me zero…big bad world one…

Jonathan Coulton … Big Bad World One… seems to be my theme for the week. 

Posted a bit for people that need to make Word (and any other Office document) do cool stuff … provided it’s in XP.  Forgot to mention that if you’re running Vista the UAC will keep it from doing a lot. (Here’s a couple fixes for that… I’ll show VBA code when I have time, in the mean time you can check out the use of the impersonateLoggedOnUser API calls here, here, or here – which I’m looking at since it uses psi and the runas for another project). 

Kids are – well the kids… meaning teenagers and filled with a lot of angst at a world that doesn’t seem to play fair.  Always sucks to be a teen, goes with the territory – think it may even be in the manual.  Which it’d be cool if they gave you a manual when you became a teen, or an adult, or for that matter at any time.  Unfortunately – the fact is there is no instruction manual for life, and if there was it’d probably be written by the same people who do the instruction manuals for IKea and O’Sullivan.

Some days, the best you can hope for is just to know who’s got your back, probably the best bit of advice I ever got from a co-worker Microsoft.  “Always know who’s got your back.”, which applies in warfare, program management, and when you’re 17 and the world seems like a very very unfair place.  If you know someone has your back – it doesn’t change the fact that the world is going to suck some days. 

But when the chips are down… some days the only way to get through is to remember you’re not alone. 

On the work front… well… I’m doing documentation.  I love documentation the way Socarates loved going out for a drink with his coworkers.   With any luck they’ll leave the first aid kit unlocked and I can find something to OD on.  Documentation my arch nemesis is for some bizare reason something people keep having me do for them – and I really do despise it.   I would rather be gutted and left as a meal for hyenas than do documentation. 

It’s not that I’m bad it – I’m actually really good at it – which is why I keep having people ask for it.  These docs are for a process that – isn’t well defined and I’m not allowed to define it, which gives me hives.    Don’t ask me to put my name on your broken process.  Grrrrrr… but… I’ve never walked on a contract… and I won’t on this one either but it is sooo tempting some days.  But I may see to it the author of all my documents is listed as Nathan E. Douglas or Roderick Jaynes. 

Once again… I’m trapped in a world not of my own making.  Like a pair of pants from Abercrombie and Fitch life just isn’t working for me I’ve lost the receipt.  Which means of course there’s no way to return it and exchange it for another.

Pretty much the best part of the week was seeing Andrew Kramer had an update to his blog – and some very cool presets for AE I’m dying to look at. 

Second update was seein Tommy Z’s newborn pics… you don’t get a heck of a lot cooler than being the son of a DJ with the Initials Z.Z. (Dude… your son’s got two career choices with initials like that – Rock Star or DJ… it’s like a law or something.)

And that’s all my updates for now…

Hang in there people.  The world may have us down but we’re not out… the world may seem big but we’ve got it out numbered one to five billion.   Personally - I can live with those odds.  

Hey - You’re only out numbered if you stop counting. 

And kiddo… You know I will always have your back… .  ;-)

 

I quit, I'm done
Cause I don't think it's gonna turn out okay
It's no fair, it's no fun
If every time it's gonna end the same way:
Me: zero, Big bad world: one

--Jonathan Coulton, Big Bad World One