Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Three in One

(Okay, round two! (The entire 'first draft' got eaten up by a 'cannot find server message' because I started writing while the page was still loading. (Loading for about 20 minutes! Sheesh!))

Ahem!)



Three rants in one update that is. =P


First up;

I have a collegue at work that's beginning to annoy me. To get this out of the way, I know I make mistakes. Really stupid ones at times. While I can't really say that I've accept that, I know it has happened, happens and will happen in the future.

This guy, since he started working full-time (while I've gone to part-time) seems to like lecturing me when I make a mistake. It wasn't a big mistake, but he was the only one who made a big issue of it. Made a big issue of it to me that is. But I resolved to forget about it until what happened today. (Then why am I whineing about it now? Because he brought it up today.)

That incident was last week. Today, due to an assumption that he... I'll lay out the whole story as I know it, that way it'll look less like I'm pointing fingers! =P


There is an event that the company I work for has to provide props for this weekend. This event, requires two components. On the jobsheet, the only descriptions of those components are ' 32' X 12' ' and ' 16' X 10' '.

The 32X12 is a banner piece, basically a wooden frame less an inch from each side. We (another part-timer and I) completed that yesterday, that went off without a hitch. I was told to do the 16 X 10 the next day.

Today, after I came in, my collegue reminded me to do the 16 X 10. When I asked, he assured me it was also a banner piece. So I got the materials out and began cutting these 12 foot sticks (there's a proper name for those, but I don't knok/recall it) down to size. After I was done with the first set (pieces for the 10 foot height) and before I began on the second set of materials, my collegue reminded me again about the job, this time adding in that I should check with the office about it. (He has a habit of repeating himself but that's not the issue here. =P)

Anyway, for reasons I can't remember now, I didn't check with office and went on to cut the second set of materials. And after putting one part together (it's built in four parts for ease of transport to the site), I measured it and found it to be one inch too tall. I'd somehow missed taking an inch off the top. So I tore up the piece and shortened all of set one by an inch. It was _then_ that something made me decide to check about the job. It wasn't a banner piece.

Time was wasted, but the materials could be reused later so it wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't totally his nor my fault. We both goofed on that one. What bugs me is that later at the bus stop, he lectures me that I should've checked first. And he mentions that because of the previous incident, he made sure to take note of what happened and that I really should've checked first. He just kept talking, ignoring my objections and talking. At that point, I decided to revert to what I did during the previous incident. Clam up, save my breath and ignore him. If he wasn't going to listen to me, I figure I should return the favour.

He sometimes asks me questions and ignores or forgets my answers and asks me the same question again. That's just his behavioural quirk (the questions are mostly pointless and it's meant to allow him to yak on), it doesn't bother me half as much as when he asks me a (serious) question and then dismisses it as irrevelent a quarter of the way into my answer. Or blows it off when I raise a concern. (Can't really fault him for that last one though, sometimes I worry too much. ^ ^)

He's not really a bad person, and he isn't a newcomer to the company either (he worked part time there way before I joined). But I'm beginning to get an urge to tell him to just grow up.

I'm not ready to chew him out yet, but a file with his name has been prepped. Metaphorically speaking of course. =)



Okay, this is disturbing. Why do I feel like a spin doctor when I look over that? O_o¿


Next;

Up until a few months ago, I've never been on IRC much. Now, I feel so disconnected without a window to the channel open. Especially now with my computer in the middle of a windows reinstall.

Up until a few months ago, I had no reason to frequent an IRC chatroom. That is until I decided to pop into and stay a while in one maintained by my RPG group. (Since most of those who may read this know of my RPG addiction (or are from that same RPG group), there's no point plugging! =P)

I learn more during these few months than in the few years previous. Definately an excellent place for learning. Even stuff you didn't know you'd want to know. =P Kinda reminds me of a mailing list I was a part of some years back. ^ ^

Anyway, it may be a few more days before I get back to that chatroom. If any of you guys are reading this, I miss you guys and I hope to get back soon. =)

The plus side of all this is that I can download Stargate episodes easily now! =D



Finally (and relatedly);

I came this close to losing everything I've accumilated on computer over the past 12 years.

I'd already backed up all my documents (most importantly, my mail) on another partition of my harddisk and I'd wanted to try installing WinXP this time. I figure that I'll run into less problems in the mid to long run. It's probably true, since I ran into much more problems in the immediate to short run. Formatting my OS partition to NTFS resulted in an unknown error. Reformatting in FAT32 resulted in a missing operating system.

After two days of that, I decided to revert to 'good ol' WinME'. Of course I should've gone with my gut instinct and check the partitions before typing 'format c:'. (Note to self: Err on the side of caution. It's no joke losing losing your virtual life up till then.)

Then again, it might not have told me anything out of the ordinary. Anyway, after typing and entering that command, I notice something wrong as I saw the size of the partition being formatted. About 15GB, 150% the size it should be. That knocked me for a loop. Lucky me, it was still 0% formatted and I saw no other option than to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del.

That seemed to have worked, the FAT was intact, no error in displaying the files and folders that I could find and I copied the backup of the 'My Documents' folder over to the new 'blank' one alright.

The feeling I had immediately after I hit the Ctrl-Alt-Del buttons was probably a milder version of the feeling one might get from finding out that you've just flushed your entire life savings down the toilet (there, my bit of toilet humor for the year! =P).

It's a feeling I never want to feel again.

Note to self: Make at least two more backups. On an external source this time. Hardcopies optional. =)

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