January 22, 2009
Dear Everyone:
Big happenings at work.
When Information Technology Company (ITC), the
operating company for which I work, has a project, eventually the
project comes to an end and the result is a new product or service which
is then supported by what’s called the “run organization.”
When the project is reaching its conclusion, the actual work is
“transitioned” to the run organization.
In the vernacular, it’s called “throwing it over the wall.”
A lot of the work that has been happening with the
software called SharePoint is now being “thrown over the wall” and our
workgroup, Information Management Consulting, is expected to “catch” it.
This is why I’m suddenly presenting classroom training on how to
use SharePoint. The course
is called “SharePoint Foundations”, meaning it’s for beginning end
users.
There’s also a much longer, two-day course called
“SharePoint for Power Users” and a couple more that are still in
development. This week, we
found out in a meeting that pretty much all of our group is going to be
presenting training. The
idea is that having more people know how to give the training means more
flexibility in providing that training to the many, many people who are
clamoring for it.
This is great for me because I enjoy training and I
also enjoy learning more and more about just about anything, including
software. The more I know,
the better I can be.
But enough about that, movies…
Last Saturday, “Jeannie” and I went up to
Concord
to pick up her friend from the old “Knitting Class” that “Jeannie” used
to attend every Tuesday night.
From there we went into
Frost/Nixon,
based on a Broadway play, follows
David Frost and
Richard Nixon as they
prepare for the 1977 series of interviews that Frost did, the first
Nixon granted after he resigned the Presidency in 1974.
Frost is played by
Michael Sheen (who portrayed
Tony Blair in
The Queen, by the same
writer) and Nixon is played by
Frank Langella
(until now probably best known as the really steamy
Count Dracula in
1979.)
Ron Howard directed.
Frost is portrayed as a bon vivant, hobnobbing with
the rich and famous, more of a wheeler-dealer and performer than as a
serious journalist. Nixon is
shown as a lonely outsider who never really fit in.
The fun is in watching these two “verbal gladiators” sparring
with one another. At first,
Nixon seems to have the upper hand.
Then something happens and Frost decides to put his journalistic
nose to the grindstone. The
rest, as they say, is history.
I was not the least bit surprised this morning when
the Academy Award nominations were announced and Langella, Howard, the
writer and the movie all were in the running.
There’s even a reference in one scene about Frost’s
picture,
The Slipper and the Rose,
which he executive produced.
This was a variation on the
Cinderella story, starring
Richard
Chamberlin. It was released
right around the time that rumors were beginning to circulate that the
actor might be homosexual.
I remember when I mentioned the movie to our Mother
and her response: “Who does
he play, the Fairy Godmother?”
No, the prince.
You can “Netflix” it, if you’re interested.
Love, as always,
Pete
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