eor | Entries tagged with work

Wow, been a long time since I updated on here. Well, I'm still reading my f-list, even if I'm not interacting very much. Fall is here in earnest and I'm alternating between invigorated by the cooler weather and completely motionless from the lack of light. I have made a kayak rack, started painting some doors, and made it halfway through 3 books. Well, I've done a lot more than that, honestly.

At work I've been busy as a one armed paper hanger. There has been a little big project. Big because it will be high profile. Little because I had little help and a week between concept and first deadline. Working on it has raised my profile a bit in certain quarters. As a result I've had some interesting interactions this week. I'm always rather dense in the ways of the mating dance, but I think I'm being courted (in a strictly work sense). Good I guess.

I really want to work on my audio rack, but I haven't been able to get started on that yet. My design will be based on thisl.

The re-org that has been in progress for 5 months and was promised 15 months ago finally came to fruition today.

( At least I still have a job. )

I'm sorry for those where weren't as fortunate today and all the prior days.

Current Location: over the edge

You have to imagine that subject line in an Agent Scully voice. *waits* There, now you have it.

Some sub-moronic nitwit got mouse happy today. Problem was first detected at 2pm. Forensics show that he caused the problem at 8am then tried to cover it up at about 2:10pm. I spent the next 3 hours feeding bits of destroyed data to one of our schedulers for reconstruction. Three hours of time I really should have been working on all the things that were on my to do list. When I left almost all the data had been restored to its appropriate state. Yes, Virginia, you can have a vacation this year.

I suppose we could have just let word slip out who took away all their vacations for the year. He'd have been doing the gallows jig in no time.

I should probably remote in and do the work that I really had to do this afternoon, but my eyeballs are falling out and I might just have another rum and coke.

During the time I worked as a network geek, there was a period when I was under extreme stress (selling house, moving, living out of a hotel, working all hours with little help). I was burning the candle at both ends in the middle of a blast furnace. I was always going to bed with headaches. But I knew I was in serious trouble when I woke up one morning with a blown blood vessel coloring one entire side of my left eye. From that day on, when I got stressed, my eyebrow or eyelid would twitch right above that side of my eye. If the stress didn't go away, soon my eye would start to throb.

Inadvertently, I installed a blood pressure dummy light. Don't do this at home kids. Go out and buy a blood pressure cuff instead.

This morning at work my eyebrow started to twitch (which BTW is really f'ing irritating and does nothing to reduce blood pressure). The stress went on. Beat, beat, beat. Suck.

I believe I will try radical potato therapy. It's one of the few things I haven't tried over the last two weeks.

In unrelated news: I pulled a whole boatload of small bamboo shoots tonight after work. That's was kind of fun and strenuous, although maybe not as strenuous as I needed.

Current Mood: stressed

I know I haven't been around LJ much at all lately. By the time I get home I either don't want to sit in front of the computer or I don't have the brain to write coherent sentences. That said, I offer no guarantee that the following will be coherent.

( cut for length )

We have got almost everything done that we can do for getting the loan and getting the condo. Monday I have to bug the insurance people, but other than that its come down to waiting for paperwork to arrive and checks to arrive. I have begun the pitching and packing process. Yesterday I filled the recycling bin with papers. Today I'm going to try to get into the closet and begin a pitch fest there. I've got five more boxes to fill (we're going slow on getting boxes because otherwise the apartment will collapse under the weight of boxes of books).

Thursday was layoff day at work. The whole first part of the week was weird with everyone on pins and needles. The end of the week was weird with survivor guilt and giddiness. Not that there is any lack of work as far as the stuff I do. I've got a ton of work and I feel like a mouse running just inches in front of a steamroller.

I need to get all my around the house stuff done early today so that I can do things for work this afternoon. I'll be glad when some of the projects are done and I can enjoy a weekend.

Next weekend I think I need to go for a walk somewhere away from the city. I keep telling myself that. Perhaps if I make an appointment with

littleredhead then I'll actually get out and do it. There has to be someplace upcoast that isn't entirely mud.

I have been stressed lately and have not been dealing with it well. I need to blow of steam.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Maine

( where I've been and where I may be going )

Today at work my boss asked me for a bullet list of what I'd done in the last year. It's year end review time. I supply the bullet list, he inserts it verbatim into the appraisal form, then hands it to me. It's a required but meaningless ritual. When I was through I was surprised how much was on the list. It's been an absolutely crazy year at work. I saved the last thing to put on next year's list, just in case it calms down and I don't have many bullets.

Today on the way into work I was listening to Danielle Dax. On the way home it was Mozart. All things have their time.

I don't officially have a cubicle at work, but during the day I occupy one assigned to someone who works on second shift. It's a running joke with the guy who occupies the next cubicle over, he always greets me in the morning with her name and as he leaves at night says goodbye the same way. After months of this, it's a rather stale joke.

Over the weekend he had a coronary event. I don't know any details other than he survived and I probably won't be seeing him for months. In the interim, all his duties have been assigned to me and one other person. We both have a vague concept of what this guy does, but neither of us has any clue about the details of how he does what he does. This isn't learning to swim by being thrown into the deep end, it's learning to swim by being thrown into class V rapids.

The good bit is that the work we are actually assigned to is very slow right now so we can devote most of our resources to figuring it out. Too bad I don't have a "Heathers" icon, this really is a Fuck Me With A Chainsaw moment.

Current Mood: deer in the headlights
Current Music: Jimmy Buffett "The Ballad of Skip Wiley"

It appears, at least from my tiny perspective, that the American consumer is saying, "Oil prices and economic uncertainty be damned, I'm going to buy like there is not tomorrow." They may be right, there may be no tomorrow. The Canadian consumer is saying, "Oh, look at the cheap dollar denominated goods!"

Today was long, but went well aside from running my left knee headlong into what I discovered was an immovable object. It's currently only two colors, but I'm guessing before morning it will look like a pride flag. Thanks to my efforts today over 1,500 people will get a visit from Santa. 1,500 x 10lbs per on average = advil.

Current Mood: tired

For the past two weeks work has been taking nearly every ounce of my energy.

From Feb. to June this year I helped orchestrate the emptying of the warehouse I'd worked in for the last two years. I was the last one out the door in early July. We've now got half of that warehouse back and last Tuesday began filling it. Since that time I've been orchestrating the receiving of the product and locating it within the warehouse. The only computer systems we have is a laptop with excel connected to the world via the sneakernet. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I used a floppy disk?

This project hasn't meant a lot of overtime, but I'm squeezing a lot of work into the regular hours. I'm constantly on my feet and running (physically and mentally) to keep the product flowing in and making sure it's all directed to the right places. So far it's gone amazingly well. In eight days of work we've brought over 1,800 pallets of product into the building.

Oh, they want to put 3,000 pallets in the building and we've got a total of 3 weeks to complete it. I'm so tired.

Current Mood: wiped out
Current Music: Body Count "Body Count"

On Tuesday I closed the door, literally, on the warehouse I've worked at for the last couple years. The warehouse I'm working in now is louder, with more people, competing radios, and a conveyor system. I'm having to adapt once again to thinking through complex problems in an environment with a constant din.

"And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too..."

I'm making a mix of cover songs tonight.

"Who'll be my role model now that my role model is gone?"

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: an acapella cover of "You Can Call Me Al"

My new manager is an easier grade than the impossible expectations of my previous manager. Net result: Top Performer. In real terms this means I get a larger check next week when the performance based comp checks hit the bank. Woot!

Current Mood: mixed
Current Music: Liz Phair "Fuck and Run"

( of work and music )

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Black 47 "Livin' in America"

Each morning this week I've said to myself, "I'm leaving work on time today." I lie. I lie like a rug. Like a lying thing. Like a lyre.

In myth, Santa has elves, Sinter Klaas has Black Pete. In reality, there are people like me. We accept our fate, sometimes willingly, sometimes grudgingly. We work long hours so that other people can get their gifts.

Today I stayed late again. No one told me I had to. But the work I did means, among other things, that 20 more kids will get sleds for Christmas.

"It's my job, but without it I'd be less
than what I expect from me." -- Jimmy Buffet "It's My Job"

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Bunnygrunt "Favorite Food"