August 1
From my brain
Contents |
2009
Me 11:12, 1 August 2009 (EDT)
So, minor brouhaha last night wherein two fairly long-standing members quit the guild. Perception is everything as always in guild matters, and after four years in the guild, three and a half as an officer, and two as it's leader, I occasionally forget that when I'm in the moment. Some sleep (even only the four hours I got today) and some clarity, and it sorts itself out.
Aside from these two individuals who left, a previous burr in my side -- who long since left the guild for his (and his wife's) differences with our managerial policies -- decides to take it upon himself to give me a poke.
- "How many more SC members are you going to run away in your time as GL? :)"
and then a little later,
- "G{ood} L{uck} with SC and RL. Like I said you will need it. As we all do. =D
Touching huh? In the moment, I'll admit, I got a bit flustered. The two who left last night left at moderately peak hours, and I really hate it when people do that. Still though, having this other guy come back at me (as I asked him, "Why do you care anymore?") probably bothered me more than the fact they actually left. By the conversation's end though, I replied that if people aren't happy, they should just move on. Those two did, and best of luck to them, and as far as the guild...we'll be fine, and I wished him well equally.
With the clarity this morning though, I realized something: I'm either developing a thicker skin with this stuff...or a change has come over me in other -- and better -- ways.
A year ago (and those blog entries are coming up very, very soon), the guild went to hell in a hand basket due to a few drama llamas. It crushed me. It still affects me in a lot of ways of how I deal with people in-guild and in real life. I hadn't had to deal with anything of that magnitude as a leader for along time, and it took relying on my friends and officers to cope with it all. I wouldn't have made it without them.
What's changed with me even in this small circumstance? Real life. The game used to be an absolute escape for me. I hated my life. This blog is full of those comments. I hated ThePit, I was frustrated over losing the house, and I felt like life in general was going nowhere for me.
I simply don't feel like that any more. Since starting school, I feel...fulfilled. I have a direction. I have a purpose in life. I'm learning things rapidly on top of what I already know in a kitchen, and loving every single minute of it. I wake in the morning -- even after a crappy night of sleep -- and want to rush to get ready and go to school. It thrills me in ways that I haven't felt in a long......oh hell, who am I kidding: ever?
I still love playing WoW, but it doesn't have that hold on me. It wasn't an alcoholic level of dependency, but it was more just escapism. I don't need that any more. I don't need to escape...the game is just something I do to have fun. It doesn't consume my life and thinking as much now. Before, when zomgdrama reared it's furry head, I would crumble. Now, I think I'm rolling with it much better.
So, if any of the people involved -- last night or last year -- are reading this, I really do wish you well. You were not happy with me, my leadership, and so it was only natural for you to move on.
Everyone will be happier as a result I'm sure.
2008
Me 08:49, 1 August 2008 (EDT)
Beta Key Hell. I spent at least 75% of my day -- that's my day, not my day at work -- organizing and sending out the beta keys for Wrath of the Lich King.
Last week Friday -- the day before our summer server party -- we finally get the keys from Eyonix. Rather, I get the keys from Eyonix. Apparently they changed the way the keys were being distributed, so not only was Blizzard not going to be the ones to distribute them, but they're doling them out a few at a time....he only gave me 15.
Day before a crazy huge server party and I'm looking at 15 keys and 100 people who want them. Yeah, 175 members of the guild and right around 100 want one. There was no way I would come up with a method or the time to figure out how to distribute them. It's gonna have to wait until after the party.
I vent my frustrations about this to Eyonix. I lashed out. It was a tantrum on the level nearly of what TheBoy or Princess could muster (wait, I take that back, it wasn't as bad as what she can do...not after last night's fit). I tell him how disappointed I am in his superiors in how they always keep giving this project of his a ton of push-back.
Then, the unexpected happens: He sends me another 15 keys. Very cool of him to do that, but still, it's the day before the party, and I still only have a third of the keys we need. Gonna have to wait until Monday. I post all this up to the underofficer forums, get a little flack for my lack of tact with Eyonix, but press on with party stuff (and Karazhan that night).
Tuesday, one of the other guild leaders in the GRP decides to give him a little nudge to see if we'll be getting more keys. He responds affirmatively, and that night, we get another set of keys. Thirty of them. Thirty keys out of 100 I can't work with. Sixty keys is far more acceptable to people. I run with it.
I concoct a wondrous spreadsheet to do all the math for me. We've got a new webmaster for the site (a whole other post; man, I've been slacking lately with stuff that's gone on!), and I asked him for a download of the website roster. In it is the day their account was created and that's close enough for me to their date of joining the guild. He gives me the data, I blend it in with my database, and between Wednesday and Thursday, I create a model to rank people based on when they joined and how much they intend to play.
I had figured I'd get the first 30 or so people and start distributing. Holy crap did people sign up fast! Before I had a handle on gathering names, we pushed right up to 60. While I entered the last couple in, I go back to let people know I was just about done and would begin sending them out...only to find another five people.
So, now I decide to be fair to those who signed up first. I go back and get the names and times of each person who'd told me their intended amount of playtime in the beta. It made sense to me. I spend another hour or two doing this, getting a couple more stragglers coming in and then go and tell people that we are done and the cutoff was person X, and after him, everyone else will have to wait.
Two to three people go nuts. It's not fair that those who happen to have the free time to troll the forums get first-come, first-served credit. What was the point of saying how much they'd play? This is dumb!
I cracked. I caved. I can freely admit that. I was pissed and burned out from looking at the same damn spreadsheet all day long. So, I say fine, post on the forums that at that moment, that was the cutoff. End of story. Then, I go back and rework the whole sheet, adding in all the new people as potentially able to get a key this round. It ends up bumping seven people out of the running now (including one guy who was specifically going to gather feedback from everyone on beta for me).
Then the apologies come in. One of the guildies (the guy who was to gather feedback) explains the probably thoughts going through my head, and he's about spot-on. What's done is done though now, and I only have to distribute the keys.
So, I go home, and create the template to send the out. Yay for antiquated MS Office skills, because I take the table with the key assignments, and make a query with email address, subject line ("{Name} can has beta?"), and the body text, inserting their key number in it.
A few before, but the rest after the kids went to bed, I begin copy-and-paste hell for over an hour. Copy email, toggle to gmail, paste, tab, toggle to Access, tab, copy subject, toggle, paste, tab, toggle, copy body text, toggle, paste, click send.
Sixty.
Times.
Half-way through, I go get a cider. If my brain is gonna be numb, I'm gonna make damn sure it's REALLY numb. Mmmm...cider. I pop in-game to announce to everyone they has mailz, and then log shortly thereafter.
This morning I wake up to find that the one guy who messaged me that his code didn't work now has friends. Nearly ten of them. By the looks of it, it's almost all of the ones in that second batch of keys he gave me last Friday. I'm thinking karma bit me on the ass for whining. Unfortunately I ended up passing that karma onto the guildies.
Anyway, today I emailed Eyonix back to ask him what he wants done. I'm praying that he says each person should contact Blizzard individually. I do NOT want to deal with this all weekend long.
Me 10:23, 1 August 2008 (EDT)
- Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:33 AM
- To: ITDude
- Subject: RE: SAP Front End Developer
- I hadn't heard from you on this and wanted to know if it's on perma-hold or just delayed. As far as I know, HR still hasn't heard of it.
- Please advise.
- Thanks,
- Me.
Me 10:24, 1 August 2008 (EDT)
- We have not yet posted or made the decision exactly when, but you can be assured that I will talk with you when we do. I am glad you are excited to participate in this effort.
That's something at least...isn't it?
2007
Me 08:16, 1 August 2007 (EDT)
I went home yesterday with the full intention of telling Wifey that I was going to be sleeping in her bed again. She wakes up anyway as I get up for work, and to hell with my back; I need to sleep with my wife again. And I don't even mean that in happy-happy naked time, I mean I'm tired of sleeping by myself Sunday through Thursday while my wife is 10 yards away in the other room.
I knew she had had a stressful day, so I walked in with a bit of trepidation in case she was in the middle of WWIII. Things were actually quite calm, Princess was getting up from her un-nap, but she mentioned that her stomach had felt oogie, and so I worried she had gotten what I had last week. I also figured that might shoot down my plans of sharing a bed if she was feeling ill (wasn't going to be the best night to suggest it).
I don't know if she got over it, it passed on its own, or what, but while I was upstairs changing and performing the afternoon library ritual, she was out playing in the sprinkler with the kids. When I went down and into the garage, there she stood looking like a wet poodle with her hair all curly. It was just damn cute. I walked over to her, grabbed her in my arms, and planted a long one on her. She got all giggly on me, questioned it at first, but then I went in again.
Later on as we were getting dinner prepared (and the kitchen cleaned up), the kids were playing in the other room, and again I grabbed her. Longer this time. She got a bit giggly again, and I thought, This is the woman I married! The rest of dinner went off well.
Then, after dinner she was showing me pics of their trip to Elmoland. She then decides to take a moment to explain why she holds the camera "backwards like you think I hold it" when she takes portrait pictures. (She holds the camera with the flash bulb on the bottom, not at the top. So, date stamps of the camera and auto-rotation of certain programs end up putting things on odd sides.) Her voice...changed. She got into this snippy mode all of a sudden, and I don't have any idea what set it off.
The problem? I had been having issues yesterday and had managed to stave them off, especially once I got home and things had gone so well. She started going off like that and I went in three seconds flat from defensive to confrontational. Two seconds later, I realized it wasn't going anywhere, and I dropped back to beta-dog, and "yes dears" (but not so much that I was just placating, I just agreed with her and moved on). Worse, I realized that my plans to "move back in" were probably shot.
I went insta-cold from that point forward in the night. It was an off-WoW Tuesday, so we watched a little TV in her room. (Typing her room came far too naturally for what should be our room.) We watched a couple shows from the DVR, and she kind of tried cuddling back against me, figuring I'd move up and spoon. I went back into brother-sister mode instead, because it still hurts when I'm not sure if I'm going to get rejected for putting my arm around my wife, so I'm still at that point of not even getting close.
When it was 10:30, we both realized we were tired. She rolled over, and cuddled up against me and I hugged her, but that was it. She had been throwing me these smiles the whole time, but still I wouldn't have any of it. So, I let it out.
- I know you've put up a lot with me. And I know you've given me this speech before (albeit on the flip side), but...I honestly don't care if your complexion gets so bad we have to live in a leper colony. If taking these pills is going to to make you act like this, you can stop taking them now. The woman I came home to tonight was fantastic! That was the woman I married. That bitch in the dining room? I was ready to slap her right there in front of my children.
She did come back that she'd put up with a lot dealing with me over the last three years. I agreed with her and I told her I loved her for that. The difference was we're trying to fix that behavior in me and we're just trying to get the dosage right (and I confessed about having had issues yesterday as example). In her case though, she's taking something new that's causing the unwanted behavior changes.
She then said it's probably more stress. I said it could be possible, but the timing didn't make it seem so sometimes. It's too sporadic, and seems to have intensified when she started taking the pills.
Tonight the kids are going to be at MIL and FIL's because Wifey has a Tastefully Simple stand she's helping to run tomorrow at the Ohio State Fair. Maybe tonight we can talk things out more...sans kids.
Me 15:28, 1 August 2007 (EDT)
It's gonna be a deep, dark week. They're canning a bunch of people today, and word is there will be more tomorrow, and more on Friday.
I should be safe for right now. It's mostly in my old division that things are going to hell. Only time will tell though.
- When HR came for Supply Chain and Highway Services,
- I remained content in my job;
- I was not in Supply Chain or Highway Services.
- When they axed the entire Highway Accounting group,
- I remained content in my job;
- I was not in Accounting.
- When they came for Business Development and the rest of Retail Logistics,
- I did not worry too much;
- I was in Wholesale Logistics.
- When they came to fire me,
- there was no one left in the building.
2006
Me 07:59, 1 August 2006 (EDT)
All I have to say right now...
Me 08:29, 1 August 2006 (EDT)
All I know is I'm glad I don't work in the logistics industry.
Oh wait...crap.
Me 12:17, 1 August 2006 (EDT)
A coworker was telling me about a friend of his who just got this obscene new oven. I'd really like one except for the fact that
- It needs either propane or natural gas for the burners (neither of which I have available)
- It ways so much, it would probably fall through my kitchen floor
- My coworker's friend said it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $12,000 to purchase & install
Here's a look at the friend's oven installed at his house...
2005
--Me 13:40, 01, August 2005 (EDT)
The Evil Empire is Dead!
Long live the Bread Rebellion!
