Work

Today is one day before my one-year anniversary at the Mars Space Flight Facility, and also one day after I finally got something else launched that the public might have a remote interest in.

Søren* is two weeks, three days old today. Through Betsy's doctor-mandated bed rest, and Søren's first weeks, I've relocated from my office at ASU to my new corner office:

It's becoming clear to me that many (perhaps not all) NASA web sites and web services are set up in such a way that it's damn near impossible to get the information you need out of them without chanting the correct incantation and sacrificing a chicken. It's a bit frustrating, and a bit like the web c. 1999.

[img_assist|nid=543|title=Ground control to Major Pork|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=300]

That's right. The two whitest people on the planet are moving to one of the hottest, sunniest regions of the country. What could possibly go wrong? I've got my SPF-80 ready, along with my UV protection suit.

I'm in Boston at Drupalcon 2008, in a discussion of working together and not reinventing the wheel, where the participants are from competing development shops.

They're looking for ways they can work together, to avoid duplication of effort, and reduce their overall costs.

I find it amusing (and sad) that the company I work for (on the corporate level) has the same problem, but doesn't seem to be working toward solving it.

We spend lots of dough each year converting material from our dead-tree editions into web-friendlier versions for our web sites. We crank out a bunch of PDFs, and send them through the ether to somewhere where the labor is cheap and the workday long, like Vietnam, Indonesia or Canada or something. Then some poor soul slices 'n dices them into jpegs and links and such, and sends 'em on back, and posts them on our site.

I'm amazed at how poorly people communicate in the workplace. I blame much of this on email, where a lack of direct contact is coupled with a lack of accountability, and the fact that most people can't read or write for shit anyway, to form a seething clusterfuck of lost productivity and angry coworkers. So, gentle reader, I bring you:

Chris's helpful email tips

The air handler above my office just shut off (hopefully intentionally, and not because it's broken), and it's shocking to hear the difference between the constant din of rushing air and the quiet.

Of course, I can still hear the women over in advertising clucking away about their offspring. At least I can shut my office door to fix that.

Edit: Dammit, that didn't last long. The infernal whirring is back. I'm sure it's resulted in some long-term hearing loss, brain damage, or both.

On our last building project, I messed up my knees pretty bad. I crawled around on the floor for at least a week laying and grouting slate tile, and my knees still snap, crackle and pop when I walk up stairs. That was more than three years ago.

Today I think I dealt my patellar cartilage its death blow with one of these here gizmos:

One uses such a device to stretch and anchor carpet into place. One does this by smashing on the padded end with one's knees, repeatedly, whilst the teeth on the business end dig into the carpet.