Hangover!

RantWoman ONCE in her entire life went to work with a hangover. Why is RantWoman thinking of that occasion today?

RantWoman is usually kind of a drag to go drinking with. RantWoman tends not even to like the brands of beer she can afford. RantWoman likes other forms of alcohol a little better, but she still tends either to fall asleep or start to get that dry-mouthed dehydrated feeling after about half of a normal single serving of alcohol. Partly because of all this, RantWoman very seldom manages to down enough alcohol to know the following day what a hangover is.

The one exception to this was one summer. RantWoman's birthday fell on a Friday night and even though RantWoman was due on shift at a computer center in the morning, RantWoman went out dancing. The music was good. The dancing was good. The people she was with were fun. RantWoman was even enjoying whatever brew was on tap. RantWoman danced away a respectable portion of the night, went home, slept and bounded her youthful self out of bed to go to the computer lab.

RantWoman's varied careers in tecnical support included many memorable moments. One time she had to suggest to the professor in one of her very own courses that the problem about his password getting rejected was that he had the caps lock key on. Another time she had to suggest to her boss's boss that probably the external modem (that's how long ago this was) would work better if she turned it on. RantWoman had to start teaching products two days after she started learning them. RantWoman performed many other feats of public service and information. So what was the problem, besides an undiagnosed hangover?

The day after RantWoman's birthday started like any other day. Then RantWoman got to work and discovered that all of the computers in the lab had been swapped from PC's to Macs. The key software MOSTLY worked in nearly similar ways, but definitely not all. Even worse, RantWoman got no notice and of course no training except what she had already picked up working on similar equipment in other places on campus. And RantWoman's head hurt! And the hordes of people visiting the lab were all working urgently on Important Projects.

RantWoman sat down. She took stock of the sudden change and the lack of training and the hordes of demanding customers. RantWoman fired off one of her trademark incisive ruthless plainspoken Emails to Management. RantWoman had not yet learned she should set her sarcasm filter on heavy.RantWoman certainly did not realize that the pounding in her head might possibly be responsive to humble therapies such as caffeine. RantWoman just knew that Management Needed to Know!

After penning this triumph of communications, RantWoman finally went off in search of something fizzy and caffeinated. Between the catharsis and the caffeine, RantWoman felt much better. This time, RantWoman suspects she probably took more heat for communications style, but Management did notice and did do something about this so RantWoman considers the effort ultimately a success.

So why is RantWoman thinking of hangovers today. RantWoman is writing a budget for a project and some of RantWoman's collaborators think the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing should have a whole bunch of kind of specialized hardware. RantWoman is not in the least opposed to specialized hardware. However, RantWoman thinks it would be good to provide for training and time to train the people who are going to show other people how to use this hardware. RantWoman thinks if the Friendly Neighborhood Center... bought one less gizmo, there could be enough to buy some training and trainng time for the people who will support it. At this point RantWoman thinks a hangover would be more fun than arguing about it, but....