sarahdotbrown

[sarahdotbrown]

Saying that I’m obsessed with race and racism in America is like saying that I’m obsessed with swimming while I’m drowning.

Hari Kondabolu 

For Comic Hari Kondabolu, Explaining The Joke IS The Joke

(via nprfreshair)

[sarahdotbrown]

This Spring, one of my lifelong dreams came true - I got to work on a movie and hang out on a film set for the first time. The whole experience was magical - the warm lighting, the team huddled aro...

I wrote a thing.

[sarahdotbrown]

Four simple rules for avoiding a sitcom depression.

I would add: 5. Create rich diversity with compelling, evolved characters from a wide variety of backgrounds. Drama is doing it. Comedy is not.

[sarahdotbrown]

Holly golly haha

[sarahdotbrown]

There isn't a black male crisis.

There is a prison crisis. There is a police crisis. There is a white people crisis. There is literally nothing black boys and men can do to change these crises; it has to be the courts, the police, the white people who change.

[sarahdotbrown]

Chris Rock is bringing it lately

[sarahdotbrown]

Really insightful thoughts about being a white person who cares about things.

[sarahdotbrown]

Bound produces the world's most customizable notebooks, handmade to order in the USA.

[sarahdotbrown]

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Stephen Covey (via craigray)

[sarahdotbrown]

Cottage Pie Stuffed Peppers. It's an efficient meal, 8 times over. 4 in the fridge for this week, 4 in the freezer for another time. Healthy, convenient, cheap. Now that's GSD if I do say do myself.

[sarahdotbrown]

GSD - objectively

Had an interesting discussion today with someone on my team about gut feelings.  She said, "most of our work comes down to a gut feeling about whether or not they will be successful."  I said, "Gut feelings are just physical and emotional manifestations of our own biases."    Following your gut might be helpful when planning Thanksgiving dinner, but when making major decisions, evidence trumps guts every time.

[sarahdotbrown]

Working at 11:15 - getting shit done, but at what price?

I'm learning a lot these days about delegation, and what it can do for my own productivity.  If time and energy are the two resources I have at my own disposal, then delegation can seem very expensive.  Taking the time to train someone to do the same work that I do is a huge investment.  After all, what if I invest and they don't do it right?  Or it's not good enough?  Or it just doesn't get done?  That is the essence of management, though, right?  Delivering results through others?  It's 11:15pm.  I am tired, and I have spent all of my own resources on a project that could *very* easily have been done or supported by others.  I was being penny wise and pound foolish with my time and energy, and I'm ready to create a real budget.

[sarahdotbrown]

Overheard in my building this morning: "I got a fucking midterm this morning, my ni****. 20 points off if you're late.". I can't wait to hire this kid. He's clearly getting shit done.

[sarahdotbrown]

This is the opposite of productivity...watching Gossip Girl on my new Xbox 360 kinect. Used my kitchen cart as an entertainment center.

[sarahdotbrown]

iPhone, schmiPhone

Well, it looks like Steve Jobs died and left me an iPhone.  The latest blackberry outage was finally enough to convince my organization's tech department to stop using the service, so when my bberry went the way of the dodo, an iPhone 4 arrived at my door.

I'm not quite sure how this is going to go, but I have a few predictions.  One, I will love it.  I love adapting to new systems and making them work for me, so I'm sure I will find a way to make the iPhone work for me.  Two, I will waste a lot of time downloading stupid shit and being obsessed with said shit for days on end.  I will then stop being obsessed with whatever shit it is and will move on to other shit.  Because that's how I work.  Finally, I will find a balance that works for me.

I'm a little nervous that I'll either convert fully to the iPhone bc it does most things my Droid does, and it also has work email, or I'll ignore the iPhone precisely because it has work email, and I'll have this great gadget that will sit untouched.  Either way, I don't know how I feel about being a full-on simultaneous iOS and Android user.  It's all a little too much. 

[sarahdotbrown]

Not getting shit done.

Let me paint you the picture of productivity.  Then let me light it on fire, put it out with a bucket of monkey piss, and instead share with you my morning chat with IT.

It's morning time, which means time to log into the 14 different things I have to log in to in my home office, which is a desk about 10 feet from my bed in my Harlem studio.  While things are starting up, I go over to the kitchen to start the coffee.  I hear the "ding" of an error message, so I walk over to the computer and see that the VPN won't log me in.  Hrmm, I think, that's annoying.  Let me just open webmail really quick so I can at least see what line my 9:30 call is on, check a few emails, and then I'll figure out this VPN thing once I'm caffeinated.  I open my browser, go to my webmail, and it won't accept my log in credentials, either.  Well, shit on a stick, I think, and decide to go back to trying the VPN thing.  Nothing.  I try the usual 8 or 10 clicks and tricks and nothing works.  I think, WWITD? (What would IT do?) and restart my computer.  That's always the answer, right?  And if I can't log in to my computer after it restarts, then I know my password has expired without notification, and I can just call IT to have them reset it.

I log in just fine into my restarted computer.  So the password is fine, and it's all nice and restarted now, so everything should be fine, right?.  Nope.  VPN, not working.  Webmail, not working.  By this time, it's 9:15, and I've had no coffee or breakfast, and my call is at 9:30.  Oh, did I mention that my blackberry no longer works?  I guess it could no longer look its 1998 self in the mirror and shut itself down permanently, so I couldn't even check my 1998-style calendar on the 1/2" screen.  I'm envisioning myself randomly dialing into conference call lines, accidentally interrupting the CEO's morning sextalk with his Communications Director or the conference call where my boss is discussing in detail about how I'm going to be fired.  You know, just regular Wednesday morning stuff.

9:18.  Well, I can't exactly log into the intranet to submit a help desk request, now can I?  So I call my sworn enemy, IT.  I call the chick who works in IT who, I swear on my favorite spreadsheet, once googled "blue screen" right in front of me.  I call the girl for whom "troubleshooting" means getting out her nerf gun and ironically shooting her stuffed cat she ironically named "Trouble."  This is not my idea of a good time.

IT: "Hello, this is Ashley."  

Me: "Hi Ashley, this is Jane Smith in New York.  How are you?"

IT: "I'm fine.  What's up?"

Me: "Well, I seem to be locked out of anything that requires a password, but my password shouldn't be expired.  It's 20 days old, and I can log in to my computer with it.  It's happened to a couple of other people lately who don't work in the office..."

IT: "Your password must be expired."

Me: "..right, see, what I just said was, it's not expired.  I just changed it 20 days ago, and passwords expire every 45 days."

IT: "If it's not expired, then you must be typing it incorrectly.  Is your Caps Lock on?"

Me: "I hate you with the fire of a thousand suns, and I hope your firstborn has a rare disease causing him to only be able to say the words, "Don't touch me there, mom."

IT: "I am autistic and am not understanding your social cues.  What's your password?"

Me: "S as in Sierra..."

IT: "Huh?"

Me: "S.  Essssss.  Sierra.  ESS!! ESS!!!"

IT: "F?"

Me: "Yes.  F. As in FUCK YOUR MOTHER."

IT: "Oh, S."

Me: "Hand me that noose."

IT: "I just entered your password, and it's not letting me in. You're locked out.  Your password must be expired or you're typing it incorrectly."

Me: "This noose isn't killing me fast enough.  Damn those gun control waiting periods."

IT: "Hmm, I left off the a letter last time I typed your password. Now I typed it correctly and it's letting me in.  You were typing it incorrectly."

Me: "Great.  Let me set down this shiv I just made out of a toothbrush and remind you that I was typing it correctly before, and it wasn't expired.  There's clearly a glitch for people who don't regularly log in to the server at the office, causing password authentication problems.  As I was explaining earlier..."

IT: "I like cats."

Me: "...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so even if I log in now, it might let me in and then kick me off in 5 minutes, and we won't have solved anything.  Can you look into..."

IT: "I have four cats."

Me: "...the issue with Cisco and see if they've had any similar issues with other national networks with only a few users who work offsite?"

IT: "You're typing it wrong."

Me: "I hate you.  Goodbye."

So I hung up and desperately logged with my now-magically-working-password to see if I can find the information info for the call.  Turns out, that call is tomorrow.  

This is NOT getting shit done.