When The Metrics Don't Measure Our Pain

When IT Problems Defy Logic

There are days when a knotty IT issue becomes every bit a Gordian knot. Every which way you try to untie it, your efforts face a dilemma that seems insoluble, bordering on totally impossible.

The limits of your expertise are tested by situations that usually defy logic or comprehension. You could almost hear yourself wondering whether your analysis stands the test of cogency and a proper understanding of the issue.

Finding Compromises

I offered to help two colleagues with some intractable problems. In one case, we found a useful compromise, having identified the bottlenecks and eliminated the drag created by unreachable links embedded in an active document.

The other was a tougher proposition, not made easier by a user who was a serial tinkerer, effecting unauthorised changes to his device. Then, with shadow identities resulting from a poorly implemented user lifecycle process, everything that could go wrong did. This contrasted sharply with the better setup and possibly more docile cohort of our wider user community.

Grasping at Straws

Each time we thought we had something that explained the problem, the apparent lifeline turned into clutching at straws for dear life. A walk out in the cold did not progress matters. I have now shared the conundrum with a wider technical group, and they are probably just scratching their heads without offering the succour of knowing our pain.

The Metrics Game

It is in the midst of this that the management team expects us to close incidents to fulfil a numbers metric, without any notion of the background effort that goes into issues we simply cannot resolve promptly, conclusively, and confidently. Tomorrow is another day.

A Lighter Note

Meanwhile, I have been thinking along with Brian about suitable collective nouns that anyone can remember and make good sense of. We started with a Bambi of deer and quite likely a Nemo of clownfish. I also fancy a Shaun of sheep.

A Google NotebookLM AI Podcast on this blog

Lazy January is a call to change

Resolved not to resolve

I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions quite a while ago, not out of the lack of discipline to stick to a resolution but for the fact that the self-flagellation that follows any such decision is more brutal and guilt-ridden than necessary.

Whilst times, dates, and seasons offer much to reflect on and deliberate with some self-awareness of the lacking and the possible, any day can be chosen to resolve to do anything without becoming a hostage to fortune.

For instance, some people have attached themselves to the Dry January campaign, the resolve to keep the month alcohol-free until I saw some making exceptions for one thing or the other, and soon, the dry had become wetter than a fish in water. Exceptions and adjustments matter in terms of the inadvertent or the unexpected, the ability to accommodate variance makes for a better-rounded personality.

Stepping off the steps

However, it was when I checked my Huawei Health app to see if I was doing something as regularly as I had somewhat thought of doing but in the review was hardly even getting anywhere that I realised I have had a Lazy January. I had only exceeded 10,000 steps twice in the month, I could not bear to step on the weighing scales to see the numbers and I have gained a bit more to the circumference of my midriff as my belt would appear to suggest.

This is not what I expected as I had reached my lowest weight in over a decade just some 4 months ago. I have to do better, as my resting heart rate has increased and my blood pressure is reading numbers I have not seen in a while. Just some exercise should fix that.

My maternity issues again

The other cause for concern is anaemia because of Vitamin B12 and folate deficiency (Yes, we all need folic acid, not just pregnant women.), this is something that appeared in the bloodwork from about 5 years ago. Not enough of it is getting in from my diet and the risk of peripheral neuropathy with its otherworldly feel is so strange. The feeling of intense pain at the back of the hand with numbness in the phalanges, and yet you can move your fingers with all dexterity, I might just give my doctor a call for injections instead.

One thing I have meditated about and quite resolved to do is to get back to walking again. Any dog that dares to approach me I will rebuke in the name of Jesus, I have no time for being nice to dogs out of control. Those who as I saw this morning seem to think their XL Bully dogs do not need to be on a leash and muzzled as the law requires are soon to have a tragedy of many proportions.

Let’s get to being fitter and healthier, for no other reason than it gladdens the heart, and you feel hale and hearty. We are consigning both the Dry and the Lazy January to the dustbin of irrelevance. Just be good to yourself loving yourselves each day.

Related Blogs

Blog - Resolutions unlimited (December 2003)

Blog - Happy New Year - 2007 (January 2007)

Blog - New Year's Considerations (January 2008)

Blog - Folate, I must, lactate, I can't (June 2017)

For a better year

Perspective is focus

For a long time, I have abandoned the idea of New Year resolutions as they box you into a corner of aspirations that never meet expectations and you are on a downer after that, beating yourself up about the seemingly unattainable pretending to the easily achievable with a large deficit of unnecessary angst and regret.

As I have 10 days from my birthday to the end of the year, I do at times contemplate a few things; an assessment of the year past, much gratitude for how the year has gone and a few thoughts for what I want to do in the year coming.

Emotions cloud space

Recently, there has been too much emotional traffic in that slip of the year, birthday into Christmas, into anniversary, into New Year and all it entails, I have hardly had the quietness of time, mind and space to do anything, I have been on a roll that to attach any significance to any day might well be counterproductive, because you start reckoning and find there is nothing in the reckoner.

There is a process of acculturation that is going on in two hearts, a kind of understanding that a clash of two cultures brings with it considerable baggage weighing down on immediate plans, the lodestar, and the centre of it all is the commitment we have to each other that we are learning to grow in more considered and enduring ways, this is a long-haul business.

Pandemic changed world

What is quite evident from the way the pandemic has strangled opportunity and accessibility is the failure of global leadership to arrest its hold. If only the world had Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown for this pandemic as we did for the global financial crisis, rather than Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, I believe we would have had a better grip of the pandemic and less impact on our lives.

We are where we are now, we need to make the kind of choices that help through the situation so we can eventually take advantage of the circumstances. In my view, the world of work has changed so considerably, remote working is part of the deal and the ability to shift the home to any place on the globe is very much on the cards. In the world of talent and expertise, try as politicians and employers may, the national boundaries and domains would have to diminish in favour of the virtual world. This might even feed into the much-vaunted metaverse construct.

To the better

It is what I hope to exploit better and fully for the next stage of my career which is closely linked to crucial domestic arrangements and other things that would emerge from it. I find I have not done enough of a lot of things that I need to do more of; reading, listening, learning, travelling, exercising even loving, it has been crazy, and I have just pulled through by sheer grace, grit, grunt, grasp – anything that has given me a hold.

What is always a work in progress is the quest for a better me, that never stops and looking at the year ahead, there might just be things that change for that to happen. I cannot seem to switch my mind out of countdown, I guess that is how time works; at one point you think you have a lot of it and then, you have little left. Without promise but holding on to faith, hope, and love, 2022 will be better. I can work with that.

Service does involve being serious about providing it

Hoisted by Houst

When Brian arrived on Friday, he tried to sort out a few issues with our apartment on Saturday, like he was able to connect on WiFi he was getting no Internet connection and getting a spare set of keys. Once again it showed why it is preferable to book hotels with apartments rather than AirBnB-type arrangements though this was presented on my Hotels.com portal where I have been a loyal member for 8 years.

Our apartment in a complex is managed by an agency called Houst that seemed to find ways to exhibit levels of intransigence and incompetence, this will not be the last word on the matter. Whilst they have garnered many 5-star reviews, the length of the 1-star reviews is well over half of the 5-star ones, with negligible reviews in between. This is indicative of probably an outfit that excels despite themselves and underperforms with deliberate urgency.

Brian’s call should have elicited a response email, a reference number and some idea as to when the Internet issue would be resolved, none of which happened. When I arrived late on Saturday, after attempting a call, we decided it all best dealt with on Monday.

Quick to the buck

Today, we began with the need for a second set of keys even splitting it into having just a key fob for the main gate and the entrance to the apartment block, to no avail. A hotel would easily have provided a second set of keys where there was more than one guest. It just pointed out the indolence of the agency.

On the Internet matter, I was having none of the nonsense about having not connected properly, this simple networking situation is my bread and butter, it has been for almost 30 years. As I suspected, I contacted the Internet Service Provider (ISP), the account for our apartment had been suspended for the non-payment of bills.

It might not have been the responsibility of the agency to pay that bill, but they should have taken on the responsibility of checking all advertised services were in working order before accepting guests. Nothing is as irksome as to find that you have been short-changed by unprofessional and inattentive outfits quick to the buck but slow at the muck, it just sucks.

Fixing it ourselves

At a point, I did consider paying the bill to get the service back pronto, though it would have taken 24 to 48 hours to restore the service and we were already in the 4^th day of a month-long stay. Eventually, we decided on getting a MiFi dongle with oodles of gigabytes to play with and connect up to 16 devices. This immediately solved the Internet access problem, and if the apartment eventually gets the service restored, fine.

As we were going out, we saw the Building Manager’s office, but she was on the phone. On returning, I had a word with her, and she said I could have a key fob for a deposit to be returned on our departure. If Houst had bothered to Know Their Customer and the apartment they were letting, this information would have been present either for them to have spare key fobs or inform guests of that availability. My honest opinion is the service Houst provides or my experience leaves much to be desired.

At the end of 6 email exchanges where my views were clearly and forcefully expressed without losing my composure or courtesy, their last response was a boilerplate dereliction of service. “Thank you for your message. I will pass this on to the host and keep you updated.” I am not holding my breath on any improvement on their part. Never again is my consolation for any new booking and hopefully when we get our places and need to have them managed by an agency.

It is behind us and we can enjoy our holiday and time together without the frustration of dealing with atrocious customer service.

New Year's Considerations

Greetings

To all my readers, friends, well-wishers and not to forget my detractors – I bear you no ill – I wish the very best of 2008 – the dawning of a new year bring the realisation of hopes, the strength to meet great challenges and a willingness to end the year well beyond what you have ever thought you could achieve.

Consideration not resolution

I was chatting to my friend who came over from England who smokes like a chimney, even Santa Claus would refuse to be blackened by the soot in this vertical tunnel – he had no resolution to stop smoking but he had consideration.

I have long opined that resolutions are too strong a stricture to apply to our weak will-power and resolve, however, maybe considerations are better.

You can break a resolution but a consideration means you are thinking about it without the self-flagellation and self-loathing that accompanies being unable to do what you "resolved" to do.

My considerations

And so, I have a few considerations, first of which is to manage the issue of my romantic failures, I have been unfortunate in relationships in 2007 – I know what I do not want in a relationship, but as usual one gets confused about what one wants in a relationship – I am learning.

I have a gym membership that has been running for years, maybe it is time to visit, you used a palm-print and pin-code which showed your picture to get through the turnstiles, hopefully, my palm has not evolved into a non-descript identity-less fossil – that would put paid to one area of forensics.

Professionally, there are a few irons in the fire including the possibility of a new role at the company where I am a consultant – we should see how that pans out by the end of the month. Meanwhile, I might get on the certification track of Microsoft again, after 9 years – just for the fun of it.

Blogging, not an English word

Blogging would continue as usual and hopefully with more vigour and enthusiasm, sometimes one is caught up in blog-think but unable to write anything down – been having too many of those lately, might have to try writing shorter blogs; that would be difficult.

I am surprised that blog, blogging & blogger have yet to make it into the standard English dictionaries of word processors – they must be lagging behind the times.

Finally, without having asked the permission of my outrageously handsome baby-face brother – Gosh! I’m jealous – He sent me a text message written in SMS-English but I would transcribe it to traditional parlance – to wish me a Merry Christmas and I cannot but share his words here.

Be it,

Climbing to Attain,

Running to Obtain,

Walking to Retain,

Or Standing to Maintain,

You shall be extraordinarily distinguished,

Amongst Millions.

A few more of those people on earth and what a wonderful place this blessed planet would be. Thank you brother, love you lots.

Happy New Year! Everyone – Hopefully, you have all recovered from the excess of the two nights before, if not, you need a resolution more than you need a consideration.