Often while driving, traffic grinds to a halt and Lara (even in non-pregnancy rage mode) freaks out when it is discovered that absolutely nothing caused the slowdown. I theorized that someone tapping their brakes could cause a ripple effect of slowdowns all the way along the highway... turns out I was right!
Weekly Workplace:
An external company creating a Flash module for us. I have Flash experience. I reported a problem with the module and they fixed it using a bandaid solution instead of taking the time required to fix their mistake.
This solution caused the rest of the module to fail horribly. I told them exactly what it looks like they'd done, mentioned that I've had this same experience and research has concluded that you're not supposed to do it that way. I sent screen shots of the product (taken from Firefox, but said "It does this in IE as well."). I pointed out the exact HTML file where the problem was located and said "The previous version doesn't have this code, and I can see the problem is exactly here."
The project manager told me that this was unfortunately the ONLY solution possible. We has a brief phone conversation with her boss, in which I was able to use the technical terms the PM didn't seem to understand, and boss-man said he would take care of it. Soon he sent back a message saying they were working on fixing the problem - the team told him the issue was that I was using Firefox and everything worked as it should in IE. I forwarded him the email in which I'd stated that IE had the same problem.
There was silence for hours. Finally, they fired over the final version for review, the bandaid (and unfortunately the ONLY) solution was gone, they had gone in and done all the manual work they could have done in the first place. Bottom line - when you are a Project manager, don't give the bullshit lines to someone who knows the technology. It may work for non techies, but it was pretty damn obvious I knew what I was talking about.
Weekly Kiernan:
While stopped at a traffic light, Kiernan exclaimed "Daddy! It's a circle!"
As he's been up to speed on all his shapes for at least a year, this was just another random exclamation. I couldn't tell where he was looking.
"Another circle daddy!"
"TWO circles?" I gasped dramatically.
"Ya, TWO CIRCLES!" there was a beat, "OH!!!!!!"
"Another circle?"
"No! Two hands! TWO HANDS JUST LIKE ME!"
The circles, I realized, were the two red lights...
Later on, as we'd dropped off the guy I've been commuting with in during the bus strike, Kiernan asked "What's Ron doing?"
"He's giving you thumbs up!"
"I'm doing thumbs up too!" - indeed, Kiernan's mitten thumbs were up, but whether his thumbs were actually in it was unknown.
"We can go home and give mommy two thumbs up and say 'Good job mommy!'"
"Okay. I wanna do two fingers up too!"
"Well, I suppose that depends on the fingers."
