December 21, 2005

• There are so many ways to avoid busy work, and yet they all eventually fail.  Imagine Willy Wonka’s factory.  Now think of the exact opposite.  I’m never in the office area.  I’ve told everyone that I’m on the other end of a radio, which is completely true.  However, I don’t have a call sign, so I’m wondering what people will come up with (if they’re smart, they’ll just say “S-4″).  Meanwhile, I took a nap before lunch, and found out that my TV broke while I was moving down here.  I guess Splinter Cell will have to wait.

  
  

  Let’s start with the dumb task of the day, brought to you by the major (my buddy the vet, tells me that if you’re going to have to kill an animal, don’t give them an actual name, or you will form some type of psychological attachment).  Today’s task was to get the cooks to produce a menu of whaat they will be cooking a week out.  I’m not sure how this falls under supply.  At first he wanted this thing updates daily, so when one day was done, the corresponding day for the next week was up.  Yeah.  Um.  No.  I don’t want busy work.  So I tell him, I’ll work on getting one that covers Sunday to Saturday, and the next week will be updated Friday.

  
  

  Now to deal with the cooks.  The cooks are cool.  They are some of the few people that I like.  So I go and talk to both of them.  Turns out that this is something that both the Major and some other lieutenant couldn’t get this to happen.  Cue the circus music.

  
  

  Alright, breakfast and lunch are simple.  Not much variety there.  Now dinner is a different beast, due to a couple of issues.  First off, the cooks here are creative.  They take pride in their job, and don’t like to be nailed down.  Freedom is how every SF DFAC runs.  Sometimes they like to try new things with wonderful results.  Second, there’s an issue with food shelf-life.  If you look at your supplies, and something will expire in a few days, guess whatyou cook really soon?  Third, they like t go by theme nights: Mexican, Italian, etc.  However, there’s a third cook that doesn’t like to get in line with the idea.  And suddenly, plans are thrown get thrown out. 

  
  

  Task one, get third cook in line.  Task two, get expiration dates of food in an excel spreadsheet.  This should take an hour or three, but I’ve allotted 2 weeks for it.  Task three, get things working for 2-3 weeks, until the major leaves, and let it fall apart if it wants to.  Oops.  Task 2.5: pass management of my system off to someone that’s incompetent.  Then it can fall apart all it wants.

  
  

  You know what this really boils down to?  The major would like to know what’s on the menu so that he doesn’t have to walk the 40 meters over to the chow hall to read teh dry-erase board.  I wonder if he realizes that he has no choice.  It’s either that or an MRE.

  
  

  Black 6, out

  • 1:30 pm
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