It was decaf. I swear it was decaf.

I was sitting here, listening to Pat Benetar while Python 3.3.3 downloaded, and it occurred to me that a cup of tea would be nice. The previous cup was indeed normal black tea, and as the hour was fairly late (2200), I made sure the next one was decaf- most manufacturers seem to go to great lengths to differentiate their packaging when marketing a decaf beverage. Not this manufacturer. In their defense, the box is clearly labeled "decaffeinated", but in all other respects the regular and decaf packages look identical.

So @0153, here I sit.

Actually, though, its not as bad as it sounds. I went in to work at 2330 Saturday night, and did not leave until 1100 on Sunday. Yep, I spent three days pretty much of working at a furious pace just to stay ahead of the presses. And this reminds me of a little I.T. anecdote.

At some time in the fog-shrouded past, we all knew someone like this. In fact, you may know someone like this today. This is the person that you always dread telling, "Whatever you do, please don't touch the red button," because you know that they will not let go of the thought of pushing the red button. It will tug at their sleeves, nip at their heels and gnaw at them until, one day- when no one is looking- they push the button.

And it goes- almost without saying- that you will not be there to yell in dramatic slow motion "STOP". When you find out about it, it will be too late. As Foreigner sang, "The Damage Is Done".

Yes, someone could not resist the equivalent of the red button- they loaded files from a folder named "OLD". And, undoubtedly they pictured themselves as the anti-hero of a Michael Bay blockbuster, hitting the load button and then turning and casually walking away while lighting a cigarette as presses explode one by one in slow motion behind him. Who does that? It's unimportant. I was told about it, and so a dozen files had to be recreated. To ensure this didn't happen again, I put the OLD folder into a folder I named, "These are not the files you are looking for" and then put that package into yet another folder which I named, "OLD DO NOT USE". And so, the problem was fixed.

Almost. The same junior genius that tried to load a bad file also copied it over a good one, which meant that those dozen files had just been created a few days prior had to be discarded and re-recompiled. On the plus side, no time or production was lost, as they were able to skip to the next file.

So its been a busy week, and I'm trying to be diligent and get this published, but between the work schedule, the Thanksgiving holiday and Jennifer (and Mr. T) being out of town, this poor blog has just been sitting here collecting virtual dust. I'm happy to report that it appears my Python download was successful. I've been working a bit on Jennifer's PC, among other things cleaning up her Media Player library. Only a little bit of progress to report on the database, but I should have the opportunity to do more work on that this weekend.

That's all the news from the Secret Underground Lair (remote). Until next time, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.