Games

My family enjoys playing Left,Center, Right and Tripoley after the Thanksgiving meal. I notice that football was scratched from the menu this year. I did hear somebody  mention it, then somebody else said "Wait until after this play" as they were watching football on TV. They never got back to the actual going outside and throwing the ball around. One person did duck out at six and go shopping. She came back by nine with stories to tell us about the chaos.

Left, Center, Right is safe enough. We play with nickles. Only about five of us played that. When the Tripoley board came out, though - it turned to eight and nine. We only play with nickles and it always take a few rounds for us to get into the "swing" of things as we never remember how to play until two or three hands in.

I tallied up that if I had never won any of the money on the board and if we played (I estimated) 25 rounds, and having to pay an average of ten cents at the end of each game the most one could lose was about  $12.50 total. Not too bad if you are working, but for those not working it may be hard. I think the only one we had not working this year was the six year old. My sister made certain that he had his little satchel of nickles, though. He was slow, but most of us were patient. The trick is to wait out the players. Most had to bundle up and leave and the die hards that stayed until the end had the best chance of winning. I was spending the night so I was in for the long haul.

The meal was fantastic. We had way too much. My corn pudding went over very well. As did my cheese ball and tray. The tray consists of various sliced cheeses, pepperoni slices and trail bologna sliced up with spicy mustard. I must have picked out the extra hot jalapeno cheese this year as a lot of people were loving it. Not one of my favorites. I prefer brick/butter/muenster cheese.

Another hit was the cranberry nut bread that I made. I may make more of that today. It goes very quickly.

Today I plan to bake a turkey with all the trimmings. I don't feel like it. Yet. I slept in until 9:00. That is so rare for me. I did not sleep well the night before (being in a strange place) and now I am out of sorts. My head hurt all day yesterday and by evening we were getting a light dusting of snow. The day had started out at 51º . It became colder all day. And, yes - I did have to take a migraine pill later in the afternoon. Ugh!

Sister 1956 and I had planned to spend the night and chat with sister 1944 after the dinner because she is always so sad when it is time for everyone to go and she and her husband and my oldest brother are left in the house. Sister 1954 had to work Friday and was going back that evening until she got wind that we were staying. She was drunk before she even go to the dinner so she was determined to stay. She did until 3:30 a.m. and more or less ruined it for us. Again. She picks at things with us trying to get a reaction. I try to tell the rest of the family not to believe what she says. She starts rumors about family members etc, and my other sisters believe her. I told them the next day not to.

Side note: sister 1954 had a driver and she lives over two hours away. Whether she made it to work on Friday or not  has not been determined. I am almost certain she did. She only had to work 9 to 1 and she usually can function well enough to get by when she is hung over or drunk or both. She has had enough experience doing both.

Now, to go and get that turkey in the oven and peel some potatoes. I can't believe it is 10 o'clock and I have not even had my first cup of coffee. What is wrong with the world? My head will be in a fog all day!

Golden Delicious

May your turkey day be simple yet bountiful today. My favorite apple, the golden delicious. I can't find ones like this in the stores these days. One day I was shopping and the store had NO oranges. NO oranges. Can you imagine what life will (or would) be like if the produce stopped coming to the stores? Or a blight wiped them out? I probably won't sink my teeth into a golden delicious today, but I certainly will have a lot of other stuff to enjoy and be thankful for.

NAT the filter

Work update. It was "nat" the filter. It was NAT. I cannot explain why for a month every time I would by-pass the filter the end users seemed to work fine. Until Monday morning I found a tech group who were not going through the filter and they had this issue.

It was resolved in 24 hours.

It was NAT.

This school year brought in a lot (a LOT) of BYOD (bring your own device) and a barrage of iPads. Our network was not prepared for all the new requests for IP addresses.

Zero

Zero bids. Are you surprised? Actually there were so many pages of this product on the infamous auction site that I quit going through them all, but had to record this one.

"For a Good Cause" is open to debate.

Calm

Water has some calming effect. I also like to look at cute puppies and kittens when I am stressed. 

I want to thank all of you for your wonderful words of support and wisdom. When my head clears I will be alright. I am dismayed by the lack of help from my coworkers. I think that bothers me the most. And, my gruff demeanor of my management. 

I am not getting the cold shoulder as much as I thought I was. Other techs in other areas are reaching out to me to help me. They make me laugh. They are actually helping more than my coworkers. I guess in a way they are my coworkers.

Sometimes a little understanding goes a long way.

Going through the motions until I can get out of this disaster and begin the cleanup. My life is still flooded with this problem. Once the flood stops and the water begins to recede, then I will decide if I need to rebuild or start fresh somewhere else.

How long ago?

When was the last time you created a resume? Wow. Been a while for me. I have a few friends out of work and I heard them speaking of how they have to go to a class to learn how to create a decent resume (you know you have to earn your unemployment, now?). They said it is equivalent to a full time job - this unemployment. I have to say (and I hope I am not jinxing it) that I have never been on unemployment.

I went into the office yesterday morning with my heart sailing above the clouds. There were two jobs within an hour of me that I could apply for. I felt good, I felt strong. Two hours later I was banging my fist into some scrap PC. Yeah. I have never done anything like that before. I certainly need to do something. I am making myself sick.

I let the company that makes the filter have it with both barrels again. They said they were going to send a message on company letter head for me to give my school techs informing the techs that all is not my fault. By the time I got the letter they had twisted the words around (of course to make it so they were not liable) but it ended up not being accurate in the least and I know if I send it out to my techs they will just shrug and say "This company sucks. And Peruby was wrong."

I am shunned. My morale is zilch. I must have really crossed the line with that message about "wasting my time" to the techs. I realize that I am not imagining the cold shoulder. The female techs are more sympathetic and I suppose one will tell me the entire story one day. But until then, I am going to be as gentle with them as I can and steer clear of any activity other than my job with them. Learn from this and move on.

LOL! My knuckles are sore but no damage. The side to the tower of a PC gives quite a bit. The funny part was I sort of zone out (of course when you are in a rage you do that) but I remember seeing big dust bunnies floating through the air, and I was like "Huh, where is that coming from?"  Then I realized what I had done. So much for canned air, huh?

I have only gone "into a rage" three times in my life. The other two were in my early twenties. See this post. Then I got a grip. Now, it seems that perhaps I need to step back and take a long look at what is happening to me and take the appropriate action to save myself.

Noo!!!!!

Sigh. Firing squad all by shunned me. Well, they did shun me. I guess that is even worse than shooting me. I got the cold shoulder. They more or less ignored me. I can read my environment well. I like the phrase "I don't need a brick to fall on my head."  Needless to say, I did not invite myself to go to lunch with them. When you walk back into the room and they stop talking it is a bit .... awkward. When I asked one girl tech where everyone was going for lunch, she seriously looked like she was in pain. I asked her if she were going, and she scrunched her face up in pain and said "Well, I guess so, since it is on my way."  No invite, no "Come on with us" - nothing. No, I don't need a brick to fall on my head.

Then I got a reprimand from my manager (the one who said I used the word "hell") in an e-mail to the local techs. Now, he says I was chastising a tech in an e-mail and he has to write me up. I said something to the tune of "If you don't let me know you are having an issue, then I figure that you are not having one. It is a waste of my time when I try to troubleshoot but I don't have the correct facts." Something like that.

One co-worker sleeps during meetings, one pretends not to know what is going on, the other ducks out every chance he gets and they write me up. At least I am doing something to earn a written warning, I guess. If I just lay and play dead like the others, then perhaps I would not have any written warnings, either.

Maybe my manager wants desperately to put me in my place. I had to smirk when I heard him say "Now, you are not getting written up, it is not going in your file, I just need you to sign it to say that we talked about the issue." Really? If it is not official then why do I need to sign it?

All he did was put the fire out. I had passion for my work. I mean real passion. I loved it. It consumed me. It is dead, now. Well, something had to give. I was too far in. 

Time for Peruby attitude adjustment. I did it before, I can do it again. I can bring myself around again. Nothing my manager said made me feel one iota better. He kept saying "You are not in this alone."  I brought up the co-worker sleeping and he laughed. He calls this co-worker by a pet name. If a man's name is Bob, my manager called him Bobby. Nobody else calls him "bobby". It is like a pet name. When my manager realized that I was not laughing with him, he said "Well, I think it is a physical issue. What you were saying was not boring."  Funny. He didn't sleep during any of the other's talking.

I can't keep rambling. Again, I am consumed. I am too close to the issue. I am thin skinned. I have to step back and realize this is temporary. My ruffled feathers will get smoothed over.

Like other jobs before me, I usually know the signs for when it is time to leave. I have all the signs. All the signs. Dammit to hell!

Written warning = 1; morale = 0.

Outlook not so good

I became really sick over the week-end. I am coughing so hard I shake. That kind of dry cough that gets worse if you talk. Or breathe.

But, I'll be damned if I am calling in sick this morning. Today is our area meeting with the tech cords of my local schools.

I am going to be lynched. I talked them into staying with this filter company for one more year. I could never have imagined the issues that we have had.

Time to put my big girl panties on and a cough drop in my mouth.

Bring it. Hit me with your best shot. I have to take it. I'll keep my mouth shut until spoken to and then talk as sweet as pumpkin pie. I will no longer defend the product. I've had enough.

Let the naysayers from last spring have their glory this morning.

A little help here?

Please accept my apologies ahead of time for the use of profanity.

Remember my "thin skinned" story from a week ago? It still lives. My organization has been battling this issue for over two weeks. The school districts are fed up. Students will submit an answer in the middle of a quiz and lose the entire shooting match. Their quiz is lost - gone. Somebody asked me where it went? Did it go up into data land? I looked at them. A memory from 1983 came rushing back to my head. I was training my sister how to do my data entry at work (I was leaving) and because of a poorly configured computer system we lost our all work one evening and when she asked where the work went I told her it went up into data land. She reached up her arms grabbing the air "Can't we just pull them back down?"

Wow. It was that kind of moment when you realize that certain people cannot see the dimension. Nothing against them. It is like me with math. I cannot see it. I have not had an instructor who has been able to break through to me to see it. It was like this. 

Where does it go? I told the lady yesterday it was never there to begin with. Her head exploded. This was after she told me she was afraid the country was heading toward socialism. It was all too much for her to handle. I like this lady, I just do not share her beliefs.

Back to my story....this issue has become critical for my organization. Our clients (schools) are not happy. Since the problem is happening at many school districts we are the ones who have to fix it. It isn't "them" it must be "us".  "Us" looks for somebody else to blame and they chose my appliance. The filtering system. Which makes sense because my filters were down on October 22nd and the problems appeared on October 23rd. How can you fight with that logic? 

I have worked every day with a top level engineer from my appliance's organization. My luck has been lousy. Every time I can manage to get this tech on the line (he is on the west coast, I am on the east coast) I have difficulty getting a tech at a school who is also available. Then the rare chance that I get a tech and this engineer at the same time do you believe the fucking system will not trip? It is like the old adage of taking your car to the mechanic and it runs like a dream for him. The engineer observes the appliance while the tech browses site after site after site - with not one flipping issue. Ten minutes ago the tech could barely get anywhere on the Internet without getting "Page cannot be found"  or  "Cannot connect to the Server". It is maddening beyond belief. This happened so many times it was just spooky.

We had a department meeting yesterday. There were five of us in attendance. All know that this issue is critical crazy. My director (the one who reprimanded me for using the word "hell") asked me for an update on the problem. I began explaining what schools are having the issue and what schools are not. Some schools just plain do not tell me. This makes troubleshooting very difficult. At one point I looked over and one of my co-workers was sitting with his eyes closed. He is notorious for sleeping during meetings. WTF? Very nice. No help from him.

I continued. What do you do? Wake him up? Point him out? He used to be my manager. He used to sleep during meetings when he was a manager, too. For the record "I" did not sleep during the time he gave HIS update. Screw him. My next question was for a school in another county. Another co-worker (has always been a friend) took care of this district so I asked him, "Has school 'a' been having this issue?"   He turned and looked at me. "Having issue with what?" Jesus H. Christ! Mother Fuckity Fuck!

Seriously. This is a critical matter where the schools are going to lynch us. If we do not get this issue resolved we are looking at a gigantic break here. How long do we expect the schools to put up with this crap? He knows of what problem I am speaking of. What is wrong with this picture? I have to take the week-end and step back. Am I too close to the problem? Was  I being a bore? I tried not to go into detail because I can lose people in the explanations.

They have been working with me for the past two weeks. They are aware of the problem. Why are they acting dumb at this meeting?  Like I said - there is my thin skin issue again.

Super d-duper

I made nachos last night. This is how my plate looked. The kids? Meat/cheese and nachos. What?

Shoot the Sterno!

Sigh. Huge migraine today. I attribute it to the time change.

My daughter was my hero. Not only did she bring me my migraine medicine but she came into my office, closed the door, turned out the overhead light and massaged my scalp.

She stayed with me for over two hours to make sure I was okay.

It was a day that I could not leave the office. I was "chained" to my desk. I had scheduled working with tech support on the phone and a conference call later in an effort to solve some on-going problems.

She talked with me, joked with me and had me laughing. The pain finally went away and I got to head to the dentist for my semi-annual cleaning. Yay!

I sent her a big thank-you on facebook.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Sterno. My building has many events and many times food is catered in. To keep the food warm, the caterer uses those nasty burners that smell something awful. For a migraine sufferer, this is torture! Today was one such event with the sternos running full blast. No ventilation in our building. Grrr!

The angle

I know it's the angle but they just look a little disproportionate to me.

I watched "Total Recall" last evening with C Farrell, K Beckinsale and J Biel. The kids liked it better than I did. My daughter is not familiar with Arnold's version, but her boyfriend was.

She made the remark about all futuristic movies having that dark, rainy and dreary look to them. Yeah, I guess that is how most of us see the future. LOL!

No complaints about any of the acting. As far as I could tell (with a headache and heartburn) I thought they all did a fine job. Of course there is that way in the movie (as in many others) where the "bad" guys shoot thousands of bullets (or rounds of ammo) and do not hit the "good" guy, whereas the "good" guy shoots one bullet and takes out 12 of them.

Yeah..no.

Yes, a bit of a headache. Nothing major. Nothing like before so no complaining here!

And, just for the record - not certain it is the Magnesium or not that the doctor told me to take, but the arthritis pain only flares once in a while. I am taking 500mg pill daily with a meal. My problem is remembering to take it. I am the worst. My regular meds get taken right before bedtime - that is easy. But when I have to take something with a meal or this time or that time - forget it. Yep, I usually do.

A post is a post is a post

What to post about? I am not in a dry spell. I have plenty to talk about (or write about, I suppose). I just have not had the inclination to sit down and write it. I do not plan my posts ahead. Maybe once in a blue moon will I schedule a post, but for the most part -  you get what I am feeling at that time. If I think about something during the day that I may want to post about, you only get it if I remember it later.

I could write about what I think about the mayor of New York deciding to hold the marathon even though there are so many still suffering (he finally canceled it). My thoughts - what an idiot. And I am certainly not alone.

I could write about a movie I watched last week-end. N Cage (who is really going downhill if he was even on a hill in my book). I am not speaking of looks. I never liked his looks.What is with the eyeliner he wears? It looks freaky. I am speaking of his acting choices. I found it a little far fetched that in the movie Stolen he would go to prison for 8 years and come out knowing how to use the latest cell phone available like a pro. And purchasing (what looked to me like a Blackberry) for thirty dollars. Eh, I may be wrong - he was supposed to be a brilliant con man before going to prison - and maybe they taught prisoners Technology 101 in the prison he went to. To the movie makers out there - don't insult our intelligence.

I guess what really has me bogged down in the writing department is my job. It was a bear this week. My duties got pounded. Nothing was working right and I had a "hell" of a time getting any help from our support for the product. I am fairly certain I am going to dump them after our year is up in June. I hate to admit I was wrong, but I did want to give them a year to straighten themselves out. They are not.

Then, there is that word "hell".  I work in Education. Okay, I get that. My e-mail messages go to men and women who work with computers. My e-mails do not go to teachers, superintendents, treasurers or students. Or, parents. 

We have (and maybe you are familiar with) distribution lists in e-mail. That is a group of e-mail recipients who belong to one group. Such as technology. There is another distribution list for superintendents. One for treasurers, etc.. You get the picture.

When I send an e-mail out to the technology distribution list, all 45 (give or take) of my technology coordinators in my school districts get a copy of my message.

I also have a distribution list (with five people in it) that sends messages to only my staff that I work with in my organization. We meet once a month, we laugh, we go to lunch together. We make fun of the other departments - you know. Just like a little click back in middle school. We are a fun group. We are all over 21. Hell (there's that word again) we are all over thirty. Maybe 40. I don't keep count anymore.

This week I was having a particularly tough time with what I am responsible for and I was especially fired up on Friday because that was the day I decided to give the company that manufactures my product both barrels of my fury.  Sigh.  Again.

So my e-mails were kind of flying thick and fast. They consisted of instructions such as: If this happens, please do this. If that happens, please do that. Please let me know the time and what browser you were using and what site you were trying to get to when this happens. Etc...etc... This type of messaging went to the 45 techs in my schools.

I would also throw a few messages to my co-workers (the smaller distribution list) and let them know what was REALLY going on. You know, things I could not tell the schools. Such as the company I was angry with is on the west coast and I cannot get any support until 11:00 a.m. because they don't start business until 8:00 their time. They tell me this is not true, but they lie.

In one message I printed this phrase "when they decide to wake the hell up on the West coast".

A few messages later, I get an e-mail from my manager telling me to keep the word "hell" out of my e-mails and to portray a more professional disposition when communicating with the school district technology personnel. 

First of all, I did not remember using the word "hell" so I scoured my messages to my techs in the schools and came up with nothing. No curse word "hell" in any of them.

However, a message to my co-workers (the five in my department to which he was actually referring) had the phrase mentioned above  - "when they decide to wake the hell up...."

So here is what my manager tells me (when he still was under the impression that I had sent that line to the schools):

I know you're frustrated and I appreciate all the time you put into this... Let's try to keep the word "hell" the hell out of the e-mails.. :) 

Just want to make sure we are keeping the comms professional from us to the techs...

We'll save the colorful language for when we get these bozo's on the phone.

Ahem. Yes, he did put in a smiley face.

Here is an example of a message I send to the techs in the school districts, all of which I think are very professional:

We are still isolating the problem with the slippage.
If you experience any please let me know the browser and web site you were trying to get to.

Thank-you for your co-operation in this matter as 
intermittent problems are hard to troubleshoot.

And this one:

Please be patient while I work this out with (the product).
I do not need any more information. I understand why it is sporadic and why it is only https:// sites.

I will update as soon as I can.
 

I always strive to remain professional when dealing with them. Well, my manager mixed up the two (I was sending a lot of e-mails so I see how he could do this) but when I pointed out that I did not curse with the word "hell" in any message going to the schools, only to my co-workers in our department -  he said the following:

I thought you  were trying to send that update to the tech coords... No worries...

Just wanted to give you a heads up, because I've done it myself in the heat of battle...

Now, I know I am thin skinned. But I was peeved. I lost all passion about fighting my issue with the problem. Well, almost all. The wind was knocked right out of me.

I will tell you why. You may think I am a baby, you may think I am making a big deal out of nothing, but this type of thing has irked me all my life in the workforce.

He does the same thing. Before he was a manager he ranted and raved and he even refused to go to one district because he did not get along with the tech there. He seriously told the rest of us that he would not walk into that building - somebody else would have to take care of that district from now on. Granted, this was a few years back.

My, oh my! How they change when they get that management title. How hypocritical they are. How dare he even think that I am in any way un-professional?

When the word "hell" is typed in a message (which by the way - he was mistaken) and actually did not go to the schools? He did not apologize. He did not read back my messages that I have sent and replied - "Wow, I see that you are professional when you speak to the techs... thanks and keep up the good work!"  Nope. It was just wanting to give me a heads up. As if I am so..... what is that word? ...."hysterical"  that I have to be reminded to mind my manners! Be a lady. Oh, I see.

Here's a heads up for you, Mr. Manager. How about our organization's director who cannot spell and cannot use proper grammar when she sends e-mails out to the school superintendents? I see them, I cringe. The techs I speak to laugh at her. Yeah, they do. They have for years. Not only what she types - what she says. It is SO obvious they have NO respect for our organization. 

She never gets the their/there,  are/our,   right/write    straight in her messages. She is always using the wrong one. How is that for professionalism? Mr. Manager? Kiss my ass, Mr. Manager. Here is a classic. Once I heard her reading documentation out loud with another co-worker. They came across the word "augment". Such as - network augmentation. They both hesitated. The co-worker shrugged. The director of my organization said "Well, if "I" don't know what it means, I'm sure the superintendents won't know."  Yeah. This is one example. Maybe she should be the next Mayor of  NYC?

Yeah. I'm sensitive. But that makes me the first one to rescue a puppy or kitten or child in distress. After 52 years of life, I wouldn't change a thing. I like who I am. I like what I am. I just don't like managers who are younger than me and were not even born when I was dealing with "managers" telling me how to act in the workplace.  Save it - asshole.

Huh. I guess I did have something to write about after all. 

And, yes. I feel better.

Let me re-phrase that

My little aches and pains are nothing right now. It is pouring a cold, steely rain outside and I feel just fine. A little ache here and there is nothing to mention. My Mom said her grandmother (the lady that raised her) was bedridden for the last 7 to 8 years of her life with painful arthritis. She kept a bottle of Four Roses under her bed. That was the only medicine they knew of back then and in her part of the country, I suppose.

So, I can get out of bed just fine. I do not want to sound like a baby. It may be starting but we have great advances in medicine and I realize that certain exercises can keep that pain at bay.

This poor lady did not have anything but a decent and friendly neighbor lady who took care of her and her bottle of whiskey. I think I will count my blessings!

Along the road

Taking a snapshot of the treeline on the other side of the road from where I was taking pictures of the lake. Whew. That was a long sentence.

Arthritis runs in my family. My doctor told me to take magnesium daily. It ain't workin', doc! My left elbow kills. It is my "picking up my coffee cup" elbow. I have to use two hands now to sip my coffee if I don't want much pain.

But, not every day. Today there is a big weather front moving in. Hmmm. Well, I can't complain about headaches anymore - so  you get some arthritis. I'll take the arthritis any day!

More pics

Another photo. I didn't even take the time to touch this one up to try to get rid of all that shade at the bottom. Bear with me as something goofy or funny is bound to happen with me or around me so I can share. It is the nature of my life.  If nothing eventful happens, I will conjure up a funny memory or life experience to tell you all.

Simple clover

I've seen it everywhere. Mostly the white. I consider this pink, not red. I just read that the world record for the most clover leaves is 56.  I can't even find a four leaf clover, let alone 56.  I read it on wikipedia.

A post for a post

Taken at the lake a week ago. My week started off horrible at work. I hope I do not have a repeat of yesterday. The ugly horns on the top of my head may just re-appear.

Oh, Ohio in Autumn

From my drive five days ago.

What happens when I read the news

Seems "Big Tex" caught fire. I didn't even know this structure existed. I guess I need to get out more. Well, I bet that most of the folks in Texas don't know that Ohio has a huge basket that is what --- 8 stories high or so? Yeah.

Well, anyway - they said the fire is still a mystery - they do not know what caused it.

I do.

He certainly must have applied this brand of sunscreen. 

"The maker of Banana Boat sunscreen is recalling some half-million bottles of spray-on lotion after reports that a handful of people have caught on fire..."

And, I am so sorry but I actually laughed when I read that headline. Before the seriousness registered with me of course. But it was so absurd and caught me as funny. 

Well, then when I read about poor Big Tex...well, you see how my mind works.

OH Autumn!

I snapped this one with my phone while driving back from my sister's house on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was bright  - the foliage was brilliant. Later that evening I went to the lake but should not have wasted the two hours resting because then I may have ones at the lake that look like this taken with a real camera. :) Click that photo to big it - you won't be sorry.

Let me throw a scenario at you.

You have two 21 year old people. One male, one female. The female has been to rehab for heroin use. In fact her baby needed to be in a rehab also because he was born addicted to the drug. The boy is almost two.

The male drove the female to a nearby city to purchase heroin.  Two days later she overdosed and died.

Is he:

a. Totally responsible for her death
b. Partially responsible
c. Not at all responsible - she would have found another way to get it

Now, think about that and chose your answer. Let me add this, now. The 21 year old guy is a regular dealer. He knew the place in Canton to go (she may have also, I don't know for certain) to obtain the drug. Does this change your answer if you chose b or c?

Lake view

I had an unexpected appointment yesterday  morning that caused me to take the day off from work. It was one of those drives home that said "Must go home, get camera and go to the lake to take pictures."

After a couple hours of rest, I did just that. The setting sun was casting long shadows but it was still quite wonderful to behold.

They grow up fast

Not my photo. One of my sisters took this one.I keep a copy of all family photos posted on facebook for myself - but also just in case some body's PC blows up and they do not have a back up. In fact, I think I will remind each of them to copy their pictures to a back up drive or a DVD this month.

An update to an earlier post that I removed. The district that paid all that money for software and was unable to use it. Come to find out - it will work on some equipment. So the school tech must have wanted to vent or make the curriculum director look bad. Some techs get high and mighty and do not like it when they are not consulted on purchases and then they go and tell everybody "It won't work. You should have talked to me first!" 

Cute but stupid

19 toddlers in your car lady, really? She is a nursery school teacher.

"We're really a very cute school".  Cute doesn't cut it - you dignbat.

http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/local-news?oid=328732&sn=Detail&pid=146826&Teacher-crams-19-toddlers-into-Clio

Towards the dock

This is the opposite view from the Lighthouse photo from yesterday. The sun was setting quickly and I did not have much time left.

Here is what I have been dealing with this week. Tweaked a paragraph from a Micr0$0ft training course (some poetic license has been used on my part):

The name of the GPT folder is the GUID of the
GPO that you created. It is identical to the GUID
that AD uses to identify the GPO in the GPC. The
path to the GPT on a DC is a PITA.

Seriously? The verbiage is not too far off. This is how they write the course.

On a funny note, I heard this in the move "Think Like a Man". Three rings in a relationship. Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffeRING. LOL!

The Lighthouse

I had dinner here last evening with the ladies from my work building. Our "Girls Night Out". I had the loaded baked potato soup and a chicken gyro with a tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, cucumber, onions, lettuce and grape tomatoes. I asked for black olives to be added, but either they did not have any or the preparer did not get the message. No worries. I did not like the soup which is very rare for me. The huge ham chunks in the soup had a bite to them, maybe allspice or nutmeg?

Another pic

Sorry. Too busy or too lazy to post any words. Just another photo of the tyke. One year old this Friday.

Hair

LOL! My little grand nephew seems to be jealous of the birds with their full heads of hair. He is pointing. Or, maybe he is counting. Either way, I thought it made an adorable picture. Photo courtesy of his Mom (my niece by marriage).

Oh, just for the record. I spoke to a principal of an elementary school yesterday. I was helping her with the filter since the district's tech person had left. She was so sweet and so thankful for my help. It made me feel so much better after dealing with the teacher I spoke to last week. What is that saying about 'one bad apple...' eh?

I'm tellin' ya. It is quite obvious to me how different districts are. I can only hope that your children or grand children are in one of the good ones. There are some unhappy teachers out there because their administration just does not give a damn. And I don't want to put all the blame on the administration. I know it takes two and goes both ways and all of that. It is just a sad thing when the anger and the animosity starts and it just has to have an effect on the children's learning.

Glowing

My niece is travelling this month. She captured this shot of the Gateway Arch. I remember driving past it years ago. My memory was in the daylight, though. I do recall hating the traffic in St. Louis at that time. A madhouse. Pure madness. I hope her experience was much better.

Another world

I had my head stuck in subnetting at work yesterday. It took my mind off all the other problems I was having. When dealing with this it is like you stick your head into this big tree that is full of leaves and you can see nothing else around you until you pull your head out of that tree. That was how it was for me. Very intense.Four long hours with one bathroom break.

The tech on the other end of the phone was super fantastic. We started off slow because I did not know what to expect and neither did he. By the time we were done he and I had shared dog stories and we were laughing and calling each other awesome.

I actually only had him on the phone for maybe two and a half hours. The first hour was prep work on my part. The last half hour was pack up and get out of there.

Yes, my head hurt by the time I was done. It may have been from no lunch. This tech is on the west coast so we began at 11 a.m. my time and finished at 3. I did have a helper - he ran and bought me a bottle of water during the marathon.

I was not "properly" trained. I have never been to formal schooling or training for computers. I have been to a few week-long classes - mostly two to three day classes. I did learn the hexadecimal numbering system - on my own. I  did not need it for work - for some reason that one just clicked with me.

As for subnetting, I did write a paper on it back in 1997 or 1998. I understand it, I just cheat and use an online calculator. I do not know how to figure it out in my head. Yet. I may learn, still.

In high school I was the artist or the short story writer. I managed B's in math but I only took as much as I would need to get into college. First level algebra and geometry. Nothing higher. It made me sick to my stomach. So did the teachers. Then, I did not even go to college. To this day I have not come across a math teacher that I liked. I did pick up a college refresher course (when I thought I would go to college back in 1992). His name was Lovejoy Das. I sort of liked him. He was from India. He said as a boy they used to do math problems in the dirt with a stick. WTF? I would have drawn pictures in the dirt.

Anyway, the day (yesterday) ended with a huge success.  I (we) pulled off a minor miracle as far as I was concerned. I had no idea how to set this unit onto the network and we did it. It required the wonderful world of subnetting, but I did not give up. I figured out the necessary changes and they worked. By god - they worked. It certainly made me feel better than the last few days of holy horror I have been through with another district. I have another job today and I am going to try my hardest to be successful with that also. Then tomorrow - back to the horror mess. Who knows? Maybe I will hit them out of the park all week. LOL!

My headache. I did take some Advil. By the "bewitching" hour of 9 p.m. it was completely gone. I have mentioned before that strangely, a lot of my headaches seem to dissipate by 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. By the time I went to bed I felt wonderful. I had taken a sinus Advil maybe that was the ticket.

Still fuming

You know how you get an e-mail or a message or something and it makes you so angry you see red. I posted about that last week. Right?

Well, today I was cleaning out e-mail and came across the e-mail again. Now, I don't re-read this type of e-mail because I am SO upset the first time, I do not add fuel to the fire by reading and re-reading the message.

I guess I had not seen it all. Down at the bottom were more points that the tech guy at the school had made and now I am back to angry.

I worked with him on Wednesday and Thursday (not know that he had said these things).  That may have been a good thing.

To backtrack a little, I talked to my manager. He was all like "Do not let this upset you, we know how this tech is, blah, blah".  He made me feel a lot better by letting me know he was totally on my side.

I spoke to the superintendent of this school district. After all, I had worked with this guy for over 10 years. He made me feel better by telling me that he had only read the first line of the e-mail from this irate teacher and deleted it. Now, I don't know if that is true or not, but I know he was trying to make me feel better. I would hope that he read the entire message, but I think he was telling me the truth. He said that this teacher is a whiner, etc...  

Which brings up the fact that - if this is the way a superintendent treats complaints from his teachers - does he really care about his staff? There is the remote possibility that he told his principal to handle it. That the superintendent does not need to be bothered with this sort of complaint. I don't know.

Sigh. The issues that started this mess have NOT been resolved. I am trying. It is complicated. The problem does not happen every time. I am trying to prove it is NOT my filter. Sometimes it is more than one problem causing the issues. Things like this take time.

Meanwhile, this tech keeps slamming my filter. You may as well bad-mouth my daughter. I take my job very seriously and I have worked very hard to get this filter to bend to what everybody wants it to do. 

To give you a little background, the filter is designed to work for one school district. We have it covering 45. To save the schools money we are trying to provide this service but we know how big business is. They would love for each school to purchase their hardware for each district, and here we are purchasing the biggest unit they have and trying to make 45 districts happy. 

Maybe it is impossible. But this tech needs to get off my back. Most of the "points" he brings up he has not properly re-searched. He has somebody's ear and he keeps beating this drum. Funny thing is - out of 45 districts nobody else is complaining. They complain but not in the manner that this guy does. 99 % of my techs out there lavish praise on me. This one guy - what? Does he have a vendetta against me? I know, I know. I am not supposed to take it personally. But, really. Working with this guy I am finding out that he has not taken the time to even learn the basics of this filter setup. That gets my goat!

Fun times

Not my photo. I wasn't there. But, thanks to facebook I got to go along with them in photos and comments.

I finally had time to sit down and watch the movie "Cyberbully". This is a big convseration at our meetings at work. Almost every school bans the use of  facebook in the class room, but some classes actually have a facbook page. That is okay with me, because really - I can see both sides.

Now, the use of smartphones. Sexting, bullying. Do school personnel have the right to take away a students phone? All local sheriff departments has somebody handling this area and they are going to every school to educate staff and students.

What a mess

Taken from one of my schools.  A year ago.  How in the world do they troubleshoot a problem? Where do they begin?

Well, for starters the tech person at this school points the blame at everyone else except himself. I flushed out about four things he said this past week that were out and out lies. He said he did this, he said he tried that. Come to find out he did none of that. This is the place where the teacher flew off the handle after I called her. No wonder she is so upset.

They have a lazy technology person. In his defense perhaps he is overwhelmed and frustrated. That still does not justify the lies and the arrogant remarks that his issues are my problem. He does not want to do the leg work to determine where the problem lies.

My organization is provided by the state to assist the school districts. I can pretty much determine how much assistance I give. Some need more help than others. Let's hope your child does not go to this school district.

Where is the editor?

Last evening my daughter asked me to "tell her a story".  We did a few back and forth and then I asked her what was one of her favorite books when she was little. She said "Old Bear."  I looked it up and sure enough there are videos of the Old Bear books. We watched the one with the story book we had.

Halfway through I noticed something that seemed a little racy for children. Where is the editor?

Sadly, I was laughing hard and had to pause the video and capture the scene. Sick ticket that I am. My daughter just sighs and shakes her head.

Don't hate me because I am beautiful   observant.

Seeing red

In extreme rare cases (maybe twice) in my life did I get so angry I have no memory of what I did. Twice. In my early twenties. I became angry yesterday to where I became faint. I read an e-mail that pertained to me and wouldn't you know I could not get anybody on the telephone. I had to leave a few voicemails and stew about it.

Long story - I was attempting to help a school district fix a problem. Instead of waiting for the technology person to get around to working with me I called the teacher directly (a name given to me by the technology person) to see if we could "cut to the chase".  She mistook my call for me asking her to fix the problem for the entire school. At least that is what she said in an e-mail to the superintendent. 

I was not ill mannered in my call. I was more than sweet. I apologized for bothering her and asked her if she had a free  period where we could work on the issue together. She went into a rage. I backed out of the call and told her I was sorry to have bothered her and thanked her for her time. She retaliates by writing a scathing email to the superintendent saying that I told her she had to help me fix this problem. I did not say any such thing.

Ah...well. The superintendent must have confronted the technology person who, in turn - e-mailed me and carbon copied my boss stating the teacher's side of the story only.

Angry? You betcha. Somebody put words in my mouth and twisted what I did say. 

I waited for half an hour for anybody to return my call. Nothing. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and almost passed out. This was over 45 minutes after I read the e-mail. I was still that upset.

I stewed all evening. I dreamt about it. I am going straight to the school today to work on the problem. I had other plans and cancelled them. I am still angry. I am going in composed. I am no shrinking violet. I won't see the teacher I attempted to work with. She is at a tiny elementary school. I will see the technology person, though and if possible, the superintendent. Funny thing is, I worked with this superintendent for over 10 years. He was the building superintendent at the place where my remote office is. He is a good guy.

Sigh. I came home with a headache and needed the Advil. I think they are creeping back in. The headaches. Drat.

I am hoping my eyes are seeing pink, now. Or, at least coral. Blogger keeps flashing a message at me that it is having an issue saving my work. I'll make sure I copy and paste this text into notepad before I publish it. I don't want to lose everything and try to go back from memory.

In the basket

The face of success.

In the basket we go

Since there is nothing going on at my house...I am posting photos from my nephew and niece's collection. I think we can all remember these times if we have had little ones around. Crawl over and in the basket. Crawl out of the basket. Back in.

Depressed - lower in amount

The above photo is not mine. The sweet potatoes at my county fair numbered about three. The presentation, the show was more depressed than usual. I have not been to the fair in a couple of years. There was a huge sweet potato at our fair, though. I can't recall the weight. 

I always try to go through the barn displays of the 4-H. I like to see what photos and pictures were presented and which ones won. Years ago I entered about three photos in a county close to where I grew up. One of my paintings brought in first place. The other, second. My sister entered it. I wasn't even there. I had promised that picture to a friend. He was the one who went through my paintings and he must have seen something in it. LOL! Maybe he was the judge. NO! Just kidding. What was that? Thirty, thirty-two years ago?

Come to think of it, since I wasn't there - maybe there were only three paintings entered. Grin.

If somebody liked my painting, I gave it to them. I have not painted in years. I took up drawing again about twenty years ago, but .... eh. I was always "the artist" in my class. I wonder what some of my teachers and fellow students would think when they found out I ended up in computers. They would probably scratch their heads and say "Huh?  Her?"

I went to the county fair today to watch the trotters. It turned out to be a beautiful day. There were only a handful of races. The attendance is way down this year. Economy, perhaps? Swine flu scare?

We did not walk through the animal barns except for the goats and that was when we first arrived to get from point A to point B. Nobody was walking through.

I watched "Snow White and the Huntsman" last night. I missed patches of it because I was doing other stuff and at one point even took the dogs outside. My daughter liked it. I find it very difficult to watch K Stewart. And it is not because of her recent indiscretion, but I just find it hard to look at her.

Buzz Ballz

I saw these little ballz in the grocery store last evening. They are clear plastic with aluminum lids. They came in red (cranberry), orange, yellow (lemonade), and green - tequila w/vodka. 20% by volume. Yeesh! Check the web page - there are a lot more flavors. The suggested retail is $3.99. They float, won't break and can be frozen to a slush.

End of the Line

A picture is worth a thousand words. I thought that this picture (of a picture) I snapped at my "Unusual" lunch spot would tell a great story. You could write an entire story about this one picture. How would you start it? Mine would go something like this. 

The guy with the ball cap: "He flipped over the railin' right 'cheer." Then he spit a wad of chew to mark the spot.

The guy with the hard hat: "That would have made a fine mess."

The young boy, in utter amazement, trying to picture the scene, shudders: "Gosh!"

Missing my boxer

I dreamt last night that he forgot who I was. His owner (not the actual one I gave him to) had brought him to a party and he ran right past me. I tried to call out to him but he just kept running around and he did not remember who I was. Sigh.

Current Owner said that his family is going on vacation in October to Florida and I could watch him , but what if they don't want me to? What if they are worried I will get re-attached to him? What if I am worried that I will?