When everything feels so firmly planted in the thunderbucket lately you feel like there’s no way to climb out, (read: politics, gas prices, politics, cost of living, politics, stock prices, politics, housing market, neverending politics etc.) how can we make sure to take that left turn at Albuquerque?

Since this blog is about me, here’s my perspective: I work at a bank and I see everyone leaking a little brain-juice from the ears over all the above listed crap.  It’s a low-level constant worry: the fear that cuts will have to be made, and that one of those cuts will be you.

I just can’t stand around and watch everyone going insane in the most subtle of ways.  I feel it’s my duty to do what I can to buoy morale.

So I got a Darth Vader helmet.

Well, there’s more to this story than just that.

Read more »

I’ve been annoyed by my lack of blogging lately. I thought it was frustration, or whining, or even a dying (dead already?) personal life.

But I got an e-mail from my Onaysama asking how I was. I surprised myself by answering pretty truthfully, and in doing a third pass-through edit for bad grammar and run-on sentences, I think I got closer to why I don’t post nearly as much anymore.

I’m a Stupidviso… Um, Supervisor for a Help Desk now. Since I have a pretty firm rule about not blogging about work, I really don’t have much to blog about anymore.

Or do I?

There’s something fishy to that logic, and the e-mail I was about to hit send on made me aware of the smell and clamminess to it.

Read more »

Another tick added to the year’s number. Surprisingly, I have had no difficulty in adapting to writing “2008″ on checks or on documents — the first time in my life, to my memory.

But this New Year brought a new review of my life, completely unwanted by myself.

Hence the title. Of course, many will say “Why are you being so harsh on yourself…” But I don’t deal with niceties, never really have.

The road to Hell is, after all, paved in gold. I fully believe it’s also air-conditioned and has free snack-bars and sleep-stops all along the way.

Read more »

Because the brain isn’t home.

Skåll!!!

Uffda, it was a change in gears.  My week of vacation was laid-back and I got to relax.  Slowly I erased the pain and stress of several months of scrambling to cover everything that needed covering.

I get back and I was right back in the middle of it all.  People running around like their hair is on fire, chicken-littles about current astronomical conditions, and people unwilling to answer direct questions with clear answers.  But I got to enjoy it, all the frantic questions and angry callers and improbable problem reports.  Why?  The N8-train got re-railed.

Here I’m going to document how I do what I do, mainly so I have a place to find it should I forget again.  Others are free to employ these steps yourselves, just give me a little credit.  I made this up through trial and error and feedback from employers over the past decade.

Oh, I should give props to a couple of folks present/feeding me through this development: iLoki, Terry, Curt, Meshtey, Ickster.

Read more »