I just watched Pumpkin lift the brown sugar container and swing it around (she reached through the shelf and hooked the latch.) I have no idea WHY she did it, but she was damned pleased with herself.

I won't go into excessively technical details about multiple networks on multiple shared drives and working through remote connections, but I just want to state that I'm so proud of my mad support skillz just now in a situation that initially had me freaking out from the complexity. I've been trying to be more reassuring to myself not to get overwhelmed by the big picture but break weird shit into recognizable components, and it's starting to work.

I would say that an unattended easy to lift cash box will tempt people just not paying won't. Ideally, I'd have something along the lines of a really heavy locked box with a slot, so stealing the money would be a lot of work, and then empty it at lunch, so there was not too much at any one time. A behavior economist rights about this - an unattended apple stand that did this - the farmer trusted that most people would pay for their apples but he did not want to make it easy to run off with the money.

Way to go, Connie!

And Pumpkin. That does sound like an accomplishment.

I have a task but I can't start it until someone else gives me a crucial piece. Any bets on whether that will happen before 5?

Go, Connie!

And, in other gardening news, I found the vegetable peeler that went missing last year. It was in the compost.

That reminds me that when I was looking at vintage flatware on eBay, a LOT of the listings said the pieces had no disposal damage. Which kind of made me laugh and also feel better about my own disposal-damaged flatware!

I have a task but I can't start it until someone else gives me a crucial piece. Any bets on whether that will happen before 5?

No bet.

Good call, didn't happen. Of course.

I troubleshot a prescription refill while I was near my GP's office (the pharmacy calls them, they fax in the refill authorisation, the pharmacy tells them the regulations have changed, they need to hear it from a representative of the doctor, the doctor's office shows me the photocopy of the fax, they've done the job, the pharmacy tells me they did the wrong job, I go back upstairs, and the doctor's office tell me they only just now found out they needed to call--I'm the first person in the office that had a controlled substance refill since the law changed, plus the pharmacy saying they told you what the regs were yesterday never happened? Normally with this doctor, the pharmacy is the fuckup. But hey. Equal opportunity.) so I can switch sleep meds back--hopefully that will make nights easier for a while. And then I called the nurse advocate, but she was nursing or advocating for someone else, so she said she'd call back.

I am not optimistic about hearing from anyone before business hours close. But let's see what happens.

In the meanwhile, quite unrelatedly, I need a good tutorial on drawing convincing kissing. Just drawing what I see isn't enough--this looks like she's embedded her face into his, as opposed to being all up in his tonsils...1) the heads are at approx 90°, so you're looking at the underside of one chin, and the top of one head, slightly 2) Noses more than overlap 3) Lips are puckered, and that affects muscles all the way back to the ear. 4) Ensure consistent shading for both heads in case you're sourcing likenesses from two pictures. 5) Close their eyes unless you are making a point.

AARGH! Someone take this headache away!

Connie, I'm still fistpumping myself for solving a problem last week on an unfamiliar platform with nothing other than a hunch, the one that had me raise my voice to the support person who was trying to stop me from doing down that route. I swear, it might as well have been dowsing, but it worked! The user profile had an error in it somewhere that was cleaned up by just saving it again. So 180 from what you just did, in terms of comprehension, but it feels damned good, doesn't it, whether you're validating a troubleshooting approach or just instincts?

it feels damned good, doesn't it, whether you're validating a troubleshooting approach or just instincts?

Oh, yes. It was a great stride forward when I learned what all those story problems in school were trying to teach me--find the essential problem, discard the extraneous stuff that confuses the issue. 7 years in this job finally pays off.

edit: of course, sometimes it's linked issues that feed into each other--fix one thing, a new problem says "my turn!", but I at least recognized all of it. It wasn't SQL database configuration throwing new and exciting error messages at me.

I have a hivemind business question. I go in for a second interview on Friday. It's with the owner and COO of the company, and I REALLY WANT this job. During the first interview, I was told about issues with the previous HR person and also about some specific employee relations problems the Co. is having. She also told me that the owner wasn't even sure they NEEDED an HR person and had to be talked into it last year.

Should write up a one or two page bullet point thingie, detailing how I'd be able to help with their problems and what I would do, to be all proactive and shit? Or should I just go in and talk about it? It's a post-production house and the person who interviewed me had blue hair, so it's new school in culture. I want to sell myself and make the best case possible for hiring me, but I don't want to seem like I want to come in and take over either. What say you?

What say you?

I'd take in the bullet pointed list and refer to it when discussing the issues, and if they seem interested offer them a second copy of it.

That way you're prepared but not pushy.