7/26/10 Part II

You may be thinking to yourself, "that's odd, he never posts twice in a single day.  I wonder what inspired him to do so?"

The answer to that question is a blown bulb on the only television we own.  Yup, the bulb lived up to the prediction that it had a 3-4 year life span...it was only a few short months of being 4 years old.  It's really not that big of a deal, but it does give credence to purchasing a LCD based unit in lieu of a rear projection DLP unit.  At the time of our purchase the LCD TVs were still way to pricey and small.  I remember at the time we could only get one in the 32" range and even that small the price of admission was approaching $1,500.  We ended up with our Samsung 46" DLP rear projection unit as a result of a sale at Circuit City, which has since gone out of business.

The TV is plenty adequate for our viewing needs and the repair is simple.  A pull and replace job that involves one screw.  I was able to order the part from Best Buy online and opted for the overnight shipping.  The only hiccup is that I placed the order on Saturday night when the screen went kaput.  I didn't get a shipping confirmation today, so the order didn't get processed as I had hoped on Monday morning.  I'm assuming I will get a shipment notification tomorrow and the part will arrive on Wednesday.  Part + Tax + "Overnight Shipping" comes to a suite $180.  When this bulb goes in 3.9 years I'm opting for a new TV, which I'm sure by then will merely be an extension of my home computer.

Throw that on top on the $200 late penalty I just paid to renew the registration on the Camry and I believe I just personally stimulated the economy this month.

7/26/10

Blogging during the summer months has proven to be more difficult than I anticipated.  Between jaunts out of the office and crammed days back in the office my ability to put coherent thoughts together.....

So, this post is not one of many words, but rather to recognize the elders (keeping with the family reunion theme for the moment).  I received back my order from digital pickle and thought I'd preview some of the treasures that have been digitally archived.  The following shots are in chronological order (I think):

Dare I suggest a 2015 Reunion or shall we just wait until the next wedding date is set?  What do you think Mary?  :)

7/19/10

Back in office today after a FANTASTIC week off spent at Lake Tahoe.  The Horan family reunion was a success with 100% attendance in all 66 living descendants of Philip & Margaret Horan.  It truly was an amazing feat that everyone made the effort to get there.  Sister Carrie and David get the award for furthest distance traveled to attend (Hong Kong & Afghanistan).  Domestically, I think it may have been a tie between The Nayars, Croms, and Ryans of DC.  Although, the Weiss' get the award for longest single leg of travel time, which consisted of a 35 hour train ride from Ames, Iowa to Reno, Nevada - impressive.

I took over 900 photos and I haven't even begun to filter through them.  The above is one of many shots of me trying to get the entire family in a single photo.  I will filter through them and hopefully narrow them down to the 100 or so best photos.  I'm allowing myself a 10% yield rate of decent photos.  The last time the largest group of us was together was back in 1996 at Skip and Sue's wedding.  As you can see below there were not nearly as many of us back then and even then we couldn't get everyone there.

The entire Horan clan needs to give themselves a collective pat on the back for making it happen.  It was a special event and a great day at the Burnt Cedar Beach.  A special thanks also goes out to Susan the 2nd of Davenport, Carrie and David for getting the t-shirts....I'm wearing mine as I type this entry and loving it!

More photos to come soon...stay tuned!

7/7/10

The good new is that it turns out that I don't need new brakes on the Camry...whooowhoooo!  Apparently, they were just dirty, which caused the rotors to be "glazed" and squeak.  Whatever.  What I thought was going to be a $350 expenditure turned out to only be a $40 oil change.  To top things off my tires look like they can last another 5000 miles or so.  Thank you Dublin Toyota.

We are in our first week post lay offs.  Don't bother trying to call the SRC b/c unless you dial a direct extension you will not get a live person.  That's the outcome of having to eliminate the receptionist position.  The public will get to experience and enjoy the slow torture of the phone tree menu.  If you press '0,' which we all do anyway, you will get transferred to the operator on our Pleasant Hill campus.

One of the features we have on the SRC is a campus phone in every classroom.  Faculty can call for assistance with A/V or computer needs, and for the occasional emergency or disruptive student.  The phones only allow you to call one extension, which is then sent to a wireless phone product called a Durafon.  The Durafon has a claimed range of 3000 yards, which we have never been able to replicate.  After over a year of trying to get the Durafon to play nice with our Mitel phone system (we will be moving to VOIP in 2011) I am officially giving up on the Durafon and declaring it a lost cause.  Come next week we will have all calls from the classrooms transferred to a cell phone that I'm going to purchase today (hopefully).  The mobility is necessary as we don't have the luxury of having any one staff person just sitting at their desk waiting for a call.  The cell phone allows us to service faculty/staff within our decreased human resources.

While you may not be able to get a live person when you call the SRC from off-campus, our faculty and staff will continue to get direct service when calling for assistance from the classroom.  The downside is that the savings we created by switching to a web based fax service (almost $1,000 annually) will be eaten up some by the new cell phone service plan.  Two steps forward, 1/2 step backwards.  It's still progress.

7/6/10

I'm back.  The Future Leaders Institute (FLI/Advanced) was a fantastic experience.  It answered a lot of questions for me and provided me with some strategic directions to explore.  One of the best aspects of attending conferences, such as the FLI, is the networking that takes place.  It was a beneficial experience to get to know colleagues across the country and develop some new friendships that I'm sure will continue beyond the institute.  The drive home was event free, however, I did get to experience some LA traffic on the 405....not so much fun. 

I spent the 4th of July in San Ramon supporting the Chamber of Commerce and our PTK students as they organized a neat Glitter Tattoo booth as a fundraiser.  The day was long and hot, but a great community building event.  I heard different estimates on the number of people that piled into Central Park to watch the fireworks show.  The guesstimates ranged from 15,000 to 25,000.  I think it was closer to 15,000, probably even less.  What one realizes is that there isn't really a difference as it relates to being "crowded" between 15,000 and 25,000.  It was shoulder to shoulder in some parts of the park.  We learned a few things along the way, which will enhance next year's operation.

A bit of a short week for me this week.  Couple of days in the office and then off to the family Reunion.  Looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Happy Tuesday....