June 21, 2007
Dear Everyone:
Greetings upon this, the first day of Summer.
Last week’s vacation was absolutely lovely.
We couldn’t have hoped for better weather.
On Sunday, “Marshall” took us all into
On Monday we went back into the City to visit
“Marshall’s” haberdashery,
Bullock & Jones, just off
Back then rumors about a ghost at the restaurant were sharply discouraged for fear of frightening away customers. Now, they not only celebrate “The Blue Lady”, she’s on the cover of the menus. (See http://www.mossbeachdistillery.com/ghost.html.) They’ve greatly expanded the whole restaurant, including a meeting room for seminars and a large outdoor patio. And they charge way too much for a hamburger.
The old house [where our parents had lived] that used to sit near the edge of the cliff was moved back the moment the papers were signed when our parents sold it to the new owner. The original foundation hardly exists anymore. And part of the original road has been closed, although “Marshall” figured out how to use existing “back roads” to get to where the original road ends.
We also visited the condo that “Frankie” had owned before she got married. It was for sale again. I don’t remember how much “Frankie” sold it for originally; it could have been $29,000 or $59,000. But the new asking price was over $500,000. Needless to say: “Location, location, location.”
Then “Marshall” headed back to
On Wednesday, we drove up to
When I got back into the office on Tuesday, I started working with a contractor whose job is to record examples of how to do certain tasks in the new system. I’m one of her “Subject Matter Experts” (SME, pronounced smee). My job is to figure out how to do the function, step-by-step. Then I write a script. When we’re ready to record, I read the script out loud, while performing each step. Her software application records all the sounds, mouse moves and keystrokes. It even can generate a video, a Word document, and a quick reference sheet, all from a single recording.
Except nothing worked right. First the software wouldn’t work on a GIL3 computer. Once they fixed that problem, Prototype 2 was scrapped and we had to try and use Prototype 3, which only seemed to generate error messages. We hit more snags and roadblocks than Wiley Coyote chasing the Road Runner.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more apt the comparison is. GIL3 is the Road Runner and all of us trying to come up with a File Plan and ways to do the work are Wiley Coyote trying to hit a moving target. I found out this afternoon that all our recordings were based on an old version of the File Plan and that using the “new-and-improved” File Plan will look completely different. I have a “meeting” by phone and computer with the contractor tomorrow afternoon when I’ll give her the bad news.
In other
words:
Situation
Love, as always,
Pete
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