun as Canberra has Real Hills, unlike Melbourne which has small lumps - unfortunately one of the training rides involved me needing to test the bike's brakes at a high speed. The bike stopped. I didn't. My head hit the ground, followed by my back, followed by my thumb. The head hit involved mild concussion which was soon recovered from. The back hit involved mild bruising, which was soon recovered from. The thumb hit involved heavy bruising which has still not healed and has resulted in me discovering just how much of day-to-day life involves having a working thumb. It is getting better, but I don't think I've ever had an injury that's taken this long to heal. It is a little annoying.
In other news, my life has largely been taken over by work. The foolish and gullible people I work for have fallen for the line that I"m actually a responsible adult and have decided to give me more responsibility - so instead of sitting at a desk and writing software I'm now responsible for wandering around the floor and telling other people to write software. This is highly entertaining as I get to indulge my inner Authoritarian Git and boss people around. The only down side to this is that I'm basically doing the role of Project Manager, which means I have to deal with People. And People have these things called Emotions. And these Emotions make them get loud and cranky and start doing things like Yelling At Other People even if the problems are Their Fault.
Now me? I'm a bloke. I'm very much a bloke. I play sport and drink beer. I'm vaguely aware of Emotions as something that other people have, and that play little part in my life - now I'm having to try and learn what these Emotions are and figure out how to manage people who have them. It is turning out to be something of a challenge. It is also turning out to be interesting how much the Business side of work and the Technical side of work have very little idea of how the other half works. Conversations like the following are not uncommon.
Business: "We need X system built to do Y."
Me: "Sure. Give me a couple of hours and I'll get you a quote and a timeline for when it'll be done by,"
Business: "Uh, no. That's not how it happens. We tell you when the deadline is."
Me: "Right. When's the deadline?"
Business: "Next week."
Me: "Ok. Let's prioritise what you need and I can work on getting the key stuff done by the deadline and we'll sort out getting the rest of it done afterwards. What are your top priorities in these requirements?"
Business: "All of them."
Me: "Right. We're going to have to have a talk about this..."
Needless to say alcohol has also been playing a large part in my life recently.
In other, completely unrelated news, I have finally, at the age of thirty-two, come to realise that the Rolling Stones are one of the greatest musical acts of the previous century and the song 'Wild Horses' should be part of the Top Ten Greatest Hits Of All Time in anyone's catalogue. At some point soon I will probably finally realise that DIzzie Gillespie knew his way around a trumpet and Edith Piaf had a pretty good set of lungs on her. Sometimes it takes us a while to learn how to appreciate some people.
The reason for this is a trip up to Canberra a few weeks back to catch up with Amanda and purchase a new mountain bike (shiny!). The bike was purchased and some training rides were had, which were much fun as Canberra has Real Hills, unlike Melbourne which has small lumps - unfortunately one of the training rides involved me needing to test the bike's brakes at a high speed. The bike stopped. I didn't. My head hit the ground, followed by my back, followed by my thumb. The head hit involved mild concussion which was soon recovered from. The back hit involved mild bruising, which was soon recovered from. The thumb hit involved heavy bruising which has still not healed and has resulted in me discovering just how much of day-to-day life involves having a working thumb. It is getting better, but I don't think I've ever had an injury that's taken this long to heal. It is a little annoying.
In other news, my life has largely been taken over by work. The foolish and gullible people I work for have fallen for the line that I"m actually a responsible adult and have decided to give me more responsibility - so instead of sitting at a desk and writing software I'm now responsible for wandering around the floor and telling other people to write software. This is highly entertaining as I get to indulge my inner Authoritarian Git and boss people around. The only down side to this is that I'm basically doing the role of Project Manager, which means I have to deal with People. And People have these things called Emotions. And these Emotions make them get loud and cranky and start doing things like Yelling At Other People even if the problems are Their Fault.
Now me? I'm a bloke. I'm very much a bloke. I play sport and drink beer. I'm vaguely aware of Emotions as something that other people have, and that play little part in my life - now I'm having to try and learn what these Emotions are and figure out how to manage people who have them. It is turning out to be something of a challenge. It is also turning out to be interesting how much the Business side of work and the Technical side of work have very little idea of how the other half works. Conversations like the following are not uncommon.
Business: "We need X system built to do Y."
Me: "Sure. Give me a couple of hours and I'll get you a quote and a timeline for when it'll be done by,"
Business: "Uh, no. That's not how it happens. We tell you when the deadline is."
Me: "Right. When's the deadline?"
Business: "Next week."
Me: "Ok. Let's prioritise what you need and I can work on getting the key stuff done by the deadline and we'll sort out getting the rest of it done afterwards. What are your top priorities in these requirements?"
Business: "All of them."
Me: "Right. We're going to have to have a talk about this..."
Needless to say alcohol has also been playing a large part in my life recently.
In other, completely unrelated news, I have finally, at the age of thirty-two, come to realise that the Rolling Stones are one of the greatest musical acts of the previous century and the song 'Wild Horses' should be part of the Top Ten Greatest Hits Of All Time in anyone's catalogue. At some point soon I will probably finally realise that DIzzie Gillespie knew his way around a trumpet and Edith Piaf had a pretty good set of lungs on her. Sometimes it takes us a while to learn how to appreciate some people.