Work has been especially frustrating the last week or so. I'd managed last Monday to solve a small problem that was very
important to one of our customers. This made me feel quite good about myself, which is important since I hadn't been
making much progress in the preceding weeks. When I tried to see if my solution worked, though, I found that nothing
worked at all. The entire product was broken.
I reverted my changes and went back to build the offending library again, based on what should be the code that was
shipped out for our last release (which was nearly two years ago for this particular thing). It didn't work either. This
was a small relief because, while something was horribly wrong, at least it wasn't my fault. On the other hand, if it
had been something I'd done, it'd been a lot easier to fix. I knew what I'd done, after all. I have no idea what
happened nearly two years ago, and no one who might have worked on it is still around to offer advice.
Now I'm at a loss. I've been beating my head against this thing for a week now. It's not giving an inch. I've been
trying to build related libraries thinking that maybe my library got out of synch in some way I wouldn't think would be
likely. The only thing that's accomplished is to turn up more problems, proving that the mess I'd inherited is far more
widespread that I'd have guessed. I have no idea how this stuff ever worked, and the two-year-old CD that proves that it
did once is only there to taunt me. It's my job to fix this, but I don't really know where to start.
So I decided to post a small journal entry instead of thinking about it. It seemed like the best thing to do, under the
circumstances.
Now coming to the end of week number four of Squirrel's Magic Illness. I went to the doctor today, but since they told
me that the wait would be "about an hour and a half" and since I know from previous experience that I can safely double
that number and be closer, I decided I'd maybe try again tomorrow morning.
Or hey, maybe tomorrow morning I'll be feeling so much better I won't need a doctor, right? Right?
I've lost my voice, so I shouldn't keep talking. Instead, I'll leave you with the words of the Buddha:
Life's easy to live
for someone unscrupulous,
cunning as a crow,
corrupt, back-biting,
forward, & brash;
But for someone who's constantly
scrupulous, cautious,
observant, sincere,
pure in his livelihood,
clean in his pursuits,
it's hard.
The Dhammapada, XVIII. *shrug*, it made me feel better about
myself...
My stupid cough is still with me. What's worse, it's changing. Using my excellent problem-solving skills (hindered,
admittedly, by my lack of knowledge), I've concluded that what I have looks a lot
like Whooping Cough. Crap.
I knew I should have made that creepy doctor guy do a bacterial culture. I now have an actual whooping cough, so I'm
past the phase where a more specific anti-biotic would be effective. I know I should go see a doctor and get this little
suspicion confirmed (nobody's phoned me about the results of my chest x-ray, which is a good thing, I suppose). I don't
have any contact with them myself, but I'd hate if this got passed on to any young kids. And I'm not 100% sure. My
paroxysms don't last very long, and I never really had the sneezing or runny nose symptoms... Bronchitis still seems to
fit as well, except that it's not responding to the antibiotics.
This sucks. The smog isn't helping, either. Less than five minutes after stepping outside after work yesterday, it feld
like my whole chest was being crushed in a vice. I'm feeling okay now, but I'm dreading leaving the office. Fortunately,
I'll be going home on the weekend, and I think I'll make my parents turn the air conditioning on while I'm there. That
should help.