I Suck At Enjoying Friday

for most people, friday is a cause for celebration because the day is the last workday before the weekend. normally, i am one of those people.

today, however, i suck at enjoying friday. of course, i may be somewhat biased today because i had to work extra late today, only to have to immediately book it to my part-time job at the south shore ymca, which then doesn't get me home until well past nine o'clock to have dinner. so it's only natural that i am a little perturbed today.

i have been working on a social networking application project for months now. this project has been dreadful from the beginning as the specification document used to build the application has been non-existent. this lack of specifications unfortunately increases the chance of what is called "scope creep" where things just keep getting added or tweaked to the original proposal.

according to my friend wikipedia:

"Scope creep (also called requirement creep, feature creep, and sometimes kitchen sink syndrome) in project management refers to uncontrolled changes in a project's scope. This phenomenon can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered a negative occurrence that is to be avoided."

regardless, the project was temporarily put on hold for a while while the stakeholders thought more about the application as a viable product. naturally, the social networking project was greenlighted. the only problem was... i was given a couple of weeks to build an application based on... well... whatever i could pull out of my butt.

it's a good thing baby got back. after numerous days of long hours where i was just downright grumpy, i finished building the application today. unfortunately, the project then had to be in "alpha" by the end of today. "alpha" refers to the state of development. for this project, "alpha" involves only allowing people within the company to tinker with the application in a live environment.

as any developer knows, pushing code on friday is never a good idea (because of the possibility that things can go wrong during the weekend). unfortunately, i had no choice. so, i had the envious duty of staying late today to not only push the code to alpha, but also to test it. and again, as any developer knows... testing your own code is also not a good idea (because the developer knows how the code works and not necessarily the normal user work flow). needless to say, this was not fun. it's also not fun to then be late for the part-time job afterwards and work on an empty stomach until 9.

but i suppose there are some good things that came out of today. for starters, today was the last day that my friend (kelley) will be working at her dreaded job. she got a new job in cambridge. congratulations kelley! so unfortunately, she will not be around for lunches anymore with me. oh well; the train ride home was nice and empty so i got to have a seat. of course, the subway train after the normal rush hour probably is empty more often than naught; and lastly, the stupid social networking project is finished (although not completely because it then has to move to the "beta" stage and there will inevitably be things to change or add then). so hopefully i won't have to work long hours for awhile.

i feel like drinking a lot of booze right now...