Jim Grisanzio
Building Free & Open Source Software Communities
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Category: Whatever
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It’s just politics, eh? No. It’s not. It’s war. And it’s a fight to the death. As soon as you hear the “just” quip in any conversation you can safely stop listening to everything thereafter. Everything I know about politics I learned when I was in my 20s working in the excavating and real estate development industry…
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Hey, it’s Jim. So this is an image of me up in Long Lake, Maine, probably 17, 18 or so. So this is probably 1982, 83, 81, somewhere around there. I had so many great memories from that period of my life — only in the summertime! The rest of the year sucked But the…
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I have a lot of experience in getting rejected. I’m actually pretty good at it. A lot of practice. So, a lot of times people will say, oh man, you missed this. Yeah, you made a mistake. You should have done this. You should have done that. Oh man, that’s why you got rejected in…
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Actions work. They resonate. They attract. They move. They generate other actions. And they do these things far more effectively than words. People talk a lot about communications. But what most people mean by “communications” is just talking. We have to communicate more, right? Meetings, emails, chats, Zooms, reports, and decisions. More words, basically. But…
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Decisions take time. Getting close. Can tell because options are dwindling rapidly and naturally now. Soon.
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I updated my Facebook — by deleting everything and locking the account! I used to have a pretty big FB account when I worked on the OpenSolaris project at Sun Microsystems years ago. And the application was mildly useful back then since I had many thousands of connections for work. It wasn’t my main communications…
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It’s a mark of profound respect when people in your circle casually ask for your opinion and then actually provide some space and listen to your response. We all know when others are paying attention to us, whether we’re live in person, via audio, or on video. It’s obvious. Their body language, tone, and word…
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Hope they aren’t talking to each other! But give these kids some credit — they are polite enough to line up nicely tucked to one side to give people room to navigate the stairs. Moments earlier the scene was filled with people but they didn’t budge or miss a swipe. Their concentration is perfect. Never…
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The girls drive the trains in Japan, too, you know! They’re also up front running the jet quick Shinkansen bullet trains, not just the little locals like here in this quick clip below. But wait. I thought the men ruled Japan! I thought the men kept women down. I thought the men kept women working…
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Remember The Great Migration to Mastodon in 2023? That was when various groups on Twitter got pissed about Musk and loudly migrated to Mastodon and other social networks. During that migration some people would occasionally “check back in on Twitter” to remind us that they were leaving. Very few people actually left entirely, though, and…
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I remember working this site. It was a 100 home subdivision. We had two machines — my Cat 953 track loader below and a Cat D6 dozer. The D6 did most of the deep digs and road grades (stuff I really couldn’t do with my machine) and I cleared and loaded trees and dug shallow…
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Hardware and hydraulics only, baby. No software. No bugs. No updates. No screens. Just diesel power and steel. The tools of developers. More excavating here.
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I always worked late. Leaving the site when it was already dark made for a very long night of cleanup, calls, accounting, scheduling, and prep for the next day. Then I was back up running before dawn. That was all normal. More excavating here.
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Finishing a backfill in the rain. Had to be careful because the loam is soaked and heavy and can break the foundation if the concrete is still green. Sometimes we’d brace the walls. That was a 120 home subdivision. More excavating here.
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On the other side it’s straight down 30 feet, 15 feet below grade into gorgeous ivory white beach sand. Shocked we didn’t hit water. One day I dug a sump like this and we hit water (survey error). Then oil came up! That’s bad. Probably leaking gas tanks from storage. More excavating here.
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I would often eat lunch sitting in the bucket. It gave me a sense of the utter violence that took place in that space. Same with sitting on the tracks. Not the most comfortable places around but real nevertheless. I never ate in the cab. That was for work. More excavating here.
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I dumped the hinge ramps that made this move easy. They were too heavy to lift at the end of every day. But 15 tons hanging off that tail of the trailer got unnerving as the machine rocked into place. Slow! The tail didn’t break but I reinforced it with massive steel underneath. More excavating…
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It’s always best to push your own agenda. I had a boss one time who told me that, and I think of that conversation all the time. I’ve also noticed that successful people have the concept fully embedded into their awareness. Otherwise you just get pushed around by aggressive people or psychopaths who will happily…
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I had a dream recently about two guys I met in real life years ago out on a construction site like the one below. I think of those guys from time to time even now. And, occasionally, a dream bubbles up to just enhance my memory. Here’s how it all went down that day. I…
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It matters a lot who you hang out with. That’s totally your decision, too. Look around. Are your relationships working? Are you benefiting from your business or personal networks? Are your connections open to your views and your participation? I’m looking into a mirror in the image below as a metaphor while I do some…