#increments

[fieriframes]

[And slows our canter to a trot. We mean to stop, in increments, but can't commit. We post and sit, in impotence. What? Are you Harry Potter? Whoo!]

[grouchydairy]

For me, it covers little increments. In fact, my poetry and its associated side hustles has grown exactly at the rate of my rental inflation, when my income has otherwise been frozen. / It makes sense to me only because I would have written these pieces anyways and shared them free. / Now, by twist of additional creativity, your eyeballs may grant me the thing I need to not have to move every single year, and perhaps to treat myself to some whole peppercorns instead of pre-ground pepper.

LUCY DAN / read the rest of the poem here!

[mikoworks]

"Always There"

Part 1 - You are here

Part 2

Part 3

Parts 4 through? - Coming soon

@anyamusumesonlywife @omagpies

[justinempire]

Increments

[selahvibe]

Easy 3-Ingredient Copycat Butterfinger Recipe Candy corn, peanut butter, and chocolate chips are the only 3 ingredients you need to make homemade Butterfinger candy bars. 8 ounces candy corn, 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup chocolate chips

[tsukk1]

sendai frogs rock band au !! 🐸🎸✨

[rachaelwilterdink]

More Great Agile Debates, Part 2

In the second part of my new blog series on "Agile's Great Debates," I cover another set of five topics that people tend to argue about when it comes to agile ways of working. Here they are: - SAFe is an Agile Framework - You Should Show “Not Done” Work at the Sprint Review - The Sprint Review is a Status Update - Agile is the same thing as Scrum - The Sprint Review and Retrospective are the Same

SAFe is an Agile Framework

I know I’ll probably get a few haters when I say this, but NO!, I don’t view SAFe as an agile framework. It’s a bloated, complicated (and bastardized) way of trying to accomplish large and overly complex, integrated work. (Seriously, visit their site and you will instantly see what a mess it is.) As an agile consultant, my recommendation is usually to avoid scaling if at all possible. By attempting to scale, you increase cost and complexity, and the risk of failure is much higher. It’s highly preferable to keep atomic and autonomous agile teams that are small and focused.

However, if you feel you must scale, there are (in my humble opinion), far better options than SAFe. These include Less and my scaled agile framework of choice: Nexus (which was created by the same people who wrote The Scrum Guide).

You Should Show “Not Done” Work at the Sprint Review

Uh, duh – NO! This is a cardinal rule of Scrum. Every team must have an agreed-upon Definition of Done, which is an official artifact in Scrum. And if an item does not meet this definition, it is not “Done,” and therefore should not be shared in a Sprint Review. Unfortunately, there are many Scrum Teams that struggle with this. First off, many lack a Definition of Done, and without one, how does anyone know what “done” looks like? Short answer: they don’t! This means that stories can linger and change, because nobody knows where the boundaries are.

Teams may also be tempted to show things that are “mostly” baked. This usually means that the coding has been done and it’s been passed off to QA for testing, but testing is in progress and hasn’t been completed. Some Scrum Teams cheat to get around this irritating problem by adjusting their Definition of Done so it doesn’t include “QA tests passed without any critical- or high-severity defects.” Try not to be this team. Having a tested, working, useable, demonstratable, and potentially-releasable working increment is the whole point of each Sprint!

The Sprint Review is a Status Update

Honestly, this is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to agile and Scrum! NO! The Sprint Review is not merely a status update or a demo; this event should be much more than that (and it should replace the dreaded “Status Review Meeting”). The point of the Sprint Review, according to The Scrum Guide is to: “Inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future iterations.” Yes, you should show your actual, working increment(s). This should not be a facsimile or a PowerPoint. Not only that, but the Developers should lead this event. They did the hard work of building the backlog items, and they deserve to get the recognition and credit that comes along with delivering. The second, and very important part, of the Sprint Review is to come up with a plan for future iterations. In my experience, the Product Owner has a general idea of what is wanted in the next Sprint or two, and shares this plan with the audience. However, based on stakeholder feedback, that tentative plan may change to accommodate new user requests. At the end of the Sprint Review, the expected outcome is an updated Product Backlog that serves as the input to the next Spring Planning event.

Agile is the same thing as Scrum

There is a widespread and common misunderstanding between agile and Scrum. This occurs because the Scrum Framework is far and away the most popular of agile approaches, but it’s definitely not the only one. Nor is agile synonymous with Scrum. The way I describe this concept when training new Scrum Teams is that agile is a mindset, an umbrella that covers all the various aspects of different agile approaches. All the different “flavors” of agile, therefore, are agile, but they are not agile itself.

To better understand what agile is, the best resource (in my humble opinion) is the original Agile Manifesto, which was famously penned by a group of frustrated software developers who met in Park City, Utah, at a ski resort in my wonderful home state of Utah in 2001. My first child was born the same year, making the document 22 years old, which is relatively new in the grand scheme of technology. In the Agile Manifesto, there are things that are valued more than others (which is not to say the other things don’t have any value). It also includes 12 core principles. Although agile has evolved past software development, the same ideas still apply to other contexts.

The Sprint Review and Retro are the Same

As an agile trainer and coach (Scrum specifically), I have seen that the two Scrum events that are most often confused, are the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective. I don’t quite understand why there is so much confusion, but my experience has proved it time and time again. To clarify, NO, these two events are not the same thing. Each has its own purpose and audience, along with expected outcomes. The goal of the Sprint Review is to: “Inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future iterations.” In contrast with the Sprint Review, the Sprint Retrospective is only for the Scrum Team, without any outside or extra participants (including managers). The point of this event is to embrace the empirical process of inspecting and adapting. It allows the team to honestly look back at the Sprint and identify opportunities for improvement. So, as you can see – the Sprint Review and Retrospective are two totally separate events, with totally different purposes. I hope this clears up any confusion!

Final Thoughts

This blog covered five more ways agile concepts and practices are misunderstood. To recap: try not to scale if you can avoid it, make sure your team has a Definition of Done, only show "done" work at the Sprint Review, which is a separate event with a different purpose than the Retrospective. Finally, agile is a mindset - Scrum is an agile framework. Now, as always - it's your turn! What do you think about these debate topics? Do you have any differing opinions or experiences? If so, I would love to hear about them in the comments below! Oh, and P.S. - if you missed the first blog in this series, you can find it here: - Part 1 - Devs as Sub-team, the 3 questions, product goal, refinement, hybrids Check back for more great debates soon! Read the full article

[bananonbinary]

it somewhat frustrates me when people talk about biden funding genocide, because it's not not true, but it's also like. not really a biden-specific problem. the united states, as a whole, is very pro-genocide. i have never in my life seen a presidential candidate that thinks we should pull back from all the fucked up shit we do internationally.

that is bad. don't get me wrong. you should protest, and make your voices heard, and better yet, actually do things that support the people in danger, but talking about it like it's a unique wrong that biden has done really obfuscates the fact that he is one of the better politicians we've had in office. i'm not saying i'd be his best friend, i don't know or care about him as a person. but as a man doing a job, he IS doing it better than anyone else who could realistically hold the position. it's a low bar, but i'll be damned if we don't clear it just because people think small improvement doesn't matter.

[newsbites]

For the 2024/25 FY, the unions propose a salary increase of 10% across the board, while on the provision of housing, they propose government conducts a comparative study on the provision of housing by governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The purpose of the proposed study is to provide civil servants with the best alternative to the current housing provisions by the local government.

“On medical aid, government should conduct a comparative study on the provision of medical aid and facilities by governments in the SADC region with the purpose to curb cost and provide the best alternative to the current medical aid provision to civil servants by the government,” reads the report addressed to Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

In the proposal, the unions also urged to include the possible improvement of the national health facilities and the procurement of advanced medical equipment countrywide as part of cost-cutting measures and improvement of the provision of general public health services to all citizens.

However, President Hage Geingob recently told the Public Service Commission that the size of the country’s civil service is too big and not sustainable.

[rotzaprachim]

yeah no not to make it all about Me but i'm still fucking furious that i a jewish woman have been subject to a nonstop torrent of misogynistic antisemitism for the last year in which i have been repeatedly told to kill myself or have my teeth punched in or that my sexual assault or murder wouldn't matter and that i'm an evil human being if i don't believe that 45% of my ethnic group should straight up die and then i find out all these motherfuckers telling me this statistically come from fucking trumpist families while we, jewish women, turned out not to be the root of all conservatism but the second most Harris-voting demographic in the entire country. i think we are owed a fucking apology

[ponytailzuko]

for example, if you go into your alarm app on your phone, how many total alarms are in there?

[sophies-junkyard]

Change is incremental, but something CHANGED today. You weren’t sure about voting for Biden? You don’t have to anymore! And now is the time to RALLY. The world is fucked up, but letting Trump win will not lead to the political revolution we’re waiting for. Wake up.

Im gonna vote for Kamala Harris in November because I don’t want a wannabe dictator running our country. Simple as that.

[secriden]

Absolutely heartrending because it just hit me that before Bison's phone call, Fadel was actually began to believe that he'd been wrong to suspect Style. Because despite the evidence stacked against Style -- and remember, it was Fadel that spells out the reasons they have to be suspicious of Kant and Style -- Style is so incredibly genuine here and Fadel, in truth, wanted to believe in him.

I think it's possible that Fadel actually saw Style through the window here, but pretended not to because he had to take a moment to prepare himself. But if you see where Style is standing and the way the patio is lit up, there's no reason why Fadel shouldn't have seen him from where he was by the tables before he turns to go behind the counter.

Fadel: I was thinking of going to your place. But you were more impatient than me, huh?

This would also explain how Fadel is able to say this before Style even has the chance to make a sound. I had expected Fadel to wait and see what Style would say, to play it safe and observe; but no, Fadel immediately sets their dynamic back to the assumption of familiarity that their relationship was on before he disappeared for a week. The assumption that he could show up at Style's house unannounced and Style would welcome him.

This feels incredibly intentional. Fadel wants to see how Style is going to react to Fadel acting as if nothing strange happened. If Style was an informant, he should be confused and Fadel may catch him out in a lie.

But Style's performance is flawless:

Style: Where have you been? You didn't reply any of my texts! (punctuation added for emphasis and to mimic Style's tone)

He says this and the whine in his tone is a clear affirmation of that same assumption of familiarity. This is the tone used by someone who is secure in the knowledge that they are owed an explanation; this is the tone of someone in an established relationship who feels justifiably wronged at being left out of the loop.

And I cry a little bit more at the thought of Fadel reading those texts -- Style by turns frantic and confused and worried -- and refusing to respond. Or worse, receiving them and refusing to even read them because Fadel doesn't trust himself to tell the lies from the truth anymore.

At this point, Fadel seems to waver a little bit in his resolve to "test" Style. I think he was a little taken aback that Style didn't seem to be even a little bit weird about his abrupt disappearance for a week. His reply takes on a quality of gentle pleading and the way he's speaking is exactly like a boyfriend who knows he messed up. But because these lines are a lie, Fadel cannot meet Style's eyes as he says them. It's only when he says "I was busy, too" (not a lie) that he's finally able to squarely meet Style's gaze again.

And Style continues to be so convincingly NORMAL because all of this is real for him. This is just genuinely Style, the boyfriend, who actually wants to know where his boyfriend disappeared to without notice for a whole week. Nothing about his body language or tone has even a hint of inauthenticity because there is none. Style means every single word and meets Fadel's gaze squarely as he says them.

It genuinely looks to me like Fadel thaws significantly at this point. He suddenly looks less stiff and the way he delivers this line contains so much more inflection, it becomes cajoling. He even begins to more consistently meet Style's eyes as Fadel begins to allow himself some honesty. Fadel's logical brain knows that the circumstances surrounding Style coming into his life are riddled with inconsistencies, but he both senses and WANTS to see Style's sincerity. The shields that Fadel had up are melting in the face of Style being present and unchanged from what Fadel remembers.

Stay, Fadel all but says, let me make it up to you. Fadel offering to make food for Style (@braceletofteeth please hold me as I cry about this!!) is also significant because the last time Fadel made food for Style (the burger) is when he was softening towards Style after Style helped out at the diner during the rush crowd. Fadel is a creature of habit and all that he's learned of late are the ways Style is easy to love.

They begin to fall back into their usual, playful banter and teasing dynamic. Style leans back against the table (and the way he's all unspoken surrender and submission -- throat arched up and bare and vulnerable -- truly makes me feral), turns up the flirt and Fadel responds in kind. And yes, Fadel means his question on some level but you don't get the sense that his heart is in the interrogation. Fadel may be going through the motions, but this is just Style being himself, exactly as Fadel has come to know (and love), so nothing is pinging as wrong to Fadel.

I mean, just LOOK AT FADEL'S EYES!! His expression is so so soft and tender and wistful. He wants this. He wants so desperately to believe that this is why Style was texting him throughout the week. He wants to have Style in all the ways that include and go beyond the physical; like Style offering his affection is everything Fadel didn't think he could wish for.

It's almost cruel the way Style's touch so utterly disarms Fadel. Because, while it is part of the games they've been playing, so much of their interactions have also been grounded in genuine feelings and moments of intense vulnerability on both sides (although neither of them know this for sure!! T_T). Style's hands on Fadel's body literally removes the last stretch of distance between them and that odd unease lingered over the way Fadel spoke and held himself at the start of the scene finally disappears.

If we compare their expressions and the way they are holding themselves and, most importantly, touching each other by the end of the scene to what we see when Style first walks into the diner, it becomes apparent just how much ground Fadel has given in the span of those few minutes.

It's the way Fadel keeps holding onto Style's hand even as he's turning to leave, maintaining that point of contact until the very last second.

Because with Style in front of him -- warm and familiar and carelessly affectionate -- Fadel allows himself to slip back to the version of himself that woke up in Style's bed at the start of the episode, the version of himself that called Style's name for the first time and wanted to wake him up with the softest of touches. The version of himself that literally, physically couldn't let Style go.

Which is why, when the call comes and Fadel's heart gets broken anew, Fadel remains devastatingly empty of anger towards Style.

Because it was Fadel's own fault for choosing to believe the lie.

Because it was a decision he made to allow his heart to rule over his head.

Because Fadel understands that Style only succeeded in "fooling" him once again because Fadel let him.

So Fadel gives himself this truth, allows himself to finally take that step to bare his heart to Style, the way he promised himself he never would, but the way he so desperately wanted.

And Style kisses Fadel because he doesn't realise that this confession is not a reward, but a judgement.

For Fadel is paying penance for giving in to his own foolish heart, and in so doing renders Style's love to devastation.

[justinempire]

(Justin Empire) Increments 

[youreastargirl]

Okay okay hold on.

You’re telling me that Derek Hale is living in Beacon Hills owning an auto shop and consulting for the sheriff and having a rebellious teenage son who loves the jeep and in the first twenty seconds of being on screen Derek says to the sheriff “Maybe you should call your son?” Like I literally paused it.

Seriously considering keeping it paused and just writing a fanfic to finish it out because this is a beautiful premise that right now is canon. I accept the first 20 minutes of this movie. The rest we can toss.

[lover-of-mine]

911 Hiatus Rewatch and Parallels:

6x09 “Red Flag” -> 6x12 “Recovery” -> 6x15 “Death and Taxes”