Boring But Necessary Tasks

I'm supposed to have a mid-year performance assessment with my boss today. We were supposed to have it on Monday but he rescheduled it because of other pressing issues. Ultimately, that rescheduling worked to my advantage as I'm now able to report two projects are 100% complete instead of merely in progress, and I received an award certificate for past achievement in the inter-office mail.

Trying to compose a list of one's professional accomplishments over the past 6-7 months is one of the most tedious and boring acts possible, yet it must be done. My boss can't lobby for a bonus or raise on my behalf unless he has the documentation to back up the request and if I can't advocate for my work & projects, who can?

At least the task is less painful for me than most other colleagues: I've kept a daily log of my work activities so it's easy to reconstruct my major accomplishments. The frustration comes from attempting to capture how mind-bogglingly difficult some tasks are when reduced to only 10 words in a single sentence half-way down a page, but that's why we have these assessments face-to-face instead of by e-mail.

I'm expecting our meeting later this morning to be quick and relatively painless.

Boring But Necessary Tasks

I'm supposed to have a mid-year performance assessment with my boss today. We were supposed to have it on Monday but he rescheduled it because of other pressing issues. Ultimately, that rescheduling worked to my advantage as I'm now able to report two projects are 100% complete instead of merely in progress, and I received an award certificate for past achievement in the inter-office mail.

Trying to compose a list of one's professional accomplishments over the past 6-7 months is one of the most tedious and boring acts possible, yet it must be done. My boss can't lobby for a bonus or raise on my behalf unless he has the documentation to back up the request and if I can't advocate for my work & projects, who can?

At least the task is less painful for me than most other colleagues: I've kept a daily log of my work activities so it's easy to reconstruct my major accomplishments. The frustration comes from attempting to capture how mind-bogglingly difficult some tasks are when reduced to only 10 words in a single sentence half-way down a page, but that's why we have these assessments face-to-face instead of by e-mail.

I'm expecting our meeting later this morning to be quick and relatively painless.

Jacqueline F. is now my favourite person in the entire world.

There was a meeting of some IBM reps and a number of our staff earlier this morning. Jacqueline is a sysadmin in the only business group in the company which runs AIX equipment so she was facilitating, as well as ordering lunch for the participants here in Urbana.

Alas, there were fewer people coming from our Reston office than said would come, so we had a surplus of food. Jacqueline is now walking the corridors of cubes on my floor, distributing brownies & soft drinks.

I'm now going to hit "update" and stuff my face with a very large (free) chocolate brownie, then wash it down with (free) Pepsi.

Jacqueline F. is now my favourite person in the entire world.

There was a meeting of some IBM reps and a number of our staff earlier this morning. Jacqueline is a sysadmin in the only business group in the company which runs AIX equipment so she was facilitating, as well as ordering lunch for the participants here in Urbana.

Alas, there were fewer people coming from our Reston office than said would come, so we had a surplus of food. Jacqueline is now walking the corridors of cubes on my floor, distributing brownies & soft drinks.

I'm now going to hit "update" and stuff my face with a very large (free) chocolate brownie, then wash it down with (free) Pepsi.

Weather Reporting Continues to Piss Me Off

*Rant mode on*

I was reading a report on Beryl moving along the US east coast a few minutes ago.

Looking at the map to the upper left, it strikes me that the big news of this article should be that this storm is going hit Nova Scotia full-on. Instead, the article is all about Beryl being a non-event on the US eastern seaboard. WTF?!

I admit it: I've always been really annoyed at schizoid TV weather forecasts that clearly show satellite photos of all of Canada & the US to indicate ugliness crossing the border, but then reduce their tactical diagrams to the US only, showing blackness where Canada sits. Do they think a blizzard system moving south from the Canadian prairies simply materializes out of nothingness at the US-Canada border? Do they think that just because a storm or flood crest moves north of the contiguous 48 that it no longer exists?

Weather doesn't follow nice, convenient international borders or boundaries. Meteorologists better than most know that these are systems which are influenced by broad areas of the planet. Where does this bury-our-head-in-the-sand reporting come from?

*Rant mode off.*
*Well, OK, rant mode reduced somewhat.*

Weather Reporting Continues to Piss Me Off

*Rant mode on*

I was reading a report on Beryl moving along the US east coast a few minutes ago.

Looking at the map to the upper left, it strikes me that the big news of this article should be that this storm is going hit Nova Scotia full-on. Instead, the article is all about Beryl being a non-event on the US eastern seaboard. WTF?!

I admit it: I've always been really annoyed at schizoid TV weather forecasts that clearly show satellite photos of all of Canada & the US to indicate ugliness crossing the border, but then reduce their tactical diagrams to the US only, showing blackness where Canada sits. Do they think a blizzard system moving south from the Canadian prairies simply materializes out of nothingness at the US-Canada border? Do they think that just because a storm or flood crest moves north of the contiguous 48 that it no longer exists?

Weather doesn't follow nice, convenient international borders or boundaries. Meteorologists better than most know that these are systems which are influenced by broad areas of the planet. Where does this bury-our-head-in-the-sand reporting come from?

*Rant mode off.*
*Well, OK, rant mode reduced somewhat.*

Mid-Year Review Complete

As expected, my mid-year performance evaluation went well. Company rules dictate that my boss may only indicate if I'm "on track" (or not) to achieving the goals set for me back in the early part of 2006: he's forbidden to say anything more. We were able to check off all items as "on track" quickly, then talk about issues coming up on the horizon for our team and division, all of which I knew or had anticipated.

One more piece of paperwork out of the way...

Mid-Year Review Complete

As expected, my mid-year performance evaluation went well. Company rules dictate that my boss may only indicate if I'm "on track" (or not) to achieving the goals set for me back in the early part of 2006: he's forbidden to say anything more. We were able to check off all items as "on track" quickly, then talk about issues coming up on the horizon for our team and division, all of which I knew or had anticipated.

One more piece of paperwork out of the way...