The annual company holiday party is something of a necessary social occasion, from my point of view. It gives me a chance to rub elbows with my coworkers in a situation that doesn’t involve phrases like, “The Internet’s broken, can you fix it?” I like (the majority of) my fellow employees, really.

Mind you, this year’s party sent me packing in fairly short order. Let’s see… Loud, crowded venue? Check. Not a non-alcoholic drop to drink other than water? Check. Food selections consisting almost entirely of bread-based snacks? Check. (Anything meat-based was carried around by a server and doled out piecemeal, so gods forbid you wanted another one of those yummy coconut shrimp.) Jazz band in the corner contributing to the decibel levels so I can’t possibly hear what anyone’s saying? Check and mate.

Nevermind that on a day when, early in the morning, I was assured by the weather service that it wouldn’t be raining for about a week so I left my umbrella home, it started sprinkling just as I was leaving the office to walk over to the venue… well, it was just better for all involved if I left after a nice, brief turn around the tables, you know?

What’s the fun thing about Mondays after long weekends? Why, catching up on all of the fun stuff I didn’t get to fix when I wasn’t here Friday, that’s what! Whee!

• Three laptops needed patching and new software installs.
• One drive-time show needed a new account on their phone-call editing computer.
• One promotions manager may need a new mouse soon, but we’re not sure yet.
• All of the sales managers needed expanded permissions on the network.
• The aforementioned promotions manager needs a video file converted from DV to (probably) WMV (ugh).

Luckily, this is all the kind of stuff I can handle with very little stress. Nothing major broke while I was away, and I’m thankful for every chance I get to say something like that. I love my job, yes indeedy.

I want a shirt that reads, “I survived the audits.”

Actually, it went fairly well if you set aside the fact that our process documentation procedures need more work and we exposed a glaring (if somewhat hypothetical) security weakness with one of our most important computer systems. (Yeah, ouch.) I talked myself hoarse, laid bare every flaw and touted every strength of the infrastructure I’ve built, and learned a few things. I’ve had worse days, I suppose.

I’m still totally worn out, though. Good thing I have tomorrow off…

I love my job even on a normal day, but it’s even better when new toys land on my doorstep. A few days ago six new studio “general purpose” computers arrived, and today an even cooler gift arrived: Two new audio logging computers, complete with 300-gig hard drives and rack-mounted Firewire-connected audio hardware. Way cool, I tell ya. Even better, the simple fact of putting these machines all into service will make almost everybody in the building just a little bit happier. You can’t beat that with a stick.

As a bonus, I’m also getting my hands on a hand-me-down Dell laptop. This’ll be the first time in years that I’ve actually had a usable laptop in my possession. Sweet.

Heck, this almost makes up for the day I had Friday…

Today marked the first time in as long as I can easily remember (which I admit isn’t saying much) that we had to deal, company-wide, with an email-borne attack. I don’t think it was a virus, per se; I suspect it was more along the lines of a phishing scam. Still, I haven’t had to send out one of those “don’t open attachments” emails in quite some time.

Hmm. Now that I think on it? I don’t really miss those days all that much…