RosemaryLong.com

I used to be one of those developers that thought that in order to really call oneself a programmer, one must be able to program something from line 0. My training in University involved learning some low-level programming languages that taught us the importance of processing speed and memory allocation. In my mind it followed, then, that in order to make something good one must put all one’s discipline starting from low-level knowledge up to software engineering theory to code a product properly. This might have been good in said institutional days when every hour spent was willfully given in the name of education, but as I’m older and have more things to tend to surrounding my regular work hours, I’ve slowly emerged from this way of thinking.

It would be an exercise of modularity and reusability if I made something from scratch and then repurposed it for different projects.

Then for freelance projects I considered setting up a simple CMS like WordPress for clients with a nice template that they could edit their own pages.

I took this further and saved time in design by starting with one of those free-to-$50 predesigned templates.

In the past two weeks at work, I had been terrorized by the knowledge that we would have to quickly turnaround a multi-user custom-content website, and I racked my brain for a shortcut that would let us deliver the site in a month and a half as required. My first instincts included using Drupal, but the learning curve might be too steep to climb in such a short period of time. Next, WordPress MU which I am already familiar with. Sure it handles the multi-user bit, but how do I wrangle the idea of submitting posts to a blog into something actually usable for this particular project.

Then one night I found what could be the perfect solution: PhpMembers is a pre-built user management system that allows me to pile on as many custom-built pages as I want. It sounds like a happy medium as I don’t have to do the boring crap of doing user authentication and management and “oh boo hoo hoo I forgot my password” stuff, and instead I can focus on the cool parts.

In my head I was thinking of a way to express how the tedious stuff being eliminated allows more time for finesse of execution of the more important parts of the project. “Why reinvent the wheel when you can just find one and sex it up?” No, that doesn’t work, especially since I picture a stone torus with a prominent hole shape. For now, in my head I’m imagining that I’m just taking a pre-existing wheel and throwing glitter on it to pretty it up. I wonder if there’s a product or tool out there that can help me with my analogies.

Easter dinner with my inlaws is tomorrow, and naturally I volunteered to make a dessert. For Christmas I made a rich and decadent peppermint devil’s food cake, but for Easter I wanted to make something light and springtimey.

I dug up an old recipe from grade eight for a german fruit flan, knowing that even though the procedure was simple (airy cake base, cream cheese filling), I could really have some fun with the fresh fruit topping.

I have three regrets about making this. One, I wish I searched for blueberries, as the color would have really taken the presentation to another level (I currently have peach, mango, strawberry and kiwi on it). Two, I should have remembered my grade eight science classes where we discussed that gelatin plus kiwi equals unset gelatin because of enzymes in the kiwi. Regret number three is a selfish one. I should have filled a ramekin with the batter and made myself a mini flan. Waiting until tomorrow’s dinner is going to be torture.

So, I’m glad I didn’t get pearl onions or fresh basil to make this salad, because I overcooked the squash and the tomatoes disintegrated upon impact with everything else in the bowl and it looks like a watery, mushy mess. Like a reverse King Midas, I’m afraid to even add it to spring mix because it might make a good thing crappy. Oh well. At least I have lunch covered this week and is quite healthy.

—

Edit: April 6, 1:14pm

Overnight, the quinoa was able to soak up the rest of the tomato juice and the roasted garlic and onions made the sour taste of the tomatoes mellow out. I tossed in some chopped deli turkey breast into the mix and the saltiness provided a nice contrast in flavor. So this wasn’t a disaster after all.

In Tagalog, Lolo means grandfather and Lola means grandmother.  Usually these titles are suffixed with their names (Tom and Josefina), but as I spent more time with my paternal grandparents growing up than my maternal ones, they are simply called “Lolo and Lola”.

I was very fortunate to grow up in the same city as most of my extended family, but even more fortunate that my grandparents made family the highest priority.  They are very generous and active in the community (they are members of several clubs and have received numerous, numerous awards for their contributions) but as a granddaughter I can just feel that if I was for want of anything in the world, they would try their hardest to give it to me.  Why else would they have stocked up on sugary cereals (even those fun little self-serve boxes) they wouldn’t eat themselves, but in anticipation for their grandchildren coming over.  Why else would they without fail always given me something to take home after a visit, whether it be a thoughtful gift acquired and saved until the next meeting, or my favorite food prepared lovingly in anticipation.  

As I write informally for this blog post, I have to stop myself because if I don’t think there is enough internets to capture all the wonderful things Lolo and Lola have done for me and what they mean to me. Let’s rein myself back into the present and in standard blog writing.

Today my husband went on an outdoor excursion with his father, so I made plans to visit my grandparents to collect the remainder of the crabapples on their tree and to visit.  It used to be that holidays and birthdays were the primary reasons for visiting, but I can always see how happy they are to see me and am making an effort to make my visits more regular.  Several things today made me smile, and here are the top five of them:

1. Lolo says the best things, and says them very matter-of-factly.  In fact one of the highlights of my last visit with my cousins was that one of us (Geoff) is now starting to make “Lolo jokes”.  Lola needed something to store the picked crabapples in, so emptied an occupied basket for our use.  It had a ribbon on it from its last use.  Upon seeing this, my Lolo remarked, “Well that’s really cute.  But it’s not going to hold anything.”
2. Matching clothes.  I always wondered why my two aunts dressed very similarly, almost to the point of looking like twins.  While I still don’t understand it, I have learned to accept that it is a “Lola thing” and has become very endearing.  (An example of matching:  a picture of my cousin and I wearing similar-to-the-point-of-matching dresses for my grandparents’ anniversary.)  While picking crabapples I was getting annoyed and uncomfortable with branches and twigs getting caught in my hair.  I asked Lola for a hat, and she returned with two matching ones, one for her, one for me.
3. Remembering birthdays.  I have a lot of cousins, and even though Lola is past her mid-seventies, she can remember the birthdays and even birthstones of each of my cousins.  She was showing me her jewellry (that she said she’d give to her grandchildren when she dies and made me sad) and showed me a family ring set with birthstones of her children and grandchildren’s gemstones.  I can barely remember birthdays and need to rely on Facebook for reminders, yet my grandmother shows that she cares by remembering the day each of her children and grandchildren were born.  
4. Food.  If anyone knows me, they know I am a sitophile almost to the point of obsession.  Food has been such an integral part of my upbringing, and Lolo and Lola’s house is so renowned for always having something cooking or cooked to offer anyone who enters.  Whenever you leave their home, your clothes smell like food.  I mentioned a while ago that sinigang was my favorite Filipino food, and now whenever I visit they make it for me.
5. Wisdom.  My grandparents have demonstrated through example what the importance of family means to them, as well as the importance of a good education and giving back to the community.  But during these visits I have also been hearing little gems of wisdom that I want to keep.  When asking Lolo about his preference between Obama and McCain, he mentioned that he admired McCain because of his military experience.  ”During my time in the Philippine Military Academy I learned about decision making.  When you make a decision, you follow through with it.  If you make a bad decision, you continue to move forward but remember to not make that decision again.  I have learned not to depend on others’ decision-making.”  Moving forward and growing despite mistakes is much better than being immobilized by indecision.
6. Yes, I said this would be a list of five, but do you really think I could stick to just five?  This is like a bonus item for all the extra things I want to share:
   • My grandfather eats Scotch Bonnet peppers.  He showed me a large bag of them he keeps in the freezer to add to his cooking.  He also puts chili peppers in his bottle of vinegar for extra heat.  No blended-grandpa food for mine.
   • My gradmother lost four pounds and has beautiful skin.
   • My grandfather participated in a poetry jam written in Tagalog.
   • My grandmother, despite her arthritis and knee surgery, performed an Indian traditional wedding dance.
   • My grandmother does custom beading for her party clothes.  
   • I’m pretty sure my grandparents go to parties more often than me.

To paraphrase some kind words by Froosh during one of my last days at CM, “There are some developers that are showy but can’t code for crap, and there are some developers that just know their stuff.  I would guess you’re the latter.”

This video might be a visual representation of that same idea.