Blast from the past - First "Date"

Due to the wonderful social networking abilities of Facebook, I bring you a "blast from the past" .... a picture of me the evening of my first date!

 

Yep, that is me when I was 15, if I remember right.  My dad drove me to pick up <name withheld to protect her identity> and take us to a "sweetheart" banquet at our church.

 

It is hard to tell, but that is a blue denim three-piece suite, with an open neck wide collar shirt.  Oh, yeah ... I was a "styling dude" back then.

 

Now that you have had a good laugh, enjoy the rest of your day!

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You just gotta love technology when it works ....

.... but not completely hate it when it doesn't

I ordered a new ID card printer for the ID Card Production office about a month ago. It finally arrived today. With the whole purchase order process at the university, I'm surprised I got it this quickly. Since this type of printer is completely different than what we currently have in the office, I only ordered one. This will allow me some time to make system and procedural modifications prior to replacing all of our printers.

Let's just say today didn't go smoothly. So much so that I don't even have the printer in my officethis evening. Due to various "ribbon identification" issues, the vendor boxed it back up and took it to their repair site. All in all, the printer model is an absolute workhorse, and I figure mine got a little bit out of whack in the shipping (...hum, if it had worked, would it have been considered "in whack"?).

Due to the technology advancements since we last ordered printers, I will be able to lower the number of printers in the office from seven(7) to three(3) - with the third being a spare printer. I will also be able to reduce the number of card template blanks from five(5) to one(1). The new printer has the ability for duplex printing, so it can print the different back images as needed. Pre-printing card template backs costs me $0.10 per card, but the duplex printing ribbon averages $0.06 per card. This will allow an overall initial savings of $0.04 per card, which will add up considering the thousands of cards we print per semester!
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Joe, this post is for you

Yesterday, while enjoying the OSU lead over Missouri, I got a call from an old friend. Joe M. is a guy I know from a previous life (job responsibility) that I have met in person only a few times, but it seems like we have known each other forever. We talk on the phone several times a year, especially to call each other for birthdays and the like. Renee knows him as the guy who sent the huge basket of brownies when I was in the hospital after my accident (when I say huge, I mean it fed three shifts of nurse, besides all the friends and family that came to see me - yeah - HUGE).

I met Joe when he was trying to sell me some training solutions for our CIS personnel (CIS= Computing & Information Services - Pre IT). While I won't mention the name of the company here, the initials are ML. Joe was in the 'College and University' side of the sales team at time. Since then, he has been moved over to the 'Government' side of the sales department. Joe has the type of personality that never meets a stranger, and gets along great with everyone .... everyone except the new VP of the company it seems.

I guess to be accurate here, the VP seems to be the type that only meets strangers, someone that doesn't communicate well with others and builds his decisions based upon those non-communication moments.

Joe was at the top of his game in regards to sales. In fact, he was at the top of everyone's game, as he has been the leading sales guy within his side of the sales area for a while. But that didn't keep the VP from giving Joe the boot last week, the day after his 12 year anniversary with the company.

Joe has a strong faith in the Lord, and knows that this will all work out for good, but it is still a shock to me.

I doubt any other employees with the company (let's call it, um, BrainGuide) read this blog, but if you do I make the following recommendations:
1. Fire up the word processor of your choice
2. Open your resume (or start one if you don't have a copy)
3. Get it updated
4. Start covertly looking for another job

If Joe wasn't safe there, none of the others are either ... unless you have the word 'president' somewhere within your official title.

Side note: #17 OSU went on to beat #3 ranked Missouri with a final score of 28-23.
GO POKES!
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A new 'member' of our family

I would like to introduce you to Clarisza. She is a beautiful eight year old living in the Philippines.

 

Some history: When Sarah was nine or ten years old and asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted to sponsor a child through Compassion International. We started the monthly sponsorship in her name and was provided the information for a young girl about Sarah's age named Mary Grace. Over the years Sarah received several letters from Mary Grace keeping her informed of what was going on in her life and village, and Sarah wrote to her as well.

 

Shortly after Sarah left for college, we received our last letter from Mary Grace. She advised she was moving to be with her aunt, as she had an opportunity to attend college near her aunt's house. The move would mean that Mary Grace would no longer be within the Compassion International program. In short, both Sarah and Mary Grace were leaving home to go to college.

 

Enter Clarisza: Renee and I didn't want to end the sponsorship opportunity, and Hope had been expressing an interest helping others, so we started working with Compassion International to change the account over from Sarah's name to Hope's. Renee and Hope went online and found Clarisza. She is about six weeks younger than Hope. Her hobbies of dolls, art/drawing, singing and listening to music match perfectly with many of Hope's hobbies. Renee and I anticipate that we will have another great period of ten years or so of hearing from another sponsored child, as well as helping/encouraging our daughter to communicate with her sponsored child.

 

If you aren't currently involved in a sponsorship program, such as Compassion International, World Vision, or any of the other programs, please take the time to think/pray about it as well as research the opportunity. For the price of one evening out a month at a really nice restaurant and movie, you can help change the life of a child and their family. In Clarisza's area, most adults work as day laborers and earn the equivalent of $95 per month.

 

Also, if you would add Clarisza (health, education, family, etc) and Hope to your prayer list (their future pen-pal relationship), I would be eternally grateful.

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Shirt Alert .... shirt alert

Yesterday's mail brought the most recent copy of Wireless Catalog.  This is the amazing catalog that always has numerous new shirts that I would love to have in my closet.  But, instead of filling my closet with the great designs, I am only able to fill my blog with them. 

 

The choices of the ones to share were hard to choose from, but here are some of the ones that made the cut for this post:

 

 

Feel free to visit the site and pick a few of your favorites!!!!

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