Experts-Exchange... a designer's lifejacket

Introduced to me by a friend from library school, I'm a solid proponent of the site Experts-Exchange.com as an amazing way to get help when I'm designing. With only minimal training under my belt, I've had a lot of design requirements put on my plate for the projects I have to create. When I was given a very restricted budget for "consultant help"--I asked if we could get access to Experts-Exchange for a few months while I was in most need of it.

Wish granted--and it's bailed me out a number of times--including this morning. I opened the database and, suddenly, none of my reports were working. A look in the main table revealed a wierd "deleted" record that just wouldn't go away. After my usual try at tricks (and some hyperventilating when I thought someone had deleted all of my reports) I threw a panicked "Help" to e-e. Within five minutes I had a suggestion that I had never heard of...it worked, and everything is fine.

They're great for much more complicated questions too and are very willing to try and hammer things out with you. Plus, a search of old questions may reveal a response before you actually have to ask a question. It, too, can help you frame your question in a more manageable fashion so as to get the answer that you need.

Very much worth the membership fee.

Back to Friday...

The slow trickle of saying goodbye

The email finally went out mid-late last week--notifying the company as a whole that I'm leaving. It's probably a good thing too, as in just over a week from now I will hand over my badge, desk keys and a few other things and head out to pack a ten foot truck. Not much in the way of worldly possessions, but then, my piano is still at my mom's house.

My coworkers have been pretty good throughout all of this. There have been some of the expected complaints, which is nice but at the same time annoying. Yes, I know I'm painfully organized and keep you on point, but you can't always count on me being here. They'll adapt--in my company, adaptation to change is a necessity. My tenure of a year has seen many people I knew leave. Now if I could just sneak off to Hawaii or Atlanta on the company dime to see one of my editors. I did find someone to adopt the spider plants though, so I just have to bring home the rose.

I've started seeing people for those "last time for a while" visits. I hate those, and I'm going to have a lot of them. It's awkward because you want to hold on to all of the friends you have and yet, you already know that some will fade into the background and will slip away through no one's fault. It's just harder when you're moving. Next weekend will be insane. I have a wedding, my volunteer work at NYPL to finish and a friend is home (he's a purser--he's never home) and wants to hang out. I see, very little sleep and copius amounts of beverage consumption. I know a great place that has martini's half price during happy hour....

Cancelled one of my cell phone plans today. They tried to make sure I was aware that if I changed my mind I could reinstate my plan. Sorry, but when you buy a company and inherit all of their customers and then treat those customers like garbage---it doesn't win loyalty. Besides, I already have a better plan with someone else...

Alright...bedtime for this hedgehog, I have to be lucid in the morning.