Events

I'm working from home today because I had a cable guy here for two hours, and because winter has finally arrived. The rain and sleet is also a problem because my Fitbit numbers have been off for four straight days. I did get a lot of sleep this past weekend—but that also could be a factor today, according to new research into weekend lie-ins. (tl;dr: sleeping in on Sunday makes it harder to wake up on Monday.) I'll have more later today. Now I have to figure out how to get a custom Microsoft Dynamics...

It turns out, my Fitbit doesn't make me sad, but the numbers I get when traveling sometimes do. Despite a 3.5 km walk around Springfield yesterday, it was the second day in a row and the 4th in 10 days for which I missed my 10,000-step, 10 km goal. On the other hand, last night I got almost 9 hours of sleep (according to my Fitbit), through several trains and a thunderstorm. Yes, there was a thunderstorm in December in central Illinois. That's just weird. And in future, probably a lot more common.

It turns out, our neighbor to the west has a better-looking capitol building than we do. I mean, gilded roof? On a hill? We have none of these things. But we also don't have Steve King, which makes up for it and then some. That's from October 2004. I've tried to correct what the original camera did to it, but it only provided so much data.

Apparently we have two. The old one: And the new one: And as a bonus, here's a squirrel:

Combine a full moon, a really good camera, and a beautiful church on Christmas Eve: (The grain is from shooting a HDR photo at ISO-12800.) Did I mention the candlelight part? The final piece of the service is the entire congregation singing "Silent Night" holding candles. Even as an atheist, I found it moving. And the Winnetka Congregational Church, while still a Christian church, doesn't beat people over the head with religion. I'm certain I wasn't the only atheist in the congregation.

Yesterday, Chicago got up to 15°C, not a record but also not what one would expect in December. Our forecast for the next week has the temperature drifting just below freezing Sunday night but otherwise staying above 0°C, which feels a lot more like late March than New Year's Eve. It's a little unnerving. Don't forget, warm winter means warm lake means warm summer—even without the driving force of El Niño, which may not dissipate before June. Not that I'm complaining. I'm just...nervous.

Too many things showed up in my RSS feeds this morning. Fortunately, I've got a few days off this weekend and next. Jerry Seinfeld got some time with President Obama Catfish are cleaning up the Chicago River Book early to take advantage of airline schedule changes What you should ask about every new job Apollo got a pretty good review All blue-eyed people apparently have one common European ancestor And now, a conference call.

People just starting out in software often ask me what they should learn. I submit for discussion the contents of my desk: Some of these books are more valuable than others. I leave the ranking of those books as an exercise for the reader. Actually, that's not true. Anyone who wants to be a professional software developer (as loaded a phrase as has ever appeared on this blog) needs to read all of these books. Every one of them.

Duke University business professor Jordan Etkin found evidence they might: "In general, tracking activity can increase how much people do," Etkin said. "But at the same time, measurement has these pernicious effects. Enjoyable activities can became almost like a job, by focusing on the outcomes of things that used to be fun." In another study, researchers had 310 participants read for eight minutes. One group read additional text that described reading as fun an enjoyable; for another group it was...

The Apollo Chorus performed Händel's Messiah yesterday and Saturday both, which explains the radio silence here. This is my second year with the Chorus. Though last year's performances were really good, this year's were better. Here's the view from the stage to our sold-out crowd yesterday afternoon: And those who have followed The Daily Parker for a while know that I have had a troubled relationship with bow ties. For this weekend's performances, I might have gotten it right: