Empty Promises

Note written on napkin, sitting on empty table, in our break room:

FREE PILLOW STUFFING

I looked around, nothing there. So of course I wrote, on the same napkin:

? MUST BE FOR AIR MATTRESS

Sometimes work is fun...

My New Desk

I just had this great new desk installed in my office:



Yeah, people are looking at me funny, but hey...I've got a model of DS9, 3 Star Wars lego keychain men, Micromachine Trek ships, a Borg cube, the Enterprise NX-01, a stuffed lionfish, The Abominable Snowman from Rudolph, a framed aerial photo of EPCOT and the World's Fair, a print of Prince Eric fighting Malificent, Bill and the Conjunction Junction guy and a working tribble in my office. Who can tell a difference?

Ok, I don't have the cool Han-Solo-in-carbonite-desk, but you know I'd use it if I had it. Buy it for me here and I'll let you sit behind it and pretend you're Princess Leia...

Dang! My Secret is Out...

Wonder What I Can Bet $20 On?

Remember last week I posted I lost money playing poker at the theatre conference?

I neglected to mention that the next night, I won it all back. And another $20 :) So you could say I ended up the weekend pretty well.

So, what that means is I'm going to save that extra $20 and take it Las Vegas with me tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow I'm flying out to Las Vegas for the 11th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference. I've been twice before and both times I had a great time.

The conference is at the Venetian, which is a spectacular hotel/casino right on the strip, near Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio.

I also was invited to dinner with a vendor we've done business with in the past at the Parisian hotel, in a private dining room overlooking the Bellagio Fountains across the street. I don't know if they just like me a lot or they're trying to sell me something ;) Guess I'll wait and see.

UPDATE: I also will just miss the Blogger Conference :( Ah well, would've been fun to visit it for a while.

Why I Never Throw Anything Away

A few minutes ago one of my co-workers sent an email around to everyone in the office, asking if anyone had a copy of the News Sentinel's "Book of Lists 2007" she could borrow for a couple hours.

Whatever that is. Sounds kind of important, so whatever.

Anyway, I've had a copy sitting on a table in my office. It's in the original mailing packet, unopened. I probably got a copy in the mail from the Sentinel sometime around the first of the year. I had no need for it, but I figured it would come in handy sometime, for someone.

And so it did, today. And now my job here is done.

Overreaction of the Week

A lot of people and organizations are in a tizzy over companies editing their own Wikipedia pages:

Last year a Wikipedia visitor edited the entry for the SeaWorld theme parks to change all mentions of “orcas” to “killer whales,” insisting that this was a more accurate name for the species.

There was another, unexplained edit: a paragraph about criticism of SeaWorld’s “lack of respect toward its orcas” disappeared. Both changes, it turns out, originated at a computer at Anheuser-Busch, SeaWorld’s owner.

Last year, someone at PepsiCo deleted several paragraphs of the Pepsi entry that focused on its detrimental health effects. In 2005, someone using a computer at Diebold deleted paragraphs that criticized the company’s electronic voting machines. That same year, someone inside Wal-Mart Stores changed an entry about employee compensation.

Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, says the site discourages such “conflict of interest” editing. “We don’t make it an absolute rule,” he said, “but it’s definitely a guideline.”

Internet experts, for the most part, have welcomed WikiScanner. “I’m very glad that this has been exposed,” said Susan P. Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School. “Wikipedia is a reliable first stop for getting information about a huge variety of things, and it shouldn’t be manipulated as a public relations arm of major companies.”

Here's what bothers me. It's the purpose of sites like Wikipedia to be as accurate as possible. I think the truth and accurate facts is everyone's goal. Well, who's going to be more knowledgeable about the truth in an organization, assuming it has nothing to hide, than the organization itself?

If the people who work at Sea World say they know more about the etymology of their animals than Joe Orcafan in Cleveland who's been there once but decided to take it upon himself to "update" the Sea World page - well, who are you going to feel has access to more trustworthy data?

It even is more important to clear away editorial data, like the diatribe against the captivity of killer whales that was on the Sea World site and subsequently deleted by an employee. It's fine to criticize something if you feel strongly about it, but a page like Wikipedia could include hundreds of different, even conflicting opinions regarding the treatment of their animals if allowed to.

If someone wants to acknowledge there is controversy, that's fine but make it a link on the page to another site that addresses the controversy directly - not there with the description.

I have no problem whatsoever with a company editing their own Wikipedia page. A lot of paranoid conspiracy enthusiasts will readily see demons and ulterior motives behind every edit, but it's mostly nonsense. It's in a company's best interest to provide factual information about their organization, and if there's a site out there that is providing false or misleading or biased information that purports to be, as Wikipedia likes to think of itself, as an "authority" on these subjects, then they have the right to set the record straight.

My company was in just a predicament one time. A Wikipedia page about one of our affiliates was edited to include some horribly biased, inaccurate information. We contacted the Wikipedia management and it was removed with more basic, truthful information restored. And the page was locked from further intrusion. To some that's corporate hands overreaching their bounds - to me it's responsible stewardship of online information.

Oh the Pain, the Pain...

This just in....the stress from my job, and my inability to perform my job to the level I expect from myself has just about met the breaking point.

That's the news, goodnight folks.

Ouch

I bwuised my widdle thumb...



(I can hear all of you: "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..........")


Ok, maybe not.

But for the first time in a while, on Saturday, I returned to playing upbeat rock, swing and jazz after a month or more of accompanying a cast on Broadway tunes. The difference in styles is not terribly far apart, but enough to make me remember I have a lot invested in my hands...

Anyway, the tip of my left thumb is bruised because I slammed it repetitively too hard on the keyboard Saturday night. Now it hurts to play it just normally, and even to use the computer. I take for granted how much I rely on ol' lefty - that's the finger I use to hit the SPACE bar, also the ALT button. Both get used a great deal - look back and you can see how many times I hit the SPACE bar in writing just this short paragraph. You see the pain and anguish I put myself in for YOU, Gentle Reader????

Ah, the sacrifices I make...

But seriously, I think from time to time the vital importance I have in my hands. I am a full-time web programmer, so obviously I'm on the computer all day. The mouse can only do so much, there are times you have to use the keyboard. If something ever happened to my hands, even one of them, my livelihood would be put in temporary or even permanent jeopardy.

That doesn't even take into account my avocations - musical theatre, my band, church music.... they all require me playing a piano keyboard of some kind or other. If even one of my hands were injured, I would be unable to play at all.

Does anyone remember the M*A*S*H episode where the soldier lost some functionality in his right hand, but was a concert pianist? I think about that sometimes. Charles found him some specially written concertos for the left hand. What a guy, that Winchester.

Hey, it just occurred to me if something happened to my hands, I couldn't blog. Some of you might consider this a good thing.... :)

It's incumbent upon me to protect my hands, because if I lost their use even for a short time, my job would suffer and I'd have to quit any show I was working on.

It's a little scary.

Hang in there, guys...

Coding Help

If anyone out there who can point me in the right direction where I can find the differences in Javascript support between Internet Explorer and Firefox, I'd gratefully appreciate it. Or someone I can just ask a question about it to.

I have a Javascript function that works great in IE6, but totally crashes out in FF2 - I need it to be able to work in both, or it's back to the drawing board.

And back to the drawing board would make me very cranky. And I don't need cranky right now.

In Which Our Protagonist Enters the 21st Century

I am blogging this on my new work laptop, at lunch, at a hotspot at Atlanta Bread Company. This is the first time I've ever used a wireless internet connection.

Yes, me. Professional web designer me. Taunt all you want, George Jetsons, I shall languish in darkness no more.

The entire internet is open to me - the world is my blogspot. What shall I do first?

Um...

Hm.

This sandwich looks good....web can wait.

My Life Thus Far

I'm typing this from my new work HP Laptop, delivered today, viewed on the new 19" flat-screen monitor. Mighty sweet. Laptop has wireless access and CD/DVD burner. Double sweet.


Brainyboy's team made the State Finals in his Destination Imagination competition this past Saturday. The State is in mid-April in Nashville. The Nationals/Globals, should they make it that far, are Memorial Day weekend back here in Knoxville. Ironically enough, that's the weekend of my brother's wedding in Austin, TX. Do well, BrainyBoy, just not too well....


24 and Battlestar Galactica are dead to me.


Good thing I still have Lost, The Office and 30 Rock. If Studio 60 comes back I'll be a happy camper. I haven't seen a single episode of Heroes - those of you in the know, has it progressed thus far as a good enough show to rent the season 1 DVD when it inevitably comes out in the fall?


One of my best friends is having surgery as we speak for a herniated disk in the back which will lay him up for several weeks. Please remember him and his young family in your prayers. This could be the best thing in the world for him, as he's a major workaholic and needs to take a break.


My directing job fell through. Nothing more till music directing Suessical in late April.


Atomic Horns gig on Saturday was a pretty big hit, unfortunately nothing more with them until mid-April.


What's everyone else up to?

Holding My Breath

I haven't been very consistent in my blogposting lately, and I'm not sure why. Looking back over the last few weeks I think I've had more Friday Feasts than anything.

Mostly because my life is in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for things to start or confirm to start.

I still haven't heard if I'm going to be directing a play down in Athen, TN - or even whether they want me to direct. All I got was an inquiry whether I was interested, and haven't heard anything more. Since auditions are March 11, surely some sort of decision or offer will be made any moment now. This will have a huge impact on my extracurricular activities during March and April.

I am music directing a show beginning late April, that's confirmed. I'm just in waiting mode for it to start. Which is fine, but it's interesting to be scheduled for something this far away in time (I've been attached to the project - how Hollywood! - for a couple months, already).

I also had an offer to music direct a show at Theatre Knoxville, but had to turn it down due to conflicts with the April show and possibly the Athens show. Who knew I was so popular? It's a shame, because I've never worked with them before and they have an interesting lineup of shows coming up. Hopefully we can work something out in the future.

BrainyBoy's Destination Imagination team is wrapping up work on their big aviation project, and is set to compete in a couple of weeks. This, combined with a number of other heavy school projects, has brought out some good work in him. The school science fair is upcoming which is a huge project as well.

Tink continues gymnastics and just being Tink, which wears her out.

I'm also prepping for another Atomic Horns gig Saturday night, this time at the UT Nuclear Engineering 50th Anniversary conference at the Knoxville Convention Center. Hopefully I will either hold off or get through the cold I feel brewing inside me, or any of the much worse stomach stuff that seems to be slowly working its way through town and our family.

Even more exciting is the two tickets I have to the UT/Florida basketball game tomorrow night at Thompson Boling Arena. I'm really looking forward to going with my dad, who I haven't gone to a game with in years. I think I'm more excited about spending time with him than going to the game itself (don't get the big head, dad... :) ) Especially looking forward to this, but am a bit nauseated at the prospect of this.

Finally, big projects at work weigh heavy, but are either out of my hands completely or I continue to wait on content, graphics, etc. Corporate websites are a huge collaborative process, but sometimes people tend to place that as a small priority in their daily responsibilities. And the guy whose job it is to build the sites has no choice but to wait.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

I'm So Far Behind at Work...

I think I've been lapped.... *sigh*

The Beat Goes On

The overnighter was a big success. The kids decided to have a Jurassic Park marathon and collectively they watched all three movies back to back. I only made it half-way through the second one (the worst of the three, IMHO) and crashed about 2:30. The next morning the ones who fell asleep during the third one watched that one again.

That night the Atomic Horns had another gig, this time in the beautiful Oak Ridge Moose Lodge Hotel Ballroom, Casino, and All-Night Laundromat. The room was kind of small but the crowd was happy, the beer was flowing and a minimum of cold air creeped in through the doors.

That's two gigs for the band, and the next is not scheduled until the end of April so we're looking for something in-between then to fill in the creative gap.


I have an opportunity, possibly, to direct a play down in Athens, TN. Still waiting on some details but if it happens I'll be going almost directly from it into music directing "Suessical" back here in Knoxville so it looks like it's going to be a really busy couple of months.


I've been fortunate to get a couple of freelance website design jobs as well that pulls in some extra money. The sites are for real estate companies opening up new subdivisions, which is an interesting and fairly lucrative niche because a lot of what I do is simply redress the first site I built and use the new information with basically the same site structure. If I can keep these jobs coming in fairly regularly and find the time to do them, it will be a nice secondary (or tertiary?) source of income. In fact, I have my eye on a couple of new Dell desktop PC's....

Resolutions

Well, the work situation has resolved itself somewhat. My supervisor has worked her magic and whipped up a compromise, and my "nemesis" has apologized. I'm somewhat mollified, although there are still some unresolved issues. While the actual details of the problem have been addressed and clarified, the principles involved by and large have not. My job requires me to be the lead source of expertise on web design, how the internet works and how it relates to healthcare marketing and the the truth remains that I was completely bypassed in all areas.

Like I said, the marketing rep apologized and said she had had a lot of pressure from all sides to produce a working site and took what she felt at the time was the path of least resistance. She assured me that while she's never had a problem with my responsiveness to their needs or my skills, she knew I'm usually backed up with a number of projects at once and the third party they contracted with would be able to provide them with easy and personal access. And that she just took what she thought was the easiest path for everyone. I told her that I understand wanting things to work out the easy way, but next time to at least consult me for assistance and let me use the things I've learned to help pave the way.

I know, clear as mud without specifics... I've tried to keep the details and people vague, because as we all know it's bad juju to blog about work, but this is more of a personal thing to me than a work thing, really. It goes back to the old self-confidence/self-esteem/respect by others thing I mentioned a couple of posts back. It'll be awhile till those needs are met to my satisfaction, but it's a start.

So the manager and myself are ok, which is good. It's completely in my nature to forgive easily and I hate knowing that I'm carrying a grudge of any kind and anyone would be carrying a grudge against me. It is a bit of a load off my mind.

Now we'll see where the practical compromises arrived at this afternoon lead us, and whether they will actually solve the problems.

My Vegas Trip

Why I Went:
8th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference

Where I Stayed:


Rio All-Suites Resort Hotel


What I Did:



How Much I Won:
$32 at slots

This is the second time I've been to Las Vegas, the last was the previous spring. I really enjoy going there - it's a kick in the head (no pun intended) to walk around all the places you've heard about all your life as where the rich and famous have trod. It's different from Washington DC, or New York - this place just has such vigour.

The time difference is rough - the first night I was ready for bed and it was only 10pm...1am my time.