TGIF! Couple of great news items from this week: 1) There will be no more forced releasing of a certain sea creature here for several months. 2) Your famous weekly advice column will continue despite the temporary cessation of regular sea creature releasing. But enough of that, let’s get ready for next Monday’s Mock Draft. (Dammit, use a tag or two Horatio)

Survival – Personal Edition

Just to clarify, I don’t know what that draft subject will be. This isn’t a draft prep blog. What I do know is that all of us are doing it while “working”. To that end, I want to give some tips on how to “work” while researching and submitting your Mock Draft picks going forward.

• As Charmslinger says, the best separation is preparation. Unlike his DONKS, WOO! career, we want this to be beneficial to us. First, make sure your monitor(s) is(are) not immediately viewable by folks walking by or standing in the entrance of your office door. If you are a peon in a cubicle this will be a little more difficult, but it’s still possible. Strive for greatness and a proper office with a door. If you’re in an open office space and have a dedicated desk, get a privacy screen for the monitor and a tiny mirror to monitor (pun intended) who is behind you. Even if you have a shared desk, still make use of the privacy screen.
• Open a second browser window to your company’s intranet site. Make sure you are proficient at window swapping with your keyboard by using Alt-Tab (for Windows) and Command-Tab (for Macs). Anytime you want to go to the mock draft window, first go to the intranet window. That way only one Alt/Command-Tab press is necessary to go back to the intranet window and hide the shame of your latest sad Mock Draft submission.
• You’ve done the prep, but haven’t gotten the sep. Time for some smooth talking. Blame the search engine. You were researching something and this web site came up in the link. You’re not sure why, but you’re looking to see why it came up and if there actually is anything useful there despite all appearances.
• Blame your browser and coworkers. Say someone set the home page to this web site. Or say you were having trouble connecting to some sites, so you’re diagnosing your issue by visiting other known sites that should be working.
• Blame the website. You were on a site and a popup appeared that you mistakenly clicked on while trying to scroll.
• Blame your email. A vendor emailed you a link and you though it was work related and clicked on it, not suspecting it wasn’t work related.
• Lastly, just use your personal mobile phone for personal web surfing. Make sure it’s not connected to the company’s WIFI of course. This is why you pay for a data plan. Be aware work supplied mobile phones will be monitored. Do not use them.

There you have it. Your stupid job under their stupid policies remains intact. As well as your paycheck. And your useful contributions to Monday’s Mock Drafts, and every other weekday’s comment section. Thank you for your service.

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Survival – Species Edition

Time to put the sexy in Friday!

Enjoy the weekend, folks! Alright, now let’s get to what’s most important: Commenting and drinking!