The Snorefest That Is My Life

Want: wine.

Am having: dried plums (doncha love how prunes have been rebranded?), some cheese and crackers, and Ginger-Os.

Am boring.

I continue to chip away at the pile of crap, and I even continue to make some progress, most notably with the two current major tasks: resolving a budget issue with the federal government, and setting up a database for one of our programs. (I don't actually have to build the thing--it's very very large and complex--but I do have to figure out how to tailor it for our use, which is turning out to be kind of insane. I enjoy it, in some ways, because I see its potential for making our lives much much easier, but the setup is nontrivial and I have to get information from the users about how we want to use it. Part of the reason I have to do it is that there isn't anyone else in the whole part of my organization who could even begin to know how to do it, plus we don't have the IS help/people we need. Remember the person who felt unqualified back in December? S/he quit, a couple of days before the probationary period was up in February.) There are three other major tasks that I'm ignoring at the moment (the strategic plan for the organization; our budget for next year; and preparation for a major two-day visit from our federal funding agency), all of which will come due in the next 10 weeks.

I was supposed to--at least theoretically--go to a conference downstate the week after next, but I just said I couldn't go. They're going to try to stamp their feet and tell me it's mandatory, and I am going to refuse to go. I have playoff tickets, and there's at least some chance the trip would conflict, number one, and, number two, I am too fucking busy with this other shit to take two days sitting in a conference room hearing a consultant blather on.

I have yet to find a conference of any kind to be a worthwhile experience, in any of the fields in which I have practiced. I probably would have loved Camp Bread, if I had been able to go, so that would have been an exception, but otherwise? A lot of wasted time.

Even when I was a would-be professor: the one major conference I attended was tedious, and I realized then that the whole event had little or nothing to do with actual presentations. Most panels were held in front of very few people; not much of interest got said; and reading the papers would have given you about 85% or more of what you needed to know about the panelists' work. Some people were able to network effectively, with colleagues with whom they were working or wanted to work, for example; there was also some job interviewing, IIRC, though I don't think I had any. The best part about the whole thing was that I drove out to California and back with a friend who had a car, and we visited about 6 or 8 national parks during the course of the trip; we turned it into a two-week expedition so we could saunter back. I saw parts of the country I'd never seen before, I got to wade in the Pacific Ocean, and I had a wonderful time in the parks and with my friend (despite hitting a deer), but the actual conference? Sucked.

Tonight I'm mostly enjoying the knowledge that I don't have to work for two whole days; I managed to finish the editing job last weekend. I was very glad to have the work--basically, it will pay for the tickets mentioned in the previous post--but it's nice to have the weekend off, too. Even if I am boring.