Welcome to entry #100!

So, I'm playing Dance Dance Revolution in my apartment, and it occurs to me the problem with my job: I can't be perfect at anything.

I'm playing the game at a very respectable level (difficulty 6), and even occasionally stumbling upon a level 7, and I'm actually doing really well. Not passing the levels, mind you, but keeping pace to be sure. Then I pop my knee which makes my leg a little sore doing the really tough ones, but I set a goal for myself (700 calories) and by God, I'm going to keep it, so I just do some easy levels. I figure, this will be a nice cool-off period before I call it a night.

Plus, I've never seen the screen when you get a perfect score. So, since I can easily keep up with level 6, I do a couple level 3 songs—ones so easy, they verge on boring. And you know what? Not once did I get a perfect score. I can hit a 100-combo on fast speed no sweat, but I do a comfortably-paced song with only 80 steps and I will screw one up, guaranteed.

This is the exact same thing that I keep getting in trouble for at work. I am "above expectations" in every single category except one: accuracy. In accuracy, I still do very well (92%), but according to the job detail, you have to be 100% accurate. You're allowed a 98% average every three months, to allow for the occasional slip (that comes out to 3/4 of an error per month). I have never hit 98%, let alone made the average.

I can't be perfect. I've never been perfect at anything. I've never sung a song and gotten every word, even if I'm reading the lyrics while I do it. I've never played a song without missing a note. I've never typed a letter without a typo or mistype (which I have to pick up with a proofread). The only true 100% grade I ever got in school was when I was taking the Social Studies GED, in my second year of college, and that was entirely by luck; on every other test, I missed exactly one question.

This isn't me complaining or self-deprecating. I'm very, very good at a lot of things. In fact, there are tons of things which I can do and only make one mistake every time. But I am never perfect.

This month at work, I've made special arrangements to game the system; i.e. get a "perfect" score, not by avoiding any mistakes, but by guiding QA to the ones without any mistakes in them. Now, you may ask, if I know what QA is going to look at, why don't I just fix the mistakes that they would have found before they see them? And if you ask that question, you obviously missed my point with this blog. 

Don't beat yourself up over it, though. We all make mistakes.