Just another day at the office

How do you know if what you are doing is enough or good enough?  Lately at work I have been struggling to keep up with the workload.  I am staying above water on a weekly basis, but most days I find myself falling behind.  I often find myself wondering on the way home if I should have stayed longer, done something differently or if I should continue working when I get home.  I find myself a little more on edge lately in regards to job security and I am not really sure why.  Everyone says I am doing fine and they are pleased with my work, but I still wonder if there is something different that I could be doing that would improve myself or the department.  Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful to have a job right now and I love the job I have and have fun doing it.  It has actually been a pretty exciting year (if computers can be exciting), a lot of work has been transitioned to me and a coworker.  There is even talk of transitioning more work to us.  I don't think that our workload is too much for us, it just provides us with new opportunities.  As I write this, I wonder if this is all stemming from the increased workload in the department due to a major upgrade that has been months in the making and will take almost an entire month to fully implement.

I would like to give thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with everything I have to deal with.  I am very thankful they are in my life.  The kids understand that sometimes Daddy has to help "work fix something" when he gets paged while playing.  Tara is very understanding that sometimes I do have to work on "work" things for a few hours after getting home after a 10 - 12 hour day.  I love you all more than you will ever know.

I would also like to give props to the 'guys' for putting up with all of the sarcasm, smart-ass comments, whining and complaining.  They all have their own work and own issues they deal with daily, but they always have time to listen or join in.  So, JM, JM2, JZ and TA, thanks for the online fun.

Busy week

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me.  It all started about 3 weeks ago trying to get a wall finished that I had started some time ago.  All that was left to do was to add drywall mud, sand, primer and paint.  I decided that I would like to have it complete before my son's birthday party this coming weekend.  So, I started mudding the walling 2 weekends ago and then doing a couple of other odd and end things as well.  Then a week ago this past Thursday, my mother-in-law had surgery, so I put it on hold to take care of the kids while Tara was with her mom for a couple of days.  Then on Saturday, I completed the wall so we needed to get paint.

When the kids heard we were going after paint, they wanted their rooms repainted.  So instead of painting just one room in a week, we were going to be painting 3 rooms.  Sunday was spent priming our son's room and Monday was spent painting the room.  Monday afternoon we started priming our daughter's room as well.  Tuesday it started at the doctor's office for routine checkups, bought a couple of other things that were needed for the jobs at hand, then returned home and finished painting our daughter's room.  Wednesday was our son's 10th birthday, so we spent the day celebrating that so no work was done.  (It was a good time and very relaxing).  Yesterday, I finally got to priming and painting the wall that had started this whole busy week.  I also recaulked our bathtub and raked our leaves for the second time this season.  Finally, today was spend cleaning up the house for the weekend as our son's birthday party is Sunday and my parents will be arriving early tomorrow afternoon for the weekend.

On a side note, I would like to voice my displeasure, albeit almost hatred, towards Wal-Mart and their new store layouts.  Wal-Mart was bad enough before all of their 'remodeling' and making the store more customer friendly.  Now we have to deal a very poor selection on several items as they have moved in even more of their Great Value brand items.  Some items have just had their shelf space reduced, for example:  cake mix and icing.  Before the remodel, there was 12 feet of space dedicated to cake mix, muffin mix and icing.  There was probably a good 8-10 different flavors of cake in 3 different brands.  Now there is approximately 6 feet of space and there is only about 4 flavors of cake mix.  Meijer will be getting my grocery money from now on.  They have selection, fresher products and decent prices.

Sunday officially starts "No-Shave November", a month where we men don't shave for an entire month and then compare our growth.  I have recently noticed advertisements for "Movember" which men are supposed to grow mustaches for prostate cancer awareness.  So whatever the reason, joy or awareness, give your razor a break in November.

Don't forget to set your clocks back on Saturday night before you go to bed.  Daylight savings time ends at 2am Sunday morning, so we actually gain an hour's sleep.

Why?

Why do some people feel it's their job to make everyone around them miserable?
Why do some people keep coming to a job if it ruins their lively-hood?
Why is the Redskins' offense so anemic?
Why must all good things come to an end?
Why do the good die young?
Why do people like the Dallas Cowboys?
Why is January named January and July named July?
Why does everybody love Wal-Mart when they are an evil corporate empire?
Why is this happening?
Why is Taco Bell so darn tasty?
Why is the Internet so addicting?
Why do some people feel it's necessary to state their opinion about everything?
Why do sons and mother-in-laws not get along?
Why must some people say something to everyone in the room, even if they are not paying attention to them?
Why is a steak right off the grill so damn tasty?
Why do I love ice cream and not really care for milk?
Why must the world be such a hateful place?
Why isn't bacon served with every meal?

I usually say "Go 'Skins" or something similar at the end of a post, but after yesterday's performance I think "Good Luck 'Skins" is more in line.

Question and Answer Time

Today I am going to start answering questions that have been submitted.  The first one submitted was:

"If you were not working in Information Services what type of job would you have?"

Realistically I think I would probably be an accountant.  Initially in junior high and high school I wanted to be an accountant.  Computers were just starting to be introduced and our school had 3 IBM's and a dozen Apple II's.  We were required to take a 9 week computer class, of which the teacher mostly talked about computers and we barely got any hands on time.

During high school, math came fairly easy to me and I figured that would be an easy way for me to make a decent wage and give me whatever I wanted in life.  When I went to college, that was still my plan...Go to college, get a business degree, become a CPA.  Once I got to college, things changed, and I thought I would like to become an FBI agent.  That was a short lived dream as I determined there were quite a few things working to my disadvantage.

After dropping out of college after 3 semesters and meeting my wife, I went into working retail.  While I didn't mind the work, I didn't feel that I was suited to do this for the rest of my life.  I ended up bouncing from random job to random job for a few years.  After working at a dead end factory job for over a year and finding out that Tara was pregnant with our first child, I was determined to get a college degree and make sure that my family had a better life than what Tara and I had been experiencing.

At first I thought about getting my degree and becoming an accountant.  But by this time, I had been dabbling in computers off and on, I decided that getting a degree in Information Services would be a safe bet in life.  Computers were becoming more and more prevalent in all aspects of life and the workplace.

So, long story short, I think I would be an accountant if I wasn't in Information Services.

Go Redskins!!

Writer's Block

Since my last post, I've been trying to think about what I wanted to write about next and I have been having a bit of writer's block.  Nothing really funny has happened at work and there hasn't been anything "positive" to write about otherwise.  I guess I've kinda been in a funk for the last week or so.  I'm not really sure what the issue has been or is, but I wish it would change.  I have been trying to figure out why I've been feeling this way, and haven't really come up with anything.  The only thing I can really attribute it to is the almighty dollar.  Money has been very tight for the couple of months and just when I think we are starting to turn the corner something unexpected comes up. 

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy and blessed to have a job right now, especially during the current economic times.  I actually have lots of things to be happy and blessed about: family, friends, job, home, and food just to name a few. 

Hopefully this blog is doing one of it's intended purposes...help me with putting my feelings down and expressing myself.  Well, I guess the writer's block has cleared itself.  Good night all, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Fresh Coffee and 20 Questions

Today's entry is a combination of things.  The first part will be about fresh coffee and the second will be me fulfilling a promise I made to a coworker today.

Coffee's Fresh

The funniest thing happened at work this morning.  We have a guy that every day, and I do mean EVERY day, he comes in and the first thing out of his mouth without even looking if anyone is on the phone is say "Good Morning All".  Now that wouldn't be so bad, but he does it at a volume that is about 1 1/2 times louder than everyone else is talking.  He is also famous for other famous phrases such as "What's the word of the day?", "Any words of wisdom?" and "Can I getcha anything?".  Today he introduced a new phrase "Coffee's fresh".  The best part about the new phrase isn't the phrase itself, but how it was introduced.  You see, at the time of introduction, he was on the phone with someone trying to resolve a computer issue when his workplace hero walked in the room.  The guy put his customer on mute, turned to the hero, and said the new phrase.  He had no more gotten the phrase out and he turned back around, took the phone off mute and said to his customer "Yeah I'm still here.".  The tone of the way he said it made us all laugh.  He continued to say the phrase a couple of more times during the day.  My friends and I at work have even used the phrase to pick on the 'hero' through out the day.  He was a very good sport about it, much better than when we told everyone that he brought in doughnuts because it was his birthday.

20 Questions

This portion is to keep my promise to Jamie at work.  Today Jamie and I were working and talking with one of our female coworkers who is famous for asking question after question until we bring it up, then she'll stop and we all laugh.  Well, she started asking questions, and I told Jamie that 20 questions would be my next blog post in tribute to her and we both agreed that it would be great.  So I am going to need help with this portion of the blog.  I am asking for questions from readers that I can answer.  I will answer almost any question, but I do reserve the right not to answer the question.  Rest assured I plan on answering almost any question posted.  I will gather all of the questions and post them together with their answers in an upcoming entry.  Here is a preview though.....

1. Where would you like to live if you didn't live in the Fort Wayne area?  I would love to live in Maryland close to the Bay.  I was born near there and got to visit a couple of years ago and it was beautiful.

Life isn't easy

I think the title of this post says it all.  I know that no one said it was going to be easy, but I would like to have a month or two where everything would go right and there wouldn't be anything to worry about.  Around here there never seems to be a shortage of things that either go wrong or cause worrisome thoughts.  I often wonder how some people never seem to have a worry in the world.  Are they hiding their problems/worries?  Do they have everything under control?  Are they better at handling things than me?

Having Asperger's Syndrome makes things harder, ie: lack of people skills, people not being able to read my tones, difficulty expressing my thoughts and feelings.  Tara is very understanding and has a great amount of patience with me.  Sometimes she probably has too much patience, but I am glad she does.  She doesn't harass me about not getting home projects done in a quick manner or if they aren't 100% perfect.  She gives me a little time to myself each afternoon to wind down from work since she knows how hard it can be on me sometimes.

If you have ever met me, you know that when I first meet you, I don't really talk much and when I do talk to you, I have a very hard time looking you in the eyes.  Once I know you better and feel more comfortable around you, I talk more, but still don't really look you in the eyes too much.  Alot of times, I often wonder if people put up with me and just wait for me to shut up so they can move on with their own business or day.  I don't want to be like the guy at work that no one likes talking too because he's a PITA (pain in the a$$).  I worry about this mostly at work and then with friends.  I tend not to worry so much about it with family.  I don't know if it's because I think they have to talk to me because "we're family" or some other reason.

At work, I worry if my boss or coworkers haven't talked to me in a while, that I have made them mad or they don't like me, even though I was on very good terms with them just the day before.  Besides my wife I have very few friends, which I can also somewhat attribute to Asperger's Syndrome.  I have some co-workers that I call very good friends, but I am not sure they feel the same.


I often deal with severe mood swings due to my feelings and things going on around me.  This is really hard on my family.  I don't like that it happens, but I haven't really found a way to successfully deal with them either.  I have tried different medicines, tried cutting out caffeine, tried psychologists, but none of it seems to help.



I understand that people don't understand me.  I understand that I do not understand all of their jokes and innuendos.  I just wish that sometimes I could be "normal" and not have to worry about some of these things.

To those who read this: "Thank you" and "Thank you for trying to understand".

I will try to post a lighter entry later this week, but I felt like I needed to post this.  It has been a rough couple of weeks for me and it was getting harder for me to deal with things.

Happy Birthday Tara!!

Tomorrow is my wife's 35th birthday.  Tara is probably the most caring, loving, genuine person I know.  She is always supportive of anything I do or want to do.  She never complains about anything, whether I call saying I have to work late, or if she has to watch football.  Tara has a great sense of humor and laughs at all my jokes, no matter how corny.  I love her more every day that we are together.  She is always the first person I see in the morning and the last person I see at night.  I would not have it any other way.  She is a wonderful mother, a great listener, and my best friend.

So Tara, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! and I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!

People and Ethics

The past few weeks at work, there has been an influx of coworkers calling in 'sick', specifically 4 people.  I have a very hard time believing that these people have been ill mainly due to the circumstances surrounding their absences.

• One calls in sick almost on a weekly basis on the same day of the week, and if they have a vacation day planned for another day of the week, they are almost certain to call in for a second day.
• There's another one that we can predict when they are going to call in.  We get paid every other week and you can set the clock to this person calling in during the non pay week to burn that day of vacation they just earned.  They even get the fake cough going a couple of days ahead of time so they can sell the illness.  They almost always mysteriously become better on Friday when it's time to get their drink on.
• The third one calls in for 3/5 days when it is their turn to do break/fix at the hospital.  They will always work the first 2 days and call in the rest of the week.  The sad part is, the person is 50 years old and has to have their spouse call in.  If you are going to call in, at least have the balls and call in yourself.  Man up!!
• The last one is almost a carbon copy of the third, except they are single so they call in for themselves and this person hasn't even been with the company a year yet.  

The sad part is all four of these people come from a generation that is known for it's great work ethic.  I believe that that this generation does have a great work ethic, but these four people definitely don't have it.  They have no consideration for their co-workers or the company they work for.  I know not everyone can have perfect attendance, but at least try to go to work.

I love working with most everyone there, but sometimes these 4 can make it very, very hard for the rest of us to have a productive day because we are having to pick up their work also.

Football and Idiots

To me, there is no time of the year that is more exciting than the beginning of the NFL season. Everything seems to flow better and mesh better during football season. I am a BIG Washington Redskins fan and at work I not only have to deal with a Cowboys fan (he's actually pretty cool other than that), but I also have to listen to a Steelers fan talk about them being the only team with 6 Super Bowl wins. Actually, I would go to bat for either one of them, now if I could only get them to change their football colors.

Don't get me wrong, there are still idiots that I have to deal with, but they seem to be a little more tolerable during football season. Take yesterday for example:

I answered the phone for our help desk and it was one of our "frequent flyers", in other words someone that calls in on an almost daily basis with all sorts of questions. Yesterday was no different. Her problem was that she wanted to know if there was a quicker way to open a PDF file than opening Acrobat Reader and then pulling up the file if there were already other programs open. She said the extra click in the taskbar to show the desktop takes too long and she "doesn't have that kind of time". I know that anytime I can save 1/2 second in my day, it is always a good day. (That's sarcasm for those of you that couldn't tell.) She then proceeded to tell me that "computers should be more intuitive" and it should know what she wants. I was having a very hard time not laughing at the lady. I then told her that computers can't think for themselves and we have to help them by telling them what to do. No matter what I told her she was still not happy with the resolution I told her. So basically after going around with her for almost 10 minutes about this I decided to have a little fun with her. I basically made her sound like an idiot without directly saying those words. By the time I hung up the phone 5 minutes later there was half of the office listening to what I was saying and laughing.

Now please don't take the story the wrong way. I almost never talk to clients/customers this way simply because most are from the nursing field and have very little computer experience and they don't need me making them feel any dumber than they already do. I actually take great pride in the way I treat people that call in, but this lady had it coming. Everyone in the office has her phone number memorized and when it comes up on the caller ID, we cringe. The woman expects miracles to happen in her computer and on her monitor.

Enough about that, back to football. As I said earlier I am a big Redskins fan and follow Chris Cooley's blog, and love what they are doing over there. It is obviously pro-Redskins, but it is a good read for all sports fans, he covers a little bit of everything.

I realize the first two posts I've made have rambled on with no rhyme or reason, but bare with me. I will get this straightened out soon enough.

GO REDSKINS!! BEAT THE GIANTS!!

A Reason for Everything

There is supposed to be a reason for everything, so I am told. I guess that is true with this also. I have decided to do this for numerous reasons.

• It gives me a way to vent my daily frustrations without seeming like too much of a goofball.
• It provides an easy way to let everyone know of some of the crazy/stupid things that happen on a daily basis in my life.

There are other reasons, but those are the 2 main reasons.

Hopefully, this will give me a way to relieve stress from home and work, but mostly from work. I am a System Administrator and I/S Help Desk team lead for one of the largest and best healthcare companies in the state. That being said, it is very stressful at times, but also provides a lot (and I mean A LOT) of humor from callers. I am hoping to provide some humor for readers as I do this, but I'm guessing that some of it will be lost in translation.

At home, I have a beautiful wife, who I have been married to for 16 years. I also have 2 kids. My son, who is almost 10, has Asperger's Syndrome (I was diagnosed with this shortly after my son). My daughter, who is 8, has Sotos Syndrome and epilepsy. Needless to say, home life is full of daily little achievements.

Life hasn't exactly been what I signed up for, but when is it ever. I would not change anything abut my family or job. They are both full of wonderful people.

Until the next time....