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Quoted from Katie Lucas’s discussion of software methodologies: (Who’s Katie Lucas? I dunno, but she was referenced on Joel On Software)

And at the core of RUP is a small area where you have to use OO design
talents…. if you don’t have them, it’s like having a methodology for
running the 100m.

“Step 1: write about running really fast. Step 2: Go and draw a plan
of the racetrack. Step 3: go and buy really tight lycra shorts. Step
4: run really, really, really fast. Step 5: cross line first”

Ahhhhh… the step I missed is the “go and buy really tight lycra shorts”.

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Finally getting over my cold/cough combo. Opened up the dryer to find that some number of Kleenex had shown such great remorse over their lack of continued need that they had torn themselves to pieces in my dryer. All over my work slacks. Ah well. At least if I have to sneeze now, there’s a reasonable chance of some small snippet of tissue being attached to my ensemble somewhere handy.

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Jeff Bezos lists a new marketing concept on Amazon’s homepage this evening: Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime lets you pay a flat yearly fee of $79 to then get free two day shipping, and $3.99 overnight shipping. If you’re a gotta-have-it-now kind of person, this might be worth considering. $79 can readily be covered over the year, particularly since you can share the benefit with other family members. But this, to me, just highlights how much we’re willing to pay to have something _NOW_. This says some folks think gotta-have-it-now is worth at least $80 per year. Just like it bothers me to pay ATM fees, which are essentially fees for gotta-have-it-now money, it bothers me to pay shipping fees, unless the shipping fee + the cost of my items is significantly less than what I can get the item for locally – not a usual occurrence. My usual gameplan is to order whatever it is I need to order, and then fill in my order, if necessary, with wishlist items or Christmas gift items that I can tuck away for the future. That usually gets me to the dollar minimum for free shipping. That free shipping is slower than the overnight stuff, but hey, it’s free. I can use that shipping fee to go buy something else that I’d like, but isn’t a gotta-have-it-now.

I’m thinking $79 is a pretty high price point. I wonder if they’d have more success if they did it for a shorter time period – say $35 for three months. Then, you could subscribe if you knew you were going to be doing a bunch of ordering over that time period. Of course, then they’d get a bunch of revenue from this right around Christmas and see nothing the rest of the year.

This, of course, doesn’t apply for their various third-party areas. So, if you often buy used books, for instance, this just wouldn’t apply. And there are other various quirks to the program, including ways that Amazon can opt out of it for certain products. All in all, though, still an interesting idea.

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I’ve been a Christian for something like 8 years now. (Always interesting to hear how folks came to faith.) And not yet read all of the Bible, to my shame. There are some sections I’ve read and reread, and others I’ve just never made it to. I’ve tried the Bible in a year plans, and end up petering out somewhere in a long genealogy.

I think I’ve finally found my answer: there’s something called a chronological Bible. The readings in the Bible are reordered in the time in which they were written. So, the book of Job (wow!) comes in the middle of Genesis, ’cause Job was around pre Moses. And the genealogies in Chronicles are interleaved with the stories in which you’ve learned about the people in the genealogies. Gives you much greater respect for those long lists of names.

I’m trying to remember the furthest I’ve ever gotten in a year: I think sometime in March would be my record, in terms of consistently reading through the Bible daily. And there’s a lot more to this year. But it’s something new to try… “If at first you don’t succeed…”