Arontius of Bygelswade

.....Warning! Whiney post ahead! And I'm not even going to put it behind a Live Journal Cut to spare everyone, because I'm in that kind of mood. :-)

.....There are times when I get home from work and open my e-mail and begin to get really jealous of all of you who can a.) access their personal e-mail all day long, b.) have the time and capacity to answer said e-mail, and c.) access AND post to Live Journal all day long. After a day of chasing Wild Geese for the Federal Government, I find that I'd rather chase some wild geese for the Barony, the SCA and various friends who seem to be having a lot more fun than I am.

.....What makes it more frustrating is that I sometimes get hints of things at work via an e-mail or two from Her Excellency Brighid or Mistress Gwenllyn, just enough to tantalize and tease. But when I actually get to read the entire thread I'm reduced to the point of saying, 'Me Too! Me Too!', which is VERY UNFULFILLING!!!! :-)

.....There is nothing that anyone can do about it of course. I wish that the government would trust me enough to allow me to access my e-mail. I mean, I know what virus e-mails look like. I give the government a free hour or two of my time every single work day, so it's not like I'm stealing any funding from them. Hell, I'll even pay for the energy it takes to run the damned computer. Just let me have my e-mail!!!

.....O.K., it is cathartic just writing it out. I'll surf this wave of jealousy and move on to the next angst. :-)

.....Yesterday was an interesting day of contrast at work. I sat in on a teleconference between my Shipyard management and the Admirals back at NAVSEA in Washington, D.C. The Shipyard, like a lot of government entities, is trying to make ends meet with less funding than ever before. Ship's still break. Accidents happen. The fleet is still aging with fewer replacements for what it does have. Our workforce is growing older, with not enough trained replacements waiting in the wings. On top of our already heavy workload more and more work keeps getting added.

.....What I found interesting was listening to these Admirals in D.C. basically tell our management to stop with the excuses and get the work done, get it done right, and get it done now. There were no suggestions on how to acquire additional resources or funding. Just 'get it done'.

.....I watched our managers squirm in their seats, wanting to state the obvious, but reduced to saying, 'Yes, Sir'. I could sympathize as they themselves put me in that same situation every day with my own workload. I didn't empathize with them, but at least I understood how they were feeling at that moment.

.....Only one more wake up before the weekend. Huzzah!

.....Aaron / Arontius.