the big bad day

that *did* go rather badly, but a twist near the end of the day made a good and mostly effective attempt at a rescue.

i don't know how i managed the day on four hours' sleep, but i made the shuttle so putting in my now-regular twelve hours meant leaving early enough that i could catch a ride - it's been cold and rainy. very rainy.

the highlight of the day was the team status meeting. usually there's a lot of nodding, sighing, and vain attempts to keep the bored look at bay. today i walked in a few minutes late, and after "the usual" for the first team-mate, our SC focused on me.

i think it all began when he asked me how much time i need to finish the work that's been driving me up the wall for the last few days, but i can't be certain. i gave my TL a hopeless look, and our SC and i began a screaming match that lasted until we ran out of time and had to get back to work.

i mean, the shouting wasn't caused by anger or disagreement, it was caused by mutual frustration with an undignified situation. the decisions that brought us to this point had to be made, and we're doing the best we can with what we've got. that doesn't make our situation suck less, though, and we're all feeling the heat.

and then - the break. we've had our post-extension absolute-final-last-chance-for-redemption we've-cut-it-too-damn-close for-real-no-takebacks deadline deferred a couple more days. our SC sent a mail informing us that due to this new state of affairs no excuses will be tolerated... so i immediately sent back (reply to all, of course) an email spoofing an "out-of-office", listing that i'm on vacation until may.

when my TL read this, he laughed and said "you're playing with fire". two seconds later the phone rang, and i jokingly said it was our SC. my TL answered, and his face instantly made the switch to deadly serious - "come take this".

i pick up the phone.
"in my office. now."

it was a bit difficult to wipe the smile off my face while walking in, but i managed to smooth things over, and he chucked me out as soon as he "got" that i was just kidding :P

after hometime one of my co-workers finished something i need to use, and came over to set it up. after much poking and prodding, he started to give up. i looked him in the eye, and told him in a flat voice:
"you know, there's no worse feeling than having something you've written and tested screw up when you bring it to the customer.
and knowing that i understand that feeling isn't going to make it any easier for you."

sometimes i just have to be a bastard. like sunday morning, when i inform him that not only did it fail to work, but it completely buggered my system somehow and he's going to have to sort it out.

on a completely different note, the hospital called me today to let me know that i can move my surgery from the middle of may to this coming sunday. at first i was confused, thinking the woman was talking about the biopsy i underwent yesterday. sunday's not a good day (a little bit too much pressure at work to be taking a few weeks sick-leave), but after the call i suddenly realized that the op requires a whole bunch of preparation... what the hell were they thinking giving me four days notice?

speaking of medical stuff, i finally had a shower a couple of hours ago, and i've now seen the stitches. compared to the size of the spot removed, the stitched area is HUGE... it's about half an inch long. what the hell did he remove? did he implant something? WTF?!

i was going to go to a live performance by a number of apparently good bands, but aside from being exhausted i realized after the shower that maybe i should be taking it easy until the stitches come out.

oh, yeah - i can't find a damn stress-ball anywhere. my thumb's all odd and constantly tingly, i need to get the nerves right again.

mmm - guava juice rules.

i've just installed gtkpod, and i'm trying to think of some justification for keeping my windows installation. i have snow bros, the gimp, streaming audio, ipod organization, and an awesome development environment (unused, of late, but important nonetheless). what more do i need?

oh, right. female companionship (and sex) and some snow-based exercise. happy valentine's day.