greyduck.net

Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Category: Work

  • And now, I wait.

    You don’t make a violent angry scene at the workplace without facing the consequences later on. At least, this is the case if you’re a responsible citizen of the world, which is a status I continually strive for.

    I was just asked, politely, not to show up at work tomorrow while the Powers That Be consult with Corporate HR about the problem that is yours truly. Before anyone gets angry at… anyone, really, please keep in mind that they’re within their rights to do this much. I don’t know what sort of action they want to take next, though, and that’s what scares me silly. If I’m lucky it’ll be some docked pay and a mark on my permanent record. If I’m not… well, I’m trying very hard not to dwell on the worst-case scenario. Very.

    Of course, eventually one of my rare flashes of mindless rage had to get me into more trouble than my natural talents and normal good nature could get me back out of, huh? Maybe this is the time I finally have to pay the piper. It would just figure, wouldn’t it? Still… I hope not.

    I like my job, dammit.

  • Oddly enough, my time is also important.

    My workday lasted a bit less than two hours. I only interacted with one person in anything more than a “hi, how are you” fashion in that time.

    I thoroughly lost my temper at the end of it, which is why I’m home right now.

    If you’re going to lace every conversation we have with references to how important you are, how much work you have to get done, and how you need your desires fulfilled right now and exactly to specification, don’t be surprised if my agitation levels rise consistently throughout our interaction. This is especially true if you blow me off twice, when I come over to work on your problem, because you’re on the phone and can’t possibly just move out the way the two feet it would take for me to get at your keyboard and mouse.

    Obviously, someone’s time is more valuable than mine, eh? I have nothing else to do but: Sit and wait, put up with a stream of comments about how much work you have to do and how the problem I’m waiting to fix is such a bloody inconvenience for you, and leap into action when it’s convenient for you to finally get the hell out of my way.

    I’m there trying to help, goddammit. The least you can do is respect my time, and not give me flack about how I go about my job or try to impress me with how bloody damned important you are and how much work you have to do. You know what? There are a couple hundred other people in the building who also have lots of work to do.

    Oddly enough, I’m one of them.

    Sorry about your wireless mouse. I’m sure you’re such an important person that you can get a new one ordered, post haste.

  • After a while, you stop counting the hours or risk going mad.

    Here it is, one o’clock in the fine, fine morning. I just got home, and am working on the dinner I bought some seven hours ago. Once I crank out this entry and decompress a bit more from the evening’s fun-and-frolic, I’m going right to bed.

    I, along with the other two-thirds of the “engineering staff,” put in *mumblemumble* hours today, first doing our normal work and then doing a three-sided server swap on the digital audio system. We took Enco-PDX, the former primary server, and made it the secondary server. Enco-FS1 is the new primary, while poor old Beast is finally retired. (Don’t worry, I’ll find something to do with an 800 GB drive array. Bwahahaha.) We faced a myriad of challenges tonight, including “how to recable the entire Enco networking system without taking any stations off the air.”

    We were thorough, we were organized, and we were careful. I know; I’m just as shocked as you are. There’s even a chance I won’t get called on my day off tomorrow… er, today. At least, if I get called it shouldn’t be about anything we worked on tonight. Heh.

    During my lunch break (oh, let’s not think about how many hours ago that was) I installed Spam Karma 2 on both this site and the anime site, ’cause I’m tired of “moderating” annoying spam comments that WordPress 1.5’s built-in system can’t quite prevent me from seeing. Oh, and don’t go trying to sell me on that Akismet thing of theirs… anything that has to “phone home” every time someone posts a comment is something I want to avoid. Hell, I eventually gave up using Blogrolling.com because I don’t like being reliant on anyone else’s servers to keep my content running.

    Anyway. I need to get some sleep tonight. And clean up the place a bit in the morning. And meet my beloved at the train station on time. And… well, you get the picture…

  • What’s In A (Company) Name, Anyway?

    It’s been the kind of workday in which it takes me until three hours later than usual to check my security logs. Among the constant attempts to hack into my Linux-based webservers, this line struck me as terribly amusing:

    unknown (ip-68-178-170-212.ip.secureserver.net): 1 Time(s)

    You know… maybe a business inclined to register the domain “secureserver.net” should also be inclined to keep a closer eye on, you know, the security of their servers. I’m just sayin’.

  • Google & dMarc: Top Ten List

    I quote here an email seen on the Entercom engineering remailer, courtesy of one Chris Tarr, Director of Engineering for our Milwaukee stations:

    For those who didn’t hear, Google purchased dMarc, purveyors of Scott Studios and Maestro.

    From the home office in Newport Beach, California, here’s the TOP TEN THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE NOW THAT GOOGLE HAS PURCHASED DMARC…

    10. The logo on the front of the computer mysteriously changes for every holiday.
    9. Jocks who need a quick fill song now have a button on the screen marked “I’m feeling lucky.”
    8. When you try to put in a liner, the computer says “Did you mean…” and picks one spelled the right way.
    7. Altavista and Zabasearch just bought every “Mister Microphone” in the country.
    6. A song search for any song by the “Barenaked Ladies” also brings up six pages of porn sites.
    5. “VT-32” now trading as “VT-46.87” after inexplicably exuberant run-up in the minutes after the sale was announced.
    4. Hundreds of stations now offer prestigious email addresses to listeners on “dmail” server.
    3. Jocks now spend hours mindlessly surfing the music library.
    2. Next corporate buyout result: “MTV-bay.”

    And the number one thing that will change now that Google has purchased dMarc…

    1. Revenooooooooogle Suite!!

  • Probably best not to get too used to this.

    I should probably be thankful that my workdays aren’t always this quiet. Otherwise the powers that be might decide that they don’t need an on-staff computer geek. That’s not to say my day’s been totally dead, mind you. The morning was moderately entertaining, but this afternoon has been as quiet as it can get around here.

    I’ve taken the opportunity to crank out the third of this week’s Mai Otome recaps on the anime site, though, so it’s not like I haven’t put my time to good use. (Okay, I suppose one could argue that point, but I certainly feel good about accomplishing this little goal. I was way, way behind on recaps.) I also renewed this domain registration (and one other), which is inarguably a good idea!

    A certain special someone arrives tomorrow morning for a three day weekend, so basically I’m just waiting for today to end as quickly as possible. Take care, one and all.

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