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Today is one of those days that I really hate my job. I'm not frustrated with DataGuy (he's on vacation) or MoneyGuy (who hasn't said more than half a dozen words to me since arriving).
I hate it because this is one of those days when I'm made to know how unimportant and petty what I do is.
For instance:
A customer in Montana is obsessed with search engine optimization. He reads blogs on it then pours over his website looking for places where it doesn't comply with what he read. I've told him over and over that to raise his Google position, he has to have links on other, similar websites that point back to his. His response: could we put a link on our website. Yes, we could, but I don't want to. Doing so implies an endorsement (which we don't offer our other customers) and in any case it won't help him, since our two industries aren't related.
Another customer, in Detroit, complained bitterly that the logo on his mobile website is wrong. I'm not sure how that's possible, since I took it from his present website verbatim. No matter, he says, it needs to be updated and sends me a new logo. The new logo is nearly identical: there is a slight difference in the gradient on the Chevy bow-tie. It took me a full minute to spot it.
They're paying the bills, so I do it. I lay back, spread my legs, and dream of temperate weather while they fuck my corpse. Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel right now.
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In other, less morose news...
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The Big Server Move of 2011 is done, more or less. Our contract with our former host is up, but they haven't shut off access yet so I'm going through the servers, grabbing off stuff that belongs to me. On the new host, there are a few features that don't quite work yet, and I'm looking for workarounds. Other than that, all seems to be well.
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Seamlyne is doing very well, much better than I anticipated. July was a record month - over $1600 in orders. Keep 'em coming folks.
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The temperature at Osage was about 90º on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to do some cleanup on the yard. The goosegrass, crabgrass, plantain, purslane, and carpetweed are doing exceptionally well while the bluegrass is dormant from the heat. I took the weed trimmer out and cleaned up the fence around the gardens and along the sidewalk, and then mowed as best I could. The front was easy, since only the margins for about twelve feet were the grass and weeds tall enough to be able to see my path; I quit when I could no longer tell where I'd mowed and where I hadn't.
So, the yard looks better, though my legs certainly don't. There were chiggers in the tall grass that coated my legs as I trimmed, and in a patch from the line of my sock up about 6" my legs are covered in red, itchy spots. Covered. It looks like chicken pox - in some places the spots are so numerous and close together that they can't be individualized. Yes, it itches, but it's manageable.
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One of the first indications that a restaurant is letting its standards slip is when the corners of the expensive leather-bound menu are held together with scotchtape.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a rare day with Jami at his grandparents' house and Katie home, so we took the opportunity to take her out to dinner. She wanted Chinese food so we went to Bo Lings. For years Bo Lings has had a reputation for up-scale food and service, a reputation that to my mind is no longer deserved. The food was pretty generic, the service was for shit. We could have eaten for a third the price and gotten food just as good, if not better, from the buffet at the end of our block.
I hate it because this is one of those days when I'm made to know how unimportant and petty what I do is.
For instance:
A customer in Montana is obsessed with search engine optimization. He reads blogs on it then pours over his website looking for places where it doesn't comply with what he read. I've told him over and over that to raise his Google position, he has to have links on other, similar websites that point back to his. His response: could we put a link on our website. Yes, we could, but I don't want to. Doing so implies an endorsement (which we don't offer our other customers) and in any case it won't help him, since our two industries aren't related.
Another customer, in Detroit, complained bitterly that the logo on his mobile website is wrong. I'm not sure how that's possible, since I took it from his present website verbatim. No matter, he says, it needs to be updated and sends me a new logo. The new logo is nearly identical: there is a slight difference in the gradient on the Chevy bow-tie. It took me a full minute to spot it.
They're paying the bills, so I do it. I lay back, spread my legs, and dream of temperate weather while they fuck my corpse. Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel right now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other, less morose news...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Big Server Move of 2011 is done, more or less. Our contract with our former host is up, but they haven't shut off access yet so I'm going through the servers, grabbing off stuff that belongs to me. On the new host, there are a few features that don't quite work yet, and I'm looking for workarounds. Other than that, all seems to be well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seamlyne is doing very well, much better than I anticipated. July was a record month - over $1600 in orders. Keep 'em coming folks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The temperature at Osage was about 90º on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to do some cleanup on the yard. The goosegrass, crabgrass, plantain, purslane, and carpetweed are doing exceptionally well while the bluegrass is dormant from the heat. I took the weed trimmer out and cleaned up the fence around the gardens and along the sidewalk, and then mowed as best I could. The front was easy, since only the margins for about twelve feet were the grass and weeds tall enough to be able to see my path; I quit when I could no longer tell where I'd mowed and where I hadn't.
So, the yard looks better, though my legs certainly don't. There were chiggers in the tall grass that coated my legs as I trimmed, and in a patch from the line of my sock up about 6" my legs are covered in red, itchy spots. Covered. It looks like chicken pox - in some places the spots are so numerous and close together that they can't be individualized. Yes, it itches, but it's manageable.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the first indications that a restaurant is letting its standards slip is when the corners of the expensive leather-bound menu are held together with scotchtape.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a rare day with Jami at his grandparents' house and Katie home, so we took the opportunity to take her out to dinner. She wanted Chinese food so we went to Bo Lings. For years Bo Lings has had a reputation for up-scale food and service, a reputation that to my mind is no longer deserved. The food was pretty generic, the service was for shit. We could have eaten for a third the price and gotten food just as good, if not better, from the buffet at the end of our block.