I’ve been having a Bad day. I’m glad to be home, in a secure, soothing environment at last, just Newt by my side, and my sweetie in my heart. I had to wait an hour and a half for some of the folks to arrive, and they didn’t have a clear idea of what they wanted, and the late, clueless parties were unapologetic to the folks that were made to wait. This is my Saturday, and my time off….don’t waste my time, and don’t blow it off as worthless. At least I got to catch up with Jen about her kitties and had other conversation I could make. I did get a parting shot in, though… “Next time I’m made to wait like that for a meeting, I’ll be billing for my time.” (Which I’m sure confirmed Lisa’s opinion of me as a man.) I really, really, really pity that woman. I understand why she is the way she is… but taking out your anger with one or even a few bad men in your life on *all* men, including me… one who is just trying to be a nice guy is a bad idea. She has a lot of anger inside, and is willing to spray it on anyone that crosses her path. Throughout the meeting she was uncooperative, snippy, and a negative amount of help, and in my mind, had no utility at the meeting but to slow it down, and make it less pleasant for everyone. Same woman I was concerned about dealing with earlier today.

That aside… I implemented some changes for them tonight, after the meeting which took up about another two hours of my time. Optimized databases, set up a few custom reports, no real heavy duty programming… but I did have to replace one of the network cards, too. I did it gratis and after completing it, I made the statement about billing with an aside to Jen about not appreciating Lisa’s remarks, attitude or timing.

Ugh… done griping. Dinner will be nice. I have a nice pasta salad and tasty pseudo-chicken patty waiting. suppertime!

From Rebecca –

Public Service Alert! This morning I received a piece of spam claiming to be from EBay, informing me that my ‘order had been completed’ and my credit card would be charged if I did not cancel the order by going to a website and filling in some information. This is a fraudulent attempt to gather personal information (and maybe even your credit card number).

If you receive this Ebay Spam, do not follow these directions and do not respond to it. Note that the URL the spam directs you to is not an EBay address. Note that EBay auctions do not work this way. Remember that you may dispute any charge on your credit card. Report it to SpamCop or report it to Ebay Fraud, if you are a member. (Unfortunately, there is no way to file a complaint if you are not.) Or just delete it. And inform your friends about it.

I slept very well last night… Hit the sack fairly early after reading. Thick, deep, Russian sleep. The sort of snooze I think I’d get if I was put into one of those cocoons for sublight space travel.

A question posed to me today… “Notice that the Crate & Barrel store sells neither?”

http://technoerotica.net/mylog/optouts.html (If you don’t use nopop software… and why aren’t you? – this kills a large number of the pop-ads, under and over)

Also – Marvel Comic legend John Buscema dies .. I haven’t been this sad about an artist going since Curt Swan passed away… his work on Conan and Hulk comics were a frequent part of my growing up, as much as Swan’s Superman.

well, enough procrastinating… time for a shower, shave and spruce up for the meeting.

Women in distress meeting today at 2. I’m going to sit down with them, work out what they want and figure out pricing. (I hate that part. Pricing charities is hard for me.)

This might be a continuing gig for me… Lots of little one shots because they don’t want a full-time guy. Either way, it gives a little pocket change and is for a good cause… I’m always nervous meeting some of the ladies there, though. A few are just so damaged…I have to walk on eggshells. I can’t sound too sympathetic “what would you know?” or be too cool “Like you care!”. The best bet in that situation is to keep quiet, and wait for one of her friends to shift the social gears back into a safe-zone. It’s a variant on office politics that has never been a good time. I can understand helping these folks out, but placing them in the “client communications” side makes more sense than tossing them in the business end.

I’m thinking it’ll just be more form design and minor db programming.