View from the 13th floor

Well, it could be the 13th or even the 14th. The first floor is one floor up from the lobby. And, the lower lobby, one floor down, lets you exit to the street in the back of the hotel. The hotel staff calls this the Executive Level. The rooms aren't anything special, but we get a free breakfast buffet. (There's also a free cocktail hour, lasting three hours. I don't have any business being there, so I don't go.)

Yesterday I was drawn into a discussion about the need to add one more book to my workload. We probably need to do it, but not by Friday, when I have nine books due. This afternoon I met with the lead engineer on the product and he mentioned that there were two more components, meaning two more books. By Friday. Oh, and, did I mention that the engineer will be taking a few days off, returning next Tuesday. And that the lead engineer on my other projects will be going to India for vacation for a few weeks.

Last week I worked about 65 hours. It won't be that much this week, more like 50. Others on the team, project managers, developers, testers, and writers, are doing about the same, if not more.

Underlying it all is a customer that is very demanding regarding the quality and quantity of the documentation. At one point, we were negotiating a five-week delay in the delivery of one of the products. The customer said, fine, but give us the documentation on the original date, five weeks before the software was done. Executives to the VP level are talking about documentation.

Normally, technical writers labor in the basement of the product development world, far away from the light and heat. We're often like the blind mules working the mines, rarely brought out to meet the people at the top of the mine. We'll meet this week's deadline as best we can and the next one and the next one after that, until we're done.

While driving here, I saw several of these Kia Amantis. They remind me of the Soviet ZIL.

Also while riding, I heard Elvis do a cover the Hoyt Axton tune "Never Been to Spain." Elvis was one of the greatest performers and interpreters of music. One of the the things that happened, though, once RCA got a hold on him and his music, the record company started over-producing and over-orchestrating each song, believing that the American listened wanted such mush. The orchestration fell wet sand on this nifty song. Elvis was a great gospel singer, but the same thing happened to his gospel music, wet sand of strings and choruses. Listen to his handling of gospel classics on the Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins) and you'll how deeply this music ran through his veins.

In the 70s the traffic circle in uptown Gardner was covered with Astro-turf (or some generic knock-off). It looked good for about a week. Then it got dirty and needed to be washed or vacuumed, for which the city had no budget. The artificial turf was replaced with asphalt after 20 years. These folks (via Joho the Blog) want to banish the stuff from the planet. Good luck. There will also be a place like Gardner that thinks that Astro-turf is a good idea.

Know anyone who needs one of these (via New Launches)? It's like a sneeze guard for your keyboard.

So, each person in Arizona who votes in the primary and/or general election will have a chance to win $1M. Central Pennsylvania blood banks will give ccoupons for free beer to people who donate blood. What's next? Nevada providing coupons to its voters for a free ticket to the Mustang Ranch or the new salon that Heidi Fleiss is opening?

My car is reaching the age that I find various spare parts on the floor. Nothing much yet under the car, but I need the radio to cover the various squeaks and groans of the suspension.

I have a nifty extension to my Firefox browser. It lets me see the time in a more sensible way. Instead of 9:45, it shows: