Bits and pieces of a morning.

So, I'm up. And about to finish getting ready for work and take off.

And the radio reports that scientists have said that, with the snowpack we have, we could face severe flooding if the thaw comes all at once.

<sarcasm> Umm. Gee. Really? We're only either close to or past record-breaking for the month, after all. And of course it never floods in this state.... </sarcasm>

Now, here's hoping it doesn't. Though if it does, unless it's really ugly, I know myself - I'll be out near it (not in it, nothanks) with a camera.

I'm strange that way.

And the computer goes beep-beep. (Apparently.)

So I get in this morning, and someone on the demo has sent me an email asking what the new beep is I've added that they "often hear" when running transactions in our system. 'Scuse?

The only beeps in our system are when you do boneheaded things, and they aren't in the applications (which may run on machines other than the one where the command was typed) anyway. I told him his description was woefully vague, that my system doesn't beep at me unless I've done something wrong, etc.

And then I advised him to mute the speakers, because he wanted to know how to get rid of it. *shrugs* It's either not us, or he's screwed something up, so on the basis of what he's told me, that's the best answer.

I love these little moments. Eesh.

Gee...how...charming....

Pardon the pun. Thanks (I think) to pounce for pointing to this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/01/24/us.potter.boycott.ap/index.html

It starts:

PENRYN, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The police department has refused to direct traffic at a YMCA triathlon because it says the club promotes witchcraft by reading Harry Potter books to children.

The hardware explosion.

Someone get these computers off of my desk.

No, I'm serious. I'm typing on my new laptop. It can stay. My desktop can stay. This is ridiculous. I have three laptops, plus my desktop (which is under the desk, but its monitor is on the desk), plus a backup monitor for the laptop with the flaky screen (which is now too far away to reach the monitor, but the screen is presently behaving).

Aie.

It's 10:10. I can't post this as I type it (two network connections, four computers, this one doesn't got one just now). Why do I have so many computers?

1) My laptop. Duh. Main work machine, email, compiling, etc. Easy one.
2) My old laptop. Being deinstalled, cleaned up, virus scanned, etc.
3) New rotations laptop. HOPEFULLY being set up for, well, rotation with the pager (which will let me ship #2 back to have its mangy self fixed).
4) Desktop. Secondary work machine for testing. Recently had motherboard upgrade and OS reinstall, but I have it back to a useful state. Pity I'm too busy with answering people's questions and sorting out #2 and #3 to use it, but that should ease by next week.

By next week, I might be back to two machines. (The rotation laptop's home is in the lab, when not in use by someone on rotation; but if I had to hike back and forth between the lab to get setup tasks done, this would take even longer.)

By the way: four computers means you're either trying to do more at once than you are capable of, or waiting on more things than you care to think about at once.

Unamused, unamused, unamused.

If the rest of my company could stop trying to give my shiny new laptop Nimda, I would be very pleased.

No, no, NO viruses. Thank you.

"Reply to all" is mean.

Especially when you just meant "reply". Oh, well, I told the entire company instead of just the NT guy I meant to bug, that it's faster to do it this way than that way. No harm done - as long as he doesn't mind, which he doesn't seem to.

But I feel silly, and probably triggered a lot of "delete" keys. :P

Stress level has dropped. Still a lot to do, but juggling better. Sorta.

Um. Ew. Gee, thanks mom?

My mother, being the nice, caring person she is, sent me this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1787000/1787405.stm

*shudders* Short form: organisms that can survive lens solution and cause eye ulcers. Suddenly my lenses don't seem so neat....

Mind, I'm glad mom sent it, but ew.

I didn't read the subject real carefully, either, so I followed it whilst eating breakfast this morning. Heh. Well, at least it wasn't something icky and food-related!

Pixy stix and vegetables, cold nights and driving.

I've been to the grocery store. I have veggies and cream cheese and lunch meat, to make my lunch with tomorrow (or maybe tonight, so I don't decide not to when running late...). I have pixy stix, which I really didn't need.

And I have a new appreciation, yet again, for parents. Oh I miss the days when, by the time I got to the car, someone had warmed it up. I love the cold, especially compared to heat, but this was a little colder than I wanted, maybe....

Tired. Lunch to make. Day to call a day. Computer viruses (hah, still hasn't got toehold I'm aware of in my office - tried, got repelled - but is satellite office with fewer major servers, and fewer people, which helps). Contact lens nasties (ew!). Multiple keyboards (old laptop about to exit, stage left, so fewer soon). Sales demos and bugs.

And fixes. And fixes. I think I managed to beat down every nasty they found. Eventually. Need to remember that. Need to not stress next time it happens, because I can do this.

Rich said it well. "I figure, if I have the best people available, and they don't get it done in that amount of time, then it couldn't be done."

And that's fair. If I give it my best, and I call in those I can when I realize I need to...then if it doesn't get done in the time frame, I couldn't get it done.

But it's hard to say that, and much happier when (like today!) it does get done.

Right. Lunchmaking. And then a hot shower and bed. I suppose my hair will smell like fruit again; the bottle says raspberry and jojoba, but it's very fake-smelling. For some reason I like that oversweetness. Weird.