Gleaming the Cubicle: Three items about my day job.
The common thread I've seen in a bunch of weblogs, and conversations with people is general dissatisfaction with one's workplace, or lack thereof. As boring and as banal that observation must seem, I'm wondering if I am unique these days in being moderately happy at my job. I even got the jollies out of the most banal thing possible this week, my the coke machine in my wing swapped out all the stuff I didn't like (diet colas, my personal gastro-intestinal kryptonite), in favor of stuff I had asked for (root beer and lemonade). This shouldn't amuse me. It really shouldn't. We as a wing voted, and our voices were heard. But the mere fact that it did work, it didn't even get screwed up or Dilbertized in the least, that's what keeps my sense of wonder intact.

Pointed out on Slashdot I really don't know why I never ran across these in interviews. Everywhere I have been hired was probably a little too old-school engineering and not cutting edge for these. Not that these have any bearing on your actual job, folks. In fact, I would guess that hearing someone challenge you with these is less a sign of insightful questioning than an uninspired culling process.

I was sitting at work today, just after our quarterly meeting, when I suddenly realized that I had overlooked my own anniversary with the company. I'm usually anal about such things, so forgetting that I was hired on the day after the Fourth 1998 kind of rattled me. I always mark personal time obsessively. I think that comes from knowing my birth minute, so I can spend the last minutes of my birthday driving myself nuts over what I have and haven't accomplished in the past year. Same thing happens New Year's Eve. So losing that moment when I could do that, that just leaves me out of sorts. I suppose the more I forget the passing, the more normal I become. Normal is usually overrated, but if it means I'm not paralyzed by analysis, well that's a normal worth being.