data makes the world go round...

Why is it that so many people seem to believe that keeping a tech person in the dark is the best way to get a problem fixed?

Maybe it's just that I'm a sharing kind of person (in some cases, possibly over-sharing). But dammit, when a customer wants their problem fixed, they never seem to give me more than one-line describing the problem. No example of how they got the problem, the data they used, the example that takes place.

Seriously, an extra five minutes on their part saves me an hour on mine and they get their problem solved sooner.

I am not a mind-reader, and I really dislike being expected to read minds.

Insert your own horror stories of people who said "this isn't working" and then failed to specify exactly what wasn't "working".

my time of freedom is at an end

So, for the last six months (or thereabouts) I've been sketchy on the 'steady work front'. I'm still employed and paid (salary, thank you, God), but they've been handing me bit-work, and my utilisation rates are waaaay down. I even missed out on the yearly bonus because of my utilisation rate. (tremendous irony: last year, when my utilisation rate was 126%, they didn't pay a bonus because it had been a bad year; this one, they pay a bonus, and my utilisation rate is below 50%. Ugh.)

On the other hand, it was excellent in timing for moving into a house, getting all the house things done, and just settling in. Basically perfect.

I've found myself feeling kind of...weird, lately, though. Restless and despondent and struggling to do anything. I want to flop around on the floor like a fish out of water - or a six year old in the throes of overdramatic despair - and sometimes doing anything is an effort.

I have wondered if it's a case of the SADs (probably not helping) or post-purchase depression setting in (I bought a house-on-land: it's going to be pretty big depression), and yeah, these things probably have some effect on my mood.

Add in the mid-life crisis (pink hair streaks: still cheaper than a fast car and less embarrassing than a twenty year-old boy-toy) and I wasn't really looking forward to winter. Except for hockey. Which is looking...kind of doable this year. (More about that later.)

Well, work has a client for me now: until May, which isn't as long as we'd like, but it's an area I have some familiarity with and can learn some new things, it's accessible by public transport, and it's regular, daily work.

Which means less time to fuss and fluff around with the garden, the quilting, and my writing (which was kind of at a standstill until we got to the December gift-fic period anyway), but eh.

That'll do, pig. That'll do.