i find comfort in spreadsheets

An unsettling realization came over me after a glorious day of lots of work and not enough time to do it and madly reading over my scripts and arguing with people about how to word each step.

My laziness seems to be inversely proportional to how much work I am given to do. Today, I was in a good mood because I had actual work. It's a revelation! I have a bad feeling I will walk in tomorrow and try to commandeer the regression project, because it's messy and impossible and will make me cry and I will stop hating life and surfing youtube too much. I mean, I'll hate life, but in a much more active and cheerful way that involves coffee being necessary and railing against the perfidity of government work. I mean, that's fun. Make work is not.

See, here's the best part--we now have to track and itemize our time by what specific government program whatever we are working on relates to so the correct federal departments are billed the right amount. This led to a marvelous hour with Excel and designing an itemized spreadsheet to track my productivity throughout the day. There are three different thicknesses of line and six colors so far and I'm trying to negotiate a way to increase it to four dimensions (arrays yay! No, no idea how the hell I'll do that in Excel) so as to itemize both in amount of time worked and at what time it occurred with blocks set for environments going offline and meetings that directly relate to, but do not necessarily intersect with, above mentioned departments.

I feel less viciously capable of systematic destruction.



Okay. Picture this.

You say to the tech persons--Query for an active case with a single parent, at least one child, and the child receives Medicaid! And lo, bring it forth to me in list form so I may choose one from among many.

For those who are not up with social services, I just asked for air. This is the most common program combination you can get. I can randomly enter a ten digit case and have a pretty good chance of falling over one of these. This is not hard.

So swirl it a little and ask for the same thing, but the mother is on WHP (Women's Health Program). This is like asking for water. It is not hard to find.

So imagine my surprise when they query the database, I get a lot of foster care cases.

Huh, methinks. But a lot of people query, so maybe he just attached the wrong list of cases! I ask again.

I am pleased to note that it expanded to children on Foster Care and the elderly with SSI. A strange and disturbing absence of single parent households. Or like, parents.

Now, so I am only vaguely understanding of the sql. I read up on it in general and our database tables in specific. But I'm thinking--crazy thought--that when one asks for a case with Children's Medicaid, one gets just maybe one of those. By accident, even.



The ways of tech are mysterious.

Now.

I need someone to recommend me a nice book that will give me the basics on sql commands for database query. As tomorrow I am going to talk my boss into giving me access and permissions to the database and I have brownies, so he'll break. Then I will pull the decision table hierarchy and discover how anyone can look for a state medicaid case and fall on top of a federally funded SSI and think they are the same thing even though they have this neat clearly labeled code that are kind of deeply different.

I have a plan. I am happy.

Currently Re-Reading

A Modest Proposal by resonant8, dS, Fraser/Kowalski, because I totally feel Ray's sense of determination. Or maybe it's just that damn hot.

Happy.

ETA: The language spoken above is not so much geek as bureaucratese. Adjust your thinking accordingly.

Comments

[dine.livejournal.com]

I have found that there's nothing more exhausting than spending hours trying to look busy when there isn't enough real work to fill the time. that's far harder than being uber-productive for 8 hours.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. It's just--I mean, I am fantasizing about when I was a caseworker and in those days I was mandatory overtime, some mandatory weekends, and some mandatory holidays.

Yet there was job satisfaction, though far less pay. *sighs*

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

The period of time when I need to look busy and yet have no work are the times I write. And I tend to get a lot done there. Which is disturbingly fun.

~L

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*grins* I have written at work, but usually when we are in aday between busy periods, so to speak. An entire day of nothing to do jsut makes me sleepy and grumpy.

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

Because I the area I work with is the East Coast, I get into work at 0600. And the work tapers off at 1300, so I have 1.5 hours left in my day that I have to fill. I try to write during this time. At least until Daylight Savings Time flips again. Then I'll have just a half hour. I am actually looking forward to that.

~L

P.S. I found a video for you. That song that was stuck in your head earlier? Here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

we now have to track and itemize our time by what specific government program whatever we are working on relates to so the correct federal departments are billed the right amount

You know this is a job for Access, don't you? Any time you get into more than 2 dimensions you're going to make the baby Excel cry.

I need someone to recommend me a nice book that will give me the basics on sql commands for database query

I'll check tomorrow if you haven't got one yet -- when I need to know I just check with my husband's brain.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Technically, Access would be better, but the spreadsheet is for us to keep track to later feed into the actual tracking program. Yes, that saddened me too. *sighs* Though I am still tempted.

[lifesscar.livejournal.com]

I'd rather work a 13 hour shift busy as all hell than work even a 4 hour shift with nothing to do.

It has something to do with the insane need to be productive while getting paid.


Then I will pull the decision table hierarchy and discover how anyone can look for a state medicaid case and fall on top of a federally funded SSI and think they are the same thing even though they have this neat clearly labeled code that are kind of deeply different.

Complete and utter lack of coffee.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I blame Folgers.

[lifesscar.livejournal.com]

Folgers poisons the soul, like glass shards in your dinner.

[wynddancer.livejournal.com]

There is nothing like doing work to make the time pass quicker at work and to make me, anyway, happier at work. I love to work when I'm at work. Otherwise, it's a waste of my time and I could be at home cleaning my house or doing something else productive! It's a large part of why I'm switching careers. Normally, I'd spend 2 hours working hard, 6 hours "goofing off", every single day unless it was during one of the quarter's busy periods, which lasted approximately 2 weeks every 3 months. Drove me up the wall, back into grad school, and before I quit, I got to spend 6 hours a day on school at work (cautiously). See I used to work for a city in a lab and you weren't supposed to do anything but work, especially on the computers but there was nothing else to do but surf and study! In some ways, I miss being paid $20/hr to study but in a lot of ways I don't either (hostile, bullying coworkers too).

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yeah, my last one I studied a lot, but even then it got tiring.

[mrshamill.livejournal.com]

I need someone to recommend me a nice book that will give me the basics on sql commands for database query.

I wear a t-shirt that says the following:

> SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0

0 rows returned

Modify accordingly.


Okay, okay... MrHamill says MySQL by Paul DuBois and my God have mercy on your soul, or something along those lines. Have fun. I don't DO software.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hmm. *marks down*

...now I am afraid. *eyes MySQL in fear*

[grammarwoman]

Honestly? There's a lot of good SQL help out there on the intarwebs. Well, there's also a lot of shitty help, but it's a pick'n'choose world.

SQL is deeply satisfying language to learn. It's all about relationships and joining, along with discrimination, segregation, and exclusions, kinda like life. Unlike life, though, you can twist it to your evil purposes and never have to worry about hurting people's feelings.

...Wow. I think I just scared myself there.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*glazed eyes* I think I've read that porn....

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Unlike life, though, you can twist it to your evil purposes and never have to worry about hurting people's feelings.

Except if you do a cartesian join. That hurts a lot of people's feelings. (Most notably the person who does it because others mock them.)

[amy13.livejournal.com]

please see icon.

;)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*eyes it* That has to be too easy.