Why I Can’t Be In Charge

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Frog

A course that I worked on was supposed to “go live” today. I got to work and checked both places where people should have been able to access it and the course was not there. I sent an email to the people who should have done their jobs and then waited until after 9 to be able to see the course on our website. The person at our client site who will upload the course into their learning management system also sent an email asking where’s the course because it’s not where you said it would be. Great, our client thinks we haven’t done our job.

The person in charge of elearning at my organization comes in and sees the emails and makes some joke about was I up all night waiting for the course to go live. I said no but I am a tad ticked off that the course isn’t there. He looked at me in disbelief. Yeah, I should never be in charge because when we say we’re going “live” on a day the day starts at midnight as far as I’m concerned. When I asked about whether or not we could run cron jobs he didn’t know what that meant. He’s in charge and he doesn’t know basic terminology?

Then I asked myself why I even care. I care because we said we’d do something and then we were late and lame-assed in our completion of it. And, that’s why I can’t be in charge. Because I give a damn about doing what we said we do when we said we’d do it.

Must stop fist of death.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

Aiming High

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Frog

I submitted my resume/portfolio this morning to a major software company for an elearning position. It’s totally over my head, but someone I know once said she has never been completely qualified for the positions she’s taken but that she’s succeeded at them all. I figured why the hell not? The odds are high, but why not do the crazy thing every once in awhile?

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Frog

It’s hard not to be cynical when things like this happen:
Saturday night at 8:30 we turned off the lights for an hour to add our voices to Earth Hour Day. Sunday morning we discover all the change in both vehicles had been stolen sometime Saturday night/early Sunday morning.

Our cars are parked right next to our house. We live in a neighborhood in the sticks. We reported it to the sherrif’s office just so they’d know–not that we expect anything to happen.

We put up a sign out at the road that said Thanks For Stealing. That’s one way to get people’s attention. Two people stopped by yesterday to find out what happened. One is the guy we refer to as the mayor (so we know the message has gone out to the neighborhood). The other was a guy who was also a victim–same MO.

Damn kids stay off my lawn.

Posted in General Spleen Venting | Comments Off

Pretty Cool

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Frog

My sister called a little while ago to ask if she could bring the kids over for a quick visit. Apparently my name had been coming up all weekend. It’s so cool having a fan club of nieces!

Posted in Generic Thoughts | 1 Comment

Today is Earth Hour Day

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Frog

We’re turning off the lights, are you?

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Silly

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Frog

I have a bill for $.47. Forty-seven cents. It puts me in mind of this:

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But Friday, never hesitate

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Frog

What a long week. Even though I thought last week was going to be the longest week of March, this one has turned out to be that way. I’ve been hyper-productive at work and the work is flying out the door.

When I got to work today my desk was askew and I can only theorize that our technical person was here looking at something on my computer because the monitor and speakers were all over the place. My printer, which sits under my desk, was also out of whack. It annoys me more than it should that she didn’t put things back the way she found them. When I was technical support, you’d be hard pressed to know I was ever there. Of course, back then, I had to walk uphill both ways in the snow too.

My class presentation on Wednesday, which was a follow-up to the simulation we ran last week, went well, but I was a bit disappointed the professor gushed so much in front of us all and told us all we received an A. Even the guy who nearly derailed us more than once. He started to flame out in a HUGE way on Wednesday night. I had to turn my head away from him so I wouldn’t jump up and smack him in the back of the head. Another team member actually pointed to the slide that spelled out word for word what he was supposed to do, but he kept up with some rambling nonsense and we never did the small group activity that was supposed to end our presentation. Luckily we had so much momentum going that the skid at the end wasn’t so noticeable–ha! who am I fooling the ending sucked. So I’m torn on my feelings about that group project. Yes, it came out well in spite of a nimrod (who got an A and I’m not even sure he read the book that was the basis of our presentation), but I’m also glad I never have to do that again.

My Thursday class, which entails a huge consulting project with a local company, was less hectic as my team worked on our project, but ended in me laughing in that crazy way. The crazy laugh started when we began mapping out all the work left to do on the consulting project and the requirements to fulfill before we end the semester. Not only do we have a shitload due before the end of the semester, but I also have to finalize my portfolio, write my final essay on the program experience and I have to think about the meeting I’m supposed to schedule with my advisor to discuss my growth in the program. I’m sure that portion will be a breeze–it’s all the other stuff that had me a little unhinged.

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Amazon trickery

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Frog

Am I the last person to know that if you type NN or PP on an Amazon list, the list will move forward or backward?

Posted in Reading | 1 Comment

Ada Lovelace Day

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Frog

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, this post is about a woman in technology. That woman is Erna Schneider Hoover. She may not be a household name, but you have reaped the benefits of her work in the technology field.

The better-half once worked on a telephony project and the device he interacted with on a frequent basis was called the Definity G-3 phone switch. He spent so much time with that phone switch that I used to joke with him about his girlfriend Definity.

Little did I know that calling the Definity a “she” was actually quite appropriate. Erna Schneider Hoover created the first computerized switching system for telephone calls. She held one of the first software patents issued and earned a supervisory position at Bell Labs (a novel concept back then–a woman in an authority position). The best part of the story is that while she was kicking back in the hospital after giving birth to one of her three kids, she sketched out the system…because what else would she be thinking about? Back in the mid-to-late 1950s hospitals (and insurance companies) thought women needed a little time in the hospital after child birth instead of shooting them out the door practically before the placenta passes as they do now. Think of the scientific innovations that might spring forth if there were still a few days of rest after women give birth.

Hoover’s solution to what was then a mechanical switching system being overwhelmed by call volume was to use a computer program to monitor incoming calls and then adjust the call acceptance rate accordingly. The system is known as a Stored Program Control (SPC) and the principles are still in use by phone companies.

Sources:
MIT thinks she’s neat
Engineers like Erna
Smart Computing appreciates Erna

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10 down, 53 more to go

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Frog

I just decided to torture myself and count up remaining pages of coursework I need to write before the end of April/beginning of May. For some of you this is nothing, but for me it’s a big deal. I have about 53 more pages to write before I can graduate. This doesn’t include all the posts that I will make to my academic blog.

At least this weekend I didn’t spend the whole time procrastinating and bemoaning how much I didn’t want to write a paper. I just sat down yesterday to complete my research and then banged out the paper today. Either I’m getting better at this or I finally realized there’s no sense in whining about something that must be done. It’s part of my learning journey…yeah that just made me a little sick too.

Speaking of banging out the paper, I woke up at 5-something this morning because the better-half leaped out of bed and then immediately got back in bed to go right back to sleep (he dreamed he smelled smoke and he can fall asleep faster than anyone I know). Me? I was startled and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up and started writing my paper. While working on it, I watched the sun come up. The tiny sliver of the moon was really beautiful as the sun started to come over the horizon and turn the sky a deep purple. Even more beautiful is finishing the paper with enough time to enjoy the afternoon.

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