Dad's Move/Consulting Meeting/Sherlock
Dad’s Move
I’ve spent the last several weekends at home helping Dad pack up for his move. I’m surprised he’s actually going to move back home so soon. Honestly, I expected a couple of more months of him refusing to leave Gwinnettia (not his real current town of residence). I was dreading two more months of begging, pleading, coaxing, and quarrelling, so I’m glad none of that will be necessary. I guess he punched himself out. As I previously mentioned, seven months ago he just wanted to sit alone in his house and be miserable. He must have realized that being miserable isn’t as enjoyable as he thought. Now, I wonder if all of this was an answered prayer to get him out of that tomb and back to his home town where he can start enjoying life again. Next weekend, I’ll drive him back to Dodge (his actual home county, but the name is generic enough that there’s no need to conceal it). He’ll only stay a couple of weeks at a time, but I really believe this is going to gradually become a permanent move.
Work
Work has been grueling for the past couple of weeks. My supervisor has me learning a coworker’s process, so I can take over (I think). Basically, I find debts that we paid but never removed. He also decided to have me learn the inverse task (finding debts we acquired but didn’t record). All that would be fine, even with quarter-end close next week. What really steams my oysters was that someone decided we should have a mandatory all day meeting about how to type clear emails and how to have a good meeting. (Insert sarcastic tone) Ya’ know, I never realized that emails were supposed to have topics and paragraphs. Nor did I know that you should be sure your sending it to the right person; or that you shouldn’t type it in Wing Dings. When I wasn’t sitting in that room bored out of my mind and irritated because I could be doing work, I was performing mindless communication exercises.
It was entirely pointless. If someone at my office doesn’t understand an email, it’s almost always because the email covers an issue that he or she isn’t yet familiar with. In which case, the problem is rectified by replying with, “I’m not sure I understand. Could you clarify what you mean when you say [insert statement here].” Ignore my being cantankerous. I’m just aggravated because I was forced to lose a day when I really needed to be productive. Consultants are the scourge of corporate America.
Sherlock Holmes
Barnes and Nobles had a special on the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes. I was about to buy them, but I read the commentary on the inside of the book cover, which contained a horrible spoiler.
Spoiler alert: if you have not read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and think you may do so one day, the skip to the next paragraph. The fellow who wrote this commentary didn’t see anything wrong with saying the Sherlock dies at the end of his last adventure.
***
As soon as I read that, I was ready for a good old fashion book store brawl. How could he just ruin the entire series like that? How could the editor let that snafu pass? Am I over reacting, or is that twist, for lack of a better word, common knowledge nowadays? I’ve found a couple of new books to read since then, but I’m still disappointed.
I’ve spent the last several weekends at home helping Dad pack up for his move. I’m surprised he’s actually going to move back home so soon. Honestly, I expected a couple of more months of him refusing to leave Gwinnettia (not his real current town of residence). I was dreading two more months of begging, pleading, coaxing, and quarrelling, so I’m glad none of that will be necessary. I guess he punched himself out. As I previously mentioned, seven months ago he just wanted to sit alone in his house and be miserable. He must have realized that being miserable isn’t as enjoyable as he thought. Now, I wonder if all of this was an answered prayer to get him out of that tomb and back to his home town where he can start enjoying life again. Next weekend, I’ll drive him back to Dodge (his actual home county, but the name is generic enough that there’s no need to conceal it). He’ll only stay a couple of weeks at a time, but I really believe this is going to gradually become a permanent move.
Work
Work has been grueling for the past couple of weeks. My supervisor has me learning a coworker’s process, so I can take over (I think). Basically, I find debts that we paid but never removed. He also decided to have me learn the inverse task (finding debts we acquired but didn’t record). All that would be fine, even with quarter-end close next week. What really steams my oysters was that someone decided we should have a mandatory all day meeting about how to type clear emails and how to have a good meeting. (Insert sarcastic tone) Ya’ know, I never realized that emails were supposed to have topics and paragraphs. Nor did I know that you should be sure your sending it to the right person; or that you shouldn’t type it in Wing Dings. When I wasn’t sitting in that room bored out of my mind and irritated because I could be doing work, I was performing mindless communication exercises.
It was entirely pointless. If someone at my office doesn’t understand an email, it’s almost always because the email covers an issue that he or she isn’t yet familiar with. In which case, the problem is rectified by replying with, “I’m not sure I understand. Could you clarify what you mean when you say [insert statement here].” Ignore my being cantankerous. I’m just aggravated because I was forced to lose a day when I really needed to be productive. Consultants are the scourge of corporate America.
Sherlock Holmes
Barnes and Nobles had a special on the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes. I was about to buy them, but I read the commentary on the inside of the book cover, which contained a horrible spoiler.
Spoiler alert: if you have not read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and think you may do so one day, the skip to the next paragraph. The fellow who wrote this commentary didn’t see anything wrong with saying the Sherlock dies at the end of his last adventure.
***
As soon as I read that, I was ready for a good old fashion book store brawl. How could he just ruin the entire series like that? How could the editor let that snafu pass? Am I over reacting, or is that twist, for lack of a better word, common knowledge nowadays? I’ve found a couple of new books to read since then, but I’m still disappointed.