Slipped

Damn, missed a day - oh well, that's how it goes. Thursday is my busiest day, as that is the day that the Change Committee approves or disapproves changes to the Production systems - and my job is limited to the production systems, not development or QA. As a result, Thursday is usually frenzied with applying the changes once they are approved.

On top of that, everyone has Friday off, so I got a ton of requests for people wanting things done before they took their 4th of July holiday.

Plus, to add a real cherry to the cake, our client is spinning off a subsidiary into a separate entity, and some genius decided that this should be timed for the 4th of July weekend, so last night I was up til 1 a.m. making backups of databases so they could be handed over to the new entity (so they get a copy of the relevant records/history to start with). Oh well, nice to be busy for a change, in all honesty: and I should get time off to make up for it at some later stage.

And for some good news, I got to talk to Jeanne last night - they've moved her to a ward, from intensive care (a good sign), so mobile phones & landlines are allowed. She sounded pretty weak, and a bit confused at times, but it was wonderful to hear her voice.

And she reminded me that I hadn't really written or talked about Obama, yet - and I should, at some greater length than this, but I have to say: we were immensely proud when he was elected, and we pretty much still feel that way. Of course, we did damnall to help except buy some bumper stickers, but without voting rights, we were limited - I did phone the Democratic Party HQ a couple of times and left voicemail, asking them if they wanted volunteers or assistance, but never got a reply .... eh, in Arkansas I guess being a Democrat is a bit of a hopeless endeavour.

We've still got our bumper stickers on the car, and it's funny, you see a very few others in Little Rock, and it's a bit like, oh, being a Porsche owner* - you recognise eachother as being part of a special tribe, and smile and wave at eachother reflexively. Mostly, tho, everyone here seems to be apolitical, or vehemently, insanely (and very loudly) anti-Obama: several times I've had to endure cafe patrons berating their companions (from several tables away, on occasion) about how he's a crazy Muslim, stupid, cowardly, socialist, oh you name it ... they won't stop at any smear, the crueller and more vicious, the better.

Anyway, that's a rant for another time, now I have to break into my day off, and go do some more work - of course it turns out there were things that got forgotten to be authorised, for last nights' change, so now the poor schmucks on the ground have to cover for poor project management. Well, that's a one-note song that has been sung for at least the last century - are there any really good project managers in the world?


*No, I'm not kidding, Porsche owners really think of themselves like that. Pretentious snobs, yes, but tribal pretentious snobs ... not just sad owners of "ass-engined Nazi bathtubs", in one of my favourite quotes (from PJ O'Rourke, "Ferrari refutes the downfall of the West")