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Well, that sure was an interesting psychological experiment. In total, I was at work for 17 hours, though I was awake and meddling before I went in, so call it 18 hours. Everything went smoothly until about 6 am, when it became apparent that we were going to have some very nasty environmental problems to contend with — namely that the boxes we thought were going to be ready to rock weren’t, and that just to make life even more fun, we were going to screw an integral component of the existing “stable” site that had already launched. Oops!

So it was pretty ugly for awhile. Things would start to get better. Then they would get worse. Then a little better. Then a little worse. Then they got a little better and more or less stayed put at a sub-optimal and barely super-sufficient level, enough to let me go home sometime around 5.

Liz picked me up, since we had agreed that I would be in no condition to drive. (Thanks, Hon, you’re the best!!) I remember that she took me to the mall. We picked up Lilo & Stitch and went to Suncoast. I bought the latest Excel Saga and the finally-released Galaxy Police Mihoshi Space Adventure on DVD… the catch being that I have no memory of actually buying them, and was rather delighted this evening when I came home and had new anime waiting for me!

Apparently I became rather incoherent during the car ride back home. I dimly recall being in pajamas and in bed by about 5:30 PM. Liz tells me that she woke me up around 8 or so to feed me dinner, sparking another hilarious sequence of events of which I have no memory. (I think my hippocampus already left for vacation.) As the story goes, I stayed snuggled deep in the covers while she forked mouthfulls of cheesy noodles into my mouth. Eventually I sat up, ate the entire container of our homemade applesauce, downed a glass of water, and promptly resumed my coma. Oh, and I am told that I may have squeeked some meaningless little noises during dinner too. Isn’t that special? I guess I have to take her word for it.

I woke up at 8:15 AM today and felt like a new man. What a glorious thing it is to sleep for almost fifteen hours!

Today was a matter of diagnosing problems that our users were so gracious as to uncover for us, of assisting with the conversion of old server boxes into new server boxes, and of dodging the company sponsored, semi-mandatory trip to see The Emperor’s Club. I hadn’t really wanted to see it anyway, and I thought the timing (supposedly to celebrate our one year anniversary of last year’s incredibly rushed and perilous launch) was extraordinarily sucky. I mean, it’s just plain irresponsible to send your technical staff out for half the day less than 24 hours after the biggest, craziest launch we’ve ever done! So, one of my buddies who was even more cranky about it than I was told his boss’ boss that he wasn’t going, and that they could fire him if they wanted to. So, since he’s possibly the most non-replaceable employee right now, the movie became optional for us techies, and I opted out. Those who went told me that it was a collection of banal platitudes, playing on the success of the vastly better Dead Poets Society, specifically assembled in a desperate bid to get an Oscar nomination for those involved. I therefore feel that my initial take on the movie — that it should have been called “Undead Poets Society” and wouldn’t remotely justify my spending time or money to see it — were accurate. Damn, my stinky movie sense is getting good!

I fixed some things, did some stuff, and got to leave before 6. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I hope to leave by 5. (Gasp!) I am hoping to work my way back onto a normal schedule soon. Then it’s just five more days until my giant vacation of spooky doom, and won’t be back until January. Woohoo!

For those of you keeping score at home, here’s what Liz gave me for good luck in the little care package. She’s such a sweetie.

Tags: health  liz  movies  retail-therapy  work2 CommentsPrint This Post