New security arrangement: no access to the suite without swiping the magnetized stripe of a DoD identification badge through an electronic reader, which unlocks the door. Said readers are somewhat sensitive and finicky, and it is entirely possible to swipe a totally valid badge through the reader and still get the red light signal of “access denied” because the badge was not swiped at the right velocity or somesuch.
This morning: I swiped my badge through the reader and got no light signal at all. No green for “door unlocked”, no red for “access denied”, nothing. I swiped again, nothing. I started wondering if maybe the door lock had not yet been switched over from nighttime mode, when it requires both a spin dial combination and a keypad combination as well as a swiped badge. Then I looked at the way I was holding my badge and realized I had been running blank plastic through the reader instead of the magnetized stripe. I flipped the badge around and let myself in.
What I’m saying is I’ve been a little tired and distracted lately.
I still have a heavier workload than normal this week, but there are numerous bright sides. First and foremost quite possibly being the fact that my first thought when my badge swipings were going for naught was not Well, they’ve finally caught on to the fact that I don’t do much around here and they’ve laid me off. Additionally, I believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of working my way through to the end of the long to-do list lobbed at me last week. The changes and enhancements being requested have not ballooned uncontrollably into an impossibly never-ending and self-perpetuating scroll of demands, which is good. And although I was already thinking about where I had left off on Friday and would need to pick things up today as I fumbled the dumb side of my badge through the reader, those thoughts were not of the frantic variety (which I’ve had my share of in the past) that arise when I’ve left for the weekend having failed to meet a deadline because I hit a wall and still, even after brooding for 72 hours, don’t know how to get over. It’s just steady work, a little disruptive to the blogging schedule, maybe, but I really shouldn’t be complaining about that.
As previously mentioned, I definitely will not be at work tomorrow since the little girl is having her tubes inserted, thus (we fervently hope) ending the interminable ear infection and antibiotics misery-go-round. I may or may not check in here, but at the very latest regular programming will resume Wednesday with another 1001 Film Blog Club entry. Until next post, then!
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