Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh! (Part II)
I guess it is sort of like the difference from wading into the water slowly or diving in when it is only seventy degrees. After a absolutely peaceful week in the Ozarks mountains overlooking Table Rock Lake at quite possibly one of the most peaceful and beautiful resorts in the world, I feel like I've been thrown into an oven.
WARNING: The following post is extremely whiney and you probably should go read something else instead.
I have at least ten different computer help calls (of the non-paying variety), which wasn't all that great, but I can live with it. Then, I opened up my e-mail box yesterday to find the final blow in a long, hard struggle of mine to stay involved in publicity work at my church. As you may recall in the post I linked to, I was removed from that function concerning work to do with the 40 Days of Purpose last year. I had been given the 40 DoP position as a logical extension of a similar permanent role. I had further inherited that role since I did the publicity work, before an official role was created, as part of a committee I am on.
Ever since the official role had been created, certain people had been trying to remove me from it under the excuse of giving me “more time” (as someone under the person filling the role) to work on some of my other projects at church which, presently, aren't even under the authority of the said committee. In other words, remove me from what I am doing and also change my replacement's authority so that they would not only do what I did in that capacity but also would be the leader of other projects I've started which presently are things I work directly with the pastors on (the church web site, for instance).
I had fought that because I loved doing the publicity work. A lot of it provides for a chance to be really creative and I liked that. But, I knew the day was coming that it would be over, I just didn't know when. While I was on vacation I was e-mailed and told — in a manor that, again, attempts to give the impression of “it's for your own good” — that someone else would be handling all communication between committees and the publicity group and that person would handle creating the publicity and that person would handle coordinating with the media. The other members, myself included, would make suggestions to this person. That would “free me up” to devote my publicity time to the web site (which isn't part of the publicity group, as I noted before).
Essentially, then, myself and the team I had assembled would be a figurehead subcommittee that had no real involvement in the core of our work. While I'm not “off” the committee that coordinates these subcommittees, I would have nothing to do with what my committee was in charge of. Obviously, it seems like it is time to step down, if for no other reason than to avoid eventually having the web site reassigned as well. It's all just a bunch of bureaucracy at its worst, really.
It's not life or death or anything, but it has been draining. I had the honor to start a lot of the initiatives that the publicity group works on, so it is hard to let go, but I think that would be better than the alternative of sticking around, when I truly consider what is going on. It is also hard seeing certain people I thought very highly of using behind the scenes manipulation to alter the way this group of subcommittees work. Certainly, the majority of people involved have nothing to do with it, I'm quite sure of that from what I've learned over the last two or two and a half years, but it is saddening to see what's going on with the ones that do.
I probably shouldn't even submit this post, I guess, but here it is.
Back.
I'm back. I meant to post earlier today, but got tied up — its amazing how many things piled up to do in four days. At any rate, I'll post more tomorrow. The Hen House was delicious as usual last night — I tried their Banana Cream pie too… tasty!
I'm Outta Here
Well, if you figured out the math when I mentioned it last week, you know I'm two days late, but I'm heading to the Ozarks tomorrow. I'll explain why I'm going late and all kinds of other good stuff when I get back. Stay tuned!
Step-o-meter challenge: 4172 steps today, I'll try to keep track while I'm gone and report back.
Michael's Friday Five #2
Michael continues his Friday Fives, and I thought this was another interesting one to respond to.
Going on a picnic………………………….. What would you like?
1. A hot dog or a hamburger? BBQ or No BBQ sauce?
Tough choice. How about a hot dog without sauce and a hamburger with sauce? It really depends, I love both.
2. Horse shoes or washers or string golf?
String golf sounds fun… how do you play?
3. Charcoal or Gas grill?
Charcoal provides more BBQ goodness!
4. Potato salad or Pasta salad or 7 layer salad?
None of the above.
5. What kind of chips?
Either Lay's Original or perhaps some kind of kettle chip. If I was picking a flavored chip, I would go with BBQ.
QOTW #4: Kodak Moments
It is a bit late (and will probably have to cover next week too, since hopefully I will be in Branson this upcoming Monday), but here is the question of the week. Feel free to respond here or use this as a meme on your blog (please post a link to your entry).
Do you have a digital camera? Do you use it in lieu of a traditional film camera? How many pictures have you taken with it? Do you stick to the highest possible quality or do you lower the quality to get in more pictures?
Yes, I do. I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-S72, which is a 3.2 megapixel camera with manual adjustments (shutter speed and aperture). It has, for all intents and purposes, replaced my little Kodak APS (Advanced Photo System) camera, not only because it has more features, but also because I can take as many pictures as I want without development costs.
I'm not sure how many pictures I've taken, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is over 5,000 in the last two years. On a trip, I might take 700 or more photos, only stopping when I fill up my four 128 meg memory cards (obviously, yes, that means I don't take pictures at the full rated quality most of the time… I usually opt for 1280×1024 res.). That leads me to my one complaint with the camera. Sony seems to have decided that Memory Sticks have hit the end of the road and the company is now only creating cards larger than 128 megs in the new Memory Stick Pro format, which is incompatible with older Sony cameras. This means I can't get a 256 or 512 meg stick that would truly allow for convenient use of the 3 megapixel CCD.
Overall, though, I love the camera. Only Sony's prosumer V series cameras come in the same heavy duty, SLR sized form factors now, so I'm glad I got mine while they offered it. I like the little compact cameras, but there is something satisfying about holding a decent sized camera that fits one's hands just right. The other big advantage to the full sized camera is that I can screw on an adapter to fit on standard 52” lenses, etc., you can't do that with Sony's heir to the S72.
The Other Thing that Is Keeping Me Busy
One thing I have never really addressed on asisaid is my desire to exit direct work in the computer industry. I love computers, I love writing about them, but I get really tired of repairing them, supporting them and programming them. You fix them, they break. You tell people how to keep them running smoothly, and they ignore you. As a hobby, it is enjoyable enough, but as a job, it just is not very meaningful and it starts to gnaw at you after awhile. Well, I should not generalize that much, but it does gnaw at me.
It also makes me whiney at times, like right now, and I don't like that. I tend to think that part of this is because I do not believe that computer help desk and consulting is really my purpose in life. I have tried to ignore that fact, but it hasn't worked. Finally, awhile back, I realized it was time to do something about this problem.
I have been working on an “exit strategy,” in other words. For a variety of reasons I felt it best not to mention this publicly at first. It was not anything against my blogging friends, just to be completely clear. More recently, I did not have time to put together a post to explain what I am up to, so I just omitted what perhaps I otherwise would have posted. I finally decided it was silly to leave part of what I am doing, and where I am heading, off of my blog.
So here it is. What's my exit strategy? I am presently working on earning a BA in two fields completely unrelated to the IT sector: English and the Academic Study of Religion. More than a few people have said, in more or less direct ways, that I am truly nutty for trying to get out of information technologies. But, after praying and thinking about it for several years, it has become clear this is what I need to do.
I am presently about half way through, which means I should complete the program by about this time in 2006, or six months later than that should I opt to add a minor in Business Administration (I already have half the appropriate credits I need for that). Either way, I am on the road to switching gears in a very serious fashion.
I feel rather badly about not mentioning such a major change of course sooner on here. I do not want those of you who read my blog regularly to think I am hiding a bunch of things from all of you. Truly, I'm not. Frankly, this concern made me somewhat hesitant about saying anything at all at this stage. “Maybe I should just keep on truck'n for now — I can always say something later… you've kept your thoughts to yourself this long.” But, it just seemed like I needed to quit that stalling nonsense finally.
There I have said it. I've now pretty much put the whole me out here. And, with that, I shall go to bed.
iLife '04
When iMovie started refusing to import iTMS music a few weeks back (on my Mac), I had a feeling I knew what the matter was. iTunes 4.5 reworks its iTMS access system to break Hymn (f/k/a PlayFair), a program that strips the DRM from iTMS files. As a side effect, it also breaks older versions of the iLife apps, at least as far as their ability to use DRM'ed iTMS music goes. This was a bit disappointing because I had just purchased a ridiculously bad song to stick into a short movie clip for the humorous impact of its “badness.”
The fix is to upgrade to iLife '04 (I purchased my G5 two months before the new iLife came out). While I wasn't particularly happy about the software that came with Panther already being considered obsolete and not worthy of patching, I had been thinking about buying iLife '04 anyway and so I bit the bullet and ordered it (the MSRP is under $50).
Supposedly, iPhoto 4 is faster and can handle 25,000 photos instantaneously, and iMovie is suppose to be faster and leave backup unedited copies of DV footage. The new iMovie also has better compression techniques, if I understand correctly, which should yield results much more on par with Final Cut Express/Pro. Nice! Now, I just need time to try the package out. It arrived Friday and the box is presently sitting on my desk waiting for me to install.
It will be at least Wednesday before I get to that, but I will mention how it goes once I do.
Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Busy. I am so busy. And behind. Good thing the Ozarks are t-minus seven days. That won't help on the behind part, but it will give me a break from the busy part.
Stupid Me
I kept wondering why my one client wasn't paying his invoice. I even went into the software and told it to do reminder invoices tonight. Of course, it was only a short while ago I remembered that the said client had me update the e-mail links on his site for his new e-mail address… I've been sending the invoices to the wrong address!
If you haven't already caught Jared's posts (and related comments) on Berg and the prisoner abuse scandal, take a look at them, they are both insightful. They are here and here, respectively.
QOTW #3: Megahertz Race
Time for yet another Question of the Week. Feel free to answer below or on your own blog if you prefer.
What was the megahertz speed of your first computer? What is the speed of your present computer? Have you ever owned a system with a “performance rating” instead of a MHz rating? Do you check your system speed to see if it really is running at the advertised speed?
I'm not sure, to be honest — I'd have to check to see what the TI 99/4A's specs where. My first PC compatible ran at 33 MHz, though (it was a Intel 486 DX).
My current PC runs at 2.66 GHz (but, to answer the last question, its actual speed is 2657.883). It's a Pentium 4 without Hyperthreading… HT boxen run at .06 less GHz. My Mac runs at 2.0 GHz (yes, that's the actual speed too).
I've never run a “performance rating” processor. Although, if I were building a DIY PC compatible at the moment, I'd be very tempted by the AMD Athlon 64. (Offtopic: Remember when Cyrix was trying to do a non-MHz rating in the mid-90's?)
