Take this Visual Studio build menu. I use it all the time. It has some pretty options:

• Build Solution: build any updated code in this solution
• Rebuild Solution: completely clean all my built code and rebuild my solution
• Clean Solution: completely clean all my built code

Replace Solution with [subproject name] and you get the rest of the options. An important thing to note here, too is that none of these options come with confirmations — I click, and it happens.

This menu is a horrible, horrible thing because it places two options which vary greatly in their impact right next to each other: “build” and “rebuild/clean”. I use “build” all the time — I update some code, and I need to build the project so I can test. It’s nice and helpful that it comes with a keyboard shortcut. No real difficulty here. Well, what if I’m only working in a subproject and don’t need to go through the full build script? Well, there’s no keyboard shortcut for that (I might be able to define one, and I haven’t looked, but the principle is still the same), so I need to click the menu option. That’s no biggie. Wait. I misclicked on “rebuild”. Oh, I’m still good, it’s only going to rebuild my project. Phew. Wait. What are you doing? Why are you cleaning everything? What the hell is going on? CTRL-BREAK! CTRL-BREAK!

See, the glory of this menu is the other option: the “Project Only ->” submenu. If I click “rebuild” or “clean” on the sideproject that’s displayed, Visual Studio goesand will rebuild/clean not only the project itself, but all of its dependencies. If you have a lot of shared code (like the solution I’m working on does), it all gets blown away and rebuilt. If I want to rebuild only the project I’m in, I have to use the “Project Only” menu. This misclick can cost me anywhere from one to three hours of my day (depending on how long it takes to build everything from the ground up, or how quickly I can mash CTRL-BREAK).

In a fit of rage after doing this again about 20 minutes ago, I likened this menu to putting a “launch nuclear weapons” button right next to the “flush the toilet” button. I flush the toilet all the time. I’d imagine other people who use the same restroom as I enjoy the fact that I don’t leave the toilet unflushed. I don’t, however, want to cause global thermonuclear war. And even if I accidentally pressed the button, I’d expect to be asked again, just to make sure I really wanted to end the human race.

Anybody have anything to keep me busy for another two hours?

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At any rate, I finally have internet in my apartment. After waiting a month. After 2 visits from Verizon and 5 from Comcast. I could have had Verizon FIOS (fiber) really cheaply but they didn’t believe that I was able to get it in my apartment (even though my landlord’s office, which is in the building right in front of mine, can get it). They made a request to the “engineering department” (i.e. those who control The Database of Homes and Apartment that Does Not Lie About What Services are Available to You) to update my record and they came back saying it would take another 3 weeks (I’d been talking to them on the phone for 2 weeks already) for them to do it. And even then, they couldn’t guarantee that I’d be able to get fiber. Bah.

So I call Comcast. Not a very different experience, really. They got really hung up on the fact that my building was new and had never had cable service before. They sent out 3 service guys before it got through their head. Each time they came, they went “oh, you don’t have a line running to this building.” And every time I would reply “I know, I told you guys this over the phone. Every time I call I tell you this.” Finally I got in touch with the local contractor who would actually be doing the work and they got it straightened out, and they said they would be coming to run the line and install my cable. The lied. They had trouble fitting a cable line down a 4 inch PVC pipe and they blamed the 1 inch Verizon line in it. Go figure. Comcast sent out yet another contractor on yet another day to install the line and I finally got service two days shy of a month after first calling them.

Now I just need to get some more furnature (and rugs!) for my apartment, which incidentally breeds, raises, and pastures dust bunnies.

[title context]

First, Nagin says “This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be.” Then, he says “How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about.” Hmm…

Hillary Clinton also makes my brain hurt. “[The House] has been run like a plantation, and you know what I’m talking about.” To a majority African-American crowd. In a church. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. No, Hillary. Just no.

Dexter definitely said it best.

[title context]