Slacker

Well, here I am. Blog Slacker at large. That's right, SLACKER! Here is the first bit of free time I've tried to take for myself in about three weeks. Well that's a lie and if you believed it, good for you.

Let's see, actually, I took last Saturday night off in a spur of the moment to see I am Legend playing at the dollar spot. It's the new one with Will Smith. I thought it was pretty good. And for you ladies out there, Mr. Smith got buff for this roll. Now I know that got you interested. Then on Sunday, after a full day of chores and a few hours of work, I hung out with the folks. Nice evening. Then it was back to the grind.

What else has been going on? Bad news on two fronts, that's what. First front: my boss is accusing me of being a slacker again. What a guy. He says that he has flat out tried to can me, but HR is saving my ass with the notion that I am unaware that my perceived work performance is not up to par. If there is one thing you do not do, it's call me a slacker. He also does not like my troubleshooting skills. OK, so I do the best I can without having ten years of Intel or Phillips behind me. So I'm now in save my job mode. My ability to change things will depend on how much other job duties lighten up. Some of which my boss just does not understand. Just how do you prove the validity of many of the intangible task that I do.

On the second front, work related again, I had a major screw up late Thursday evening. A repair that (in the end) took only about 45 minutes to find and fix, turned into a nightmare that in the end will suck about a day and a half of my time and cost around a grand to repair! It's a long story, but in short, all accounts of my fuck up can be placed on me. In hind sight, I made too many assumptions based on past experiences during the repair with out confirming. I'm not happy to say the least. For one, this comes on the heels of the above crap with my boss, and two, it put a number of people in a pretty inconvenient position. I busted my ass to try to resurrect the tool, but no luck. Now I'm waiting on a part that should be delivered Monday morning.

I analyzed my failure and I believe I've finally learned something of myself. Most of the time, I can slowly plot my path to a successful repair or maintenance procedure, but in the times that I have had either a failure or a rash of unclear thinking, what I might honestly consider borderline incompetence, I believe the root of that is that my mind begins to race with the notion of "let's do this and don't think about it." It's like I'm running all the stop signs without stopping to look both way's before I proceed. Very frustrating. I'll certainly have to make a mental note of this and try to realize / recognize the onset of this condition in the future.

On the work front again, I've got to work tomorrow. There is a new tool that is being commissioned and wouldn't you know it, we've got company reps from out of the country in town. This will be training in operation as well as some of the technical details of the tool. We did about half a day today. Interesting stuff, but a mountain of information to learn. Not only in operation of the tool, but also in practical knowledge of the process. Surely will not be learned in a one day training marathon, but we'll make the best of it.

School wise, going OK. I got a C on my first test in Fields and Waves. A miracle in my book. The Microprocessors class is still going well. It is getting rougher, but still, at the moment, feel like I'll need CPR if I don't make an A in the class.

Next week is spring break!!!! Oh yeah!

On a fun note, heard the new song from Miley Cyrus? First of all, what a little hottie. She's growing up not only physically, but vocally as well. She's voice is both deepening and maturing. Her new hew song, "See You Again," is right up my alley of favored music. Check it out here. I think I'll pick up this CD when it comes out. If the rest of the new album is as good as this single, it might actually compete with Kelly Clarkson's My December. We'll have to see.

Anyways, time to go. I'll need to be at work no later than 7:45 in the morning and last night was rather sleepless spazing over my work problem and the fact that I went in at 3:30am to check on things. Oh well. Some people wonder how I do it. That is, deal with the school and some of the work issues without (apparently) affecting me. Well first, I think it has to do with my Taurus roots. I used to read that stuff with a grain of salt. But now . . . I believe, it's who I am. Who else would continue with school despite my past failures / setbacks and for that matter, who else would slug forward at work to serve the needs of many despite the misunderstood perceptions of one. And second in this line of thought is the motto that I live by. I've said it many times, and I'll say it many more:

IBS:
Deal with it and move on.