short takes

Yesterday morning I chanted Torah at Tree of Life. It went really well! Next year I will learn the third aliyah so I can do the entire thing. One of the minyanaires was trying to get me to lead the service (Dave, the usual leader, was sick); I deflected it. I'd like to be able to do so, but my Hebrew isn't yet good enough to do a morning service in an acceptable amount of time. Eventually...

Last night's board meeting was the annual budget discussion. This meeting (every year) also gets the incoming trustees, who will be elected at next week's congregational meeting, so there were some extra people there. One of those newcomers came up to me after the meeting and said she really likes the way I analyze things and ask questions. I guess I haven't lost the touch. :-)

After the board meeting (and dinner) we watched this week's "West Wing". Wow. That was really well-done. We knew to expect a cliff-hanger, of course. The plot twist for which the episode was named did not actually surprise me (though it was poingiantly done); after the events of a couple weeks ago, didn't everyone look up that part of the constitution? Or was it only the geeky fans?

I've been getting spam lately with the subject line "seek of spam?". The source of the error seems obvious (non-native speaker with vowel confusion), but given that spammers mainly seek vectors, I found it amusing.

can I bottle that?

I am, I am told, abnormally good at naming classes, interfaces, methods, and the like. Other developers routinely come to me for help with naming things they're developing.

Today a developer came to me with a slightly different request. He has decided he's not good at naming, and he thinks he's not the only one, and would I be willing to give a little seminar or something on the how-tos of good naming? (I've already written a document, but it's practical advice and dos/don'ts rather than methodology.)

I'd like to do this. If successful it would improve the code base and give me a little visibility boost. Now I just have to figure out how to tease out the science (methodology) from the art (instinct); I'm guessing the former is teachable in this format and the latter isn't. The art (of anything -- programming, crafts, others) is why internships and apprenticeships exist -- you can't just do a brain dump and go.