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Writing, notes, and occasional rambles.
Whisky Advent Calendar
I bought the Drinks by the Dram Whisky Advent Calendar this year, and it’s amazing. Each day, I’ll update this post with the one I’ve tasted. Twenty-four drams of deliciousness. Here we go! 1 Dec: The Lost Distilleries Blend Batch 8 from the Blended Whisky Company, blended scotch whisky, 53.1% Maybe it’s the season, but the nose of this was caramel and eggnog to me. Deliciousness. It was a really nice fruity taste with an ideal peatiness (which, in my book, is not much). The taste that lingered was a little herbal , maybe sage. This was the first blended whisky I’ve deliberately tried, and it was quite pleasant. 8/10 2 Dec: Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Solera, single malt scotch whisky, 40% This smelled strongly of apple juice with hints of peach. The taste was cinnamon, with a finish of leather. It’s similar to the scotch I normally drink, so I didn’t think it was particularly special, but it was really nice. 5/10 3 Dec: Kilchoman Machir Bay, single malt scotch whisky, 46% Peaty scotches are just not my thing. I mean, that blended one from the 1st was really good with just a hint of peatiness, but this was a little too much. It had a nose of pineapple and campfire, and it tasted and finished like hot tar. It wasn’t terrible (I mean, hot tar isn’t an awful smell), just not my taste. 3/10 4 Dec: Wolfburn, single malt scotch whisky, 46% This was a very nice scotch. Bright citrusy nose with a taste of cherry jolly rancher and something dark, maybe chocolate. Just a hint of peatiness, which was really delightful. 6/10 5 Dec: Mackmyra Svensk Ek, Swedish single malt whisky, 46.1% Wow, I liked this one a lot. The nose was vanilla and lemon, and it tasted of bananas and graham crackers. Can you feel that warmth? It was like wrapping up in a down comforter on a cold night. 8/10 6 Dec: Rock Oyster, blended malt scotch whisky, 46.8% Apparently, I need to drink more blended scotches. This one had a nose of mandarin orange and salt, and a taste of chipotle peppers and wood. A little smokier than my taste, but really nice all the same. 6/10 7 Dec: The Dalmore 12 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 40% I was surprised at how strong the smell of this was in comparison to the taste. And a little disappointed, I guess. The dark color had me excited. The nose was burnt caramel, the taste was old book, and the finish was totally tobacco. I’m not quite sure what I think of this one. Probably not one I’ll seek out. 4/10 8 Dec: Lagavulin 16 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 43% This one smells like being on a farm, with a hint of grass. The palate is coffee and dirt. The peat is really strong. And the finish isn’t very pleasant. I like sweeter scotches, ones that are less earthy and less smoky. 2/10 9 Dec: Old Perth Sherry Cask Blended Malt, blended malt scotch whisky, 43% This was pretty pleasant. Nose of raisin and maple syrup, palate of fresh spinach and fruitcake, finish of raw silk (I do love the smell of silk). It was quite smooth, and I liked the boldness of the flavors. They meshed well and seemed pretty distinct. 5/10 10 Dec: Teeling Whiskey Single Malt, single malt Irish whiskey, 46% An Irish whiskey this time! Nose of green apple and… chocolate? Palate is very floral, and the finish is almost like a berry, though I can’t pick it out. I consider myself a scotch girl, but this was quite delicious. 6/10 11 Dec: Evan Williams Bourbon Extra Aged, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, 43% Bourbons are a little rough around the edges. This one had a nose of wood (obviously), honey, and nail polish remover, and it tasted of vanilla and caramel. It tasted like… bourbon. This one might be better as a mixer, though it wasn’t unpleasant. 3/10 12 Dec: Tomatin 14 Year Old Port Wood Finish, single malt scotch whisky, 46% Maybe because my first favorite scotch was a ruby cask one, this tastes to me just how scotch should taste, but there is nothing distinctive or outstanding about it for the same reason. It’s just how scotch should taste, right? Nose of honey and dark cherry, palate of vanilla and cinnamon, finish of fermented berries. It’s kind of like an unembellished ideal for me. 7/10 I’m halfway through now. It’s been a fun experiment, though I’m not sure I’ll need to do it again. I thought I was a scotch girl, and I enjoy it, even drinking it every day, but I find that I’m running out of words to describe the scents and flavors. I don’t know what that says about me as a scotch aficionado. I’ve been surprised that I liked the blended scotches as much as I did, though it makes sense if I think about it: if there is a person who is skilled at blending the flavors, the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. I’m excited for the second half of this calendar. It’s been great! 13 Dec: Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 40% Perfectly pleasant. Nose of yeast and grapes and cake, palate of wood, vanilla, and chocolate, and a finish of yeast again. Very nice scotch, though not outstanding. 5/10 14 Dec: That Boutique-y Whisky Company Invergordon 25 Year Old - Batch 9, single grain scotch whisky, 49.8% I liked this one, but it didn’t seem “old”. The nose was of raspberry and coffee, and the palate was banana (maybe) and gingerbread. The herbs lasted into the finish. I’m not sure I know what age is supposed to do anymore - smooth it out? This didn’t seem much smoother than yesterday’s. 5/10 15 Dec: Glengoyne 12 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 43% This one was a lot sweeter than I expected. It had a nose of apple and creme brulee, a palate of pound cake, and a finish of toffee. 5/10 16 Dec: Glenfarclas 21 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 43% This was very very smooth. Nose of lemon and rose hips, palate had hints of fruit, and the finish was tobacco. This was quite pleasant. I do enjoy the fruity, floral ones. 7/10 17 Dec: KaVaLan Concertmaster Port Cask Finish, single malt whisky, 40% A Taiwanese whisky this time! I quite enjoyed this one. The nose was of blackberry and maple syrup, the palate of jam, brown sugar, and vanilla, and the finish of tobacco again. This seems like a great scotch to drink while smoking a cigar. 7/10 18 Dec: Oban Little Bay, single malt scotch whisky, 43% Not very smooth, but quite nice anyway. Nose of cherry and vanilla, palate of coffee and salt (just a little), finish of orange. Not getting to the Oban distillery was a disappointment on our trip. 6/10 19 Dec: English Whisky Co. 5 Year Old - Batch 1 (That Boutique-y Whisky Company), single malt English whisky, 49.5% This was pretty raw and rough, though maybe it’s the higher alcohol content. Citrus nose, palate of ginger and chili, hints of smokiness. Adding water to this didn’t really smooth anything out. It was just… okay. 3/10 20 Dec: Fettercairn Fasque, single malt scotch whisky, 42% Great name for a scotch. :) Nose of dried cranberries and grass, palate of chocolate and coffee, and finish of vanilla and cinnamon. Pretty good! 5/10 21 Dec: Macallan 12 Year Old Double Cask, single malt scotch whisky, 40% This was a really nice scotch. It had a nose of apricot or some other stone fruit, a palate of honey and vanilla, and the finish was very woody. Quite pleasant. 6/10 22 Dec: Buffalo Trace, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, 40% Bourbons are fun but a little raw. This one had a nose of lemon and caramel, a palate of charred wood, vanilla, and cinnamon, and a finish of spices. This was a nice bourbon, one I may actually want to keep around. 6/10 23 Dec: Highland Park 12 Year Old, single malt scotch whisky, 40% This one smells like fruitcake. Fitting, for the season. Hint of smokiness in the palate, with a lot more depth than I expected, tastes of vanilla and… forest. Finish of wood. Decent scotch, not my favorite of the month. 5/10 24 Dec: The Blended Whisky Company Half-Century Blend Batch 1 Aged over 50 years, blended scotch whisky, 45.5% Last one! This one seemed really rich. A very nice nose of dried cherries, walnuts, and chocolate, palate of vanilla and toffee, finish of spices and stone fruits. Really nice, but honestly, I can’t tell much difference between a 50-year and an 18-year. 8/10 In summation, I’m glad I got to do this, but I don’t think I need to do it again. It wasn’t quite worth the cost of shipping it all the way from the UK just to try a bunch of different whiskies. I’m thinking Twelve Days of Christmas Wine next year. :)
Dec 2016Harry Potter cosplay at LeakyCon
I went to LeakyCon in October and had a FANTASTIC time. My friend Austin and I celebrated our way through the weekend. I cosplayed each day, some days with multiple costumes. The first day, I was Luna Lovegood, and once the wig became too annoying, just a Ravenclaw student. The second day, I was a Wizengamot witch for the morning, while I did my presentation. Then I changed to a stag patronus for the afternoon and evening. Saturday during the day, I was a Beauxbatons student, and for the ball, I was a phoenix. And on Sunday, I was a sleepy Ravenclaw student (Austin and I declared Sunday pajama day, and some others joined in). I’m sure you’ve been dying to see pictures from the weekend, so here they are! My Luna Lovegood costume was the heaviest of all my costumes. Or at least it felt so because of the wig. With this, i made the wand, Carl made the necklace and earrings, I bought the wig, the tie, and the sweater (from the shop that made the sweaters for the films), and my friend Tyler Beal made the Quibbler purse, which was just amazing. I took my picture with Moaning Myrtle, of course. Once the wig was too burdensome, I became a more relaxed Ravenclaw student with the earrings as a nod to Luna. The Wizengamot wear plum robes with an elaborate silver W on the left front. I wore a simple black dress under it. My mother-in-law sewed the bag for me and cut out the W for me. My stag patronus! This was entirely purchased. The mask is a work of art by Mythical Masks . I had Austin casting me multiple times in the halls. It was a great time. This costume was the closest I got to being spot on. The hat was purchased from a store on Etsy . The dress was made by a much more talented seamstress than I am, Cherie Duggar, who was dead set on getting it right and did a pretty fantastic job. I painted the shoes. The bag has an embroidered Beauxbatons crest on it, done by my friend Tyler Beal. My phoenix costume involved a LOT of glitter powder. I bought the dress. The mask is another incredible design by Mythical Masks, this one custom made. I got two colors of glitter powder - red and gold, and we put them layered on top of each other. Austin helped with the glitter, particularly on my back. The last morning, Austin and I went as sleepy students. I had my deathly hallows shirt and my Ravenclaw pants (yay Hot Topic!), and Austin wore a 9 3/4 shirt and her Hogwarts pants. It was a great end to the week!
Dec 2016December gaming edition
I’ve been playing a number of games over the past few months, some new ones and some not-so-new ones. Canalis: We played this game with 4 players a couple times over the weekend. It’s part of the Tempest universe (which includes Love Letter, Courtier, and a number of other games). In Canalis, you’re trying to build buildings that require connections to resources, labor, and the harbor. There are public and secret missions, and there’s a drafting element for cards in each round of play. The board is a grid, and you place tiles (buildings, canals, or gardens for bonus points) on the grid. We played with two people who have played it a lot, so they were both (a little) helpful and sometimes skeptical of why we were doing things. It was a fun game, though maybe not one we need to own. Paperback: Absolutely must own this one, and as quickly as possible. This was my chance to introduce Carl to it, and he liked it a lot, in spite of not really being a word games person. I think I’ve talked about this game before, but in case I haven’t: it’s kind of like Dominion meets Scrabble. It’s a deck-building game with words, so you have a hand of cards each round, with different values, and your goal is to create the best word you can that will enable you to buy additional letters (some with special powers) or straight-up victory points that also act as wild cards. This is just a wonderful game, and the guy who created it lives in Utah! Guillotine: This is a card game where you try to rearrange the order of execution to acquire the highest value executed noble you can. It’s played over three days, and the noble cards range in value from 5 (Marie Antoinette and others) to negative points for martyrs and innocent bystanders. It’s a lot of luck, or maybe I just wasn’t playing very well. It’s a cute, quick game that seems like a good filler or palate cleanser. Sushi Go: Another cute, quick game, and possibly one I’ve discussed, players collect different kinds of food (tempura, sashimi, nigiri, maki rolls, dumplings, and puddings) for different values of points. It’s played over three rounds, and it’s another drafting game. I think I need to figure out a new strategy for that one, because I tend to focus on one food item for a game instead of just a round. It’s a nicely balanced game, where each kind of food can be successful… sometimes. Archer Love Letter: We don’t really go in for licensed games very much, but Carl surprised me with this one, and it turned out to be very good. It’s themed well, and it follows the mechanics of Love Letter, but it adds more interaction with the hidden card, which was fun. I’m not sure we’ll disregard the original game, because it fits so nicely in my purse, but this was a good complement. Tiny Epic Westerns: Can you tell we like the Tiny Epic games? This is their new one, and it’s kind of worker placement meets poker. There are six locations that make up the board, and players can place their meeples at five of them. Duels ensue for control of spots, and then bonuses are acquired by having the best three-card poker hand. There’s competition for control of cards with special powers, resources similar to the other Tiny Epic games, and a way to build your own empire, for lack of a better word. It’s a fun game, better if you wear cowboy hats to play it. World’s Fair 1893: We’ve now played this game about four times, and I’m less certain about it being an awesome game now. Except for some rare circumstances, there’s usually one obvious move at a time. It happens pretty much every turn that if you try to plan a move ahead, the person before you will take what you want. It’s almost inevitable. And that makes the game feel a little more pre-determined than I would like. Strategy is fluid and can change from turn to turn. I still like this game, but I’m less enthusiastic about it now that I’ve played it a few times. Five Tribes with Artisans of Naqala expansion: Man, Five Tribes is just great. It’s been one of my favorites for well over a year, and it remains so. The expansion adds a sixth tribe (sacrilege!) and new corresponding items and tiles. It also adds mountains and a chasm that bar some paths for meeples. It’s a great game with plenty of strategy, and the balance is really great. You can’t really win if you go all in on just one thing, but if you focus on one thing while not neglecting others, that gives a player a good chance of winning.
Nov 2016living in Utah - one year later
We have now been in Utah for a full year. We’re feeling settled and are having fun here. We’ve learned our way around, found friends, communities, volunteer opportunities, I found a job (!), we’ve done some outdoorsy activities (though not as much as either of us would like), and we’ve acclimated to the culture for the most part. Utah is just different in some ways, with the dominant religion influencing secular life in a fairly large way. The refugee family I mentor was told by another volunteer that Christmas isn’t big here, and that Halloween is much bigger. That jives with what we’ve seen, but it’s influenced by religion (the Christmas thing, at least) rather than just being less important. The institution I work for is a Utah business, so we don’t get Christmas Eve off, just Christmas Day. Another thing influenced by religion is the prevalence of specialty soda shops. There’s a big emphasis on sweets rather than coffee and alcohol. But those who aren’t LDS seem to drink a lot more coffee and a lot more alcohol to make up for it. Some of the politics and legal stuff is weird, but it’s not terrible, and we’ve gotten used to it. I get angry about politics in a lot of places, so Utah is just another instance of this. The outdoor activities in this state can’t be beat. We’ve been to three national parks this year (Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands), have gone camping at Nine-Mile Canyon (petroglyphs all over the place), and have gone on a number of hikes. No skiing last winter, but we’re hoping to change that this winter. There’s a walking/bike trail that goes from pretty far up north all the way south along a river. We’ve only explored a few miles of it, but it’s quite inviting. The climate is more temperate than Kansas, still getting cold in the winter and hot in the summer, but nowhere near the extremes of Kansas. The downside of the climate here is inversion, which comes from living in a valley between two mountain ranges. The pollution stays in the valley, settling like smog and staying there for up to weeks at a time, until a storm clears it out. It gets so bad that people are supposed to stay inside, and people who work outside wear ventilators. I’ve found people with whom to play board games, people with whom to knit, and a great voice teacher. People are very friendly and welcoming. My church is a wonderful community. Work is a good place for me to be. All in all, we’re happy here and think we’ll be here awhile.
Oct 2016Rational Rebellion: Morality and the Rule of Law in Harry Potter
I’m at LeakyCon in Burbank, CA right now, and yesterday I presented a talk about law, morality, and rebellion in Harry Potter. It went better than I expected, and though I wish I had been better prepared (and had practiced it enough to not have to read it), it was fine, and I received positive feedback. Since most of you weren’t able to be there, I thought I’d post my talk and slides (with “(slide)” written into the script if you want to follow along). The slides are mostly pictures and quotes to complement the talk, but I did work on them, so I wanted to put that out there. Without further ado:
Oct 2016hand-waving and subject matter expertise
From this recent project I’ve been discussing, I have one more point. Our customers can make transfers into other accounts. The vendor told us that it would “hard fail” if the customer tried to go over their balance. “Hard fail” sounded fancy, and we were assured that it would prevent penalties. However, I was able to show that customers could go over their balance once the fees were included, and it wouldn’t fail. There were actually a number of ways a person could transfer more than they had to give. Turns out “hard fail” wasn’t anything fancy, and it only happened at one point in the process, rather than it being a continuing thing. Business got involved, said the internal people had control over whether to assess the penalties and that they “probably” wouldn’t assess those penalties. Finally, a person who had done that kind of work spoke up to assure us that he had never seen a penalty not assessed. It’s another battle I lost. (I lost a lot of battles on this project, but there were also just lots of battles.) The financial institution assumes that people won’t be that foolish, or perhaps the institution just likes those penalties. I learned a lesson about thoroughly understanding processes. Before the true meaning of “hard fail” came to light, and before a subject matter expert spoke up, it was just hand-waving. We tested it with our assumptions that there were fail-safes involved, when there weren’t really. It took pushing the issue and not giving into the hand-waving that we were able to make an informed decision about the process. The project also taught me not to trust anyone, particularly vendors, when they talk about behaviors. When they say something is “as designed”, they often mean “no design” or “designed without thought”. The product was exhilarating to test, because it was so very broken, but it was also immensely frustrating to be stonewalled by the vendor at most steps.
Sep 2016why testers need to be involved from the beginning
On a recent project, the vendor’s software was going to be embedded in our website through an iframe. After a quick tutorial from my husband (a software architect who had done a lot of research on the security of iframes not too long before that), I thought it would be interesting to poke around and see what I could find in their system and see if I could break into it, though I’m not a security tester. I found some of what I expected to find - they were using security headers that are a little dated but the best that work on Safari (there’s more secure stuff for the other browsers - I don’t know why Apple is behind the times on that). But there was also a header that was misspelled when it should have been automatically generated by the system. This gave me pause. There was a possibility that something got a little funky with the server, but it was also possible that they were hard-coding things on a homegrown server rather than using a commercial server that is regularly patched. I filed a bug. And pushed it. A lot. I got the Information Security team involved. The response finally came back (after more than a month of asking) that they were not using Apache, but they couldn’t tell us more about it, that they were keeping up with security issues and regularly testing their server. This was another issue. The software we were given was so poorly written and tested, that I wasn’t sure if we could trust their word that they were adequately testing their own servers, much less keeping up with OWASP vulnerabilities or doing anything security-related. InfoSec was aware of this. But when I asked about the results from their penetration testing, the project manager told me that they weren’t doing any testing. It was in our contract with this vendor that we wouldn’t do any testing of their server. Seriously? My response to that in a meeting was, “Someone is touching their servers, and I’m concerned that it’s not us.” I lost the battle. I looked through the contract to see if there was any way we could say they breached the contract (hooray, law background!), but the vendor had written it so wishy-washy that it was basically a “best effort” contract without anything binding. So frustrating. In addition to the gaping potential security issues, it was a big problem to me that testers weren’t involved in the decision-making process. I’m not sure if anyone technical was involved, though I really hope so. But a tester could have raised the issue about not testing their servers instead of lawyers and business people just agreeing to it without considering the implications. It should have been a major red flag that they didn’t want us to try to break into their server. Testers are not just a checkmark. We have experience and specific knowledge that can assist with product decisions and can end up protecting the business’s interests.
Sep 2016September gaming edition
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted something on a Friday, and there have been a number of games I’ve played recently. I’ve been to two board game conventions and have played a lot of games with friends. This is a long post, but here goes (in alphabetical order):
Aug 2016the benefits of manual testing, episode 2 - agile
Teams at my company are moving to agile, and all of us will go eventually. I’ve been learning about how testing works in agile, and I’ve been talking a lot with people about it, both inside my company and outside. One thing that has come up is the perception that manual testing is not a big piece in agile, and that all of the testers will need to learn automation to continue to succeed. While I agree that testers should know enough to at least identify areas for automation, or better yet, do it, I think there will always be a place in agile for manual testing. Some things just cannot be automated in the first place. Also, manual testing is quick and robust, and the cost can be about the same as automation. Let’s break those down. Quick: Testing in agile needs to be quick. If something is broken, it needs to be discovered and fixed quickly or put the sprint at risk. Manual testing is an efficient way to make sure that something is functioning. Stories can be very small to quite large, and, especially for the smaller stuff and GUI items, being able to quickly look at something, play around with it, and see whether it is working the way it’s supposed to is best done with manual testing. This is especially true for a smaller piece of a work in progress, when not everything is connected, but the developers want to make sure they’re on the right track. Robust: Manual testing is robust. Deviations from a script are expected. If a URL or menu changes, or if a button moves around, a manual test can go forward. An automated test stops and throws an error and has to be inspected for what went wrong. If an application is very stable and unlikely to change anything, automation may be helpful, but if features are being added or moved around, as happens frequently in agile, manual testing will be able to continue more easily than an automated test. Cost: Automation is a large up-front expense. What takes five minutes of manual testing may take thirty minutes to code an automated test. If the same test is going to be run over and over again over multiple sprint, automation may be more cost-effective. But manual testing is more cost-effective to determine functionality for initial tests and one-off tests. Automation does have its uses. Automation takes some human error out of testing (though possibly introduces human error in the coding for testing itself). If testers want to be involved with writing unit tests or helping with TDD, automation is a good way to go. If it’s a long-term project with core functionality built at the beginning, regression tests can be automated to ensure that future features don’t break the main stuff. Integration testing of earlier features can be built too. But, especially for the first sprint of a feature, before it’s fully realized and integrated, manual testing is the way to go. I know of some companies who do entirely manual testing in agile, which poses its own set of challenges. For a discussion of how agile changes the tester’s role, and for briefly touching on different benefits of manual vs automated testing in agile, see Ulf Eriksson’s blog post here . From the same site, here is a mind map about testing in agile, and section 6 deals with manual testing and why it’s necessary. I ran this past people who know what they’re talking about to make sure I’m not saying anything heretical, but I understand there may be differences of opinion. I’d welcome a discussion about this!
Aug 2016living with a mood disorder
For a long time, I thought I had “ordinary” depression. It was terrible at times, though I managed to function. My first bout of it was in fifth grade, and I would deal with it every couple years after that. I would cry easily, think dark thoughts pretty much constantly, and find little joy in activities. I was hospitalized once when the medication I was on proved ineffective, but I quickly found a medication that I responded to well and stayed on for the next ten years.