May 16, 2002
Dear Everyone:
A very short Letter this week as I am exhausted after the three-day Information Management Conference at work. Although I was not actively a part of the conference Team, towards the end of preparation, I “volunteered” to be the Time-Keeper. This entailed sitting in the front row, on the center aisle, and discreetly holding up little signs to let the speakers know how close they were to the end of their allotted time.
As Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said, after hearing of plans to have him tarred-and-feathered, “If it weren’t for the honor, I’d just as soon pass.” Nevertheless, someone was needed for Time-Keeper and I’m the one with the timer (several, in fact). And it garnered me two of the official Team Member polo shirts, colored “stone” for the first day and red for the second. I also got an official “Global Records Consulting” shirt for the “networking” and demo sessions at the end of the first day.
As for the Conference itself, by all accounts it was a resounding success. 150 people came from eight countries on five continents. (Think one of the reasons for acquiring “Another Company” had something to do with all their international holdings?) Folks came from as far away as Beijing and Aberdeen and many points in between.
The presentations ran the gamut from rank-amateur to surprisingly professional. From enlightening and amusing to mind-numbingly boring. Whose idea was it to schedule the tax attorney in the afternoon following a huge barbecue? While he did not succeed in putting everyone in the auditorium completely to sleep, you have to admit he gave it his best shot.
The whole Conference was kind of old home week for me. I saw people I worked with twenty-mumble years ago. I met people I have worked with (from a distance) many times, but never seen before. And people who have been reading my “Weekly Updates” since October of 1994 finally got to put a face to the all-too-familiar name.
Also my dear, old friend, “Miranda”, came from
Speaking of High School, all three of our nieces have checked in with Commencement announcements. Congratulations cards will soon be flocking around the country.
In other news, I finally got my new computer at work. This is a notebook PC with what’s called a “port replicator”. In the office, you plug the keyboard, mouse, monitor and any other “peripherals” into the back of the replicator. Then you plug the notebook into the front of the replicator. Bingo! Your notebook now works just like a standard workstation. When you need to take the computer with you, you just unplug it from the replicator and go.
And the operating system is Windows XP, which makes it just as frustrating as my new home PC.
That’s all for this week. Right now, my brain feels like it’s been converted into peanut butter. Chunky.
Love, as always,
Pete
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