What Made You Miserable Today?

[Courk]

Aww, it's cute! Congrats!

[MatthewV]

Door color? I am think the entire outside should be bright blue or purple
This way you can have the ease of saying "We live in the purple house" when you give directions.

[Neo]

I'm single again.
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_{Ad Astra}

[jesternl]

sorry to hear that

[MatthewV]

Crap. It is -45ish in Fairbanks. I didn't manage to avoid all the horrible cold weather by leaving for a week.

[Zag]

I just got back from the emergency veterinary hospital. My stupid dog ran out in front of a car. She seems OK, though. The worst she might realistically have is a broken leg. But they are keeping her overnight just to be sure, since she is showing mild signs of shock.

[Zag]

Why, why, WHY do I let Chaz bait me into discussions about government. He's got such blinders on that reason has no effect anyway. I know this, yet I fall for it repeatedly. (Referring to the discussion in FaceBook.)

Must. Resist.

[Antrax]

Sorry to hear about your dog, Zag. As for the government debate, you brought it on yourself
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Zag]

Thanks. The dog is fine, though. I've had at least two rounds of worse news this week, which I didn't bother to write about, so the dog has paled to insignificance. It's been a bad week.

Also, you're completely right.

[Neo]

I sort of have a vague position at work. I'm in a pseudo-supervisory role with very clearly defined (if extremely broad and ambitious) duties and responsibilities, but no actual "power." All of my purchasing has to be approved, I don't have any power to write up or discipline those "under" me; I'm essentially a small extension of one of the directors. None of that usually bothers me though, I enjoy the (most of) things I do in my job.

Today though (anything IT related falls to me) a computer died. I have no reliable spare internals for a computer (or spare computers, such is the life in a non-profit), and even if I did, it's doubtful I would be able to save this one. Due to poor planning many years before I came here (and inertia/lack of better idea since then) this computer was housed in a wooden box with a DVD/VCR player and part of the sound system.

I've tried (and one of my predecessors had tried) to provide some ventilation for this box, but it was more or less a lost cause. The area where it was used gets utilized as a large presentation hall in many configurations, so the system had to portable. It was regularly used and there are no rooms or closets to store it, so it had to remain out in the open, in an unlocked area with high traffic. Power save options/hibernate were tried, but it was found to be very trivial to wake the computer up, even while the box was locked. Hence the wooden box on wheels with a lockable door, and a directive to shut the computer off before locking the box.

I need to stress to you, that this box has existed in this exact form and use for over a decade. There are 50ish computers we use in classrooms for program, and they all get turned off when they're not being used. Even the ones I would prefer that people not turn off. The entire hard science college-degree-holding instructor staff gets trained specifically to turn this computer off before they close and lock the box. There is no use of the computer that involves people not sitting at the computer the entire time it is being used. People forget once in a while, and all I could do was offer a reminder to make sure the computer gets shut down at the next staff meeting.

Also, for the sake of completeness, we've had some issues with people not cleaning up their areas or classrooms after classes, to the point that clients are commenting on the dirty rundown nature of camp. We also had to quell a minor rebellion when I found out people were using program internet access to torrent movies and games. I put a stop to it by changing all the wifi passwords and not giving them out to staff; they were not happy with that decision.

Which brings us to today. This afternoon it was discovered that the computer was left on in the box for at least 24 hours (nothing happens from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon). Based on the things that were scheduled for the weekend though, I would say it was closer to 72. The computer was fried. Hard drive is totally shot, I couldn't pull any data off if even with the freezer trick. It's exhibiting weird POST behavior, so the mobo might be trash as well.

I was livid. I'm still rather angry about it. I walked right into my bosses office and vented to her. Unfortunately I didn't close the door, so some other staff heard me. Not that it mattered much, I was kind of stomping around my desk and the "IT closet" and grumbling about it most of the day. That wasn't a good attitude on my part and I accept that I made a mistake there.

What I can't accept though, is reaction some of the staff had upon finding out that there wasn't going to be a computer in that area for a few days. One of them actually said "Well, it's not our fault if we leave that computer on. It's your fault really. I mean, you should be checking it after every class if it's such a big deal," to which a few people agreed. Somebody suggested I put an Apple in the box.

Sadly, I'd had enough at that point, and I snapped at said instructor by saying "Or maybe I should be able to rely on you to do your job and turn the computer off before you lock the box, like you've been trained and reminded to do." A statement I instantly regretted, not because I didn't mean every syllable of it, but because I lost my cool while at work in front of others.

In fact, the only bright spot in all of this is that I maintain a good backup scheme, so no data of note was actually lost.
_________________
_{Ad Astra}

[Jack_Ian]

Ocassionally losing your cool is human and can be effective in the short term.
Start referring to the wooden closets as postal boxes. Failure to obey protocol results in you going postal.
Humour, especially self-deprecating humour, can help smooth things over without the need for you to apologise or lose face.

[Neo]

One of the directors (my boss) left for vacation yesterday. She'll be gone a week or so. Myself and the other assistant director are covering some of her duties while she's gone.

It's only been a day, and there's two of us, and we're not even covering all of her responsibilities, and I know I don't want her job. I didn't get anything else done today, and I'm just way frustrated.
_________________
_{Ad Astra}

[Quailman]

My vacation is over.

I woke up at 3:00 AM in Bangkok, caught a ride to the airport, cleared security and flew to Hong Kong. Once there we cleared immigration, claimed our bags, checked them ostensibly to Houston, cleared security again, and caught a 10+ hour flight to San Francisco. When we touched down in SF, we cleared immigration and customs, claimed our bags, rechecked them to Houston, cleared security yet again, and caught the flight to Houston. We dozed on and off on the various planes, but we're exhausted. I think that right now it's about 8:15 the next morning where I woke up.

There were three movies on the overseas flight. We couldn't hear them, though, since the audio wasn't working for about half the plane. And we couldn't read either, since the overhead lights weren't working for those same seats.

[Mr Nigma]

This
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Freedom is not free

[Zag]

A day of terror and misery.

I felt fine upon waking up, but soon started to get a kind of non-specific ache on the entire right side of my abdomen. At 8:00, which is when I usually leave for work, I was still planning on going but the pain had slowed down my morning routine and I still had 15 minutes of stuff to do (which then took me 30 minutes). At 8:30, I started to believe it was something serious, as the pain was much sharper and more specific to the lower right, but I was still hoping that it was a lower gastrointestinal issue. It got steadily worse over the next 20 minutes and I sent a note to my boss that I wouldn't be coming in.

Not 15 minutes later, it went from a really bad, sharp pain to someone sticking a knife in my side and occasionally twisting it for fun. I took some old pain pills that I had from some time ago, and I didn't think they had helped until they started to wear off around 2:00. Before they wore off, I didn't think that I could stand pain any more serious than what I was already in. It turns out, I could. It's amazing how much I instinctively wanted to crawl away from the pain, and had to focus not to crawl across the bed (which, of course, made it worse, I guess -- there's a threshold beyond which distinctions of 'worse' don't matter).

At 2:30, I finally broke down and decided I had to go to the hospital, just to get some pain medicine. (I knew what the problem was, by then, and knew they couldn't do anything for me but palliative care.) My daughter, at that point, was only 15 minutes away from arriving at the house to help out, so I figured she could take me. I lay down on a couch near the door and, oddly, found a position that relieved the pain enough to let me sleep. When she opened the door, she asked if I wanted to go to the hospital right away, and I said I did. However, as I stood up, I realized that the pain was nearly gone -- just an echo from badly overworked muscles. The damn kidney stone had finally passed. The tiny grain of sand that dropped into the toilet was extremely anti-climactic, considering the boulder I expected. Four hours of sleep later, I don't have any problem other than feeling physically wrung out.

So, six hours of absolute torture. But it's over.

Zag

[Dread Pirate Westley]

You lucky bastard. I've had 3 and none has passed in less than a week.

[Courk]

Ooch, I'm sorry. Glad it passed!

[jesternl]

Never had one, hope it stays that way.. glad it's over!

[Jack_Ian]

On the bright side, it could have been a lot worse. It could have happened to me.

[Quailman]

I was thinking you were lucky compared to me, and you are, but now I feel really bad for DPW.

I had one several years ago that woke me up in the middle of the night while we were camping in our travel trailer. It ended up taking three days to pass. A year later I had another, but it passed as I arrived at the hospital for treatment. No recurrences in three years.

[Deception]

Bought a pair of Nikes, unfortunately I didn't notice that

1) They're a half size too big

2) My insoles are a little too big

Now I have creases on the sides and end of both shoes after about an hour of playing basketball.

Also I'm going to have to break up with someone I've loved for a while because I've fallen for a girl who I pushed away when I fell for the first girl.

The shoes I can fully fix and replace, at least.

And I guess if we're discussing illnesses, I have had a cold for about a week; although it is really my fault for not just taking a day of rest and not doing any real exercise (especially when it's raining!). Zag that sounds awful and I hope that you won't have to suffer again!

[itisally]

My oldest son is in trouble at school. And not just a little, the kind that gets the behavior specialist called in. Everything is a fight with him at home this week and I lost my temper with him a couple of times. I am at a loss. I don't really know how to help him and I can't come up with the money for the Reiki treatment I think will help him because my work is requireing me to get my masters degree and each class costs the same as his treatment. I knew things would be tough when he was a teen, but he is only 8 now.. I am so afraid that it will only get worse from here.
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[Death Mage]

This program advertises like crazy and claims they'll give you your money back if you let them know how it worked.

I am skeptical, but there ya go.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
[YOUR AD HERE!]

[Jack_Ian]

I'm sorry, your feedback is not effusive and accurate enough to qualify for payment. Please rewrite and resubmit.

[MatthewV]

It is pretty simple--
1. People will pay the price knowing they would have to provide feedback.
2. They get it and don't have the time to read it.
3. They feel guilty about not using it and can't feel good about providing feedback because they have nothing useful to say.
4. The $330? (There might be other costs) no longer seems worth earning back.
5. They profit!

[Zag]

From their literature: "As you go through the 9 lessons of the program, you’ll be able to complete your feedback survey in about 30 minutes per lesson."

So, about 4.5 hours worth of work, which means a lot of people won't do it. Also, they probably at least break even on the shipping and handling charges, which are not refunded.

[Jack_Ian]

And if you manage to comply with all of the feedback requirements, you eventually receive a big pink cheque from XXXtremeChild.com where they know only 1% will be cashed.

[Gomez]

[j_s*]

Went rock climbing last night with a friend and was clearly having an off day. She decided to autobelay because I was spent too quickly, and I decided to slack line for a minute; terrible idea. Generally I m decent at slacklining (can walk about 4 steps on average, can occasionally turn) and i ve never lost control while falling off; i ve always known i was about to fall and been able to hop off. Last night, however, not only did I not walk any steps, I never gained my balance on standing up, and instead, immediately fell, and twisted and crunched my ankle. I m now stuck in a friend's apt in Boston because I cant drive back to RI with my ankle like this and can't walk.

not really a great time.

[Courk*]

Ouch! I hope you feel better soon

[Deception]

Just saw two girls that I was friends with for the last time. One is getting on a plane and heading to France, the other is getting on another and heading to Hawaii.

We were kind of good friends but I didn't realize how sad I would be when they were gone. It hit me a few minutes after we said good bye.

Maybe one day we'll meet again... there's always Facebook I guess.

[Quailman]

I spent last week at a boy scout summer camp north of San Antonio. The high temps before Friday were over 100 deg. F (as high as 41 C). There were scorpions and rattlesnakes and lots of red-eyed devils. The boys in the troop had a great time. My son and I shared a tent, as he is now an assistant scoutmaster. On Friday he got a message that two of his friends had died in a car wreck overnight, as a drunk driver went the wrong way on a nearby interstate. The driver of their car was critically injured. The drunk was not hurt so bad.

[Thok]

I'm apparently one of the millions who lost power because of the Atlantic storms. I just got power back online after roughly a day without it.

[MatthewV]

Quailman: that is awful.

One of the horrible ironies of drunk driving accidents is that the alcohol relaxes the muscles in a good way during crashes. So the energy of the impact flows through you causing less damage to the body. Which is why you should be a drunk passenger.

[Mackay]

That's absolutely devastating, Quailman. I hope your son and the driver (the injured one, not the drunk one) are doing OK.

I have a lot of trouble preventing myself from wishing terrible things upon drunk drivers.

[Quailman]

[The Great Crep'er]

It's been in the 80s for days now, we don't get breaks from this often enough....oh how I wished I lived in Seattle.

[Deception]

I'm feeling lazy but I have to go to the gym.. I half-[explicit] yesterday so I can't skip today. This is going to suck...

[Deception]

wrecked my elbow paying football... going to the dctors today and i can barely bend it.

[Neo]

My boss has been gone for about 6 weeks due to a sudden health issue. As a result, my partner has been moved into her position on an interim basis. Then we brought in a former employee to cover his normal responsibilities. I was pulled off the teaching schedule in order to cover...something. I don't know. Theoretically I was supposed to help shoulder some of my partner's normal duties. Despite these arrangements being discussed for three days after the medical issue arose, I was literally the last person on camp to know. I came back from a run to the hardware store, and staff were asking me for details about changes I didn't even know were being considered.

This has somehow resulted in me doing less work. I don't have a lot to do in the summer, so teaching was the bulk of my day. I now spend days trying to make myself useful in some capacity. I have one project I'd meant to start working on, but I can't because then I wouldn't be "available." The thing is, the things they want me to be available for are things they've set up other systems for, to ease the workload on the administration during this period.

Some staff are complaining now because we have four instructors who aren't getting paid for two months (positions not in the budget) but who agreed to work as volunteers for the summer. There have been times where their work was absolutely needed in order to run the program, but they don't get paid at all. Meanwhile, I am, by all appearances, getting paid to do nothing at all. And I just got a raise (though that's not public knowledge).

I've approached my interim boss and the site director, saying that I didn't feel like my time and energy was being utilized as much as it could be. I was brushed off until "later." I've followed up twice to no avail.

I already hate feeling useless. Actually being useless is worse.

This really hit me today, as I realized that in 9 hours all I did was
1) replace the batteries in two clocks
2) Unlock a door and turn on three telescopes
3) Answer three radio calls

And I still can't start my equipment maintenance project.
_________________
_{Ad Astra}