WangNet

A user was causing all sorts of ruckus yesterday in our exception log. I noticed one of her issues was she couldn't open a screen and tried from every conceivable other screen to open it. No such luck - a null value constraint where table A has a foreign key constraint on table B.... suddenly table A has data deleted but fails to mark the rows in table B.. so when the data is reloaded B can't match up to rows in A and hell breaks loose.

I had support give her a jingle (I can't call her directly - protocol!) and she comes back with "Nope.. everything is hunky dory here!". I could only say "LIAR! Your pants are surely on fire!". I go down to support and explain (and show them) what's up - waving off her other questions to them about deleting something out of this system or another and press upon them that she can't access part of the system and we need her to cop to that so we can put a request in to have me data fix it.

Sheesh.

What does it take for a man to HELP his customers/users before he throws his hands up and say "damn if I didn't warn ya!".

I was in a good flow of traffic today. I am attempting to correct my start and end times at work - no longer will I be late night support for CB so thus it makes little sense to start work later. This is going to suck. I mean the amount of wasted time in traffic at say 7.30 versus 8.10 is amazing.

(ir)Regardless of happy-morning-whee-I-got-sleep mood I get to work to find three more projects having problems due to Sticks' bungled procedure move two days ago. *sigh*

Sticks attempts to explain this is a different issue... then we worm out the truth that this was fallout from his procedure he 'fixed' for the move. I sigh again. Louder. We do a quick search and see there might be a few other projects that have this problem in the future, and so Mark and I ask Sticks if he preemptively fixes those will it not screw up their data? His response "I don't know... probably not... I really don't know what's going on in the conversion".

Ah.. what?

Ten minutes of more hyped up discussion around those comments we came out more annoyed at Sticks and how he can't know something he's been billing time to FIXING... grrr...

I should just get a new job somewhere else and run away.

Falloutboy refused to believe Sticks would come and ply him for answers to why three projects error'd out. Well - at least not today... maybe tomorrow. No way Jose! After lunch the Thermian sashayed over to FOB and there was a tense conversation. Eventually the Sticks left, wanted back to his desk, and I heard him report to Mark (but not to me) that he was finished and the projects converted. That might a land speed record for the guy. Let's hope he didn't bungle this one as well.

On a mild note after reporting up the chain of command how the move went well sans Sticks' obvious failure we both (Sticks and I) received an "atta boy". Great.

Off to learn sharepoint development!

FMJ some days...

Thanks Sticks.. you once again remind us how worthless you are. Case in point - the move went well last night... except for the emails this morning about some conversion process failing.

Falloutboy was getting the emails and he looked into. Sticks changed a condition that said 'select all these things in this table for this project and period.. if it equals one then delete crap'. Ah.. wait a minute. It's a given that table will have more than one and we need to delete if it's greater than one.. so a simple "if crap exists in this table for this project and period delete it". One can't pass a condition if you have 50 things and are checking if 50=1. Fucking fuckity fuck fuck.

Now off to "appraise" my current boss of what's up... make the correction to the procedure... and roll back to the old one.

I am on the conference call for the last move of Control Budget. I am confident it will be fine, but alas this marks an end of an era. I mean three and a half years on this thing and in a few weeks it will be handed off to the Indians and poof... it's gone. Relief and a cat like sense of purring pleasure for a job done as well as it could (given the adversity needed to over come) but a sense of confusion and loss at what to do now? Design work for a fake project so DK and prove something to someone and maybe keep us developing? Do I quit and find a new job? Do I try and move to a different team?

I think I will miss the autonomy and leadership position (and powers) the most. I was someone forging my own destiny and getting it done my way. Oh fuck I quoted Frank Sinatra. This isn't a good sign.

I got an email from CSG telling me I won't be getting the c# dev job. I probably nailed the coffin when they figured out I was moving towards a more leadership role than a route code monkey. Cest la Vie... now I am playing internal politics to find out where I should be moving towards here.

Wow.. so one of our testers out in India found his/her way into a remote part of the system rarely, if ever, used. The error came down to some moron not understanding "is not nothing" and "is nothing" are two divergent concepts.

I corrected the problem, then out of curiosity checked the file history to appropriately direct my wrath and scorn... woah... it was meeting? ! Meeting? has been gone for a long long time and still his code bites us in the ass.

Well.. not really team per-say, but jefe said the 'cb' folk need to have a "thanks for the hard work" lunch. Suggestions were floated around (I threw out Charlestons - nom nom prime rib), but had to reconsider due to their overly meaty fare. In a fit of awesomeness I threw out Biaggis and that's where we went.

A fully two hours and I didn't have to drive anyone. Score.

Lunch was good but Jefe kept pushing the conversation about who was leaving or looking. She advocated we wait six months to a year and things will be better, or different in a good way. Her concern is the crazy number of "directors" being hired on at crazy pay... so the top management is widening and the bottom folk are shortening. The breadth is crazy. RichieRich is really going for a total management only division! Odd.

Well Jefe expressed how she is now apathetic.. lacks life in her work, and cannot concentrate. She's pissed, annoyed, and unhappy - but won't leave.

Cest la vie.

Interestingly jefe said since Dannyboy left he has asked a few times for a permanent dev job. She offered a contractor-to-hire spot as a PM under her and he said no.

Bloopers asked for a reference a few times from her and she had a few folk check on him for various contractor jobs... and she exclaimed that she only verified he was employed here... and there are far more lazy people currently here than him. Ah, what?

Meeting? she has seen a few times and I think Sticks indicated they meet each other off and on. Greaaaaat.

Funny lunch over all. Now I am sleepy from my pasta.

Best comment goes to MarkieMark: the sincere tone he had when he graciously thanked me for not abandoning him and scouting for jobs until CB was over. Awwwwwwwwww.