Fairly Symmetrical

Since it's been about 2 weeks since my last update, I guess I'm due again. :) I keep thinking I should just force myself to post something on a daily or semi-daily basis. I dunno.

Anyway, last week was pretty horrendous at work. I worked something like 50 hours, despite taking Friday off, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Phoenix. Just a tip to anyone thinking of doing so, but do anything it takes to avoid flying into Austin during SXSW. Every single flight into Austin the whole week was oversold, which meant that if you didn't make your flight--and early enough that you actually got a seat--there was no way you were going to get a seat on any other flights. One of my coworkers unexpectedly spent three extra days in California because he got bumped from his original flight. And even if you made your flight, it was guaranteed to be 100% full--largely by people who don't travel much or well (envision rows full of kids who entertain themselves by banging on the seats in front of them). It was not a fun trip.

This week was better; only 47 hours of work, and I even (finally!) got to spend some more time on the next version of our major software. I'm really starting to get a handle on VB.Net and the framework in general, and doing some very cool things with Remoting and Reflection. Getting a handle on VB.Net is a very good thing, considering I'm planning on taking the first of my 5 tests for my MCSD next Tuesday. :) The practice tests are pretty easy, so hopefully it goes well. Also, we have a new employee starting Monday, who knows Java but not VB, so I'm going to be spending some time teaching him VB.

Let's see, what else... I'm kind of on a design kick lately... been reading The Design of Everyday Things and The Evolution of Useful Things. They're really interesting books, and anyone who designs anything should probably read them. I also want to read Peopleware and The Mythical Man-Month. It's funny... as much as I don't want to be a manager, I'm finding all of these books and topics very interesting. Of course, it makes sense to read them as a non-manager too, since the information can be useful from both sides. I've been mostly lucky thus far in having the luxury of choosing good bosses, but that might not always be the case, and managing your boss is a great skill to have. :)

Other things that really interest me lately: Network theory. I want to read Six Degrees. RSS is proving interesting; I started subscribing to feeds a few weeks ago, and there are some really interesting ones out there. I'm particularly enjoying the ones from Microsofties. Having direct conversations with the people who actually write the tools I use on a daily basis is just fantastic--I still haven't found any feeds by OS developers, but pretty much all of the major .Net Fx developers seem to have good feeds/blogs.