Bullshitters and Incompetents
Posted: Wed 26 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 3 Comments »I’m off for a meeting tonight in London – the same private website I’ve been working on (and occasionally ranting about) over the last month or so.
It’s all ended up being consistently last-minute, with no real organisation, and a whole bunch of clowns who say they can do their stuff, but so far that conceit has been repeatedly disproved. Which, as regular readers may have noticed, drives me utterly crackers. I know it shouldn’t, that I should be used to it by now, but well, I’m not.
You see, I come from this background where if I can do something, then yes, I’ll shout it from the rooftops. I’m not overly good at being modest – but when it comes to this stuff, I’m bloody good at what I do. And if I don’t know how to do something, then I either a) find out, or b) say “No, I don’t know what you mean by that”. Which seems – to me – to be a pretty sensible way of dealing with life in general.
So when other people tell me “Yes, we know what we’re doing, we’ve done it before”, I tend to believe them. And then I get pissed off when it turns out that actually, they’ve no fucking idea what they’re talking about. Particularly when, by doing things wrong, they then fuck up the stuff that I’ve written already.
Yet somehow it’s me that’s in the wrong. I don’t know if it’s because I just get on and do stuff without fucking it up, or just that these people expect me to talk as much bollocks and bullshit as they do, but if I get pissed off at their incompetence, it’s my fault. I haven’t figured the logic of that one just yet. Maybe I’ll let you all know when/if I do suss it out.
And in the meantime, what’s the best option? Do I just assume that when people say they can write websites, or do certain types of code, or – well – anything, really, that they’re actually lying, and thus utter cunts? Do I save myself the time and stress, by just assuming that everyone else is incompetent? No, probably not – because then I’m just stereotyping, and last time I did that I got accused of being patronising, because I simply assumed that the person I was talking to actually didn’t know what the shit they were talking about.
It’s a no-win situation.
Maybe I should just not let myself get stressed by fuckwits and bullshitters. Yeah, like that‘s gonna happen…
New Paradigms
Posted: Tue 18 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, D4D™, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »Recently I’ve been very impressed by a certain aspect of two businesses – I hope it’s a sign of some companies who are beginning to grasp the power of the Internet, Google, and websites – particularly blogs, review sites and so on – but primarily I guess it comes down to Google.
The first instance involved a company called Game Tart. A while back I wrote two posts about them, as I’d been disappointed by their service once the initial trial period had expired. Anyway, the MD of GameTart obviously checked the Google results for the company name where, lo and behold, d4d™ is at about number 13. And then he left a comment on one of the posts. To me, that’s pretty impressive – I know it doesn’t take a whole load of work, but all the same, it shows a level of effort that, for example, B&Q‘s management have never bothered with.
The second instance occurred last night, and instead relates to Wheres Good. Someone had added a review of Pokeno Pies in Brighton although they’d added in an incorrect price. Again, one of the main people in the company had done a google search, where, yes, Where’s Good comes in at about number 18, had checked the review, and then emailed me to a) thank me for the review, and b) to ask to edit the price. Again, that’s pretty impressive – to me, it’s great to see companies that are getting the idea on this internet stuff, and beginning to realise how much a few simple pieces of effort can reflect positively upon them.
Overtime – Outside
Posted: Mon 17 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »One thing that was good about yesterday, and having to do the work on that site is that the wireless network I banged on about last weekend held up just fine, and meant I could spend the day sat out on the patio, writing web pages and so on, instead of being stuck in the office upstairs.
So really it didn’t feel hugely like work, although obviously my brain was overheating and working overtime still. But it was still a definite improvement on being sat indoors on a day like yesterday.
Once we’ve moved, a decent wireless network is going to be an absolute requirement – and probably an “outdoor room” so I can use it all when the weather’s good, should I end up primarily working from home…
Overtime
Posted: Mon 17 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »Well, Sunday was mainly taken up with finishing the first version of the site that reared up to annoy me last week. It took most of the day, but at least it’s completed now.
There’s still a lot to be done, and this version is just an alpha version, for people to look at and bang around on a bit.
But at least it’s got the people off my back for now, so my will to live is kind of back on track.
Hallelujah.
Resolutions Update
Posted: Sat 15 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2006 Resolutions, Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »Way back at the start of the year, I wrote out a list of things I wanted to do this year. That list was as follows :
- Photography
- Macro Lens
- Portfolio
- Talk to Agents
- Submit work to various places
- Join local camera/photography club
- Look at potential for “proper” photography qualification
- Work
- Get the three main sites up and running
- Make them successful
- Keep track of how they do
- Reassess in Jan 2007 – if they haven’t worked, kill ‘em
- Get more smaller sites done and paid
- Writing
- More “proper” writing
- Longer pieces for d4d?
- D4D
- That bloody sweary filter.
- Installing WordPress 2.0
- Photoblogging?
So – where are we, as it’s more than halfway through the year?
- Photography
- Macro Lens – nope
- Portfolio – nope
- Talk to Agents – nope
- Submit work to various places – nope
- Join local camera/photography club – nope
- Look at potential for “proper” photography qualification – nope
So, Zero out of 6. Not good.
- Work
- Get the three main sites up and running – two of three, and other ideas too
- Make them successful – getting there
- Keep track of how they do – yes
- Reassess in Jan 2007 – if they haven’t worked, kill ‘em – nowt I can do yet
- Get more smaller sites done and paid – yep, two so far, and more on the way
Much better – this one’s working out so far.
- Writing
- More “proper” writing – nope
- Longer pieces for d4d? – nope
Another Zilch
- D4D
- That bloody sweary filter. – nope
- Installing WordPress 2.0 – nope, and not going to
- Photoblogging? – nope, but may come up elsewhere
And another one.
So at the moment it’s really not looking all that good for the list. I need to get my finger out a bit, don’t I? I know/hope that once we’ve moved, things will calm down a bit and I can get on with some of this stuff a lot better. But well, for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Change of Direction?
Posted: Fri 14 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Depression, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »There are some time periods where I really do love working on websites, and getting everything together in the way it should be. Sometimes those time periods are months, sometimes they’re only weeks, days, or even hours.
Currently I’m not getting any of them at all. The combination of the current “proper” workplace (which uses one of the loosest definitions of the word “proper” yet known to man) and the current set of external clients has conspired to bring me to a point where, frankly, I fucking hate what I’m doing.
No, I guess that’s not fair. I still enjoy hacking about with sites, HTML, CSS, databases, SQL, and all that crap. I do enjoy – even love – doing that. I know, I know, that’s incredibly sad. Don’t knock it.
However, the people described above are conspiring to make me hate the work side, the people I work for, and bosses in general. That’s not really anything new, if I’m honest.
But all the same, right now, when I’m looking at a weekend of shit work, because some fucking idiot who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and has brought their site launch forwards by two fucking months, and when the crap is at least neck-high (and rising) at work, and it just makes me want to jack it all in and say “Screw it”. I don’t tell them how to design a fucking house, yet they seem to see no problem in telling me how to build a website.
In fact, in my lunch-hour today I was doing a lot of thinking, and I’m pretty sure that the next job I get is going to be one where it all either works out and comes together, or I have to look at either a) going back to being self-employed (although that still leaves the issue of fuckwit cunt clients) or b) going for a complete career change – perhaps still doing my own websites like Wheres Good on the side, in my own time, but not actually working on websites full time at all.
And to be honest, I’m not exactly happy about being pushed into a position where that seems like a smart way of developing myself.
Email Resurrection
Posted: Mon 10 July, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »Gah, one of these days I’ll change my job title to “System Administrator”.
Following on from Arsehole Boss’s spectacular fuckup of the email server migration on Friday, it’s fallen to me to try and get back all the archives from the previous server.
And, amazingly, so far I’ve managed it. I have a complete set of emails for everyone in the company, all sat on my PC, ready to be sent up to the new email server. And, of course, I’ll then delete all of that information from my PC. *ahem*
Some small tweaks still remain to be completed – but for the moment, progress is being made. Which is novel.