I Blog... So what?

I was thinking today about how I don't post to this thing much, and I feel weird about it sometimes. I feel weird that I am not following through with something that I started. However, I keep coming back to the basic idea of "So what?"

I started this thing just to vent. Then I got hooked up with the guys over at Steve Brown, Etc. and it was sort of a community thing. Then I told some friends about it and they read it sometimes, but then I was in a dilemma because I said something here that a friend took out of context. It cause him to question me about it. Then I got defensive about it. I thought, "well, I will just becareful about what I write on here." However, what's the point? If I can't be completely honest, then it defeats the pupose of why I started this to begin with. So, I started writing less and less, and now I might update it once or twice a year. I don't even think the SBE people are reading it anymore.

I tried to make some of the posts something spiritual, but I am not that insightful. Some of the posts I started writing, I ended up stopping because I was just trying to prove that I was more correct than other people (all of this on a blog that no one reads). Who cares if I am right or wrong? What does it prove?

I thought about taking this one down and then creating another one, but not much of a point in taking an obscure blog and making it completely anonymous.

If you have a blog that people read more power to you. I just haven't figured out the point in keeping this updated. (I guess it is bad enough that I write a post on how I don't keep a blog updated to people that aren't reading it anyway. HA!) Knowing me, since I have decided not to care, I will probably find more to write about.

Till next time (if)
J...

Coporate Red-tape and the Art of Incompetence.

Wow. I didn't realize that it had been over 6 months since I have written in this thing. I have been busy with a new process at my place of employment for the past year that has kept me preoccupied. This process is to control the way that my department documents the projects that we work on. I, along with a co-worker, wrote this process to make sure that my department is compliant with all of corporate's bureaucracy as well as all of the government agencies that we deal with. Ok, fair enough. However, when writing this document and going through all of the scenarios that I could foresee, I was pretty confident that this process would be more cumbersome than what we were currently doing, but still do-able based on our business model.

Well, I should have, but didn't, consider the human factor. I am amazed sometimes at the people that are hired to do the jobs that they are hired to do. It makes me wonder sometimes if some people are hired just t0 fill a cubicle, or office, that would otherwise be empty. Here is what I mean...

The purpose of our document is to be able to defend the design of a part in a corporate or governmental audit. I believe that in the business that I am in some extra precautions are needed, and that designs should have the proper considerations and justifications for function and safety. I can defend that with any good design. What I can't defend are the questions that I get from internal "team" members. Here are a few situations where I have been made speechless.

1. When showing what effect a that adding a feature to an existing part, I made a calculation using a the formula for a moment of intertia on the cross-section of a cylinder. This formula can be found in any physics text book, in any industry reference manuals, and on the internet (if you search for "list of all formulas that anyone can use". Lilo (the person that I am referring to in this posting) disagreed with the accuracy of the formula. NOT the calculations, NOT the reason I chose it, BUT the formula itself. When I started explaining it, it was like explaining The Theory of Relativity to Forrest Gump.
2. When explaining the changes made to a part, Lilo asked, "you mean these aren't exactly like the ones we currently sell?" Since our department is a specials department where our whole business model is that we take standard parts and modify them to customers' requests, and she has been "supporting" our department for 3-4 year, you would think that she might have bought a clue along the way.
3. I have been asked to change the wording that describes how reference documents are placed in our design history files (e.g. "Don't put, 'reference attached documents'. Put, 'see attached documents.') This sounds minor, but things like this will keep Lilo from signing the right forms so that we can actually sell the parts.
4. On one occasion, she was making a point on how something HAD to be done, I was reiterrating the point, and she argued with me that "it couldn't be done that way". After I explained that I was agreeing with her, she still said that it couldn't be done that way.

There are many more, but I am getting tired of listing them. Maybe I will save them for a future blog entry.

Till next time, whenever that is, peace.

I Got Tagged - 7 Random Things

tag, i'm it!

The rules: each player should list seven random facts about themselves on their blog as well as the rules to this little game. At the end of their post, they need to tag seven people. Let those folks know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I notice odd things about people almost immediately (like habits, tics, etc).
2. Even though 99.9% of the population pronounce the name of the 2nd month of the year as "FEB-U-ARY", I say "Feb-Ru-ary" (even though it is awkward) just to be right.
3. I am over analytical sometimes almost to the point of paranoia.
4. I sometimes stare at my computer for hours when I should be working.
5. I prefer mom-and-pop-hole-in-the-wall restaurants to chain restaurants.
6. If I call someone because I haven't talked to them in awhile, I always try to call when I know they won't be home so I can leave a message and not have the awkward conversation of "I haven't heard from you in awhile."
7. I bounce my legs constantly when sitting still.

I don't know if I will tag 7 people. I don't know that many with blogs.

OK, I lied.

I had originally said in my last post that I would post more about the trip to New York. However, a new annoyance has gotten my attention.

First some background.

I work in a cube farm. Basically if you have seen the movie Office Space, you have an idea of where I work. One minor difference is that I work in a "U" shaped area that allows some of us fortunate enough to have a negative level of privacy to see one another and get pulled in to every conversation whether we want to or not. Case in point. This is an actual conversation that took place a couple of weeks ago among my female coworkers.

Debbie: (to Janet) "What did you do for lunch? I got the pizza from downstairs, but I told them no red sauce."

Janet: "I got the pizza, too. It was fast and quick. The other day I got the manicotti with cream sauce. Did I tell you about the recipe from Woman's Day on a low fat cream sauce?"

Debbie: "No, but send that over when you get a chance. I told the guy downstairs, 'no, red sauce on my pizza'. He started to put it on there anyway to mess with me, but then he didn't put the red sauce on the pizza."

Janet: "You don't eat red sauce on pizza?"

Debbie: "I don't like red sauce. I get cheese, onion, bell peppers, sometimes I get pepperoni, but I don't like red sauce, so I tell them no red sauce on my pizza. At first they thought that I was weird, but now they know that is what I like. That is why I don't go to other pizza places because they put too much red sauce on the pizza, and I don't like red sauce. A little is ok, but too much red sauce is gross. Did you send me the recipe for the all watermelon fruit salad? I tried the fruit salad recipe that you sent to me that had all of the raisins in it."

Janet: "no, but I will."

Debbie: "The pizza was good today because he didn't put red sauce on it. He started to, just to mess with me, but then didn't do it. He is funny like that."

At this point, I am about to bust a spring. Then I am pulled into the conversation.

Debbie: (to me) "What did you have for lunch today? I had pizza from downstairs."

Me: "Did you have the red sauce on it?" (I couldn't resist).

Debbie: "Nope, I don't like red sauce."

Me: "Do you like marinara sauce?" (logical follow up)

Debbie: no answer

This is just one of the conversations that permeate my week as I am trying to work (or blog). Other topics include, but are not limited to: karaoke, hair cuts, hair styles, shoes, pedicures, manicures, sandals, shoes, skirts, why don't we have jeans day at our company.

Maybe when the time comes I will fill you in on the rest of it.

However, these exchanges made me wonder, "what do I do that annoys people? What conversations do I go on and on about that just drives people up the wall?" And then I realized that there aren't any because I am perfect (and I am 6' 3", 185 lbs, and play guitar like Eddie Van Halen).

Not much of an insight to this post. It amused me and after all that is what this blog is about. ME, baby, ME.

Peace out and God bless the hell out of everyone of you.

J

Start Spreadin' The NOOOOOOZE

Ok, so we have this trip planned since Christmas for a trip to New York City to see the New York Yankees. I am not much on baseball, but I figured it would be a good excuse to go up to the Big Apple and hang out in Manhattan for a few hours, eat some good food, maybe take in a few sites, but some of the fake designer purses, and then go to the game. So, I decided to go with my father-in-law, my wife's uncle and his 2 sons, and a friend of the family.

My wife's cousin planned the trip. We had the flights, hotel, and game tickets booked. Thursday night before we were to leave the next morning for our 6 a.m. flight to NY, someone actually looked at the tickets. Guess what.... Yep, the tickets were for the wrong day. We were planning on being in the city for May 4th and fly out on the 5th. My wife's uncle then said, "well, we might as well not go if we can't go to the game. Why don't you see how much damage it will do to cancel the trip." Well, of course, I am thinking, "Hey, I didn't set up this mess. My intent was to go to New York and the game, if I don't get to go, then technically, I don't owe anything." Of course, I probably would have paid anyway to keep from starting a family war.

Well, we ended up finding out that it would be just as expensive to cancel the trip as it would be to go. So, we go online and find some tickets which were not as good as the ones that we were holding (behind homeplate). These were located somewhere near the top of the Empire State Building. BUT! We had tickets to the game. So now what with the existing tickets? Well, I tried to sell them on a 1 day auction on E-bay.

Ok, so now we are set. We decide to leave for the airport at 5 a.m. for our 6 a.m. flight, as my wife's cousin only lives about 10 minutes from the Nashville airport. Upon arriving at the airport, we discover that it may be the busiest day of the year for this place. My wife's cousin assured us that he had "never seen it this busy." We got checked in ok, but there was a little bit of a traffic jam at security. The lady standing at the main security gate said, there is less waiting around the corner. Yeah, by about 4 people. Now I have been on some tight schedules before at airports with security, but it usually isn't a big deal because you just run to the plane. Oh yeah, I forgot that 2 of my fellow travelers were rather large people that aren't running anywhere. Fortunately we were flying JetBlue which was kind enough to wait on us because they knew that we had checked in already. Everyone got on the plane without breaking a limb or having a major coronary.

The plane was very nice. I had never flown JetBlue, but was really impressed. There was plenty of leg room. The crew was very friendly. They also had Direct TV and XM radio on the flight at no charge.

We got into JFK airport at our scheduled time and after some direction were able to make it to our hotel room in one piece.

More to come on our day in Manhattan and all things NYC...

Till next time...
J.

Learning to live

Man, the older I get more more I thought that things wouldn't bother me so much. I mean, I thought that little things like traffic idiots or running late for work would be something that I am used to.

This is not the case. What I believe has happened is that somethings that I used to care about slip away, but other things seem to be more important. I am finding that sometimes minor disagreements with people only seem minor on the surface. Then there is the whole other argument/conflict/struggle that is underneath that is really a BIG DEAL. However, when you try to explain to people what the struggle is about, it comes across as petty. Then you look like a petty jerk.

Then I start thinking that "maybe I am a petty jerk. Ok, I will just get over it. Ok, I am over it." Then when I am not looking, WHAM, another bit of pettiness arises and it starts all over again.

Then there are the times in my life when the conflict comes to the surface. A lot of things are said and done, and no real conclusion is reached, but for some reason I feel better. Then the pettiness just seems to go away. Maybe it turns into apathy. Maybe it turns into just not caring anymore because I have other things to fill my time with. I don't know.

So here's to pettiness and lack of resolve?

Two Movies and One Hit Wonders

As I type this, I am watching the top 100 one-hit wonders. I guess this is the only thing that one can do after going to the movies and watching ROCKY BALBOA. This movie got mixed reviews. I should have known after Rocky V that this couldn't be a good movie. I am not going to mince words. This movie sucked. The dialogue was humorous at times. At times it was if Rocky, a semi-retarded old man, was trying to speak proverbs to the misguided people around him.

Earlier this week I took the wife and kids to Charlottes Web. It was a good kid's/family movie. That is until the end when of course Charlotte dies. My 7 year old just broke down in the theater and cried. She has seen the animated version and knew what to expect. She just has a very tender heart. But this got me to thinking... why do most kids' movies involve someone or something dying? What are storytellers trying to prove? If anyone actually reads this blog, please help explain this to me.

Well, I am just rambling at 2 a.m. I am going to bed.

Later...