random thoughts – Day 1,456 – (Tuesday) – crazy and time

Work had a ridiculous situation that might be hilarious if taking place in a movie and being watched while chomping on a tub of hot buttered popcorn with Junior Mints tossed in. Unfortunately, it was real life and involving a real vendor, but a different one than the source of last week’s of headaches.

The problem involves a software update which has sent us into crazy times. Project reviewers aren't being notified of review tasks until after the project due date which now seems to be treated in the system as the start date instead of completion date. What in the actual hell?

Apparently, the issue is the result of the request of another customer. In a call today with the vendor, in which the company rep was ten minutes late, a workaround was presented that felt like total gaslighting. 

Now we need to set all the individual task dates as “same day” instead of in the once linear and logical progression based on the length of time needed. It was also suggested we recommend the other teams go into the program to revise the display of their Task Tables and dates. For real? It seems that we may need to manually monitor timelines that used to be automated, because, sure, why not. Let’s just go back to 1970 while we’re at it and we can send hardcopies to each other via interoffice mail to review.

Over in the camp of projects and timelines that are not screwed up, my piece for the 4x4 art auction was delivered, one day before the deadline, and timed to coincide with our board meeting tonight. If the meeting had been last week, it would have been ready last week, but as I learned in a college business management class, "Work expands to fill the time allotted." At the auction, people buy a $25 ticket. The names of ticketholders are drawn lottery style to determine the order for choosing a piece of work from the collection. I love this event.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.

The 4x4 piece is a photo from Rome, taken a year ago while on vacation.  It is mounted on the face of the canvas which has edges  painted in blue white, and gold. The whole thing was sealed with many coats of Mod Podge which carry brush strokes with which I had a love-hate relationship. 

Now I want to do more small photos mounted onto small canvases. I could create an entire travelogue of the trip rendered in four-inch square blocks. Not that I would know what to do with them after that, but it could be fun. Or, I could do like I usually do and think about it until I'm tired of the topic and lose interest. We'll see.