Ugh, meetings

[altivo]

Spent the morning in Rockford at the stupidest meeting I think I've ever been forced to attend. This was a teleconference of about 60 people, split among three locations. It took over two hours, most of which was spent trying to edit a policy document by committee, which obviously just didn't work. They had four pages of draft to get through, and in that time only managed to argue their way through one page, quibbling over every punctuation mark and choice of verb. It was irritating, disgusting, and absolutely foolish.

My boss agreed with me when I asked to be excused from attending any more such sessions, thank goodness. Unfortunately, I was so angry when I left that I think I left my favorite jacket there, so I'll have to call the office and see if they can return it to me in the library delivery service.

Stacked more hay this afternoon, and brought in the hoses from the pasture and garden, several hundred feet of them. Then we went back up to the library to attend a lecture on harmony and musical tuning, which turned out to be quite interesting.

NaNoWriMo progress continues: Jake and Scarlett give the kite a test flight

16,966 / 50,000 (33.9%)

Latest NaNoWriMo installment available here

Comments

[dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com]

Hey, what's this about harmony and musical tuning? Would it have centered largely on J.S.Bach by any chance?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bach was mentioned, but it was more practical than historical. The physics of harmony: fundamentals, overtones, and various intonations and temperaments. Why they exist, what they sound like, and why none are perfect. The speaker demonstrated by vibrating ropes, singing, and actually retuning our piano repeatedly on the spot to recreate Pythagorean, Just, Mean Tone, and Modern intonations.

[hrrunka]

Oh boy. That meeting sounds totally insane. I've been involved in multi-site teleconferences with only a dozen people in total and still felt that they were a waste of time for at least half the participants...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Teleconferencing has its place. This meeting would have been even more stupid if I had been forced to drive all the way to Iowa to attend it. But it was really a meeting with no good purpose and that achieved nothing at all except to stir up a lot of anger and animosity.

[hrrunka]

Yeah, meetings and teleconferences can be useful, provided the number of participants is small. Teleconferences can degenerate quickly when the subject matter's contentious because folks are denied the visual clues that show they've over-stepped someone's mark. That can happen even more easily with online chat and email, of course...

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

Sow hat is this green bar again?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It shows my progress on the novel I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month, commonly called "NaNoWriMo."

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I want a peg strange bird. :O Yay for more Daisy and Jake!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Hints getting too strong for you huh? XD

Wait for the NEXT chapter.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm an incorrigible guesser. ;)