Olaia picked up the Performance Bicycling catalog from the coffee table and curled up on the couch with it. "Mommy, when I get a little older, I want this," and she pointed out a specific item.
"Oh, my dear," Laura giggled, "you're gonna get a kick out of this."
"What, lemme see," and I leaned over to see what Olaia had selected. Her finger was on a little pink girlie bicycling top, right there in the women's fashions section.
"When I'm older, I'm going to wear this when I go with Daddy to buy milk." She beamed as she dreamed of her pink top and her bicycle and riding with her bestest Daddy in the whole wide world.
Recently the Discovery channel hosted a "contest" to decide who was the most important American - like ever. I'll keep it short, *spoiler alert* Ronald Reagan won. He beat out lots of great Americans, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?!?! WHAT! Are you smoking crack? I tore my hair out in chunks before I realized that the verdict says more about who watches the Whiteychannel than who was the greatest Amercian.
You've probably noticed it. I've noticed it. IT personnel have gotten less responsive over the last few years. They complain more, are harder to deal with, and less motivated than I've ever seen. The cliche of the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) was one thing. Today it's totally different. IT people don't love their jobs anymore. Whereas the BOFH of yesteryear truly loved the torment he inflicted on his L-users, today's LOFH (Lazy Operator From Hell) just doesn't care. He really doesn't. He doesn't care if you're mad, if you yell, if you call him names, tell his boss he sucks, rant and rave up and down the halls. He just doesn't care.
He's not paid enough to care.
And that's the difference. Whereas before in the land of mainframes and business automation, highly skilled technical people were paid large fees to make stuff run well. And for the most part it did. Because of the power these high priests of the arcane wielded, they tended to be bastards, condescending. But it was all part of the mystic and mostly everyone was happy.
Enter desktop computing.
Today's sys-admin is more than likely the user that sits in front of the computer using email, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. You, the end user, are your own admin. Professional sys-admin's are more than likely just help desk support, and worse than that, relegated to company overhead, while employees with the desktop computers are the bread and butter.
"Make it work, you worm," you can hear them mutter under their breath whenever there is downtime.
IT guys don't get paid well, and as a result, they take their compensation in other ways, surfing the net, running side consulting jobs from their employer's business, screwing around, taking long lunches, being unresponsive, rude, surly.
I've seen it all, I work with these people every day, and it's always the same. They're bored, under appreciated, underpaid, and unhappy.
"You wanted to be your own sys-admin? Now that you've got that fancy schmancy WinXP on your desktop so easy to use, so powerful. You think you don't need us? You think this stuff is simple? Do it your god-damned self."
Desktop computing has gotten so cheap that we labor under the false illusion that business automation is cheap, a commodity, that Information Technology is one step above the toilet paper stocking service.
Next time you have that bean burrito, and you get that after lunch peristaltic action and there's no TP... bet you wish you had some TP now doncha?
Today, an engineer quietly solved the glass half empty problem.
"You
see, it really depends on the initial state. If the glass starts out
empty, and is filled to half, the glass is half full, or put another
way, trending toward fullness. If the glass starts out full and half
of its contents are consumed, then the glass is half empty or trending
toward emptiness. It's just a simple engineering relationship. Your
perception of the glass as half empty or half full depends upon your
frame of reference and your stated objective.
Answer the question, 'For what is the system designed and what are its goals?' and you will be able to - construct - the - system - accurately... uhm... err. You guys must think I'm really stupid, huh?"
Just been stupid busy. Why is it that nobody wants anything for weeks, then all of a sudden they all want it now, right now! Right friggin' now!
Here's a funny incident. I'm American right? I'm not from Puerto Rico, right? I was not born here, nor am I culturally Puerto Rican, right? I'm a friggin' big honking gringo, as big and whitey white as white can can be, like a giant white whale, like Uncle Ben's long grain, the kind of guy that would never get picked for police undercover work, the kind of guy who - true story - got mistaken for undercover security for the Resident Commissioner in Washington D.C., Luis Fortuño. I'm as big and conspicuous and as gringo as they come.
Well, with all that said, why is it that I keep having to translate for people here? I end up translating from Spanish that doesn't make any sense into Spanish that passes as language, with nice specifics, with nice timelines, and precision. I'm not the only one that says this. Laura always gets a giggle out of it.
"Who'd have thought, that they'd need an American to translate for them?" she mused, after I got off the phone with a client and his subcontractor. I talked to the sub to explain what the client wanted. I talked to the client to clarify what the sub didn't understand - yeah, stuff like that.
"I wonder if they don't just play dumb because they don't want to do the work, but when a member of the High Command of Colonial Overlords is there they shape up because of vergüenza."
I dunno. Maybe they think I'll pull out my sidearm and shoot the place up a bit.
We white people are crazy that way. *eye twitches*