From the Mind of Trevor Stone

There's all kinds of stuff I've wanted to write about in the last year, but man has the will to write been lacking.

There's a bunch of news in the last year that's been a good hook for a letter to the editor, but I never muster the will to poke around for the coverage in a local paper and then write up a response. (I managed to get enough focus this month to collaborate on an LTE about the passing of George Shultz, Republican elder statesman and climate advocate, but we submitted it nearly two weeks after his passing and the paper probably thought it was old news by then.) Last fall I had several ideas about framing carbon fee & dividends for a conservative audience, and had several days that I intended to write something, but have nothing to show for the plans other than my comment contributions to what some other folks wrote.

At the beginning of the year I was planning to be an active voice for bipartisan climate solutions in the new Congress, but then Donald Trump dispatched a mob to defile one of our country's sacred places. Bipartisanship became a challenging hook, and I was too engrossed in the "WTF just happened" details that unfolded on the Internet over the next few weeks. I was sucked in to watching all the videos posted to Parler around the Capitol on January 6th. It was a fascinating slice of history captured by people who probably didn't know just how big a historic moment they were filming. I spent several evenings and weekend days watching them in chronological order, and had thoughts of writing a blog post about what I'd observed, but then I ran out of steam between 3:15 and 3:30 of the day.

Last summer I had a couple design documents I'd said I would write at work and could barely get a couple paragraphs written. I also have several "Update the documentation with new information" bugs assigned to me that I frequently think about but never address. I was able to write a couple good design documents about things I had clear plans on how to build, but I've been nowhere near as prolific in work writing as I was in the 2011 to 2015 time frame.

I've also been pretty lousy at email correspondence during the pandemic (and for the last several years, to be frank), and social video conferences usually feel like a chore.

Oddly enough, despite all this writer's block, I've been significantly more productive at writing code in the last year than I was the previous four. Writing a five paragraph article takes all the energy in the world, but I can knock out code for hours on end with no problem. Writing English as a hobby is a no-go, but I somehow have the focus and clarity to switch from my work chair to my living room chair and still write code for personal projects.

I am often most productive at work late on a Friday night, because no one is around to bother me. There's also something about Friday night which brings out the bouts of creativity in me. Witness the email I just sent to our development team, informing them that I had created a branch for version 1.7.1, which I will install next week in Washington County, Utah.

And the Lord saw that the first Utah install cometh, and the Lord spake saying "Let there be a branch." And there was. And it was called Release_1_7_1. And it was good. And the Lord sayeth "Be unlike fruit and do not attract bugs." And yea, the developers came unto the branch and said "Lo! Bugs crawl on this branch!" And the Lord sayeth unto the developers "Go you and be like woodpeckers. For idle fingers are gamers' tools, and I have made much work for you." And the developers slew many bugs. And the Lord saw that their work was good, and after two months the Lord created another branch, and it was called Release_1_7_2. And it was better.

And the analysts came unto the branch and said "Lo! Though this branch still grows, we shall share its glory!" And on the eleventh the users of St. George saw an eagle flying with a branch clasped in its talons. And the people received the branch and it was good.

In the beginning was the Character, and the Character was with the program, and the Character was the program. All things were programmed by them, and without them was not any thing programmed that was programmed. In them was code, and the code was the job of users. And the Character displayeth on the screen; and the users comprehended it not.

There was sent a language from Sun, whose name was Java. The same came for a tool, to implement the GUI, that all users through it might understand. It was not the GUI, but was sent to build the GUI. That was the true GUI, which illuminated every user that cometh unto the computer. It was on the screen, and the screen was made by it, and the screen knew it not. It came unto its own legacy products, and its own legacy products received it not. But as many received it, to them it gave power to become the users of software, even to them that believe in its code: which was born, not of blood, nor of the ink of the pen, nor of the sweat of man, but of Eclipse.

And the Character was made GUI, and dwelt among St. George, and they beheld its glory, the glory as of only begotten of Tyler, full of features and data.