The lesson this time was about writer’s resources. Groups, websites, etc that cater to or provide a place for writers to get together and talk about writing.
The assignment was to select a writing prompt and write about it. I wrote about what it’s like working from home in tech at a large company, well sort of.
Update 2023-03-18:
Full points again.
Good Stuff!
Prompt: Working from home
Peter logs into work around 9:15 and spends the next 20 minutes rebooting his computer and checking his e-mail and the team chat channels. There is nothing that requires his immediate attention so he checks the Agile board to see what he has in progress. “Oh, that’s right,” he thinks to himself remembering that before spending two hours yesterday afternoon getting an unnecessary report to some VP and then logging off at 4:30 because it didn’t make sense to pick up where he’d left off, he’d been working on a new UI feature. Or to be more precise, thinking about how to implement the new UI feature between snacks, walks, and coffee breaks.
“Well, I guess I should get started. This sprint ends in 3 days, right Rufus.”, he says looking over at the old black lab curled up on a large dog bed next to his desk. The old dog starts to wag its tail with a slow thump, thump, thump, without lifting its head. He smiles to himself and starts working on coding the new UI feature.
About an hour later he leans back in his chair, takes a sip from his coffee mug, and says, “So, that was easier than I thought. I wonder if I can stretch out the validating, testing, and deployment for two days until the sprint ends. Or, ” he draws the or out and leans toward Rufus, “maybe the right question to ask is will anyone notice if I’m not doing anything for the next two days?” Rufus responds with a thump, thump, thump of his tail. “You’re right boy, not doing anything for two days would be pushing it. But the code is merging right now, so I’ve got time to refresh my coffee.”
Peter gets up from his desk and starts to head toward the kitchen. Rufus lifts his head and watches Peter, making sure he is leaving the room before getting up and following him to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Peter adds some water to his electric kettle and selects the coffee option. Then he measures out 13 oz of coffee beans on a small scale, puts them in a fancy hand coffee grinder, and starts to turn the handle. It makes a satisfying crunching sound as the coffee beans are ground down to flakes and crumbs. When all the beans have been ground, he adds them to a metal filter sitting on top of a stylish glass carafe and puts away the beans and grinder. A few moments later the kettle beeps, indicating the water has reached the optimal 205 degrees Fahrenheit for coffee and he starts to slowly pour the water over the grounds. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee fills the kitchen and he breathes in deeply.
When the water has finished filtering through the fresh coffee grounds producing a clear dark elixir, he removes and rinses the filter and pours the coffee from the carafe into his mug, and takes a sip. “Ahhh.”, he sighs. He looks at his watch, about 15 minutes had passed. “The tests and merge must be done,” he thinks to himself and he heads back to the office. Pausing at a Snoopy cookie jar and pulling out a small dog treat he tosses it at Rufus, who deftly catches it mid-air and starts to slowly crunch the bone-shaped treat dropping crumbs and drool onto the kitchen floor.
Peter returns to his desk, sits down and hits a key to open the screen saver, and looks at the status of the merge he started earlier. He leans forward, moving the mouse, clicking, and opening windows on his screen. He types a bit, then uses the mouse wheel to scroll up and down. Then in frustration, he bangs a fist on the desk and yells, “Fuck. Fuck you!” while flipping the double bird at the computer screen. Rufus, who had just walked into the room after finishing his treat, turns around and quicksteps back out. Peter stares at the screen for a minute, takes a deep breath, and says to himself since Rufus left knowing better than to be around when Peter is irritated, “Why am I getting so upset? There’s plenty of time to figure out what changed and how to fix it. But I mean, seriously, how can this stuff be so fragile that a little change can break the compile?”, Leaning closer to the monitor shaking his head he continues, “It’s not even in the module I changed.”