Lois: Peter, how come you're not at work?
Peter: I got fired for being an illegal immigrant.
Lois: Oh, dear. Y'know, Peter, you can always take a citizenship test. I mean, if Wilmer Valderrama passed, it can't be that difficult.
Peter: Well, by that logic Lois, it can't be that difficult to nail Lindsay Lohan.
Lois: I don't think it is!
Peter: Oh...well, good news there. Alright, you wanna head down to the INS?
Interesting article about the difficult position the writers' strike puts Writer-Producers in. On one hand, they're writers so they can't go to work. On the other hand, they're producers, and often actors, so must go to work (or face breach of contract). It's simultaneously interesting and horrifying for me. Horrifying because of the awful impact I know this strike is going to have on so many of the shows I love.
Thinking about a show like Heroes having to make major decisions about story direction based on the squabblings of union leaders and television networks makes it hard for me to root for the Writers in this case. But, maybe they really aren't asking for all that much.
P.S. Interesting tidbit from the article on "The Office:" besides B. J. Novak, who plays "Ryan," you'll never guess who else are writer-producers on the show? That's right, Mindy Kaling, who plays the brainless "Kelly Kapoor", and the meek but lovable "Toby" (Paul Lieberstein).
I am once again humbled and inspired by the mind of good friend and blogger, Kurtiss.org. Behold, as he uses the Boy Scout Oath to craft two rules (and an infinite recursion) to live by if you write code. Now, while I honestly think the metaphor is a bit of a StreeeeeetcH, I so, so appreciate the effort that went into it. Sometimes, I get discouraged by what I see as an affliction of many developers : stasis. This notion that because you've been hired to be a programmer, that you now know everything there is to know about your job; that it's someone else's responsibility to implement best practices, read whitepapers, and research new technologies; that talking about layers of abstraction, living and breathing refactoring, and dreaming in design patterns is not part of your job description. It's so wrong that it borders on dangerous. And it's not solely a disease of the young either. Old developers, smart developers, not-so-smart developers--apparently mediocrity, like love, knows no season and knows no clime.
Please, please, if you are reading this, and your business card says programmer, developer, software engineer or any such thing--take the time to learn something new today. Head over to the Portland Pattern Repository and read about a design pattern; make your way to MSDN, pick a technology and don't stop reading about it until you can talk for five full minutes about what it can do; find three open-source software projects that accomplish the same thing, study their architecture and choose one you think solves the problem best… Take the time today to make yourself a better developer, a smarter teammate, and a more valuable employee. I guarantee that your efforts will be rewarded.
