it's like waiting for vesuvius and getting a spring shower

So.

Here's what happened.

For about, oh, ten months, I've been waiting and waiting to be at this job long enough to be tenured enough to offer suggestions (luckily, we all move around a lot--ten months is commitment). I'd been, up to now, researching ways to create an online repository for our training and shared materials for testing, since right now its networked and not searchable and in folders and it sucks like particularly repetitive pornography.

Wiki seemed really useful, so Fanlore is addictive in both the fannish-must-do way and the wow-this-just-solved-my-search-for-organization way, and whilst working, I started amassing a presentation to make to my boss. Today, I decided, I would schedule a careful, discreet, fanlore-is-relevant-to-my-work (really, I had that ready) first shot and okay, so I had a speech, she came by my office and looked thoughtfully at our contractor's wiki that I'd opened up, and then she said "Okay."

This is like, forty-five seconds of my life that makes no sense.

I did not even get to take out my impressive spreadsheet and offer to do a presentation! I had a plan. It involved powerpoint and a wipeboard and at least forty-five minutes with a laser pointer. It involved actually making an argument.

I have no idea what to do now that I've gotten my way.

(I can't even tell if it's that she thinks it's a good idea or that she's getting worried about leaving me alone with a computer and all those interfaces to the database and the linux server active and ready for use.)

*blank* I have to contact the server persons and arrange--something. I don't even know what. Apparently, he is going to be really excited to do this with us. Which basically makes me terrified. I am used to being the excited one with other people quailing in fear.

So. Disturbed.

ETA: *shaky* Environmental management just emailed me. They sound happy. They want an outline of what I'm looking for so they can set it up and get it started. I need to lie down.

(ETA 2: WHY IS NO ONE ASKING FOR AN EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE TO RESEARCH THIS FOR TEN YEARS? I AM IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.)

Comments

[seekergeek.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry for the brain sprain you've had here, but I honestly found this hysterically funny. *giggles*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The laws of God, man, and bureaucracy preclude practicality. The server guys were contacted! There is an email in my box from my boss cc'ed me to the server people! This is not natural!

*lies down* God. I don't even know what to do with this.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I am really sorry, but:

helplessly laughs at you

You're kinda awesome :D

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I know this is a ruse or something. I can feel it. Government does not work this way.

There's email in my box. My God, the server people have been contacted.

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that your supervisor thinks that you are perfectly capable and your word is trustworthy? Because if she does? Hold on to her tightly. Those are the supervisors who are worth their weight in Kona...

~L

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I dunno. When she saw the live login to the linux server a while back, she started getting nervous. *Chews lip*

[omglawdork.livejournal.com]

Wait. A Texas state agency is going to let someone do something useful and awesome with a minimum of fit-pitching? WOW. Go you!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I don't really believe it either. This is some sort of trick. I just--don't know what kind yet.

*stares* I had templates ready to show the awesome.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

...they emailed me to send an ER so they can do start up. I have a horrible feeling I may have a wiki by the end of the day.

This is surreal.

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

YOU ARE GETTING YOUR WAY.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*blank* They emailed me to turn in the ER so they can do set up. So they can do set-up. This is not my world.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Careful now, this is the kind of stuff they use to try and promote you past usefulness. *eyes you* Watch your back.

Also. *AHAHAHAHAH*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*whimpers*

[queenydiva.livejournal.com]

LOL, you MUST work for the government! Either that, or a really large corporation. Hilarious! :DDD

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It's just so disturbing. Something--unwholesome.

[hilarytamar.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way: your splendor has reached such heights that you haven't adapted yet & don't realize you've evolved beyond the need for presentations. Your ideas are just self-evidently good, you see, and your boss, being a discerning woman, acts accordingly. In short: (see icon).

[leupagus.livejournal.com]

See, this was going to be my argument, too, but Professor Tamar has illustrated it much better than I could have. Way to go!

[brownbetty]

This means fanlore is going to lose you to documenting the minutiae of the bureaucracy, doesn't it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

No, but doing both I may actually get competent at it!

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

I think they may have sensed that it involves extra work on your part and no extra money on their part. Only that can explain it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant.

[norah.livejournal.com]

That's a little bit what it felt like when I moved from government work to a private nonprofit. WHAT IS THIS BRAVE NEW WORLD WHERE YOU CAN GET SOFTWARE JUST BY ASKING AND PEOPLE GIVE YOU RESPECT?! But then I took a government contract....they're trying to pay us half the money for twice the work in half the time, as opposed to what we had originally discussed, and they've re-written the contract and budget seven times this month. AND THEY SAY YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*sad* Yep. That's the way of it.

[vofpracticality.livejournal.com]

lol. Thank you for the giggle. But I am so totally waiting for the other shoe to drop. There has got to be a catch......

[seperis.livejournal.com]

YES THIS!

[rensreality101.livejournal.com]

*reads your post*

Do you suppose Lex Luthor has days like this?

Like Lex shows up at the lab armed with a powerpoint presentation and a briefcase full of blackmail material. But as soon as the words 'kryptonite robot' are uttered his entire staff swoons, gives him gleefully manic smiles, and rushes off to begin building.

Of course your boss and coworkers could all be pod people. ;)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I am leaning toward pod. FIRE! I NEED FIRE!

(Wow, coudl that be misinterpreted. *g*)

[celli]

<3!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*chews lip in fear*

[svmadelyn.livejournal.com]

I am so proud right now.

And terrified.

But mostly, proud.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

(THEY ARE TRYING TO DRIVE ME CRAZY.)

[apple-pi.livejournal.com]

OMG THE POD PEOPLE HAVE OBVIOUSLY REPLACED THEM.

Srsly, you work for the government, right? OR YOU THOUGHT YOU DID.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I will be the first to kneel for teh jackboots of our overlords who give me something fun to do at work.

(HELP US. WE THINK THE PODS ARE IN THE MYSTERY BATHROOM DOOR.)

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

STOP.

SIT DOWN.

BREATHE IN.

BREATHE OUT.

NOW IN AGAIN.

and listen to me. you are forgetting a crucial law of the business jungle, which is: Your Boss Does Not Understand Computers. Anything You Propose Which Sounds Vaguely Technical Will Be Accepted, the important coda being: So Long As Your Boss Is Not Required To Learn Anything In Order To Use It.

wiki is easy. wiki is shiny. wiki makes sense.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Three years ago while I was a caseworker, I could not get pens or folders. PENS AND FOLDERS.

THIS IS NOT MY WORLD.

...this is true, however. The business world does operate on How to Make Boss Ignorance Work For You.