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Glitchy

Random thoughts, Work Life April 2, 2014 Leave a comment

Sometimes a computer just gets balky and glitchy and needs a do-over – hitting restart can shake whatever temporary demon is creating difficulty out of the programming. Well, a day or a meeting or your brain can be glitchy too – you know what I’m talking about.

Glitch (Dictionary.com)

noun

a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan.

2. Computers. any error, malfunction, or problem. Compare bug¹( def 5 ) .

a brief or sudden interruption or surge in voltage in an electriccircuit.

verb (used with object)

to cause a glitch in: an accident that glitched our plans.

I like what Dictionary.com has to say about the word origin:

Glitch

1962, Amer.Eng., possibly from Yiddish glitsh “a slip,” from glitshn “to slip,” from Ger. glitschen, and

related gleiten “to glide.” Perhaps directly from Ger.; it began as technical jargon in the argot of electronic hardware engineers, popularized and given a broader meaning by U.S. space program.

Glitch sounds like what it is – something that tripped up what was supposed to happen.

If a computer can purge a glitch by restarting (sometimes several times), how do we humans get a do-over when we have glitchy moments? Ah, not so simple.

photo credit: Wikipedia

A big game, a player gets the ball and becomes confused and heads the wrong way – a glitch for sure – he or she can’t take it back. Teammates, the coach and fans are furious. A very public oops moment. The player can only go forward and learn to take the ribbing every time that moment comes up again.

Computers don’t have to worry about the embarrassment factor. If the computer that holds your most important presentation decides not to get going just when your presentation is due to start the computer won’t feel stupid or inadequate.

Humor helps in these moments, for humans not computers. (Though I hear that Siri has a sense of humor.) Shared laughter can get us past the glitch, ease any tension. Sometimes it’s the closest thing we have to a restart.

Here’s hoping for a glitch free day. Human and machine.

A Singular Purpose

Random thoughts March 26, 2014 Leave a comment

It seems to be the thing to do these days when your life is altered by some sort of speed bump, start up a foundation. If you have the means, or access to the means that is. People at the lower end of the economic ladder might have fund raisers to help cover the unexpected bills that go along with these speed bumps. If enough money is raised to cover their own bills, the remainder might go to help others with the affliction.

I’ve been thinking about causes and diseases that attract multiple foundations, which then often compete for the same donation dollars. It’s that competition that got me thinking. I understand that people want to honor their lost loved one (the most frequent reason to start a foundation in my unofficial research) but perhaps there are other ways. A foundation has costs that take money off the top, whereas a donation to an existing organization in the person’s name could go directly to something useful for others still struggling through similar experiences.

Perhaps a singular purpose should be combined with a shared purpose to better serve the cause? The question is what is most important – a cure, a solution or establishing a permanence for the lost person? The best thing would be to find a method to do both.

When my dad died, we asked for donations in lieu of flowers to established causes that were meaningful to him. He had a nearly lifelong association with Boy Scouting and so we also created a camp scholarship in his name at our local council. I’m sure that money is long gone, mom was the point person with the council. We wanted his name to live on with an organization that he loved and supported in many ways. Hopefully there is a handful of young men out there somewhere who can say that they got to go to camp thanks to my dad.

Keeping the fund alive and continuous probably could have been accomplished, but it didn’t happen. And this was a relatively small effort in comparison to a foundation.

When mom died, we again asked for donations in her name in lieu of flowers, this time for ovarian cancer research through an established organization. I continue to give as part of the greater shared purpose to give families affected by this disease more solutions. And more time than we had with mom once she was diagnosed. Even if we had the means, I don’t think that we would have considered a foundation in her name. Associating with an effective and established organization allows our assistance to be multiplied.

I wonder at this moment what mom would have to say to my idea, she worked as a fund raiser for a large hospital in Chicago for years. She had some interesting stories about the large donors that they courted. Ego was often involved.

What is it This Time?

Random thoughts, Work Life March 21, 2014 Comments: 2

The White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland scurries into the story early on, frantic and muttering to himself that he’s ‘late for an important date’. If there is a human anywhere who cannot relate, I would love to find out the secret for not ever being late. (Perhaps it is to never have appointments or dates?)

public domain image of The White Rabbit

Well, he scurries about in my thoughts sometimes as I juggle the various parts of my life. It often seems to be the transitions from one aspect to another that are most difficult to time just right – leaving home for work, leaving work for an afternoon appointment of one kind or another. Getting to work on time seems to be quite difficult for everyone at one time or another (the disruptive weather this winter over much of the US as case in point), but for some it seems to be darn near impossible every day.

There was a teaser announcement on the news the other day that they would be doing a story on employee excuses for being late to work on a later broadcast (must have been a slow news day) and that got me thinking. As a boss I have had employees who have struggled with timeliness and as a person I have had moments of untimeliness.

I don’t think that I’ve been given any really interesting stories for tardiness from employees, nothing is coming to mind since I heard about this on the news. Perhaps it is because I’ve never demanded explanation. ‘Sorry that I’m late’ mostly suffices for me. If it becomes a pattern, we’ll talk – but it will be focused on solutions like changing your routine, possibly changing your start time, not on why. Reasoning is important, excuses are a waste.

As an employee I have had two instances that were a bit out of the ordinary and they occurred about a year apart.

The first was after my mom had died and since I wasn’t sleeping very well at that time, I wasn’t actually late just nearly so. I woke up that morning thinking of a particular photo of my mom from the previous Christmas so strongly that I had to find the picture. I could not start my day until I had that one and only that one photo with me. My responsible side argued that I didn’t need the photo to go about my work day and I could find the picture after work. But the pull was too powerful, grief demanded that I get my hands on that picture. I did find it, I put it in an envelope in my purse (I carry it still) and got on with my day.

On the morning of the second example, I was mentally ready for work – I was currently without a direct boss and reporting to the senior manager and I wanted to be sharp. I pushed the button for my garage door, it went up an inch or two and stopped. I pushed again and it went down. I pushed again and it whirred, but did nothing. Uh oh. I pulled the door up manually and it slammed back down (I found out later that the springs were shot.) Hmm. My boys were already at school. How could I get the car out of the garage? I called friends, family to find someone to hold the door open while I drove the car out. Time became short and I had to call the senior manager to explain that I couldn’t get my car out of the garage. I even thought about flagging down a stranger and asking them to hold the door open – I was getting desperate – when a friend called back and was able to come over to help.

What is your weirdest or best excuse for being late?

I Can’t Make Me

Random thoughts March 17, 2014 Comments: 2

That moment when you realize that you are really an adult might just have something to do with motivating yourself to do an unpleasant task. We think of being an adult as finally getting to do all of the things that we were prevented from doing as kids. If I thought at all about all of the things that require prompting to do, I assumed that adults didn’t need that external push. I found out soon enough that I was wrong.

This topic is coming to mind because I’m trying to get up the energy to do my taxes. Bleh. There are some chores that I don’t like I have come to a neutral place on – I just do them and as long as things go smoothly, I don’t think too much about it. But taxes never seem to go smoothly. Just the act of gathering all the right paperwork is so tedious that it brings out the obstinate little pouty kid who shouts ‘you can’t make me’ over and over.

My sister used to have a friend who went to the trouble to run the vacuum throughout the house without turning it on in an act of defiant compliance. Even as a kid I thought that defied logic – if you are going to go to the trouble to run it over the carpet, how hard is it to turn it on? But I also get the defiance, the dig your heels in contrariness of the act.

Sometimes even as adults we need to have someone else make us do something – hence the need for many laws – things that will give us great benefit like eating healthy, saving for retirement, getting our teeth cleaned.

There must be a solid evolutionary reason why we are so obstreperous at times. I have found myself splitting into two minds – one is being terribly unruly and the other is consternated not only by the childish stand but also by the choice of the fit. Why-ever have I chosen to cling to this particular cliff?

How about you, what was the oddest situation where you dug your heels in?

Loose Ends & Cross Purposes

Random thoughts March 14, 2014 Leave a comment

Perhaps it is because the world is in transition from one season to another. At least, oh please, I hope that it is finally starting into the transition from winter to spring. The birds seem to think that it is because more and more of them are returning each day. I feel like the dot, dot, dot that trails along the end of a sentence when the speaker isn’t sure where the ending happens to be.

I feel at loose ends.

According to dictionary.com we humans have been at loose ends since the mid-1500s or so. Oh dear. At least we are in good company when we don’t quite know what to do with ourselves next. If we are tying up our loose ends, it appears to have something to do with getting our ropes in order on a sailing ship. This makes plenty of sense, one doesn’t want ropes just lying about on a ship. One trip and you could go overboard.

photo is from publicdomainpictures.net

I am also at cross purposes.

We humans haven’t been at cross purposes nearly as long as at loose ends according to merriam-webster.com – since 1668 to put a fairly fine point on it. (Looking up cross purposes is also in the bottom 30% on this site so maybe we can stir up some interest?) It seems to me that we have probably been at cross purposes as long as people have interacted. We just didn’t use this particular term for it.

But I am not at cross purposes with another person. I am, as the seasons are, in a bit of a brain muddling transition. Dangling this loosely and crossing that. Maybe I should start, but first I should finish… I want to do this, but it isn’t ready yet. I can’t do winter anymore, and yet I must.

Transitions are confusing. This seasonal transition from winter to spring makes me cross.

Patterns, Collections & Repetition

Random thoughts, Work Life March 12, 2014 Comments: 2

What is it about a certain thing that makes us want more? It makes sense that we want to categorize things, like solving a puzzle by snapping the pieces into place, we know what we need to go and find based on the items that surround the missing piece. But most of us want to create combinations of things that are pleasing. Either by shape, size, color, texture, sound, usefulness – what have you.

Patterns can also tell us when something goes wrong and help us to figure out how to set it right again. When one customer tells a company that they are having a problem with a product, it might be assumed that it was an anomaly but when the same complaint comes up again and again then the company better get busy on that pattern.

I used to watch my mom sew clothes when I was little. There was a pattern to her whole effort; deciding what was going to be made, going to the fabric store to pick out all the needed items – which included the pattern to make the piece of clothing – preparing and cutting and then finally sewing. Some of the pattern pieces made sense right away – you could see it was going to be a sleeve or other recognizable part. But some of the pattern pieces looked quite random, they only made sense when combined with other pieces.

Collections can be useful or informative, say tools, or aesthetically pleasing. My dad had quite a few tools, some had been his father’s before him. The hand tools were made to last, worn smooth by years of use. My grandfather’s power tools were a bit scary since they were produced long before safety features had come into being. Belts and other moving parts were all open and ready to snag a finger or worse, not hidden behind plates and covers as they are now.

I think that I am in the majority in finding comfort in my collections and something soothing in repetition.

Determined, Stubborn, Obstinate

Random thoughts, Work Life March 5, 2014 Leave a comment

I’ve been called all of these things. I think sometimes it was meant to be unflattering at best. I remember one conversation when I was told that I am rigid and I said if the word disciplined were inserted instead, I would accept the charge. The accusation was wielded by someone who had a more unstructured method of approaching life than I.

Determined I accept and include in my own self-definition. It is a trait that I am proud to claim, one that I cultivate on more hesitant days, in uncertain moments. Figuring out how to call it up in moments of need is almost like discovering a super power. I picture determination like a muscle – we must all have it – but as we who are over a certain age have found, muscles must be regularly activated or they go soft. (But there are always exercises to revive them.)

Stubborn can come in handy and I have been known to warn a potential adversary that I practice stubborn quite well. I have to really believe in the cause and you had better have a really compelling argument for your position. Compromise is an acceptable end. But then again, I might just be reformulating my points that I conceded for now for another run later. I do understand that stubborn should be applied in small doses, or it can turn into this next word.

photo credit: Wikipedia

Obstinate, hmm. This one has been leveled mostly by people whose most compelling argument is ‘because’. Obstinate means “characterized by inflexible persistence or an unyielding attitude” (per http://dictionary.reference.com/). I don’t see any point in obstinacy, unless a person has no interest in learning new things. Of course, I mentioned above that stubborn can become intractable and turn into obstinacy – no for the sake of no. If I know that I am right then I imagine that can appear obstinate to my opposite.

Being determined is a good thing when tempered with an openness to new information.

Weekend Hours

Random thoughts, Work Life March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Why, oh why do the hours of our weekends seem to dissolve so quickly into the past, depositing us once again on the cusp of Monday with so little to show for the weekend just ending? There are the regular tasks – provisioning the household takes constant effort it seems – and the periodic tasks with a bit of time allowed for leisure of some sort.

If I were to list all of the things that I have done over the two days I probably would be pleased, I had productive time; why do I feel like it just wasn’t enough? I have the constant nagging feeling that I am not making the best use of my weekend hours. Do you? Have that feeling, or are you better than I at making the best use of these two days?

Public clocks to keep us on track. (photo credit: Big Ben from Wikimedia Commons)

It wasn’t that long ago that the work week norm was considered to be 6 days with one day set aside for rest. How did they get to everything? How did they ever get the mental down time to recharge? And these days there are plenty of people who juggle 2 or more part time jobs to make ends meet – I imagine their time off is measured in hours and not days. With sleep claiming a good chunk.

Childhood weekends were filled with large boring chunks of time when the default activity became TV, with only a handful of channels to choose from to find something of interest. (If you weren’t one for sports, it was slim pickings.) I lived in suburbia which meant if I hadn’t planned my reading properly, I couldn’t get myself to the library for a refill on new books. Chores were handed out and easily completed unless we balked for some childish reason or another. A trip to the store with mom could be an interesting diversion or torture. One store had baskets set up in a way that one of us could ride underneath and the world became curious from that perspective – but it wasn’t always my turn to ride.

Now weekends seem to often be an endless round of moving undone to-do items from an old scribbled on list to a fresh list, with the hope that the item won’t have to be moved onto future lists too. Sometimes, but not often enough, I am good at planning in a little fun experience or two. This puts a squeeze on my necessary tasks, but is usually worth it from a mental energy perspective.

Well, it’s Monday again with one weekend behind and another looming in the near distance. Time to think work week thoughts.

The Unintended Time Commitment

Personal Growth, Random thoughts, Work Life February 28, 2014 Leave a comment

Do you know how long it takes you to do all the little things that you do through the course of a regular day? I think that most of us would probably be surprised at the time that can accumulate when we do incidental tasks. And the time that we spend on nothing activities while busy feeling harried and like we have no time to ourselves.

Back in my childhood my mom would have a habit of asking my dad to stop at the store – just for a minute – when we would be on our way home from a family activity. Groan. Mom would ‘run in’ and we would be trapped in the car waiting. If she ever really did come out with just the one thing that she originally went in for, I can’t recall. What I do remember would be the agonizing moment when she would come out with 2 or 3 bags of other things she realized we could use. She saw it as time saving, while we lost ages from our lives that we could never recover.

The TV is an old standby for unintended time commitments, and it has been joined by the internet. We never have to be alone with our own thoughts now, thanks to smart phones – but this also means that we might not ever be present in the moment with the person across from us at the table. But I digress.

I got the idea for this post when I had a run of mornings recently that the time on the car’s clock surprised me. I have a set time that I want to leave the bedroom, I thought I had hit that time but then somehow lost minutes between the bedroom and pulling the car out of the garage. What the?? In my thinking I left the bedroom, picked up my purse, put on my coat and went to the garage – about a minute of time. But, no, I was picking up and putting away things, looking for other things – eating bits of time here and there that I didn’t mean to do.

Famous words, “I’m just going to… before I do…”; suddenly that unintended time commitment, which was going to be a momentary distraction or a little filler, is something much larger. And dangerous.

An Acceptable Level of Chaos

Personal Growth, Random thoughts, Work Life February 26, 2014 Leave a comment

The known and the unknown. Order and its opposite – disorder, mess, chaos. The traditional dramatic struggle is between good and evil, but every day life’s struggle is in the intersection between order and control or varying levels of chaos. Even people who aren’t drawn to structure, who are comfortable in ambiguity, need some touch points of order – normalcy.

Whether we actively and consciously understand our own needs for order, or we lash out in unease caused by too much chaos too close, every one of us has an acceptable level of chaos. When we can still mostly function, beyond which we get bogged down.

The Course of Empire Thomas Cole, 1836 – public domain image

Somehow I learned fairly early on that I could create some of the structure that I need to feel comfortable in my environment. I am thankful for this since it has greatly helped me to navigate my life. I know immediately that when anxiety starts to build that I should take a breather, mentally take stock in all that is going on around me and identify a few simple things that I can straighten out. I know that to press on will be foolish – and yet sometimes I press on.

Even knowing the level of order that I prefer, having such an interest in problem solving as I do, I am finding that the level of complexity in our modern life – the amount of oversight and active monitoring that is necessary on my part to get an acceptable level of service from the companies and people that I interact with – is exhausting. I can’t begin to imagine how people who have a much stronger need for order, or people who find standing up for themselves a challenge, manage these interactions.

I didn’t mean to sound stilted in this post, but I am trying to wrap my head around a solution to this encroaching chaos. It feels too close lately, in too many areas of my life. Naming it is the first step to a solution. Finding joy, or having a laugh will reduce the anxiety while I continue to sort through. Finding some easy wins will give me a little boost of energy to press on.

How are you managing your chaos?