The Orchid surprise

Waterfall

You all think you know what I'm talking about, but you don't. Sorry. You think I mean this.

But I don't.

I mean a paradigm where you gather all the requirements, figure out what's going to get done, which might or might not have any relationship to the requirements, then build it such that the finished product might or might not have any relationship to the plans, then test it at least a little to say you did, then deliver it to the customer. Hopefully they haven't gone broke while you go through this process, and you get paid.

That's software oriented, and explains why nobody really does software that way anymore. It sounds good, but the problem is that world changes faster than such a process can keep up. Going back to revisit the requirements when you discover a bug in testing is a super way of wasting time. The slightest glitch in communication can have a huge impact on the outcomes, and usually not in a good way.

But that's how government does things. They love to get out to consult the voters. More accurately, they've already been told by the powers that be (people with money) what the outcome is going to be. Then some of their friends get to help build frameworks and paradigms to engage the voters and subtly sell them on the plan. There is no real interest in finding out what's actually wanted, let alone needed, but there's a very specific process to go through to make it look like that.

All too often people get trapped in that way of thinking. Figure out what you need to do, figure out what you're going to do, do it, make sure it got done, tidy up. Next. Plan your work, work your plan. You can't change the plan because it's a plan. Doesn't matter if the task is putting up Christmas lights, trimming the hedge, or packing for a trip.  If you are working on something where the results are critical, like say, stepping outside the airlock to repair the space station, you do want to go through a checklist and have a very clear idea of exactly what is going to get done. But most of the time it's overkill.

At the other end of the spectrum is the 'make it up as you go along' camp. I do this in writing, and it sometimes leaves me in a bit of a corner wondering how things are going to work out and the characters aren't talking to me anymore. This approach can be lots of fun if you have an open mind, and you're likely to discover something you didn't know along the way. Or you can end up out of gas in Pense, SK, at suppertime.

Somewhere in the middle is about right for most things. Some overall structure and a sense of the goal, but with the flexibility to change things on the fly. I've seen workout plans that are specific down to the number of seconds to take for each of many intervals during a swim workout. Some of the plans you nearly need to be a mathematician to parse out how many times you have to do a particular thing. I can't do that. My swim workouts are often made up after I've started the first lap.

If I'm given a new database, I don't sit down to do a scholarly analysis of it. I dive in and mess around, figure out how things are related, what the data looks like. I'm taking lots of photos with the new camera, trying to internalize how to get a good shot.

Many athletes talk about being in the zone. You don't have to plan or think. You just do, and if you've done your training properly, your doing is probably superlative. Life should be in the zone. A bit of planning so you aren't making a terrible mistake, then get out there and do it.

The R sound

No, this isn't talk like a pirate day. I'm talking about the r sound, often spelled are, or in a nod to pirates, ARGH Matey! But say this to yourself:
bar
car
far
jar
mar
par
tar
war
Oops, wait a minute. Did I just hear wore? Let's try again with the e and see what happens. On second thought, lets ring in the changes on the vowels, just to see what happens.

letter	are	air	ear	ere	eer	eir	ire	ore	oor	our
b	bare	bair	bear	bere	beer	beir	bire	bore	boor	bour
c	care	cair	cear	cere	ceer	ceir	cire	core	coor	cour
d	dare	dair	dear	dere	deer	deir	dire	dore	door	dour
f	fare	fair	fear	fere	feer	feir	fire	fore	foor	four
g	gare	gair	gear	gere	geer	geir	gire	gore	goor	gour
h	hare	hair	hear	here	heer	heir	hire	hore	hoor	hour
j	jare	jair	jear	jere	jeer	jeir	jire	jore	joor	jour
k	kare	kair	kear	kere	keer	keir	kire	kore	koor	kour
l	lare	lair	lear	lere	leer	leir	lire	lore	loor	lour
m	mare	mair	mear	mere	meer	meir	mire	more	moor	mour
n	nare	nair	near	nere	neer	neir	nire	nore	noor	nour
p	pare	pair	pear	pere	peer	peir	pire	pore	poor	pour
qu	quare	quair	quear	quere	queer	queir	quire	quore	quoor	quour
r	rare	rair	rear	rere	reer	reir	rire	rore	roor	rour
s	sare	sair	sear	sere	seer	seir	sire	sore	soor	sour
t	tare	tair	tear	tere	teer	teir	tire	tore	toor	tour
v	vare	vair	vear	vere	veer	veir	vire	vore	voor	vour
w	ware	wair	wear	were	weer	weir	wire	wore	woor	wour
x	xare	xair	xear	xere	xeer	xeir	xire	xore	xoor	xour
y	yare	yair	year	yere	yeer	yeir	yire	yore	yoor	your
z	zare	zair	zear	zere	zeer	zeir	zire	zore	zoor	zour

Go ahead and say those to yourself. It doesn't matter if you go down or across, your tongue is going to stumble over some of them, and not because they are nonsense words.

What's odd to me is that if you look at the ones starting with z, they are all perfectly pronounceable even though as far as I know none of them are actual words in English. A few of the combinations are words in other languages (lire) or are names (Lear), and lots are nonsense words.

But this is one of the examples of why English is so difficult, and why we need to reform it. It's clear that words ending in are and air are almost always pronounced the same even though are and air themselves are pronounced quite differently. Why do all the ar words except war get pronounced the same? Why don't bear and fear get pronounced the same? Look at hour and dour, compared to four and pour. Door and poor. Heir and weir. There are probably lots more but you get the idea.

A native English speaker shown the c line as a whole is likely to pronounce all the words starting with the K sound, but if presented with cere or ceer by themselves might pronounce them starting with the S sound. The cour might go either way to rhyme with hour or door. Some of the G words might get pronounced starting with a J sound.

And that's just one sound in English. It's fallout from where the words came from originally, and modified inconsistently during the Great Vowel Shift. Don't get me started on the various ough combinations. I struggled against this when I was in school. The whole i before e except after c, except for some exceptions, including my name, made me crazy for years. I went through a phonetic spelling craze for a while, but gave it up.

Even though I'd like to see English reformed for more sensible rules around spelling and pronunciation, there is one big use for it if you ignore the "don't read the comments" rule. Run your eye over the comments and look for misspelled words. Ignore those comments. Yes, I suppose that makes me an English snob. But maybe not. It's aluminum, not aluminium and program not programme in my English. But neighbour not neighbor. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

I've had these various words going through my head in all sorts of chains and sequences. I had envisioned some xl highlighting and marks to trace pronunciation, which ones I prefer, which I think are useful variations, and which I think we should drop. Then I remembered blogs are text only, and gave it up as being too much like work. I hope this gets it all out of my head, along with that damn theme song for Empress of China that Linda has been watching.  Some of the political intrigue is interesting, and the costumes and sets are stunning, but the soundtrack is killing me. It's pretty bad when a non-English song is what's stuck in your head.

You've seen the skyline from here in a previous photo, but you can be forgiven for not connecting the dots. The other one was a night shot, cropped in a bit too much, with not enough lens. This is hand held on a hazy day, tired after a long scouting trip. Anyone want to take a guess where I was standing? As a hint, that's Rocky View hospital just in front of Banker's Hall.

Froze my feet, and for what?

I found a nice spot for shooting the mountains. The plan was to see them all lit up in sunrise, capture the photos, then have breakfast with my buddy. Some days it just doesn't work out. For a while I had hopes of a brilliant clouds sunrise, but no. Mild pastels at the best. Kind of hazy.

There I am, hard at work. These two shots below are about the best from this morning. I'll work on the others just for the practice, but I don't think I'm going to get anything spectacular. Another time perhaps. Maybe I'll experiment a little. No, I don't know what was producing all the steam. It might be a portable asphalt plant; there's a lot of road construction and paving going on in the area.

The light wasn't getting any better, breakfast was calling, my feet were freezing in spite of wool socks, and the construction crew was starting to drive equipment suggestively around my car, even though one of the guys said I'd be ok parked there. Pack and zoom, try another time. Note to self, break out the winter boots already.

Breakfast after was really good. I haven't seen my buddy in a few months, and it was good to get caught up. He's retired now, and for a while we were listening in on the next table. There were 5 or 6 long retired guys there, chatting. We were speculating on that being us in a few decades. Neither of us can see being those guys that get together every morning, but we are are going to try for every month or so. It's important to keep up your social life in retirement. :-)

Ran 5 K, 34 minutes. Hams were slow to get with the program. They are paving the pedestrian bridge over Anderson, so that should be open soon. Can't wait to run across it and check out the potential for sunrise and sunset shots.

Oct 2 garden colour. Still!

After yesterday's post I am led to believe that I'm the only one that loves autumn. Sigh. After writing the blog I was out "helping" Linda with the garden, and was astonished at the colour that's still there. Most of the blooms and flowers are past their prime, of course, but there is a Cana Lily opening up, and lots of other blossom. I took a bunch of pictures. See below.

Part of this was an experiment in streamlining the Lightroom processing, and it's mostly a success. We looked at the images on the TV, and a couple look just a little overdone. That's not a surprise when you're working on a laptop screen.

So here's some of the nicest ones to amuse you. Trying not to repeat myself too much.

Why I love autumn

My favourite run buddy and I were chatting about the changing season during our run today, and why I like fall. I started talking, then realized I could blog it and then you'd all know.

But first, to get you in the mood. The shocking wave of gold leaves is gone, but there's still lots of gold and yellow and a bit of orange still to be seen. Today was the first real hard frost. We've had a few cool and frosty nights, but there was actually frost on the grass today. We started our run fairly early, and had to dress a bit warmer than our recent runs. By mistake I wore a pair of clapped-out old shoes I usually use for walking around the yard in. I ran really carefully. 10K, 1:17 or so, feeling pretty good, through Weaselhead. There were a ton of people on the path, enjoying the day.

We didn't quite get this view, but the mountain part would be similar.

Why I love autumn in Calgary, a list in no particular order:

• Autumn colours make me happy. I love the yellows, golds, russets, oranges, all those shades. They look good against my skin which is why I often wear them. The trees and shrubs are totally dressed up like this, which I love to see.
• I like the crisp crunch of leaves underfoot. It livens up a long run, and totally changes the blah paved path into the yellow leaf road that can lead your imagination anywhere.
• I like seeing the swirls of leaves as they fall and are twisting in the breeze.
• It's the nicest climate of the year. Still sunny, cool and crisp in the morning, usually warmish in the afternoon. No hot muggy weather. Not much rain.
• The kids are back in school, and pity the school day isn't longer. 
• There's a burst of activity in the air, a feeling that it's time to get stuff done. Now or never.
• When working, people are back from vacation and you can get caught up with what your buddies have been up to.
• The days are about equal length as the nights, making it easier to sleep at night, or get sunrise/sunset shots the same day.
• There's a satisfaction in getting the yard ready for winter, putting the mower away, knowing you won't need it for months, and you don't quite need to get the snow shovels out yet.
• The last, sweetest BC blackberries come just at the very beginning of autumn. No others need apply.
• Somehow the quality of light is just a bit different. The sky is clearer, making the colours sharper. 
• The cats seem more contemplative, looking out the windows in a thoughtful way. I think they can see things changing as well. Their fur gets thicker and softer.
• I'm not much of a Halloween person, but I can dream of creating a costume, or making a remote control tentacle creature to frighten half the people coming to the door into wetting their pants, adults included.
• It's a great time to look back and take stock of a busy summer, what you enjoyed and what you want to do again only better. What maybe didn't work out as planned, and what to do about that.
• Even though most people like flower blooms at the peak of their perfection, I'm sort of liking the just past the prime look. It's a reminder that all things must pass, and we have to enjoy them  for what they are, while they can.

What do you love about autumn?

Shooting the moon

When you're playing Hearts, it's a fun strategy sometimes, to try to collect all the hearts.

Or to try something nearly impossible.

The funny thing is, the impossible sometimes becomes easy, depending on the equipment or training involved.

When the moon is in an iPhone shot, it's a dot. Once I got the good camera I tried taking pictures of the moon, but that didn't go so well. The last serious attempt was to shoot the Harvest moon as it rose over Calgary. The best I could get was a white disk with no detail at all no matter what settings I used. I suspect it's possible with that lens, but lots of work and it still won't be that big or detailed.

Then I got the 70-200 mm lens. A couple days after full moon I was out in the front patio in the evening. I got this shot hand-held, manual focus, leaning the camera against the lattice. Of course, the moon by itself is boring, but this is a first. Now I can plan a dramatic moonrise or moonset shot. Stay tuned.