Misc. Chat Thread - Jan. 2015
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Feeling a little anxious about this coming week. It's time to get into a real routine
i hate the feeling that grows on me in the week running up to a new contract. doesn't matter how much i might want the contract or like the look of the site or need the money, i just hate having to develop/apply new routines. it's a form of 'unknown' that i really don't deal too well with, so there's always anxiety in it somewhere.
plus, introvert. i think it's really about that more than anything concrete like fear that i'm going to screw up. inside my own head is where i'm most comfortable. being out there in the not-me real world . . . i can DO it, but it's not my natural temperamental habitat. it came to me at some point a while back that a certain amount of that anxiety/reluctance i always feel about change is nothing more than me knowing i'm going to lose huge chunks of my private quiet time. it's like setting out into the desert and knowing you probably won't die but you're going to be very very thirsty a lot of the time. and you won't know when or for how long because it's new turf so you don't know yet where the water points are.Wish me luck!
i do.
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I'm also feeling anxious about the coming weeks.I've procrastinated starting a huge project and now I need to be working on it. I have an outline for myself of what to do when for every day this week but the universe has other ideas. School was canceled again today. My 3 yr old is home so no work for me. And my husband will be out of town Thurs-Friday. Did I also mention that he gets to go to London twice between January and March? Ugh. Anyway, I wish you all luck with your endeavors.0
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MissHolidayGolightly wrote: »I woke up this morning squashed into this awkward position in the middle of the bed while my 8-lb cat slept peacefully in my spot with amble room. How do such things always happen?
This is why I don't allow any pets in our bedrooms! Our two cats and 60lb dog would take up all the room in our king sized bed.
I'm such a slug today. It was a snow day for my preschooler so I went out and bought mirrors for my home gym, came home and ate sushi for lunch. Took a nap on the couch (with the dog!). After shoveling some snow I am now enjoying some hot chocolate. Whatever. I'm going to enjoy today since I couldn't get any work done.
I would miss them though. Plus they'd beat on the door
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I think I just accepted a friend request from a Beach Body coach (or has similar intentions).
All of her status updates so far are advice that come across as very authoritative, even though her profile appears to be brand new and she has no forum posts. Curious to see how this goes -- I don't think she's going to like me much.
I give it a week.
Stay tuned for sweaty shakeology selfish and pseudoscience! I'm jealous. I love those crazy people.0 -
@MissHolidayGolightly, our pets wait outside our door for any sign of wakefulness. If we roll over in bed or sneeze, like I did this morning, the whining starts. Not just the dog, either. Our cats have the most annoying plaintive cry. When we open the door they are all there, including our 3 yr old. I haven't slept past 6:30 in sooo long!0
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i'm slowly collecting the feeling i don't really like this job much. this morning i kind of nailed down the real thing that feels like it's missing. the other people on this team are all pleasant enough (well, two of the other three are) . . . but they don't have any personality. to they're pleasant and all of that, but . . .
that's it. i'm slowly developing a long-term case of personality deficiency through my workplace.0 -
@MissHolidayGolightly, our pets wait outside our door for any sign of wakefulness. If we roll over in bed or sneeze, like I did this morning, the whining starts. Not just the dog, either. Our cats have the most annoying plaintive cry. When we open the door they are all there, including our 3 yr old. I haven't slept past 6:30 in sooo long!
I know how you feel. If I disturb my one cat, she thinks its time to eat. My husband has an alarm for 6 to feed them so they don't badger us. The kicker is, they don't even eat that much. Take a few bites then they're off running around. I guess they just like the routine, jerks.
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canadianlbs wrote: »i'm slowly collecting the feeling i don't really like this job much. this morning i kind of nailed down the real thing that feels like it's missing. the other people on this team are all pleasant enough (well, two of the other three are) . . . but they don't have any personality. to they're pleasant and all of that, but . . .
that's it. i'm slowly developing a long-term case of personality deficiency through my workplace.
I'm stealing the term Personality Deficiency (PD). That's gold.
There are so many factors that make work enjoyable, even from one day to the next. Personal stuff, other peoples' personal stuff, personalities (or lack thereof), the specific project, the weather... Some days I'm like, "This is cool, I enjoy this," and then others I'm like, "Is this srsly adulthood?"0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »i'm slowly developing a long-term case of personality deficiency through my workplace.
Not possible. Just not.
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man, this developer's just so much hard work. i spent a whole day in the office with him today because the two others were out, and i feel bludgeoned.
THREE HOURS we spent on a nitpicky little thing he just wouldn't let go, where as far as i could tell it didn't even matter in any functional sense any more whether i agreed with him or not, and where i'd already said i would throw the decision across to his side, and where i kept saying i'd just been commenting in an advisory capacity and no longer cared, where i progressed to saying i no longer wanted to spend time on it, and where he himself couldn't come up with a good reason for him to keep harping on it . . . and yet he still harped.
i'm good with devs and stubborn people and big wrestling matches. i'm not saying that to brag since it takes a big bite out of me, but usually i can eventually feel like a good clean fight was had on both sides and eventually some form of respect comes of it. this guy doesn't even have enough personality that i can declare him an *kitten* and adjust to those terms. he's just cognitive abuse on two legs.
maybe something good will come of it. because usually i manage to use fairly generic language in conducting these things, but with this guy i found myself saying stuff that doesn't usually come into my head. like 'what i don't want is to keep getting hauled into a room every week or ten days, and made to listen to you telling me for another two or three hours why you disagree, because i know why you disagree.' and 'listen, i know you guys wanted me to do this in addition to what i came here to do, and i'll do it, but only up to a point. because if you make it too hard for me, then i've always got the option of saying use cases aren't my domain and confining myself to what i'm really supposed to be doing in here.'0 -
^ Sounds like the opposite of personality deficiency. Just saying...
And good for you for putting your foot down. What is his response when you say that?
Are you getting a feel for *why* he's pulling this stuff? I mean, is this his version of a pissing contest? Is he trying to show you that he's a hotter potato than you are since you're "just" a contractor? Or do you get the feeling he's always like this? Do you get any vibes from the other two team members about how they feel about him?
As much as I hate that you're dealing with all this, I do laugh out loud at every update. "Cognitive abuse on two legs" is hilarious.0 -
^ Sounds like the opposite of personality deficiency.
heh, well about that. i meant it in the sense of vitamin deficiency - i'm getting emotional rickets in there. ain't nothing wrong with MY personality quotient. obviously. maybe if i had less of one my own self i wouldn't mind these people all being so drab quite as much.
the business analyst is someone i like . . . but there'es only four of us and things are fraught enough without me getting all chummy-buddy with her against the developers. not to mention, us-against-them on the gender divide might come up.What is his response when you say that?
there was a gear shift so i'm pretty sure he absorbed *something* from it. some kind of reality check about how he's actually affecting people. as opposed to how he thinks he affects people from the inside of his head. i'm just praying there won't be any kind of touchy-feely reconciliation scene tomorrow when he's had a night to sleep on it.Are you getting a feel for *why* he's pulling this stuff? I mean, is this his version of a pissing contest?
pissing contests and aggro devs i can deal with. i don't like it, and i rave about that as well, but they just cause me nice temporary and healthy rage. i suspect this guy of being an intp ;-) which means that he's not hostile, he just thinks that way.
he's just manic pedantic. and intp-style, he alternates hyper-abstractionalism when what we need is concrete pragmatic, with sudden hyper-nitpickinesses about concrete things that don't matter at all when it's the concept that matters to us.
he drives the business analyst crazy as well. so there's that."Cognitive abuse on two legs" is hilarious.
heh. you know yogi berra? i'd bet a nickel that he was an intp. for someone like me, talking to them is like talking your way round a moebius strip - everything's going fine and you think there's progress and you can't find a thing wrong with the logic at any point . . . and then suddenly there's this undetectable half-twist somewhere and you're not in kansas anymore or even on a planet that you recognize. dunno what the heck i'm talking about? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
i'm a hardcore intj, and it does seem to be true that our two types are just doomed to exactly cross-purpose each other like this. my own son turned up intp in a college psych class a few years ago, bless his pointy little maddening head. but my son is interesting. and he has charm.0 -
Well, yesterday was interesting at work. Had to clean up a broken bottle of wine in the women's bathroom. Red wine all over the floor. Someone said that it had been a person who had actually purchased the item, so that's a first. Last time we found a bottle it was the tall beers and it was empty cause the person drank it in the bathroom without paying. How they dropped the wine from far enough to shatter the bottle is beyond me, but they did manage to make quite the mess.
Joys of retail right there.0 -
Honestly, some people should only be able to buy boxes of wine.0
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Indeed.
Today's booze mishap was caused by... me. *sighs* I don't know who thought the tall can 6 pack should be on the very top shelf in the cooler. I was trying to put one away with one hand while the other held the other pack. Nope, it wasn't going right and one started to come out so I tried to bring it back down only to have one can fall and break. So, I had to clean beer of the floor and some sprayed on my uniform so smelled like it too. Bleh.0 -
sigh. i've got another person in 'my' office now, which is fair as far as space-hogging goes . . . but she's a banana eater. i'm not sure if i'm going to be able to bear it, because this isn't a cube-farm, i.e. a large airspace divided by little low walls. this is a room. and i thought i'd be okay, but when she peeled open today's exhibit and started on it, i realised that this is a problem. what i actually needed to do was either leave the room, or at least go get a paper towel and breathe through it until she was done. it's just a question of how to explain this or go about it or whatever, is all. 'excuse me, you can't eat bananas while you work here' isn't like 'excuse me, you'll have to give up your perfume', somehow.
and at least people know about nut and chemical sensitivities. i'm always the only person anyone has ever heard of who has the same kind of problem with a kind of fruit.0 -
i'm feeling down and discouraged after another day longing to benchpress captain scudge into a different world, so remembered when my son showed me this and it cheered me up. muscle stimulation and swedes! and cake.
captain scudge, good grief. another afternoon in a room with the guy, and i'm ready to claw my eyes out. i know this will bore a lot of people but it'll make me feel better to write it down, so. i'll just say, exactly one week ago we were nose to nose in the same room with him saying 'i don't think you should be writing test cases at all' and me saying 'you gonna order me not to do it?' his claim being, back then, that i 'didn't know' enough to do it and so he didn't want me to.
so this week we're talking about his second life-sapping idea from last week, which is basically that i should . . . oh, i don't want to talk about it.
scudge (suddenly): so how are you writing your test cases?
me: ???
scudge: like, where's the data?
me: ??? what data?
scudge: the inputs.
(i swear. i just don't understand what this guy is talking about half the time. turns out what he meant was, was i putting all my 'data' for test cases into special documents or records or spreadsheets or something, and attaching them as distinct entities to the test cases they belonged to. eventually we sorted that out)
me: no.
scudge: well, why not?
me: ...
scudge: because that's what i think you should do.
me: it's not what i think i should do.
scudge: why not?
me: because -
scudge: i mean, you can't just say 'no' like that. you have to justify yourself.
me: i might, if it matters to you and if you give me a chance to speak.
scudge: *sulk*
me: i'm not doing it because this week i am not writing many test cases this week.
scudge: well, what ARE you doing then?
me: i'm reading. every. single. one. of your granular. level specifications which was what you insisted LAST week i ought to be doing instead of writing test cases. so i'm not writing test cases this week.
scudge: well, i still think you should be planning data inputs.
(business analyst intervenes)
me: i get your point -
scudge: so why haven't you been doing it then?
me: because it's not applicable to the kind of test cases i have been writing so far.
scudge: well, what kind is that?
me: unit tests. based off your granular stuff. and workflow tests. based off your use cases.
scudge (who was the big hip-case on 'all test cases should be based on use cases): i don't think that's a reason.
me: maybe not, but it is a reason.
scudge: fine, explain why. if you're going to be so stubborn about it. explain why. educate me.
me: -.- a unit test is too trivial to spend the time doing that for. a workflow test is a single flow. each flow has a single set of simple inputs or user actions. it's not a data-heavy kind of test.
scudge: i disagree.
me: it is NOT. [demonstrates]
scudge (grudging): well, okay fine. but you could still put that data into a spreadsheet.
me: but why would i?
scudge: that's the way that it should be done.
[business analyst intervenes]
scudge: well, okay, fine then. fine. maybe not for these kinds of test cases, although i still dont' see why you can't do it my way. i don't think your reasons are good. and for other test cases for sure . . . like the invoicing.
me: sure. i agree. probably, although i haven't seen that area thoroughly yet. we've already had this conversation and i agreed then.
scudge: well, are you THINKING about it at least?
me: no. i'm thinking about what i'm diong right now.
scudge: well, i think you should be thinking about this. do you have opinions about it?
me: no.
scudge: why don't you? you should.
me: dude - you're the guy who 'doesn't want' me going into areas that i 'don't know enough about' yet. i haven't seen those use cases. i haven't seen those data requirements. i haven't seen your business rules yet. i have no opinion because i don't know what we'll be getting into.
every time we have one of these *kitten* showdowns i get through it okay at hte time, but then late at night i discover he's gotten into my whole outlook on life all over again. my programmer friend has only four-letter advice for me about him. words like 'maim' and 'kill', and i see her point.
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Woah, that guy sure is something else. And I thought I was annoying with my "but what if the user does this and the worst happens and..."
You have me somewhat thankful we don't have those kind of quality & control reviews on our apps for the most part, lol. Okay, so it tends to lead to a lot of clusterfudge when we need to debug things but.. oh well xD (Yeah, documenting isn't anyone's strong suit here.)
So I discovered this morning that frozen spinach and kale blend MUCH BETTER in my ninja than the fresh kind does. If that can be of use to anyone?0 -
So, I really think that I may be addicted to lifting. I'm still pretty much a newbie but I think I'm becoming obsessed with getting stronger and stronger.0
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