Gaps in my brain at work

If you haven't already noticed, I'm sorry about the week and a half gap between the Queen's long weekend posts. I didn't have access to the Internet or the photos in the following days.

Work happened and I was flown up to Brisbane to attend a Project kickoff meeting (4 months after the project started. Which raises the question..... why now?! DUH !!!) and sit through 3 more days of brain numbing data mapping sessions with the IT dept of the company we're taking over.

Being optimistic, I'd say I understand around 60% of what's going on at work now. The pragmatic side of me however would kick that figure down to a more realistic 25%.
Dammit ! *&^*&$^
I can't help but feel that the flow of knowledge in this project is really more like a drip to be accurate.

Why the hell do IT projects love to use funky naming conventions to their systems which mean absolutely nothing?
Let me give you an example: The data migration project will perform an extract, transform and load from FACOM, FROG and PEACE into our target CISOV and MOE systems.
Seriously, what the hell is a FROG system? Does it run on worms and flying insects?
After some investigative work on my part, I found out that PEACE is a billing system. I suppose it would give the consumer a warm flower power kind of fuzzy feeling knowing that their electric bill comes from PEACE.

You know what I really think? This is what happens when you put generation X kids who grew up in the 70s in charge of developing your computer systems. Remember as a kid you used to watch those cool TV series like M.A.S.K (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) fighting the evil of VENOM (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem)?

Does anyone see the similarities here?




If it boils down to me having to lock up the senior contractors in a room with nothing to play with except crappy Lego and MASK figurines until they give up hoarding the information and tell me what I need to know, so be it!