I never went into labor with my first. No one told me how boring it would be! Especially when my contractions slowed way down overnight.
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Stuff that really grinds my gears: freaking hic-ic-cups. Not least because they are often a sign of a sinus infection on its way.
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I just get hiccups from eating (if it goes down slower than usual) and drinking something cold (which I will give up when someone pries that soda away, etc.) Devil to get rid of; I have to hold my breath till one nanosecond before I pass out (and Iām sure thatās really good for me). Nothing else works.
I feel your hic.
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Major Software upgrade taking place at my work requires my team now be reasonably fluent in Technology X
No one on my team has any experience, but we have training vouchers, so find a course and get it booked. Itās a 300 level just due to needing to know how to work in the over all suite of products before taking this one. No Problem. We live and breath one of the other apps in the suite.
First, my preferred training company option, The course was cancelled as I was completing the sign up. Next time it is āscheduledā is too far in the future.
Onto my next training company. Only dates offered are online courses. Meh. At least I donāt have to wear pants.
Get myself and one other signed up. Three day course. Not ideal, but weāll roll with it.
Monday night, I go through the whole āVerify you are ready for the courseā checklist. This includes getting the Adobe Connect software installed, running through the tutorial, running through the lab tutorial. So, Iām set for 8:00 AM Tuesday morning.
The actual class login isnāt āliveā until 7:45 so I log on at 7:45. Verify everything still is fine. Countdown timer says 15 Minutes. Cool. Go make another cup of coffee.
Comeback at 7:55 and only 35 minutes remain.
ļ“¾Ķ”ą¹ĢÆĶ”ą¹ļ“æ OāRLY?
Instructor mentions he starts the first day a little later to let people get where they need to be.
ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆ
8:30 - Long winded introduction from Instructor, little one line text replies from 80% of the class as to who and where and why they are there.
9:00 - Introduction to the Adobe Connect software (that the tutorial handled) and the Labs (Again, the tutorial you had to check off as having completed, before you could click āLaunch Classā)
9:45 - First Break
10:00 - History of the software suite. AKA - Stuff I already knew and if someone cared, could have been condensed into a 15 minute video and given to us with the other video links that were part of āAdditional Resourcesā
11:00 - Lunch
12:15 - Start up again. More overview. How X interfaces with Y and Z and some whiteboarding that was actually good information on some common scenarios
The rest of the day blurred, but ended up with less than 20 minutes hands on with the labs and released at basically 3:00 PM, because Module 2 is very hands on and it wouldnāt be a good place to start since we wouldnāt finish it. But starting promptly at 8:00 AM on Wednesday.
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Fine. Iāll get āreal workā done then.
Wednesday.
8:00 - Everyone is logged on ready to get to work.
10:00 - First break. What happened between 8:00 and 10:00 the Instructor read the help file. Not, brought up the help file and oriented us to it. No, he read the help file to us.
10:15 - Weāre about to get into this Hands On Module. But firstā¦
10:45 - Iām finished with the module, doing other things while I wait for the 11:30 Lunch to be called.
12:30 - Okay. Letās get back to the Afternoon session.
Iām really not impressed. And the survey will reflect this.
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So course could of been replaced a link to the wiki?
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2 days tops.
Day 1
1 hour of familiarization with the UI of the application and the key things you need to know
followed by the first three modules of labs with the instructor/lab proctors available to answer questions.
End the day with some Whiteboarding and answer some infrastructure questions that may have come up while doing the Module.
Day 2
1 hour lecture of the advanced features and the extensible features.
Rest of the Labs.
after lunch, have another discussion period and then let everyone finish up the labs or if they are done, go enjoy the day. And a link to all the third party sites and utilities that the Instructor finds useful
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This is timely for me.
Iām on a giant project right now (giant. No, more giant than that). Am entire set of my deliverables is new user guides and new training docs. Iām also delivering training to some audiences.
I wrote and presented a training and artifact plan last February. Since then I have been chasing my tail creating spreadsheets, and reports, and looking up things for stakeholders who are all internal, but somehow donāt want to do this themselves.
Every freaking day at standup I say āthe user guides are behind because of [this weekās so-called crisis]ā. Every week the PM basically pats me on the head and says he knows Iām working hard. I keep saying the consequence of doing emergency (not really an emergency) task X is that on-plan tasks will suffer, and everyone just says something witty and moves on like itās no big deal.
Well today I pointed out I may not even get the client-facing stuff done during the remaining timeline, and the light finally glimmered a little.
But surely I can delegate something? Nope, everything delegatable got delegated a long time ago.
Well we can sit down and figure something outā¦ NO, weāve already rejigged the project plan for these deliverables TWICE and the due dates just get blown through with endless āurgentā crap and nothing done on the actual artifacts.
So, it looks like Iāll be working the next four weekends and most weeknights. I expect Iāll show up here for brain breaks, but thatās about it. Good job Iām not a summer person. I just cancelled going to a concert with a friend of mine.
I am absolutely furious. Not just because of the work situation, but because itās very clear the powers that be donāt listen to me until Iām practically yelling in their face.
Whatās the one thing Iām supposed to improve on this fiscal year? Not getting visibly angry at work.
Fuuuuuuuuuck.
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Preach it.
I believe this project is on PMO 4 (5 if you count the interim one) and it wasnāt until the penultimate PMO scheduled my entire team for training (fortunately only 6 hours over three day) when I went to the primary stake holder and said, āyou do realize, we have no background in this. None of us. I might be able to fake it, but Iām currently at (checks forecast) 230% allocated. Not gonna happen.ā
So timelines slipped again and I donāt feel bad. This was also the same PMO who kept confusing the projectās database with āmyā SCCM data base and telling me all these things that needed to be done to my DB and I keep going, āoh hell no!ā And let my often overly helpful staff know that no one else was allowed access without my direct permission.
Power on!
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I can totally empathize with that! I have a mega-big project of my own thatās supposed to lay the foundation for the second half of this yearās work for multiple people. Itās now way behind schedule (like 3 months out of 6), because I havenāt even had time to look at it in months because other priorities keep bubbling up.
This has me a little concerned, but Iāve talked to the boss and heās on the same page - concerned/unhappy with the timeline, but weāve gotta do what weāve gotta do. And they need me for these other things (apparently some people specifically request me for the āhotā items, which is kinda nice).
However, during high-intensity times like this, Iāll not work weekends and nights. Iāve burned out before, and thatās the last thing I want and it would be the worst for the project. So, more than usual, Iām enforcing shutting off work in the evening, spending time with family and on hobbies, etc. Luckily my boss knows how this game plays out and encourages that. In fact, he reminded me recently that I need a vacation. So I scheduled one and hoping Iāll come back relaxed and clear-minded and ready to dive back into that project.
But in the past, I have had less-experienced/rational bosses. In that case, youāve got to think about whatās best for both yourself and the quality/quantity of your work. If you burn out, your workās not gonna be good (if you even get it done before burnout). If your boss doesnāt understand that, then itās up to you to set the limits. Not because youāre slacking, but because you want to do good quality work and be able to complete it.
Pushing nights and weekends occasionally may be ok, but not when youāre in long-term high-pressure state. Then youāre better off to do the opposite.
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Yup, been there, recently even, and I donāt want to go back. Put it this way: as seen here on Elsewhere, the beginning of the year I was spring cleaning. Then, before that got really done I got that walking pneumonia, then the stomach flu right after that. Itās only been the last two weeks Iāve started to feel better overall (still have an intermittent cough).
I cleaned the apartment for the first time since February yesterday (disgusting but true). And now this comes up. I still want to finish the last of the spring cleaning. I cannot get sick again.
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I fell you. I was in pretty much the same situation; I had Christmas presents still lying around until a couple weeks ago. But I had to get my place tidied up, because my mother was visiting, and then I did the floors after she leftā¦ And now Iām feeling somewhat human again.
I canāt figure out why my self-image and energy level are tied so firmly to the state of my house. Itās irritating.
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I know why I feel that way: I absorbed my momās sense of āwhat will the neighbors think.ā It is irritating!
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Think of how much better you feel after a nice shower (or bath) after getting sweaty or dirty. Thatās all this is. When your home is clean and tidy, you feel like you could have a friend over, or find something without searching under piles of stuff, or just sit back and relax and know youāre not going to step on anything that makes you go āow!ā.
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There is that, but thereās the inculcation. When I was a kid, household chores also included being yelled at and getting a lecture, even though I hadnāt done anything wrong. Then they were followed up by time-consuming, humiliating inspections of my work, which often included more lectures, even if I hadnāt done anything wrong.
I love a clean house, but I hate cleaning.
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See, I donāt even mind cleaning; I find it meditative.
I just need to be above a certain level of baseline energy to do it.
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Itās tick season in New England, and Lyme disease is spreading more each year. Everybodyās talking about it. Weāve seen a few ticks lately, and I knew one dog that recently died from it, so I did some reading about how to get rid of ticks and about Lyme disease.
The most recommended way to get rid of ticks involves a poison thatās safe for dogs and mice, but quite dangerous for cats. 
As for the disease, two companies made a vaccine for it years ago, and was something like 75-92% effective. But you canāt get it now. Unless youāre a dog. They still sell vaccines for dogs, but not for humans because ānot enough sales, so it wouldnāt be profitable enoughā - until more people get infected. 
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A co-workerās son got Lyme disease and it has just really devestation him. Heās 20 something and moves like he has arthritis in all his joints.
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A friend of mine possibly has Lyme disease. I say āpossiblyā because even though she had the swollen joints etc., her doctors always blow her off and say sheās a hypochondriac.
She loved to hike and ticks are more populous than previously in the area she lives in, but the doctors keep saying people donāt get Lyme disease in the Ottawa Valley. Meanwhile:
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She needs to get a real doctor, post haste.
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