The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

Toda...no, this wee...no, this year's stress brought to you by the letter N, M, C, and I, and by the number hate.

The next couple of months are going to be so unbelievably bad, it's almost unreal. This is not counting the two weeks where I'm going to have to work 14+ hour days and live out of a hotel.

I've ranted about the spectacularly wonderful Congress-mandated joy that is NMCI before. Frequently. Dealing with them is like trying to make a detailed copy of an engineering plan while looking at it through six different funhouse mirrors. By the time it gets to you, the data has no actual resemblance to reality. Three different databases, maintained by three different people, all with different data, and a spreadsheet that was pulled out of just one of those back in March is what I'm being given to work with. Add in a boss who neglects to pass on important information, and things start looking unpretty.

I have a meeting this afternoon with some people who are being transferred to our branch, and I think one of the things that's going to fall out of it is Interesting Things for me to do, that will hopefully allow me to ditch some of the NMCI responsibilities and start doing Real Engineering Things.

I did not work three jobs to keep myself in school and graduate with a CS degree so I could manage databases and spreadsheets.

I saw a ginormous magnetic sign on the back of an 18-wheeler on my way home from work today: "Start the week out right! Attend the church of your choice!" It struck me as profoundly ironic, somehow.

Today took an abrupt turn for the Much Better at work today. Things may get very exciting here soon, and I may get to start doing Cool Things again.

Of course, I have to finish up the project that I was supposed to have finished back in March-ish first, so I really do need to get cracking on that. It's hard, though, when I get so many high-priority, short-deadline things thrown at me, though. The lower priority long-term things kind of slip. I need to work on the old time management skills, it seems.

I'm thinking about "writing a review for" Princess Ai (read: "taunt mercilessly"). What form this review would take is still up in the air - list of badly used cliches as I remember them, by category, or by page. Opinions welcome, if anyone actually wants to read it. The Ai Yazawa character designs are fantastic, and the art is pretty, but other than that...

"Dani, is that a giant sucking sound I hear?"

Yes, yes it is.