Someone else's shoes

I try to be humble. I try to give my fellow workers respect. Even if someone else's job looks simple, I tell myself, "There must be scores of complications I haven't thought of."

And then there are days like today.

Placing firm orders requires work in two different modules, so I like to batch them and complete all the steps in one before moving to the other. It goes a lot faster that way. In any case, I had created records for 91 items and was about to place the orders for them when word came down that the selector was a little...er...optimistic about his funds. He's got all of $85 left to spend. Not only is all my work (and those of others ordering from the same fund) down the drain, but someone else will actually have to go and delete all the records we created, since we apparently have a policy against letting them clog up the database.

It's hard to look at a situation like this and not think I could do a better job. If I can manage to furnish a home without maxing out any credit cards, I think I could play bibliographer without spending thousands of dollars that I don't have!

European values (not for domestic consumption)

"The head of government of a major European country should not endanger such a central project as the EU constitution purely out of domestic political calculations."

That's Vice-President of the European Parliament, Ingo Friedrich, on Tony Blair's decision to hold a referendum on the proposed EU constitution in Britain. A rather frank admission of the unpopularity of the EU among the people it supposedly represents, isn't it? It's one thing to demand that the Iraqis have a government perceived as legitimate and democratic with a constitution they can all get behind, but Europe? If we actually ask the people, then they might say "No"! How could we allow that to happen?