• listened to Accidental Empires : How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date by Robert X. Cringely (1996)


• read Software Designer by Alice B. McGinty (2000) -- written for high schoolers picking a career; good for a laugh when you're already in the industry.
  
  Personality traits for software designers:
  
  
  
  • Logical thinking -- organizing your thoughts so that one thought leads straight to the next. (Be linear like your computer :-)
  
  
  • Paying attention to details
  
  
  • Complexity and patience -- react calmly to setbacks and difficult problems; deal with complexity and complications.
  
  
  • Writing skills -- for documentation (and persuasion)
  
  
  • Listening -- to get a complete picture of clients' needs
  
  
  • Teamwork (and compromise)
  
  
  • Lifelong learning -- being a student forever; love of learning
  
  
  • Combining areas of expertise
  
  


• read Web Sites That Work by Roger Black (1997) -- outdated, self-contradictory, print is NOT the Web. Redeeming item: a very early screenshot of Amazon.com on page 126.

• listened to The Professor and The Madman by Simon Winchester
  
  "The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder."
  


• watched The Tailor of Panama (2001) -- not as good as expected


• watched Tumbleweeds (1999)

• listened to Evolution : The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer -- interesting in a forensic science kind of way. Barnacles, eyesight, and asexual reproduction.


• watched Toy Soldiers (1991) -- an excellent and overlooked film

• listened to Rascal by Sterling North -- a boy and his racoon, Where the Red Fern Grows with less heartbreak

• listened to The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck -- The Giving Tree set in Pre-Revolutionary China, unsatisfying ending must be trilogy teaser

• listened to The Dead and Other Stories by James Joyce -- hard to follow

• listened to An Hour Before Daylight : Memories of My Rural Boyhood by Jimmy Carter -- colorful family history, warm and nostalgic, wonderful!

• watched Dead Man Walking (1995)

• rewatched The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)


• watched Sex and the City Season 1 : Episodes 5 and 6 -- I don't get these women. What's all the fuss about? Why is this show popular?
  

• listeded to Talking from 9 to 5 : How Women's and Men's Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work by Deborah Tannen, author of:
  
  
  
  • You Just Don't Understand : Women and Men in Conversation
  
  
  • That's Not What I Meant!
  
  
  • Different Games, Different Rules : Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other
  
  
  • The Argument Culture : Moving from Debate to Dialogue
  
  
  • I Only Say This Because I Love You : Talking to Your Parents, Partner, Sibs, and Kids When You're All Adults
  
  


• watched October Sky (1999)

• watched Anna Karenina (1948) -- didn't see the end, fell asleep

• watched An American Rhapsody (2001)

• rewatched Adam's Rib (1949)

• relistened to Little Shop of Horrors : Original Cast Album (1982 Off-Broadway Cast) and (1986 Film) Soundtrack

• listened to Natural Blonde : A Memoir by Liz Smith


• rewatched Flashdance (1983)

• listened to King Lear presented by BBC Radio and performed by the Renaissance Theatre Company


• rewatched Weird Science (1985)


• * Microsoft interview

• listened to Wear Clean Underwear : Business Wisdom From Mom by Rhonda Abrams

• listened to Ask Me Again Tomorrow : A Life in Progress by Olympia Dukakis


• rewatched Nine to Five (1980)

• listened to How to Handle Conflict & Manage Anger by Denis Waitley


• listened to Once upon a More Enlightened Time : More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner


• listened to Selling the Invisible : A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith


• watched Rough Magic (1995)

• watched Skinwalkers (2002)

• listened to Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up by Dave Barry


• rewatched The Blue Lagoon (1980)

• watched Shadows and Fog (1992)


• watched The Great Santini (1979)

• listened to Moo by Jane Smiley -- not hilarious, hard to follow, wouldn't listen to again


• watched Shampoo (1975) -- why is this a classic? funny?

• listened to Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip Capitalism : Lead With Your Values and Make Money Too by Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield -- values-lead business


• listened to Dave's Way : A New Approach to Old-Fashioned Success by R. David Thomas


• rewatched Christine (1983)
  
  
  
  • Christine at 20 - the Famous Fury
  
  
  • If you were a car, what kind would you be? Christine!
  
  

• listened to The Arcanum : The Extraordinary True Story by Janet Gleeson -- alchemist discovers formula for porcelain; everyone name Johann


• watched The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (1984) -- nature documentary, narrative, romance