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La Sportiva Winter Running Grand Prize Winners; La Sportiva Crossover GTX Winter Running Shoe Review
Clearly, the main event today is the awarding of grand prizes from La Sportiva to one male and one female reader – but the opening act isn't too shabby either.
That's because we're leading off with a review of the Crossover GTX, which also happens to be one of the prizes (along with the Wildcat GTX and a hobnail kit) in the grand prize drawing. So I'm stealing a line from Survivor host Jeff Probst to ask, "Want to see what you're playing for?", and recommending that you take a look at the review – because even if you don't win a pair, the Crossover is a pretty compelling choice to put on your shopping list after the holidays have come and gone.
To be perfectly simple, the Crossover is essentially La Sportiva's award-winning Crosslite shoe with two augmentations: a Gore-Tex (usually abbreviated GTX) upper, and a breatheable integrated gaiter. As you'd expect, the additional features add a little bit of weight to the shoe – the Crossover GTX weighs in at 12.73 oz (361g) compared to 10.97 oz (311g) for the Crosslite – but you get a significant upgrade in foul-weather preparedness that makes it far easier to head for the trails even in the worst possible conditions.
I first reviewed the Crosslites a year and a half ago, and thankfully, La Sportiva had the good sense to leave a good thing alone, as that model has remained unchanged in the interim. I'll refer you to my Crosslite review if you want more details aside from the basics that follow below, or you can save yourself a click and just take my word for it that the Crosslite shoe simply rocks.
So how do you winterize an already rugged high-performance trail runner? You start with giving the upper a waterproof Gore-Tex lining to keep your feet extra warm and dry. Most of my testing for this shoe consisted of stomping through every puddle and mud pit I could find during our recent West Coast storm surge, and I found the Crossover to be extremely effective at keeping moisture away from my feet.
However, I consider GTX to be something of a double-edged sword in regards to comfort: there's nothing better when it comes to keeping moisture from rain, snow, slush, or wet mud away from your feet. (Also note that the GTX is waterPROOF, not merely water resistant – there's a big difference.) On the other hand, if you do a full immersion of the shoes at river crossings, thereby allowing water to enter the shoe from above, the GTX significantly slows your drying time by limiting moisture transfer away from the foot. Since I tend to do a lot of stream crossings at this time of year, my own preference is to have a shoe that lets water in but also dries quickly – then again, I'm not often running through icy slush that would make my toes freeze.
The next step for winterizing is to have a protective gaiter to provide extra warmth and keep out trail debris, and this feature is probably the biggest innovation on the Crossover GTX. The gaiter does NOT have a GTX lining, so this portion of the shoe is breathable, which I found very nice from a comfort standpoint. Its zipper is slightly asymmetrical towards the outside of the ankle, and opens wide enough that getting the shoe on and off isn't a problem.
One nice deviation that La Sportiva included here is that the shoelaces are entirely outside the scree guard – on the traditional Crosslite, most of the laces are under the guard, which makes it challenging to open the shoe extremely wide. Once you have them on, the gaiters close with a cinch closure and Velcro flap that remain very stable throughout the run – but in my case, I generally chose to leave them loose.
Over the course of several years as an ultrarunner, I've gone back and forth on the gaiter idea: I started without thinking much of them, then went through a period where I couldn't do without them, and now I'm back to being relatively indifferent. If you're a gaiter user, the great news is that the Crossover's version does a very nice job of keeping you insulated but also allowing ventilation as needed without overheating – and obviously, since it's integrated into the upper, you don't have to mess around with hooks, glue, or Velcro attachments anymore. If you're in the non-gaiter camp, the Crossover doesn't offer you any option to remove it. However, as a current non-gaiter guy, I can attest that with the cinch fastener fairly loose, the extra material on my ankles didn't noticeably impact my comfort or performance on muddy trail runs.
The integrated gaiter zips rather snugly over the upper, providing a very secure fit through the forefoot. La Sportiva is known for slightly narrow toeboxes, and it might be psychosomatic, but zipping the gaiter up seems to enhance the sensation of a tight forefoot fit – whether that's a plus or minus is up to you. The front of the upper also features a sturdy rubberized toe cap to protect your toes from getting stubbed on rocks or roots.
The remainder of the shoe is La Sportiva's bread and butter: the Crosslite dual-density midsole with a TrailShock molded shank and high-tensile RockGuard plate for protection from the sharpest and pointiest rocks you'll ever encounter. Beneath that is perhaps La Sportiva's best feature: a prominently lugged outsole made of their trademark FriXion AT sticky rubber and an impact braking system (precise angulation and directionality of the lugs) that claims to decrease impact forces by 20%. The outsole rubber maintains traction on slick rocks, and the shape and spacing of the lugs sheds mud quite easily in the course of normal running.
Midsole thicknesses are 26mm in the heel and 16mm in the toe, so the Crossover certainly isn't a minimalist shoe – rather, it's an aggressive neutral traditional trainer built to take on the harshest conditions you'll encounter for winter trail running. If you're facing a steady diet of snowy, slushy, icy trails this winter, you'll be hard pressed to find a better-equipped shoe than this one.
The La Sportiva Crossover retails for $150 with free shipping from Wilderness Running Company, where you'll get an additional 10% off by using coupon code R&R10. Or if you're one of two lucky winners below, La Sportiva will mail you a pair for free.
So who are the lucky recipients? It's time to announce the winners of La Sportiva's Winter Running Grand Prize giveaway, for whom Christmas has just arrived a few days early. After the announcement, I'll have links to buy any of these items separately, but for the time being let's get to it …
Women's winner: Chris Grove
Men's winner: Richard Ferron
To Chris and Richard: Congratulations! Send me an e-mail, which I'll forward along to La Sportiva so that you each receive one pair of Crossover GTX shoes, one pair of Wildcat GTX shoes, and one hobnail kit.
To everybody else: Thanks very much for participating in this contest, and especially for giving all of us such great inspiration with your crazy winter running photos. Here are links to the individual items that were featured in this giveaway:
La Sportiva Crossover: $150 with free shipping from Wilderness Running Company, and a 10% discount for using coupon code R&R10.
La Sportiva Crosslite: the high-performance shoe that the Crossover is built upon is also available for $90 with free shipping from WRC, with the same coupon code discount available.
La Sportiva Wildcat GTX: This shoe was something of a second banana in this giveaway, but it's a standout shoe in its own regard. See my review of the shoe here at FeedTheHabit.com, and purchase the shoe for $125 at TravelCountry.com.
La Sportiva hobnail kit: $45 from Wilderness Running Company, minus 10% with coupon code R&R10.
Finally, I owe an enormous thank you to La Sportiva for being such generous sponsors of this giveaway. If you're ever looking for a company that is doing all the right things to promote the sport of trail running, La Sportiva should be at the top of your list.
Happy Winter Running to everybody!
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"Okay, so what do we know about Saved by the Bell?""Well, Lisa LOVES motorcycles.""Sure, sure. It sounds good. But it needs more 'thumbs up'."
I think there's a misprint on the box. I believe it should read "Ages 65-Dead."
"Okay, son. I want you to put your hand in this box. Feel around for a bit. We're all winners tonight."
No snarky commentary here. Just a intense desire to play this game. Every day. For the rest of my life.
Nothing is more hip hop than not only acknowledging the use of slang, but actually using the word "slang."
Remember last year when BP spilled gazillions of gallons of oil in the gulf and then skirted responsibility? Haha. Oh, BP. You so cray cray! Remember when 30 years prior, they released a board game for children predicting that very disaster? Classic BP, right?
I've never been able to decipher what Twin Peaks was about. But I am wholly confident that children will be to grasp its nuances when playing it in board-game form.
Like Family Ties, no snark here. I just want this so badly. BUT I'm very confused with why this is a nerve-racking game of sudden death. The stakes didn't seem so high during Ladybugs.


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Forum Index »
Gear Swap »
FS golite shangri-la 2 in perfect shape
Only set up in my yard twice like new condition asking 135 shipped or trade for msr fling or similar 2 person free standing shelter
Edited by Dgrdon on 06/01/2013 16:06:55 MDT.
Hi Wayne,What color is your Golite, and do you know what year it is?Thanks, Rod.
Do you have the inner as well? BTW- Golite has this listed for $149 right now. Cheers
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6 Classic Recordings That Have No Business Existing (Part One)
Today, when every computer ships with GarageBand type software, sour notes can be sweetened with Auto Tune, and radio stations broadcast focus-grouped computerized playlists, there seems to be no room for the serendipity — – or sheer incompetence and confusion — that helped create some of the greatest records of all time.
For instance, the ultimate irony of the urban legend that "Louie, Louie" is a "dirty" song (there's a whole book about it) is that today you can just about make out what the FBI(!) couldn't back in 1963:
The Kingsmen drummer's frustrated "f-word" at around the 0:55 mark.


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Proctoring for Online Courses
TCC faculty use a variety of testing methods to assess student progress and achievement. In some online courses, faculty may require proctored examinations. A proctored exam is administered and supervised by a person (the proctor) in a controlled environment such as a testing center. TCC maintains a testing center on each of its four campuses where an online student may be required to go to complete specific exams or assignments. If you are unable to visit one of TCC's testing centers and your instructor requires proctored tests or assignments, contact your instructor to discuss alternative proctoring arrangements. Any costs associated with proctoring outside of TCC facilities are the responsibility of the student.
Remote proctoring provides an easy way to take proctored, on-demand, online exams using your own computer and webcam. Contact your instructor to see if remote proctoring is an option in your online class.


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Still photos and posters from the Lionsgate produced movie 3:10 to Yuma. Pictured below are director James Mangold and stars Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster, Dallas Roberts, Alan Tudyk, Vinessa Shaw, Logan Lerman, Luke Wilson .
We'll update this page with new stills from the James Mangold directed film 3:10 to Yuma as soon as they're available from the studio Lionsgate. Or use the "Film Info" tab to keep track of all the latest news on 3:10 to Yuma and look for it in theaters 2008-01-08.
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Art, Franco – your panel in Room 4 has just started! What's in store?
Art: "Aw Yeah Kids Panel!Find out whats been Rockin' the DC Kids Universe! The cool stuff! The New stuff! and the Secret Stuff!! AND, you get to ask us questions and hear the Famous Cartoonists of the DC Universe...TALK! Join Us for this awesome EVENT! It will enhance our comic book senses!!!!"
It's early afternoon in lovely San Diego and we're almost at the halfway point of the show, but don't let that fool you into thinking we're done making news. In fact, we've got two images to get your mind whirring as you head into Room 6A for the DC.
After the BLACKEST NIGHT comes the BRIGHTEST DAY for not only the GREEN LANTERN corner of things, but the entire DCU. You won't want to miss this all-encompassing GL panel, featuring Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, Joe Prado and Ivan Reis, led by Group Editor Eddie Berganza. What can fans sitting in Room 6A expect, GLC writer Tony Bedard?
San Diego puts the spotlight on the mastermind himself, Grant Morrison, as DCU Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler sits down with Grant to discuss his career in comics – from ANIMAL MAN to RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE -- and tease what's in store. This is a can't-miss panel for Morrison fans.
Get some clues and insight from WIDENING GYRE artist Walt Flanagan as he discusses working with writer Kevin Smith on the epic mini-series. Swing by room 4, as the panel will be starting shortly. You won't want to miss it.
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The acclaimed writer of SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN sits down with fans for a candid discussion about his upcoming work and his career in comics, movies and television.
But the fun doesn't stop there. How about an awesome piece of never-before-seen art? We've got a first look at a key page from this month's WONDER WOMAN #601, by artist Don Kramer.
Remember when we told you to sit tight for another BATMAN announcement?
Well, here it is.
As revealed on the BATMAN panel at San Diego Comic-Con, writer Grant Morrison will be helming a new, ongoing Batman series: BATMAN INC., featuring art by the ultra-talented Yanick Paquette.
Swing by room 6DE for this special spotlight on DC's Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, the mastermind behind the BLACKEST NIGHT, BRIGHTEST DAY and GREEN LANTERN and THE FLASH comic books. Prep your questions and tune in to see Group Editor Eddie Berganza interview one of comics' modern masters.
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It's not San Diego without a DC NATION panel, and we've got a doozy to kick things off. We checked in with DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio for the lowdown on what fans can expect:


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Resisting the holiday spending trap
Published on - December 17th, 2012 (by Sarah Gilbert)
Every year, I fail to really account for the cost of Christmas. "A few hundred dollars," I think, for gifts, and then by the first few days of December I've bought several pounds of butter, and lots of my favorite seasonal chocolate, and the big size of maple syrup because I'll be baking and pancake-making a lot this winter. And suddenly I've already spent a few hundred dollars, and not a gift among them.
And because my children are children, having grown up in a big extended family of good Christians who are totally O.K. with Santa, (and let me reiterate: a big family, with traditions including fat, stuffed stockings and gift-giving to aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, going to public school and occasionally coming across those toy ads in the circulars from department stores like the local Fred Meyer… ) well, they expect something. Like, a big something. They want their Christmas-morning minds blown.
I've done this to myself.
This year as in years past I have, utterly without thinking or planning, built up the anticipation against my financial best interests and my professed desire for less consumerism. "Well, maybe you might ask for that for Christmas," I'll tell my five-year-old when he asks for a toy in September, while we're shopping for a new lunch bag. "Why don't you look at this LEGO catalog and tell me what you want for Christmas," I'll tell my oldest when he's claiming boredom in October. "Christmas is coming and I want to save my money for that," I'll tell my middle child when he asks for yet another iTunes game around Thanksgiving.
And then the whole frenzy of Thanksgiving comes. I'm not much of a Black Friday shopper — ok, I have not seen the inside of a mall on Black Friday for as long as I can remember — but I do get caught up in the early holiday Pinterest-ing and the Instagram-ing and the Facebook-ing and the tweeting that starts about that time. Some of my knitting friends begin their annual holiday rush to knit gifts for everyone they know. My photographer friends are putting the final touches on calendars and coasters and everything else you can make with photos. There is a flurry of crafting and craft-desiring like none that will occur again until Valentine's Day.
I get caught up.
And then come the Christmas tree photos.
Let me stop here and say that I am an enormous fan of Christmas trees. I love the smell of a Douglas fir and I love the look of lights glimmering on a tree and I never want to turn them off for weeks and weeks. But to get a medium-sized tree even here in the middle of this Christmas tree land (I think my uncle even grows them on his farm 20 miles away) is $40, plus the inevitable hot chocolate and sugar cookie that must be purchased during the ritual getting-of-the-tree. Usually, I agonize over the cost and then find it in my budget somehow and commence Christmas thrill.
But this year I feel done. I bike around Portland looking at the lots full of trees, trees everywhere, trees in wagons and bicycles and on Subarus and Volvos and I think how ridiculous it is. (I may get over this soon.) All this growing and fertilizing and trucking trees around, all this buying and decorating and lighting and watering, all this sawing and taking down and composting — for what? Over a billion dollars spent just on trees every year!
One day one of my friends (a person I know in real life, even) said on Twitter that her tradition was to get a different angel ornament every year for her tree. I'm quite certain that my friend, who has excellent taste and is not known for excess, had no idea that her little statement would send me into a tailspin of guilt and frustration. But I didn't have any such tradition and I'd not even bought a baby's first Christmas ornament for each of my boys and I thought, "maybe I should start a new tradition like that!" and at almost the same time thought, "I don't wanna!"
I don't wanna
I waited a respectable amount of time. And I tweeted something about not having energy for the holiday spirit, about getting myself into a tizzy about what I hadn't done (no wreath-making party, what?) and then realizing I just wanted to write. Several people from a variety of internet circles chimed in, agreeing, commiserating. And then I kept seeing more and more expressions of exhaustion. One friend in the Midwest said she'd given over the reins of the holiday spirit to her husband. She felt conflicted about "raising little consumers." Another friend was writing a post for a major food web site on the topic — enough with the cookies already!
I realized I was done spending money on Christmas just to take pictures of my family following a cultural tradition that brought up so many feelings of guilt, insufficiency, and financial stress. I could do this my way, right? Right!
Now, how to convert the kids?
I bought my oldest son's big present for him around the first of December: a bike trailer, a very heavily-used one from a friend. I'd been meaning to get this for him anyway, because pulling his little brother around behind him is a big thrill. (For all of us!) And his pride and gratitude was a big inspiration for me. I came up with a several-pronged strategy that I hope will turn the holidays lower-key without making them feel cheated:
- Give the kids the power. Instead of handing down traditions from on high, I'm going to let them direct me as to which traditions they want to follow. "We could go Christmas shopping for each other at Fred Meyer with this money. Or go to the thrift store. Or go out to Little Big Burger. Or save it for gear for our next family camping trip."
- Make the kids do the work. We're going to go get a tree and Everett gets to pull it back in his trailer. I have an idea this is going to keep the tree pretty small — and cheap. (And if it doesn't, I'm sure the bragging rights will be well worth the extra money.) I'll let him do the setting up and decorating, too. This will hopefully keep me from that insane desire to buy new ornaments (so I too can start one of those traditions! Or go with an all-blue theme this year! Or…) and give them the chance to make ornaments if they like.
- Give gifts that are collaborative creative projects. We're making calendars out of my photos and the kids' art to give to grandparents and cousins. And my big gift to the boys will be wool traveling cloaks straight out of Harry Potter (also practical; they'll be very warm while riding bikes). I'll let them pick the fabric and help me design them, letting me engage all my creative energies with a minimum of time spent shopping.
- Only bake together. Those December issues of food magazines are like cocaine for me. (And I don't need new ones; I have over a decade's worth of Gourmet and Saveur and Martha Stewart Living.) I have three separate cookie cookbooks and I barely eat sugar any more! I will declare baking days and only make cookies if they're helping the whole way along. And, sorry, no new cookie cutters!
- Cleaning before buying. Want a tree? We have to clean the living room first. Asking for new toys for Christmas? I'd better see room for said toys in your bedroom. It's kind of working! I'll take "kind of" right now.
- Everything used. I'm not buying any new toys this year. You know what they say about cars, that they lose value when you drive them off the lot? Same with toys. Open the package, zap, 50% of the value (if not more). But my kids don't give a darn, as long as most of the parts are there. I'll go thrift-store shopping for LEGOs and buy a couple of new-to-them Wii games at the CD and game exchange, and some used books at Powell's.
The hardest part of all for me is to hold myself back from the desire to look like everyone else does (but with my own creative twist!). The holidays can be such a way to express the highest version of your cultural self. But really, my cultural self is a writer and a mother. I'll try to remember that, and to resist the urge to see what everyone else is doing on Instagram, and think, "Oh, I can do that too!"
This article is about Consumerism, Frugality, Giving, Kids, Shopping
I've tried to explain this concept to my mother several times. We live in a small house (not a lot of room!) but my mother insists on loading my two young children up with presents every year. So much so that the other gifts are over shadowed and Christmas morning turns into a mess of crying and feeling overwhelmed (my kids are 6 and 4). It's stresses my husband and I out as well. We get the kids one big present and a couple of small gifts, some handmade. I'm not sure how to get the point across to my mom, she seems to have no concept of the idea of quality over quantity
To offer a perspective from the other side (I over-gift to my nephews every Christmas); I give assuming that the parents have some sort of policy in place as to how many the boys are allowed to actually keep and assume the others are donated.
I very much enjoy shopping for them throughout the entire year (and I discuss what sort of gift I'm getting with mom beforehand; it's always educational and I refuse to buy things that take batteries and make noise), but I certainly don't expect them to keep everything. Even if they tried to keep everything, kids' tastes change so rapidly that the boys no longer like the more popular items after a few months anyways.
Its my view that I get the fun of spoiling and it's the parents job to regulate.
I think you're looking too much at the stress and the bad side. I love Christmas, but yes it can get expensive. I just put money aside every pay check for it and have a nice chunk to spend during the holidays. The gifts I keep pretty well in budget, although I definately spend more on food with holiday parties, desserts etc…
As much as I love a real tree, a fake one can solve your money problems. I was thinking about getting a real one this year until my brother told me he has a fake one I can have for free! So now I have a lovely tree with a couple ornaments I bought last year, some mesh (which is a cheap way to fill up the tree, btw!) and some lights. And yes, I posted it on facebook.
I need new lights and ornaments but I'm waiting until after the holiday to take advantage of large discounts. I'm hoping to score big on new lights for the house. If you are going to buy an expensive tree, consider buying from BoyScout Troop around town, they use the money to go on camping trips and buy supplies…much better to invest in your community this way.
Wow – Keeping Up With the Joneses: Christmas Edition!
I never thought about that, probably because my family just did their own thing, thank goodness! But, of course, there was still stress, mostly around baking. When I was very small we had three types of Christmas cookies, cream puffs, and red & green popcorn balls. Then the popcorn balls lost the food coloring. Next, the popcorn balls disappeared. A few years later, so did the Russian tea cookies that no one really liked that much (very dry).
Then, at some point, cheesecake squares were introduced. So now the dessert line up was two types of cookies, cheesecake squares, and cream puffs. We are now down to two cookies if there's time, but at least one type of cookie, and cream puffs. We.Must.Have.The.Puffs!! And the cookies!! The cookies are my responsibility now. I imagine Mom was so excited nearly 20 years ago when she realized that I could bake the cookies Looking back now, I'm amused at how one-by-one, certain desserts fell off the line-up….
The only other Christmas stress I have is wrapping presents and Christmas cards. Each year I intend to start the cards sooner, but I never do. But this is the first year I'm feeling calm about the presents – I made up a list and stuck to it! I haven't totaled the amount, but it's probably the same as or less than last year. My problem is like I giving presents, so it was hard to make myself STOP.
Btw, Mom reduced some Christmas stress by telling Santa that he didn't need to wrap the presents he brought us. One section of Santa's presentation were my presents, and the other section were my brother's. I'm sure Santa and his elves appreciated being able to just leave the presents in the family room without having to wrap them ahead of time. It's really nice that Mom was so considerate of Santa's time
Oh, and another stress reducer was we had a fake tree. I know tradionalists will be HORRIFIED!!! And, there is a large upfront cost to buying one, but once you've got a decent fake tree, no more going out to buy the tree and hauling it home. Instead, about two weeks before Christmas we'd spend a Saturday putting up the tree. My brother and I would decorate it (after Dad had put on the lights and garland) while Mom put up the other decorations around the house, like candles in the windows.
Now Mom has a smaller, pre-lit tree, so she needs fewer ornaments. She still puts light on it since there aren't enough lights on it already – she likes lots of lights
A few years ago I donated my fake tree to the church fair because I hadn't put it up in years. When I dropped off the tree I saw that I wasn't the only one! So, if you're looking for an inexpensive fake tree try checking out church yard sales before Christmas. And, if you're willing to risk a treeless Christmas, you can wait until they go on clearance at those Christmas stores right before the holiday. That's how I originally got my tree.
Ah, Christmas!
I try to focus on time with friends and family. Sometimes this focus is easier to maintain than others!
It can be easier to adjust gift expectations is in spring or summer in my experience – we've dialed it down on my spouse's side of the family but it's a slow process (we already dialed down on my side – family history of clutter/hoarding, enough said).
I admit to "borrowing" Christmas decoration wonderlands and leaving the at-home decorations simpler. I go look at other people's Christmas lights and stroll through decorated business districts and enjoy (and help with) the decorations and Christmas activities at church but try to keep it simple(r) at home.
We have a *lot* of junipers at our house so I trim (some of) them after Thanksgiving and decorate with the boughs, setting our ornaments on top of the greens. All the aroma & color and no tree – also no pets or small children, which makes this table/bookcase/planter-top approach do-able. The ball-type ornaments I put in clear glass bowls or chimneys for display. The lights are outside (one giant home-made star on a timer).
As a kid sometimes we had a store-bought tree and sometimes one from our yard. Putting the tree on the coffee table meant we didn't need as tall ($) of a tree The yard trees weren't perfect but they were ours
Best of luck adapting to an overflow of incoming gifts. I can see where many effective coping behaviors (donating some of the excess, having only a few toys on active rotation, etc) could make the givers upset and so make the dynamic worse not better… Not that a giver "should" be upset, or that a gift "truly" given belongs to the giver in any way, but those are ideals & not necessarily embedded in every person's nature!
A couple of weeks ago I had to wait an hour for a doctor's apppointment as she was running behind. I went for a walk outside her office. Next door, was a Christmas tree lot. Something drew me in… perhaps it was the music playing. Night had fallen. I wandered around the lot, listening to the Christmas music playing, enjoying seeing families pick out a tree, and smelling the gorgeous pine smells. Then I noticed there were a LOT of branches lying on the ground here and there. I asked a staff member if they minded if I picked some up and they smiled and said "no, you would be doing us a favour!". I happily gathered a big armful, luckily found a plastic bag and carried them off as I returned to my appointment. Later at home, I cut them down placed them in a big glass jar of water, added a few ornaments, and put them on the dining room table. Aaaah….the next day my tiny place smelled of Christmas. When I think of this little adventure, I smile…it was such a lovely experience that happened out of nowhere, and really brought Christmas home to me this year- and I didn't spend a cent!
I agree generally with the 'if you don't enjoy something don't do it'. If you don't like wrapping, skip it and use bags or target sacks like my brother does. If you don't enjoy doing a live tree, use a fake one or a tiny one or don't do one at all. I didn't do a tree for years. Last year I kind of missed it and bought a tiny one and this year my brother gave me a free fake one and it looks great with mesh (which is a really cheap way to fill out a tree), lights and just a handful of ornaments.
As for spending, I put money aside every pay period so when Christmas comes I have a several hundred dollar budget to start with. It doesn't completely cover all the extra baking/holiday food purchases, but it covers most of the gifts and it definately alleviates some of the stress. If it's not enough money, you can up the amount you put aside yearly by just a little so it doesn't hurt.
Most people who put stuff on instagram/facebook/whatever do it because they enjoy it or they're proud of what they've done and they want others to enjoy it too. Don't take it as a competition.
We have a fake pre-lit tree, which I have since learned are TERRIBLE for the environment. I would love a real tree!
Really? Why? And are they worse than chopping down a tree? Although a smart Christmas tree farmer will make sure his or her crop is sustainable for the long-term future of the business.
Honey, I'm not so sure that's true, unless the fake tree gets tossed/replaced too frequently. http://www.christmastreeassociation.org/Article%20Pages/environmental-carbon-footprint-study-on-christmas-trees
I've heard the same thing about fake trees, but I never know if stuff like that is put out by Christmas tree farmers. One of our traditions is cutting down our tree so we're not going artificial without a fight, but I thought you could still get a $20 real tree from Home Depot?
I've heard the same thing about fake trees – but as other posters have said, it's not like we're throwing them out every year. Real trees were impossible for my family because of bad allergies but my parents' first artificial tree lasted them 20+ years and they donated it when they decided to replace it. I have since learned the only truly environmentally-friendly thing to do is buy an organic/pesticide-free potted tree from a grower who uses sustainable farming practices — and then plant it in your backyard after the season is over. Is that even possible for most of us?
What bothers me the more about the holidays is all the wasted packaging, wrapping and food. IMHO, I think that collectively has a bigger impact on our environment than what trees we're buying and we can all do something about it.
However one chooses to celebrate & acknowledge the holidays, I think the key is to think way ahead. Get out a notebook or a calendar to think about what you *can* do and what you *want* to do. Note all your special days (baking, shared meals, activities, parties) and see if it's even doable without introducing stress.
In my line of work, the end of December and most of January is our busiest time of year (I don't work in retail, but for a large company where Year End activities are enormous). Last year we were treated to a self-inflicted system issue that couldn't be corrected until February, so our manual fixes increased our already crazy work load twofold. It was not a fun experience to not even have time to do the things I *do* enjoy about the holidays. I planned much further ahead this year.
As my kids got older, the cost of the wishlists goes up, but so does the ability to communicate expectations. One of the things I began, was to give myself the "gift" of taking our family out to a nice dinner and then a movie (of my choosing). Everyone knows this is "Mom's choice" night, and I've managed to take them to movies that they wouldn't ever pick on their own (Pride and Prejudice, Slumdog Millionaire). It's a tradition that can continue after they are out on their own. It's not cheap, but it's something we all enjoy.
I also think that picking a needy child off an "angel tree" or "adopting a family" can be helpful to keep perspective. If cost is an issue, a day at the Food Bank (or even bringing your smaller kids to the Food Bank with contributions) is an idea.
I ditched Facebook in Feb of 2012 and don't do Pinterest and even though I use twitter, it's not really for social connections, but rather news. I'm blissfully ignorant of anyone's holiday perfection!
This year, one of my friends proposed to her kids that they could either have the regular bunch of presents or they could swim with the dolphins when they go on vacation next year. The kids chose the dolphins. She was proud of them and I was proud of her–teaching children so early that life experiences are more valuable than more "stuff" is amazing. (Though personally I'm highly against capturing and penning dolphins under any circumstance.)
I love the idea of cleaning before buying! I'm going to steal that one for sure.
The baking is expensive. I've found one of the best ways to cut down on the cookie expenses is to use very small Christmas tins, which I buy whenever I see them at the dollar store or at Odd Lots – they usually run 2 for a dollar after Christmas. If I bake cookies for 10 to 12 people, I can usually get away with only two batches.
I'm fortunate that we don't really have too many extended family traditions. With my husband's side, the kids under 12 do a Pollyanna with a $15 limit. Not so bad. Then we do a voluntary Yankee Swap with everyone else – usually about 30 or so people participate each year. The Yankee Swap is great because it can be something you bought or something you made, something used, or something you found under your bed that you're regifting or you can pass entirely.
Our hidden Christmas expense is the family gathering for dessert on Christmas night with my husband's side. It's always at our house – my husband is one of 10, mostly still local, so it's always crowded. It's where we do our Yankee Swap and Pollyanna. People are supposed to bring desserts, but they don't always and so I feel obligated to have a lot of food ready to feed the army. And then we serve up turkey and bacon sandwiches late in the evening. People have come to expect them. I can't imagine not having our family gathering each Christmas – I love it, but it does add up. Because we can afford it and we're currently the only conveniently located big enough house, I've always done it joyfully, but it's occurred to me that if our financial situation changes, we'd have to pass on holding it.
Where I'm lucky is that I don't so much care what the world expects of me anymore. I found that sort of guilt left me when I left my 30′s.
Maybe try delegating? For example, say you're happy to provide the sandwiches but leave the desserts totally up to your guests.
I've sometimes attended gatherings where I've wondered why I was asked to bring something when the host is already prepared to feed an army. I prefer it when the host says "we are supplying x and y, who would like to bring z?" Then when I put effort into preparing a dish or dessert, I know I'm making a useful contribution not adding to a sea of food.
Just a thought
I set aside money throughout the year so that I can be generous at Christmas time to charities, to my family, to my kids. That said, my Christmas "charity" still gets away from me every year. I think a Pinterest, Instagram, and all around Internet fast would help me to re-set my expectations for what a meaningful holiday should look like. But yeah, that's probably not going to happen.
This year was the first year ever where I've felt some jealousy for an adorably decorated Christmas tree. This is insane, and shows I've been reading too many shelter blogs and mags. I have small children, I have perfectly good ornaments already that have special meaning to my family, and I don't need a tree full of woodland creatures to make me feel fulfilled as a human being.
Your comment about "woodland creatures" just brought a recap of Chevy Chase peering into the tree, and yelling "SQUIRREL!"
Live Christmas trees are, after all, a renewable resource. No one seems to have brought that up. After we use it (and we got ours for $10 this year, after Lowe's marked their trees down), we burn it in the fireplace. Keeps us warm, and produces wonderful memories, as well.
This is a great post. So many people go overboard with their holiday spending but honestly it's just not worth the debt.
Along with number 5, a good idea would be to do a survey of the clothes and toys that aren't used anymore and to donate them to charity. Not only will this teach your kids the value of giving, it will give you all a good sense of holiday cheer as well as make more room for what they'll get this Christmas. Especially for younger kids, they wont even know the difference between a new or used toy so why not save money.
My husband and I have never bought a tree for christmas (which means I have never bought a christmas tree). Instead, every year we do something creative: yr. 1 we stuck the brightly colored post-it notes on the wall in the shape of a tree (so awesome) yr. 2 we decorated a bonsai tree that was a birthday gift with tiny handmade decorations as well as putting together a festivus pole yr. 3 we undertook a project to build a full size (as tall as me) tree out of free cardboard. The projects are fun, exciting and give us something to do together that is creative and NOT watching tv or spending money.
Also an unconventional and sustainable idea: another couple bought a live baby christmas tree and use it every year instead of buying a dead one every year.
Love that idea! When my hubby and I were first dating, we decorated two old skis propped on the wall each year in our apartment. To this day, our "christmas skis" are a favorite holiday memory!
I haven't read the comments yet, but I applaud you for changing the holiday to fit your reality. It's a brave wise move. Thanks to you, your kids will probably grow up to see the reality behind all the hype. I mean, Martha Stewart isn't even "Martha Stewart"! The best childhood memories I have of Christmas was baking cookies with my mother–imperfectly And one of the best presents I got was one I didn't even want. A simple little sewing box. I never even thought about sewing before then. I'm all for setting up my own traditions.
My grandkids' mamas do plenty of baking for them, so I don't need to bake. Besides, if I baked Christmas cookies, I'd have to eat them all! You see, my husband is a diabetic and I'd have to help him prevent spikes in his blood sugar!
I have a nearly naked Christmas tree. It stands about two and a half feet tall and has one strand of lights. It took me all of five minutes to put up and it will take five to take down. If my mother-in-law asks me if I have a tree up yet, I can honestly answer, "Yes".
I'm doing my part to limit Christmas consumerism!
I highly recommend the advice in Unplug the Christmas Machine (http://www.amazon.com/Unplug-Christmas-Machine-Complete-Putting/dp/0688109616/ref=la_B000APEF5Q_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355774854&sr=1-2). While it may sound a little extreme ("My holiday season already has love and joy, thank you very much!"), it has some great ideas and analyses. In particular, getting your ideas together and communicating them early (like, this January, if you want to change anything for next year), and prioritizing the things you really enjoy.
I'm not recommending it as a purchase to add to your holiday finances, just something to keep an eye out for at the library.
My best memories from xmas time as a kid was those mornings when you wake up and find these techical gifts under christmqs tree. By that i mean, i would skip all them sweets and socks and wrappings and get down to LEGO. Man, how expensive was it for my parents and how cheap you can buy a bag of Legos today on ebay. As a kid i did not even care if everything was packaged in a box as long as there were plenty of parts to play with.
Parents today, I have a question. Do your kids like Lego or they keen to get expensive things like a real Mac computer or an iPhone?
I dont even care about gifts for other adults, like candles or shaving gel. Even handmade gifts- better make something usefull during whole year than wrap up a handle made few hours ago just to be nice or whatever you call it.
Again- it is different with kids. I would recomend buying gifts on ebay (used) already on january or february if i knew theyd made them happy. I do not have kids yet so i do not now how up to date they are, but i once read that untill certain age they are equally happy with both- a brick toy or gameboy.
What do you think about it?
I would love to do things differently. But…
There is always a but and it's never as simple as it seems. I agree with the person who said it is not all or nothing—why can't you love certain aspects or actually love celebrating the holiday? It doesn't mean you have to love everything that is supposed to come with it. It doesn't mean what everyone else does is for show. My mom surely doesn't decorate the entire first floor of her house like a mad woman to impress anyone.
As for me, I hate buying gifts. I can't see changing my family's mind or the minds of my husband's family. What really kills me is having to buy for all of the children on his side of the family (nine of them) and he feels like he must do it because of a sense of reciprocity. Once you add in buying gifts for my family and his mom, it feels completely overwhelming. It's not like we go into debt for this holiday—we have the money—but that's not where I want my money to go.
What I would love to do is buy a tree (I love it and it is not stressful), make some food and just enjoy the holiday with my husband. But it's really not as easy as it sounds when you have to deal with certain people. And if you have families like ours, you would understand why it isn't so easy.
Nice to see some money saving tips, especially during the holidays when money definitely gets a little tight.
Many of my friends thrift for their kids clothes. The kids don't know, theyre hardly used and your own kid will only use them for a little while as well Happy holidays! And thanks for the post.
You are not going to make a significant dent in your problem with your plan. You have to make a change in the way you think about money and how you have taught your family to think about money and gift giving. You are going to meet opposition all the way and I bet you are going to cave, You're only half committed yourself. Sorry to be so harsh.
Great post! IT is time that we all stop falling into the trap of spending a ton for ALL of the "Holidays". I want to teach my kids what real giving and love feels like. Thanks for helping me!
Not a comment on the article, but why does everything look so weird on this website? Am I the only one having this issue?
I agree with Sarah. Holiday traditions are great, but family traditions can be even more wonderful. Rather than doing it the "known and tested" way all the time, we could interject small innovations of our own that are both cost-effective and fun in a unique way. And I'm sure, the kids in the family will remember it fondly and will take it forward and thus a new holiday tradition is created for generations to come.
Ok. It really sounds like we would all be less crazed by the holidays if we could all have open but candid conversation with our loved ones about the holidays and all the associated responsibilities from giving gifts to decorating to baking to who knows what else and the toll meeting the responsibilities is having on us. I would really hope that if I told my family "I love you, but i just do not need more stuff. The stuff is slowly driving me crazy each time I have to clean, pack, move, purge it from my life," they would hopefully respond, with "We don't want you to me crazy, what can we do to help?"
I mean, isn't that what this is supposed to be about? Letting people know we care for them and love them? Is driving ourselves crazy because we are too scared to just talk to them and set a boundary or ask them, "what do you really want for Christmas?" really the answer?
I think if we all just had an open conversation with one person in our life, we could stop some of the insanity and be a little happier this holiday season.


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Manhunt is a stealh action third person and first person shooter with elements of Psychological horror. You are James Earl Cash,an convict that was supposed to be excuted with an lethal injection in public...but you were actualy heavily setaded and you wake up and find out that you are in Carcer City...


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The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development is excited to announce 2011's TENNESSEE SAMPLER EXPRESS April 5-7. Back by popular demand is the "Express" version of the Tennessee Sampler. This grassroots and economical approach will take teams on the road along six different routes, conducting sales and PR calls to AAA offices, tour operators and media. DEADLINE for registration has been extended to end-of-day March 10.
Once again this year, we will divide and conquer several feeder markets, doing a comprehensive sales and PR blitz in markets surrounding our state. Last year this approach was extremely effective, resulting in seven sales teams conducting 130 sales calls to AAA offices and tour operators in 47 different cities. Three PR teams held 37 meetings in 10 cities.
More good news: There is no registration fee for this year's Sampler except for personal travel expenses. This will include hotel for two nights, meals and the cost of rental vehicle split among the team. Each team will have a team captain who will help secure the sales calls and facilitate all logistics.
TDTD will again provide binders featuring the profile sheets of participating sales partners. The separate teams of public relations partners will be invited to provide PR materials to include on jump drives for the separate PR meetings.


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The first day of school turned tragic for one Valley family when three young siblings were killed and several others were badly injured in a head-on collision in southwest Phoenix on Monday morning.
Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said a 16-year-old boy was driving a van carrying six of his siblings when he lost control and struck a sedan on Southern Avenue near 59th Avenue.
Crump said the teen was taking some of the children to their respective schools. According to information given by Phoenix police and Tolleson-Union School District, the driver and a 14-year-old brother were about to start their first year at La Joya Community High School.
Police say the driver was unlicensed and had applied for a learner's permit. They also the driver may have been impaired and have a search warrant for a blood test.
Three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, died as a result of this crash.
Crump said a 4-year-old girl remains in critical condition. Two of the other children, ages 12 and 14, are expected to be OK. The driver of the sedan was taken to Valley Hospital in extremely critical condition.
Witnesses told police the westbound van appeared to have been speeding when the driver lost control. The van rolled after colliding with the sedan, ejecting three of the children, Crump said.
Due to the severity of the crash and multiple apparent road violations, including driving without a license, investigators are looking into the possibility of criminal charges.
Police said a child safety seat was not properly installed, and it appeared none of the children were wearing seat belts. According to officers, several children were ejected.
He said at least one of the siblings was found in a field off the road near Cottonfields Golf Course.
The crash happened about 7:20 a.m. Crump said 59th Avenue was closed in both directions, and Southern was closed from 59th to 67th avenues.
A memorial now marks the site of the crash. Neighbors dropped off balloons, candles and stuffed animals to pay their respects Monday night.
"To hear they were all under the age of 16, I don't know what to think," said neighbor Rachelle Lopez.
Stay with cbs5az.com and CBS 5 News as this story develops.
Copyright 2013 CBS 5 (KPHO Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.


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By DREW GARDNER 6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Filing your taxes is already a daunting task for many people, but choosing the right place to file can be even harder.
Caryle Breeden is an enrolled agent at Breeden & Company Inc. in West Knoxville. She says while many places claim to be quick and easy, some returns aren't that simple.
"Depending upon the complexity of your return you may want to be able to look for someone who had a little more experience under their belt," said Breeden.
That's why Breeden says it's important to do your homework. If you do have a more complex return you want to look for a certified public accountant, an enrolled agent or a tax attorney.
If you are simply filing a W-2, then services like Turbo-Tax or other free online services are okay, but still use caution.
"So many times there are things that you're not going to know you're entitled to," said Breeden. "The software will ask you questions, but you're limited to those questions to know whether you're really getting everything you're entitled to credit and deduction-wise. "
You also want to be careful when it comes to how you receive your return. Avoid any refunds that include words like advance, anticipation or instant.
"If you get anything in advance, that truly is a loan," said Breeden. "That is not you getting your IRS refund back. There will be fees involved whether you realize it or not."
Breeden says it is much better to get your refund by direct deposit into your own account. Although it will take longer, she says if you make the right choices when filing an accurate refund will be well worth the wait
The IRS began processing tax refunds January 31. Once processed most returns are sent out or deposited within 21 days.
1306 N. Broadway NE Knoxville, Tennessee 37917
Telephone: 865.637.NEWS(6397)
Fax: 865.525.4091
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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The 31st rule of Quick Fixing states: "High standards and an empty wallet is worth the wallet."
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 04:41 • by notme (unregistered)
Before? I'm writing something like that right now. The tables were created a year ago in firebird, then moved to postgre (when fb couldn't take the load anymore). Of course normalization looks like "create separate table for data from each device". Deadline is in about 3 weeks and no one has time to make things properly. This is how shit happens.
Captcha: inhibeo (propero standardo)
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 04:45 • by notme (unregistered)
On the upside, I've done such thing in previous job and there was always some other fire to put out. Now my boss says "never again such lousy project". After everything works there will be time for refactoring and this time the code has to be made properly. Probably there will be complete rewrite in some other language.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 04:47 • by Brendan (unregistered)
When considering the advantages and disadvantages of adopting "new", it's amazing how many people are too retarded to consider training costs.
Imagine if you work in a team of 20 people, and some butt-head goes and adds LINQ. Now 19 other people need to waste a day each learning LINQ. Let's say (for the sake of round numbers) that a developer costs $100 per day. That butt-head just cost $1900 for a start.
Of course when someone "learns" something in 1 day they're never an expert (they start with zero experience), which means there's ongoing confusion and mistakes that would probably double the initial cost. This means butt-head actually cost $3800.
However; that assumes that nobody is ever replaced. Maybe over then next 5 years 8 different people will be hired and will have to waste time learning LINQ (at a further cost of $200 each, or $1600). That brings us to a very rough total $5400 caused by our beloved butt-head.
Total cost of staying with the existing SQL that everyone knows would've been $0. The senior developer maybe spent 30 minutes to fix butt-heads stupidity. The senior developer is smart. He spent about $6 worth of time to avoid $5400 of costs.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 05:10 • by Cbuttius
It sounds like a nice way to approach things, but my experience has found the contrary.
Remember we all work in version controlled systems.
It is best that each change you make is just one single issue. A refactor should be just a refactor, a bug fix should be just a bug fix.
If you have to rollback your refactor because you made a mistake, you really don't want to rollback the bug fix at the same time, reintroducing the bug.
Fix the bug. Check in. Refactor. Check in again.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 05:12 • by Cbuttius
When I am actually typing a comment, whether it is a new one, or a reply to yours, there is no "[Expand full text]" visible. Nor any other comments other than the one I am replying it.
If I want that I have to right click and "Open in new window".
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 05:41 • by pencilcase (unregistered)
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 07:34 • by Brian (unregistered)
I couldn't agree with you more! Don't try to be the hero, cus you might wind up looking like the asshole. If you REALLY want to obliterate the bad code, you have to rewrite in your SPARE time. I'm a stickler for writing clear, concise code, but not everyone has that knack.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 07:40 • by Herr Otto Flick (unregistered)
TRWTF is stupid junior dev who thinks that being a programmer is about excellence and awesomeness. It's not, it's about providing working solutions for minimal costs and as few bugs as possible.
He doesn't like this code because it is inelegant. His solution is to rewrite it all. Fuck off.
Working for a typical corporate is about getting as much done in the amount of time you have, which is 50% of the time needed. This doesn't matter, since (and this is the bit WTF-jr in the story doesn't get) the software is not the product, it is something that allows you to deliver the product.
Some of the people on this site get it. The others don't work in corporate environments, they work for software houses - where the software is the product.
Think of corporate IT as a factory production line. The device that sticks the labels on the bottles doesn't do it quite right, the labels go on at 5° angle. It still works, people will still buy the product, do we spend a bunch of money fixing the labeller, or do we finish the shrinkwrap machine so we can ship some product?
Note that I'm not saying that corporate IT cannot produce excellent code. That is your challenge, provide unit tests for your code, deliver great code. You just don't waste time fixing code that don't need fixing, just so you get the warm'n'fuzzies.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 08:56 • by the beholder (unregistered)
Right, but there is an easy way to deal with that: just access TheDailyWTF on your tablet/smartphone. Sure you won't get to copy on a device and paste on another, but we can't have everything, now can we?
you could stop whining about the need to use one tab for the article, another to comment. What, does your computer only have 512 MB of RAM? Or maybe you're afraid you'll run out of WHNDs?
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 09:49 • by Dave Insurgent (unregistered)
Ah yes, the good ol' "let me show you what you didn't consider using an example that doesn't consider everything" argument.
You pay no mind, at all, to the productivity improved by acquiring new skills. By your one-sided rationale, no one would ever undertake any kind of automation, optimization or training because it all counts as cost up front. Where's the return factor? The entire reason software developers exist is because they're a ROI after an up-front (or even ongoing) cost.
You also seem to think that the company should expect to lose productivity just because their developers don't know LINQ. That's obviously not true - being a professional means constantly learning and that happens over and above the hours you spend working. That's how it is for doctors, how it is for lawyers, that's how it is engineers and you-name-it. If you happen, and I think software development is one of those things, to be able to learn/improve while doing the job that's awesome, but if you think you can be a continually relevant and employable professional based only one what you pick up while on the job, you're kidding yourself. Robert Martin says 20 hours a week, but I think that's a bit steep especially with a family. At least 5, more preferably 10, hours a week should be spent on learning stuff not directly related to what you NEED to do your job.
What does that mean? It means that when it comes time that someone wants to use LINQ in the project, just about everybody on the fucking team that works using C# should know what LINQ is. There's admittedly a gray area when something is an emergent technology or feature compared to when it's been around for a while - but *that* is the argument about putting it in to production. It's the fact that it's leading edge that should make you uncomfortable about throwing it in to a product of any critical nature, not the fact that oh, boy, doofus developer goes home every night and doesn't ever learn a damn thing.
Also, my company gives everyone a yearly budget for training, and I think most decent software companies do - and its a use-it-or-lose-it type deal, so there is an incentive to at least learn something new every year. That, of course, is in addition to at least one book a month I read, as well as trying new languages and frameworks at home to make stuff that I have no plans to do anything with but throw away.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 09:54 • by Code Master (unregistered)
This is not how things are heading. Have your tried using iOS or Modern UI on Windows 8. Full screen apps.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 10:20 • by ObiWayneKenobi
This this THIS. If you are a professional developer you should at least be FAMILIAR with emerging technology in your area of specialty. You don't have to be all evangelical and wanting to rewrite everything in the latest and greatest fad, but if you give a "deer in the headlights" look when something new is mentioned and have zero clue what it is or what use it could be, you aren't a professional.
I work(ed) primarily in C#/ASP.NET so let's use that as an example. If you are a .NET web developer and you don't have the foggiest idea what ASP.NET MVC is, or Entity Framework or LINQ or anything like that, there's a problem; I would go so far as to say that any developer who isn't familiar with the available open source projects in their space (e.g. NHibernate) has a fundamental issue as well. Now, nobody is saying you have to have a dozen home projects to learn MVC, or try to shoehorn every project into using MVC/NHibernate/library-du-jour, but if a developer on your team (whether they've been there one week or 10 years) suggests that a new project could benefit from being done in MVC, the real problem is a developer (senior, junior or otherwise) who is all like "What's this MVC thing? I've never heard of it. Why can't we just use WebForms?" without a second thought or any consideration or discussion.
Maybe MVC isn't the best choice for that particular project; maybe it's a "thick" web app that would benefit from the WebForms model, but it shouldn't just be "Oh we'll just do the same thing we've done for the past five years" on every project either. This field advances, and good developers advance with it by at least having some cursory knowledge of new trends (whether or not they use it, the point is to know at least a tiny bit about it so you could, in theory, expand on that knowledge for a project).
I maintain the notion that GOOD companies operate like this. Good companies don't reprimand or fire people who recommend better ways of doing things; instead, they at least consider the possibility. Good companies understand that if you bring in a developer with let's say 5 years of experience, you shouldn't dismiss anything he says because he's the "new guy", since he's not a newbie just new to YOUR company, and could provide some insights that you didn't consider. GOOD companies encourage evolving with technology, not doing things exactly the same way the past 5+ years, without a care to advances. Good companies want independent thinkers who can provide insight/suggestions to improve their operations, while bad companies like the one in the article want mindless drones.
Firefox is now on a six-week rapid release schedule, and it doesn't seem to prevent them from doing refactoring (although there were some really big refactorings under the old schedule).
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 10:43 • by ObiWayneKenobi
Again, it kind of goes back to company/team mentality. A good team with competent developers usually uses principles and practices that encourage constant refactoring and enough abstractions, backed up by unit tests, to keep the code relatively clean or else keep the smelly hacks isolated where they can be addressed later without polluting the rest of the code.
On the contrary a poor team always focuses on "tasks" and getting things done as quick as possible without concern, the overall notion being that there's always some new feature that precludes routine housekeeping or even just following the Boy Scout Rule while making a change to the code. A developer on this kind of team will, even if changing a module that could use refactoring, make a quick hack and move on to the next task when they should have taken a bit longer to do some cleanup of the code.
Again, I have seen this behavior firsthand as well as it being showcased in a few articles where a lazy developer will understand that things SHOULD be refactored, but instead of actually doing it will just copy/paste a change or add a hack, close out the task and move on to the next one without any thought.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 10:52 • by WhiskeyJack
Heh. Ok, fair enough, but the diff tool would catch that because that's more than a change of whitespace, that's adding whitespace where none was there before.
Hmm, or would it? I shall have to experiment sometime.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 11:54 • by Cbuttius
No it's about being given responsibility and need-to-do tasks and ensure they get done in the way you see fit.
Yes you need tests and bug / issue databases but then it goes too far when every refactoring or code improvement change has to be justified by tracking it against such databases.
Developers are paid a salary, not paid by line of code changed, and therefore they don't have to justify them based on that they are being paid for these changes.
Developers will be more efficient when they are in charge of the code they are maintaining and not too restricted. Source control and isolating things into proper components allows such changes to be made in a safe and tested environment.
The environment of "we don't touch it unless it fixes an issue" is the WTF.
Michael: So if you don't want to change it, why do you have a comment reminding everyone that it needs to be changed?
Senior Dev: Don't pay attention to the comments. The code works just fine.
Michael: Why not remove the comment then?
Senior Dev: NO! Too risky. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 12:11 • by Jack 27 (unregistered)
I was surprised to find that Beyond Compare doesn't think there are any important differences between
k = i++ + j;and
k = i + ++j;Maybe you could edit the BC's C grammar to make it understand, if you really cared.
Whatever... Sometimes you are too freaking busy to be redeveloping code that management can't "capitalize" on... As much as I agree with the OP, the old graybeards are right as well when it comes to certain corporate environments. Hope the OP finds that job that DOES have the time to invest in a good clean solid no-slop approach!!! I shall, of course, be envious.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-21 23:43 • by Asteroid (unregistered)
I work on-and-off on a system that started under 286 Xenix.
I'm happy if the dinosaurs just write ANSI-style function definitions instead of K&R, and can remember that the stack is big and the heap exists.
I wish I was kidding. God, do I wish I was kidding. Just figuring out the hundred global variables is enough to drive you crazy.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 07:18 • by Herr Otto Flick (unregistered)
Because 'producing a better version of firefox' is the only goal of people working on firefox, it behoves them to act like this. Same goes for most other open source software, and anything where software is the product.
This is why reading things like JoelOnSoftware is good and bad. Joel used to work for MS, making software products. He now works for himself, making software products. He has to make his software great, and so he can bang on about how to make wonderful software - but his environment is not the corporate.
In a corporate environment, we are not trying to build the best "Phone Billing Manager Export" program in existence, we just need to export the right data at the right times. Yes, the code could be written better, but doing so delays us from making the now essential changes to salesforce, and doesn't net the business anything, apart from IT's warm'n'fuzzies.
In corporate, IT isn't the product, it's the solution. Some people in IT forget that, like the junior dev in this story. They think that since IT is so important to them, IT is the product. They need to get a clue.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 07:20 • by Herr Otto Flick (unregistered)
We don't touch it unless the business tells us that it is important. It works, it does what the business wants it to do, it's a little ugly, so you want to stop working on what the business needs, and instead work on what IT wants.
That's the WTF.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 07:44 • by ObiWayneKenobi
No, the business needs to get a clue that having clean code facilitates easier changes and additions down the road. That's always the problem in Corporate IT: You're too focused on "exporting the right data at the right time" that a year later when you need to export another type of data, or the data you need changes, it introduces a ton of other bugs because you hacked some shit together the first time instead of using real design patterns and software engineering principles.
Constant refactoring, heavy design patterns, TDD/testing and the like aren't just the domain of software companies and OSS users, they should be the norm EVERYWHERE because what they do is focus on maintainable, scalable and extensible code, so later on when the business needs change (and this is doubly so in a corp environment where things are always changing, sometimes slightly and sometimes drastic 180 we're changing our business model changes), the team can respond quickly without introducing new bugs or adding new kludgy hacks to the system.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 09:35 • by Leonardo Herrera (unregistered)
It's not "meh." Revenue generating code vs an ego trip is a lost battle already.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 09:35 • by Foo (unregistered)
>Don't ask me how I know this.
OK, I'ma gonna ask you: "Why havn't you posted this to TDWTF yet?"
Because so many software development teams are badly managed, and often treat developers with so little disregard that they just want to leave.
Firstly, the best size for a development team is 2. Of course if your software is a very large scale, then have 2 teams of 2.
You then have project managers who discuss the "whats" not the "hows".
Issue tracking databases are intended to be there for project managers and testers to raise issues.
For refactoring exercises that are going to take significant time, you should clear with your project manager its benefits and how it will not interfere with getting delivery on time, or why delivery needs to be delayed for the better purpose.
For small changes that will take a relatively insignificant time to implement (like this one) you should not require such permission.
Of course, just because I'm giving a general licence to change the code as you see fit does not mean you do not have to adhere to standards: use source control, ensure your code is properly tested, and it should also be properly documented.
With the particular example, my response to the developer that "yes, we have had plans to change that, as denoted in the comments, but we have not yet had time as we have to ensure delivery is done on time, and we have had actual bugs to fix which are higher priority. Also we need to ensure any change if adequately tested. Once we get ahead of schedule we can work on it. In the meantime, if you're stuck for something to do (i.e. you are blocked on any of your own issues) you can get down to writing some tests for the change you wish to implement".
TRWTF is that they're considering to use ResultSetMetaData just to write type-agnostic code.
Using getObject and setObject would have worked just as well, and with the exactly same amount of type safety - i.e. DB complaining if the types don't match.
BTW for those still contemplating macros: It's Java, not C++.
Captcha: verto - "I turn around". Heh.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-22 17:07 • by Shawn Solomon (unregistered)
The code itself isn't really *that* horrible. The WTF to me here is Michael. Where what was it? Three weeks into the code he was hoping to use something that scored him points in an interview to score further points with the dev team? Sounds like a guy who has off standards and priorities that can't take criticism.
Maybe a WTF is also from the interview. They set-up his expectations perhaps that he'd mostly be refactoring code in the beginning?
The macro wasn't a serious suggestion. It would be worse in my opinion than the code that is already there.
The template was a more genuine possible solution, the point being that this pattern is being used "all over the codebase" and the template makes it reusable.
Of course if this is Java you would probably have the base object of the input source and the base of the output source and you'd need to set up a schema object, which could be done as an array (but a string doesn't work that well). I would also use enums in the array.
If you want to write it a line at a time, you might use an enum, but the code as it stands is far better than using column names where it has to look up the name for every record you like.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-23 22:56 • by Older and Wiser (unregistered)
Protip for the fresh out of college: Your colleagues are going to be idiots. It will be a feat in itself that they can code at all, let alone code something that is easy to read, understand, or maintain. Quite literally, they will be "code monkeys". If you're reading this and telling yourself "No! mine aren't...!" then guess what? You're one of the code monkeys! Now you know. In a perfect world there will be no political boundaries to juggle, but in the real world you'll be forced to put up with it and do your best to workaround their incompetence. You'll probably have to put up with seeing them being praised for their speediness at times too, while you go unappreciated, despite the invisible costs down the road of having to maintain the garbage. I can sympathize with the OP.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-24 22:45 • by Gibbon1 (unregistered)
Well one improvement is you probably could no longer use grep to investigate the code base. This is important, you want to nip stuff like that in the bud.
this is sort of the programmers "chicken vs the egg" ultimate delima! do you spend time knocking out paying projects or all of your time rewriting old code to fit into your personal view of clean and efficient... and as sarcastic as that may sound, it will be a different answer for everybody what "clean and efficient" mean, want proof just read the comments off of any one of the WTFs about how many ways there are to do something. i think when it comes down to it simply for a bug fix, fix it (if time re-factor it), but dont just be changing code to be changing it. i also consider a routine that takes so much time to run due to inefficient code that it starts to negatively impact the customers to be bug as well so i believe all that has to be weighed in not just start rewriting everything, remember KISS (keep it simple stupid) and if it works, leave it a lone are really good practices in today's competitive programming world! my $0.02 for what its worth, and if this is enough to "honk off" this new programmer and get him to move along, he better thicken up his skin because there's way worse crapola out there in our field waiting under every little leaf, blade of grass, class, method, function, etc. this is not a field for the faint of heart i fear!
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-26 13:25 • by Benjamin Smith (unregistered)
The WTF isn't that refactoring was being delayed, it's the attitude that leaving it be is OK. Code doesn't exist in a vacuum, it exists to make a problem go away.
The problem with crufty code isn't that it doesn't make a particular problem go away, it's that when the problem changes over time, it's difficult to amend the software to meet the required changes in need. Because of this, you have solution that may be cheap to begin with but becomes increasingly expensive over time.
Delaying a refactor increases expense over the long term and works somewhat similar to interest on a financial debt.
See: Technical debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-28 07:57 • by ObiWayneKenobi
And if it gets too high the only answer is "technical bankruptcy" i.e. scratch it and start a rewrite.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-28 15:09 • by Amy (unregistered)
Amen, brother!
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-11-28 15:11 • by Amy (unregistered)
(ignore the first reply... forgot to quote)
AMEN Brother!!
"Re-factoring anything is a sure way to introduce new bugs. "
No, it isn't. Seriously, do you code blindly while drinking a gallon of whiskey - or do you not make sure to have unit-tests to prove that any changes haven't broken anything?
I think way too many grey-beards might be residing here.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-12-02 10:33 • by experienced middle-of-the-night programmer (unregistered)
The developer is proposing replacing code that maps a list of strings/ints into some sort of row structure (and then adds that row), identifying what belongs where by position.
I am fairly certain that there is no way of rewriting this code without putting this mapping in another place which unless that this same IDENTICAL mapping to row structure is done in multiple places in the code, will result in anyone referring to this mapping needs to both find the code where it is used and the external mapping. Looking in two places is more work than one.
About the only thing I would have changed in the code is to put a comment identifying the associated column name; I would do this when the mapping is being changed.
Re: Your Standards Are Too High
2012-12-18 23:38 • by Tortoise (unregistered)
You should see our PHP codebase.
An excerpt:
$html.=(@$_POST["PetName".$i]||@$_POST["PetSpecies".$i]!=="Not specified"||@$_POST["PetBreed".$i]||@$_POST["PetAge".$i]||@$_POST["PetGender".$i]||@$_POST["PetAltered".$i])?'<tr><td>'.((@$_POST["PetName".$i])?htmlspecialchars($_POST["PetName".$i]):' ').'</td><td>'.((@$_POST["PetSpecies".$i])?(($_POST["PetSpecies".$i]==="Other")?htmlspecialchars($_POST["PetOther".$i]):$_POST["PetSpecies".$i]):' ').'</td><td>'.((@$_POST["PetBreed".$i])?htmlspecialchars($_POST["PetBreed".$i]):' ').'</td><td>'.((@isset($_POST["PetAge".$i]))?htmlspecialchars($_POST["PetAge".$i]):' ').'</td><td>'.(@isset($_POST["PetGender".$i])?(($_POST["PetGender".$i])?'Male':'Female'):' ').'</td><td>'.(@isset($_POST["PetAltered".$i])?(($_POST["PetAltered".$i])?'Yes':'No'):' ').'</td></tr>':'';
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text:
Suspect Your Daughter Is a Mean Girl?
Hazing among high school girls is hotter than ever. Is yours the hazer or the hazed?
Vivian Manning-Schaffel: Mean girls have been around throughout history. But this recent New York Times article about hazing at a New Jersey high school raised eyebrows, particularly because of how blasé these young chicks were -- as if hazing were a rite of passage they'd come to expect.
"Hazing among girls reflects the belief that one of the key components to their self-esteem is based on social power, in particular, social dominance of other girls. That's why you see it's the older girl going after the freshman girl -- it's quintessentially traditional," says Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and the New Realities of Girl World, which is about to be reissued in October. "It starts from a natural place of wanting to belong in a group, but the problem is that the group is based on superficial things, like 'you have to wear certain things or behave a certain way to be as cool as we are.' It's not necessarily a bad thing to be in a group, but it can transform into being a bad thing very quickly."
David Nelson, Ph.D., an associate professor at Brigham Young University, School of Family Life, conducted a study on "mean girl" behavior and found it begins in girls as young as (gulp) three!
"We found in our study, if you are on the alert, you can start seeing signs of 'mean girl' tendencies at around three or four years of age," Nelson said. But as much as they seem to get away with it, "mean girls" pay the price of intimacy in the long run. "You might be savvy and get a lot done with aggression, which these kids seem to do, but there's also a price to be paid long-term with being able to function well in intimate relationships," Nelson said.
So how can you tell if your daughter is indulging in "mean girl" behavior? Wiseman gives us six ways to check for clues:
Snoop. Parents need to figure out the usage controls from their cell provider. There's a way to monitor text messages and content from a computer without touching your kids' cell phone. It's worth taking the time to crack the code.
She has senior fever. Has your kid been waiting to be a senior forever? Has she been waiting to do the things that seniors do? It's a sign that she's invested in becoming an authority at school, Wiseman says.
See if people "ring" her. At every high school, there's a hot spot where the cool kids hang. Observe. Is she the center of the posse? Is she laser-focused on social status?
She knows how to lie ... and spares no detail to get away with it.
She's focused on revenge. "She ruminates," Wiseman says. "If she perceives that someone's wronged her, she'll do whatever she can to get them back."
If you bust your daughter engaging in mean girl behavior, Wiseman says a tough love stance is better than a buddy-buddy stance. Here's how Wiseman says to hold them accountable:
Be clear about your expectations. Acknowledge that you don't know for sure if it's going on, but outline what hazing looks like to you, be it targeting a kid to make her uncomfortable at school or laughing at someone when people go after her. Give her specifics so she understands your expectations.
Lay down the law. Wiseman recommends stating that the behavior is against everything you stand for as a parent and everything that you expect from her. Then explain that you will hold her accountable, you'll back up school disciplinary policies, and there will be consequences for her actions, like losing her phone for a period of time.
Let her know you have an eye on her, but give her the benefit of the doubt ... sort of. Wiseman recommends reminding her of your empirical view of her phone content with food for thought: "Say, 'You could do this and get away with it, and I'd never know. But I might. And that's a chance you need to think about taking.' That's particularly effective."
To repel mean girls, Wiseman says the more your daughter excels at activities in lieu of physical and material trappings, the better equipped she'll be to repel the hazers. "It's about having competencies," Wiseman says. "They provide a security system. The more your daughter is invested in her friends, the more damage hazing can do."
So what's the best way for a haz-ee to stick up for herself? "The thing to recognize and appreciate is that the hazer thinks she has mythological power," Wiseman says. "The hardest part is to face the girl in public, because she's going to go after you in public. Mean girls need to front. You want to stand your ground quickly and leave in public. The haz-ee should say exactly what's happening that they don't like. Instead of saying, 'Stop hazing me, or harassing me,' say something specific that occurred, like, 'You said, like the rest of my family, I'd be pregnant by the time I was 14.' Follow with exactly how you'd like the behavior to stop."
Wiseman also recommends acknowledging a lack of control over the situation and even admitting that it hurts. Then she recommends ending with claiming the right to peace and choosing when to walk away. "What's really important is strategizing about where you approach the person and where you leave. A lot of times, kids don't think there's anywhere they can go. But if you slow it down and think about where you'd go after a confrontation, you can also picture having it out, which is empowering," she says.
|Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.
I cannot believe anyone would advocate snooping through their child's phone instead of just ASKING them. But I guess if you decide to be the parent who snoops, you'd have to continue doing it because once your kid finds out, they'll hate your guts and not tell you anything. And they'll think you're a f-ing hypocrite if you run your mouth about honesty, trust, and all that other crap…so go ahead and snoop through your kid's things, but just remember that they WILL hate you for it. I know because my mother did it to me and I am still furious about it over 13 years later.
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Suspect_your_daughter_is_a_mean_girl.. Keen :)
I'm impressed! You've maanegd the almost impossible.
Youve got it in one. Cudolnt have put it better.
Suspect_your_daughter_is_a_mean_girl.. Keen :)
Suspect_your_daughter_is_a_mean_girl.. Nifty :)