Wednesday, July 25, 2007

It's Here!

This evening I will walk into the downtown branch of the Wichita Public Library, plunk down one shiny quarter, and receive a two week loan on the final Harry Potter book. This is the first time I've paid to use the "hold" system at the library and I only did it because I figured, even with 100 copies in circulation, my chances of finding this insanely popular book actually on the shelves in the next few months was pretty slim.

Now I just have to find the time to read it.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Corporate IT

For the entire time I have worked at Cessna (2.5 years), I have had a wimpy computer. For whatever reason, when I started I was given a computer that was handed down to me from a administratice assitant. It was slow. Very slow. The monitor was a dark 17" CRT. Nearly all the other engineers had flat panel displays and took advantage of their "superiority" to let me know that my status on the nerd totem pole was not that impressive.

That has all changed.

Due to the system requirements of some new software we are using, our group is getting their computers upgraded and mine was the first to arrive this afternoon. Dual 20" flat panel displays. Eight times the memory I had before. Four times the processor power than that previous pokey computer. I sit at my desk and see a wide swath of computing expanse and have the power to move through it. Its great.

The only downside is the inferior upgrade procedure we have in place. I will probably be spending several hours tomorrow installing a bunch of software and drivers so that I can get back to doing my job. For whatever reason, the IT people don't feel it is their responsibility to deliver the computer in a usable state; they copy over some of the data but not all of it. I've already spent a few hours on the phone with tech support trying to get the access rights I need to re-install the software I need to do my job.

Maybe tomorrow will go more smoothly.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Hall of Fame

This past weekend Katie and I went down to Oklahoma to be present for a unique ceremony; Katie's father was being inducted into his high school football hall of fame. I know it meant a lot to him that we were able to make it and though I'm still learning about "football culture" and was a bit over my head, I was gald we were able to make it. Now I have a father-in-law who is a (high school football) Hall of Fame Inductee. That's pretty cool.