Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Surviving.

I've spent today angry, frustrated, irked, peeved and mollified. It started from a late shower and a rush out the door, to a lack of milk at the deli in the lobby, to an immediate "Help, someone else forget something and you have to fix it" to various and sundry problems that only added to my grander level of infuriation. I realize that when I took the job of IT staffer, I was taking one of the most thankless positions in the organization. We do what we do for the greater glory of the company, that if we're seen it's because somehow, somewhere, something has gone wrong and we can't lay blame, we just need to Fix the Problem and then dissect what went wrong. Most days, I do okay at this. Today, not so much.
The mail server threw a fit and managed to delete the better part of an inbox, a simple mail merge on an iMac took close to an hour and a half. Am I burned out? I just don't know. All I know is that when I left work today, I cared less about my job than about keeping myself from shooting my coworkers in a vast display of workplace rage. If you want to understand why workplace shootings happen, look into any workplace. It's a nest of politics. It's a nest of people who want their own piece of territory. It's a place where learning, if it's unrelated to their immediate goals, is completely tertiary to their desire. We all know that if you don't want to learn, you don't learn.
Thus I'm stuck trying to make people want to learn all day. It gets frustrating. There are people who DO want to learn. They're easy to help, they soak up theory and practice through a straw like so much Jack in the Box Vanilla Milkshake. The hard learners however, who don't care to spend the time are the ones I hate helping. It's clear they have no understanding of what it is that I do. It's clear they have no desire to have me help them, except in the immediate course. And that gets under my skin so.
But now, I'm going to bed.
But first, a link. Text Wrangler from BareBones, as featured on Daring Fireball.
11:53:58 PM  comment []

Rough One.

Today's been brutal so far, way too much going on. Our mail server seems to be a in a slow process of shitting the bed, and I'm currently restoring 9GB (yes, with a G) of email from last night's backup.
The one cool thing today has been the installation of the Sony/Ericsson Clicker for use with my phone. My phone is now an iTunes remote, a presentation remote, a DVD remote control and will also serve as a sensor of my proximity to my laptop, such that it would shut off my tunes and take a nap when I leave the room.
This, my friends, Kicks Ass. Now I go back to beating my head against the wall.
2:29:11 PM  comment []

Great Writing.

Good Golly, This Guy is Good. I realize this one's making the rounds, and chances are, you've already read it on Instapundit or IMAO or somewhere like that. But wow. This guy needs to go work for the White House, because he's a helluva lot better writer than some of the guys they've got scripting Shrub.
12:34:31 AM  comment []