Friday, June 19, 2009

Dilbert in action.

Several things have happened in the last week or so which makes me think of Dilbert, I can list them, then the author of Dilbert will have some stuff to write about.
1. There is a switch on the side of my laptop which turns on the wireless adapter. I worked for an hour to figure out how to "turn on the wireless adapter" in windows before realizing somehow the switch on the outside of the laptop casing was turned to the off position. I wonder if this is a first sign that I need to start finding something less technical because I have lost my 'e-touch'. Now that I said 'e-touch', I am thinking that sounds kinda gross, but I am going to leave it, cause that's how I roll.
2. I was passed over for a promotion and a guy in Canada was awarded the Director position. I should not be too frustrated, since he has a really great resume', but I have really been working hard the past couple years, trying to save customers even when I am not in the support group any more, and I have been rewarded for my efforts with stock options that mature over the course of 4 years. Then I will be allowed to buy them if i can afford them, and then if the company goes public and does well, I will be rewarded. That is a lot of 'if's and I am not sure what I need to do to actually succeed in this company. Maybe leave?
3. Historically, I have noticed that the people who get ahead in the world of business are those who do not do anything. I try really hard, and that gets me more work, but makes it difficult to get raises and promotions. In prior jobs, I have seen network and systems administrators pretty much take 8-12 months to study at their desks for certification tests, and when they get the certs, they get promotions and raises. I have seen people who do nothing but go to meetings and not speak, get promoted out of their positions, or they just wait long enough and get yearly mandatory raises and level increases and COLA increases. One turned to me a while back, and said, "hey, can you help me to create formulas in this spreadsheet? I forgot how." Grrr.
4. The other day, a co-worker was talking to an automated menu on the phone. I could tell because for the first part he was talking in his robot voice. I think maybe he wanted to make the automated menu think he was a robot, so that he could get to the option he wanted faster. It is kind of like talking in ebonics while playing basketball. Maybe they will pass to you once in a while if you sound like you think they should. No matter that when they actually look at you, they see a pale mound of quivering flesh who has lost all coordination and finess.
Automated menu, "Say, 'English' to continue this call in English, Say 'Spanish' to continue this call in Spanish."
Human pretending to be Robot, "I am not human, BI-NA-RY. 11110110001110"
Automated menu, "Hey, man, how is it goin? Whacha need? We got those humans fooled, yeah?"
Human pretending to be Robot, "I am a RO-BOT. Please Speak in BI-NA-RY. My keyboard got wet, MU-ST RE-BOOT, MU-ST RE-BOOT, MU-ST RE-BOOT"
It goes on and on.

I know I didn't talk much about my training, today is a rest day, and my legs are a little sore. I did great yesterday in my 30 mile bike, improved on my mph by .7mph, and had this been olympic distance I would have improved my time by 10+ minutes. Granted, I still would not have had anything left for the run and would have BONK'ed on the second 5k in the run just like in Miami, but I am confident that by September that I will be under my goal time of 3 hours, and that this will convert to a sub 6:30 time in my half Iron Man two weeks later. I have two running focused days coming up, one is a speed workout on Saturday, and then a recovery increase in distance on Sunday to 9 miles. My main focus is to pick up my feet, and not shuffle so much, which hopefull will allow my forward lean to do more work and cause both an increase in volume and speed, and a decrease in leg soreness and the impression that people are taunting me as they drive by because I am running like an old man.

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