Happy but busy
Sep. 2nd, 2009 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurHaving a card key: Okay, it's mundane, and a little sad that I need one. But it means that I can now get into the cafeteria without having to scratch at the door like a stray puppy.
Demo season arrives: And my adrenaline levels go through the *roof*.
It illustrates the nature of my stress and burnout, really. I'm slightly dreading the return of dance practice, because that's become a "job" in my brain -- the feeling of *needing* to be there, of being in charge, of having to make all the decisions: four years in that role is enough. But demo season is all short-term, and low-responsibility. I typically find out about the demos with too little notice to really get stressed about them (finding out about today's Duncharloch demo this morning isn't unusual), and I'm not in charge per se, just a loud helper.
So despite the sudden arrival of demo season with only about six hours' notice, throwing my day into utter chaos, I'm really quite looking forward to it.
Having a sufficiently flexible workplace: Yay for being able to tell my boss, "I'd really like to take a short day; can we move this meeting back to 2pm?", and not getting flack about it.
The project revs up: My noontime meeting today was with the product manager for the system I'm working on, as the VP of Engineering and I sat on him to push things out. I feel for him -- he knows the subject area really well, and has never been a product manager before, so he is for the first time learning the distinctive pain of trying to decide what *really* needs to be in the first hands-on demo, what can wait until later in the cycle, and what will just have to wait for a later release.
But that said, the fact that we're down to doing the first serious prioritization pass of the story stack shows that the project is starting to become Real. After months of talking and speculating and negotiating and designing, we're now starting to really *build* the thing. Drawing the sketches is never quite as much fun as taking the chisel in hand and starting to carve out the sculpture.
Less healthy food: Okay, you remember yesterday's salad? There is a certain joy from knowing that I can now eat reasonably healthily. There is an entirely *different* joy taken from a fresh pasta dish. Oh, it pretends to be healthy, putting a veneer of peas and tomatoes in for cover, but the reality is that it's comfort food. (Anything that involves pasta and cream sauce is by definition comfort food.) Having that *also* to hand doesn't suck either.
Demo season arrives: And my adrenaline levels go through the *roof*.
It illustrates the nature of my stress and burnout, really. I'm slightly dreading the return of dance practice, because that's become a "job" in my brain -- the feeling of *needing* to be there, of being in charge, of having to make all the decisions: four years in that role is enough. But demo season is all short-term, and low-responsibility. I typically find out about the demos with too little notice to really get stressed about them (finding out about today's Duncharloch demo this morning isn't unusual), and I'm not in charge per se, just a loud helper.
So despite the sudden arrival of demo season with only about six hours' notice, throwing my day into utter chaos, I'm really quite looking forward to it.
Having a sufficiently flexible workplace: Yay for being able to tell my boss, "I'd really like to take a short day; can we move this meeting back to 2pm?", and not getting flack about it.
The project revs up: My noontime meeting today was with the product manager for the system I'm working on, as the VP of Engineering and I sat on him to push things out. I feel for him -- he knows the subject area really well, and has never been a product manager before, so he is for the first time learning the distinctive pain of trying to decide what *really* needs to be in the first hands-on demo, what can wait until later in the cycle, and what will just have to wait for a later release.
But that said, the fact that we're down to doing the first serious prioritization pass of the story stack shows that the project is starting to become Real. After months of talking and speculating and negotiating and designing, we're now starting to really *build* the thing. Drawing the sketches is never quite as much fun as taking the chisel in hand and starting to carve out the sculpture.
Less healthy food: Okay, you remember yesterday's salad? There is a certain joy from knowing that I can now eat reasonably healthily. There is an entirely *different* joy taken from a fresh pasta dish. Oh, it pretends to be healthy, putting a veneer of peas and tomatoes in for cover, but the reality is that it's comfort food. (Anything that involves pasta and cream sauce is by definition comfort food.) Having that *also* to hand doesn't suck either.
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Date: 2009-09-02 06:52 pm (UTC)