Even the Tooth Fairy Is Too Busy

WARNING: This blog entry was imported from my old blog on blogs.sun.com (which used different blogging software), so formatting and links may not be correct.

My daughter was pretty disappointed this morning. She lost her front
tooth, and put it in a glass by her bed last night. And this morning,
the tooth fairy had apparently not stopped by - or perhaps she did,
but after taking a look at the tooth decided she didn't want to trade.

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. On the home front,
all three of my kids have been sick, which with all the implied sleepless
nights has really taken its toll on me. But we've had fun too - on Sunday
my youngest son took an unintentional swim in the

Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco. Luckily there was a clothing
store nearby so he didn't have to take the train home in soaking wet
cloathes!

The main reason I've been busy however is work. Those of you using
Creator today will be very happy to see the fruits of our labor in
the next version.

This is my favorite part of the development process. Yes, you have more
freedom in earlier stages too take all kinds of input and plan to
do everyhing. Yes. Yes. Yes.
And a pony too? Sure, no problem.

However, my favorite part is later in the cycle.
All the major systems are getting done, they're getting integrated,
they're working, and it's really exciting to see hard work paying
off. And especially to actually start playing with what will be the
end product.

My favorite quote from the Creator team is "It's all uphill from here!".
I only vaguely remember the context, but I know it was
Joe who said it, so perhaps
he can blog about it. Anyway, the beauty of the quote was that it
was said eloquently and in context such that it meant exactly the opposite
of what it sounds like. But I think it's that inflection point in
development I like best - acceleration. Or maybe even the Big Bang
metaphor. We've had a couple of big bangs lately, with different
people integrating big changes simultaneously, and seeing it all work together is
inspiring.

I'm working from my garage office, but I have
a baby monitor
so I can hear the kids in the house. And they sound asleep. I'd better go
play the Tooth Fairy. I told my daughter this morning the fairy is
probably busy and can't stop by every house every night. But I'd better
take care of it tonight. After all, if she's not writing software, how busy could she be?