serinde

day 6, late morning

2024-07-03T14:49:53Z

Status, ditto. At this rate I fear I won't be cleared for any of my weekend engagements.

I had a lovely evening in the garden last night, which turned into a too-late tonight with too-much gin & tonic on an insufficiently full stomach, and I am feeling less than stellar for non-COVID reasons. Work drama increases perforce and there is never a moment without someone running very loud lawn equipment in the neighborhood.

S. has replaced fever with the runs (I assume from the antibiotics).

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Struggling onward

2012-02-26T21:09:27Z

The general state of the state is...a state of flux, in nearly every corner of existence. I still don't have a peep back from the co-op board where I want to move; I'm following up on that as I can, but at the moment just trusting that it will happen (and trying to silence the shrieking in my skull). I'm packing that which I can right now--starting with the easy stuff, books and DVDs and fabric and so on--in a collection of boxes kindly gifted by cobrawoman and sedai, and others I dumpster-picked from the student caff downstairs. I've also made another leap of faith by commanding U-Haul to deliver some specialized boxes (dish barrel and glass packs) early this week; they ship UPS so it may even make it safely into the building, Deo volente.

I had some emotional pinwheeling that was really screaming in the inside of my head for the last couple of months, making me unable to sleep or concentrate, all that rotten business; but, for the third leap of faith, I've actually talked about it, like I was some kind of grownup or balanced, rational being or something. Nothing is different in a real or practical sense, but getting it out of my head and into the world has at least made me able to sleep again (though, like Macbeth, I may have murdered sleep for others, and I am grieved at that).

Work is good, actually, but I am pre-loading some worry and strain. Next month is going to be a right bastard; I have to prep for this leadership program--oh, I didn't mention? Yes, I've been enrolled in a year-long leadership development program, very eminent, run by the dude who was CIO at MIT for twenty years, no fucking pressure at all why do you ask--the first session of which is in Stanford the last week of March, and there is homework one must complete beforehand. Plus, we are kicking off a major application implementation on March 1, and this is almost entirely my pidgin; it will stand or fall based on what I put into it, and it is costing us a number with a lot of zeros on the end, so I had bloody well better not be at home to the Fuckup Fairy. Plus there's the usual day-to-day stuff that keeps me off the street. And moving in the middle of it, which is always glorious for concentrating the mind on the work at hand.

I know I just have to keep on keepin' on, as the man says, and really that's what I do, and I can do it this time too; I know this even in the dark of the night. I could just really wish that it all didn't have to come down at once, and on top of all the other sorrow and chaos swirling around.

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I set 'em up, you knock 'em down

2011-10-03T21:40:36Z

[In which I am describing to elibalin the cleaning out of my former henchperson's office, which office I have snarfed because it's one of the best on campus.]

serinde: I found a few items of interest.
serinde: E.g., a cute little palm-sized screwdriver widget. I will loftily ignore the fact that it's from Goldman Sachs.
elibalin: A Goldman Sachs-branded device for screwing. Indeed.

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I will also fix your car and floss your cat.

2011-05-23T16:25:29Z

User: I keep getting this error with Firefox. {description elided}
Student Helper: This happens when Firefox detects another profile in use. {fix elided}
User: That didn't work. Also this started happening when we started using this application hosted elsewhere, and other schools are saying they're having the same problem with it too. So please come troubleshoot it.

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In which there were Enmeshing, Unfightable Shadows

2011-05-05T11:58:42Z

I haven't really posted about work since starting the new job a year ago. (Then again, I haven't posted much about anything, so it's not that I've been deliberately exclusionary.) But it is needful to set up some background before getting to the actual meat of this post.

( Lo: Background. )

( Primal conflict: man vs. self. )

( What do you do when you don't know what to do? )

( Takeaway: )

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HP-UX Will Be So Disappointed

2011-03-03T18:34:20Z

Department Assistant: "Hi, I'm calling from the XXXX department. We need to order a computer for our lab, and it has to be an HP, how do we do that?"
Your humble correspondent: "Is there a particular reason it has to be an HP? Is there some kind of peripheral or card it has to have? Because the desktop machines are pretty much created equal, and we should be able to get you a much better deal through Dell."
DA: "I don't know but they said it has to be HP because it needs to run this thing...what is it... L - I - N - U - X ?"
YHC: "...Why don't you email me the spec and we'll figure out what you need to order."

(Quoth elibalin, "Maybe that's why my printer keeps jamming. I'm using Windows ink.")

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Plus Ca Change

2010-11-09T19:26:10Z

In general, I am happy in my work (and I have a longer post I need to make on that head), but every now and again I get a reminder that perfect serenity is not granted to us this side of the grave. Vide, a cow-orker voicemail I received today:

"Hi, this is XXX, just to let you know, um, $BOSS stopped by and I just, and so everything's on your thing, I got pulled into this by a sideways motion, who knows. But in any case, I set you any information that I was given, and any policies that are already in place, and, um, that's what she told me to do. OK, talk to you later, bye."

If you are laboring under the delusion that I had any degree of prior context for this, you do not know IT departments.

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In which there is Pondering of New Situations

2010-05-20T01:45:41Z

( So there's this job... )

( And the resultant lifestyle changes... )

( And the damn ankle... )

( And then there's checking for pulse... )

( And a kitty. )

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and then there's the rest of it

2010-04-28T04:16:00Z

So, a few developments for those who are not living in my brain.

1) I have a new job. My last day at Hunter was Friday, and I'm starting at Barnard on May 10th, where I will be Director of User Services (shut up). This is a big promotion-like thing, and I have moments of shrieking panic, but in my more rational moments I feel tolerably sure I can handle it. I also had the smart of giving myself some time between jobs, which I didn't really have last time 'round; I intended to spend it frolicking around in spring weather, except...

2) So that thing where I hurt my ankle at aikido and then some more in a mosh pit? It was feeling mostly better, so I kept going to class, and I kept going to yoga, and then it started to hurt somewhat when I walked, and then started hurting a lot when I walked, and I did the HMO referrals dance, and the referring ortho couldn't see me til July, and I went back and bibbled at Callen-Lorde's referral dept., and they sent me to the NYU walk-in clinic on Friday who tell me I have a chronic sprain because I haven't just let the stupid thing heal. So I have an air cast and crutches, and I'm supposed to keep off it as much as possible, and wear the (extremely ill-fitting) air cast when walking, and etc. I am coping with this with my usual grace and serenity: which is to say, hanging on by the skin of my teeth and being a whiny little bitch. I seem to have an enforced staycation, except the part where I still seem to be running around a lot. But I'm taking the bus whenever I can, and that's something, yes? In spite of the fact that some of the M66 drivers are rotten fucking people, to the point where one actually closed the doors in my face as I was about to put my foot on the step. (Some of the others are really nice, though, so I guess this evens out.)

3) I still have not hung my curtains. I faithfully swear that I shall call the landlady tomorrow and ask if we have a ladder. I have to change a light bulb anyways. Watch, I'll get them finally up and then hate how they look.

4) As far as I'm aware, we're all still supposed to put our plastic/glass recycling in clear plastic trash bags. So why do none of the stores around me sell 'em?

5) I'm having mental hysterics off-and-on that the progress I'd been making on the weight loss front will now be utterly destroyed by enforced inactivity. Because what can you do without a leg to stand on?

6) I went and asked a boy out, for a number of reasons, not least of which was to confirm that I was capable of doing so. I was ready for "yes", I was ready for "no"; I was not prepared for utter silence. The entire situation has led to numerous reflexions, including that my dating brain appears to be stuck at age 16.

7) I have Rock Band again, which makes me happy, except I really want to drum, but it's my right foot I hit the kick drum with, and that will just not do; and I prefer bass over guitar, but you can't have a solo career as a bassist (tell that to Lemmy, jerkweeds).

8) In spite of all of these bees, I'm doing pretty okay.

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Ladies and gentlemen, my PFY...

2010-04-25T21:51:56Z

...in whom I am well pleased:

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lather, rinse, repeat

2010-04-07T19:11:10Z

3/30: Professor Foo forwards a phishing attempt of the usual vintage (OMG UR OVER QUOTA, click here to fix) to the college mailing list, saying "Phish warning!" in the Subject, and removing the trawling link, but otherwise unedited

4/7: Professor Bar responds to the college mailing list, asking "Thank you but I do not see a link or password in order to do what you request. Is this still necessary?"

4/7: Professor Foo responds to the college mailing list, saying "I hesitate even to reply to an email, for fear that's a phish. Hopefully Dr. Bar is a real member of this list."

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I Believe The Children Are Our Future

2010-02-18T20:47:45Z

...which is why most of the students in our School of Education should be banned from contact with them.

( Exempli Gratia )

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The Dell Happiness Patrol

2010-01-05T18:23:56Z

We have some several small-form-factor PCs which we were testing for use in the student terminal 2.0 roll-out. One such is a Dell Optiplex 760, which was way too big for the job at hand; and since trying to run Windows in a VM on my desktop iMac eats all my computrons, on spride's advice I snarfed it to stick under my desk and remote into when I have the need to be plunged into the warm gelatinous mass of Redmond.

While I'm at it, why not see if it will PXE boot and talk to our management console? So I hook it up at our testing bench and turn it on.

1. No BIOS, it just
2. goes directly to a crippled XP configuration screen
3. THAT PLAYS REPETITIVE HORRIBLE MUSIC REALLY REALLY LOUD THAT YOU CANNOT TURN OFF UNTIL YOU GO THROUGH IT ALL

Ensued then a Three Stooges-like routine involving me frantically searching it for a volume control (there isn't one), or an "off" tickybox on the screen (there isn't one), or a physical control on the machine itself (there isn't one), or failing that A PILLOW TO STICK IT UNDER (none of those either) so as not to disturb the fifteen other people in earshot.

Eventually it booted to XP proper, and hopefully this will not recur on the next reboot; but I have procured a heavy coat to throw over it just in case.

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Today's sum-up

2009-10-09T16:32:08Z

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serinde @ 2009-10-06T14:04:00

2009-10-06T18:12:27Z

As a result of the Plan to Take Over the World, I must needs get access to the university-wide ERP implementation thingie; and not only the account that, eventually, everyone shall have, but I must also get access to the "CRM", which is "Customer Relationship Management", module, which is The Thing What Lets You Submit Trouble Tickets.

So. I activate my account. (The web site is, unsurprisingly, steaming piles of shit, but at least it's better than the new Payroll application.) I go to acquire the form. Behold, this form: it is a PDF, but one that you cannot fill in the fields of. You must print it out, and fill it out, and then send it unto the Mothership.

AT WHICH POINT THEY SCAN THE FORM BACK IN.

OK, well, that is par for the course; so I print it out and start filling it out. And I stupidly start writing in my home phone instead of work, scratch it out, and then realize they only left about an inch of blank for phone number (tons of space if you're typing your PDF! but less so for handwriting), so I cannot fill it in.

So here I am with the jar of Liquid Paper I stole from downstairs, to get access to our shiny new system that's going to be all about electronic signatures.

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This Is What I'm Dealing With

2009-09-25T17:00:50Z

I submit Yet Another bug report to Payroll about their precious new web app, which is once again puking unindicative server errors at me. The response, in its entirety:

"You need to find out first if you filled out it, please call me to go throu. x 12345"

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The Phone Is The Devil's Instrument

2009-07-09T21:33:42Z

[Your humble correspondent returns from a meeting to see the baleful red eye of the voicemail glaring at her from her desk phone. She curses, and plays the message.]
Random Git's Message: Hi, this is Foo Bar. Can someone there please call me back. X12345 *click*
Your Humble Correspondent: Because what we love is some context in our messages. *dials number*
YHC: Hi, this is {me}, I received your message asking for a call?
RG: Yes!
YHC: ...so...what can I do for you? [1]
RG: Oh! I didn't...but...Maybe I have the wrong person.
YHC: ...............
RG: Are you in charge of the help desk?
YHC: I am in charge of the student help desk, yes.
RG: But for CUNYfirst? [2]
YHC: No, that's being handled by the Faculty/Staff help desk.
RG: So you're the wrong person?
YHC: . o O ( FOR WHAT? ) ....So it would seem.
RG: OK thanks *click*

[1] At this point I am assuming that it's some HR nonsense, as I happened to recognize the person's name as someone who works up there, not that she's actually said anything indicative yet.
[2]This is the big huge university-wide ERP implementation that's being slowly rolled out in stages, rather like successive biblical plagues.

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Oh No You Didn't.

2009-05-15T20:41:27Z

Dear Notworks Group:

We knew you were wrong, and that the fact that none of the West Building terminals could connect to, well, anything was actually a network problem. I did, the PFY did, the Windows Server admin did, the sysadmins did, and I'm pretty sure you did too. You lost any scrap of credibility you had in the first place when, an hour in, we found that indeed there was an entire switch turned off. After that was back in service, don't try and tell us that it's not you any more, when we can ping the gateway for the East Building terminals, but get 36 bytes from 10.95.0.131: Communication prohibited by filter when pinging West--and most especially do not try and say "It's your computer!" when I report the above. Neither should you try and claim it's because the IP address they're using as a primary name server went out of commission Monday, because a) they've been working betwixt then and now, and b) the East building terminals with the same configuration still work.

No love,

Me.

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