UnderDog Ruined America

Uber-insanity, jah?

I just pushed out a new program at work that I've been getting in place for over a year. Got tons of user input . . . lots of "What do you need it to do?" meetings. Tested it, showed the end users beta versions, everything I could think of. So, yesterday I do the training and overnight we deployed the program office wide. The install was flawless, the training complete, no errors at all. Everyone should be thrilled, right?

Yea, okay.

At 8:03 a.m. (Yup, I checked the time!) One of the users calls me, bitching that they can't do something with the program they always did. I look into it, point out that the process they were using was not following company standard and was problematic at best. Does this matter? Hell, no! They couldn't do what they wanted in a bizarre-ass backwards way the program was never meant to work, so: "THIS PROGRAM SUCKS!" Forget that this individual was part of the test group, had every opportunity to add ideas into the mix and never once brought this up before. Ignore the fact that the new program does 100 things faster, better, and easier than the old program. Overlook that it does EVERYTHING they asked for it to do. All that matters is thet they found something it WON'T do. Ergo: it sucks.

I swear, there are days you just wanna bang your head on the desk and scream.

Seriously, what is with people who simply hate change of any kind? I don't get that mind set. Hell, if it wasn't for change we'd all be running about in loin cloths, beating each other on the head with clubs (and trust me here: you DO NOT wanna see me running about with the bare-ass!) Is it just me? If something is better, let's use it! I'm not a fan of change for the sake of change, but damn! If it makes life better, then change is good, right? Apparently, not to some folks.

Ah well, onto other things. Last night was a bust for me. I was just feeling totally punk when I got home. I crashed on the couch after dinner and dozed in front of the toob. I was certain I was coming down with something but I felt fine when I woke up today (knock wood!) Hopefully, I'll get some work done tonight. Have I mentioned I got a few more agent rejections? Good thing is, the last two had some very nice personal notes on them. One said "Writing is great, story sounds fun, and the sample chapter is reallyentertaining, but not right for me . . ." Well, if you're gonna get jilted, it's nice to be kissed first! Still no word on the full. I'm just plugging away on the revisions, hoping that it all works out.

Remember UnderDog? Great cartoon. I blew away a co-worker today when I pointed out that UnderDog was single-handedly responsible for the rampant drug use in this county in the 60's & 70's. He looked at me like I had nine heads, until I explained why that was so. He was so shocked that he burst out laughing, but finally had to agree with me.

Anybody out there know what I'm talking about?

Later!