Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Stress, Fracture, or Rumble?

Life is a little stressful at the moment. And today was just down-right sucky.

I hate when I feel this way. I’m pinched, and hunched, and tightened down – and want to lash out at everyone, which CLEARLY doesn’t endear me to anyone – especially those who are nearby – and unable to help, because there is no help, and I just have to DEAL WITH IT.

Last night was a great writer’s get-together. An insight to the evening can be found here. We were so glad to have the Purple Panda visit us. Tonight I chatted with my mom while I wolfed down the Citrus Sauced Chicken Breast and Braised Leeks for dinner. (I didn’t roast anything, I just sautéed the cumin/salt & peppered skinless breasts in olive oil – then followed the rest of the recipe. More or less).

Here’s one of the mini-rants about what’s driving me insane.

Because my life is SO FULL (I'm getting ready to leave for a 24 day business trip and just got done with 3 hell filled weeks of training staff and conducting our National Seminar) I am also working on my new Vista laptop - trying to get it set up.

I guess MOST people would be THRILLED to have a brand new shinny laptop. FASTER! MORE POWER! BETTER GRAPHICS. But I am an old grumpy woman.

<sample comments coming from my area of the office>
"Oh sure - like I have time to set it up NOW!!!"
"It's DIFFFFFFFERENT"
"I don't like X about it!!!"
"How do I do X?" (where X is EVERYTHING I do in my daily life)

I've had this computer since the beginning of June now - and have only been using it for the internet and music streaming. (wise use of resources, no?)

So Monday I decided - I will move EVERYTHING OVER - and have it ready to go on the road with me by the end of this week. ('cause I am INSANE!)

This is what I've learned so far about VISTA.

They've FUCKED "changed up" the way "My COMPUTER" (now just called "COMPUTER") displays drives and folders. It now has a "Favorite Links" part - and STUPID THUMBNAIL PICTURES - and it makes me feel like I'm working with "Operating System for Dummies" or "People not Smart Enough to Understand Directory Structures".

It's also got this stupid "User Account Control" thing that pops up EVERY TIME I download something. And no option to tell it, "Leave me alone. This is my OWN COMPANY address/web-site". So every time I download something for work (which feels like 50 times a day) - I have to click and say "YES MR. SUPER SMART BILL GATES, I REALLY WANT TO DOWNLOAD THIS STUPID APPLICATION!!" Which is annoying - to say the least.

So I Googled - how to disable it - and did that. NOW - my corporate Anti-virus/Firewall crap is yelling at me. OMG! OMG! You disabled the 'User Account Control" THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!

STUPID PROGRAMS. (also stupid engineer who has discovered my subterfuge and is telling me he’s going to invoke User Account Control as a requirement from the Admin Server.)

I spent ALL DAY yesterday moving my Outlook from one machine to another. YET! YET! There is NO WAY to (easily) move the program from OS to OS. And? It’s STILL NOT RIGHT.

JUST BECAUSE my “Personal Folders” are BIGGER THAN 2 GIG I should suffer?

So it was migrate everything from the old machine to the server while docked and running wire, then UNDOCK the old machine make it wireless – dock the new machine – and download.

Only to discover all my sub-address books and “deleted” e-mails (which I keep for a year – ‘cause you NEVER KNOW what someone is going to claim "somethin") didn’t make the migration.

And suddenly my signature file with a graphic is causing heart palpitations in the Active X world – and I just want the DAMN GRAPIC OF MY COMPANY LOGO with my signature. (mumble, mutter, throw darts)

Plus – I have a customer whose data isn’t converting (easily).

And another customer who suddenly can’t build indexes in one program, while the other program 0N THE SAME NETWORK DRIVE mind you, will create (necessary) indexes with NO PROBLEMS.

WTF Mr. Server??!!

And you KNOW life is going to hell in a hand-basket with the Programmer of all Programming Gods says, “I don’t know. I’m out of ideas.”

OUT OF IDEAS???

Me: “Hello? Mr. Customer? I know we’re 4 weeks away from start up. And I’m going to be gone for the next three weeks, but we’re “out of ideas.”

OH YEAH. Like that’s going to go over good.

And in all honesty – we’ve done 1001 things to figure out WHY it isn’t working.

  • Reinstall data – no dice.
  • Run data at our place? It works.
  • Reinstall program to the serve? Great! Only no dice, the program still throws up when it tries to create the indexes.
  • Send the exe file to us? – GREAT! Works fine! (in North Carolina). Not so great in Georgia.
  • Rename directories and start over? Sure! STILL, IT ISN’T CREATING INDEXES. *sigh*


Two more days – that’s all I have. To get the new computer working, the call log cleared out, Data converted for 3 locations (one client), AND get my PRESENTATIONS created.

Care to guess who’ll be WORKING on Saturday instead of enjoying her last day in town???

But still. I have SO MUCH to be grateful for, and I know it. I feel even more guilty for complaining tonight.

SO! Only “happy” from here on out.

Ps: Come HELL OR HIGH WATER, I am going to hear Haven Kimmel read tomorrow night!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aww, Mit...it sounds like you need a glass of scotch, a Sara Lee pound cake, and a big hug! Perhaps this tough love quote, as told by Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls, will help ease the tension you feel:

"You have your looks...your health...a couple bucks in the bank...you have friends that love you...and that's a hell of a lot more than most people have."

Did that help?

:o)

Mamie said...

When I got my newest computer, I immediately called my computer guru and had him come take offeverything that looked "visibily Vista" including the Word version that came with it and put all my familiars on. You might try this?

Anonymous said...

We need to talk because Mom and Dad want a new 'puter. I have been told that XP isn't offered anymore. Not to mention some Office sucks too because they have moved everything around. A buddy of mine told me that Billy was trying to emulate MacIntosh. It's going to take me a year to figure it out and I'm just a rookie compared to you and your background.
Have fun.

RWH

Anonymous said...

With such a day as you had, thanks for taking the time to visit with me that night ! tp

Elisa said...

Do NOT feel guilty for complaining -- that rant was so worth it. Hope it helped. And as for vista, I've heard similar rants to yours, enough to make me resolve that when the time comes, I'm getting a Mac (oh, I hope I didn't jinx myself -- I so can't afford it right now!!!)