Persuasion by Jane Austen

Just because I got back late (and I got a request for an update on my reading goals), today you get at Book Report. Stupid Things I've Done will be Friday thing this week. Look for it tomorrow . . .

Some of you may remember that I traveled over to Bristol and Bath a few months ago. On visiting Bath, I learned that the city was once Jane Austen's home and I even visited a Jane Austen Museum. The city was also frequently a setting for Ms. Austen's novels - specifically Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Though I had not read either of those two novels, I had read both Pride & Prejudice and Emma. So while I was at the museum, I thought I'd pick up one of the novels that was based in the city. Opting for the novel written later in her career, I bought a copy of Persuasion.

Reading the novel was a pleasant enough experience. Reading Austen, like reading Shakespeare, takes a little bit of time to get accustomed to. You need to read a few chapters before you get into the language of the era. One thing I can admit was that the book was alive to me. Having just visited the city of Bath, I could easily envision the atmosphere and could picture the places that Austen names in her book. The assembly halls were fresh in my memory and I remember walking The Circus and The Royal Crescent.

Persuasion is quite critical of the Bath aristocracy, painting them as duplicitous and untrustworthy. Simultaneously it idealized the simple values of the country folk. As with the other two novels of Austen's that I have read, the plot focuses on the misunderstanding and miscommunication that occurs between men and women. So it's no surprise that the plot is resolved when the two would-be lovers finally talk frankly to each other instead of relying on their own perceptions and the perceptions of others who might persuade them. Still, a fun read, though.

Since I find it hard to compare Austen to other fiction, I can only compare this work to her others that I've read. I found it more interesting than Emma, but less interesting than Pride and Prejudice.

As far as my 10,000 pages goal, I'm still behind schedule (I have 2 book reports yet to write for you all on other pieces I've completed) but I'm in the neighborhood of 6000 pages with 3 months to go. I better get busy reading!

HRputer is Back!

So where the hell has HRputer been? Stuck in the mire of a thing called Soft Code Freeze. As you may remember from previous posts, I am working over in Ireland on an SAP implementation. When you're working on a large project like this, they usually have two different kind of code freezes: soft code freeze and a hard code freeze.

A soft code freeze is a point in a software implementation where you restrict all defect resolution to Critical (can't go live without) and High (major deliverable cannot go live) issues. Medium and Low severity issues can no longer be worked on.

A hard code freeze means that all defect resolution and the system goes live as-is. This is done to make sure that there is stability in the product that goes live. Once the system is live, the code freeze is lifted and the system goes into maintenance mode where all defects and issues are dealt with according to a defined maintenance process.

On this project, HR is considered to be an add-on module, so we don't have any defects that qualify as Critical or High severity issues. Thus I spent September 1st through September 21st working constantly to resolve as many issues as possible (Yep, three straight weekends included). We have bargained in a couple of High severity defects since then, but in essence we've built and tested the product that we're delivering. I'm not overly happy with where we are, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to these things, so my standards may be a bit higher than others'.

So, now that we are just about to a hard code freeze, I have a few moments to spare to get back going on the blog. There are plenty of things that I have to catch everybody up on, including at least one installment of a fan favorite: "Stupid Things I've Done." Look it up on the tags . . . I've done some stupid things.

Remembering 9/11

We all remember 9/11 in our own way. I remember the events of that day every time I step onto an airplane. Of the many undesirable things that have come with this assignment, frequent air travel is one of them that I like the least.

I don't mind an occassional flight, but when you are flying transatlantic every three weeks, you become very aware of your vulnerability to such events. No matter how often I tell myself that it is an unlikely of an event it is, I still say a prayer when the plane takes off and another one when its landing. Truly it isn't the risk of the event that I fear, but rather the severity of the consequences; the fear that I'd never see my family again.

So on this day of rememberance, I don't pray for the victims, but for the families of the victims. Nine years ago today, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands were all lost to their families in the tragedy. May God bless them and ease their pain.

The Global Holiday Exchange

I have been asked by a few Americans what I did for Labor Day this year. The answer is quite simple: I labored.

Things are kind of odd working on an international project. Usually the Irish Holiday calendar takes precedence, but due the vast amount of British on the project, a practice has been put in play that we now refer to as the Global Holiday Exchange. This is how it works:

Typically each country has a public holiday calendar that has anywhere from 7-10 public holidays. When it gets close to an Irish or British holiday, everybody starts to plan their schedules to see which one they'd rather take. The Brits and the Irish will take their own holidays. But, if you're not on either of those holiday calendars, you trade one of your home holidays for a British or Irish holiday. For instance, I traded my Memorial Day holiday this year for what the Irish call their June Bank Holiday.

When the August bank holiday was coming up, I decided to take it instead of Labor Day so I could have an extra day off when my family was here. Or did I trade that one for 4th of July? Perhaps, I should start tracking the holidays that I'm trading . . .

By the way, Happy Belated Labor Day to those back in the States!

Too Busy to Shave

As we get closer to our go-live. I'm having fun working all weekend. I just got kicked off the system for nightly backups to run, so I'm going to call it a night.

I forgot to bring my razor back from the States with me. So I hadn't shaved all week until tonight. I didn't actually have time to get down to the local drug store to pick up a new razor. Instead, I found a replacement blade for my razor in my suitcase and proceeded to try to shave using that. It took a little longer than usual, but it did the trick.

The adventures of HRputer are getting a little less adventurous. I may sign up for a writing class in Dublin next weekend. If it's scheduled, perhaps it will give me a reason not to work next weekend.

Time for bed.

Never Raise Your Hand at a Comedy Show

Last night we went out on the town to celebrate two of our team members rolling off the project. We went to a comedy club and when the emcee asked people from out of town to raise their hands, I foolishly did.

Surprisingly (or not) nobody else at the table with me raised their hands thouhg they, too, were all from out of town . Even the other American at the table with me failed to raise her hand. So it was I, the lone (declared) American in the room that received the jibing. Last time I went to the comedy club, I did the same stupid thing. I can't resist; I'm a glutton for punishment.

It was the same emcee and though he didn't remember me, I remembered him well enough to know that not all of his material had changed. He did the same joke about "What the stupidest thing you can convince an American of." Apparently his buddy still holds the title for having convinced a few Americans that they don't have Wednesday in Ireland. There were some new jokes as well and the night was quite entertaining.

So why do I raise my hand when the comedians are looking to make fun of people? I've always subscribed to the theory that if you can't laugh at yourself, you shouldn't laugh at anybody else. Thus, to keep my life full of laughter I will often offer myself as the butt of a joke. So I'll proffer this advice to my readers:

Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive, anyway. Go ahead raise your hand.