@Chris Wellons: Yeah, I think of these things as protocols that facilitate communication. When people say “How are you?” they don’t really want to hear about your day. It’s like a calibration procedure – SYN, ACK, SYN, ACK. Ok, let’s get down to business.

@Mart: Really? I view Wednesdays as “Half Way There” days. So they are not as bad as Mondays.

@freelancer: I wish I was a BOFH. I think I’m just too nice to people. :)

@Shrinivas Kudva: Hey, go for it. I want to get my PHD at some point, but I think I need to find a job that will a) pay for it or b) pay me enough so that i can afford it first.

@Victoria: It happens sometimes. In related story, I forgot my Voicemail password on my cell phone yesterday. It just vanished from my brain and the muscle memory was gone – I had to go through the reset procedure via the voice menu.

This is the second time it happened to me. One day I’m typing in that pin without any issues. Next day it’s gone. I never forgot a computer related password though – probably because they are alphanumerical rather than just numbers. Numbers mysteriously vanish from my memory.

@Ian Clifton: Yeah, I know! But they won’t put beer dispenser in the cafeteria. We only have a coffee machine. :(

@James Heaver: Yeah, but you still have to be AT work, even if you are not working full steam. You can’t sit and watch TV, play video games all day.

I think you can start pining for the weekend on Wednesday.

Friday doesn’t count as a real work day since, well, its Friday and it’s the weekend in a minute (at my last job we tended to have stressful Friday morning deadlines which exagerated this even more). So if Friday isn’t really a work day then that means that Thursday is the last real day of work, which you start looking forward to on Wednesday.

If you’re looking forward to the weekend on a Wednesday then it counts as the beginning of the end of the week.

Monday, because you’re coming back from the weekend, normally has a lazy morning. You’re not with it, you’re drinking coffee, you’re catching up on email.

So what your work week really consists of is Monday afternoon and Tuesday. Which is only one and half days – and how bad can that be?

You don’t need coffee; you need beer.

Well this Monday was a bank holiday for me so I didn’t have this particular issue this week. However, I absolutely know how you feel. When I was at college and getting up at 6.30am during the week, I could barely bring myself to move on Mondays. Fortunately I’m now at uni and my first lecture on Monday is at 11am :D Please don’t hate me…

I always hated Sunday evenings because of that ‘I have to go to work’ stuff. And I don’t hate my job. Puzzle :)

Re: windows passwords – recently I had to call our DCO guys because I couldn’t log in and I knew my password and I even tried it in all possible combinations – it didn’t work. They had to reset it. I felt so blond :)

Wow, You really cranked out the strong language today. But it’s nice to read what u really feel. :-) I am going to graduate next month and start working. Reading your post makes me think that maybe I should get that doctorate instead… with my parents funding me, of course! hehe!
PS- like you, even I feel that a Master’s is not just reading and getting an A! I think it really needs interest and for a confused guy like me, its not worth it right now!
More power to you!

Haha, I can relate to pretty much everything you wrote. Btw, kinda felt a bit like BOFH in the middle there :P

I hate Wednesdays. That middle of week where everything is in limbo. Last weekend was too long ago to remember; the coming weekend is too far away to pine for.

If my work week is an equation, it’ll be a cosine curve.

I also try to squeeze out the last hours of my Sunday and usually end up only getting a few hours of sleep. Then I spend 5 days looking forward to next weekend when I am free again. It’s painful to imagine doing this for the next 50 years.

I’ve never really thought about the “how are you” protocol. It is something I do myself without even thinking about it. I have been programmed to do it. Maybe it’s time to experiment breaking protocol and gauge reactions.

Bringing it up reminds me of a scene in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Mike, the computer that spontaneously became conscious, starts saying “null words” like “please” and “thank you” after studying human behavior, which catches Manuel, the technician, by surprise. Manuel says that Mike means these words as much as humans do.