Useless Conversation

[Bunk]

The emails I have issue with, are the ones to staff to tell them things like new procedural rules, or maybe a new special that sales is offering. I'm certainly not going to just walk around and tell each of them in person, because a) that's dumb, and b) none of them will remember what I said.

Short of printing out a stack of papers with big stupid reminders for everyone to post in their cubicles (which I have actually done) - email is the viable solution. And it's their damn job to read those emails and know what the hell is going on. Sigh.

If they are like me, they are so goddamn busy, everybody in the office knows you are super busy yet they will send you piddling emails that amount to 5 seconds of work but to do that 5 seconds will break your flow on everything else you have to do so you skim the email until someone comes to bitch about you not doing the piddling thing. I get those a lot. If it's really that important, you'll follow up with me when I forget.

My company makes software for Realtors. Being "so goddam busy" is not really an issue my staff is dealing with right now.

[Fordel]

Short of printing out a stack of papers with big stupid reminders for everyone to post in their cubicles (which I have actually done) - email is the viable solution. And it's their damn job to read those emails and know what the hell is going on. Sigh.

Aren't those called Memo's?

No, I'm not trying to be a smart ass, wasn't that what people did before E-mail?

[Sand]

That's the life of an auditor.

Are you an actual auditor? Or just a normal CPA. If you are an auditor are you in the DC area?

[Pennilenko]

Looks like Sand needs a professional to find out who is stealing money from him...

[Cheddar]

*snort*. I had this come down the pike today:

MANAGEMENT:" LISTEN UP YOU LIST OF 40 PEOPLE, WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THIS SURVEY TWO MONTHS AGO?"
<words>

Because it was deemed "mandatory" to management to deploy to worker bees, and someone screwed the pooch in following up to make sure everyone completed it.  Thus - capslock and "WHY!!!"

A large part of management is being able to funnel what is "important" and what is not.  This entire scenerio amuses me.

edit.  It is actually a good test for upper management to spot leadership.  Character is not defined by how one reacts when things are going well but how one reacts when things are not going well.  Thats a Cheddar original, feel free to steal.

[Paelos]

That's the life of an auditor.

Are you an actual auditor? Or just a normal CPA. If you are an auditor are you in the DC area?

I'm both, and no, I'm in Atlanta.

[Strazos]

Not sure where else to put this, but...

How is the site as far server payments are concerned? I thought this was the time of year where we all do the whole donation drive thing, but it feels like it's been awhile.

[Tarami]

*snort*. I had this come down the pike today:

A long standing client (and CEO of that company) of mine wrote me a couple of weeks ago, in red, bold, size 24 and capitals, that the company Q&A video he could watch on the test site was under no circumstances to be accessible by anonymous users.

I tried explaining to him at a later face-to-face meeting that doing that was pretty much comparable to coming into my office screaming at the top of his lungs that the copier is out of paper. He didn't understand why it could be considered rude and that he only had wanted to be clear.

Important, indeed.

[Chimpy]

So I had an odd conversation with a Japanese man who barely spoke English in my yard this evening. I was finishing cooking dinner when he waved at me through my kitchen window. When I went outside to see what he wanted, he went to my back yard and pointed at some mowed down wild onion shoots in the patch at the back of my tiny yard that had once, many many years ago been someone's garden and kept saying "churcha garden, ok?"

Several times during the 'conversation' he stopped, looked at my beard and complimented my beard saying "like-a Jesus Christo" and grinning. I figured out that he wanted to know if he could dig up the shoots to take with him, I told him that was ok.

Apparently, I look like a fat Jesus with short hair to strange Japanese people.

[Lantyssa]

Buddha-Jesus!

[Merusk]

Goddamnit I deleted a good chunk of my .mp3's when copying them over to the network drive and now I can't get 'em back.  Fucking hell.  That'll teach me not to do a folder-by-folder file-by-file check.  

The only bright spot is I don't toss CD's after ripping them.  I consider them my back-up.  The digital purchases, however... fuck.

[Strazos]

If you were just...copying, shouldn't the originals still be on the drive, or did you delete? Also, and hope for using a recovery tool?

[Merusk]

I had done this about a month ago, and deleted them a week ago after I was certain they were all in place. Then this evening when I started up to sync my iPod I got a bunch of the grey ! of doom.  Upon searching I discovered the files weren't there anymore, and it was too late to undelete. 

However, happy ending, turns out it was just my wife Moving files with a careless drag of the mouse.  I discovered them in the "Cathy's Music" folder she created on the drive.  I was upset for a while there, though, as it was about 30cds worth of music that went "pft."  That's not an inconsequential chunk of re-rip time.

[Selby]

I was upset for a while there, though, as it was about 30cds worth of music that went "pft."  That's not an inconsequential chunk of re-rip time.

If they were on your iPod, you can get them off and re-label them.  I did this when my drive failed and I lost 30GB worth of tunes.  Re-ripping 1100CDs did not appeal to me either!

[Merusk]

I only have an 8gb nano, so it can't hold my whole collection and at most I have stuff that won't offend or distract at work on it.  I was missing everything from '3 Doors Down' to 'Eurythmics' on the network, so I figured it was a mis-copy or a "oops" delete for it to have been so specific and limited to only the top of the alphabet.  The hard to find Henry Rollins spoken word stuff was what was really going to break me, though.  I don't know what album it's off of because I got it a long while ago from a friend and it wasn't labeled properly.

[Cyrrex]

So today on Steam, I saw an advertisement for Champions Online, and how it's all F2P and whatnot.  I downloaded it with the thought of some nice, free MMO playtime...I mean, LOTRO is free and it's actually good, so what could go wrong?

Champions Online still fucking stinks.  I think free is still too expensive for this game.  What a pile of shit.

[Rasix]

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=4795.4655

[IainC]

I got tapped up to be a ringer for the Welsh Warhammer Fantasy team at the European Team Championships in Montreux this August. The ETC is a super srs bzns event but the Welsh team are laid back enough about it - let's see if I can choke as hard on the tabletop as I do in the BB league...

[Ingmar]

You should be safe as long as there aren't any drop-down boxes.

[Strazos]

Just remember...

Order of Operations.

 

[Chimpy]

Fuck citibank, seriously.

I get locked out of my account because they keep asking me security questions I never gave them answers to, then when I call and they reset all my security questions so I can change my password (since the fuckers got hacked recently I wanted to change it) and their password criteria is "1 number and 1 letter, 6 to 50 characters, NO SPECIAL CHARACTERS".


Grr

[Merusk]

Yeah I had that happen on an account a yar or so ago.  In their defense they HAD e-mailed me a few times saying "set these questions up by this date or you'll have problems."

The no special characters thing still bothers me, though.  Many places consider $%^ special characters instead of just the alt codes.

[ghost]

My favorite is when I call a bank about a problem and they as me "sir, you had a transaction last Wednesday, can you tell me the amount?"

What?  I am trying to run a fucking business here.  They need to generally update their security to something more realistic.

[NowhereMan]

Heh, I've had that on personal cards including asking me to verify some internet purchase for £7.50 made two or three weeks beforehand. The fact that most internet sites trade and bill under a different name than their URL/advertised name makes that even more fun. "No I have no idea what that purchase is or who it's from but it's probably me. Now let me top up my Oyster card because I fucking want to get home from work."

[Johny Cee]

I just did a tax return for a gentleman in the US for a short period of time.  Citizen of India, resident of Bahrain, off to Australia next week.

 

Fucking 1040NRs have so many pointless informational questions.... fucking ridiculous.  I feel bad about billing some of these poor bastards when you have a pile of time going back and forth on the stupid stuff while their tax liability was done ages ago.

[Sky]

I'm going to put this in here just in case someone can help this guy out.

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/msg/2449158332.html

I've been in a similar situation and it sucks to be powerless to do anything, he'll probably never see any of it again.

[IainC]

Role review tomorrow, I get to find out if I get promoted to senior designer or not. I could certainly use the payrise and the CV buff.

[Sjofn]

Good luck, IainC!

Also, it is hot here. I fucking hate hot.

[Minvaren]

Any other Texas peeps seeing this weird "water from the sky" thing going on?   

[Lantyssa]

Stuff's falling from the sky.  I'm scared.

[ghost]

Wow.  It rains and my day starts out like complete shit.  I don't like this trade off so far.   

Oh well, I learned early that you don't bitch when it rains in Texas.

[Morat20]

Stuff's falling from the sky.  I'm scared.

Someone turned the sky settings to "monsoon". I don't approve of this upgrade. I approve of "more water on the ground", but not the part where -- despite a ridiculously huge umbrella -- I am soaked from the thighs down from the walk from my car to the door of the office.

Currently I am barefoot, waiting for my socks and shoes to dry. I have gotten less wet falling into a pool.

On the other hand, we really freaking need the rain. We're at something like a 1/3 of annual rainfall at this point. Also, the last Morpheus test fire started a grass fire at JSC. Thankfully, the only building threatened was the fire station, which was well equipped to handle the problem.

[RhyssaFireheart]

We had major fast moving storms move through the area last night and power is patchy all over the Chicagoland area.  Right now I'm relocated to the cafeteria of another building because my building doesn't have power and I'm not enamoured with the whole "drive 1.5 hours back home through no-power zone" just to work from home.  Sucks because all my paper notes are in my desk and trying to research a question for someone ends up taking 2x as long.

Good luck in Texas, don't get washed away.

[Morat20]

Good luck in Texas, don't get washed away.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should feel guilty about hitting a puddle as I passed a guy on a bike.

On the one hand, it was pouring down rain and he was already soaked. On the other hand, my car threw up a ton of water that had to piss him off when it hit. On the third hand, it was raining to fucking hard I was lucky to see him peddling away on the sidewalk. I didn't see the puddle until right as I hit it.

[Lantyssa]

If you were soaked walking from car to building, I'm sure you couldn't have added much more water to the poor sop.  At least you feel guilty though.  I've had a bus swerve to hit the damn puddle.

Good luck in Texas, don't get washed away.

It's nothing we haven't seen before.  We just haven't seen it in five months, which is really unusual for us.