training and protections

shit, it's past bedtime and i needed to go to bed hours ago but i had two reports to write and they took forever.

---i had to train someone outside the company this afternoon and i woke up this morning with no idea what i'd be teaching him because the cto had ignored me yesterday. at 8.30am, pre-coffee and before leaving for the office i managed to catch him and we spent the next two hours going over everything. it wasn't bad, but it was tiring.

---i was on my way out when i realized that i'd made a grievous error: on monday, the drying machine was bust and it completely slipped my mind that the pile of underwear i dumped on a chair (i'm a bachelor!) was wet. this morning i finally got around to sorting and folding and it was still wet and quite smelly. not cool at all :(

so i was already stressing about how complicated dealing with that was going to be (i've been informed that it's not normal to have time limits on laundry nor to have to pay for each cycle) when i hurriedly took my shoes out the freezer (see previous post). as amusing as it was to remove two shoe-shaped blocks of ice, they were obviously still going to be waterlogged when i got home. i stuffed them with newspaper and chucked them on the patio.

[oh, shit! it's summer and i have a patio. i totally forgot.]

---my office day began with bad multitasking - there's nothing like having everything going wrong all around you and everyone clamoring for your attention when you need to focus on creating a lesson plan. and our network issues were at least as bad as they've been the past few days, which was frustrating for all of us.

the training session actually went a lot smoother than anticipated, and it inspired a little chat with the cfo afterwards. he was surprised to hear me evangelize (apparently he wasn't aware of our software's potential) and asked me to put together a memo, which i've just done. it includes marketing suggestions and it's been hinted that this might be good for me, whatever that means.

---it was the end of the day and i was in a hurry to get out in time for muay thai. i went past all the desks to make sure that everyone was on track and was horrified to find one of my developers on the verge of tears because botswana and our graphic lead had convinced him that he had to pull a surprise all-nighter because they'd switched the design after the project's due date. remember i mentioned his relationship with the developers?

i - was - pissed. as he's an executive, i was relatively careful with my tone but from his reaction i think he might have sensed potential violence. i have made it clear to everyone involved that nobody is to talk to developers without consulting me, and then i made it clear to the developer in question that he was to go home at his regular time and not a moment later for these assholes.

i'm going to have to have a little chat with the team in the morning, apparently our "chain of command" is not clear and i have been remiss in my duties if they don't feel they should come to me the instant anything causes them distress of any kind.

---aota relieved me of an enormous amount of stress by not only giving me a ride home but by offering to handle my problem laundry as well. thanks to her i made it to muay thai just in time.

i only barely survived muay thai today, limping away with my first injury in a long time and the knowledge that my assessment of my defensive skills was entirely correct: there's not much difference between gloves up or down, i just know how to put my nose and chin right into everything.

the injury is the deep tissue on my inner thigh, which was kicked hard and repeatedly by a fellow taekwondo graduate. i'm now sporting a rather sensitive limp, which i hope will be better in time for tomorrow's kickboxing.

afterwards i headed to aota's for a great "family" dinner with her, her daughter, newk'd and her daughter's friend from the other day. it was really nice and a wonderful end to a rough day.

i got home, found my unfrozen shoes to be dry but smelly and stuffed them back in the freezer.

...

after reports and an internet, i'm definitely, definitely ready to sleep.