Jargon, Take Me Away

I am most definitely going to age myself here with this reference but so be it. There used to be a commercial for a bath product called Calgon. It was supposed to be used by frazzled moms in order to relax after a crazy day with their kids. The actor in the advertisement would look as if she were losing her mind and would say "Calgon, take me away!"  Instantly, she was taken to a peaceful garden with a bathtub, which was conveniently full of warm water and Calgon, where she was relaxed.  Her insane real world would disappear. Despite the many ridiculous images this commercial produced, which I won't cater to at the moment, there was the idea of invoking some kind of saying that would transport you to another parallel universe where real life melted away.

Oh, how I wish there were a magical saying I could whisper to myself to allow me to be free on nonsense. My personal saying would likely come at work when people say jargon that means nothing to anyone. Well, let me actually clarify. There might be one or two people who understand the jargon but most of the time, I'd have to say people scratch their head when they hear words or phrases used on a daily basis at work. There is a plethora of which come to mind but my brain is now focused on one such saying that I can't even think of the other items.

One thing I deal with at work is data. Data is a big fat mess for the most part. People don't understand what they are looking at or what the data is trying to say. Sometimes data does tell you a story and it's like different versions of the same story. Those differences are often referred to as 'diffs'. I really don't understand what people are saving in losing the two syllables between diffs and differences. I happen to think differences are clearer than diffs. Diffs can so easily sound like 'diss' which is also aging me. And should someone hear that they feel like they are being mocked. Anyway, this is a common word used in my line of work and a small part of me curls up when I hear it and wants to say 'Jargon, Take Me Away!' I'd love to be in a quiet garden reading a book in a bathtub (since I probably haven't had a wasteful, luxurious and relaxing bath in years!) instead of hearing words said for convenience but which always remind me of a Magritte painting showing a pipe that says "This is not a pipe!". You might say these words as much as you like. Heck throw them around as much as you want! That does not mean people understand you or use the word in the same way you are. Just writing this makes me feel better already. Ahhhh what a bath of a blog entry can do to make one's real life melt away.

Signal Interruptions

It has been quite some time and a happy, New Year to all.

The usual excuses will arise for being incognito for a nice chunk of time. The main one of having no time remains true. It's been a very chaotic couple of months with school schedules, work insanity and other factors keeping me from expressing myself. I will vehemently state that this hiatus has been very difficult for me. I need to write and get my thoughts out. When I do not have that vehicle to express my frustrations or pondering, it takes a toll on me emotionally and mentally. One friend mentioned that things that probably would not bother me normally seem to be getting to me lately. The fact that it's been raised by this person a number of times doesn't go unnoticed, trust me.

I decided to take a bit of control in diminishing my anger by staying home today. It's quiet and there are fewer interruptions so it's an easy fix to maintain my sanity when the office environment is less than ideal.

When I thought I could make lots of work progress, I was thrown the monkey wrench of having internet outages. As I worked on a task, midway through the internet connect would drop and I would have to wait until it came back up. This happened all morning long. I called the internet provider company and they said it was an issue in the area. (Uh, yes, it is an issue in the area. Hello? That's why I am calling. Can you tell me when it will end?) Instead of flipping a gasket, I decided I'd work on a blog entry! YAY!

It's easier to get back your concentration when you are working on something you really want to do than on something where you are still scratching your head. Lo and behold, here I am. Venting and being creative in my one special place. :)

Let's hope that the interruptions in signal will cease and that I can make some headway. If not, I'll have accomplished a long forgotten task of posting a blog entry.