So, what’s the etiquette for being given a card at work for someone you don’t know?

1. Grin, sign it in as nondescript way as possible

2. Enquire as to the person, go meet them, strike up as quick a friendship as possible, THEN sign it

3. Decline graciously while explaining the issue (they don’t know me, I don’t know them, etc)

4. Accept the card, wait til the person who handed it to you is gone, then discreetly hand it onto someone else.

Fucking hell, it’s still going.

I’ve just gone into the house, chatted briefly with G, the owner of the PC, hunted for a teabag while the kettle boiled, found the teabag and poured boiling water over it (in a cup no-less; no fooling this gal), and stomped back out here. We’re now installing HP Officejet 9100 series.

Nicely enough, the installer window is counting-down — like a harbinger of doom — the free disk space; presumably the PC will turn into an MED (Microsoft Explosive Device, as differentiated from a small bullet-shaped lump of cotton-wool) when the counter reaches Zero.

A great use of my precious time; think, I could be cycling home now after another ab-building Bikram Yoga session, with slightly sweaty hair but feeling energised and content — relaxed even — and even more-so because the day was over and I didn’t have to look at another sodding PC again that day.

Luxury!

Whoops.

Anyway, We’re on 22% on the installer, which leaves a honking 78% to go. It’s not helped by Norton scanning every stinking byte of the installation programmes either. Tea’s too hot to drink, so what can I do? I know, Youtube!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Z-DIAthbM&rel=1]

I’m officially weird.

Being ADD, it means I spend much of my life totally bored off of my nut. It’s a bit of an issue when you’re being paid by the hour.

Then, when the pressure’s on, you can perform feats of productivity the likes of which even god has never seen (10 points for the first person to recognise where I got that quote).

Take today.

I spent the hours between 10 and 4 bored and doing odd bits of work, being just as productive as many… then I got a deadline… impossible actually. I had to document something I hadn’t even seen, on an application that didn’t work with the particular functionality. And I had to do it by 5.30 (when I wanted to leave for Bikram); they needed the material for training tomorrow.

“Leave it to me,” I said.

I zipped over to the appropriate people, asked nicely (but not too nicely) for help getting access to the functionality. A couple of mis-fires, and I had it on my desktop.

Then I clicked into high-gear, creating 5 Wiki pages in the space of an hour.

To put this into perspective, the generally accepted norm for documenting a piece of UI functionality is about an hour a window or function.

I actually missed my Bikram deadline, but only because I decided to document the last window while on the high. I can do a double tomorrow (I’ve got a stack of things I want to do tonight anyway).

And you know, I’ve been told in the past not to rush things. A former employer took me aside once and said “You know that job I gave you, it should have taken you the rest of the afternoon. You’ve got to slow down.”

I didn’t say anything to that, but felt oddly put-down. I can’t help the speed I can get things done, and when I go, I go properly. If I know how to do something, I can do it very, very efficiently.

Take my time at a former employer – the ex tech-writer took 18 months to create a manual. I wrote a manual on an application (albeit somewhat simpler, but nonetheless complex in what I laughingly call UI design) in 2 weeks; 3 with corrections and reviews.

They liked me, but not enough to pay me what I was worth. I left that job feeling totally unappreciated and — in some ways — betrayed.

And here I am again, getting-off (though not in a rude way) on the adrenaline of a deadline.

Potentially this is another reason why I felt so awful when I lost the job earlier in the month. I was gearing-up for the work, I’d worked-out how to do it, how long it would take and planned it out in my head (which I find interesting and engaging), then they started screwing around and eventually said they didn’t want to work with me.

I took it personally. Something I’ve really got to stop.

There was a point to this blog entry, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler’s mind.

Oh,  I’m a yellow apparently, and I rock and am amazing, or so say the two people who desparately needed the material. So that’s nice to know

Initially I despaired when I heard about this movie… but now I’m looking at it as an opportunity.

Its similarities — including a roving assassin, hunting people with the particular talent — are a bit close to my book The Grand Adventures of DaisyDonnie… (a first-draft story from book 2 is available here) .

However, as I say, as an opportunity it’s not so bad; if it does well then it might be that it’ll make publishing DaisyDonnie a smidgeon easier.

Course, I’ve got to actually get the manuscript to a publisher!

Hey ho…

I am finding it absolutely bizarrely and astonishingly difficult to concentrate on anything here at work.

Perhaps it’s the surroundings, people talking around me, the occasional yet repeated recorded voice coming from a novelty biscuit container on someone’s desk…

“Stop. Move Away From The Cookie Jar… Stop. Move Away From the Cookie Jar…”

Then there are the damn melody ring-tones on people’s phones… horrifying elevator-muzak renditions of “Greensleeves” or “Minute Waltz”… Nokia base ringtones…

Or perhaps it’s that I’m bored again.

I’ve achieved another milestone writing documentation that — frankly — I can do in my sleep. There’s no challenge again. I’ve got Wiki happening here in my workplace, after spending 8 months in Hellstra trying to convince them of its value, so that’s good. However, now I’ve achieved that, I  have nothing to occupy my massive intellect… Marvin, can you pick-up that piece of paper? Can I pick-up that piece of paper? Here I am, brain the size of…

Oh never mind.

So what’s the problem?

Potentially it’s that I’m a bit malnourished; had a funny (not ha-ha) tummy yesterday which wasn’t good. Have had good amounts of protein today, but definitely need to get off my posterior and buy some decent food at Fruit Peddlers this weekend. I didn’t make it last weekend, preferring to sit on my arse and do things around the home. Which was all well and good until it got to the point where I needed to eat.

I have decided to get myself a whiteboard and two pens: one that’s eraseable and one that’s not.

With the one that’s not, I shall draw boxes down the board, and add the the following Must Do items:

1. Eat Protein, Carbs, Vegetables (No Sugar!)

2. Drink Water

3. Sleep by 9.30

…and draw some more boxes down the board

Then with the eraseable one, I shall write additional daily tasks, such as:

Get parking permit for front of house

Get Cat registered

Start TP site research

Learn about MySQL db backup and Restore

…etc

I desperately need to get organised again. I had a neat system while I was living in Northcote before S&E moved in, and that was run on an ActiveCollab system, where I had ongoing tasks, and daily tasks. Wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but it seemed to work. Now that they’ve gone commercial, I don’t use it. But I’ve still got an old install on the website of course…

The beauty of this was it was accessible anywhere that had a net connection. I should perhaps set it up again at home. Stick one of my ubiquitous iMacs in the kitchen and work off that..?

But for now, the low-tech whiteboard will suffice.

It’s a cool wet and dark day today, just the sort of day that it’s great to be at home.

However, I’m at work with a somewhat wet skirt front and things to do here. Life’s like that unfortunately.

Still, I had a good breakfast, thanks to a transfer of funds from my backup bank account, and hopefully am getting paid tomorrow (it is Thursday?).

It’s funny that when I was younger I used to hate it when it rained, mainly because I hated being stuck at home. Now I like my home, it’s quite nice actually to be able to just chill inside with the pained bleating of my cat in the background (as she’s locked in the bathroom as she (a) doesn’t get the idea of the cat litter, (b) because I’ve just moved house and has to remain in there for 2 weeks — apparently — so she becomes attuned to the house she’s now living in and doesn’t do a runner or get lost, and finally (c) because she has a habit of weeing against walls when she’s inside on her own because of the issue listed above in (a).).

Got that now?

Watch from 00:34 – 01:00 for what I’m feeling at the moment with this sodding application that I’m attempting to document.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RedJLaNx31s&rel=1]

A conversation I had with a fellow bike rider, standing waiting at the junction of Moor Street and Nicholson street this morning went something like this:

Me: Bloody cars.

Him: Bizarre how many people drive to work.

Me: Daft.

Him: You know there are tax incentives.

Me: You’re kidding.

Him: Stupid system, encouraging people to drive.

Me: Well, they’ll stop when the petrol prices increase.

Him: Not as long as the companies pay the tax

Me: Petrol will increase high enough for that to stop.

Him: Not as long as middle-aged men are running companies

And with that, this middle-aged man zoomed into the distance…