Last but one weekend in Witten?

What exactly happened this weekend? My calendar is filled with markings. Seems that I started to read "Code Complete, 2nd edition" in order to create and update the training material. I need to check that the rules for the trainings are as generic but useful as possible. I'd like them to be as language-independent as possible as well. I imagine it will take couple of weeks to wade through the excellent book. The other source for my material will be "Pragmatic Programmer", which I find very matching to my philosophy of software development.

We got some logo drafts from Finland, which looked very nice, but which we had to reject after all. The visual concept isn't working. I sent my new concept idea to my web designer, Ville. Let's see how he reacts. I hope he takes it well.

I didn't get to doing the backup yet. I hope nothing breaks just now. Don't listen, Mr.Murphy.

After a long while, Yrjö and I played badminton. I have to say that on our normal level it should be called goodminton, but today we (at least I wasn't) were not on that level. I lost the first set 15-4 and led the second 11-0 until Yrjö made a comeback and finally won 19-17! The second set must have taken more than 20 minutes!

After planning next week, I ended up lecturing to Virpi. I told her exactly what I tell the trainees in my trainings. I drew a couple of charts and explained the ideas to get some feedback. The whole thing gave me more self-confidence, which I've honestly been lacking the last few days. When you don't have colleagues, you have no feedback, you can't bounce your ideas off others and hear what they think about it. It is difficult. I want to know that I'm moving in the right direction, I want to know that I'm doing it as fast as I can. For now I only know that things are happening and we are moving. But is it the right direction? This momentary lapse of self-confidence passed as I started reading "The 8th Habit" and I saw the diagram with three overlapping circles: Knowledge, Attitude and Skill. In the centre of the diagram, where all the circles overlapped, there was Habit. And that's the goal for my training. It teaches a Skill to those who Know they need to do something about software quality, and if they have the right kind of Attitude, they can perform the code inspection - they can tick the code - regularly and make it into a Habit, which produces the biggest return on investment by far.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as the moving day approaches and we only have one offer from a moving company. Well, that just makes deciding easier...