Beginning Anew

I don't know how many times in my life I have said this phrase. It is one of the few exceptions to my "don't speak in third person rule".

I am by no means an expert on all things. I have a subset of knowledge on a few topics that I am confident with.

Today's example:

Yesterday, I sent an e-mail. It essentially says: "Effective immediately, everyone should log off each evening and log on each morning. " This is a simple request. I did not state my reasoning, because I shouldn't have to, and if I did no one would get it. I set IT policy. It is my job.

So this morning, I have a co-worker ask "Doesn't it automatically log you off anyway?".... *Slaps forehead (but not in her presence)* "No... that's why I asked you to do it".

This leads me through a conversation that results in the realization that 3 employees are working an old version of the database, because they did not follow my instructions. You see, this morning when they logged on (or were supposed to log on) a new fileserver came online. It is faster, and more reliable than the old one. But some of them said "Oh this request to log off doesn't apply to me... i'll ignore it." So they lost an hours worth of work this morning, and it would have been more if someone hadn't asked me about why they need to log off.

Is it really so hard???

Nobody listens to me.

I was watching the news out of Birmingham tonight, more accurately it was on in the background and I was vaguely aware of it's intrusion into my living room. I perked up when I heard a familiar name, and glanced up to see a picture of 2 people I went to college with. Rewind on the DVR revealed that a young woman I went to college with, married less than a year, was carjacked on monday and shot while trying to escape. Thankfully she is recovering, but she is short a kidney and her spleen. I would have been okay, but her husband (who I also went to college with and knew as an acquaintence) was on there at a press conference and the pain in his eyes cannot be described with words. It is even more powerful if you had ever seen him in "fun zone" mode like I had seen him in many times before.

Amy was a missionary, and she was going back to school to be an elementary school teacher. She'll be great at it. She was always very nice, and I remember her hanging out at the BCM in college (I never did, but I know she did.) We had several classes together, especially the first 2 years. It's just kind of strange when someone YOU KNOW is the subject of these horrible stories on the news. It really catches you off guard because it makes you deal with the possibility that it could be you next.

The full story on this is here


Everyone say a prayer for Amy and Adam tonight. They need it.