I started out the day staying home because my cough had kept me up much of the night. But around 10 AM, I realized that I had quite a bit of work to do, so I got dressed, and headed into the office. So here I am, trying to stay on top of these three…
We were scheduled to have a softball game tonight in Anacostia, but because of the dangerously excessive heat, the game was rescheduled until 2 weeks from today. Our last three games of the season are all pretty close together. Seeing as how I was going to be out late for softball, I decided to stay…
How often does this happen: I was sitting at work, minding my own business, when someone sent a question to one of our aliases, asking if anyone knew about a commerical where a bunch of people are in a boardroom, saying, “We’ve got to be more nimble. How would so-and-so do it?” They knew nothing…
Although I am still relatively stress-free, I’ve felt the stress level climbing at work at bit lately. I have a lot to do, including one project whose deadline is fast approaching at the end of July, and for which I just finished a design review, just discovered that my test team lead will be on…
I got my performance review at work this afternoon and it was my best review in 3 years. I was pleased. My boss is like one of those teachers who never gives A’s and even pleasing him a little often requires a great deal of work. But he seemed genuinely happy with my work this…
When I got into work this morning, I had a voice message from someone asking for a reference for a person who used to work for me back when I was managing staff instead of managing projects. The eerie this is that except for the name that they gave me, I have almost no memory…
My raise goes into effect today, as do all raises for folks in my group. That means our new raises show up on our paychecks two weeks from Friday. However, slow as things are bureaucratically, I have no idea what the raise is. I have not yet met with my boss and no meeting has…
I was placing an order for some office supplies through work today. We’ve recently switched supply companies and I had to get a new account with which to place the order. As part of the process, you are prompted to put in a password, and then, as many places do today, you are prompted to…
I wasn’t feeling well last night and so I took a sick day today. I slept in late (until 10 AM, which is very late for me these days) and I felt a little better when I woke up. I have mixed feelings about sick days. On the one hand, I think it’s important that…
I change my outgoing voicemail message every morning to reflect the current date. It usually goes something like: This is Jamie Rubin. It’s Thursday, May 11. I’ll be in the building all day today. Please leave me a message. This morning, when the system beeped to record my outgoing message, I coughed and, of course,…
I’ve come up with an idea for an invention that will revolutionize business and allow me to retire rich and famous, and I’m posting it here to claim priority to it. My invention is this: TiVO for Business Meetings Can you imagine being able to pause live meetings? Or better yet, skip through them, or…
About a year ago, I got on the mailing list for COMPUTERWORLD, which is an IT trade magazine. Because I am an IT professional (I guess software developer counts as IT) I get the subscription for free. It is an awful magazine, I’m afraid and the few times I’ve tried to read it, I’ve found…