But anyway…

What I have worked my way through:

1. Hansleminutes – Obviously.
2. This American Life – It cant be ALL tech
3. ALT.Net podcast – Mike Moore & Crew
4. Dot Net Rocks – I can’t believe I listened to them all. I am current here as well.
5. Radio TFS – Micky and the boys spreading the good word
6. And my new favorite: Software Engineering Radio. This is a great podcast.

So, I am loading up tonight with some new shows. Now what?

1. Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code – Just trying it
2. The Agile Toolkit
3. Polymorphic Podcast – I used to listen regularly, but I lost the feed for awhile. It will be good to have it back again.

So, what am I missing? What great podcasts am I not listening to?

A note on our very own Elegant Code Cast, I am holding 2 great interviews in my hard drive that I have not been able to do the production on because of personal commitments, but be prepared to see some new episodes coming as soon as next week. I brought my headphones for editing on this trip with me, after all

Incidentally, since the Zune software now supports 64 bit, I am using it as a podcatcher even though I don’t own a Zune. It works great so far.

• Healthwise (my full-time employer) has been good enough to offer me the opportunity to pursue this passion in addition to my current duties as Chief Software Architect. Frankly, teaching and learning with the other folks of PluralSight simply makes me better for Healthwise. Thank you, Neal.
• Elegant Code is a community site near and dear to my heart. I will continue to contribute to the Elegant Code community and at times may cross post in both places.
• The Elegant Code Cast will carry on and get even better. I just recorded a great session tonight, as a matter of fact
• With PluralSight, I will have a particular focus on Team System, SharePoint, and we’ll see if I can rub a little of the Agile love on these guys. Need some Team System training? Ask for me

So, sorry if I have been a little quiet lately. As you can imagine, I have been having a couple of VERY busy weeks. Things were beginning to settle back into a manageable rhythm, then I got a call that prompted me to make some hurried family decisions. I will be taking 2 of my boys and heading to Texas (from Idaho) for the next 3 weeks. Real life meatspace issues are way tougher than developer problems, as it turns out. Getting older is for the birds, isn’t it?

This means that my coverage will be spotty for the next few weeks, but on the upside I get to take Mike Azocar out to dinner. Turns out he and I went to rival high schools (we always won the football games).

So, I will be resurfacing at the Agile 2008 conference in Toronto to do some TDD sessions and talks. I hope to bring home some great Code Cast interviews from that one!

At least $40 of my tuition went to a great laptop backpack they gave me to carry all of the vendor CDs and brochures I later threw away in my hotel room.

Then, I ran into Wade Dorrel who was wandering around looking to get ready for his session tomorrow on the Performance Point API. So, we two Boise boys hung together and went for dinner at Fulton’s Crab House in Downtown Disney, which is a mall with mouse ears within walking distance of my hotel.

Why am I blogging about something so inane? Because of this:

I blew an entire day’s per diem (plus a little) on one crappy meal of reheated frozen fish that accompanied background show tunes and generally drove me crazy. If it weren’t for Wade, I think I would have slugged waiter.

Seriously! All of a sudden an appetizer also found at Chili’s costs $13 because I am sitting on a chair owned by Disney? Then I have to listen to an actual DJ cheerily spin “It’s a Small World After All” to the entire park as I walk back to my hotel?

When the people who work here wake up in the morning, do they say to themselves, “Time to go to hell?”

If they don’t they aren’t human.

My wife and I decided to get an economy car to go along with the gas prices. I figured this was a great idea until I saw the price of a new sub-compact. What a better idea, though, than to get a car I can pay for with the change jar on my dresser?

This thing is in totally mint condition and needed nothing but a radio and that sweet sticker on the back window. I ordered the sticker with the intention of putting it on the back deck so it would stand out against the awesome orange paint, but my neo-conservative wife convinced me to only put it on the back window and now you can barely see it. That is so lame.

Even so, it’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

So where am I supposed to find time to update everyone on Twitter? How is Twitter fitting into your schedule?

You can follow me, but I am not really all that active, at least until I find more time.

I started playing with the words and making them resemble singleton. "Complexton" did not sound right to me. I should mention that I was washing my hands as I was contemplating this. I lifted up my head, looked into the mirror, and thought, "SIMPLETON." The opposite of a singleton is a "simpleton."

If the opposite of a singleton is not a "simpleton," then what is it? Until I find a plausible answer, I will try and insert this new term into my next design discussion.

Poor little Butters also has occasional gastrointestinal distress issues. To put it frankly, she gets gassy after eating certain foods. In confirmation of this, I just received the following email from my wife. It is uncensored.

Dave,

PLEASE quit feeding the dog like you did last night.

SERIOUSLY.

I came down stairs from having a shower and spent 10 minutes looking for the poo pile.  There was no pile, but she has stunk up the whole bottom floor of the house.  It’s actually gross.

So, please don’t feed her that much meat, or you’re taking her to work.

Thanks.

Elle

1. My 15 Year Wedding Anniversary
   As of yesterday, my wife and I have been married 15 years. I still marvel that an obstinate geek like me landed such a marvelous woman. She cannot even figure out how to turn on a computer, makes the best gingersnaps in the world, fulfills every wish I could ask for in the mother of my 4 kids, has a beautiful spirit, and is my best friend. Thankfully, it isn’t just Canadian geese that mate for life.
2. Boise Code Camp 2008
   I have been recently honored to serve the position of Boise Code Camp director. The 2008 Boise Code Camp will be held on March 8th and preparations are well under way. The organizing committee has had our first meeting and we are in hot pursuit of presenters. Contact me to volunteer or to sign up to present a session. It is a great event for our community and last year convinced me of the need for more sessions ion fundamentals. If you are reading this blog, you are very likely qualified to present a session at a Code Camp. What do you have to lose?
3. Boise .Net User’s Group
   Thanks to INETA, Scott Cate of myKB.com came to the Boise .Net User’s Group meeting this month and performed a very nice kata on the MVP pattern. Afterwards I got to go out and socialize with him, Richard Hundhausen of Accentient (MSMVP), Jason Mauer, and Mithun Dhar (both Microsoft Developer Evangelists), and Cory Isackson of Pets Best. It is so cool to sit at the same table with that much gray matter. I love being able to soak up the wisdom in a group this talented.
4. My Mother-in-law
   Actually both of my in-laws are in town for the week. That’s 7 days. You do the math.
5. Agile Training
   I have had the great opportunity to work with several organizations evangelizing and coaching Agile, Lean, and Scum practices. It is exciting to see organizations enact positive change and build a good community together. I hope to be able to do more of this work of spreading the Agile love. I have developed a solid curriculum for teaching these principles and exercising them in workshops.
6. Parent/Teacher Night
   The single most exciting thing my kid’s teachers could talk about at parent teacher night were the new Smart Boards they would soon be getting in their classrooms. I have lectured with these devices in years past and found them wanting on many levels. I suppose if you spend your day wih them you can truly make these devices productive tools in your instructional process, but frankly I don’t get it. Am I just missing something? The technology seems clunky and cobbled. Maybe I’ll know more after I attend career day and give do a refactoring kata for the 4th graders. (kidding)

What do you do to pass the time? This is what we did.

You can click for close ups

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