Welcome Wednesday: How did the story begin?

[#1]

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Two days ago, our house go a little busier.  The kids have been asking to get a cat every since our dogs passed away and our plan has been that we would get one from my in-laws farm when a new litter was born.

About a month ago, we got to meet one of the new little arrivals (there we two sets from different mothers) and as the kids were arguing over who got to hold one of them, my wife and I thought: "We can handle two kittens".

On Monday, we were at the farm as two little ones had been weaned off their mother's and were ready to come home with us.

The first day they spent most of their time under the reclining couch, but we were able to feed them and get them to use the litterbox.  But the story doesn't end there....

The next morning, my wife heard crying coming from our garage.  We double-checked that both of our kittens were in the house.  When we went out there, we discovered a stowaway.  Being very frightened, she climbed into the shocks of my car and we needed to spend many minutes to get her out.

Our best guess is that while we were loading the other two and the kids into the car she snuck in and hid under one of the seats.  Once, in the house she very quickly warmed up to my son and ate very well on his lap.

She has been very attached to the other two, and they all play really well together.  We don't have the heart to separate what was clearly meant to be. 

So this is the story about how we planned to get a kitten and ended up with three.

So, my question for you this week is: How did the story begin?  If can be about anything.  How you got started here in the Community, one of your favorite hobbies, or anything else you would like to share.

Have a great rest of the week!

[Morbhen Rattray]

So cute! Did you decide on names yet @Jimmy Seddon ?

[Stephen_Lugton]

Well @Jimmy Seddon, you've already got a name for the third one - Stowaway!

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Morbhen Rattray yes we did!

• The yellow/orange one is Nova
• The multi-colored one with a white belly is Tali
• The one that is mostly grey and black is Zorah

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Stephen_Lugton I have been given a number of funny names from my father.

• Lost
• Found
• Hide n' Seek

I think we are just really thankful nothing terrible happened to that little one.

[Andy Gladstone]

@Jimmy Seddon you're not just a great parent, but a great human being! What a lovely story - and your kids will have even more enriched lives due to the kindness that you and your wife have shown.

Here's my story...

In 11th grade I was given a free period due to being placed in a Spanish language class where the teacher had insulted me the prior year. I was in Spanish 'honors' in 9th grade, but only two students - Danielle B. and me - were dropped to the 'mainstream' class in 10th grade. On the first day of the semester in 10th grade, our friends that remained in the honors track asked the teacher why Danielle and I had been dropped from the honors track, and her response was 'they demonstrated that they could not handle the high level demands of our class'. Well, that stuck with my classmates and me, and when I was placed back in the honors class in 11th grade (By 11th grade there was only Spanish honors) I looked at my schedule and made a beeline for the Principals office. When I was admitted, I told him in no uncertain terms that I would not attend the class of a teacher who publicly insulted me to my peers, and obviously felt I could not hack it in her class. The Principal was stunned to hear the accusation, but I think even more impressed by my own principles. He acquiesced and excused me from the class.

However, there were no other classes that qualified for my curriculum during the same 42 minute period (yes, our classes were scheduled for 42 minutes with a 3 minute break between each class to transfer classrooms) so I was awarded a free period. 

I would generally get a head start on my homework and other assignments during this period, but there was only so much time I could spend in the library. So I started to hang out by the school commissary and talk with the workers there. The commissary was around the corner from the gym, and the 10th grade girls had gym class during my free period twice a week. There was one girl who used to duck out of gym and hang out by her locker, which happened to be down the opposite hallway. I saw her a few times and would say hello as she passed by. We had met once when her best friend, who was dating my linemate from the school hockey team, introduced us - so I knew her name already. Over a few weeks of seeing each other and just waving hello I got the courage to approach her by her locker and strike up a conversation...

I've written enough of the origin story, so here is where it led to...

She has been the love of my life, wife of 25+ years, mother of our five children and best friend for 30 years.

[Andy Gladstone]

@Jimmy Seddon I just Googled those names, are they a homage to Mass Effect characters?

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Andy Gladstone First, Thank you!  We try to set a good example for our kids.

Second, that is a wonderful story and I'm glad it didn't take you nine seasons and over 200 episodes to tell that story.

Third, yes.  But, I wanted to pick names that sounded good on their own and weren't completely obvious as to where they came from.  It would have been very "on the nose" to use: Padme, Leia & Rey ;)

[Argiro Marioli]

These are the sweetest lil guys, hope to hear more about them next Wednesday!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Great stories, @Jimmy Seddon and @Andy Gladstone 

Once upon a time (1989), I was a software engineer on a classified project. Since you needed to be cleared for the project, someone already on the team had to do each of the tasks the customer needed. One of these tasks was to produce training materials for the customer to train their own people. As the only person on the team who had heard the phrase "lesson plan" before (BS in math/BS in secondary math education), I was selected for this task.

It was fairly simple for me, so they decided to have me also write the user guides for each of the applications we produced. As a developer on the applications, I did not find this difficult either, since I was apparently "an engineer who could write" (thank you upstate New York public schools of the 1970s). 

A couple years later, I was laid off when there were cutbacks in the defense budget. This was not a good time to move to another defense contractor, and I ended up finding a contract position for a Technical Writer, where I was hired based on the style/structure of my resume, since everything I'd written was classified. And, thus, my technical writing career was born.

[Amanda Barber]

Oh my goodness, what a sweet story (and even sweeter pictures, @Jimmy Seddon!!) I'm so glad nothing bad happened to the stowaway. 💜

I love your stories, @Andy Gladstone and @Barbara Szczesniak - gotta love a good origin story!

Here's a quick story - when I was in college, I started in Business with Accounting in mind for my major. Two years into school, I decided to take a semester off to work more and save up more to fund school. I picked up a second job (early morning hours) stocking at a local hardware store. A friend I made there went to volunteer at a local elementary school twice a week after work and invited me to join him. I started tagging along and...when I went back to school the next semester, I changed my major to early childhood elementary education. 👩‍🏫

[Bill Sheboy]

How I changed the naming convention of my documents...

Long ago in software engineering, we would review another engineer's code by printing out reams of paper to pore over, annotating it manually with highlighters and red pens, and finally type up our action items in a document.  The documents typically had a standard naming convention to indicate the reviewer, author, etc.  For example: 

BS 2025-04-23, code review of Mallory's widget.txt

The review team would gather with the author, distributing hardcopies of their feedback with the title at the top of the document, and walk through the code to decide next steps.

I recall early in my career reviewing a very senior engineer's code for the first time.  As we gathered, handing out my feedback copies, I noted the author became agitated, red faced, and then quite angry.  The review was "called to order" (didn't I note this was long ago), and immediately the author stood and started shouting at me for being an inexperienced upstart, telling me I had no right to question their code, calling it "BS", and so on.  This went on for several minutes.  Finally, the moderator paused them long enough to ask, "You know those are Bill's initials, right?"  After a pause, the author quietly sat and the review continued.

From that point forward, I used my full name in such document names.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Bill Sheboy I love this story (and we also have the same initials).

You took me back to the days when I would print out 2 chapters of a user guide, make 20 copies, and put one on everyone's desk to review. (ahh, how the trees all cried)

One time, I wrote "and the cow jumped over the moon" in the middle of the second paragraph on the first page. …and no one ever mentioned it. The trees all cried again.

[John Funk]

Nice to see the little ones in person today through Zoom  :-)

[Stephen_Lugton]

@Barbara Szczesniak one of the senior engineers at an old company wrote a procedure for a major system implementation that all the engineers at the time were required to read, initial every page and sign at the end to day they'd read it.  On about page 21 there was a comment saying that the first person to bring a particular notice off the notice board and shred it on front of him would get £50.  I joined the company 7 years later and the notice was still on the notice board!

Another time I added an objective to my yearly objectives to get my bosses name right within 3 attempts whenever I saw him, for my end of year appraisal my boss was on sick leave so his boss did the appraisal and wondered out loud why my boss had approved that as an objective.  Next week all the managers had to do mandatory objective setting and proof reading training.

[DBooher]

Kittens! Welcome home, Nova, Tali and Zorah! 

Could we please have moar kitten pictures? 

[Lori Brown]

Yes, must confirm kittens are still happy. Visual evidence required.

[Aaron Geister _Trundl_]

Just Cute @Jimmy Seddon It looks like all is well and the farm is fun and bringing new life to your family. 

Thanks for sharing always great to hear whats going on up your way! 

My Transformers love and how it was passed down. 

Well in 1986 my brother took me to my first movie and it left me in tears! Optimus Prime had died and Hot Rod became the new Prime! Since then I had loved Transformers and collected them and enjoyed all the movies and series that have come out. 

Now I am a Husband and father I continued that love by buying them and handing them down to my kids. They have played them collected and even broke them. Yet we keep this tradition of the love for Transformers alive! 

I have one son that ask everyday to buy him a new one! I was a broken record and now he is also a record that won't stop skipping the tune!

[Jimmy Seddon]

First, thank you all for sharing your wonderful stories.  I absolutely love it!

Second, I will absolutely give the people what they want: