Ever make a decision and then stop, and think, wow, that was really dumb? (If you said no, then I want to learn your magic, because this happens to me about every other week, if not more frequently…)
Last week’s questionable decision: Opting to get my new laptop last Wednesday morning at 8 am.
I’ll let that sink in. Who would choose to get their new laptop on the day before a long holiday weekend, when University staff are not working and even the Help Desk has a skeleton staff? Oh, and how about we make it a day when the person who needs the laptop also has a bunch of meetings scheduled? Me! That’s who.
(#facepalm)
Things got off to a rather inauspicious start when I went down to IT to find the assigned IT person missing. I assumed it was the result of a bathroom run or something along those lines, so cooled my heels for 5 minutes. Until it occurred to me that it was decidedly unlikely that the IT person was coming back any time soon. Had they forgotten? Had I messed up the day and/or time?
Nope. They were just waiting outside my office. Oh. Apparently this is a we-come-to-you thing now? Which was fine but it might have been nice to know.
Anyway! New laptop was obtained, my non-standard software was installed and all was good. Except, well, not exactly. I double-checked on one non-standard program – nope. Not there. And of course that program would take a long time to install, putting me at risk of missing the next meeting, which was pretty important. I sighed, realized that I could use my tablet for the next meeting (not ideal, but needs must…), and went down to IT to install the program. Where I learned that hey! They could push it out to me over the VPN later that day, rather than me hanging out in the building. Problem solved!
I zipped home (the benefits of living nearby), finally had a snack, and got my new laptop connected to the WiFi and the VPN. And realized that another non-standard program had not been installed.
Sigh.
One important meeting and frantic email to IT later, the IT person was installing the 2nd missed program on my computer. It worked (whew) and I thought all was good.
And then, the next day (ahem, Thanksgiving, if you’re keeping track) a few things went sideways. The 1st missed program (the long download) wouldn’t open – error message. I couldn’t open Microsoft files on the server-based drives in protected status – so I had to disable that. Outlook thought my personal folders were corrupt and wouldn’t connect properly. Etc. I now have a sticky note on my desktop titled “Things that are messed up”, LOL.
I’ve managed to MacGyver myself into a functioning (new) laptop over the weekend, but you can bet that I will be sending an email to IT later today that outlines the “things that are messed up”. Meanwhile, I am not making any decisions until I find my brain.
What about you? Any questionable decisions lately? (Please tell me I’m not the only one?)
I’m glad it got all worked out! It didn’t even occur to me that Wednesday would be a bad day to start something new – I forgot about your holiday!
Yep. Not smart. I sent my email with the subject line of “Things that are wonky” to IT already this morning. It’s not a lot, but some of them do need to be addressed (you know, being able to open the statistical software that I use…).
Oh no!!!! This sounds so frustrating. Hopefully everything will go completely smoothly from here on out.
I make questionable decisions all the time. So many that none are popping to mind, haha.
Our school-based IT is pretty responsive, so let’s hope they can most of this by remoting into my laptop. (I sent them an email already this morning… they must love me, LOL.)
I live for questionable decisions. Why go to the store at that time? Why walk the dog that way? Why do you do the dumb things you do, NGS? WHY?
(Our IT people always come to us. I don’t even know where their offices are, tbh. That makes me feel quite spoiled.)
Oh, I have this conversation with myself all the time, too. Why DID I just do that, when I knew what the result would be? (and then I roll my eyes…at myself…)
I had no idea they’d come to me for this – last time, admittedly, was during the early months of COVID so I was just hanging out in the IT suite. Probably not SOP.
Uff, I am glad it all worked out but yeah… one thing I don’t understand is when you give IT a list of non-standard software to install (which I assume you did?) and they don’t install the software. What’s up with that? (Happened to me before.)
I know, right? To their credit, they did fix most of it yesterday, but the one thing they have not done is give me admin privileges. I have always had them, and right now I cannot delete the dang shortcuts from my desktop. Come ON. That’s not an “admin” thing, that’s a “Seriously, Windows, STOP with the default shortcuts” thing. ARGH.
(I’m going to bug the IT director about it again tomorrow if I don’t hear from him…)