RedJen's Rearview Mirror

Winter has been wearing thin on everyone. We’ve all but thawed out from last week’s ice storm. While it might seem odd, it was warm enough today to go barefooted out on my deck long enough to refill the interactive cat entertainment center, which is also known as a bird feeder.

Today was the Super Bowl and while I had mentioned a few weeks ago that people were welcome to come over to my house, no one had said anything and I had assumed people were either not watching the game or had other plans. I was okay with that, ShaeSin’s been having a hectic time lately and if nothing else, she was coming over since we haven’t seen much of each other lately.

It turns out that I had a few surprise visitors. It was very nice evening and just what I’ve needed lately. Between being stranded by the weather, submerged in my own work and people being busy with new jobs, it has been easy to feel disconnected.

Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day and today is celebrated as Candlemas or Imbold. We start to look forward toward the coming of Spring. We recognize the changes of the season as the days become longer and start to come out of ourselves and noticing things that go on around us.

Things begin to stir within as we move forward.

As some people may have determined, I work for a large corporation. Today on the company’s HR (human resources) homepage was a link to Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Desirable MBA Employers.” Since I have friends who are interested in or working on MBA programs, it sounded interesting, so I went to check out the link. It’s a list, but that’s what I expected.

What I didn’t expect was one of the links I found above the list on the Fortune site. Above the 50 desired list was a link to “Generation Wrecked," written by Noshua Watson. (If you look at the article on the Fortune site, you can only see the first few paragraphs, but I found another copy of the same article, which is where my link points.) I’m a part of Generation X. In fact, I had just started college when they decided to start calling us Generation X. It was (and is) such an honor to be labeled as the slacker generation that no one knew what to call, so we become a letter. Apparently we didn’t even deserve an entire word, is it any wonder people didn’t know what to call us? Makes me wonder if anyone actually tried or just decided they were bored, so they called us "X". Anyway, the second paragraph says:

10 December 10, 2003 - NewScientist.com news service

Jan. 29, 2004 - The Hartford Courant

Jan. 28, 2004 - Chicago Tribune

The insane deadline isn’t getting any better. The requirements are still changing. My BS tolerance is at an all time low. Today was a banner day for people named Chris. One wouldn’t go away and the other wouldn’t stop asking stupid questions.

My personal email is getting behind as I try to keep up with work. If all else fails, there will be resolution by Monday.

I’ve decided to cave into the clock nazi and change my schedule. I’ve done it now for two days and so far I like it. I was thinking that I wouldn’t like getting to the gym after work, but I came to the realization that this may work out well for everyone. I’m going into work early, so my manager seems happy. I’m actually spending less time at work, since I have a reason to leave. If only everything were that easy, I’m there when he wants me there and I’m working less, so everyone wins. I’m looking forward to the end of tomorrow, when I can leave my computer alone for a few days.

Dance Fever Friday Night
Sometimes it is nice to go out to a club that isn’t necessarily “hopping”. The positives from this include having room to move without being trampled and getting to spend time with that people you came with. The negatives are more subtle, fewer people to see and flirt with. I guess it all depends on the mood you are in, which one is a better case. Friday night was a time were the less crowded club suited many moods. It had been a long time since we’d been out and just let go. I got home tired, but cheered. After taking a shower, I went straight to sleep. Wow, relaxed, how nice that felt.

Don’t get me wrong; a full and jumping club can be a blast if you start out with energy. I’ve been slowly getting my energy back, so I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t be as much fun where I’d be more on my guard. It is kind of hard to really let go and have fun when you are tired and having to protect your toes at all times. There is only so much energy a single person has and when your energy has to go toward survival, there isn’t much left to check for chemistry sparks and flirt.

Saturday Night Fever
Last night I was invited to share in celebrating the wedding of one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met. Neither the bride nor the groom is what I’d call typical people, because the word typical isn’t big enough to describe either of them. Having watched their relationship change over the past few years, I can’t say I envy them the journey they took to get to this point, but the people they have become together are amazing. What a eclectic group of people surround them and came together to celebrate with them. I cannot remember being at another wedding that was such a real celebration. I’ve never seen the bride smile so broadly or much. Seeing her kick of her heels and truly enjoying herself was a treat. The venue was gorgeous, the food wonderful and the guests were clearly having a wonderful time. Rarely have I seen such genuine fun in formal attire.

Two nights of dancing shoes, time to wear slippers today :)

If you want me to hurry up and finish coding something, interrupting me every 20 minutes to ask for status does NOT help. I started just saying, “Out” when people walked into my cube.

For the record, I don’t have a TPS report and I’m not going to fill one out!

Still up, it’s amazing how much work I’ve gotten done this evening. I’m all but done with the stuff I was trying to do at the office yesterday and what I had planned later today.

After all the panic about getting the code ready to be tested for today, now they are thinking about holding it back in order to add new requirements to it. Not that anything has changed from the original design I showed them, sent them and finalized with them. Nope, they’ve just decided that the pastel shades are a tad too vibrant and although they asked to send notification to anyone registered with a blue car, now they want to pick who the lucky people with blue cars are that get to “win”. The requirement included minimizing manual user interaction, now they want to be able to make the whole thing manual.

Maybe what they really want is a “do what I want” button, I should probably get on that now. Granted, they will probably want to discuss the exact dimensions of the button, exactly what verbiage to use to label the button and what font things should be in. That discussion should take at least a week to finalize. If I’m lucky, by the time they get that decided, I’ll have shown them the design for the actual function and coded everything as proposed, only to have them decide that something else is wrong with the way I coded things to their requested specifications.

Who'd have thought that South Park would be advocating people take personal responsibility for their own actions....

I had one of the most draining conversations today with my manager. We were originally supposed to meet for an hour, but we ended up talking for close to two and a half hours. I think the net result from the meeting was good. We talked about everything from my perception of things, how the events of the last two years of work had contributed to issues I was having, my perceptions of my manager specifically and our department in general.

I found out some of our customers were complaining that they weren’t shown my code early enough. Normally that may have been true, but this particular customer is known for changing requirements on the fly and then not taking any responsibility when delivery dates are missed, so before I did any coding, I showed them my design proposal to make sure it was what they were asking for. Once we had an agreement, I put together a HLD (High Level Design) document and sent that to them with a note asking them to let me know if any of the information was incorrect. I sent them the HLD on January 20th. They complained on Wednesday, February 11th that I hadn’t let them “see” what I was doing early enough. Funny, they had the HLD for three weeks and I never heard a peep from them saying that wasn’t what they wanted. So taking the extra time to put together the HLD has, if nothing else, given my manager leverage to go back and ask them what they needed that wasn’t in the HLD and it is kind of hard for them to say they didn’t know what they were getting when what I coded for them matched the HLD they’ve had for almost a month.

Maybe one day Friday afternoon at the office will go back to meaning a quiet day to catch up on paperwork and take care of little things. I’m getting a bit sick of 3-hour afternoon meetings when everyone wants to be somewhere else.

Someone should run for office to outlaw any meeting held after 3 pm on Fridays. They’d get my vote at this point.

And because it is Valentine's Day, here's something I found funny and a bit too close to reality from AdvisorTeam:

Your Artisan Valentine – The Playmate
Ready to take the plunge? Artisans want exciting lives, and they bring their partners along for the ride. Whether the passion is adventure travel, jet setting, sex, or pursuing an ambitious career dream, your Artisan partner will keep things exciting. Artisans cannot tolerate their lives falling into a rut. They are very generous and Artisans love to give gifts and create memorable surprises. But, they can be slow to commit initially and can be fickle if they think a relationship is losing its spark. An Artisan will bolt from a relationship if he or she feels fenced in or tied down.

Your Guardian Valentine – The Helpmate
Need someone who's 'there for you'? For Guardians, romantic relationships (like all human interactions) are serious responsibilities. Guardians are more likely than other temperaments to adhere to traditional gender roles in their courting practices, as well as in long-term relationships. They may feel torn between old-fashioned roles and the expectations of more “modern” partners. They try not to let emotional feelings sidetrack them; breadwinning, keeping house, even providing sexually for their partners are “duties” to be fulfilled whether or not one is “in the mood for it.” The demands of a career or community work may take priority over romance for Guardians once the courtship period is over.

Your Idealist Valentine – The Soulmate
Are you Prince or Princess Charming? For Idealists, romance is a “way of life,” an approach that does not limit itself to the realm of relationships. They look for deep connection with a partner: open communication, the sharing of dreams and life purposes, ongoing exploration of feelings, and sex as communion. No mate is initially as willing to accept your “darker side” than an Idealist – who may even find your faults compelling. However, Idealists are particularly prone to disappointment when a partner tumbles from the pedestal they have erected. Your Idealist mate may also be plagued (and plague you) with persistent anxiety, the vague worry that things are “too good to be true.”

Your Rational Valentine – The Mindmate
Long for a 'meeting of the minds'? Rationals choose their partners very deliberately. They tend not to enjoy the “time wasters” that often go along with relationships. Many Rationals can become bored with the niceties of courtships, continuous “processing” of emotional issues, and romantic gestures, proclamations, and outpourings that restate the obvious. But, Rational partners can provide intellectual intercourse like no others can. If you enjoy discussing such things as great books, philosophy, scientific theory, your Rational mate will never criticize you for being boring or “too deep.” Rationals appreciate intelligence and expertise the way some others appreciate looks, money, or status. They expect that you will reciprocate by respecting the time and energy they put into their own interests.

People under the grip of hormones don’t like to think clearly. They also don’t want to hear the real answers to the questions they ask. They will also grab any excuse to discredit answers they don’t like.

When faced with change and inconvenience, what was once claimed to be rock solid and enduring can go up in a puff of smoke.

It is in adversity that the content of one’s character is shown. And some people wonder why I refuse to get my hopes up by counting on the actions of others.

I’m definitely not feeling well. My head feels fuzzy, I’m cranky, my temper is short, my patience is low, I frustrate easily and I’m more pessimistic than usual.

…and a dollar short.

You may be misinterpreting someone else's intentions and answering defensively. Strive to see things more clearly, and be less abrasive.

The Good – I think my sinuses are finally ready to start clearing up. I’m tired and having issues staying awake, but I can breathe and my teeth no longer ache 24 hours a day. My gym schedule is settling back down.

The Bad – I’ve been fighting off a sinus infection since at least Saturday. There has been a bunch of drama going on that I’ve observed. Say it with me: “Personal responsibility”.

The Boring (Work) - I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that I really don’t need to think any longer. It doesn’t appear that anyone appreciates when I do think, so why bother. I hear a lot of lip service about wanting to be a high performance team. I’m finding a lot of humor in the ineptitude that I see. It has been made clear that I’m not welcome to make observations, so I just ask questions…

Okay I blasted the company that previously hosted my website for poor customer response (if you are curious, see my Things that SUCK! page), so it is only fair that I report on my current host, iPowerWeb.

When I got up this morning (involuntarily, due to coughing), I found that my site was having problems resolving and was instead pulling up a default page from the host company. After making sure that all the files were still in place, I opened a support ticket at 7:05 am EST. I received an email at 7:32 am EST apologizing for my problem and saying that my ticket had been escalated to the technical support team. At 8:02 am EST, I received a second email again apologizing for the inconvenience and saying that proper adjustments had been made.

In less than half an hour, my problem had been acknowledged and in less than an hour corrected. This is the type of response I like to see. (I still haven’t heard back from Zan-SUCK.)

It should be noted that iPowerWeb is located on the West Coast and as such, the quick responses happened between 4:32 am and 5:02 am PST. Now I need to write an email to the Customer Service department of iPowerWeb, thanking them for the good service.

It would appear that I spoke too soon on things being resolved. It looks like they did a server upgrade on the Apache code that runs the servers and some of the settings are having issues. The good news for ShaeSin and Desufnoc is that I backed up the entire site earlier today, which means there won’t be a Zan-SUCK repeat today.

1:10 pm EST - So I’m sitting on hold with iPower right now. I have a feeling that they are having more than a few issues. The toll-free number they have listed was ringing busy, but the direct number listed got me into their support queue.

I’m beginning to think Dominion is outside my house. My cable just flashed off and is now trying to reload. That was a close call, but cable has been restored. Having so many technical things going haywire at once makes me think of Dominion. It may not be fair, but among my friends, Dominion has been deemed the bringer of Gremlins and odd occurrences. Not that it’s fair to him, but at this point the theory has proven true a few too many times to be a complete coincidence.

1:21 pm EST – I just got finished speaking with someone on the support team. As I suspected, there was a server code upgrade last night and as a result of a "glitch" the configuration file that normally points to my server space was altered to point to the base directory of the server. In order for the fix to take effect, the server has to be restarted, I’ll have to wait until that happens to actually post this.

The good news is that while the glitch is annoying, the tech person I spoke with was able to speak intelligently and even answered my questions politely with appropriate details. Now I just have to see how long it is going to take before the server restart occurs.

I’ve noticed that I’ve reacquired an old habit of expressing annoyance with people’s actions. This traditional expression is known as the eye roll. For most people, the eye roll is harmless and usually goes unnoticed. There are a few people who are vulnerable to the eye roll and take damage if exposed to it, much like Superman and Kryptonite. The eye roll translates roughly into “are you out of your mind”, “heaven help us all”, “chalk one more up to the idiot” or “this is why fish need bicycles”.

Ever since deciding to enjoy the humor in the insanity at work, the eye roll and the veiled eye roll have become more common. The most recent trigger for the eye roll happened yesterday.

The background – I went in to work on Tuesday and Wednesday with a fever. I looked sick, I was cranky and generally probably should have been at home sleeping, but went to work in order to take care of some things. Well, I went in to work cover my ass, because my manager and team lead haven’t exactly been consistent on watching out for their own people as of late. The phrase "hang them high and let them swing" would be more accurate in my opinion. Thursday, I stayed home sick and Friday I took the day off to sleep without guilt.

On Wednesday, I sent an email to our customer liaison detailing what I thought needed to happen prior to putting a new application into user pilot. And I quote: “Please determine the date on which the customer's team will begin piloting the application. Set up a working 1.5 hour meeting at least 2 days prior to that date for a pre-pilot run through.”

Now that some time has passed, I think I’m ready to begin looking into bringing a new resident into the house. I’ve done a bit of research on cat breeds and have decided that I’d like to adopt a pair of sibling Bengal kittens. That’s the easy part. The hard part is now I need to figure out how to find a reputable breeder from whom I can acquire the kittens.

To be honest, I don’t know a thing about how pure breed cat breeders operate. I can easily search the Internet and find sites, but I don’t want to assume that a slick website means a reputable breeder or the converse. Just because the web part is nice doesn’t necessarily mean that the cats are treated well. Anyway, if anyone has any advice, I’m open to suggestions.

Do you wonder what a Bengal cat looks like? Here is a link to Cheetah’s Den Cattery a site with a bunch of pictures on their homepage. Here is my favorite of the Bengal pictures that I’ve seen so far:

Once more into the breach, err office…
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead…
Do you think a call from my mom, will get me an excused absence from work?

Now I lay me down to sleep
A shot of Nyquil and I’m out deep
If I should die before I wake
That’s one last commute I’ll have to make

Here I am at work again. It is uncomfortably hot in here. Not I want to fan myself hot, but sweat dripping down my back under my clothes hot and the underside of my hair is wet. I don’t know if I’m sweating because I’m running a fever or because the temperature is too high in here. Either way, I think I’m doing pretty well so far, as I’ve only taken off my shoes and I’ve left the bra on.

I think that’s it for the work project, now all that is left is fixing bugs.

The Zan-SUCK campaign is picking up momentum (okay there are only 3 of us so far, but that’s a 200% growth since I started).

Zan-SUCK and the BBB

So now the week from hell is over. I was supposed to be on call this weekend while my project went into pilot mode, but the site was closed today because of the snow from last night. On the positive side, I didn’t have to explain why I didn’t want to drive in snow or ice conditions to get to work. (I learned to drive on ice, what I don’t like is dodging other drivers who don’t know how to drive on ice.) On the down side, I ended up on a conference call at 10:00 am dealing with the state of my project.

I have to say, the amount of whining being done by a certain person is not proportional to the issue he thinks he is raising. It doesn’t matter how much he WANTS something, there is a process that we are supposed to follow for ALL requests. In fact, we, the development team, are getting heat for not following the process. I don’t care that it would literally take me 5 minutes to give him exactly what he wants. I’m not going to acknowledge that he needs the design change until it goes through the process. No, explaining why this is the most important thing going on does not allow you to go outside the process. Sorry, if I’m going to be kicked by the process, you are going to use the damn thing and like it. What makes this specific case humorous to me is that when I read the requirement, I already knew that this exact issue would come up later. The requirement said the sync agent needed to work with the new classification system. When I said that based on the requirement, I was coding everything to support the new classifications ONLY, the response I got was “that’s okay, that’s what we want”. So I didn’t bother to add the extra one line it would take to support the old classifications at the same time (out of spite). Today he tried to say that the requirement said it had to support the old & new classifications, that may be true now, but that wasn’t the case when we agreed to do it. I’m not accepting add on requests as part of the original schedule. See, if I don’t get credit for doing anything extra as a favor, I’m not doing anything extra as favors.

The decision was made to postpone the actual pilot until Monday. So I don’t have to work this weekend, well that’s not really true, I should work on the one open coding issue. If I don’t, I’m sure someone will want to know why I wasn’t able to get it fixed since I’ve had it since Friday.

This weekend, I’m going to sleep. I haven’t been able to take my sleep aid for the last week, since I was taking a decongestant at night to fight off the cold/flu/sinus infection. Now that my head has pretty much cleared up, I’ll be sleeping.

It's official, I've made it an entire year.