Almost a month since the last entry. Not good.
Disease ran through the family. Wednesday the 19th May I felt terrible, so I took a few days to recover. Rachel came down with strep next. I missed the campout because of it. It was a cold weekend, however, so I am not too disappointed.
The problem with taking days off is that work piles up when I am gone. And lately there has been more work than normal, which compounds the problem. A meeting was held to discuss one particular issue, but it turned into a frustration venting session for the management team. Everyone is not happy with the amount of time I spend on client issues (myself included). Some of them suspect the product specialists are falling back into the 'hand it to Tim to solve' mode again. The VP is going to look at getting another FTE to help, but I doubt that will happen. There is also a pretty heavy learning curve on the system.
This was interesting. I agree that consultants never bothered with much research, but I disagree that they produced code that internal programmers could not understand. I would say could not maintain.
Continuing on with the endless languages discussion, there is this.
I got into an argument with the department manager a while ago about software tools. I have been asking about getting an upgrade to Visual Studio (I am on version 6, which is not supported anymore). I was told it was on order for all the developers in the department, but it was held up with red tape. The rest of the developers had moved to the third floor, and they told me they got it at the start of the year. I email the manager about this, and got a response back that no, they did not have it. After a couple of exchanges, I called her over to one of the developers desk. He was not very happy about that. I realized after I called that I had invited the bosses' boss over, and she was not in a good mood. I get somewhat single minded when I know I am right, and someone tells me I am not. I also realized that most of the other people in the department are a little afraid of the manager. I am not sure why. She is a nice person, and not unreasonable to deal with.
Rachel's first communion went well. My mother in law and brother in law came up for it. There were only a couple of arguments between my wife and mother in law. I had a bad time with the digital camera. For some reason I could not take any clear pictures. I took my brother in law to a Stingers game, and we all went to Lagoon on Saturday. Ultimately, though, Rachel had a great time, and it was very important to here that Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Ric, and Aunt Susan were there.
One of the premises I thought would be good about Enterprise is that we would get to see how and more importantly WHY the Federation was formed. What makes a group of different species work together? Season three has wrapped up, and they are nowhere close to this. We get to see that Archer is a key figure in the formation of the Federation, but again, WHY? The original series did some development on Vulcan culture, and the next generation did the same for Klingon culture. They are doing a little with the Andorians, but we have seen Tellarites only once. I think the show would to better if it could comment on how the differences in cultures were overcome to form the Federation. I disagree with those who think the show should reflect the times. Instead, it should come up with what ifs, as in what if the nations and peoples of the world worked around the differences that divide us. That would be interesting. TOS was about hope, Enterprise should be as well.
Ronald Reagan passed away last Saturday, so the week has been filled with stories about his life. He was the first president I voted for. His were the only State of the Union addresses I liked to listen to. Thinking back on his administration, I remembered the Bloom County comic because they used to make fun of him. I will have to see if I can dig up some of the comics.
The other reason for the long time between log entries is I have started on some yard projects. I am building a deck in front, and this is turning out to be fun. It's a little stop and start, and a lot of experiments.
End of Entry
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