the un-rant

last night, i finished my translation for old english. it makes no sense to me, and there is a word in there that cannot be found in a dictionary. two of them, in fact. and another word, which is in the dictionary: "ymb." the entry says: "ymb: see imb." okay. so we flip to the I section of the dictionary, and find "imb." the entry says: "imb: see ymb." yep. it's been like that.

i went to bed a little after midnight, fed up with the translation and calling it good enough. nevermind that it's a choppy, unwieldy beast of a page. it's done to the best of my abilities, and i don't care to spend any more time on it.

my neighbors' cat's suitor woke me again this morning at about three. while last time hasn't yet become funny for me, it has at least lost the sense of strife. it has become "that irritation that happened that night." maybe it will become "that irritation that happened with some degree of regularity." i hope not. this is only the second time.

i woke again this morning at around seven, and prepared myself for school and work. a note about how i spent my spring break might be in order here. during that week of freedom, i came to campus as usual, if not more often. my partner in crime and i equipped the podiums around the building with vga switches so that laptops could be used. it was tiresome work, though it was less frustrating after the wiring made sense. we started on the networking switches next, but did not get to finish them.

this week, no fewer than three users have complained about the changes, saying that things are now confusing. i fail to see how it can be confusing. nothing has changed if the pc tower is being used. there are no switches to flip, buttons to toggle, or anything. everything is set up so that the podium can be used exactly the way it has always been used.

unless...

a user has gone into the bowels of the podium and flipped unnecessary switches or turned things off. there is no reason to do this, but then, there's no reason to tear a remote off of its tail and take it home with you, either, when you consider that the remote only works for a single model of projector that's both old and expensive. users are freaks. what can i say?

so, this week, it was my honor to complete the podium renovations as regards networking switches. during this week, i have been stopped in the hall by no fewer than five users wondering why there are boxes in the podiums. i've told them to ignore them for the time being, and have informed them of upcoming demonstrations on new-and-improved podium use.

today, the podiums were completed in the vga and networking sense, but not in the new [read: no one mentioned that we were going to be doing this when i was working on podiums, so no, of course i don't have it done] sound-for-laptops capability sense. guess i have to go around to all the podiums again, install new cabling, lock down new cabling, and test new cabling. again. this news did not please me terribly.

a user came to ask me a question today about networking in one of the rooms. this user had seen the networking coming from the well [for use with laptops which would be sitting on top of the podium right by that well] and shoved it back down into the podium. then, unlocking the back of the podium and removing a heavy board, this user took the now-loose networking cable, and put it into the computer. to do this, the user took the computer's cable and put it in the switch.

why?

this user then asked whether or not we would be installing extra networking cables for the laptops on top of the podium.

readers. i did a bad thing. a not-very-professional thing. i stared at this user for a minute, likely allowing my thoughts to play across my face. then i told this user that s/he should never touch a cord in the podiums. i told the user that the cable s/he'd shoved down and tangled around was the extra networking cable for laptops, and that s/he'd just undone 30 minutes of my work. that i would be unable to access that podium until 5 today, and that everyone was off duty then. that someone would have to stay after hours to correct his/her stupid tampering with the cords. i then asked the ceiling why users felt compelled to screw things up in this manner.

now, i know this user. we are on very good terms, and i doubt there was any offense taken. in fact, we talked amiably not an hour afterward when we met in the hall. but still. it was a lapse i cannot afford to have again, because it is unprofessional and rude, and because the next user who catches me in a bad mood on a bad day to announce something stupid, irritating, and inconvenient may well be a high-ranking faculty member.

after this, i went to class. i turned in the pos translation and spent the next 80 minutes listening to more badly translated old english as we finished up caedmon's song. why 80 minutes? isn't the class only 50 minutes long? yes, it is. how funny that everyone remembers this except the professor. but getting out considerably late every single class period [and professor knows it, too; even tells us around 2:00} that s/he plans to keep us "a little longer" or [at 1:57] that we'll be getting out early today, by which s/he means 2:05] is only one of the things that have combined to drag today down.

the mini rca splitters were not yet installed on many [read: all but two] of the podiums, and demonstrations begin monday of next week. anyone care to guess who stayed after and put things in order? probably the two people who know the cabling in the podiums. who is giving the demo on monday right before the old english class? could be me. do i work on mondays? no.

still, when all of this is compiled, it isn't something big enough to ruin a day. it's just a bunch of stuff that was tiresome and/or irritating. why did it ruin my day? well, to be perfectly honest, i let it. i've been on edge all day, from the earliest morning hours to now. probably beyond now. i've let ordinary irritations slip under my skin and build up, making it easier to collect more ordinary irritations where normally they pass by.

all in all, i'm very thankful that it's friday, that i can spend my weekend away from all people, that i don't have to think about podiums for two days. and to better facilitate that people-less, non-podium thinking, i'm going to post this thing and let it leave my mind.

love, peace, etc.