User talk:TheEileen/Apr 2007

April 2007

04-2-07

Updated the foofer list but not able to do the wiki or much else. Actually managed some mentoring - first time in weeks and now can't do any more for at least another week. Did work on the quizzes - yay.

Every week, no exaggeration, national comes out with another directive of new work. Every week, no exaggeration, the burden of work and implementation is placed on the ISO, which is to say, me. The IT department which has begun saying "I need a new staff member to meet these new directives so I can't do anything until I get that new personnel", then thrusts everything my direction and tells everyone that I'll do the work. They are a department of 26 people. I am one person. When I not-so-jokingly said at a meeting two days ago, when the chief was saying "you'll have to do this Eileen (the 'this' being something that was actually spelled out as being an IT job)", "Oh, I'd need another staff position to do that". His response? He looked puzzled and asked "are they going to do that? I didn't think you could get help." I just looked at him like, how stupid are you? and then said, "I'm just saying what you always say when people try to give you work." "oh no," he says seriously, "we can't do any more work, but you have to because the directive says so." "The directive says the IT department has to do this work." "Oh, but we can't. We don't have enough people, we'd need another staff position." Yeah, that's the people I have to work with. I wish I could say he was being ironic, but no, he was being deadly serious. He was and is absolutely incapable of recognizing the illogic and ridiculousness of what he was saying.

04-7-07

Able to update the wiki completely. Lots of things got finished, so I may go ahead and run the foofer list again (as I may not all be able to for 7 days), just to see if I get new projects to add to the list. I got help getting back into CPing so may manage to finally get those scans out of Estreya's folders and work on them. If so, new fiber arts book into the system and new PM project for me. I am going to wait until I'm back from this trip and things are calmer before I give loading the PPing software another go. Fingers crossed that having 10.4.9 now means it'll work!

I'll be on travel starting on Sunday (4/8) for a week and back next Saturday. I lucked out that what I dreaded being a problem for the first half of the trip turns out not to be a problem now. For once, biology is on my side. Of course, something had to be because due to problems, I had to revisit and redo the ticket for this trip three times, for a total of, I wish I was kidding, six hours on the phone over three different days. I will be writing a letter to NorthWest Airlines stating my extreme unhappiness with them and that I expected better. I had one agent who helped me fix my boo-boo fairly quickly unfortunately decided to change my flight from first class - which I need for my back -- to economy without telling me this. The first three hours on the phone was getting that taken care of to the tune of $500 more dollars. Oh yeah, this customer service person (very nice, but still) said, "well the new flight she moved you to was cheaper" me: "yes, but a $200 savings doesn't exactly signal that I'm no longer in First Class now." Next problem? The stupid government credit card I'm required to use declined the charge because one ticket had already been purchased and for some reason the airlines actually terminated the first ticket and charged a whole new price on the same card - rather than just the difference. So they cancelled the whole reservation. How did they notify me of this? By leaving me ONE voicemail which on my machine when I got home was: "static, static, airlines, your flight, static, thank you, static." which since they always call and confirm the reservation you just made I thought was that confirmation. Did they e-mail me? No, they can send me three e-mails a month trying to sell me stuff, but they can't send me a message about my cancelled flight. That is three days away. I have an on-line account. Did they post a notice "flight cancelled due to problems"? No, instead, they have the reservation and the BILL, they just didn't have the itinerary on line. Three hours on the phone later, I am told, "well, we cancelled the flight." I felt sorry for the poor lady on the line, who was patient with me when I burst into tears and had to admit that it was beyond stupid to have one freaking phone call as a notice. Plus, why not at least keep the flight that was booked/paid for without cancelling the whole thing!!!???

My angst was out the roof that day. I ended up doing my yoga twice AND taking a 30 minute walk just to calm down. I could have reached through the phone and strangled, well the original rep who put me in economy without telling me. If she had mentioned it then, it would have been corrected and none of the rest of it would have happened. Oy gevalt!

Anyway, I hope my back doesn't get all messed up again from this travel (hotel beds are too hard and even though I drag my own foam mattress topping, after more than three days, I start limping and eventually I end up with a cane and move on to wheelchairs. I do NOT like to travel.)

Still I'll be in Jacksonville. Hmmm, I wonder if any DPers I know are in Jacksonville FL.

Okay, stream of consciousness over. Back to foofing!

04-8-07

Updated the foofers list but no changes to wiki. Cleaning house, doing laundry, packing bags, etc. etc.

04-17-07

Updated the foofers list and wiki on the 15th, I just didn't update this log. Nearly finished getting all the content from Estreya and hope to spend the weekend working that up into a project. I have to complete the one that is at work (and see if the images are okay or need manipulation) and then I have to figure out the OCR of the images I scanned from the library book. And go look at the quiz message boards, wanna make sure I give amy any input she needs. I am happy to be back. Travels and travails over, for the nonce, I hope. Life and I both seem to be on a more even keel which is happy making. http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Leisures_and_Sports/bath-021.gif

04-19-07

Updated the foofer list and the wiki. Not much going on. I took a really long walk today (longer than I meant) because I was enjoying what I was listening to. Also, it was cool verging on cold but not quite, twilight with the sun setting, gorgeous colors in the sky*, and then the sliver of the moon with one faint star. And near me, on my walk, is a big pasture for horses which they must have recently mowed; it smelled wonderful for blocks. The cut grass and some sort of sweet flowers - it's what fabric softeners WANT to smell like but don't quite hit. :grin:

• Yesterday when I was driving home the sun was hitting a patch of rain or something, it wasn't a rainbow across the sky, it was the "foot" of it hitting the ground and it looked like it was coming out of a cloud in a sort of ray starting at a tight point and spreading out into colors. It was the freakiest/coolest thing I've seen in a while. I wish I wasn't on the highway because I was trying to pay attention and drive safely but I wanted to look at this thing.

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kind of a thing. At the Lake campus tomorrow long drive there and back. And a nice free weekend. In which I should work on stuff but somehow think I will do quizzes and maybe work on content.

04-22-07

Updated the foofers list and the wiki. Lots of changes there. Chores mostly done, tivo being watched, weather not so bad, I need to go grocery shopping and do my yoga. Things are okay. I have a leak in my house which will no doubt require going through a wall if not a ceiling/floor - so that's not so great, but could be worse.

04-28-07

Updated the foofer list and wiki with the basics. I'm thinking of adjusting this. It has a lot of information that *I* find interesting but heavens knows if anyone else does. A list that is more formal:

Waiting

- blah

F2:Available

- blah

PP

- blah

Would be easier to read generally, but perhaps a bit more annoying to keep up. I'd need to keep status in there, so I could see when it moved. Or I could simply have a list with status by date into F1, date into our list, or hmmm, date started the whole process? That would really help the graverdigger folks. I'll have to think about that.

I found source of the leak on Friday, that's when the roofer came and confirmed it isn't the roof (although he did some things there anyway), so I called the insurance company today. That'll be fun to fix. I bought all my paint and paint gear for my two smaller rooms. I worked a little on quizzes and now need to finish off the last bits Amy wanted and see if there is more for me to do. I got the last of Alicia's documents off her folder and am half way through checking the text and the images to confirm it's all a go, then I'll upload and start that project. When I do that, I think I'll ask for a P3 queue. I should check my easy instructional "The Wedding Day" and ask my PPer (I think I have one, hmm) if it could skip. If not, let it go through the queue. Then I still need to finish prepping the images and text of Rice Mills. But if I manage that, then maybe I'll go get another old book from the library and scan that too. Or harvest another project. Or ask Alicia for another one of hers. Or content myself with finally figuring out PPing. Or... take a break and just foof for a while? That sounds nice.

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