March 11, 2004
Dear Everyone:
Spring arrived this week. Barely two weeks ago we were being hammered by a Pacific storm that, among other things, ripped numerous and sundry tears in my patio cover. This Monday, as I was leaving work, I began to think it might be time to start shaving my legs and wearing skirts and sandals again. The patio thermometer confirmed it at 88o. Last week, highs in the low 60’s. This week, lows in the low 60’s.
Things continue to be fairly quiet at work. I’m still the only person occupying our “Pleasant Hill” base office. On the plus side, I can play music as much as I like. I’m hip deep in revising the training materials for the document management system. After about a year of training, we’ve come to the conclusion that certain parts need to be moved around. Some things that are covered in the first module don’t really need to be considered until the sixth module. And so on. The class still takes about six hours to get through.
But there’s always someone who doesn’t believe he/she can sacrifice that much time to learn how to use the system. Last week, I was asked to talk to a new team about how to use the computer-based training (CBT). The CBT is not as effective a learning tool as the hands-on classroom training, but it’s better than nothing. (How do we know this? By counting the number of calls in to the hotline after a training session versus after someone takes the CBT.)
I showed them how to get to the in-house training web site and look up the CBT and how to request a special training ID in order to do the hands-on labs that are included. When the CBT first came out, I actually went through the entire thing, labs included, writing down exactly how many minutes it took to get through each module. Bearing in mind that I could do it at warp speed, it still took me three hours to sit through each module and then do each lab. And I wrote much of the labs.
Last Monday I got a call that this team had decided that they would use the system to manage their documentation. But three hours was too long for training. They want me to show it to them in half-an-hour at the most, as an agenda item on their next meeting.
I spoke with one of the team members, who also happens to be my manager, and we agreed on what would constitute the barest of bones minimum that they would need to know. I whittled it all down to 66 pages. But I doubt if we can cover that much in 30 minutes. We’ll find out next week.
In other news…
The weather was so beautiful last Sunday that “Jeannie” and I decided to spend it sitting in the dark. It had been such a long time since we’d seen a movie and we wanted to see this one before it disappeared.
Miracle stars Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, the coach of the US Hockey Team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. This is a Disney production and it’s easy to see why. The story is heartwarming and Disney owns ABC which broadcast the Olympics that winter and which has a vault full of file footage to use.
We were a little late getting to the theater but,
as “Jeannie” pointed out, we already knew how it would end.
But it’s not about the ending, it’s about the journey.
The movie opens with a montage of clips about the 70’s,
everything from disco
to Nixon to
Brooks starts out with a group of hockey hopefuls. Gradually, he forms them into a team. The first time they win a game, no one is more surprised than they are. But Brooks has a higher goal. He wants to beat the Russians.
Lots of skating, lots of sweating, lots of crashing into each other. During the final, climactic scramble for the puck, it suddenly occurred to me that these weren’t hockey players. These were young actors, all unknowns, some of whom probably didn’t even know how to skate when they began production. I hereby predict that this film will be nominated for, and possibly will win, the Academy Award for best editing.
It might even be nominated for the costuming. Wide lapels, big collars and, oh my god! plaid. So much plaid! At one point, I leaned over to “Jeannie” and whispered, “At least he isn’t wearing plaid this time.” Then he stood up. I’d spoken too soon. If you like plaid, you’ll like this movie. And even if you don’t like plaid, if it hasn’t disappeared from your local Cineplex, go see it.
I won’t even give away the ending.
Love, as always,
Pete
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