Entries Tagged 'Business Stuff' ↓

You might be wondering what I’ve been up to in recent days/weeks/months.  So do I.  Just a couple of things to mention today.

Back in the fall I started a job split, keeping half of my old job in Admissions, and picking up some responsibilities in the IT (Administrative Computing side) office.  The university has entered a new software implementation, which is chewing up most of my time.  It’s very energizing, and very tiring, all at the same time.  Because of my job split I’m the functional lead (representing Admissions) and the technical lead (representing IT).  I’m going to some training in California next week, so things are really in swing now.

A new, exciting outlet has started for me.  I asked a group of guys if they wanted to co-author a new blog with me, found at wearebutmen.com.  How did I come up with that name?  See here.  What’s it all about?  See here.  It’s still pretty young, but there has already been some lively discussion in the comments.  Stop by and look around sometime.

I’ve been busy recently, and haven’t been blogging much (obviously). You may be wondering what I’ve been up to. Well, this is what I’ve been working on. In case that doesn’t quite make sense, I’ve been working on a web redesign for the Yearly Meeting. It’s not completely done yet, but we’ve gone live with it.

I struggle to keep my desk free from paper clutter, and I am also guilty of letting my computer desktop get cluttered with various files and folders. I saw this post today, and think I might need to give it a go. What is suggested are some tips to cleaning your desktop, and organizing your display to improve you effeciency with your computer.  We’ll see if I’m able to stick with the suggestions on simplifying my electronic domain.
[via Lifehacker]

[tags]Windows, GTD, clutter[/tags]

Once again my del.icio.us links have backed up some, so get ready for a random collection of links:

• Launchy - This is another application launcher, similar to Colibri (featured by me in this post). I stopped using Colibri because it took too long to get it started up. Launchy starts rapidly, and at present is taking less than 2 Meg of memory to run. Another benefit of Launchy is the ability to choose which directories get indexed for launching.
• WP-Notable - “Notable displays a series of icons below each post allowing your readers to easily submit you to many different social bookmarking and networking sites.” This allows for easy posting to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, Digg, and Spurl, to name a few.
• Jacktracker - More stuff for those 24 fans. This is a Google Maps mash-up, set to the travels during a day in the life of Jack Bauer.
• Bullfighter - “If you think you smell something at work, there’s probably good reason — Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way.” Let Bullfighter put your corporate mission statement in plain English for you.
• Fav Wordpress Plugins - Business Blog Consulting has put together their list of their favorite Wordpress plugins. Anyone who takes the time to list their favorite plugins is worth a read.
• Warriors of the Net - If you’ve ever wanted to watch a movie explaining in fairly easy-to-understand terms how data gets transmitted on a network (or the internet), then this is the movie for you.
• Nifty Corners - For those that fancy themselfs as web programmers, this Javascript/CSS combo allows you to make rounded corners without the need for specially created image files. My current theme is using Nifty for its roundedness.

That’s all I got for now.

[tags]Bullfighter, Launchy, 24, Jack Bauer, Google Maps, Nifty Corners, Wordpress[/tags]

You may have been wondering where I’ve been in the last month or so since I’ve been majorly lacking in the posting department. My anwser is this: webjive.org. Yup, Aj and I have started a little side venture into the realm of website design and hosting. As of today, I guess, we are officially open for business. It’s been pretty fun working on the stuff; right now we have 2 (soon to be 3) clients. Since this is so new it’ll be interesting to see how business goes. Only time will tell.

Our main catalyst for starting this was talking with people we know who want to do more on the web — more than what Blogger or other free services offer — and we have the skills to help people out with that. We’re really looking to specialize in working with people who want to have a website but don’t know where to start. As our homepage says:

Do you want to get out on the web but don’t know where to start? Have you never worked with a website, and the mere thought send shivers down your spine?

I just recently got setup with a laptop and docking station at work. One of the best benefits of this setup is the fancy 19″ LCD monitor that I also got. And according to this article (via Gadgetopia) I’m more productive because of it. Man I love research that backs up my need for a technology fix.

William H. Macy summed it up perfectly in Mystery Men. He knew who he was. He did what he was good at. Nothing more, nothing less. So I’ll personalize what Macy said, “I’m a Supervisor. I supervise.”

I was nominated at work to attend a management training program. The first session was on Friday, the second is in January, and the final one is in April. The major thing we did on Friday was to take the DiSC Profile Test. I came out as a high S, with a secondary high C. All in all, I think the results of the “instrument” were accurate to who I am. The presenter was very dynamic, and did an excellent job of presenting the information. We’ll see him again in April when he’ll finish up his presentation on “Communication and Problem Solving.”

The DiSC Assessment is also used in corporate team-building settings, and I can see how that would be very beneficial. You not only learn about how you work (at work), but how others work. I’m sure that a reaction of “That’s why you get on my nerves” is common to this type team-building activity. You can’t leave it at the recognition, though. Now that I know why you annoy me, and why I annoy you, we can work together to help meet the needs of the other with grace to not get to the annoyance stage.

Plus, I got paid to go.

I know that I’ve talked about this guy before, but he posted another great tool on his blog. This time it’s a slick script that allows you to quickly append text to a scratch file using AutoHotkey. Bren also talks a lot about GTD, and I’m going to start using this AutoHotkey script to try and organize my “to do” crap. So far, in my limited reading of the book, I’ve recognized my failure to get things out of my head and out on “paper”. You can find more stuff about GTD here and here and here.