Thursday, June 19, 2014

You really should read the link first. I promise. Especially if your name is Travis or Tyler. Or Todd, I guess.

Good thing a picture's worth 1000 words, cause I ain't writing shit tonight.

Somewhere around September 20, 2013, I posted a Friday Extra.  Please go back and read it.  Because this post is about the same person.  Doing the same thing.  But this time, it's personal.

Ok so in case you don't go back and read it, I'm going to rewrite the parts from the last one that are similar enough to this one to let you know that we are all just reading a script.  By the way, this story happened Monday 6-16-2014.  So yes.  Same circumstances, different day.

I got into work at around 7 o'clock Monday because I was itching to find the reason that a certain piece of code was seg-faulting.  At around 7:30, I'm close.  I am zeroing in on the exact scenario that causes the service to eat shit.

By the way, this is not my code.  I've written plenty of code that crashes, but nothing this horrible.  The good thing is that code this bad is easy to improve.  The bad thing is, when you find and fix a bug, you often cause all of the crap after it that was hacked together to make the past mistakes run "properly" take a huge dump.

What happened here is "moron who shall not be named" who is also thankfully no longer with the company, was using a bunch of "C" functions to manipulate "C++" stl stuff.  Not necessarily wrong, but stupid and asking for trouble.

Just as I was homing (honing?) in on the suspect code, a voice jabs its way through my concentration.

I'm madly moving my mouse around, punching out commands and shifting my eyes from one to the other monitor as I see the culprit.  Then Don says, "This kid I know, he rides bikes."

I don't know what it was.  Maybe it was the subject.  Maybe I was curious where this was going since it was not about pirates or donuts.

I was still thinking I could maybe crack the case before Don and I had our little chat, but I knew it was foolishness.  I was actually in a good mood because I knew that I was going to find that stupid bug in a few minutes even if I was interrupted by the always pleasant and conversational Don.

"Yeah,"  Don continued as I shifted my gaze to him.  I was not expecting anything interesting, but he said, "I guess he did a mountain bike race on Saturday or something."

That's interesting.

"Yeah, he must have crashed because he posted a bunch of photos of his back being all scratched up.  His name's Loewens.  Tyler Loewens."

"Travis," I said.  "Tyler was at BRAN".

"He rode a cross bike and ended up 3rd in the race in his class,"  I continued.

"So you know him?"

"uh"

"Anyway," Don continued, "It's funny because Tyler used to be kind of heavy.  He likes his beer.  But since he's taken up cycling he's lost a bunch of weight."

"Travis,"  I corrected.

"Ok see you later, Steve," Don said.

Then Don walked away to burn some popcorn.*

*If you ever see me post a status update on FB about burnt popcorn in the office, it's probably Don who did it.  Don says he doesn't burn popcorn, but I think he eats popcorn every day, so I'm blaming him.  He usually burns it when I'm just about to solve some programming puzzle.

8 comments:

Travis said...

lol

Is Don this guy's real name? His last name wouldn't start with an L would it? I hope not, cause that Don should know me well enough to not confuse me with Tyler!

We get confused a lot. Even people who have met Tyler will still call me Tyler for some reason. It probably didn't help that Tyler was the one who posted my podium picture on his FB wall.

Coincidentally, I go to church with a guy who used to be into the cycling scene around here. I know who he is and we've exchanged brief Facebook messages but we've never actually had a face to face conversation. Apparently he was looking for me last Sunday but was asking for Tyler, at least I'm assuming he was looking for me cause Tyler hasn't gone to this church in years. Of course, I never did talk to him. Wrangling three little ones after church requires some focus!

I really do like my beer. :)

Flintstone R Cube said...

Yes - Uncle Don's Last name starts with an L.Understand that it was clear he knows you well and told me quite a bit of general history going back years. But the Tyler/Travis thing was really tripping him up and confusing me. The talk like a pirate thing is absolutely true, too. And the popcorn thing. So yeah.

Travis said...

Oh man! I know exactly who Don is, and yes, he knows me relatively well. His daughter is married to my best friend from high school and they've been together since high school so...

He knows me well enough to not get me and Tyler confused... but I also know him well enough to know that he would totally get me and Tyler confused even though he's known me for over 15 years.

What a small world!

Flintstone R Cube said...

Yeah it's just the name. He told me you and his son-in-law were besties or something. They're in Colorado, is it? So yeah.

Travis said...

Yup. Denver.

Oh Don. He's a nice guy, but quite an odd duck! I can totally see him not getting the hint when you're not in the mood to chit chat. His social skills are a bit lacking.

If you really want to mess with him, get him in a room with a cat. It's pretty funny from what I hear. lol

brady said...

This is a good thread. You're at your best when you have nothing to share, Steve.

I certainly don't know Travis/Tyler well enough yet to not keep them unmixed up from time to time, too. Wait, I'm confused. And please keep Todd out of this. I'll be worthless if there's yet another Loewens to keep track of.

At any rate, I'd like to be there when that Dan fellow is in a room with the cat. Barry would like to be there, too.

Tyler Loewens said...

So your saying I'm fat? Nice.

:)

Travis said...

^ *you're*

If we're going to get mixed up, at least use the proper form of you're so I don't get accused of improperly using it! :)