We Can't Stop Here, This Is Bat Country !

An insane road trip, that'd be a good way to describe my week so far. It's been crazy and quite busy and a lot of issues that were quietly seething thusfar are now definately erupting. It's good though, in more than one way - to speak in "Office Space"-references: this is good for the company. It's also kind of envigorating to return from a very mentally cleansing vacation to dive head-on in things that have been ignored for too long - and contrary to what I wrote before my vacation, things have gone to a level where my input actually matters as well, so it's not like there are loads of issues that influence my work but I can't do anything about. I like it, but it *is* a lot like an insane road trip on 'mind-expanding' drugs. As corporate environments go, I'll have to admit once more that my department is a pretty interesting place to be, and has been from the start.
I took another step in evolving into the protagonist from Office Space: I already had few qualms left about doing most of what he does in the movie, but now I've directly told my boss the full, honest, blatant truth about the issues that our clients and ourselves have with our application and have had for over a year, and the way I phrased it, I basically expected that if anything was going to get me fired, it'd be that. However, my email (ok, so perhaps it wasn't TOO directly) has by now been praised and dubbed 'a very good analysis' (I still consider it as nothing more or less than honest, harsh criticism, of the kind that in my previous department I got reprimanded for) and people (including my boss) are glad someone finally adressed it completely and are now very intent on tackling the issues for real. I've also witnessed another first: my boss told one of our clients honestly everything that was going on (he even read my email out loud to her) instead of depicting the application as the answer to all their prayers. I'm truly amazed. I know, anyone outside any corporate environment can't possibly think much of all of this, but if you spend a long enough time in places like these you get too used to things not changing and people only looking out for their own best interest, and serious issues simply being ignored. It sounds absurd, but this is the truth about how the governments and large companies serve you, folks. I work for a huge banking/insurance firm and have definately kept my eyes open as to how everything is run. Trust me, I know these things. You wouldn't believe how much of your money is wasted all over the place, and how little these people REALLY serve you.
Ok, that's my rant about that subject.. not really a rant, I suppose, because I'm actually hopeful again that things will start changing for the better. But still.
Other than that, the amount of things going on this week are also towards the absurd. Work has tired me out most of this week (even to the point that all I did yesterday, when I actually arrived ON TIME at home, instead of working late and suffering public transport mismanagement, was upload one episode of Worst Case Scenario, and head straight to bed to sleep a blissful full 8 hours) and tonight I have a retirement celebration of a valued client, then I have to hurry to Tilburg to make good on a promise to watch Liesbet's performance in the Cul de Sac, and then I really need to catch some quick sleep because tomorrow morning I (probably) will be visited by my old friend Jack Didden. Then later that day I have some personal matters that really need to be looked into, that I'm not going to write about just yet. Don't worry folks, I'll enlighten you when I feel it's all definate enough to talk about. Then of course the rest of the weekend there's a lot of drawing to be done, I also have to keep my eye out to RWWR's Matt Frankenfield sending in the crossover for next Sunday's The Grim DotCom - he is used to this kind of short notice, but I'm used to having comics up at least half a week in advance, if not months. So I'm getting nerveous, to be honest - though I'm sure it'll be ok. He is a semi-pro, like me, after all.
Ok, as I type this about five people have dropped by with all sorts of questions and issues again, so I guess I really should focus on my job again. Catch you later folks.