2004-01-29 - 1:50 a.m.

You may now resume your ranting

Okay, that last one was SO not the entry I intended to write. The entry that got ousted in favor of that psychobabble was all about work, beginning with the idiot-like being with whom I had a meeting today.

Ever tried to write a program to do something? Or build anything that was supposed to accomplish something?

Clue: FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO before you ask someone to build it.

Some people in this company have total and complete memory loss - or is that paralyzing denial? Either way.

Last meeting, this jerk tried to convince my boss that *I* had left out this crucial design element that he had never bothered to MENTION to me before.

Strangely enough if I'm building you a house and you don't MENTION that you'd like a giraffe enclosure in the dining room, complete with giraffes, I generally LEAVE THAT PART OUT.

The analogy is proportional. You'll just have to trust me.

But it IS crucial - if you're planning on keeping giraffes in the dining room. Gotta grant him that.

Me, desperately trying to wring information out of him: "How do you want the process to work?"

Him: "Well... I think... you know... hmm. Well we're kind of inventing it new, aren't we, so what do you think?"

Dude. I'm a TEMP, as everyone goes to great pains to constantly remind me. No one ever introduced me around, nor did they explain the concepts behind anything I'm doing. It was just like here, you're only going to be here a short while, so here's the window on what you need to know. And as long as people can tell me exactly what they want, I make it for them.

Don't ask me for OPINIONS on process questions. I can't tell you how to do something when you haven't figured out what you want to do. I haven't even been told enough about how the business works to figure out the right way and convince you to do it.

So I try it this way: "How does it work now?" Since we are updating a process that is already in place.

Him: "Um... I don't really know. I don't think anyone really knows. I think it's a mystery... on purpose."

At this point all fourteen of my supporting personalities AND the screener all physically attacked the personality minding the storefront. As physically as non-corporeal entities can, of course. Because Miss Personality In Charge was about to ask this guy how he managed simple motor functions with no living brain cells. I still would like to know.

He is the pointy haired boss. He is so the pointy haired boss.

Oh, speaking of being totally ignorant, as I am in that place... someone came up to me last week and started asking me questions about a project I'm working on. So I answered, and I'm giving him information. So when he's done and getting ready to walk away, I say, "I'm sorry, I don't know your name." He looked a bit surprised and possibly affronted, and told me his first name. Gee, way to disclose.

My boss sits behind me, and she was kind of listening of course, so after he left she came over and asked me what he had been asking, and I ran down the conversation for her. Then she told me who he was, and what he did. He's like Mr. Big Guy in charge of Something Or Other. I said oh, that's probably why he was surprised when I asked him his name, and she said yeah, I noticed that. Next time you can ask me.

Well then. I thought I was being logically curious to inquire to whom I was speaking and giving information, and since I never had any sort of orientation and there is no pictorial hall of Big Guys anywhere around, I thought it would be reasonable to ask.

Guess not.

Ah well. They keep paying me. I keep going back. It's my own damn fault.

By the way. Why does Ticketmaster keep sending me emails telling me "Don't Miss Bette Midler!"? Are they asking me to work on my aim, or what, exactly?

Oh, and "fung goo" - from my reader mail (or guestbook, to be technical) - I'm guessing is actually derived from a similar source as "Take off, hoser," from the Great White North with Bob and Doug McKenzie. I remember one of those actors being asked once, what that expression really meant, and he said something to the effect of, "It's what you say to your brother when your mom is NBC and she won't let you swear."

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -