My Brain is Full!
Jul. 27th, 2006 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuI've had one of those days at work. Nothing horrible. Just...there's the myth that computers and software are consistent, and then there's the reality.
I've done countless DMOs (that's 'data mining operations' for you unenlightened types) in our database software. I've pretty much mastered the technique. So why is it that this week I've been beating my head against the wall trying to get this one DMO to function properly? I tried everything I could think of, to no avail. I had our IT person (also thoroughly versed in the database software) work with me. No dice. She couldn't figure out why it wasn't working either.
I fired off an email to the help desk at Helix. Got a return email with a suggestion--it didn't help. So I got on the phone with Teresa (the woman who works with us most of the time) and we fired up a web session wherein she can see my desktop and what I'm doing. Nope, no mistakes. We did eventually figure out a work-around that got me the information I needed, but as for why the query didn't work as it has always worked before? Beats me. Beats all of us.
Then this afternoon I've been struggling to beat a spreadsheet into shape so I could merge the data fields into a Word document. I thought I'd succeeded, only to find that several columns were full of bogus numbers. I don't know how that happened. I struggled with it for quite a while, trying to track down the problem(s) and annihilate them.
I think I have. The merged documents look right. The numbers appear to add up. But I won't officially call it done until tomorrow morning, when I can look at it with a brain that doesn't feel like I threw it on the floor and stomped on it.
Now to go home and make dinner. And eat dinner. And then, later this evening, go running. I'd go running immediately upon getting home except I can't. I have to make dinner--if I go running first, dinner would be too late for my lovely and talented wife's schedule. I could cook dinner and then go running, but by the time I got back it would be cold. So I'll go make dinner, eat dinner and then probably go for a run about 8:30 or 9.
'Cause this is one of those evenings when I really need a run to blow the cobwebs out and get my blood pumping so my brain doesn't feel so...sludgy.
I've done countless DMOs (that's 'data mining operations' for you unenlightened types) in our database software. I've pretty much mastered the technique. So why is it that this week I've been beating my head against the wall trying to get this one DMO to function properly? I tried everything I could think of, to no avail. I had our IT person (also thoroughly versed in the database software) work with me. No dice. She couldn't figure out why it wasn't working either.
I fired off an email to the help desk at Helix. Got a return email with a suggestion--it didn't help. So I got on the phone with Teresa (the woman who works with us most of the time) and we fired up a web session wherein she can see my desktop and what I'm doing. Nope, no mistakes. We did eventually figure out a work-around that got me the information I needed, but as for why the query didn't work as it has always worked before? Beats me. Beats all of us.
Then this afternoon I've been struggling to beat a spreadsheet into shape so I could merge the data fields into a Word document. I thought I'd succeeded, only to find that several columns were full of bogus numbers. I don't know how that happened. I struggled with it for quite a while, trying to track down the problem(s) and annihilate them.
I think I have. The merged documents look right. The numbers appear to add up. But I won't officially call it done until tomorrow morning, when I can look at it with a brain that doesn't feel like I threw it on the floor and stomped on it.
Now to go home and make dinner. And eat dinner. And then, later this evening, go running. I'd go running immediately upon getting home except I can't. I have to make dinner--if I go running first, dinner would be too late for my lovely and talented wife's schedule. I could cook dinner and then go running, but by the time I got back it would be cold. So I'll go make dinner, eat dinner and then probably go for a run about 8:30 or 9.
'Cause this is one of those evenings when I really need a run to blow the cobwebs out and get my blood pumping so my brain doesn't feel so...sludgy.