It's Been A Long Week

A few people have noted that I have been less prolific this week, and I have to apologize because there's been a lot going on which, unfortunately, it would be in poor taste to share with everyone directly. However, there are some commonalities that I can discuss and/or rant about. But it hasn't been all bad - just time consuming and inefficient, for the most part.

If you've emailed me this week and I haven't responded, please accept my apologies. I'm still digging my way out of a deep hole of email.

Email as a Communication Medium

One of the main problems of email communication is the main problem of humans in general - the inability to communicate effectively. Even if you can write very sensibly, you are not guaranteed that people can read sensibly. It gets more complicated when people are more interested in their own personal agendas and egos than the overall good of a project. In three instances this week, I have been encountering this sort of inertia - and oddly enough, in the same manner.

It disgusts me.

Some people only feel good about themselves when they belittle others, or when they belittle the ideas of others. Usually, this is manageable because it is usually associated with a certain level of incompetence. Those that feel threatened usually feel that way because they feel that they are inadequate in some respect - and therefore, they must prop their egos on the failures of others, and where there are no failures, they must create artificial failures or even the perception of artificial failures.

Usually, such people are limited in the height to which they can ascend. Yet the higher they ascend in an organization, the more difficult it is to ignore them. And at the same time, a self-aware person is always gauging whether or not his or her own ego is the problem. It's a very tiring business, doomed to a certain amount of uncertainty injected sometimes by a feeling of inadequacy, and sometimes by wondering whether any of it is good for the project.

With a bit of maneuvering, though, I was able to confront one situation and make it go away. The other is one that must be worked around. Neither is ideal. Either, at one time or the other, is necessary.

Of course, I could move to some remote place and grow yams for a living. But then, if you look at it as a matter of Neo versus a group of Agent Smiths, it becomes a little bit more interesting. The ending, however, sucks. :-)

Drupal Modifications

Because I've been so busy with the above, and a million and one questions about how I am going to do the Drupal modifications by people who lack experience in PHP and MySQL, I haven't been able to do anything on this yet. I did get some training done on Friday for some assistance with other Drupal related projects - something I will write about when that training is completed. It's going well so far, and has shown some hidden talent around the hospital that needs to be nurtured instead of repressed.

Some real progress is something I hope for this week. The first step will be creating the Basic Patient Information table in MySQL; from there creating the Drupal module will be the first main project.

Guyana

I'm kind of torqued that I haven't spent as much time exploring Guyana as I wanted to. Therefore, I'm changing that, and will be doing that more. For those of you who have been following my Flickr pictures, then you should expect some more variety. Because of all of these pics I'm taking, I'm considering getting rid of the PowerShot A40 and getting something a bit more functional. I'm no photographer, but I think I'm outgrowing this camera.

Writing

Writing keeps me sane. I need to write more and worry about insane people less. Expect me to write more, though with exploring Guyana a bit more this may be a bit of a balance.

New Website Coming Online

Yes, a new website is coming online. I expect it should be up before the end of September in all of it's glory. It's a secret that has been brewing for 4 months, and another 2 months won't hurt anyone. If possible, I'd like to unleash it on September 28th, 2005.

Random thought: If Morpheus were Aphrodite, perhaps sleep this week would have been easier.