Yeah. Odd, odd, odd, odd day. The entire crew was in super early today, which meant my work area was loud most of the day. My desk is located in the “crew room,” the technician break room. Had the lights turned off on me once because a tech had some down time and wanted to take a nap. Lots of chatter. People were in there from the time I came in until dress rehearsal began.
I’m not used to that.
Normally, it’s a handful of day maintenance people that are in that early. They’re normally very busy that they don’t use the crew room unless there’s a drafting project to be completed. Today, however, I felt like I was on I-15 at rush hour. I’d get up to speed and then have to put the brakes on again because something else came up. That, and the video gods were conspiring against me. I gave up on the video project about 15:00, mostly because I didn’t have the block time or correct tools to work on it. Instead, I opted to bring it home since I know how easy it is on my Mac.
"At Least I Tried" by Hugh MacLeod
There was an impromptu meeting around 13:00. I got some good information on it, although I wish the communication would have been there earlier in the day. On the other hand, I did receive a nice compliment from a coworker today. This person approached me and said, “I could never do your job. I can’t stand chasing after people for information. It’s like you’re the teacher asking the students for their homework and hearing that the dog ate it.” I had a good laugh over that because it’s mostly true. No matter what industry you’re in, documentation somehow becomes a four-letter word loathed by all who hear it.
On the way home, I stopped at In-N-Out Burger to feed my impending inner coder, video editor, and graphics artist. The guy at the window asked if I was a teacher.
Apparently the universe thinks I need to be an educator. Training people is actually in my job description, but I don’t think this is what is meant by teacher today.
Since 18:30, I’ve been editing video for work, creating logos for Libraries & Transliteracy’s logo contest, and finally writing this blog post. That makes me a very happy geek.
Halfway through the week, which means tons of meetings from noon until 4:30. Somehow I managed to squeeze lunch in there. The first meeting was the weekly technical meeting. After that the meetings all centered around the file restructure. Got some great advice from two coworkers on keeping the project moving along. Based on the feedback from the people involved, I updated the structure and identified problem areas — and the folder names that will need to be standardized (Works in Progress or Projects and Tasks?). I really wanted to have this segment of the project completed by now. I’ll be satisfied if the entire project is finished (including new file security structures and file movement) by the end of my contract. Crossing my fingers since I don’t like to leave projects unfinished!
Yep. That was the day. It moved too quick to be much more interesting than that!
In other unrelated news, my video poker winning streak broke (nickel and dime games). Thanks to Mr. Man, I’m learning. Still up $7 overall, but no winnings today. I’ll have to try again this weekend.
Tuesday. One day after Monday. Last work day of the dark (dark = no shows) period before a dry tech run and then a dress rehearsal on Thursday at 4 p.m. [All ticket proceeds to benefit Mississippi Community Fund.] Not much has changed in the way of tasks, but I have the added fun of meetings today. I won’t bore you with the minute details like yesterday. Instead, today’s post is the equivalent of a highlight reel.
First thing when I made it into work, I realized that the ceiling tiles had not been fixed. Before I even crack open the laptop, I find a ladder in order to make them right — and less dangerous to walk under. I fix the five misaligned tiles, return the ladder to the carpenters, and continue with the email and ongoing verifying documents task.
Lunch is scarfed down, and work continues until 2:00. A coworker who is participating in the file restructuring (yep. We’re trying to make the file structure reflect the show’s operation and make it easier for the end users — taxonomy, IA, and Ux all rolled into one) meeting shows up (yay! Another set of eyes and ears!), but the other person is delayed due to a show element being returned from a vendor. We get started about a half hour late, but the meeting goes well. One department is now ready to be sent off for final approval.
Schedule the remaining department meetings since no one else got back to me by last night’s deadline. I end up making two “house” calls to avoid the email ping-pong match. One person can have a meeting in a few minutes, but the other I’m not so lucky. He’s leaving for for the day and has a few days off starting tomorrow, so it will need to wait until next week. Another one is left unscheduled because of conflicts, and that will need be sorted out tomorrow. In many ways, this sucks because I wanted to have all of the department document structures solidified by August 1st. Now, I’m not sure that I’ll make that deadline.
On the other hand, my coworker was still here and I had her look at the structures to ask questions and blow holes in the weak sections. She’s a very insightful lady, and extremely good at what she does. A few flaws were found, and she helped figure out some universal names for folders where I was struggling. Yay, teamwork!
And remember the scissors I borrowed from yesterday? Yeah. They broke while I was cutting a sample. Cheap plastic hinges. I owe the props team a bag of candy to help fill their toolbox of sweet magic.
The land of documentation is an odd place. The position is seen as a blessing (Yay! We found the document / drawing / photo that we needed!) or a curse (What? We need to have meetings? We already know where everything is in this pile…). There are days like today where the HTML would look like this if I was coding a web page:
It’s hard because I am the sole documentalist on this show — which is a luxury for the team — yet hard for me since I don’t get to see the people in my department that often. Don’t get me wrong: I am supported, but that little bit of face time often goes a long way to fostering new ideas and solutions. Somehow you keep trudging through because you know in the end it will make documents easier to find and update. That one little bit of praise and appreciation during the day goes a long, long, way.
Welcome to the annual foray into Library Day In The Life [LDITL, or #libday5]. Some of you may remember that this happened almost exactly a year ago on this blog as well. This, however, is actually the fifth global installment of LDITL. Personally, I still work for the same company I did last year, and yes — it’s still a circus. Literally.
Harmon Hotel by Gunther Hagleitner
8:00 Alarm goes off. One cat decides that he needs to play king of the mountain for five minutes until I make him move so I can get ready for work. The other cat decides that he needs attention. Right. NOW. Meowing and weaving between my legs as I try to retrieve clothing from the closet. Apparently he was trying to tell me he wasn’t feeling well. Yep. Hairball morning. Yay. Clean the mess, shower, and drive to work in humidity (anything above 10% is humid in Las Vegas!).
10:15 Arrive at work. Place the laptop on the dock, and start it up. Realize the external second monitor is not responding. Undock the laptop and reseat it. Success! Read emails and drive replication reports.
10:45 Answer questions regarding the versioning of CAD drawings and their names. Send the manual to the tech who was asking so it’s a point of reference. Also suggest contacting the Vegas CAD Specialist for further help since I’m not trained in that software.
11:00 Receive follow up phone call from a company whose webinar I attended last week. Tell company we’re still in evaluation phase and not looking to buy (truth) to make the phone call quick. Offers to send some white papers to keep on file.
11:05 Turn on Last.fm to keep the motivation going through the document audit. Yep. Still working on updating all the needs for our fire permits. Seven 2″ or 3″ binders full of documents to verify. Currently working on binder four and quickly running out of sheet protectors and binder room again.
12:00 Don the jacket. Why is it that all buildings in Vegas freeze you out in the summer and roast you in the winter? Realize that my laptop is showing a network synchronization error. It’s an IE file… not necessary. Delete. Problem fixed. Back to the audit.
12:30 Try to track down content specialist for one of the element. Need the paint and construction materials from them so I can complete the index and find the necessary supporting documents. The tech has all the info except for one piece. Unfortunately the rest of the department is out on days off (the show is currently dark and transitioning to a new show schedule), so it will have to wait until tomorrow.
13:00 Sift through MSDSs for the show element. Realize that there are way too many different types and mixes of gold paint in the show — 5 types of spray paint, and this doesn’t even include regular brush paints or gold leaf.
13:30 Focus wanes. Decide to eat lunch. Catch up on the morning’s news and some information in the Google Reader. Also explore booking a long weekend in Sedona, AZ.
14:00 Continue the audit. Lose count how many times I’ve run to the printer. I’m single-handedly destroying a forest (hopefully sustainable) and wondering the cost of the toner I’ve been using. Do you know the cost per gallon of black ink? Stuff pages into page protectors.
15:00 Begin assembling the physical binders. Proceed to crash MS Word and Windows Explorer by impatiently trying to do a search for a missing item. Restart the computer.
16:00 More of the same. Realize that someone has thieved my scissors off of my desk when I go to cut a material sample in half. Thief also took my good — and only — mechanical pencil. I work in a semi-private area. The only people who usually come in there are the show crew and cleaning crew. Do a nice, long rant on Twitter regarding said items. Search for the missing items. No luck on the scissors, but I do find the pencil. Borrow a scissor from the props department. The same task carries on until…
18:00 … All of a sudden it sounds like a windstorm is coming through the room. Realize they’re running the stage lifts, and I think they’re moving pretty close to full speed. It creates a weird airflow, causing the ceiling tiles to rise and fall. Manage to catch the tail end of one of the pressure changes with Qik:
Yep. As you can tell by the aftermath of tiles hanging precariously from the ceiling, it was time to go home. Packed up, locked up things so they didn’t grow legs overnight, and said, “Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” Walked to parking garage and went home.
19:00 Home, dinner, job searching since my contract expires in two months (!), and starting research for two applications. Play with the cats, and write this blog.
Since I work indoors, it was pointless for me to use this product ever day. I ended up using it mostly on weekends when there was much more of a chance of me being exposed to the sun (more than driving in a car). Yep. Garage parking in Vegas so I don’t even have to go outside all that much in order to get to work.
The product? Sunblock.
The Brand? Neutrogena.
Application area(s)? Face, neck, ears.
Although it’s super lightweight, for my fair skin it was too lightweight. I would sweat it off out here in the 110º Vegas heat in about a half hour and still receive a nice little burn. Mind you, I’m so pale that I’m out in the sun for 15 minutes without protection and I receive a nice burn. So I was constantly reapplying. And reapplying. I used the remains of the first bottle during 3 days at the pool, and am almost done with the second bottle a few weeks later. I’d rather have a cream sunblock than a liquid since it would hold up to my active lifestyle much better.
I’m still unsettled that sunblock needs to have little balls inside of it to help mix the formula. I know that since it’s on the market it’s safe, but all I can think of every time I hear those balls rattle is that these chemicals really can’t be good to place on my body, especially around my eyes, nose, and mouth. That’s something that I never got over from my initial reaction.
I’ve been able to tolerate the smell.
I’m sure for every day use under makeup it’s great, but I’m not a huge makeup wearer, and my facial moisturizer already contains SPF 20. My skin is also very sensitive. The week that I added the additional sunscreen, my skin became much more flakey around my nose and I had a small break-out on my chin.
On a scale of FTL to Meh to FTW, it receives a Meh/FTL for the fact that it’s not long-lasting.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the product mentioned above for free for review purposes from Tidal Labs. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
