From the Sent folder

I’m swamped this evening – lots of work and a headache to deal with. So, for your entertainment (or at least the possibility thereof), I present 5 emails I sent today.

These were all sent to the same person – a friend in the department who knows more computer stuff than I do.

Email 1
Hey [Friend]-



I can't install [software] on my desktop here at work. I get all the way through it, then it won't start the license manager, regardless of whether or not I install it. So I can't complete the installation.

I think [IT person] told me not to install the license manager, so I tried that first. 

I'd ask [IT person], but he's not around and he was kind of abrupt with me this morning.

You're nicer, so I'm bothering you. Ideas? Did you install it on your computer here at work? Why won't it work for me?!



Thanks!

Short, friendly, with only a hint of frustration there at the end so that he would feel sorry enough to help me.

He responds by telling me to uninstall and try again, blah blah, some script, blah blah, change shell types in the terminal. He closes his email with a line that says he can handle it in 5 minutes, so I should let him know if my next attempt fails.

Email 2

OK, I'll try one more time. I just drag everything to the trash to uninstall, right? If not, I already screwed up, so that's nice. 



I also can't set up my .cshrc file to run [other software] correctly, though I did figure it out on my laptop.



I have a meeting until 2:15, I think. Could you stop by when you get here? And just tell me what I'm doing wrong? 

I miss [grad school IT person]. I know I irritated [grad school IT person], but I was used to it so I didn't care. 



I was getting more despondent. I have a threshold for dealing with computer problems that are difficult for me to grasp. I work and work, not able to leave it alone, but then I get mildly irritated, then rapidly descend into feeling completely pathetic.

He sent back some encouragment, along with a question about what type of terminal shell I was using. Basically, since I’m using bash, changing my .cshrc won’t matter. I should instead change my .bashrc or .profile.

Email 3

Yeah, I really don't know what you're talking about. I need to find my step-by-step instructions on how to install [other software] because I don't remember how to change to csh, but I think I have to.

Result? [Other software] won't work right now.
 
I also can't get my mail program to work. Which sucks significantly.

Maybe we should talk tomorrow since I'll probably yell at you today out of sheer frustration. 

I'll try to find you after [other department’s] seminar. So if you don't want to help, keep your head down and don't make eye contact with me if I see you there. :)

I don’t give him time to respond. Rather I find an online discussion board that had a suggestion on how to restore Mail. It just kept bouncing in my dock, then opened but wouldn’t show me any messages, then would become unresponsive. I force quit it about 10 times.

I was irritated with not being able to install software for work, but outraged at the loss of email. So I worked on that.

Note: I had been using the online email system to send these while my Mail program was broken. So I wasn’t without email completely, but it was less convenient and pretty.

Email 4

HA! I got mail back! The online discussion helped me, though I thought I'd lose everything by starting new. But it's all here! How lovely!

Now I will attempt, one last time, to install [software]. This will mean that I will continue to ignore the stack of work on my desk so that when I go home tonight, I'll think "I spent 6 hours trying to install [software] and fix [other software] when [Friend] could have done it in 5 minutes. I'm a genius!!"

Nice.

Again, he wisely neglects to respond, understanding that I’m past the point of being helped by email. I know he’ll stop when he comes in to the office.

Email 5

OK, honestly. Would it be impolite to just write out a stream of profanity across the little email screen?

How the f*&% to you change to a tcsh permanently?! If I type it in, [other software] opens fine. But I can't alter my cshs because I don't know how! And once I'm in, it won't let me out! So I have to quit X11 completely!

And why can't anything have a name?! Why must we use a bunch of letters? Like tcsh = Barney. cshs = Fred. That way I can at least remember Flintstones characters rather than continuing to look back at references to remember the freaking letters.

The good news is I can make [other software] work. The bad news is it's cumbersome and I know it shouldn't be!

Haven't even tried [software] again yet. I'm afraid I'll lose the feeble grip I have left on sanity.

I sent it, and started screaming profanity in my head. Then I narrowed my eyes, deleted the hell out of every file that might be remotely associated with [software] and reinstalled it sans license manager. And it worked. I nodded at my worthy competitor, perched on my desk in all its computery glory.

I went to a meeting, and returned to find Friend leaving my office. He smiled and went back with me to rapidly type something incomprehensible. Then he swore at the computer for a minute and tried something else. Now everything works! Perfectly! He fixed it in less than 2 minutes!

I glared at him for a moment, lost in recollections of feeling inadequate and stupid from most of my computer experiences in grad school and beyond. But then I smiled and he laughed with me, squeezed my shoulder, and talked for another minute.

He’s a good guy. I have a great deal of affection and respect for him already. But it’s hard to watch someone do something so easily when you’ve struggled over it for a long time. So while I chuckle over my emails (and hope you do too), I think it’s also kind of a sad commentary on how I see myself at work.

I’d go into more detail, but I really don’t have time. Those piles of work that got shoved aside as I battled my computer? I brought them home.