There is something outside that is chirping. I think it is a road sign. They do that. I think it is a capacitor problem. It annoys me.

http://adamcadre.ac/content/brown/ -- Wikipedia Brown!

http://seferin.livejournal.com/295943.html -- via metaquotes. Trust me on the spellcheck. ;)

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_releases/22857.html -- more releases, nothing jumped out at me this time except for the shirts.

The chirping has stopped.

elyssa answered the phone when I really needed to hear a friendly human voice. This is a good thing.

This weekend is our highly-anticipated one-day weekend. Benefits: overtime.

Barking Phone Goon would be invited to kiss parts of me that she wouldn't like to kiss, except that I reserve those sorts of invitations for people I actually do like. She had a complaint about something she felt was unfair. I researched it. Hahahaha no. She's only considering 40% of the metric, and she is doing either average or very poorly in the other 60%. I clearly need to create a report that spits out some stuff on that front. This thing is to reward people who are doing above and beyond as balanced across all three parts of the scoring metric. Barking Phone Goon may be good at the one thing, but she's evidently not at the other two.

In semi-related news, the Older Office Lady is pulling stuff for my database. My docs are becoming more solid, and omg it is such a pleasure to not be the one doing all of it. She wants to sort things and take out records that she knows are irrelevant. I say no, because I'd rather include three hundred irrelevant records than take out one relevant one. She can sort all she wants, as long as the sorting doesn't break anything.

Today I was huffing off on a much-needed break when the Tech Guy from our training class flagged me down. He looked lost, confused, and very small in his mini-cube. He asked me if I knew of another way to get the name of a server when it can't be found through the My Network Places route.
"Punch the network admin until a name falls out?" I answered flippantly, then started to zoom off. A tech power greater than my general level of frustration brought me up short, and right around back to him. I thought through a few ways that I might try it, but came up short. "...I think I was right the first time. Ask the network admin? ... Don't tell me he's the network admin."
Fortunately, the customer wasn't. Unfortunately, the customer couldn't get in touch with same, and going over to the box and getting the name directly off the box was not an option either.

But that's not the sort of question you ask someone who's below you in the tech pecking order. I'm very sensitive to the tech pecking order. Right now the guy with the red cube badge is treating me like a Promising Youth, which is making me roll over and show my unsecured vulnerabilities. (That is a bizarre crossover of my submissive nature and my geek nature. I don't 100% understand it myself, but that's a good response. Just not a safe one.) But my classmate there, someone whose geek cred I respect, treated me as an equal. That really helps make me feel like I'm not just faking it.

The training supervisor said there's something about Thursdays. I'm feeling it. I'm so feeling it.

2007.07.12 Strawberry lemon water.

12:43

Tonight might be a late night. Late-ish start, but at least I'm motivated and that headache is NOT STARTING NO IT IS NOT.

1:15

Mmm, stevia. To be distinguished from stevieg, because it is entirely appropriate to make mmm-tasty noises about a "dietary supplement" that's actually a sweetener, but it is entirely inappropriate to make mmm-tasty noises about a friend who is also the boyfriend of another friend, and there's an assumption of general monogamy in that direction. But stevia is tasty in strawberry lemon water. It makes it almost like strawberry lemonade! It has much less of a weird aftertaste than old-school non-sugar sweeteners, and even less of a weird aftertaste than Splenda. I approve.

1:28

I don't approve of the part where my body goes looking for the sugar it thinks it has, and I get that weird spindizzy feeling. That's not on my list of good things. But otherwise, win.

1:45

Deskmate is upset over the stuff that Field is doing. I should not be on the list of people around whom she may vent, because even when she's absolutely right, she's also absolutely intolerable.

2:54

Just because I am sitting here at the computer and you are not at the computer, please do not ask me to do shit while I'm in the middle of something. If I cannot speak, please immediately retract your request and go far away, very fast.

3:02

Expressed an edited version of this to the person who did this. I was deep in hack mode, and when I'm that deep, I can't prioritize effectively. I figured first I cannot do this, then maybe I could, but I shouldn't interrupt what I was doing, except the telnet was free, so I could, but by that time I'd forgotten the exact details of what I was doing and went on finger memory, so then I thought I got it wrong, and then I was completely interrupted from hack mode. Dammit.

At least she was sorry. But when I lose my language, that means that I'm no longer available to you or anyone except probably those who have permissions to enter my brain.

An attention condition is an asset in certain kinds of work. You can either pay attention to everything (but this must be carefully managed to avoid swamping you) or you can hyperfocus on the thing that you're doing for a long time, so deep that you get incredible things done... and when someone jars you out of it, it's hard to get that back.

3:35

I think it's this state that neurotypical people only get into with deep meditation. They only get into the split-attention thing when incredibly distracted, and they don't know what to do with it. I'm close enough to neurotypical that I don't fall apart like someone with severe ADHD does, and I know how to cope with lists and reminders and my brain getting into nice little routines. The hacktrance is easier to get for me than someone neurotypical, but it's still not as easy to get into as sometimes it would be nice to have it. Is this why artists have the reputation of being flighty? We can sit for hours working on some one thing, but release us into everyday life and all its stimuli, and we're all over the place.

4:08

E-mailed the Guru to ask if he can restore the jobs that I didn't get to pull from before they were archived. *facepalm* That's almost all my bad. They were live yesterday, but I was headachin'.

4:37

So right at the height of my frustration, http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/misjess/1.jpg got linked in IRC. This led to a link at my previous efforts vs. that photo. At first I declared that adding a hat was beyond my talents, but I was sufficiently irritated with my progress to hit up Google Image Search and find something appropriate.

5:21

Oh, wow. I did not realize that I was so very upset about that thing that I'm upset about. If I dwell on it, though, I'll get more upset. But my personal life aside, the stats-pulling is coming along nicely except for the part where I didn't get to those jobs in time and I'll have to wait on the Guru.

6:39

Since I'm torn about whether to gather all the things together or not, perhaps I should just go and collect the other stuff first. That would make more sense.

8:32

The Guru got me my stuff restored. Hooray for the Guru! I'm going to see if I can get it all pulled tonight before Stressy College Chick goes home and I get to be kicked out too.

2007 06 14

In Soviet Russia, Thursday never quite got the hang of you.

12:19

Going back through the documentation. The gathering-and-prepare-data-for-upload part looks pretty solid; there are a few tweaks that have to be made to fix it, but that's OK. That happens.

*sigh* I have thoughts in my head and they don't want to come out quite right, not without a link or five and a rant and too much information about me and the things I like to read. Not that y'all don't know what I like by my link-posts. But bradhicks has a very well-thought-out, informative post. And I'm looking at that and I'm thinking: "And the older men who were speculating about Britney when she was underage aren't more creepy than older fangirls?" I know the inside of fangirl heads fairly well, but older men drooling after seriously younger women just hits my squickbutton hard. (I enjoy my SS/HG once she's grown up enough to give as good as she gets. Not before then. ((Not unless it's seriously well-done fic, but even that has a certain squick-factor that's safe because the characters are fictional. Britney might as well be fictional, but still.)) )

3:28

Oh wow. Is it Mercury retrograde or something? At least my meeting with Management was productive.

3:40

Darkside tends to know the good things to say, so I'm e-mailing him. Looks like my e-mail to the Alisa came out all right as well; she's responded with good wishes and a thanks for the signed note. I don't want to look at it all Slytherin; at least she's keeping the forms of politeness and welcoming us back individually to the center for other things, which is I think a good sign.

One of the things that's important to keeping an online quasi-safe space is to at least know who everybody is. And if someone maintaining said thing asks you who the hell you are, you need to tell them. If you tell them some BS that doesn't actually include who you are, expect to get your ass booted. I let someone know they were an unknown party and had been removed; they flamed back at me. WTF?

I hate having my adrenal system go hyperactive and then not wind up needing it. I think it's probably time for me to go punch something. ...Or get lunch, which I should probably get.

4:20

Stars Fall Home has been mailed. Yay! Have poked othercat as I pre-ordered two in the suspicion that she would want one and that she might not wind up pre-ordering it. Yay happy filk music!

Now have access to shared folder with some vital stuff in it. Alas that the stuff is Not What Will Go Nicely In That Database, Dammit. *cusses up a storm*

11:02 AM 5/22/2007
"Networking", Warren Zevon needs to be on the same playlist that I have "Code
Monkey".


12:33 PM 5/22/2007
http://cadhla.livejournal.com/1269130.html


1:43 PM 5/22/2007
The answer to my database woe of the moment was "subforms".


2:25 PM 5/22/2007
omg this applicant is. OMG. He mentioned something about a car accident where
everything (including proper ID) went flying. I think he may have been dropped on
his head then?

And "subforms" was verily the answer, causing much joy in Mudville.


3:13 PM 5/22/2007
http://status.livejournal.com/108423.html -- Slowness; database; the good geeks are
on it. ♥ to the geeks, and leave ohnotheydidnt alone for a while,
hmm? (Seriously: little tidbit picked up from being in the right places at the right
times: ohnotheydidn't is insanely large and high-traffic, enough so to be noticed
individually. proanorexia, eat your heart out.) (er, that last was unintentionally
hilariously insensitive.)


4:52 PM 5/22/2007
Right then. I have the form I wanted, not pretty like I wanted it, but I have the
form I wanted, and I used it, and it worked. I could have Management's data to her
tomorrow if I didn't feel like getting it as the finished product of "see, my whole
database works".

Now to bug Traveling Manager about her expense reports.

5:02 PM 5/22/2007
:( No expense reports from Traveling Manager. Woe! I did get to explain a little bit
of the ADHD nonfocus/focus thing.

Tomorrow, I wake up when I wake up, and not an instant sooner.

The escalation manager called. I was, for once, neither at work nor asleep. I did sound somewhat unexploded, and I remained that way. Will ship off Thalia when I am damn well ready and not before. Let the woman know that e-mail is the preferred way of contacting me. The message on the answering machine that says so will be remaining. Got her to re-send her information, as I had not gotten it earlier. Am still too angry to talk in any depth about the issue, so did not discuss it with her. Writing is much better. (And no, John, further lectures on the topic of proper treatment of tech support phone goons Will Not Help Matters. At all.)

Work is welcome, after dealing with BOfD.

Pink Shirt Guy called me into the office when I got there. He told me about my promotion. I was gleeful. I'd heard that this was in the works for a while, but it was nice to actually get promoted! Homie G, Trendy Chick, and few other people got promoted at the same time. I got my annual raise a few weeks ago; now I get a supervisor raise too! Glee!

I checked my e-mail, and found that our guru had modified one of the programs (the problematical one!) to spit up job number, ID number, and zeroes where appropriate, instead of no job number, no ID number, and blanks instead of zeroes. Oh, and drag up the job that gets stored in three-month blocks instead of one-month blocks as one-month blocks. Further glee!

The sheer glee was short-lived, as I holed myself up in the cavernous training room and buried my head in Queen Bee Monitor's spreadsheets, in hot pursuit of the numbers. I emerged two hours later, spitting, snarling, and ready to heave large and heavy objects at my predecessor's soon-to-be-pre-deceased head.

There are statistical obscenities in that thing. Obscenities. I plan to have words with and/or at Management and make it plain that they will not be repeated in the name of duplication. For that would be Bad.

I held an up-training class after we'd done the lunch thing. Apple sauce, as good as it is, is not a complete breakfast if I am going to be doing the brain thing. I had been expecting twelve people; only six were in and were able to be found. It was a rousing session, with discussion about what some people would like to do to some of the clients who provide rather unfortunate survey design.

I reviewed some individual stats after the session proper was over. I like being able to write ad hoc queries, and/or modify existing queries to get what I need out of the database. It was a delight! There was sarcastic commentary over my shoulder; the phone goons understand that this is a project under development. (I am gaining reputation points in this fashion.)

Talked with Stressy College Chick about the latest Leftover Leftovers Issue. Made the appropriate analogy involving the KKK; she allowed as how that sort of thing would be mighty disturbing. Communication? What's that? (My satellite manager had evidently not had words with his, so I had the words myself, see.)

Ikea later on today. hcolleen says that smmc needs to give me the hairy eyeball at each proposed purchase of mine and ask me, "So where are you going to put that?" Obscene answers are evidently not acceptable answers for these purposes.

I must remember to call Darkside, for he will surely want to hear about me vs. the spreadsheets. I can't wait until it's switchboard time.

In at work for 3.5 hours working on the damn spreadsheets. Snarky lady make database. No time for game, dammit.

http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/5260238.html involves demon-mice. (Martin's Passage fans, this is amusing in that it's completely unrelated.)

The call center is being reduced to 150 seats. You didn't hear it from me. Employment = same, seats = less than same.

I completely forgot to show Darkside, but I amused all my phone goons with one of my word searches today. The new fad is supervisors making and handing out word searches, and I made a very uniquely themed list. The usual is things like the current month, survey-related stuff, general call center stuff. This one? "Things We May Not Call Respondents (even though we'd sometimes really like to)". The word list? Involved things like "git", "idiot", "malodorous moron", and the like. I kept the language clean, and included a supplementary list of phrases that should not be employed, and the disclaimer that it was not a comprehensive list of prohibited language.

There was much giggling over that. Word searches are popular to start with, and it's nice to know that your supervisor understands about some of those respondents.

Darkside and I can both high-kick to approximately the same height, about face-height or just a bit lower. His co-workers are still surprised by his definition of "re-boot the computer". It's odd, because those same co-workers are the ones who think he's due to go postal any day now.

Thalia should be returned to me within five business days. I sent her off on the 21st.

It was a lovely night for the long drive home. It was a lovely day for the long drive out there.

I get to start on the Queen Bee's Reports when I come in to work next. O, the glee of it all. Not. It's drudge work, painful, and should be done by goddamn database, and I'm the best suited for making it work as it is right now. What a motherfucking kludge, and it's marvelous given that it actually does work.

Lady Malfoy showed up first. We chatted. Darkside showed at 7:45 and we dove into the root cause analysis DB.