I can remember my kindergarten room. Lots of wood. There were really two rooms, one that we spent most of our time in and another, sunnier, room where we got to play. There were records in there, with a clown. I remember them being different.
I can remember playing football in the snow in grade school. I would referee sometimes. I remember running after the rest of the group, waving them back as someone had gone out of bounds. I remember being the center on a goal line stand. I hiked the ball and was immediately smushed into the snow. We scored. I don't remember if we won or not.
I remember the auditorium of my middle school. In the cold weather we'd get to stay in there before school. We'd hang out and talk of all sorts of things. It was still cold in there but not as cold as it was outside.
I remember the old gym in my high school. Dark and foreboding. Struggling to do pull-ups but succeeding. Watching Heather jog and flushing.
That's the sort of thing I'd like to have a Time Machine for; to revisit things I remember and don't.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Pondering
I find myself unable to stop my thoughts from considering moving about in Time, living a life where the concepts of cause and effect have different meanings than for the most of us. It's hard to make sense of it, not having experienced it myself.
I think the immediate reaction is to travel through your life and try to tinker with it, improve your life, like go back and give a younger you stock tips so that you could live a more comfortable life. I'm sure there are things that I could improve with but a little work but I can't think of anything that needs changing.
Some things would be obvious. For instance, had my parents been gunned down by criminals when I was a youth and I had the ability to stop that from happening, well, I'd tend to think that I'd want to fix that. It opens up all sorts of headaches about paradoxes and would totally change who you were as a more adult person but that's a big scale personal injustice. It's the sort of thing that a person can point to and say 'This wrecked my life'.
I don't know that I have any of those injustices. Which is nice.
It's not that I've not experienced tragedy or sadness in my life as I certainly have done. It's just that I don't know that they are fixable or that I want them to be fixed. If I went back and got my grandpa to stop smoking cigars, would he still be alive? By this point, probably not. I don't believe he or anyone else is fated to die at a specific time, that someone's 'number' just 'comes up', but I like to think that I'm humble enough to realize that my brain's not large enough to process all the variables involved. Maybe if he stopped smoking cigars, he'd get hit by a car during a time when, originally, he was buying a box of smokes in a store. Maybe he would have drank more alcohol and gotten liver problems. Maybe it wasn't the cigars that did him in. Who is to say that I know best?
As far as Heather leaving me? As rough as that was to experience, maybe it was a good thing in the long run. Maybe we would have made a miserable married couple. Maybe she'd still be dead. Maybe not. Again, I don't know. Maybe she'd be alive and I'd wish she was dead. Or I was dead. That would be horrible. Maybe we should have gotten married while we were in college instead of planning for it as a post college event. Perhaps we would have worked as a team to get through it instead of thinking it would be a distraction or that we could do it 'properly' once we were graduated and employed.
I don't know. I don't know that anybody knows.
I think the immediate reaction is to travel through your life and try to tinker with it, improve your life, like go back and give a younger you stock tips so that you could live a more comfortable life. I'm sure there are things that I could improve with but a little work but I can't think of anything that needs changing.
Some things would be obvious. For instance, had my parents been gunned down by criminals when I was a youth and I had the ability to stop that from happening, well, I'd tend to think that I'd want to fix that. It opens up all sorts of headaches about paradoxes and would totally change who you were as a more adult person but that's a big scale personal injustice. It's the sort of thing that a person can point to and say 'This wrecked my life'.
I don't know that I have any of those injustices. Which is nice.
It's not that I've not experienced tragedy or sadness in my life as I certainly have done. It's just that I don't know that they are fixable or that I want them to be fixed. If I went back and got my grandpa to stop smoking cigars, would he still be alive? By this point, probably not. I don't believe he or anyone else is fated to die at a specific time, that someone's 'number' just 'comes up', but I like to think that I'm humble enough to realize that my brain's not large enough to process all the variables involved. Maybe if he stopped smoking cigars, he'd get hit by a car during a time when, originally, he was buying a box of smokes in a store. Maybe he would have drank more alcohol and gotten liver problems. Maybe it wasn't the cigars that did him in. Who is to say that I know best?
As far as Heather leaving me? As rough as that was to experience, maybe it was a good thing in the long run. Maybe we would have made a miserable married couple. Maybe she'd still be dead. Maybe not. Again, I don't know. Maybe she'd be alive and I'd wish she was dead. Or I was dead. That would be horrible. Maybe we should have gotten married while we were in college instead of planning for it as a post college event. Perhaps we would have worked as a team to get through it instead of thinking it would be a distraction or that we could do it 'properly' once we were graduated and employed.
I don't know. I don't know that anybody knows.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Timely Thoughts
Time. It's on my mind. Yes it is.
People often speak of time as some sort of force and they are not completely wrong. Time flows past. It crawls. It flies. That's because there is 'Time' and 'time'.
The lowercase 'time' is the human perspective of things. It is caught up in the tracking of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and such. It is based on observing specific things and building a structure round about them.
We often think that these numbers are unbreakable and unchangeable. Time marches on, going only forward. Yet so many Americans work through Daylight Savings Time every year, manipulating time without really considering it. The British do something similar. We often assume that all the people of the planet measure time in the same way. This is untrue. The time with a lowercase 't' is simply the manner with which humans measures life so that we can refer to events and how they occurred in an order. 'time' exists so that everything doesn't happen all at once.
'Time' is something that I know exists, that I've been told exists, can feel that it does exist, but I don't understand it at this point. There is a force out there that is Time, that is the progress of the Universe, and it can be wielded.
This is where my head starts to hurt. The concept that Time can be reversed seems ridiculous. We want to believe that we little humans would notice alterations to history but, really, we wouldn't. The flow of the mighty river of Time would immediately redirect itself and, if we were still a part of it, things would be as they had always been to us.
Deja vu, I'm told, is a remnant of a change in Time lingering behind, incompletely erased from our brains.
As much as it may break your brain to consider it, Time may well be altering from moment to moment, heartbeat to heartbeat, history restructuring itself constantly to deal with the alterations being made to it.
It all sounds like heady theory, unprovable at any level, reassuringly unprovable. Yet my friend insists that, not only has he traveled in Time, but that the individual that took him on that trip hinted that he had caused changes in Time. I thought he was crazy until he said the name Matthew Jackson. I know him as well and have seen him act in a way that indicates knowledge of my future.
Stuff like that just makes my stomach hurt.
People often speak of time as some sort of force and they are not completely wrong. Time flows past. It crawls. It flies. That's because there is 'Time' and 'time'.
The lowercase 'time' is the human perspective of things. It is caught up in the tracking of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and such. It is based on observing specific things and building a structure round about them.
We often think that these numbers are unbreakable and unchangeable. Time marches on, going only forward. Yet so many Americans work through Daylight Savings Time every year, manipulating time without really considering it. The British do something similar. We often assume that all the people of the planet measure time in the same way. This is untrue. The time with a lowercase 't' is simply the manner with which humans measures life so that we can refer to events and how they occurred in an order. 'time' exists so that everything doesn't happen all at once.
'Time' is something that I know exists, that I've been told exists, can feel that it does exist, but I don't understand it at this point. There is a force out there that is Time, that is the progress of the Universe, and it can be wielded.
This is where my head starts to hurt. The concept that Time can be reversed seems ridiculous. We want to believe that we little humans would notice alterations to history but, really, we wouldn't. The flow of the mighty river of Time would immediately redirect itself and, if we were still a part of it, things would be as they had always been to us.
Deja vu, I'm told, is a remnant of a change in Time lingering behind, incompletely erased from our brains.
As much as it may break your brain to consider it, Time may well be altering from moment to moment, heartbeat to heartbeat, history restructuring itself constantly to deal with the alterations being made to it.
It all sounds like heady theory, unprovable at any level, reassuringly unprovable. Yet my friend insists that, not only has he traveled in Time, but that the individual that took him on that trip hinted that he had caused changes in Time. I thought he was crazy until he said the name Matthew Jackson. I know him as well and have seen him act in a way that indicates knowledge of my future.
Stuff like that just makes my stomach hurt.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A Night at the Wrestling
Went to see Wrestling last night. They run a show every other week during the colder months of the year, which in Wisconsin turns out to be most of them, but I don't have the time to catch them all. Still, it's a fun time. A review, of sorts, follows:
Match One: Frères de Boucher vs. Sheik Hussein and Tork
We started the evening with an international tag match; French Canadian brothers against a Middle Eastern Sheik and his bodyguard. A ridiculous crazy brawl that only barely resembled a wrestling match. Sheik Hussein spent much of the match in his corner, letting Tork do most of the heavy lifting. I believe both teams had a chain tucked away that they used to get an advantage on the other team. The referee could barely keep up with everything going on. In the end, the Frères hit a double team powerbomb on Tork and got the victory.
Match Two: Charlie Blackman vs. Stan 'The Man' Miracle
Is it ironic that the man named 'Blackman' wasn't black but his opponent was? Or is that just funny? Odd? Whatever. Charlie spent much of the match stretching Stan out in various submission holds but none of them were very well applied. It was as if he tried to learn a lot of different moves a little bit but didn't have a good understanding of any of them. Stan kept making a comeback and making a comeback, only to fall victim to another submission hold. In the end, Stan had more comebacks than Charlie had submission holds. Stan got Charlie with a brainbuster for the three count.
Match Three: Brother Zeke vs. 'Iron Hands' Johnson
Brother Zeke has a bushy beard and wears coveralls. He says he's Amish. Johnson is a 3rd degree Black Belt. It made for an interesting match with Zeke's burliness up against Johnson's karate. Johnson was quicker but Zeke seemed to hit harder. Zeke has a powerful clothesline and after a few of those, Johnson was flat on his back to be victim to Zeke's big splash and a three count.
Intermission. Bumped into Brother Zeke. Does NOT sound like what you'd expect. He's more verbose than I am and I think I'm verbose. Nice guy.
Match Four: The Spoiler and Psycho Mike vs. Los Lightning Azuls
The Spoiler has a weird charm to him that seems to connect with a crowd. Otherwise how do you explain people accepting his tag partner, a former inmate of an insane asylum accused of injuring his handlers on a regular basis? It's madness in more ways than one. I know some of these guys get a bit theatrical for the crowd but really? The reality of the situation set aside, the crowd loves them. Los Lightning used their speed to their great advantage, knocking the bulky Spoiler out of the ring and hitting double-team moves on Psycho Mike to get the win.
Match Five: Rugged Robbie V vs. The Executioner
Robbie is one of the most flexible people I've ever seen. It's creepy how flexible he is. It may or may not be as creepy as the Executioner's faceless black mask. You can barely make out any features on the mask and it's just not right. Robbie was running the big man ragged with a combination of spin kicks and high risk moves but the Executioner caught him with a series of chops that I think may have caught Robbie in the throat. It was fishy. The Executioner using the ropes was more obviously cheating but he managed to keep the information from the referee and got the pinfall.
Match Six: Buff Mysterio Jr. defending the All-Wisconsin Heavyweight Championship against Greg Cooper
Greg Cooper is not a bad wrestler by any stretch of the imagination. You can see he knows what he's doing in the ring but he must have lucked into this title match because the masked Buff had him overwhelmed for the majority of the match. Greg rallied a couple times but I never felt that he had it in him to stun Buff for a three count. The Executioner came out to ringside to assist his friend Buff Mysterio Jr. and his presence was more than enough to distract Cooper, making it that much easier for Buff to gutwrench powerbomb him and get the victory. It was disappointing to see Buff take the shortcut when he clearly had the advantage but that just seems to be the kind of guy he is.
On the whole it was a good show and I look forward to returning.
Match One: Frères de Boucher vs. Sheik Hussein and Tork
We started the evening with an international tag match; French Canadian brothers against a Middle Eastern Sheik and his bodyguard. A ridiculous crazy brawl that only barely resembled a wrestling match. Sheik Hussein spent much of the match in his corner, letting Tork do most of the heavy lifting. I believe both teams had a chain tucked away that they used to get an advantage on the other team. The referee could barely keep up with everything going on. In the end, the Frères hit a double team powerbomb on Tork and got the victory.
Match Two: Charlie Blackman vs. Stan 'The Man' Miracle
Is it ironic that the man named 'Blackman' wasn't black but his opponent was? Or is that just funny? Odd? Whatever. Charlie spent much of the match stretching Stan out in various submission holds but none of them were very well applied. It was as if he tried to learn a lot of different moves a little bit but didn't have a good understanding of any of them. Stan kept making a comeback and making a comeback, only to fall victim to another submission hold. In the end, Stan had more comebacks than Charlie had submission holds. Stan got Charlie with a brainbuster for the three count.
Match Three: Brother Zeke vs. 'Iron Hands' Johnson
Brother Zeke has a bushy beard and wears coveralls. He says he's Amish. Johnson is a 3rd degree Black Belt. It made for an interesting match with Zeke's burliness up against Johnson's karate. Johnson was quicker but Zeke seemed to hit harder. Zeke has a powerful clothesline and after a few of those, Johnson was flat on his back to be victim to Zeke's big splash and a three count.
Intermission. Bumped into Brother Zeke. Does NOT sound like what you'd expect. He's more verbose than I am and I think I'm verbose. Nice guy.
Match Four: The Spoiler and Psycho Mike vs. Los Lightning Azuls
The Spoiler has a weird charm to him that seems to connect with a crowd. Otherwise how do you explain people accepting his tag partner, a former inmate of an insane asylum accused of injuring his handlers on a regular basis? It's madness in more ways than one. I know some of these guys get a bit theatrical for the crowd but really? The reality of the situation set aside, the crowd loves them. Los Lightning used their speed to their great advantage, knocking the bulky Spoiler out of the ring and hitting double-team moves on Psycho Mike to get the win.
Match Five: Rugged Robbie V vs. The Executioner
Robbie is one of the most flexible people I've ever seen. It's creepy how flexible he is. It may or may not be as creepy as the Executioner's faceless black mask. You can barely make out any features on the mask and it's just not right. Robbie was running the big man ragged with a combination of spin kicks and high risk moves but the Executioner caught him with a series of chops that I think may have caught Robbie in the throat. It was fishy. The Executioner using the ropes was more obviously cheating but he managed to keep the information from the referee and got the pinfall.
Match Six: Buff Mysterio Jr. defending the All-Wisconsin Heavyweight Championship against Greg Cooper
Greg Cooper is not a bad wrestler by any stretch of the imagination. You can see he knows what he's doing in the ring but he must have lucked into this title match because the masked Buff had him overwhelmed for the majority of the match. Greg rallied a couple times but I never felt that he had it in him to stun Buff for a three count. The Executioner came out to ringside to assist his friend Buff Mysterio Jr. and his presence was more than enough to distract Cooper, making it that much easier for Buff to gutwrench powerbomb him and get the victory. It was disappointing to see Buff take the shortcut when he clearly had the advantage but that just seems to be the kind of guy he is.
On the whole it was a good show and I look forward to returning.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Survival
The snow was still spottily falling to earth this morning. The accumulation of last night was unpleasant to shift but shift it I did. I had hoped that the snow would mean another light day of limited attendance but that didn't work out. People had too much to do before next week to spend another day teleconferencing in. It also meant that no one wanted to stay too long in the meeting. However it did not mean that they didn't want to talk.
I ran through the numbers for everyone with the assistance of some colorful slides. The number of calls we'd received was close to average for the first four days back from a break, project or not. For being after a break where a project had been accomplished, the number of calls was somewhat below average, not much, and I offered up yesterday's 'snow' day as the reason before anyone else could do so for me, trying to make me look like a cheat. People like to say that numbers don't lie but they can certainly be encouraged to fib a bunch. I've busted people before for 'changing the parameters' of a test in order to achieve their goal and was aware of how I could have been 'caught'.
'Oofy' grumbled and introduced himself, again not recognizing me, before telling the assembled about how his group had been so inconvenienced by the upgrade and the multiple issues surrounding it. As expected, there was no mention of my offer to provide detailed updates that he had not taken me up on. Before I could say anything to open up the conversation or rebut his comments, Professor Dell coughed, sputtered, and started droning.
Professor Dell is a nice enough man. He is painfully calm and collected, his voice rarely wavering or changing in pitch. He taught at one point but has moved onto a supervisory role in the Science department now. I took his class when I was in school. It was some of the most restful sleep I ever got while in school.
"Problems are what we saw as well, looking around the department, were the problems to see. Computers that didn't turn on, people unable to log in, printers that didn't print, the problems were easy to see, you see." Now, looking back, it amuses me that he kept saying that he 'saw' these problems, only because I don't believe his vision is very good. He looks over his glasses more than he looks through them and he does need them to see. At the time, he just gave me a headache. Politely I reminded him that the power was off on his end of the floor on Monday. "Ah!" he said gently. "That was still part of the project, was it not?"
It really wasn't. Facilities had done some work in the labs over break and a circuit breaker had accidentally been switched off at the end of it. No big deal apart from the fact that it took them an hour to figure it out. It had nothing to do with my project but, from the Professor's point of view, all projects done in his area were related, no matter who accomplished what. I tried to stop arguing but Professor Dell continued to politely insist. Dean Cuthbold eventually broke it up and we were able to move on.
Thankfully by then no one really wanted to be in the room anymore. We zipped through some closing Q&A and I successfully scampered back to my office to hide for awhile.
I brought the leftover donuts with me from the meeting. Don't worry; I shared with the interns. I really don't need THAT much sugar.
I ran through the numbers for everyone with the assistance of some colorful slides. The number of calls we'd received was close to average for the first four days back from a break, project or not. For being after a break where a project had been accomplished, the number of calls was somewhat below average, not much, and I offered up yesterday's 'snow' day as the reason before anyone else could do so for me, trying to make me look like a cheat. People like to say that numbers don't lie but they can certainly be encouraged to fib a bunch. I've busted people before for 'changing the parameters' of a test in order to achieve their goal and was aware of how I could have been 'caught'.
'Oofy' grumbled and introduced himself, again not recognizing me, before telling the assembled about how his group had been so inconvenienced by the upgrade and the multiple issues surrounding it. As expected, there was no mention of my offer to provide detailed updates that he had not taken me up on. Before I could say anything to open up the conversation or rebut his comments, Professor Dell coughed, sputtered, and started droning.
Professor Dell is a nice enough man. He is painfully calm and collected, his voice rarely wavering or changing in pitch. He taught at one point but has moved onto a supervisory role in the Science department now. I took his class when I was in school. It was some of the most restful sleep I ever got while in school.
"Problems are what we saw as well, looking around the department, were the problems to see. Computers that didn't turn on, people unable to log in, printers that didn't print, the problems were easy to see, you see." Now, looking back, it amuses me that he kept saying that he 'saw' these problems, only because I don't believe his vision is very good. He looks over his glasses more than he looks through them and he does need them to see. At the time, he just gave me a headache. Politely I reminded him that the power was off on his end of the floor on Monday. "Ah!" he said gently. "That was still part of the project, was it not?"
It really wasn't. Facilities had done some work in the labs over break and a circuit breaker had accidentally been switched off at the end of it. No big deal apart from the fact that it took them an hour to figure it out. It had nothing to do with my project but, from the Professor's point of view, all projects done in his area were related, no matter who accomplished what. I tried to stop arguing but Professor Dell continued to politely insist. Dean Cuthbold eventually broke it up and we were able to move on.
Thankfully by then no one really wanted to be in the room anymore. We zipped through some closing Q&A and I successfully scampered back to my office to hide for awhile.
I brought the leftover donuts with me from the meeting. Don't worry; I shared with the interns. I really don't need THAT much sugar.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Snow Day
What a mess. More snow in Milwaukee and, of course, dim witted driving results from it.
I don't live that far from work and headed in as normal, doing my best to set a good example. Most of my interns live on campus so they had no excuse to not show up. A number of people did call in or worked from home which was good and bad for us. It was good because it allowed us to catch up. It was bad because there were some tickets we couldn't deal with because the customer was unavailable.
Still, things started to settle down. I had a chance to start getting numbers ready for tomorrow's meeting during the day instead of scrambling to do them tonight, as I expected. That was nice. I'm not done with the presentation yet but it's getting there.
Shoveling was no fun. I was smart enough to call my folks before running over there again. My brother did use his new snow blower again so I didn't need to shovel there as well. Yay!
I can't wait until tomorrow's meeting is done...
I don't live that far from work and headed in as normal, doing my best to set a good example. Most of my interns live on campus so they had no excuse to not show up. A number of people did call in or worked from home which was good and bad for us. It was good because it allowed us to catch up. It was bad because there were some tickets we couldn't deal with because the customer was unavailable.
Still, things started to settle down. I had a chance to start getting numbers ready for tomorrow's meeting during the day instead of scrambling to do them tonight, as I expected. That was nice. I'm not done with the presentation yet but it's getting there.
Shoveling was no fun. I was smart enough to call my folks before running over there again. My brother did use his new snow blower again so I didn't need to shovel there as well. Yay!
I can't wait until tomorrow's meeting is done...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Busy Bee
As expected, the return to work has been a mess. Monday was a busy day but Tuesday was an absolute mess. I think a number of people took Monday as a vacation day and first returned to work yesterday. My team has been doing their best to respond but there was just such a flood of calls that we couldn't keep up. Serious problems, annoying problems, irritating problems, problems related to the project over break, and normal would-have-happened-anyway problems. Any body that could stay past their shift and work a bit longer was encouraged to do so.
Somewhere around two in the afternoon yesterday I retreated to my office as I realized that I'd yet to eat any lunch and it was no longer a task I could put off any further. I was hungry and tired and just needed a moment to think.
I had just barely sat down and begun to unwrap my sandwich when there came a knock upon my door, a nervous rapping at my chamber door. John, one of my interns, poked his head inside and started stammering about not wanting to interrupt me but he felt he had to do so. “Mr. Pedrina's on the phone and wants to talk to you.”
“Oofy?” You know how sometimes when the pressure is on that your mental filters don't work as well as they normally do? That's what happened to me and was the reason behind my question. The thought just slipped out. John started laughing immediately. This put me in an odd position, both pleased that I caused some amusement and a bit embarrassed as I'd said something I shouldn't have said.
As I tried to explain to John that he shouldn't repeat what I'd just said, John looked for further understanding. “Oofy? Why Oofy?”
“Well,” I had no good answer to this question, “he looks like an Oofy, doesn't he?”
In that John was forced to agree with me. I'm not sure that either of us could define an 'Oofy' if asked but Jeremiah Pedrina was clearly an 'Oofy'. I think, with time, you will agree.
I headed outside, hoping that taking the call in public would prevent me from further speaking without thinking. It also gave me an extra moment or two to get my brain ready for the conversation. Upon picking up the phone, I did my best to sound bright and cheerful instead of hungry and tired. “Yesh, ish thish the manager of the department?” asked Oofy. The man has a talent for not being able to recognize me, either on the phone or in person. Upon hearing me confirm my role, he continued. “I've been hearing of a number of computer related problemsh being experienced by the membersh of my department. When will they be resolved?”
The brevity of his question caught me off guard and we sat through a brief silence while I waited for him to say more. When it became clear that he was waiting for my response, I began to scramble. “I don't want to sound flippant but we always try to resolve open problems as soon as we can. Is there a specific situation on which you need an update?”
“No, no, I don't think so,” Oofy replied. “There just seemsh to be a lot of complaining going on in my department and I wanted a statush.”
My head began to hurt more. I wasn't sure what he wanted to hear or what information he was looking to obtain. It was difficult to respond. “We do have a high volume of existing problem tickets at the moment, which is not uncommon for the period after a break. We're doing our best to resolve them promptly as we know everyone has a great deal of preparation to do before next week. If you have a list of problem tickets that you want a specific update on, I'd be happy to provide you with that information.”
“Not right now. When is the AAR scheduled?” he checked.
“Currently the After Action Review is scheduled for Friday morning.” It's customary after a project like this to invite the affected department heads together to review how the project when from everyone's perspective. This can be rough.
The problem is that everyone that speaks their piece at one of these meetings can say something different, can even say things that sound contradictory, and yet everyone can be right. It can be a difficult thing to listen to someone expressing themselves and trying to turn your thought patterns over to their way of thinking, but that's what you have to do. The bulk of the work we do directly supports the customer and understanding how to help them is critical for success.
If you get lucky, no one will get chatty. You get up, point to a few slides, say a few words, everyone grunts in agreement, and I can scamper back to my office and relax. That's what I was really hoping would happen. Of course this call was guaranteeing that it wouldn't happen like that.
I heard him clicking around. “Ah yesh, I see it now. Thank you for your assistance.”
“We are always glad to help. Feel free to email me a list of ticket numbers for your group if you need detailed updates.”
“Thank you.” The call ground further to a halt at this point with us exchanging a few more pleasantries before actually terminating the call.
After it was done, I just leaned up against the cub wall and sighed, moving only when John coughed, indicating his need to return to his desk. “You start a ticket for that call?” John responded in the affirmative. “Good man. Close it, saying that I talked to him and answered his questions.” I sighed again and headed back to my office. “Can't wait for Friday.” I punctuated this with a weak and unenthusiastic 'Woo-hoo'.
Somewhere around two in the afternoon yesterday I retreated to my office as I realized that I'd yet to eat any lunch and it was no longer a task I could put off any further. I was hungry and tired and just needed a moment to think.
I had just barely sat down and begun to unwrap my sandwich when there came a knock upon my door, a nervous rapping at my chamber door. John, one of my interns, poked his head inside and started stammering about not wanting to interrupt me but he felt he had to do so. “Mr. Pedrina's on the phone and wants to talk to you.”
“Oofy?” You know how sometimes when the pressure is on that your mental filters don't work as well as they normally do? That's what happened to me and was the reason behind my question. The thought just slipped out. John started laughing immediately. This put me in an odd position, both pleased that I caused some amusement and a bit embarrassed as I'd said something I shouldn't have said.
As I tried to explain to John that he shouldn't repeat what I'd just said, John looked for further understanding. “Oofy? Why Oofy?”
“Well,” I had no good answer to this question, “he looks like an Oofy, doesn't he?”
In that John was forced to agree with me. I'm not sure that either of us could define an 'Oofy' if asked but Jeremiah Pedrina was clearly an 'Oofy'. I think, with time, you will agree.
I headed outside, hoping that taking the call in public would prevent me from further speaking without thinking. It also gave me an extra moment or two to get my brain ready for the conversation. Upon picking up the phone, I did my best to sound bright and cheerful instead of hungry and tired. “Yesh, ish thish the manager of the department?” asked Oofy. The man has a talent for not being able to recognize me, either on the phone or in person. Upon hearing me confirm my role, he continued. “I've been hearing of a number of computer related problemsh being experienced by the membersh of my department. When will they be resolved?”
The brevity of his question caught me off guard and we sat through a brief silence while I waited for him to say more. When it became clear that he was waiting for my response, I began to scramble. “I don't want to sound flippant but we always try to resolve open problems as soon as we can. Is there a specific situation on which you need an update?”
“No, no, I don't think so,” Oofy replied. “There just seemsh to be a lot of complaining going on in my department and I wanted a statush.”
My head began to hurt more. I wasn't sure what he wanted to hear or what information he was looking to obtain. It was difficult to respond. “We do have a high volume of existing problem tickets at the moment, which is not uncommon for the period after a break. We're doing our best to resolve them promptly as we know everyone has a great deal of preparation to do before next week. If you have a list of problem tickets that you want a specific update on, I'd be happy to provide you with that information.”
“Not right now. When is the AAR scheduled?” he checked.
“Currently the After Action Review is scheduled for Friday morning.” It's customary after a project like this to invite the affected department heads together to review how the project when from everyone's perspective. This can be rough.
The problem is that everyone that speaks their piece at one of these meetings can say something different, can even say things that sound contradictory, and yet everyone can be right. It can be a difficult thing to listen to someone expressing themselves and trying to turn your thought patterns over to their way of thinking, but that's what you have to do. The bulk of the work we do directly supports the customer and understanding how to help them is critical for success.
If you get lucky, no one will get chatty. You get up, point to a few slides, say a few words, everyone grunts in agreement, and I can scamper back to my office and relax. That's what I was really hoping would happen. Of course this call was guaranteeing that it wouldn't happen like that.
I heard him clicking around. “Ah yesh, I see it now. Thank you for your assistance.”
“We are always glad to help. Feel free to email me a list of ticket numbers for your group if you need detailed updates.”
“Thank you.” The call ground further to a halt at this point with us exchanging a few more pleasantries before actually terminating the call.
After it was done, I just leaned up against the cub wall and sighed, moving only when John coughed, indicating his need to return to his desk. “You start a ticket for that call?” John responded in the affirmative. “Good man. Close it, saying that I talked to him and answered his questions.” I sighed again and headed back to my office. “Can't wait for Friday.” I punctuated this with a weak and unenthusiastic 'Woo-hoo'.
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