rambling update
Oct. 23rd, 2004 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaeclecticThis week was OK, really. Not too much going on outside of work, which is not intrinsically a good thing but has good aspects: I wasn't too harried from trying to run someplace after work every day, so I am pretty well rested. And got to spend quality time with the cats. Still haven't joined the gym at work (waiting until my upcoming training course is over, I think) but this week I actually felt like I could have fit it in without going insane :)
Work itself went pretty well. I managed to produce something for the absurd deadline on Tuesday, which was well received (and actually used! I initially feared they would incorporate my mockups but not use my explanatory text)
Then spent most of the rest of the week creating massive review comments on the rest of the spec. There is an unfortunate schedular twist: The review meeting is on Monday, but I start "boot camp" (two weeks of PSFT tools basic training) on Monday and won't be able to attend. Therefore had to try to do a brain dump to my manager and a couple of co-workers so that they can represent me in the meeting. Just to make it even twistier, the other interaction designer who's been on the project longer was on vacation this week. Anyway, all very trying, but I did get good feedback from my boss on the quality & quantity of my review comments.
Although we agreed that a likely outcome is that they will mostly (all?) become action items assigned back to us: "Great point about the user experience! You guys better fix that!"
Mixed feelings about the whole 'going to boot camp' thing. It's information that I need, and good stuff to learn anyway, and (just like scheduling a vacation) there will never be a really good time. But it still feels like an exceptionally bad time to be out of the loop for two weeks -- the training is apparently quite intensive (8:30 to 6:00 with a 1/2 hour for lunch, and homework! eeep). I'll be lucky if I can read my email, much less answer. So: I'm just starting to get some traction, starting to produce some stuff, figuring out who I need to talk to... and now two weeks will go by with people making decisions that I'll have to deal with, and I won't be around to make my case on any of it.
Anyway, now it's the weekend and I am trying to push all that out of my head for a while. Somewhat deterred by the fact that I left stuff in my office that I should have brought home, necessitating a trip to Pleasanton in amongst the other weekend life-maintenance chores.
Also: finally got a check from AP! woohoo! bills can be paid! (since PSFT pays only once a month, and the end-of-Sept paycheck was only for a few days of work, I've been having a little cash flow stress...)
Work itself went pretty well. I managed to produce something for the absurd deadline on Tuesday, which was well received (and actually used! I initially feared they would incorporate my mockups but not use my explanatory text)
Then spent most of the rest of the week creating massive review comments on the rest of the spec. There is an unfortunate schedular twist: The review meeting is on Monday, but I start "boot camp" (two weeks of PSFT tools basic training) on Monday and won't be able to attend. Therefore had to try to do a brain dump to my manager and a couple of co-workers so that they can represent me in the meeting. Just to make it even twistier, the other interaction designer who's been on the project longer was on vacation this week. Anyway, all very trying, but I did get good feedback from my boss on the quality & quantity of my review comments.
Although we agreed that a likely outcome is that they will mostly (all?) become action items assigned back to us: "Great point about the user experience! You guys better fix that!"
Mixed feelings about the whole 'going to boot camp' thing. It's information that I need, and good stuff to learn anyway, and (just like scheduling a vacation) there will never be a really good time. But it still feels like an exceptionally bad time to be out of the loop for two weeks -- the training is apparently quite intensive (8:30 to 6:00 with a 1/2 hour for lunch, and homework! eeep). I'll be lucky if I can read my email, much less answer. So: I'm just starting to get some traction, starting to produce some stuff, figuring out who I need to talk to... and now two weeks will go by with people making decisions that I'll have to deal with, and I won't be around to make my case on any of it.
Anyway, now it's the weekend and I am trying to push all that out of my head for a while. Somewhat deterred by the fact that I left stuff in my office that I should have brought home, necessitating a trip to Pleasanton in amongst the other weekend life-maintenance chores.
Also: finally got a check from AP! woohoo! bills can be paid! (since PSFT pays only once a month, and the end-of-Sept paycheck was only for a few days of work, I've been having a little cash flow stress...)