Work and Pirates...

[curiouswombat]

Work has been hectic since I went back on Monday.

I walked into my office and went "That's not my computer!"

My black laptop had been replaced by a shiny silver one... "Ah," said office-mate, "we've been upgraded to Windows 7 whilst you were off."

And it seem the person from the tech dept thought the easiest way to do me was just to give me a new Windows 7 laptop - except that they didn't do anything about transferring links, icons, programmes... I switched it on and once logged in to the intranet there was a screen with nothing on but the recycle bin - my links to my diary, patient notes, etc. etc. are all missing.

So it took until about 10.00 a.m to get some of that restored - then they discover that they needed to make a programming change in the data base that covers a lot of the delivery of equipment to patients to make it compatible - and they hadn't done it. That took until Wednesday.

That was on top of the usual pile of letters and the 20+ messages on the messaging service - oh, and those included a message to say the messaging service would also be updated in the next week or so, sometime, and all our outgoing messages would be wiped... whenever they did it... sometime. Yeah - thanks!

In the middle of all this, of course, I had clinics to run, home visits to do... I think I need a week off to recover!

You might have thought it would figure in my nightmares, wouldn't you? Seems not. I woke up before the alarm this morning with a song in my head and I've been singing it all day. I came down and told S2C what I woke up singing, and he thought it really funny that, clearly, I had been dreaming about Gay Pirates.

I was humming it when I went up to 'head office' this afternoon and kindly shared it, via Youtube, with a couple of the main office staff - who fell around laughing, said they may never look at me the same way again, and were humming even as I left.

I think you should all share with me - so here is Cosmo Jarvis -

Yo! Ho! Sebastian!

Fans of Tolkien may never think of the Corsairs of Umbar in the same way ever again.

Come to think of it - Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean, um - you might not see Legolas without thinking Yo! Ho! Sebastian either.

Comments

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Eeee! I love that song so much and haven't seen or heard it in a while now. Thank you.

And sorry that work is messing you up. At least they gave you a shiny new laptop. My work laptop is ancient and was scheduled to be replaced a year or more ago, but money-saving measures and all that... And when I do finally get a new one, it will just - as always - be someone else's hand-me-down. *sigh*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yo Ho Sebastian! It's a pity it isn't International Speak Like a Pirate Day rather than St Patrick's really.

Given a few weeks I will doubtless adapt to the new stuff - and the shiny new laptop is, well, very shiny! I'm pretty sure it really is a new one.

I do occasionally do bits of writing in my breaks at work, file it under 'Writing' in a file on the hard-drive rather than in the documents file on the intranet, and then e-mail it to myself at home. I am wondering, now, what the last thing was that I wrote at work as it will, logically, still be lurking on the hard-drive... that might amuse either the tech department or whoever gets it passed onto them!

[shirebound]

except that they didn't do anything about transferring links, icons, programmes...

*sigh* Glad you've been singing anyway!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

In theory they were going to send someone to spend the day, or even two days, in each base as they did the upgrade to help us adapt and sort out problems. In practice someone arrived when there was only one out of four of us in the office, said 'Can you log off, I want to do something to your computer', was there for about an hour and then left - with my old laptop under his arm!

But now everybody in our office is singing - it's very catchy.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I've never heard that song before!

Glad you're slowly getting sorted out in work.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a gloriously silly song - even if it does have a sad ending!

We'll get sorted eventually - but somehow I just haven't had time to do more than 2/3 or what I intend each day.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Ack, what a hassle! But at least you have a shiny new machine to work on.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The oddest thing about the shiny new computer is that as it is 17" widescreen it has a number pad to the right of the keyboard like a desk top one would.

This means that, for the first time since I got a computer at work and my own laptop at home (10 years or more), the 'delete' key is not the furthest right on the top row - that is now 'page down' - so I keep wandering around the page whenever I make a typo!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

LOL I'm glad you didn't have nightmares and woke up humming Yo Ho Sebastian. I had never heard it, but it is indeed a glorious silly song. Thanks to introducing me to it.

Once things get sorted out, you'll like Windows 7. I do. They should have organized the move better, though.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have Windows 7 on my own netbook so, although I have Vista on this laptop, it's not totally new to me - and I think I'll adapt well - but the lack of my entire work-related desk-top was a bit of a shock.

I am happy to have introduced you to Gay Pirates - now I can imagine you, all those miles away, singing exactly the same thing as I am! Yo! Ho!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

It would have been a total shock for me too.

Yo! Ho! *g*

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

This song has put me in a much better mood, so thanks for that!

I read somewhere that going on holiday can be as stressful as moving house -- seems in your case it's been more the coming back to work.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have this wonderful mental image, now, of you in the Netherlands, me in the Irish sea, Estelcontar in Argentina all sing Yo! Ho! Sebastian! more or less in unison!

Yes - the week off was relaxing - but the return to work was most certainly stressful.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

That is an insanely catchy song!

That's pretty much how computer updates work at my workplace too. You just randomly find different software occasionally, and when you call IT to ask about getting to your missing programs, they tell you "Oh! It's been upgraded". I am a little jealous that you guys get a modern OS. All our computers at work are still running windows 2000. Of course I still have coworkers muttering darkly about missing MS Dos, which just recently went away...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a gloriously silly song - even if it does end with the two lovers being thrown overboard with their hands tied!

I'm not sure what we were running on before - XP I think. The new system will be fine once I get used to it - although it also has Word 2007 which I have never really taken too - but I will have to now, I guess.

If only they had, as promised, made sure, one by one, that we had everything transferred before they went on to the next person - our wee corner houses four nurse specialists and all of us have our own work stuff which is more or less unique, so a general "Here, have a new laptop and just plug it in" really wasn't cool.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Some years ago I did a brief consulting stint at what was then the stock exchange in California (it's since been swallowed by the big American stock exchange). They did something similar. Over one weekend, they did all these upgrades to the systems, including giving me a new computer without doing anything to switch over any of the case investigation/adjudication files I had been working on! Weeks worth of work ended up down the drain because they couldn't be bothered to track down the computer I'd been working on. Of course, I was partly to blame because I'd been saving my work in progress to my hard drive and not to the network, but I felt (and still do feel) that, as a consultant, what the client is entitled to is my finished product, not my gibbering thoughts and notes that mean nothing if they aren't interpreted by my brain. I am positive I wasn't the only one who saved things to my hard drive until they were complete. The corporate mind is a mystery, though. Grr!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Quite a lot of my stuff was on the intranet, but there was stuff on the hard-drive as well; mainly so that I could use the laptop, as intended, to take out of the office on occasions. Super-tech person has, somehow, restored that to the hard-drive of the new one for me, from his office about two miles away - such are the wonders of modern technology!

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

See, now, that's the kind of thing they're supposed to do --- back up a hard drive onto a big network before they trash the computer. Thank goodness your people know that, although I've got to say that just about every organization but the one I was consulting for probably understands that --- they were so disorganized!

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Yo! Ho! Sebastian!

Arrr!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I really should have waited until International Speak Like a Pirate Day... Yo! ho!

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

I love that song, even though it's rather sad. Great ending, though!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is so sad - and yet such a wonderfully memorable and singalongish chorus!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Hilarious song!

I'm going to share your upgrade woes with Franklin so he can feel all superior to your IT people; he stands between his usersand the people who think dumping all files is a good idea, or rebooting the entire server farm in the middle of the night won't hurt anything- when some of the files his people run take 72 hours to compile.

But all your patient notes? YIKES!

Julia, good grief.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

One of my colleagues says that the company who had the contract to maintain all the computer stuff are losing it at the end of this month - and that the guy who came to do "all the necessary" was from them. So really not bothered. And I can imagine, if this is true, them deciding that declaring some of the old laptops redundant, and giving us new ones, would be a good way of making that last bit of money from the contract.

Fortunately the guys we ring up to say "I have a blank screen, all my links and even all my favourites have gone!" actually works for the department and so was willing to sort it quickly!

Because yes - leaving a nurse with no access to her patients' notes - really not clever.

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Computer upgrades at work can be so frustrating! They're great once everything's the way you need them, but in the meantime....

I've never heard that song - what fun! (Though sad as well.) I think I need to repost it to my journal, if that's all right?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The compters will be fine - once they get the glitches sorted. The latest one had three of us puzzled for an hour yesterday as one of us found she couldn't upload letters sent from the hospital electronically ito the patient's notes. The IT guys wanted her to try on a different computer, one of us to try uploading something of ours on first our computer and then hers... finally they sent a nice young lady down to our base to actually watch and try for us.

She realised, in the end, that the secretary had a version of Word that was incompatible with the programme that handles all our community records since the upgrade was done...

As for Cosmo Jarvis - of course feel free to upload the Gay Pirates to your journal.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

One pirate video deserves another:


It's so frustrating to have things not work or be where you expect. Hope it's all sorted out soon.

P.S. Speaking of things that don't work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IAUZ-0zXzI

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hee - I like that. The reason it wouldn't embed is that you can't embed in a comment, only a post. I can see this would stop a journal page becoming unloadable by the actual 'owner' depending on their internet connection.

Most of the computer stuff is getting there - but it has slowed us down, just as we were adapting to having all our notes held electronically.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

My sympathies; I hate suffering upgrades at work!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It'll doubtless be fine when it's sorted - but somehow the people who decide to upgrade, and the people they send out to do it, have little idea what individuals actually do with these computers apart from use them to write letters, I think...

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

What a pain about the computer.I hope it is soon sorted.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We're nearly there - but it is so fiddly.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

At least Windows 7 seems a lot better than Vista -- once it's all setup and everything's transferred over.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it'll be fine - once they get their head around the fact that many of us outside the IT department are using programmes not written by Microsoft and so it might need a few adjustments done to make everything run smoothly with some of these specialist programmes!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Being a Mac user in a Windows world, I know exactly what you're talking about!

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

*marvels*

I've never come across that one before - what a wonderful piece of theatrical imagery...

But what a sad song! It's a good job the rhythms were upbeat or I'd be sniffling over my keyboard now.

Best of luck with the new work beast, and what a d*** to hand it over without actually seeing about transferring the contents! That's like a supermarket trolly-boy offering to pack your groceries, then loading empty plastic bags into the boot of your car.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's a brilliant piece of theatrical imagery - shot in their local village hall. And you are right - the song itself is really sad, the last lines have been known to give me the sniffles - and yet you find yourself wandering around the place singing 'Yo ho! Sebastian, I want to love you good...' - well you do if you're me, anyway.

In the office this morning everything I wanted actually worked. We're getting there at last!

I think I need a Yo! Ho! Sebastian icon....

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that song! Sad though it was.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, too. It is such a wonderful mix of joyous singalong and sad story.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

Watching the video again, I realised it was filmed in a village hall here in Devon; and that Cosmos Jarvis lives in Totnes, only about five miles from where I live!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I really love the idea that the video is all done in the village hall - and so close? You could become a fangirl... :~)

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

Heeee - icon! That was quick.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hmm - I'm not 100% happy with it - I think I might tinker later!

[calizen.livejournal.com]

You need a lot of silliness when Windows 7 is dumped on you. (I speak from experience)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was more the way it was done that was the problem - I'll adapt, no doubt.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

"That's not my computer!"

Oh, this post has plunged me back into the exhaustion I was just climbing out of! I have to say that our IT people seem to be rather better than yours, but it's still traumatic when they introduce something new. Have you got everything sorted, and got used to Windows 7 yet?

As for the song -- waaaaaah! Get it away from me!!!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's pretty well OK now - although I finally found time to work through he tutorial - only to that on page five of al least 20 I only have a 'back' option and no 'forward' one - so I might never finish it!

I've just about stopped singing Yo Ho Sebastian by now - but it has taken me a while!