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Strongbad!
Ah, politics!

 
The Way of the Weasel

Damn, I hate it when Scott Adams is right! So far, the best business book I've read is this blatant satire. And yet, it's just sooooo freakin' true of every environment I've ever heard of.

My favorite bit of wisdom:

Avoiding Teamwork

Whether in your professional or personal life, there will always be weasels trying to get you to do some of their work under the guise of "teamwork." The best weasel method for avoiding teamwork is to cheerfully accept any request for help and then start asking "questions" about the direction of the task. Make it clear that you think you're there to help not just with the little stuff but-- because you're a great team player-- also with the global strategy implications.

In time your spouse or coworker will learn that asking you to help is an invitation to psychological torture. And all the while you will be viewed as "helpful."

Best of all, when people complain about "the way you are," it will come off as sounding petty. It's difficult to generate a plausible complaint about someone who is too helpful.

My last big team assignment that was deliberately a "team assignment" was for a public policy class in college. I was assigned at random to a group of four near the beginning of the quarter. One dropped the class. Another one was never there for any of the meetings (we met during CLASS!). The third sort of sluffed, and said, eventually, that she'd do the presentation if Ms. Absent and I did the research and wrote the paper. Since I hate presenting, I agreed. This was before Ms. Absent was always absent. I mentioned my problem to the teacher, and he said, "Do the best you can!" I did all of the research and wrote the paper, and was supposed to meet with the presenter an hour before class. She didn't show 'til 10 minutes before, at which point I'd already resigned myself to doing the presentation. I gave her detailed notes, and told her to read the paper to the class. She flubbed the presentation completely, since she just browsed the paper ahead of time and just winged it, missing the entire point of the paper. I was too embarrassed, and hid my head during the presentation... We ended up with a B+ on the project, which might have been an A- if I'd just presented it myself and taken all the credit. Man, I hate this team crap! >:-(

 
No wonder tech people cuss so much!

You know, when I heard I was part of the STAR Technical Assistance Center (California school accountability program), I had no idea that I really would be acting as actual tech support. Today was the day that a bunch of districts (probably half) had to upload a demographic file to the website. I think I coached and babysat about 50 of them through the process, theorizing that some of the timeouts were due to using crappy-azz IE 6.0, and recommending different programs for them to try out. Not to mention sort of troubleshooting a bunch of files to make sure they were ok, when they were done in .DAT format instead of .txt. Who knows if I was right?

Only thing is, once you've done the same thing over and over and over 50 times, you're pretty tired, and you begin to make obvious mistakes like trying to remember the date, or the later file due date, or your name... Urgh... I think I need to go to the bookstore!

 
Deeeeeep thoughts

No, I really don't have any today, I don't think. I've found out that I won't be hired permanently at my current job, since the department manager wants to save on the costs of the "extravagant benefits" the company offers (they hired two temps, and are the last temps to be hired on that basis this year). Oh well, I'll just sit here crying my eyes out... thankful that I won't have to deal with it on a permanent basis, and can maintain my flexibility! :-D Sometimes little prayers get answered in ways that you don't anticipate... I'm glad this one came via the rumor mill. Now I can just do the job, and look and keep the options VERY open, while having the flexibility to go interview and take civil service exams as needed.

That's a relief anyway!

So far the table in my cubicle is serving as an effective barrier to coworker invasions... Yesss!

 
Bania U Cygana...

Bania U Cygana do rana...

Yes, I'm losing it ;-)

 
A post-New Year's resolution

I resolve that I will be more diplomatic, but direct with those who annoy me. I will not be "too nice." I will also not be the wielder of a large tire iron... I'm either exceptionally nice when something bugs me, or I'm a sledgehammer. There's nothing in between. In fact, I've been holding off on a confrontation with someone at work for just this reason...

 
More Dershowitz ramblings

So, I've been wondering, if there are many reasons why terrorism occurs, why on earth no one addresses all of the causes... I've also been wondering, since Dershowitz has his own theory about why terrorism is so prevalent (it's all the PLO, dammit!), why he doesn't recommend taking any actions other than curtailment of liberty, torture, and a foreign policy that totally supports Israel.

Why not, if Saudi Arabia dislikes us so much for all other reasons besides economics, get the military out, and start to actually conserve resources, such as petroleum? Without the huge demand for oil, the US would have no need to have any military presence in the Middle East whatsoever! And why aren't individual Americans willing to cut back on their gas guzzling habits, if they knew the net result would be less terrorism, and less need for foreign resource wars? Why, instead, are they willing to give up liberties, such as the right to privacy, and freedom of speech? Wouldn't it be better for the world if they just gave up the Ford Excursions, Lincoln Navigators, and the like?

And why doesn't Dershowitz address the extensive ties the US has to oil, and the resultant costs a) to our autonomy, b) to our tax burden (financing the wars necessary to keep the oil flowing), and c) to our liberties when terrorism happens as a result? I just don't get it. He's willing to consider torturing citizens, instituting national ID cards, imposing limited forms of racial profiling, and also some form of collective ethnic accountability, but conservation never even enters his mind in the slightest. I'd rather have my freedom than the right to drive an SUV that's screwing up my air anyway... I'd rather have freedom of movement, privacy, and other basic civil liberties, than to have the record of having the world's highest per capita energy usage.

I guess I'm a freak...