FWIS3

Ah, bureaucracy... the reason the concept of hell was invented.

SciFi Chick wrote:Ah, bureaucracy... the reason the concept of hell was invented.

Well, it's entirely conceivable that Satan designed bureaucracy as a model for how to run hell.

Naw, Satan invented ITIL and ISO-9000

RANT

Sooo, writing an article whose first draft was due just after Christmas holidays (yeah, these things proceed slowly) and one of the astronomers wanted an email interview. Ok, no biggie, I sent her the questions I wanted answers, got some nice answers back.

Anyway, during editing now, my sharp-eyed editor noticed one of the quotes was actually pretty close to what this astronomer said in a press release, and asked if I'd gotten it from there... and no, it was from an email interview, so I googled the other quote from her in the piece. Which is actually lifted straight from another website's coverage of this discovery, which she did not write, verbatim.

WHAT THE FUCK

Seriously, there is just... no way in my mind that a senior scientist can mistakenly think this is acceptable. Press release quotes ok, misunderstanding, but plagiarism from another site? Thank goodness for good editors!

So, how do you respond?

Thank goodness the editor said it shouldn't be a problem but she'll get back to me after consulting with others where she is. It's apparently a really rare thing no one I've asked can remember happening before. So we'll see.

Props to single parents. I don't know how they do it.

MrPi left yesterday for a week in Shanghai and Singapore. He's traveled for this long before, but I've always had my parents come out to help. Well, they were just here two weeks ago when I was in Colombia, so I've got to fly solo here.

Rooster is due for an oscar nomination for flawlessly playing the part of a three year old. "No. You're not my mommy. You don't like me" is my favorite response from her. I think we are all going to go crazy if it's just the three of us every night this week. Fortunately Buster has turned into a very mature and cooperative 5 year old. I plan to have a babysitter come over one of these nights to watch Rooster while I take him out for ice cream*.

But the hardest part, of course, is being without MrPi. I stay up way too late because I just don't like falling asleep without him here. But in the end, it makes me appreciate that I have him.

*With a gift card he got from the dentist for doing an "awesome" job during his first cavity filling! The dentist knows what to do to stay in business.

pumpkinpi wrote: ...
Rooster is due for an oscar nomination for flawlessly playing the part of a three year old. "No. You're not my mommy. You don't like me" is my favorite response from her. ...

you've made me remember a day of running errands when elliot was ~4 or 5. he was acting up and we told him that if he didn't stop we were going to skip the library and go straight home. he kept it up and we drove home. as we neared our neighborhood, we heard from the backseat, in tones of outrage

hey! this isn't the way to the library!

no, elliot, we're going home. we told you that we'd do that if you didn't start behving properly and you didn't.

well, we were told that we were no longer his parents. he was going to get new ones and live with them. he went on at some length about how much nicer his new parents were and how mean we were.

LOL. That's awesome.

code monkey wrote:well, we were told that we were no longer his parents. he was going to get new ones and live with them.

I was about 5-6 when I told my Mom the same thing. I had been being a total brat going on and on about how things weren't fair, how I wanted a new Mommy; I was so confident in my indignation.
She pulled to the side of the road, reached over and threw my door open, and said, "All right, get out, and go find your new Mommy."

I don't think I said another word all day. I just sat there staring at my shoes.

Thumper wrote:

code monkey wrote:well, we were told that we were no longer his parents. he was going to get new ones and live with them.

I was about 5-6 when I told my Mom the same thing. I had been being a total brat going on and on about how things weren't fair, how I wanted a new Mommy; I was so confident in my indignation.
She pulled to the side of the road, reached over and threw my door open, and said, "All right, get out, and go find your new Mommy."

I don't think I said another word all day. I just sat there staring at my shoes.

wow! your mom was strict.

we asked him how he'd get to school. the new parents would drive him. in the car that he'd buy. similar answers for other things. we said that that sounded very expensive. where would he get the money for all of it? his reply? 'i'll go to the store. yes, the money store.'

we'd had a very hard time not laughing throughout his tirade. not cracking up at the last bit really was a strain.

The norm at work is (and has been for a long time) just an endless series of stupid, generally small but time consuming little tasks. Actually, it isn't even a series, its a "parallel", since I generally have 2, 3, 7, a dozen going on at the same time. The kind of stuff that in the old days Purchasing, or Shipping, or Marketing or the secretary would have handled, but for the most part we don't have those people any longer. Today seemed even more full of them than usual.

In the midst of all this... a week or so ago my boss asked me to suddenly do some work on trying out a different raw material on a formulation we make once in a great while, but, as far as I know, we don't have a current urgent need for. I don't have a clue as to why this is suddenly a bug up his ass, but I was down at our plant in Canton a good chunk of last week working on this. Friday he asked me to continue working on it this week.

I was in the office this morning, with the plan to go to Canton after lunch. The main reason was that I just needed to deal with at least some of these little tasks that are really best dealt with at the office. I sent out a couple of e-mails covering aspects of this, copying my boss. At 11:20 he wandered by my office, asking me what my plans were and if I was going down to Canton. What? But I politely told him again what my plan was and that I was going down after lunch. He was good with all of that.

At 3 p.m. I'm down in Canton, working on stuff, and I get an e-mail from him about a teleconference he scheduled for tomorrow at 9 a.m., and where is the presentation I gave last year about the topic of that meeting. Uh... in my network folder labeled "Presentations", but I politely sent him the link to the file. Then he e-mails me asking if I'm going to be in Canton tomorrow? No, we've only talked about it repeatedly since Friday and I said again 4 hours ago, but you know, I decided Fuck This and I'm taking the day off.



Of course I really only responded with "yes, I am", but <sigh> .... Is it time to retire yet?

I don't know how long you have until retirement, but I'll do the dance of joy for you when that day comes.

I've often mused that if someone is turned into a mid level manager, memory becomes a scarce resource.

SciFi Chick wrote:I don't know how long you have until retirement, but I'll do the dance of joy for you when that day comes.

About 10 years.

I'll bring the quarters for the jukebox.

Sigma_Orionis wrote:I've often mused that if someone is turned into a mid level manager, memory becomes a scarce resource.

I'm not sure if the memory is de-installed upon becoming a manager, or it is a prerequisite for the job.

Sigma_Orionis wrote:I've often mused that if someone is turned into a mid level manager, memory becomes a scarce resource.

I think that's me (for some aspects of my job) and I am proof that is true.

In part it's understandable, a manager has to keep up with EVERYTHING in his/her area of responsibility. However, from what I have observed, the more mismanaged things are (and IMHO that comes directly from UPPER management NOT doing its job) the scarcer memory becomes.

Sigma_Orionis wrote:In part it's understandable, a manager has to keep up with EVERYTHING in his/her area of responsibility. However, from what I have observed, the more mismanaged things are (and IMHO that comes directly from UPPER management NOT doing its job) the scarcer memory becomes.

Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

Swift wrote:Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

Sounds Familiar.....

Swift wrote:

SciFi Chick wrote:I don't know how long you have until retirement, but I'll do the dance of joy for you when that day comes.

About 10 years.

I recommend you figure a way to move that date up.

Swift wrote:Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

because he/she knows that you can be depended upon.

code monkey wrote:

Swift wrote:Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

because he/she knows that you can be depended upon.

Another example of no good deed goes unpunished.

code monkey wrote:

Swift wrote:Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

because he/she knows that you can be depended upon.

Sounds like the voice of experience.

code monkey wrote:

Swift wrote:Apparently, my boss' way of dealing with this problem, is to dump more and more stuff on me.

because he/she knows that you can be depended upon.

The dependable employee is always rewarded with more work.

Allegiant Airlines is now running at the top of my list as "World's Worst Airline." But the competition is always fierce.
That is all.