Staring at a screen of seemingly intractable merge conflicts, I wondered how we could possibly be ready in time.
It was the night before the official launch of our much anticipated app, and I was feeling tired, nervous and a little superstitious. And I was not alone, going by the anxious emails and instant messages from my colleagues, and the faxes from my boss.
A gale was blowing outside, and I imagined my apartment’s fake window shutters flapping violently in the wind. The grandfather clock in the hallway suddenly struck midnight—that “witching time of night, when church yards yawn, and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world”, as Shakespeare so overdramatically described it.
For a moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding—but then realized how silly that was, and slapped myself across the face. Then I realized how silly that was, too (though I didn’t slap myself again, to avoid an infinite loop).
It was the text message from our sysadmin—arriving a few minutes later—that began the disastrous series of events of that night. It read, simply—“Houston, we have a problem.” (Houston is my name.)
“Problem”, it turns out, was an understatement. This was truly a catastrophe …
Would you like to know what happened next? Great! Just tell us yourself, as the story hasn’t been written yet.
Each new post should add the next twist to the story (try to keep it to a sentence or paragraph at most). Make sure to read through the existing posts first, so that you understand where the story is up to.
Have fun!