Reqiurements document - DCF & ECM Teams

Most of my reading the last two weeks has been for work. While I was out for 5 months, they were defining the requirements (or at least attempting to) for the next release of the project. It's a difficult read, although it does seem to have something for everyone.

• A little non-fiction - descriptions of pertinent functions;
• some mystery - what did they mean by that? what are they trying to accomplish?;
• fantasy/sci-fi - can it read your mind and do it for you?.

You would think that 2 weeks of looking at it, I would have made it through the 140+ pages. Unfortunately, I made it to about 110, then started back at the beginning - rewording, adding comments. But now it is 170+ pages... I'll never finish.

Truth & Beauty - Ann Patchett

I read this book at the wrong time. It is beautifully written (but I think that of all her work) and contains some thought provoking comments, however it was not what I should have read the week before I went back to work. This account of the friendship between Ann and Lucy Grealy, which ended with Lucy's death, is truly heartbreaking at the end. You know from the start that she is going to die, but it is painful to watch her fall apart. From the beginning of the book she is a fighter, if insecure. She is one of those folks with a great facade hiding what she feels is her true worth. You see it in her relationships, romantic and otherwise; her dependency on the encouragement, support and love of those around her.

I can't imagine going through life as she did - chemo as a child, living without a lower jaw, being unable to eat easily, being a person everyone notices based on an odd appearance, experiencing so many surgeries to attempt to fix the jaw. In the end, I figured the cancer or one of the surgeries would be what ended it. I didn't see the downward spiral into drugs. But I knew that once she started taking them, she wouldn't have the strength to stop.

While this is enjoyable to read, it left me emotionally drained. Unlike a sad movie which I can watch over and over, I don't reread the sad book. I'll pass it on to someone.