It's Friday! The day that begins the long weekend. All I have to do is make it through today - pretend that I'm working - until about 3:30pm, then bail. Really, it shouldn't be that difficult - it seems to me that I pretend to work an awful lot these days.

Of course, it's really not my fault - I'm not being challenged. The big new project I'm supposed to be working on, that is the first of the line of the Whole New Direction that the company is taking, has been in the definition stage for the entire 4 months that I've been here! And before you start trying to tell me that it's normal to go through such rigorous decision-making processes (especially if it involves a Whole New Direction), let me set you straight.

The basic definition of the project is done within a week, in my experience with this specific one. Others, I might agree with you on, but this project is really quick to define. The problem lies in the organization (oxymoron, anyone?) itself. The original idea seemed fine to me, however it was voted down by the executive. They turned around and said that it needed to be this whole other thing. We tried to build a prototype, and quickly realized that we had not enough information. We turned to the executive, spawners of this idea, but it seemed their muse had dried up. We turned to marketing, who would have to sell it when we were done, and they had no ideas. So, we went into a bit of a decline for a while. Then someone had the brilliant idea of asking our CUSTOMERS what they want! Anyway, apparently there are some ideas now, but where the project is at, I have no idea... and I'm the lead developer!

Anyway, the point of that, or rather the reason for the excuse I generated to be able to legitimately post that diatribe, was that in the absence of any challenging projects, the piddling little (and I mean LITTLE) assignments just seem to take me forever to do. Perhaps because I spend so much time working on this blog and its software.

After all that, I feel that I've really done some work today. Well, I've written something that mentions work, so doesn't that count? The daily useless-mail is already starting to pour in, with subjects like "away after 1pm" and "gone after 2:30". I think I should send out one of my own, "away after 11am", and head out to enjoy the weekend. You know it'll never happen; I'll sit in my office and send ICQs until 3:30pm, then head home after a "hard day at work".

Have a good 'un.