I found this mark on my window when I got to work this morning. I have no idea how it was made. Maybe a stone worker pressed a dirty hand or shoe on the outside of the window? It’s an interesting pattern, though, and I love the way the image turned out.
The stone workers seem to be done, but they left three small pieces of limestone on my window ledge.
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A coworker’s cubicle
I don’t think I could stand to have that in my cubicle, because I’d be on constant information overload. It appeals to me aesthetically, though.
Please note the lack of any sort of safety harness. The guy was using a circular saw. On a ladder. I work on the third floor. For obvious reasons, I was a little distracted today.
Someone has added two new fortunes to the freight elevator permit panel.
Eat your vegetable and you’ll grow up big and strong like Popeye.
Everyone needs to be loved, especially those [who] do not deserve it.
I planted several of these last year, and all of them came up this spring, but so far, only one has bloomed.
In other news, that staff meeting and the training BS we have to go through? I got to work this morning, and there was an email from our unit supervisor requiring us to read the FAQ (it’s a wiki, actually) on using our computers. We will have to give a short explanation of what we learned from it at our next unit meeting, this Wednesday. My head nearly explodiated!
1. I read the damned wiki when it was first made available.
2. Because I am one of the few people who finished the ridiculous Web 2.0 assignment (the one in which we were supposed to set up a blog and post photos to Flickr), and because I use them every damned day, I long ago subscribed to the RSS feed for the damned wiki. And I actually look when it’s updated, which is kind of pointless, because it’s almost always a stylistic edit, not anything to do with actual content. But I do look!
This means that I’m not going to read the damned wiki, because I already have. Nor am I going to learn anything from it, because I have actually done what we were told to do a goddamn year ago. Apparently, some folks have not acquainted themselves with the damned wiki, though, so there will be the equivalent of a test.
We are not amused.
Also on the list of things that we are unamused about is the coworker whose daughter is pregnant, and who keeps giving everyone in the department hourly updates on how dilated said daughter’s cervix is. I think I can safely say that’s one of those things that’s near the top of the list of Stuff I Do Not Need to Know. I understand she’s excited about her grandbaby being born, and I understand that’s something that’s perfectly appropriate to share between good friends, but we are coworkers, not good friends, and that sort of thing is therefore definitely TMI.
Beyond that, though, is the larger issue of women’s bodies being treated like public property, especially when those bodies are pregnant. Too many people don’t think twice about offering unasked for advice to pregnant women, or sharing their own birth horror stories with them, or invading their personal space to touch their bellies. It seems that my coworker’s sharing of her daughter’s labor progress falls somewhere in there. It’s kind of private and shouldn’t be for public consumption. If people want a progress report, a simple, “Nothing yet,” should suffice.
This is what happens when pressure sensitive adhesive gets old. It dries up and all the itty bitty Gov Pubs labels fall off.
I’ve had this book truck for the seven years I’ve been in this department, and I only just noticed that it has a Norbert Wiener quote taped to one of the shelves. In my defense, that side of the truck is usually facing the wall of my cubicle.
And, finally, after a lengthy hiatus, Mr. Construction Crane makes another guest appearance!
ballpoint pen in steno pad
4 x 4 1/2 inches
We had our quarterly division meeting today. Thankfully, they’ve been scaled back to one hour long, but there was enough packed into that hour to piss me right the hell off.
First, we spent most of the meeting discussing IT crap. All stuff everyone who works here should know. All stuff there’s no excuse for anyone who works here not knowing. Like, how to properly log off workstations at the end of the day. We’re supposed to restart, not shut down, so that the machines are left on overnight. That allows LIT to install software when the network is the least busy. Duh. That’s been the official procedure since I started working here eight years ago, and I’m betting it’s been so much longer than that. And if there were people who were unclear on the subject (all of whom I bet skipped today’s meeting, because that’s how those things go) a quick, two sentence email should have been sufficient to clue them in. There was really no need to waste time on the subject.
Second, we were told that we will be required to take a series of workshops on such scintillating subjects as how to use MS Vista (because, after a year of using it, obviously we now need training? WTF?!), how to use Outlook (even more baffling, not to mention, our unit had to take a three hour long mandatory Outlook class last winter!), and something that promises to teach us “tips and tricks” for using web browsers. That last one should be especially exciting. And by exciting, I mean exasperating, because I would bet real money that it will cover Internet Explorer, a browser I do not use unless someone holds a gun to my head. The best part was that the guy in charge promised that there would be something to learn for all levels of expertise. And pigs might fly, but I’m dubious.
So basically, today’s meeting made the baby Shelly hoppin’ mad.
“Reducing health inequities is, for the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.”
From Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health, World Health Organization, 2008.
Sometimes I actually get interesting books to catalog!
My across-the-aisle cube neighbor has had this horrible fake ivy plant for a few years. I think she said that her mother gave it to her, and she didn’t feel like she could throw it away, so she brought it to work. WTF?! Anyway, last week was “clean your cube” week, so when I came in to work this morning, the fakety fake ivy plant was sitting in my cubicle. Apparently, “clean your cube” means “stuff the crap you don’t want into Shelly’s cube.” Again, WTF?! So, I immediately put it in someone else’s cube, on top of a really tall bookcase. Hopefully, it’ll take the new owner awhile to notice it.
red paper boat 