Light of One Little Candle

There is not enough darkness in this whole wide world that can take out the light of this one little candle....

The Ladies Bathroom

I came in this morning to the office and everything looked the same. The few people that were there at such an early hour were already up and about doing their own thing while I was just getting ready to dive in for that days work. My cubicle basically sits in front of the ladies room and mind you, I didn't choose to be there. Anyway, about 5 minutes after I sat down, I heard someone knocking on the ladies room and a male voice checking if anyone was around. Normally, the doesn't concern me as our maintenance and janitorial people frequent this place at certain points of the day for their cleaning. Today was different however since it was too early for them to be there. So I stood up and checked looking just like a praire dog with my head sticking out of the cubicle. Having seen nothing of concern, I decided to grab a tall glass of iced coffee which is my normal morning fare and continued hammering on the keyboard to get my things done.

About mid-morning, one of my officemates mentioned that I may have to be evacuated. I had this puzzled look in my face until he told me to get up and check the ladies room door. Sure enough there was water seeping out of the door and this is not your normal slow moving water. You can actually see the mark its making as the water crawls down the carpet going down my cubicle. Suddenly, I felt like I'm in New Orleans. I may have to be evacuated soon or maybe a bunch of sandbags can be made to block the water before it gets to my cube. I was picking up the things on my cubicle's floor just so everything would be safe if in case the water does get to me.

The maintenance people are already in front of my cube sponging the water off to their buckets while a few of them are in the ladies room finishing up. Looks like there may not be a reason for me to be moved anytime soon.
All in a day's work.

Procrastination

The ability to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. Mr. Webster defines it as "to postpone or delay needlessly".

I'll update this later and put the topic pictures in too.

It All Begins With A Song...

Every morning when I head off to work, I have always noticed this particular car in the parking lot at so early in the morning. But it is not the car that stands out to me but a particular bumper sticker on it. It reads "It all begins with a song...". I smile each time I see that and for some reason, my day just seems to be a bit lighter. The words remain with me almost all throughout the day. I am not sure though if the other people who have read it feels the same way I do or if the car owner had that intention in mind but I am grateful to see a message that seems to be a great picker upper.

One has to wonder how a simple sentence can make someone reflect. So what begins with a song? At first, I try to associate this with all that has happened to me, the material things, the physical well being, and any other things I can think of. And sudddenly it dawned on me.. it is my life that begins with a song. No wonder I smile each time I remember those words from the bumper sticker. As you go through life, either at your highest or lowest point, you know in your heart that a story unfolds with every breath you take.

Life doesn't just begin with a song. Life is a song.

And in answer to that proverbial question "who let the dogs out?" I will have to assume responsibility for that. I let the dogs out.

The Finger Points

For those that work in a corporate environment, it is common knowledge that the end of the year is probably one of the busiest time of the year. This is the time when all loose ends are tied up. Hence, application systems are almost always "frozen" during this time to prevent any data issues that may arise. This had been our case too.
The first application systems' update we had happened on the 4th of January and everything went well until the business group reported some data discrepancy. My initial reaction was fear stemming from the fact that it had been only my installation that went in during that day and may have caused that. I knew my stuff were fool-proof after doing a barrage of tests and validation on them as well as user sign-offs.
So back to the drawing board I went and retraced all the data that went in and sure enough, all that needed to happen happened. There was no hole in my application update. But how do you tell that to the end-users though? The problem still exists and still has to be corrected. I ended up enlisting the help of a couple of our resident gurus who have done work on the same application and asked them to work with me step by step to a) prove that the issue was not related to the installation and b) figure out what was causing all the data discrepancy.
After series of email exchanges and phone conferences, we proved that the issue was totally unrelated to my installation. Apparently, the problem had existed even before I joined the company and the updates I did accentuates that information out like a sore thumb which I guess was good since it allows us time to make the corrections. As it stands right now, it looks more like a data issue and a series of programming logic change is in the horizon.
This experience actually removed a thorn on my side which pointed the finger away from me. However, it did put the thorn back on the other side as I still have to work on the same application to ensure data integrity.

Monday... Monday!

A lot of people hate Mondays and for various reasons. I am not one of them. My stand with Mondays is pretty much on neutral grounds. I don't hate it but I don't like it either. I just take the day as it is and roll with it. For most, Monday is the least liked day of the week and I can relate to that. I guess it is because Monday is the start of the week and being a start, it means going back to work or school. For those lucky ones who start working on any other day of the week except Monday, I am sure they hate that day too.
I look forward to Mondays but that does not entail liking it. I just have this notion that once I get over that day, the rest of the week should be farely easy to handle. I guess you can relate this concept to anything anyone does. The hardest thing in any endeavour is not the actual "doing it" part. It is the "getting around to doing it" part. Mondays is the getting around to doing it. Once one have done that, things should be a breeze.
When Monday afternoon comes, shy smiles replace the brooding attitude one comes in during the morning. That's because half of the day is done. And everyone actually looks forward for the next day.

Dead Keys Society

A few years ago, I started placing some keys that I found lying around the house in a small bin in the garage. I kept them there not knowing for sure if they actually can open any locks around the house although I have that nagging feeling that they do. The bin used to contain only 6 keys but as the years passed by, the bin had accumulated a few more. Although they were growing in numbers, a couple of them probably would have been able to open some locks inside the house. It was just a matter of trying them out. But I never did. It must be the fact that I had all my locks and keys accounted for and not trying them at all would save me the trouble and hassles attached to trying them out. Some of the friends that have visited me noticed this bin in the garage and decided that they too have some dead keys lying in some parts of their own abode. Over the years, some of them would bring their own dead keys and toss them in my bin just for the sake of adding to it. Some would drop one, others maybe 5 while a few would bring their own inventory. Eventually, 6 becomes 14, 14 becomes 52 and now, the small bin is three quarters full of these dead keys. My own six dead keys are now lost in that bin making them dead keys among dead keys. This collection of dead keys have become a great conversation starter as it invites some mystery as to what lies behind the lock it should have been used to open. The bin holds this collection kown as the Dead Keys Society.