July 10, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Well, the IMS Reorganization (15 months in the
making) is officially completed.
In the beginning, we had FAST (Forms Analytical Services &
Technology), RACS (Records Analytical & Consulting Services), the
Library and “Livermore”.
Four groups, formed along functional lines, each with a Supervisor.
Today we have Methods & Models (MM), Research,
Education & Training (RET), Resources & Services (R&S), and Information
Acquisition, Storage & Delivery (IASD and try fitting
that on a business card).
And one lone Policy Coordinator sitting out in left field.
So now we have a totally new structure of four groups, formed
along functional lines, each with a Team Leader.
You can see what a difference it all makes.
The most important difference is that I now have a
partner.
There are two “Information Systems Support Specialists” instead of just little
old me trying to keep up with all the trouble three dozen plus people
can get into with computers.
Now I have someone to delegate to.
Which will give me more time to hunt for a new
place and get my condo sold.
Last week “Elaine” and I went on our lunch break to look at a townhouse
I had seen with “Jeannie”.
At second glance, it wasn’t quite as great as I’d remembered it.
The living room was positively
tiny.
Absolutely no room for a
Christmas Tree,
one of my first considerations when looking at a living room.
“Elaine” took one look at the dining room, which is
set a half-level above the living room and had the same idea I’d had the
first time I’d looked at it:
It would make a wonderful home office.
Overlooking the living room and around the corner from the
kitchen, it would allow the office to be in the middle of everything
without being in anyone’s way.
However, it would leave you without a place to eat meals, which
could occasionally be a problem.
The bedrooms were also significantly smaller than
the ones I have, which leads me to wonder how it can have 40 square feet
more than my current place.
And they want $186,000 before adding in central
air conditioning. So
it’s back to the drawing board, so to speak.
This place was built by
Kaufman & Broad, a
development company that specializes in “first” homes, what “Jeannie”
calls “entry level”. A few
years back they had some problems (“Jeannie” did some of the
depositions) that hurt their reputation.
So they hired actor
Tom Skerritt to
be their spokesperson. When
you step into a model home, there’s a TV (they’re finally allowing TV’s
into model homes!) showing a tape of Tom telling you how wonderful K&B
is and what a good value their homes are.
(He doesn’t mention that air conditioning is an added “option”.)
They probably chose Tom because he played such a
wholesome, down-to-earth person when he was portraying the police chief
in Rome, Wisconsin
in the TV series
Picket Fences.
Now that we’ve seen the movie,
Contact,
Kaufman & Broad may want to reconsider.
In Contact,
Jodie Foster
plays Ellie, a young woman bound and determined to not only prove that
there is Intelligent Life Out There, but to talk with the aliens
personally. Tom Skerritt
plays a scientist/politician who is equally determined to stop her or,
if he can’t stop her, make sure he gets all the credit for her work.
Halfway through the movie, “Jeannie” leaned over and whispered,
“Would you buy a home from this man?”
Despite Tom’s machinations, contact is made and
somebody gets to go on the Mother of All
E-Rides through the
cosmos. The special effects
are marvelous, of course, but more importantly, the story is
intelligent.
James Woods plays
an even bigger
SOB
than Tom Skerritt.
President Clinton
pops into the picture a few times (same
director as
Forrest
Gump). And
CNN is already
reconsidering their policy of having their people play themselves in
movies. About the 23rd
time CNN appeared on the screen, people started to laugh.
Bottom line:
We were surprised when we left the theater to discover that over
2½ hours had passed.
Definitely worth the time.
Love, as always,
Pete
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