Pet Peeve Day Pt.2

Again, I don't normally have pet peeves. I have major malfunctions. Best way to get me agitated is to talk about oppressive politics.

But again, today, pet peeve day. I bit my tongue. Not bad, happens. But I bit a piece off. Small, but painful. Mouth was bleeding like an emo listening to Cure. And now it feels like I have a stone in my tongue. Those who have had a tongue piercing knows what a sliced up tongue feels like. You know the numbness and stiffness I mean.

I slept long enough last night, but I think I was sleeping on a hedgehog. Back is killing me.

In the morning I noticed my housemates had drank all of the juice in the fridge.

Outside was minus decrees. I didn't move this south for minus temperatures. (Yeah, for me Netherlands is waaaay south.) So cold that my iPod ran out of battery after 2.5 songs, even when it had 50% battery when I left home. Why can't they make cold-resistant batteries?

Of course our new system "up"grade made working more difficult and because of the slowness I fouled up the morning reports I have foolishly volunteered to take care of for our team in the mornings, since I start one hour earlier than everyone else.

And when I managed to save the other half, the remaining half could not be saved, since when people turn their computers on and log in to the network, the reports give me only time-outs. (Nice network. Lucky us, we are going to "up"grade our system to cheaper and heavier tools...)

When I get a job assignment, I do it from my head, using my skills. This is not the company policy. We need to use our help-files and templates for this. The help-file system is slow and it's getting slower by the day.

Just in case, we have a new procedure that requires us to fill in this assignment closure report, which they changed last week. Not the interface, but the code behind. Before you could just give the keyboard shortcut commands in a row and when our slow system decides to respond, it fills them in. Now it doesn't work anymore. I need to fill in every part separately and after selecting any option sends the info to our U.S. based server and returns with an OK. So we have managed to tenfold our network traffic across the continents. Plus you need to wait 5-10 seconds between every option. Even when you type any text it sometimes needs time. Most annoying system I've ever used.

I can't wait for the next "up"grade...

Our E-mail system (which they changed from low contrast colors to bright-blue and white recently) was just not working today. Sorry... wrong word. It was working, but it was on Italian-strike. (Italian-strike = You do all the work, but so slowly that not working at all would be more productive.)

Every friggin' person was saying today "oh, and if I don't see you before Christmas - Merry Christmas!". F your Christmas™. Santa Clause is the same as Easter Bunny and Mr. Stork. It's only your neighbour, drunk. So I just replied: "I'm Jewish." - Sorry for all the Jewish people, by the way. Nothing personal against you. Lots against Christmas™, though.

When I went for my ciggie break, everyone was avoiding me in the ciggie room. They haven't seen me not smiling - ever. Of course they were worried.

I asked my boss if I could take a half a day off, as my head's not right today. Not happy and tools are not working. He said: "Is it the system that's not working, or you? Heh, heh." The F are you laughing at? End of discussion, apparently. I guess that was a joke that was ment to make me happy?

Luckily my boss saw from my face that I wasn't happy and when I asked second time he took me seriously. I don't really have any bad days normally, but if I do I say it straight. There's no point sitting angry at my desk. Better to say it out straight and fix my head.

So I got the rest of the day off.

And with the help-file/template tool we use, I foolishly though I get away by using my head, as the help-file/template system is reactive, not proactive to any given issue. It doesn't know any new issues that might arise. It is updated "as required", not when we have a solution to any given problem. Just before I was leaving I got a talking to by my boss who said I should stop using my head and start to use the no-brain-required-tool of ours. Fine. I wrote a note on top of my computer: "Don't use head. Use system." Problem solved.

Got to the metro (subway) and when I was stepping out I saw a tram going. Just my luck. So I walked to the bus stop. The buses go every 7 minutes. So right after 24 minutes the bus came and I went to buy beer.

I don't drink that much, unless it's a company party or something similar, but today it is required. Went to shop to take a case of 0,5 litre beers and I noticed something. There's no unopened case of beers there. Figures. Some over-enthusiast shopkeeper had removed all the plastic covers from the cases. I can't carry 24 cans of beer on my shoulder unless there's something tying all of the together.

Went to pay and of course there's line as long as Charles Manson's criminal record. Do Dutch people work during the days? Howcome so many was not at their jobs?

Got out of the shop with a plastic bag, and saw that my tram went again just in front of me. Walked home (only one kilometre), killed two cans on the way.

Now I'm home. Closing all the doors, shutting down my phone and not answering to the doorbell. Why did I buy only 5% alc beer? Would need something stronger to delete this day from memory.

Suomisaundi Psy-Trance won't do now. Current playlist:
Deicide - Once Upon A Cross
Slayer - Decade Of Agression
Amorphis - Privilidge To Evil
Meshuggah - Chaosphere
Hin Onde - Some demo before their first album
Vintersorg - Till Fjälls
Impaled Nazarene - Vitutuksen Multihuipennus -song
Frontline Assembly - Corroded Disorder
Ministry - Psalm 69
Cat Rapes Dog - Moosehair Underwear

I hope my neighbours are not unemployed, like everyone else in the supermarket.