you gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

one of the bizarre things about my new job is the patterns that bring work to my desk.  there will be days or weeks where there are so many assignments and so many tasks that i can barely function, trying maniacally to accomplish everything inside of an eight hour work day.  but then there are also times when that massive workload will exist only in theory.

for example, i have that theoretical workload right now.  i have a to-do list that spans three pages in my notebook over to my right.  each task on the to-do list has several sub tasks, notes aboot them and instructions for when i have approval to undertake certain tasks and complete certain items once i've received confirmation from the development team that the data structure exists to support the tasks i'm working on.  unfortunately, the data structures do not exist.  so i have to take on my task list very half-assed so that i don't overdo things by finishing all my crap and leaving myself with nothing to do.  the majority of todays tasks appear to involve me looking at the task list and slowly taking care of the few remaining items that don't require input from anyone else.

sometime in the next couple of days it's all going to jump up and bite me in the ass though.  i'm sure all of the input for which i am waiting will happen simultaneously and leave me with almost no time to accomplish everything.

but the really cool thing is that all of this makes it appear as though i'm very busy at work so there's no chance of getting laid off again.