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Actually, I do have something to write about today! But to set the framework for a proper understanding between us, I must first share with you yesterday's xkcd, and that way when I tell you that as of this afternoon, I am in hour 76 of our latest upgrade, you will understand how completely whacked-out I am. Also, contrariwise, how much I would at this moment like to whack someone else. Anyone, really, will do.
You there in the back, I bet you think upgrades just happen, don't you? Well, sometimes I guess they do, but not for our jumbled-up nightmare of a spaghetti-coded construction management app, which no one here likes but which my boss invented years ago and then sold to a proper software company for a ridiculous amount of money and so WE MUST KEEP IT in spite of the fact that a "simple" upgrade can take upwards of four days over a holiday weekend, and in spite of the fact that it gets finickier and more difficult to use with each version release. And yet we must upgrade! Because if we don't, we cannot get our year-end information to print properly, and then we can't print W2s or do any number of other tax-related things! It is like blackmail! Or a Lady-or-the-Tiger choice in which the options you face are (1) financial ruin and possible imprisonment or (2) complete mental collapse!
This year's upgrade went pretty smoothly, comparatively speaking. I mean, as far as I can tell, all of our data are present and accounted for. I only had to attempt to upgrade the data files four times before the system became convinced that YES OMG WE REALLY DO WANT TO UPGRADE THEM YES ALL OF THEM. And yet there is a charming addition to this year's process: about half our workstations are willing to open up the application about half the time, and the rest of the time they dig in their heels and display nasty application failure messages and the only cure that I have found is to uninstall it, fuck with the registry, and start all over. On one system, I have repeated this process three times now since yesterday. We are both afraid for her to close the application.
Add to that the fact that this morning I got to work and discovered that something strange had happened with our email server -- our email accounts were visible, but we couldn't log into them -- that took an hour on the phone with our email host's tech support to fix, and you have me at the end of the day with a raging, skull-fracture-style headache. (Possibly the result of banging my head repeatedly against desks, mine and other people's.)
Then finally, at 3:00 pm, when I realized that my boss had STOLEN one of the three different cables for the three different kinds of digital cameras our supers carry (I'm in charge of project photo archiving as well as diabolical application upgrades) from my PC without preparing me for the loss, I had to take several deep breaths to keep myself from either bursting into tears or stabbing him in the eye with a mechanical pencil, or possibly both at once. Not good career moves, those. By the way, the cable he STOLE from me does not even fit his camera, though given his camera-cable MO, I have no doubt he has done his best to force it.
But now it is the end of the day. I can go home and pretend that I live a life o'leisure. I can take some Advil, make my dinner and share an apple with the dog, watch a DVD, read a little, and maybe by tomorrow morning I will want to get out of bed and not kill anyone at all.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
You there in the back, I bet you think upgrades just happen, don't you? Well, sometimes I guess they do, but not for our jumbled-up nightmare of a spaghetti-coded construction management app, which no one here likes but which my boss invented years ago and then sold to a proper software company for a ridiculous amount of money and so WE MUST KEEP IT in spite of the fact that a "simple" upgrade can take upwards of four days over a holiday weekend, and in spite of the fact that it gets finickier and more difficult to use with each version release. And yet we must upgrade! Because if we don't, we cannot get our year-end information to print properly, and then we can't print W2s or do any number of other tax-related things! It is like blackmail! Or a Lady-or-the-Tiger choice in which the options you face are (1) financial ruin and possible imprisonment or (2) complete mental collapse!
This year's upgrade went pretty smoothly, comparatively speaking. I mean, as far as I can tell, all of our data are present and accounted for. I only had to attempt to upgrade the data files four times before the system became convinced that YES OMG WE REALLY DO WANT TO UPGRADE THEM YES ALL OF THEM. And yet there is a charming addition to this year's process: about half our workstations are willing to open up the application about half the time, and the rest of the time they dig in their heels and display nasty application failure messages and the only cure that I have found is to uninstall it, fuck with the registry, and start all over. On one system, I have repeated this process three times now since yesterday. We are both afraid for her to close the application.
Add to that the fact that this morning I got to work and discovered that something strange had happened with our email server -- our email accounts were visible, but we couldn't log into them -- that took an hour on the phone with our email host's tech support to fix, and you have me at the end of the day with a raging, skull-fracture-style headache. (Possibly the result of banging my head repeatedly against desks, mine and other people's.)
Then finally, at 3:00 pm, when I realized that my boss had STOLEN one of the three different cables for the three different kinds of digital cameras our supers carry (I'm in charge of project photo archiving as well as diabolical application upgrades) from my PC without preparing me for the loss, I had to take several deep breaths to keep myself from either bursting into tears or stabbing him in the eye with a mechanical pencil, or possibly both at once. Not good career moves, those. By the way, the cable he STOLE from me does not even fit his camera, though given his camera-cable MO, I have no doubt he has done his best to force it.
But now it is the end of the day. I can go home and pretend that I live a life o'leisure. I can take some Advil, make my dinner and share an apple with the dog, watch a DVD, read a little, and maybe by tomorrow morning I will want to get out of bed and not kill anyone at all.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
