Short Hiatus

I know I have been sporadic with posting lately and the topics aren't my normal funny stuff, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches and deal with what life is sending your way. I am headed with my boys to spend time with my family and attend the funeral of my Grandmother so I will be offline for a short time.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the friends and family who have sent me their love and support over the last weeks while we were going through this tough time. It means a lot and I am very grateful.


Anyway.. I was talking as I often do with a very special person in my life about my boys. My youngest, being himself, decided to thank her for something by making up his own thank you song. It was only a couple lines, but it just fit him and his personality. The boys are always doing crazy stuff that makes you look at them and just laugh. You can't help it. Gone are the days when they were little and you just thought about how cute they are and spend your time watching the same 5 kids shows over and over again. Gone are the days when they are learning to walk, or talk or head off to school for the first time. Sometimes I miss those days.. they were great times. Now though, everyday they seem to do something that amazes me and makes me realize they are becoming young men and not little boys anymore.

Sure, somedays they do things that make me question if they were dropped one too many times as kids, but for the most part they are proving themselves to be intelligent and fun guys to hang out with. I got to thinking about some of the things they did as little kids that just made me shake my head and then started wondering as they get into the teenage years and dating, driving and everything else that goes with Jr/Sr High School.. what I am going to encounter then.

I still remember clearly the time my older son (B) decided he wanted to get the younger (G) in trouble. I was watching a movie one weekend afternoon when I hear this scream followed quickly by crying and B running down the stairs with tears streaming down his face clutching his forearm. I asked what happened and he showed me. His brother had bit him.. and bit him hard on the arm. There were fairly good teeth marks and the area was all red and angry looking. I took him into the kitchen to get some ice for it and to calm him down before I tracked down G to have a "talk" with him about biting.

As we walked into the kitchen.. who is standing there but G. Hmm... B had been upstairs and came running down as soon as he screamed and the crying started and I had gotten up as soon as I heard things to see what was going on. Unless G had turned super stealth ninja on me, there was no way he sprinted past his brother to get in the kitchen without me noticing. So what was going on here? I started to look at the bite and its location. It was on the top of his arm and I was pretty sure at this point that it would line up perfectly if I moved B's arm up to his mouth. Sure as shit, the bite was self inflicted .. a story G quickly confirmed and B eventually admitted.

I just stood there shaking my head. Part of me wanted to take care of my son as he was hurt. The other part wanted to smack him upside the head for biting himself hard enough to hurt to the point where it made him cry. I just was amazed that he wanted his brother in trouble enough that he would go to such lengths.

These days they are pretty much inseperable. I mean they each have their own friends and will go play seperately sometimes, but for the most part when they are at home or even when they are going out to play, they are together. Since they are only 2 years apart, they like the same things and play well together. That doesn't mean they are not still siblings and often act like it. You know the mentality that if your sibling says that water is wet, you must insist that water is indeed dry and refuse to see reason even as he dumps a bucket of it over your head and you are suddenly very wet? They contradict each other on general principal. They will go out of their way to antagonize, bother and in generally annoy the living piss out of the other person, all while begging them to help with a chore they are doing or to play something specific with them. If you didn't have a sibling in close age range to you, you probably don't get that, but I watch it every day with no small amount of amusement. As long as they don't annoy me with it and there is no blood being spilled.. have at it.

Ever seen someone take a bite out of a stick of butter? Me either. Yet one morning I got up .. was making breakfast and got out a new stick of butter. I opened this stick of butter to find two big bite marks in it. One a little smaller than the other. I asked the kids about it and they of course denied it. It must have been the stick butter biting gremlins. That was just one of those things that you just know you are never going to understand and let it go and hope that it doesn't cause permanent brain damage. :P

Speaking of annoying kids shows.. anyone remember a show called Bananas in Pajamas? Here you go if you don't know it or have managed to drink enough chlorine to burn the images from your brain:



The boys loved this show when they were little. It was annoying and I hated it, but watched it with them just the same. B even had a Banana in Pajamas toy. The only thing with this little stuffed toy was that it was almost sinister looking. Especially in a low light situation.. like when the kids had fallen asleep in the car on our way home form somewhere. That freaky banana was like the "Chucky" of the toy fruit world I swear. It could get this look like "I know you don't like my show so I am likely going to kill you in your sleep.. be afraid.. be very afraid" We wanted to get rid of it, but he loved that thing as creepy as it was. So do we take the chance with a potentiall homicidal toy ... or deal with an upset toddler that we just stole a toy from. We decided in the end that it was likely to be less painful overall to just go ahead and take our chances with the banana than anger an already tired and cranky toddler. It's hard to explain.. but just trust me that it was creepy. Not flying monkey creepy or anything, but creepy just the same.

Speaking of riding in the car with kids. I will never forget being in the car one day with the boys, looking back in the mirror and seeing each of them eating a french fry. Why is that odd you ask? Quite simply because we were not currently eating french fries and actually hadn't had any in the car with the boys since a couple days earlier. So did the fry fairy come and answer their prayers for some warm crispy french fries? Nope. I figured they must have dropped a couple when we had them and being toddlers, they had no concept that it might not be the best idea to eat a 2 day old fry that had been sitting around in the car. We took the fries away of course and they were not happy about it. Seeing as it was lunch time anyway and we were out and about running errands we decided to get lunch and get them fresh french fries.

The boys were not old enough to have their food in the back with them yet, so they had to be handed stuff one at a time. I was watching them in the rear view to see if he was dropping fries again and found out it was much more calculated and planned out. Here is B asking for a fry and as soon as he thought no one was looking he stuck it in a spot he discovered in his car seat. Seconds later he would be asking for another one. That one he would usually eat. I watched him carefully and it was pretty much a store one, eat one pattern. I was just speechless. Here is my toddler wanting to both have as many fries now as possible, and make sure he had reserve food stores for later on the off chance we decided to stop feeding him. When we got him out of the car that day we definitely pulled about a third of a bag of fries out of his car seat!

Good times.. fun times. Nowadays its even more fun for me to spend time with them, but its very different. It never ceases to amaze me to sit down and have a discussion with them and see how much they comprehend and understand and take in stride. Things like a death in the family, changes in relationships of those around them, and the general increase in challenges they face as they get older, all bring up questions for them. Yet they ask those questions. They talk about things, take it all in stride and never cease to amaze me with how they handle it all.

So I leave you now with a video that my younger son G told me I just had to watch with him. He was so proud of himself with this link. The two of them watch it all the time now and will sing it randomly as well.

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Goodbye

Its been a couple days now.. but I couldn't bring myself to write this before now. One of the most amazing women I have ever known passed away Thursday evening. We knew this was coming, and honestly it's somewhat of a relief to know that she is no longer suffering. She had made her decision weeks ago. She was at peace. So all that was left was the waiting and I know that was hard on both her and everyone that loves her.

You know me and music. I kept looking for THAT song. The one that sums up how I feel. The one that speaks to me and will always remind me of the good times. The wonderful memories I have of my Grandma. I couldn't find a single one that fit my mood. None of the lyrics could express how I feel. Then I stumbled across one of my favorite guitarists and an instrumental he wrote called "While We Cry". I have been listening to it over and over while I try to write this. It's not a super depressing song. It's melodic, sweet, beautiful.



I am going to miss you so much Grandma. I have so many good memories of you, your house, and all the wonderful times we spend together there and elsewhere. You were the one that always went way out of your way and did all the little things that made everyone feel special. You are loved by so many. You had such a positive impact on so many people.

A wonderful friend of mine reminded me of something important the other day. That despite the fact that I am losing you, I still will have my fond memories of all the time we had together. That those don't go away with you even though it sometimes feels like they will. I will always smile and remember the great times we shared when I think of you Grandma.

I don't know what else to say.. so I will simply say this:

Goodbye Grandma. I love you.

-J

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Perception

There are always various situations going on in my life. Some I'm directly involved in and some that I am an outside observer on. I'm sure thats true for anyone unless you are a hermit living in a shack in the mountains, life seems to bring drama in one form or another pretty constantly. For those not into the internet as much.. drama as I refer to it there is basically talking about an emotionally charged situation. It's most often used to reference arguments or heated debates on forums or among people talking on vent when put in the context of the net. I tend to apply it to the real world as well. Seems there is always some kind of drama or stress going on. Some drama you have no control over and have to stand helpless ... just watching and deal with it the best you can. Others you are directly responsible for or very involved with even if not the person that created it to begin with.

We all have stuff going on in our lives.. its .. well .. LIFE. What changes events from just something going on to 'drama'? It's perception. It's the emotions that get based off that perception. Let me give you an example. Lets say I am a die hard Packers fan (I couldn't care less actually). If you asked me who I thought the best quarterback was, I would probably respond with Brett Favre. Is he the best ever? Who knows for sure, but my perception is based on the fact that I spent most of my football time cheering for the Packers and Favre. Even if I want to give an objective answer to the greatest quarterback question, there is just no way you are going to completely seperate your emotions out of it. So if the Packer fan feels that Favre is the best, he will argue it to death.. probably getting very heated and emotional over it if someone is making a case for another QB.

In life, most of us do our best to get all the facts we can about a situation before we form our opinion on a subject or situation. That is not always the case though and sometimes just not possible. Ever made a snap judgement as someone walked by because of the way they dressed or talked or moved? Sometimes our emotions get the better of us and we don't even realize we are doing it. Hell I know I have made some pretty irrational decisions in the past in the heat of the moment. I try not to nowadays. It's something I work at pretty hard actually. When the kids do something (or don't do something they were supposed to) that just sets me off, I have to take a step back, calm myself and decide if its worth getting upset over or just discuss it with them later and move on. It's not always easy.

There is a situation that I am on the outside of right now where one party is not sharing all the information available in order to 'protect' people. This kind of thing has happened to me in the past where information was withheld so that I didn't have to worry about it or to the person that was not sharing, it wasn't a big deal. I struggle with that, I really do. Sometimes you have to make a tough decision to protect a child that may not be ready to deal with an adult matter, but even then you would be surprised what kids can handle if you are open and honest with them. Most of the time its adults 'protecting' other adults. I guess I just feel that if the people are important in your life and you know they love and support you, let them in and let them be there for you rather than keeping them out of the loop so they don't have to worry about it.

The problem with all these drama type situations is dealing with perceptions. People are going to base their feeling and emotions on the facts they have.. even if that is an incomplete or incorrect set of facts. I can't count the number of times I have been frustrated by this kind of thing lately both at work and in my personal life, it seems I am always trying to combat other peoples perceptions of what is going on in a situation. I love getting called into someone's office and have them go off on you about a topic. When they are done you finally get a chance to explain what is really going on and suddenly they realize how far off base they were because they only had a portion of the information they needed. They didn't have a complete or correct set of facts, yet it didn't stop them from basing their perception of the situation off them.

What's even worse is a situation I know of where one person is purposely putting out incorrect information to both hurt and manipulate another and to make himself look better. I can't even describe how much that pisses me off. I described the situation to a friend of mine as a cross between Jerry Springer and Dr. Phil. One minute this individual is all angry and upset.. grabbing folding chairs and getting enraged at the other guests while the crowd chants "Jerry!Jerry!Jerry!". Then all of a sudden he is on the couch with Dr. Phil, curled up in the fetal position playing the victim and the martyr, waiting for Dr. Phil to tell him how he was not responsible in any way for what has happened in his life and looking for others to blame. Man up and realize that it takes two people to make a relationship work and two to make it fail. Stop going around trying to give everyone the perception that you are this perfect person and that you are a completely innocent victim. There is no such thing. Step back and realize that somethings are personal and should stay that way and not be used to make people like you better and feel sorry for you. I have very little respect for people that use information that should remain personal to manipulate situations and people.

I have gotten to a point in my life where I am just past playing games and all the emotional drama bullshit that goes with it. I try to tell people exactly what I am thinking, feeling. As I look move forward with relationships I have with people in my life, I am doing everything I can to be open and honest even if it hurts sometimes. I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I have made many mistakes in my past and I'm sure I will make more in the future, but I am working on owning up to those mistakes. Admitting when I am in the wrong or out of line and trying to fix the situations the best I can. I am trying to stress that with people in my life too.. be honest with me, tell me how you feel and we can work through anything.

Another friend of mine and I have talked about the fact that while we don't always like change and everything that goes with it, sometimes its for the best and the right choice. What is the hardest to deal with and the most maddening is the waiting, the not knowing whats going on. Trying to wrap your head around a situation where you only have part of the information you need. Trying to make sense of life when there are so many unknowns. Unfortunately that is a fact of life sometimes, but it doesn't make it any easier. In times of uncertainty, of the unknown, thats when we need the support of our significant others, family and friends. Be honest with them and let them be there to support you, even if what you have to say may not be what they want to hear. If they truly care about you, they will get past their frustration over the situation and they will be there to support you even if they don't always uderstand your decisions. That to me is the sign of a true friend .. someone who shakes their head in bewilderment at the retardedness of your actions and then helps you up off the ground and dusts you off again.

In this crazy world we live in, shit happens. We all have to deal with the various events in our lives the best we can. I am thankful for the people in my life now that help me get through the tough times and celebrate the good times with me. It saddens and infuriates me to see people who intentionally hurt others. I wish those people would take a good look inside themselves and see what is missing in their lives that they have to purposely set out to hurt others to feel better about themselves. If thats the only way you feel good about your life, be prepared for a long sad existence. Find what makes you happy.. for you... and don't drag other people down to make yourself feel good.

I knew you all were missing an epic lenght rambling blog post from me about something you probably don't give a damn about.. so here you go. Enjoy!

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Annnnd I'm Back

Its been quite warm around here for the last few days meaning we had the windows open. Its nice to finally have a spring after a record setting 100+ inches of snow this season. The previous record was 76.1 inches back in 1979. I had a friend in town for the last 5 days and I joked that she brought the warm weather with her because mid 70s is quite warm for around here in the middle of April. Still a welcome change after the cold and all the snow for so long.

Had an amazing 5 day weekend with my friend visiting from out of town. I have known her for about 7 years now, but we have grown very close recently and it was wonderful to be able to have her here for the last 5 days. It's one thing to spend lots of time talking with someone every day, but there are some things you just can't put into words properly. It was so nice to be able to spend time with her. We had originally talked about things we wanted to do while she was here, but in the end we opted to not do much at all. We had a party Saturday night with some good friends... grilling out and playing some Rock Band and party games. Other than that, we hung out and spent a lot of time talking and laughing. We made most of our meals at home and just relaxed. It was a great way to spend 5 days with an incredible woman. Sadly I had to drive her to the airport today for her to get on a plane back home. I didn't want her to go.. but it was a wonderful visit and I look forward to the next one.

I forgot to tell you all about the party game we played at the cabin not this past weekend, but the weekend before. I had gone down to a cabin southwest of madison to meet some friends of mine from the online gaming guild I run. It was an absolute blast to meet them finally and hang out and party with them for a couple of days. There was a big table on the back porch that we all hung out around drinking and playing various games. One of the games we played was called Catchphrase. Basically you get a word on the screen of this little electronic device and you have to give people on your team clues to be able to guess the word without actually using the word. Its timed and as soon as you complete you give it to the next person in line which will be on the opposite team. Anyway, we are going around the table and suddenly one of the girls gives this as a clue:

"I would give you one of these to put you to sleep"

The first answer shouted out? "blow job" Everyone just busted up laughing at that point. That became the defacto answer for just about any clue that wasn't immediately obvious what the correct answer was. It was quite entertaining as was drunk Jenga. It had quite an interesting twist on the rules to turn it into a drinking game. Oh.. the correct answer to the above clue was "sedative" btw.

I leave you with a song that pretty much sums up the weekend. The video is cheesy.. but I haven't taken the time to get a regular music player embedded in here yet so youtube makes posting a song easy .. you're just gonna have to deal :P



Her bag got lost on the way here.. so we had our "somthings gotta go wrong" Took them til late Friday afternoon to get it to her. The rest of the weekend was incredible.

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Busy Busy

Updates have been and will probably be spotty for the time being. There is just a lot going on right now and it has pushed this to the back burner somewhat. Rest assured I will be back full force in the near future though.

I got to talk to my Grandmother on the phone last night. She was groggy and couldn't really talk, but I got to tell her some things I needed to and I got a chance to say goodbye. According to my Aunt, she enjoyed the letter I sent as well which makes me happy as it was a lot of the great memories I had from time spent up there with her.

We had two solid days of training at work on VMWare and the EMC Clariion SAN solution. If you are at all into technology.. its very cool stuff. We are doing full synchronous replication to a hot site in addition to consolodating our server room with the VMWare virtualization product. I will leave it at that as most of you that read my blog already have that glazed over look in your eyes I know. Its still very cool stuff. :P

I am on vacation for a few days.. taking a nice 5 day weekend which I am really looking forward to. I didn't realize just how much vacation time I had saved up until recently. I need to start using some of it as we can only carry so many hours at work. Its a nice situation to be in though to NEED to take vacation time.

Short and sweet.. something you are not used to from me I know, but you will have to deal for now :P

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These are the days...

I know I talk about music a lot, but if you know me, you know its an important aspect of my life. Like I mentioned previously.. its like a soundtrack to my life in a way. I go through phases where I listen to one kind of music more than another or a specific band. Depending on whats going on in my life at the time I might suddenly hear a new song .. or even an old song that I have heard a hundered times and get meaning out of it. I heard a band talking on the radio the other day about how when they write a song, they have a meaning to the lyrics in mind, but after a decade of playing it live, they are constantly surprised by people that will come up to them after a show and share what that song meant to them. How it played into their lives and personal experiences. I think thats pretty damn cool.

I was listening to some new music the other day.. new to me anyway as I am not always paying attention to the latest and greatest. A song came on the radio and I like the sound so I was listening and started to hear what the lyrics were saying. In searching for a version on youtube to put up here.. I stumbled off a live acoustic version where the singer actually talks about what the song meant to him. It was interesting to hear his take which really wasn't far off mine, but at the same time my take was influenced by people and memories and things going on now in my life. I am sure he had his own set of events that led him to write the lyrics for this song. Here is the song:



The lyrics are as follows:

The more i talk the less i say
When the words get in the way
Lonliness is so hard
Lonliness is so hard
Ordinary i confess
Living under house arrest
Maybe i belong here
Maybe i belong

Suddenly there's beauty in
The way my heart is caving in
And every scar reminds me how
I can't deny

These are the days that last forever
A time in my life i won't surrender
For better or worse, these are the days
In my life i've loved no other
We all have pain, we all have suffered
For better or worse, these are the days
I will remember

The more i learn, the less i know
The final act of letting go
Of everything that life takes
The reason why my heart breaks

Suddenly there's comfort in
The way the world comes crashing in
And every tear reminds me i'm alive
Tonight

These are the days that last forever
A time in my life i won't surrender
For better or worse, these are the days
In my life i've loved no other
We all have pain, we all have suffered
For better or worse, these are the days
I will remember

The more i talk, the less i say
When the words get in the way
Lonliness is so hard
Lonliness is so hard
Ordinary i confess
Living under house arrest
Maybe i belong here
Maybe i belong

These are the days that last forever
A time in my life i won't surrender
For better or worse, these are the days
In my life i've loved no other
We all have pain, we all have suffered
For better or worse, these are the days
I will remember
I will remember
I will remember


Normally when I hear a song.. it makes me thing of a single person.. or single event in my life. Right now, it seems to sum up a number of things going on in my life and reminds me of several different people.. for different reasons. I listened to this song as I did one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life .. write a letter saying goodbye to my Grandmother. This section of the song kept repeating in my head:

The more I learn, the less I know
The final act of letting go
Of everything that life takes
The reason why my heart breaks

Suddenly there's comfort in
The way the world comes crashing in
And every tear reminds me i'm alive
Tonight

As I sat there.. trying to decide what I wanted to say to a person that I love dearly and had such an big impact on my life, I kept hearing those words. The final act of letting go. I don't want to. I feel like life is ripping away not only a wonderfull, special person.. but also a special time in my life. I have such fond memories of weeks spent at Grandma's house.. hanging out with my sister and my cousins. There is truth in what he is saying though. Every tear just made me realize how much she meant to me and I took comfort in the fact that I will always have those memories and she will always have a special place in my heart even if she is not with us physically anymore. A time in my life I won't surrender .... I will remember.

This song fit in with my mood at the time, but I listen to it at other times and it reminds me of other things too. Some happy, some sad.. some a mix of both. I just got to thinking. We all have to make choices. We also have to deal with things we don't have a choice on. Sometimes life is awesome, seems perfect. Sometimes life sucks, its depressing and stressful. Through it all though, it comes down to the people around you. The people that are a part of your life. The family and friends that are always there through thick and thin. They love you when you are a great person. They encourage and support you and cheer you on. They love you even when you are an idiot and a jerk. They forgive you, pick you up, dust you off and show that they still love you.

To all those people in my life, thank you. I wouldn't be who I am today without you. I wouldn't be able to get through the tough parts of life without you. I wouldn't enjoy the great parts of life as much without you to share them with. Even going through this very tough time right now, I try to remember and focus on the good times. The good memories. I try to focus on the good things happening in life now. The great people that are in my life. We all have our stresses and struggles, but we get through them and hopefully it just makes us appreciate what we have and the good times that much more.

For better or worse, these are the days.

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Proud of herself.

So my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my nephew all went to hawaii a short time ago. Yes.. darling little Caden has been to Hawaii at a year and a half old and I still haven't been. It's a good thing he is so damn cute because I would have to dislike him now otherwise :P

Anyway, they all returned safe and sound from what sounds like a wonderful trip with lots of relaxing, dining out, aquariums, snorkeling, shopping and playing at the beach. A few days later I get a small package in the mail from my sister. It's always fun to open packages and so I did. Inside was a card and a keychain that has my name in Hawaiian, which is Ioku in case you were wondering, and I know you were. What a nice little thoughtfull gift from my sister and bro-in-law. So I open the card thinking it was going to be something island related as well. I don't know, maybe they got it in Hawaii, but I open this thing up and its one of those music cards. I didn't recognize the song, but I recognized the voices. Like nails on a chalkboard. My darling sister managed to find a card that plays a Rascall Flats song.

So I ask you.. is there no justice in this world? How on earth could this chain of events have occured? Not only is Rascall Flats music still out there despite me hiring a chain of hitmen to rid this planet of them and destroy any evidence they ever existed, but someone decided that it would be a good idea to make a card with one of their songs? Even getting past some retarded music exec who obviously had some drunken relations with the head of Hallmark and decided this was a good idea.. how on earth did it happen to cross my sisters path? Im pretty sure hell is an area with the climate of Arizona during monsoon season in August, they alternate between NKOTB and Rascall Flats for music selections, and all movies star Snaggletooth and Ben Afflek. The only cards you would be able to get in a place like that would be cards that played RF songs when you opened them.

On another note, this weekend I am going to a cabin in southern WI to visit some friends from my online gaming. These guys are fairly new to the guild, but they fit in with our atmosphere quite quickly and I am looking forward to meeting them in person. My only fear is that they will be upset with me for stepping down as GM of the WoW branch of our guild. Maybe I will find an angry mob that will want to kill me and leave me for dead in the woods instead of some fun people to drink and have a good time with. I guess there is only one way to find out. :P If you don't hear from me early next week.. send the scent dogs near the Spring Green area to find me please.

And most importantly of all. Today is Thursday. Which means 7 days. One week. Which is so very cool. <3

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Slacker

Yeah.. I know. Been a busy and somewhat stressful week or so. Sick kid.. wasn't feeling great myself.. blah blah blah.

So not really wanting to go to work this morning, I got to come in and deal with a user who holds a third degree black belt in window licking. We recently migrated from Groupwise 5.5 (R.I.P.) to MS Exchange. The interface is different and the buttons inside look different and are placed differently. It is, however, still a basic email client and could be operated by a 4 year old with a bit of training. I was not really surprised when this user called with issues. What did surprise me was my overwhelming need to beat my head against the wall to make the pain go away after trying to get her logged in for 20 minutes. It took no less than 3 password resets and 2 account lock removals to get an adult to be able to type in a 7 letter username and then hit tab once and then type in a 8 letter password. Both of which I was reading and spelling for her specifically because I was afraid she wouldn't be able to puzzle them out on her own.

This was followed shortly by the brain trust in marketing calling me to tell me they couldn't print. Complaining of error messages and whatnot, I started troubleshooting the problem. After about 10 minutes of her denying everything I was asking and saying it wasn't her fault, said user suddenly announces.

"Nevermind, I figured it out on my own."

Curious now.. I had to know. What was this user figuring out on their own without my expert advice? Oh.. well the error message was not actually that the printer was not ready as she originally stated. That was a paraphrase.. or something. What the message actually said was "print to file.. please select filename". Had she told me that in the first place I would have told her to check and make sure that there was no check in the "print to file" box. Which was what she managed to figure out on her own. She obviously checked it intentionally or accidentaly at some point.. so she just figured it out on her own.. right. There needs to be one of those beer commercials here..

"Here's to you oh marketing genius. Oh master of the copiers. Only you can show IT how to do their jobs by creating problems for yourself and then miraculously fix them after lying to them about what the problem was to cover your own ass. You pave the way for idiot users everywhere. So I lift my glass to you oh patron saint of the window lickers."

This was all followed up by a call from another department that was complaining that they lost one of the shared drive mappings. I told them to log off an back on quick to see if that fixed it as that runs the logon scripts again. She told me she can't. That they have no way of saving all the work they have put into the brochures that are up on the PC and that they never log it off. I told them they should be logging it off when no one is using it. She says that they haven't logged it off in 2 years. I told her to select "File.. then Save" from the list. She told me its not even really a program. Just some free thing that came with the printer that was setup by a vendor. I asked her why they don't use publisher or something designed to work with brochures and save them. I could hear the air rushing in and out of the wind tunnel that she calls a brain. I got the same answer I get from my kids when I ask why they did something really stupid. "I dunnnnnnoooo" /sigh

I can at least deal with it from my kids. Infuriating as it is, they are kids, learning and I know I gave my parents my fair share of BS answers like that when I was growing up. As an answer from an adult who is being paid to do this as their job and she never once saw a problem with never logging off the PC (security issues) or having the ability to save what amounts to about 4 hours of work each night as she puts the next days brochure together?

You want to know why IT people get paid well? Its not for our knowledge or certifications or troubleshooting abilities. It's hazard pay.. for dealing with these kinds of people on a daily basis. The mental trauma they inflict should be worth a lot more than we are getting paid still. My stress relief is thinking that the offending user is actually the penguin in this game and see how far I bat their head down the field.. the more blood the better!

http://www.robrob8.com/games/penguin-bloody-ball.htm

/cheers

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April Fools?

Originally I had all sorts of idea of stuff I wanted to do for the blog today. I had ideas for stuff to do to the kids. Alas I have failed on both accounts. I was just not in the mood for pranks and jokes today. I hate to be a downer.. but this is my blog.. so you will deal or not read it. Your choice.

I didn't sleep well last night at all, nor did I sleep long. I think I got a total of 3 hours of unrestful sleep. Those of you who know me know that I don't get streessed out easily. I tend not to be outwardly emotional. I am generally a very easy going person that takes life as it comes. Yesterday I got some news I keep hoping someone will tell me is an April Fools joke. A family member of mine who I am quite close to was diagnosed with cancer, probably aggressive and possibly in multiple organs. I'm not going to go into a lot of details, but its a very serious and scary situation. We are waiting on test results now for the next few days. The thought of possibly losing this person from my life makes me so very sad, I can't even put it into words.

Last night was very tough for me for several reasons so you'll have to excuse the lack of my usual banter. I'm tired .. stressed .. somewhat nautious. I'm guessing this is going to be a rather long day as we are also doing a rollout / cutover of Exchange this morning. I'm sure I'll have some humorous stories tomorrow as the window licking masses where I work try to figure out a new email program.

Til then .. happy april fools. Here's a video that serves no purpose at all other than it made me laugh.

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