it’s lunch time and I’ve got a few minutes. The picture above is a part of the cubicle I work in when I’m actually in the office. This is a very slow week. It’s Spring Break in the Idaho Falls area so many folks are gone this week. Also, the project I’m managing is in a wait state until some senior management decisions can be made and a contract negotiated with the proposed supplier. I have a couple of meetings today, so I came in to work. I’ll probably work from home tomorrow.
I have been getting a huge amount of comment spam on my blog. I finally sent a message to the folks who maintain the software and they asked me to send them some data. In rounding up the data I discovered that the spam blocking software had been turned off! I don’t know how that happened, but it occurred about three weeks ago. I turned it back on and the spam has stopped.
The picture was taken by my iPad2. I’m writing this post from my iPad2. I’m interested to see how it looks. TTFN!
I’ve had this application on my iPhone a while called Dragon dictation. Now that I have an iPad it’s on my iPad as well and it actually seems to work OK. I like it, actually, and it seems to do a pretty good job of recognizing everything I say.
It’s actually easier to talk than to type, particularly on the iPhone because it’s not very easy to type on the iPhone. I have to stop and think every once in a while. I’m not exactly sure how this thing handles my pauses and my other things like clearing my throat.
I’ve kind of figured out that I need to have a bit of an outline about what I’m going to say before I tried to dictate it. Without an outline I have to do a lot of stopping and thinking and I don’t have my thoughts very well together. There is a whole vocabulary associated with this dictation thing as well. For instance, special words to put in punctuation or in order to get paragraphs or other kinds of things.
I haven’t quite figured out some of the nuances but the workflow. Being able to put together a new post is a bit more complicated than I’d like for it to be. For instance I have to dictate in the Dragon application and then copy it and paste it into the blog post.
Corrections are kind of interesting as well. It does have a bit of an editor capability by tapping on a word after the recognition is finished. I get the option of being able to delete the word or sometimes it’ll suggest a better word particularly if the word I got there is quite misspelled. I want to try this on occasion but not probably a method of doing blog posts very often.
Every other Friday is a day off for folks working at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in the Idaho Falls offices (the folks working out in the desert at the “Site” have every Friday off). Today is one of those “off” Fridays for me. The intent is usually to catch up on my sleep while Nina gets up a little after 3 am to go to the Idaho Falls Temple to work. As usual, it didn’t work out that way today and sleep was quite illusive. I’m worried that sleeping in is becoming too much of a rarity in my life.
Yesterday afternoon my mother went into the hospital having some kind of cardiac problem. They admitted her into intensive care. So, Nina and I drove over last night when I got home from work. Mother was doing much better. The doctor planned to keep her in overnight for observation. Hopefully she’ll come home today. My favorite brother is on his way over from Green River, Wyoming to Soda Springs for a couple of days and will be with her when she gets home.
Likely the problem has a lot to do with hydration. The nurse was putting a lot of fluid in her through an IV and was going to continue that through the night. Mother was feeling much better when we were there.
Not much on the agenda today, perhaps a few errands. I’ve been listening to the Idaho State Police on the radio. They just broke up a fight at a bar in Lava and the County Sheriff has one in custody. Listening to the police frequencies certainly gives me quite an appreciation for how often their lives and well-being are on the line. TTFN!!
There is finally an updated app for managing my blog from my new iPad. I might actually post a little more often (hopefully). The app on my iPhone kept crashing but this one seems to be more stable.
I’ve been working from home today and have gotten quite a bit done. Sometimes being away from the office where people can’t just stop in and talk is a good thing.
I keep saying to myself that I’ll get a new blog post up Real Soon Now … and that seems to never happen. Since I’ve got just as much time available as anyone else, I think my problem is that time just goes by faster here in Pocatello, Idaho! That’s my story and I’m gonna stick to it.
I am really enjoying the contract I’m working on up in Idaho Falls at the Idaho National Laboratory. I get to work with a great group of people. I’m leading a project to replace their current email systems with a cloud-based solution and this is a very hot topic in the Federal Government at the moment. There’s going to be a mass movement of federal agencies away from in-house email systems to systems hosted by at least a dozen providers. It’s kind of fun being involved with this significant change in how messaging systems are being implemented.
However, Idaho Falls is about an hour north of me. That means I’m leaving the house around 6:15 a.m. most work days and get back home about 6:15 p.m. I usually ride the Salt Lake Express shuttle bus since the round trip on the bus is cheaper than the cost of gasoline to drive my car up and back (and, for some Egyptian reason, the cost of gasoline has gone up more that $0.15 per gallon in the past week around here).
Nina gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I added a cover which actually makes the Kindle feel very much like a book. I’ll usually read either going to the office or on the way home (and occasionally both ways). I’ve really come to like this device.
In other news, I was elected to the Board of Directors for the Pocatello Amateur Radio Club. This should be a fun assignment. The term is for one year and expires at the end of December of this year. I made a contact today with the Buddy Holly Special Events Station on the ham radio set. I’m expecting to get in the mail a commemorative card signed by no other than Peggy Sue Gerron … the girl in Buddy Holly’s most popular song (which is at #194 on the Billboards all-time hits chart).
I’ve been working on this post for a few days … through several drafts … and trying to get it to express what I’ve been thinking for the past several months on this subject. Apparently I was just concerned that I might offend someone. Then it occurred to me that just as I can choose whether or not I’m going to be angry about something, I can just as easily choose whether or not I am offended by someone.
The catalyst was the events in Tucson last Saturday when a young man opened fire on a political event killing 6 people and wounding 14 others. I don’t know many of the details and there seem to be as many opinions as there are pundits, but I’m pretty sure it started with the shooter being offended.
Then a day or so later, a church announced that they would be picketing the funeral of a 9-year-old shooting victim, celebrating her death. I decided that I was offended by their actions.
That’s kind of the way it is. Someone else doesn’t make me angry … they only provide the context and it’s my decision to blow my stack. Someone else doesn’t offend me … they only provide the context and it’s my decision to be offended or not.
Then if I choose to be offended, I can then further decide what I’ll do about it.
I’ve often wondered about these plaques on the walls of government and civic buildings. Now my name is on one of these things! This plaque will be mounted on the brick wall in the background. It apparently arrived this week and there wasn’t time to get it mounted before the big ceremony today. What ceremony? The ribbon cutting for the new passenger waiting area at the Pocatello Airport. I’m on the Airport Commission and thus get my name in brass hanging on the wall for decades to come, or at least until the building gets torn down. What happens to these things when that happens? I’ll bet they’re melted down for scrap metal. As usual, click on the picture for a larger image and some more details.
I’m in a less-busy period in my new job. The past three months I’ve been working a lot of hours getting a Request for Proposal ready to be sent out for the project I’m leading. The Thursday before Christmas we finally got the document out the door and the vendors have until the end of January to respond. As a result, I’ve taken a couple of days off to conserve some of my time for later in the year when I’ll definitely need the time. It has been fun having the day available to kind of catch up on things and be at the big shindig out at the airport and to attend my Rotary Club meeting this evening.
Roger Sorenson and Me
I met up with an old friend and hero this afternoon. After graduating from High School I went into the Air Force, married Nina, and two years after graduation we were in Japan stationed at Yokota Air Force Base. Our only means of communication (that is, the only means we could afford) was by letter. One day we received a letter from Roger Sorenson. He had been Student Body President and all around great guy in Soda Springs High School when I was a freshman and a sophomore. He probably was one of the most well-liked people in the school. His family ran a large ranch north of Soda Springs, a ranch that Roger still operates. The Blackfoot River runs through that ranch and once as a Boy Scout we were camping on the Sorenson Ranch and doing some fishing (I was and still am a very poor fisherman in every sense of the word). I fell into the river, Roger fished me out, and scrounged up some clothes from the ranch house for me to wear.
Roger’s letter said that he was flying for Northwest Airlines and flew into Tokyo on a regular basis and he invited Nina and me to meet him in Tokyo on one of his trips for dinner. I’m sure he’d gotten our address from my mother when he was home in Soda Springs one weekend. We were very excited to have the invitation! We exchanged a couple more letters getting dates and locations set up. All of these arrangements took several weeks for the mail to go back and forth.
Nina and I had a lovely dinner with him at the top of one of the fancy hotels in downtown Tokyo. It was an evening that I’ve always remembered. Not for the food, the locale, or the conversation (none of which I remember). It was because he had gone out of his way to set all of this up for some kid from his home town. It’s kind of a small example of how he’s lived his life. He flew airliners for Northwest for 35 years and has been active in aviation ever since.
Another example: A fellow who was doing his Masters work at Idaho State University studying the soda water springs that dot the landscape around Soda Springs was interested in doing an aerial survey. I’ve never met this fellow in person, just through Twitter. I suggested on Twitter that he give Roger a call. He did. Roger picked him up and flew him all over the area in Roger’s airplane. No charge … he just wanted to help someone out.
It was good to chat with Roger this afternoon and catch up on things. He’s still one of the truly great guys.
There are many delightful events and concerts during the weeks preceding Christmas. A week ago we were at the annual Messiah Sing-in at the Performing Arts Center which was a fabulous evening of music. A week before that was the annual First Presidency Fireside with the Tabernacle Choir with just beautiful music and talks.
But, tonight we were at what has become my most favorite presentation / concert … the evening that the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center LDS Choir puts on their program of music. The Choir this year was made up of twelve girls who enthusiastically and joyfully performed the music they had prepared. They perhaps aren’t exactly the most polished or professional group but what they lack in spit and polish they make up with vim and vigor!
Nina has been volunteering at the prison for at least six years. She currently teaches (or perhaps better said, facilitates) a craft class for two hours each Thursday afternoon. Some of those girls are incredibly talented and delight in being able to craft something with their hands. Because Nina volunteers, we’re able to attend the annual Christmas concert. It’s fun to watch the girls come up and say hello to Nina and then tell me how much they love her (and the feeling is mutual, by the way). It’s kind of fun to be known up there as Mr. Nina!
They love the music and many of them are coming to know the Savior’s love and His mercy. My world was made a bunch better this evening.
