Pits

Stardate 57012.5 (01-25-2004)

Friday was the pits, at least as far as work. Things were still busy, and piling up. By mid morning I was getting frustrated with it. I started to think "what's the point, they're going to replace this anyway". Resentment over others in the group working on web and Java projects started to boil. They get to do different things, while I am off on the edge of the 'team', feeling outside of it. One of the business analysts was shocked to learn that I had a software release due out this week, and couldn't do some work for her. She's been working here for years, and didn't have a clue about what I did? I've been working on the same thing for six years now. It's an important part of a profitable product, but it's the same thing day in and day out. I have talked to supervisors and managers over this, and they give me other C based projects. All this combined into black rage. I began to think I just could not work in the language anymore. I like the language, but it would be nice to see something different for a while. The resentment showed, because I received a corporate "Good Move" moral booster e-messages. The guy I carpool with was at my desk, and he mentioned that was the first time he heard anyone acknowledge how much I do.

I was in a foul mood by the time I got home. The hot water had been gradually slowing to a trickle over the last six months. I was sure we needed to replace the water heater. At April's prompting, I asked my carpool buddy about it. Where my weekend projects are to clean the house, get the Christmas lights down, or fix a light bulb, his are retiling a bathroom or building a pool table. He said his father had had the same problem, and bought a new water heater. When he took the old one out, he found a filter that had been completely closed with gunk from the hard water. I noticed that the copper pipes ran into a galvanized fitting, and decided it was worth a try. It took an hour to get the fitting off due to the tight space, but when I did, the inside looked like it had sand all over. I cleaned all of it out, and now we have normal hot water flow. I was much happier by then. I'll trade two hours of work and the feeling of accomplishing something for three to four hundred dollars for a new heater any day. 

Saturday was spent running the kids to basketball, and Patrick to a birthday party for one of the neighbor boys. Patrick was invited to three birthday parties that day. At basketball he managed to get his hands on the ball this time. If it gets warmer I'd like to get some extra practice in for him. Rachel scored twice in her game, once by stealing the ball from the other team, and once on a rebound. Her game was moved from 9 am to 11:15 am. We were almost there at 11 when I got a call on my cell. One of the mothers told me the game had been moved again to 10:30. It started late though, so Rachel played the last half.

This weekend I've tried to stay away from the computer, but I did check out some of the regular blogs. Bruce Eckel wrote a couple of new entries. One is on how sometimes you get so caught up in making an idea or tool work, you don't think about how there could be a simpler solution. He admits to wasting a lot of time trying to get a snazzy new tool up and going when he had a less sophisticated solution. He has worked with collaborative tools like instant messaging and wikis. The word collaborative bounced out at me. I've only been involved with a couple of these, and not for very long. I find instant messaging to be bothersome, and I heard the server was shutdown by IT anyway. Wikis I have never quite understood.  Well, technically, I do, but I don't see what they are for. So collaboration is something I should work toward.

The quote from the jar this week that has relevance is:
"I am proud of what I am. I believe in what I do. Can you say that?" Chekov, The Way to Eden, Stardate 5832.2. Not sure if I want to answer that right now.

End of Entry