I can't believe I'm days behind again on my blog. The days just get so very busy -- and I'm so tired by the end of each day... Thursday, March 23Marilyn wasn't feeling at all well when she headed off to work. She ended up coming home sick in the middle of the day -- feverish, flushed and sick to her stomach. She took an anti-nausea pill. Then I wrapped her up in blankets and she slept for quite a while. When she woke up she insisted she was going to her meeting in Oregon City, Oregon! And I insisted she was not going alone after being sick. So I dashed to get ready and off we went. It turned out she needed me at the meeting, as there was talk about setting up the webpage for the upcoming Oregon City heritage days event in June. It was a good meeting -- bad traffic going there AND coming back. Marilyn is such a trooper... Friday, March 24Marilyn was off around 7:00 a.m. -- and I actually was up by 7:30, believe it or not! I spent AGES on some complicated issues. One included the idea of creating Profiles with names and attaching them to the generic Profiles used to set up on machines. That seems to be working out quite well, actually! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we made MAJOR HEADWAY this past week with our greylisting issue! I was pretty pleased, considering all the time I'd put into it personally (to say nothing of Kris' help). I tried to wrap my head around the difference between SEND AS and SEND ON BEHALF OF in Outlook, but I just don't get it! There's no difference I can see in the setup of both -- and there's no simple way I can see to select between them. Christine and I tried messing with it and finally gave up. We figured this is something to do when we're NOT in season and so damn busy... More on that later, I guess! But I did solve an issue I've had for YEARS. Since I took over IT for the festival back in 2007, actually! In other words, I've been trying to reason this one out now and then for ten years. Hard to believe! I did put in some serious research at various times, but nothing recently. But I had decided I was ABSOLUTELY going to finally resolve this. It's about setting up Distribution Groups and/or Security Groups in Outlook. Here's the thing: Apparently ANYBODY can set up a Distribution Group! And ONLY THE OWNER of any group controls it. So even the main Administrator -- and all other Administrators (such as me) -- have NO CONTROL AT ALL over such groups. I'm sure you follow me so far. Anyway, when the group owner goes away, there's no one who can change and/or delete a group! And even if someone stays, you can't tell WHO is the group owner! Crazy, huh? I found this is a common problem and tons of people are searching all the time for a resolution. Most of these are VERY COMPLICATED. Many require more technical knowledge than I have. But in spite of that, I finally discovered the answer! I found where someone had described how it was done. The instructions were BAD, though -- steps were missing or incomplete. I've been through that many times over the years. Total aside: I've been writing tutorials or instructions of one kind or another for many, many years. Here's the thing! You need to use the correct terms for things -- and not your own words for what you're explaining. (Yes, it can be difficult to know the terms sometimes, but you need to find out what those are.) Others won't know what you're talking about if you use different words, or abbreviate terms in some way. Then you need to be sure NOT TO SKIP STEPS. Don't make the assumption people will know to click on OK or something else like that, because they won't know for sure! My tutorials/instructions are always lengthy, because I never skip anything... Anyway, I reasoned out the MISSING PARTS of the instructions I'd discovered. And wrote the whole thing out over again (very carefully). Then I applied it, and it took less than FIVE MINUTES per each group! I'm able now to actually CHANGE the ownership of any given group, no matter who originally created it. I need to MAKE SURE those instructions are online somewhere for others to use! I'm not kidding. Others want to know and need to know. I've no CLUE why you can't come close to an answer at the official Microsoft site. But, for the record, I almost NEVER get instructions there that are helpful to me. It's other sites that have the really useful instructions. (Why the hell is that??? Is it just bad writing, or is it deliberate???) I felt pretty damn accomplished by the time I'd finished up that task, anyway. Wow. And it only took me ten years to do it. Hahaha. In other words, I'm basically an idiot, but I was lucky this time around. (grin) Marilyn had a good and successful day on Friday, too. So Friday was a positive day for us. Saturday, March 25Today was all about Hillman (we all called him Lueddie) Lueddemann's memorial service. It was a uniform event, so we were anxious to get out the 'blue jackets' so people would see that we'd turned out from the festival to honor him, Janet (his wife) and his family. (Both Lueddie and Janet were former directors of the festival -- and continued to be supporters even after leaving the board.) Clayton and Dick were both there (they held Jeff's job prior to him). And we got a photo of Marilyn with all three guys! Clayton was the CEO (not called that back then, but same difference) when Marilyn and I first started with the festival decades ago. His wife Jackie was also there (but certainly not Dick's or Jeff's wives). Jackie was always very involved with the festival. We had a good turn out. From the staff we had Marilyn, Jeff, Carol, Rich, Jessica and me. And many directors (current and past) were in attendance. Plus lots of other people we know. And I got to meet Janet's daughter and daughter-in-law. Plus the daughter of Gwen, another amazing director. Afterwards Jeff, Mark (past president and current director), Marilyn and I went out for a drink in Lueddie's honor (as we often do after funerals and memorials). Then we came home... That's actually the short version of the past few days -- but good enough! Hahaha. Off to bed. Sleep well, friends.  - Feeling:accomplished
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I was inspired by St. Patrick's Day to create a NEW icon -- something I don't do very often anymore... So first off, Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody! I hope you all had a good day! My icon shows a pot of gold -- and I wish you all much 'gold' in your lives. (smile) Gold comes in many forms, after all... Some of you may recall when I had quite a bit more 'spare' time -- and I used to make icons constantly! I was involved with an icon community and it was great fun! I miss it. Too bad I never seem to have the time to do that these days. As for me, my hip was better this morning, if not 100%. And this evening I'm walking without a limp, which is fabulous. I'm hopeful it will be even better by tomorrow. In spite of the pain, I did manage to get some steps in today, thankfully. I'm pretty convinced that we need to WALK every single day of our lives, no matter how much we hurt (and even when we're sick, if at all possible). So often exercise is the only answer to staying healthy! It's often very hard, but we need to force ourselves. And it does get better if we can stick with it. I worked with Christine on the website today. We were doing more concert pages for the RoZone. I 'took control' of Christine's computer Remotely (using TeamViewer). She gets such a kick out of that! So I do that via my computer, and then we chat on the phone about what we're doing. We did one of the pages together, then she took over and did the second page on her own. I love the way Christine will run with this stuff once I show her how it's done. The next step is for me to WRITE OUT some detailed pages on HOW we do this more complicated stuff at the website. It's a daunting task some days, I have to admit. I need to have a certain mindset going to even try to tackle it. People are so used to me just grinding this stuff out. I don't think most of our staff at the festival realizes how difficult I find it. (sigh) I've been doing it for years now... I started a lot of my 'how to' writing back when I used to do tutorials for various Paint Shop Pro communities here at LiveJournal. Well, I have things that pre-date that, but I certainly got a lot of practice with the PSP communities! I wrote up so much detailed stuff back then. But I guess I've been doing tutorials forever. I used to write up simple versions of computer instructions. In fact, back when I did computer consulting, I'd take complicated manuals and make up a sheet or two that boiled down the important steps... I do enjoy it, but it's probably a lot harder than it sounds. It's about making things easy to understand, and NOT leaving out any of the steps of how things are done. When a person knows HOW to do something, they'll often take certain aspects for granted -- and forget to include them. I remember when I, myself, was learning certain things how FRUSTRATING I would find it when several steps ended up left out. And Microsoft is notorious for leaving out steps of HOW things are done using their Operating Systems and softwares! I've always said to be sure to use SOME OTHER WEBSITE when seeking HOW something is done for Microsoft stuff! Hahaha. Funny, that's for sure! I was having a HUNGRY day, today. I just couldn't seem to get enough to eat! I ate some leftover meat and green beans early on, then also had a bowl of cereal. For lunch I had a frozen spaghetti dinner. And I snacked on some roasted peanuts. Then had cheese and crackers and dill pickles for dinner. Just so hungry. I'm not sure WHY... I was also tired today... I did talk to sister Sue more than once. She wants 'us' (meaning Marilyn, I suppose) to take her to more than one doctor appointment next week (she has THREE). The problem is that Marilyn's schedule is really SET far in advance. And it's one thing for Marilyn to meet her at an appointment (join her there) and take notes and so on. But another entirely for Marilyn to get away so she can go and get Sue, take her to the appointment, be there for it, then take her back again and head back to work. That's HOURS out of Marilyn's work day. It would be helpful if one of Sue's kids could pick Sue up and take her to and from the appointment. (Neither one begins to work the hours that Marilyn works.) But I somehow doubt that's going to happen. Sue also wants us both to take her to Patsy's 'memorial' gathering at a pub next Sunday. Mainly because Candy wants to be able to stay and drink at the event, and Sue just wants to make a brief appearance. Marilyn agreed that we'll take her -- it's at 2:00 until 6:00 (I think). We usually pretty tired by Sunday, but we want to help Sue if we can, of course. Marilyn is already having trouble fitting her own medical and dental appointments into her schedule. And now she's talking about delaying stuff so she can help out Sue. She always puts Sue and me FIRST, and herself last. And it worries me! She needs to take care of herself, too. And there are only so many hours in a day. I just don't know how she does it. Her schedule is so exhausting. I couldn't begin to cover all she does here in my blog... I also talked to June today. I always enjoy our chats... And Rose (our neighbor across the street) came by while I was on a phone call to see me. So I called her tonight and we were on the phone for around an hour. She wanted to chat about the work she's having done -- and apologize about her construction guy David blocking the driveway this morning... I'm forgetting things, but need to go do the garbage and recycling. So that's pretty much it for today! Fitbit update: Marilyn got 9,000 steps (she got right up on the treadmill tonight!), and I got 3,071 steps, just walking around the house today. (I only went outside long enough to MOVE the guy who was blocking the driveway when Marilyn needed to leave for work. Otherwise I was inside, in spite of the lovely, sunny weather.) Donn is due in tomorrow and I have a busy day at the office. So hopefully I'll get to bed before long... Sleep well, friends!  - Feeling:busy
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I'm tired tonight. In fact, I was tired today. I had a problem with leg cramps last night and didn't sleep well.
I'm sure these constant cramps are related to the increased exercise, plus working to balance everything. Interestingly, I've been prone to leg cramps since childhood, so it's certainly nothing new for me. But, wow, I've had some doozies! Ouch.
And it sucks when it messes with my sleep, but oh well.
Speaking of sleep, I was cranky and tired, so in the afternoon, I just took a nap, which made me feel much better.
I worked on my email today. And did something cool on the festival Server (working Remotely). I set the Exchange Server to reject ZIP attachments. We get just TONS of SPAM at the office. In fact, this time of year we face cyber attacks. Great to be popular, huh? Hahaha. And loads of it contains ZIP files. So I set the Exchange to reject these -- and to send a rejection message to the sender. If someone is actually trying to send a real zipped file, the message tells them to contact the person being emailed. I also set the Exchange to recognize a certain CODE in the Subject line, then allow the email to come through.
Not only did I do this, but I wrote up detailed instructions on how to do it. So I can actually teach Donn how to do it, or edit this rule. Very cool.
Yesterday I did the complicated change to our ticket page at the festival website. And today I started writing up the tutorial on HOW to do it. As complicated as it is to do this, it's way more complicated to write it down! I was pretty frustrated. I kept starting and stopping, then coming back to it.
I haven't seen sister Sue for ages now. But we were both tired today, so even though we talked about lunch, we didn't go. Maybe soon.
I talked to Kris several times today and confirmed the changes for the IT Room. So we'll get the new rack and other equipment (full cost around $1,853). This should have happened when we moved in to this new building in 2010, so it's about time. He plans to have everything by next week, and install it one evening.
I also talked to friend Barry several times. The whole thing is confusing. It had seemed that Barry needed laptops with Win XP to use with the Pace Car software. But an email from his son Tary indicated they wouldn't need the two laptops I gave Barry. Barry has Parkinson's, so I understand he can become confused. I get confused enough without that excuse... Anyway, he didn't seem upset, and I assured him there was no rush to reason it out.
Left a message for my friend Rob, who had called Marilyn. Such a nice guy! I love him and his partner Jeff.
Brown rice and veggies for lunch. And some leftovers for dinner. I was hungry, so I just ate some brussels sprouts for a snack.
Fitbit Update: Marilyn did 15,156 steps today. I did only 7,023 steps. I was just so tired and sore that I couldn't do more. I guess some days I just have to let it go. Anyway, Marilyn's seven-day is around 85,000 today, and mine is 74,475. So even though I didn't get my 10,000 steps today, I'm averaging more than 10,000 for the past seven days. I'll live with it. - Feeling:tired
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Busy, busy day! I spent the morning on festival stuff, plus I cleaned up the kitchen and did a load of dishes.
Sister Sue and I talked for ages on the phone. Then she took me to lunch. I had pasta and salad. She also took me shopping, where I just grabbed a few items, like creamer.
I talked to Donn. I'm planning to have him at the office on Friday.
In the afternoon I gathered the garbage and took it out. And took out a bunch of recycling, too. Plus I called our neighbor to get our cans.
My blood count today was excellent -- I'm really pleased.
I wrote a lengthy tutorial about Paint Shop Pro for Christine in the afternoon. Then I got a good start on a second one. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow. We'd spent quite a long time going over PSP yesterday, so I wanted to follow it up.
I had several phone calls from the office -- and I wanted to be on hand to support Christine as she did the second Princess at the website. She did a great job, by the way!
I talked to Rich and Carol, too.
Then I finally had time to go over and see June and Jim. Jim very kindly fixed Marilyn's little Dirt Devil vacuum, that she loves. The belt had come loose.
June showed me her computer, which Donn just fixed. WOW. Is it ever FAST now! Whew.
And I took over the keyboard from Marilyn. It was Marilyn's old keyboard for the iPad Air, so it fits June's iPad. (Marilyn gave one old iPad keyboard to Carol, and another to Jeff. She's been very generous with her keyboards!) I think June's really going to enjoy it.
I had planned to have Donn get her a charging cable, but I found one tonight. So she should be good to go.
Dinner tonight was refried beans...
Just got out of a soak in a hot bath -- lovely.
I have a lot of work for the festival piling up. I really need to get things done! I'll be on it tomorrow...
Fitbit Update: Marilyn did 15,055 steps today! Isn't that wonderful??? I'm so impressed! I did 4,173 steps. That's not bad, considering I didn't get al that many steps in just walking today. (I had to do the treadmill tonight.) I'm pleased with how we're doing, anyway. And excited to see how many people we know are interested in Fitbit... - Feeling:accomplished
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I had a very productive -- and very BUSY -- day.
My focus was on the festival website -- and getting a better grip on WordPress. Again, forget what people have told you about WordPress being easy -- because it's NOT. Remember, I learned how to code websites by hand (without using software). And I've been able to learn a lot about IT (and how to manage it). I'm self-taught on the computer, and as a computer consultant. So I may not be the brightest bulb around, but I'm not an idiot, either...
But this stuff is not easy to learn!
So when I found out what FISH wanted in the way of cash to give us some written support, I decided I just needed to step in and write a manual myself. Besides, I've been writing tutorial materials since 2002, so I have a lot of experience. And I know how to carefully make these step by step.
Today one of the people at FISH answered a couple of questions I'd posed. The answers are so complicated that I'd be better off not knowing! Fortunately I'll be able to write things up that others will be able to understand and follow. If we don't have that, why bother at all?
Christine and Rich and I worked on this quite a bit today. Here was our main focus: We needed to take a multi-day event, and remove all the Mondays. It sounds pretty simple, but it's far from it!
I finally had to phone Steven and confirm what I'd sort of reasoned out. Then I still had to call David when we had issues.
For whatever reason, when we use the 'hide' feature to remove a day, it would suddenly also 'hide' other days that we absolutely had NOT altered! So we had to keep going in to 'fix' the other days. I'm telling you, this was in NO WAY our error! It's something hinky that WordPress was doing...
David's suggestion did NOT fix the problem, by the way. But we gave up and just decided we'd manually go into every single day if necessary to resolve the problem.
I also spent ages organizing my home office. It's been awhile since I did that. For one thing, I haven't been using it as much as I used to. But today I spent a lot of time in here -- and I'm typing this on my desktop (for a change), instead of using my iPad.
During my lunch break, I did the treadmill, walking for half an hour! I was proud of myself. And I got in a bunch of additional steps while starting the garbage and recycling. Tomorrow is garbage day, but I'll be at work. Plus tomorrow afternoon/evening is our Board Meeting, so we'll be there late. Anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a jump on it. I got all the garbage out and the recycling. I still need to clean the cat boxes and do the composting, but otherwise I'm good!
There's really not much more to report.
I did start typing up WordPress instructions. And I even coded one page for our How To website. I'm thinking it would be nice to have these instructions cyber, rather than printed out. We have a habit of losing printed instructions, I find...
Besides, if I put certain things that people could copy and paste there, it would simplify things. You can't copy and paste from a sheet of paper!
Well, we'll see how it goes. I really need to crank out some materials RIGHT NOW!
I had white beans for lunch with tea. And a lot of coffee today, too. And Marilyn and I had a healthy veggie pizza for dinner (very late).
Marilyn must be exhausted! She didn't get home until almost 8:30 tonight!
I'm dead tired right now. Today took lots of mental concentration. And I got some exercise and other work, too. I can't wait to go to bed tonight!
I should be washing my hair, but I'm just going to skip it. I just washed it yesterday, so it should be fine, even though I sweated in it today on the treadmill.
Sister Sue went out today to celebrate her friend Nancy's birthday. I'd have loved to see Nancy (it's been years for me). I hope they enjoyed it!
Friend June took her computer to Donn's house -- he has a workshop there. Hopefully he'll be able to figure out what's wrong with the machine and fix it soon...
Fitbit Update: Marilyn did 12,600 steps -- amazing!!! I'm pretty pleased with my 7,049, too. Not a bad day for steps!
(I'm thinking about going to 4,000 steps a day for March... But I'll change that back pretty quick if it presses me too much. I don't want to get discouraged, because I'm very motivated right now!)
That was my day. I still want to go back and 'fill in' missing days, but I somehow doubt I will. (sigh) It's hard once you let them get away from you! - Feeling:tired
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Wow, today was BUSY. I started working at 7:30 a.m. and kept going strong most of the day. In fact, I'm not done yet -- as soon as I finish this entry, I need to go and do the garbage and recycling... (sigh)
Started the day working on the eNewsletter for today -- back and forth and back and forth. You'd THINK the new version would make things easier, but it certainly didn't seem that way this morning! And it was the same old, same old. Policy decisions (if we use the full sponsor name of an event, we only do that once -- not both in a headline and in the article...) and so on. We dumped using Sponsor logos because they look AWFUL in the new format -- so now we're only using text links...
Anyway, it went out by 11:30, which is good. We always try to shoot for somewhere just before noon, but frequently it goes later than that.
After that I started working on the THREE tutorials related to doing the eNewsletter. The first one is how to use the new templates. All of these are step-by-step and very detailed. The next is how to create the text-only version from the coded HTML. And the third is how to use Cooler Email with your own HTML designed work. I'm sitting with Marissa and Danielle tomorrow morning to review. (eNewsletter training number three. The first lesson was with Danielle and Caitlin. The second was just with Marissa.)
By the way, I'm VERY PROUD of those tutorials! They took quite a bit of time and effort and should make doing things really simple for those who will be taking over the eNewsletter from me. Originally I was only going to do a 'few notes' on how to use Cooler Email. Then I decided to be kind and really share 'how to' on the whole thing. I hope it works out for the future.
Marilyn and I have our tax appointment in the morning, so I set the training up for 10:00 a.m. (Hopefully we'll be done and there in time. Our appointment is at 9:00.)
Donn is coming in tomorrow to work on Marissa's computer (PRFA92) while we're doing the lesson. That way he can get on the computer and she'll be busy with something else and not be antsy waiting to use it. She appears to have some serious malware that's giving her fits. I'd wanted Donn to tackle it on Sunday, but he was swamped with other work and didn't get to it. I'm glad he's able to be there tomorrow!
I colored my hair today -- but I didn't necessarily do that great a job. I got interrupted as I was starting, then was rushing to finish. I'd been expecting sister Sue, who was going to take me shopping at Walmart -- so I wanted to be totally ready when she came for me. I could have just spent more time on it, as Sue got sick and was never able to take me shopping. I really wish I had! I don't think I left the color on long enough (sigh) -- and I had a hell of a time rinsing it (and sure I did that long enough, either). It looks fine, thankfully. But I've no clue how long it will last...
Marilyn says I should give up trying to do a 'perfect' job with the color -- and focus on doing it more frequently, instead. She suggests I do it every couple of weeks to keep on top of the gray (actually looks pretty white to me!). I think it's probably a good idea. I need to give that a try. But I hate doing it (it really wears me out for some reason). But I guess I could get used to it, and maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. I do LOVE the way it looks after it's just been done, that's for sure.
Sister Sue got her perm and hair color today. She got sick while there -- so I don't know if she's going to make her cribbage tournament or not. (But I think I know the answer to that one.) I guess we'll see... She leaves tomorrow, if she's able to go.
Talked to my friend June on the phone today. Then went over to see her this evening. It was nice, as I haven't had much chance to see and chat with her. We put paid Malwarebytes on her computer -- I think it's going to be GREAT for her!
Almost forgot: Hector (and Jessie) came by to do the yard today! Boy, did it need it! I made the joke that we were starting to look like a pasture! Hahaha. They also fixed the back gate (never got a chance to go check it, yet). The yard looks much, much better now!
Went through some more stuff in the office here at home today. I got in one of the file cabinets and took out a large accordian folder (one pocket) -- then started going through the contents. Found some very cool stuff!
I was sharing some items with Marilyn, and she suggested I start blogging things.
MEMORY FOR TODAY
In 1990, Marilyn first saw her house for sale on Saturday, August 4, while we were headed to the track to fast walk four miles. Went through her house during the open house on Sunday, August 4 -- took Dad through that day. Made a bid (Marie D. present) on Monday, August 6. She bid $31,005 (Dad advised 31,00 -- Mom suggested an odd number) -- earnest money of $1,000 entered with bid. Mom saw the house outside that morn & inside late that afternoon. Got news of winning bid on Tuesday, August 7, around 4:30 p.m. Received papers from HUD in the mail Thursday, August 9. To be clear, that was for our first house (the house we bought before our current Portland house -- we always call it the Buchanan house). It's hard to believe we've had three houses, to date... These details are printed on half a sheet of yellow lined paper (my handwriting) in red ink. Kind of cool having those notes! I have no clue what made me write that out. Anyway, I'm going to try to include at least one MEMORY item each day, if possible. There's a LOT of stuff to share! I feel like I'm forgetting things I did today. Had to clean up after both cats first thing this morning: Colin puked on a bag again (!!!) -- a big fur ball, and Henry managed to drag poop into the family room. Then Henry had a poo-poo incident this evening and I had to clean him up. So began and ended my day! Hahaha. Cats. Gotta love 'em. Oh! Forgot to mention that friend Jim (June's husband) is doing well after his surgery on Monday. He has several incisions (I saw them, poor guy) -- so continued good thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated! Thanks! Discussed IT with Donn several times. Worked on answering my email. Talked to Rich on ideas about dealing with Highlight Events at the website. I'm pretty sure there's more (boring!), but I need to get busy. I want to get to bed soon (I'm TIRED), so I have to finish up my work... (sigh) Busy day in front of me tomorrow. The weather was LOVELY today -- amazing blue skies! Sorry I didn't get out... I never got Rich's (or Merlin's) birthday gifts ready. Nor do I have cards for either one of them. Sucks. Sucks big time. Oh well, I'll figure something out. - Feeling:busy
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Stayed home today, not feeling all that great. Regardless, I was up and getting the eNewsltter out, as planned. (We'd decided in the Communications meeting yesterday that it would go today.)
Yeah, the goal is for Marissa to do it going forward (and Danielle in off season months). But there was no way to get it out in a timely fashion and train Marissa, too. Plus not being in the office all day yesterday, or at all today, meant I just needed to do what I've done for years now.
Seriously, this was SIMPLE compared to the eNewsletters we've done in the past. I've commented all through the templates so that it should be clear for others to be able to use them. And there's limited text and very few photos (plus these are small!) -- with a few links. No big deal, really.
I don't use ANY notes for CoolerEmail -- the service we use. So I guess I'll need to create some. (sigh) I spend a lot of time creating tutorials for others. At least in this case someone will actually use my notes, as I doubt others will just reason it out and remember it, the way I did... (I can barely remember a time when I didn't know how to use Cooler... I had to learn it pretty damn fast back when I first used it. Aside from creating my own templates from scratch -- three and one column versions. Early on I changed tons of colors each time around!)
I also phoned about Marilyn's Starbucks account. Since the latest update of the App for her phone, her username no longer worked! John, who helped me, has been dealing constant issues from users since this update! He was disgusted that this rollout was totally focused on NEW users -- and not long time users! Annoying. At least he got it fixed.
Part of the issue? When users originally created accounts online, they could have two-part usernames (such as first and last names). And these could be separated by a space. New users have their email address as their username -- but that won't work for you if you have an old account set up the other way! So you go to their website and it asks for your username or email -- but that's not really what it's asking for...
John literally had to edit Marilyn's username in their system to make it work. What a PITA (pain in the ass, for those who don't know).
Washed my hair today -- which is actually a big deal when you have long hair and are feeling somewhat punk. Washing your hair can be a bigger deal than it sounds... Hahaha!
I guess I'll try and go to work tomorrow -- and try to finish training Marissa.
I didn't bother contacting Kris today, because I knew he wouldn't have worked on those things I was told by Donn he'd said he'd mess with last night...
Too tired to share more...
DAMN!!! I need to go get all my meds, before they yank them.... (sigh) | |
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As always seems to be true when I'm at the office, today was a super-busy day. I had meetings with: Rich, Steven, Sara and Danielle. I also discussed things with both Christine and Rosanna (who was only in briefly, as she was deathly ill with the flu).
Oh! And I had a brief meeting with Marilyn and Rich, too.
Then I needed to do some website stuff and make the tutorial handout for tomorrow's Staff meeting. So that took up my day!
Marilyn, Rich and I did walk out for lunch, even though it was very COLD and SNOWING (!!!). So much for us not having a precip this week -- right! We were originally going to walk over to the place that we used to eat at next door to our interim office space, but when we got to Mandarin Cove, Marilyn suggested we stop there and have an actual meal (rather than buy something to go at the other place). So that's what we did! It was nice -- and we only talked work part of the time... (smile)
The good thing? Marilyn is getting in the (new) habit of taking an actual break every day! That's just wonderful, I think.
For whatever reason (???), I'm just dead tired now. I'm actually thinking of taking a nap, even though I normally would never do that at this time of night.
I can't believe we're home before 6:00 p.m. (!!!) and I'm already blogging. How about that?!
More later (maybe). I'm going to grab my Kindle and ready. Or maybe just nap! - Feeling:good
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Today was COLD! It was snowing this morning when I got. Okay, not sticking, but still... Currently the nightly news is full of warnings about frozen fog happening as we speak and expected for the morning. Just, yuck! At least the weekend is here, so Marilyn won't be driving in bad and dangerous weather...
I had a busy day, working on festival projects. I spent more than two hours working on a detailed tutorial for using SmugMug, based on the outline from Rich. He's done some good work with SmugMug, by the way. Of course, when it comes to doing tutorials on 'how to' do something, I'm something of an expert. What I learned years ago was how to cover each and every step -- without skipping anything -- while guiding people in print.
This goes back to when I had my own business for a time, as a computer consultant. I was a software consultant -- and my primary job was to go in and learn a given software, then teach it to others. I learned DOS from manuals back when the books barely made sense to the average person, so I've been pretty good at this for decades. After time it just made sense to find ways to write up sets of instructions that were 'user friendly.' Too bad I never tried writing 'how to' books about various subjects! There was demand, but it didn't occur to me that I would have been able to fill a void -- especially back in the 80's and 90's...
I'm digressing! Ignore me!
Anyway, I took Rich's guideline and went to the SmugMug site, logged in and started doing my own EXPANDED version -- very detailed. The goal is to write something up that covers every step, but isn't too wordy! In my experience, people want to be SHOWN how to do something -- they only want a text version as a backup for when they're forced to work alone and can't remember the steps they've had explained face-to-face. Rich will go over the basics in Staff meeting next week -- then he and I will hopefully go one-on-one with anybody who needs or wants help. But my website instructions and the handout we'll give people will also be available.
I always start with a text-only version that I use in conjunction with screencap images to create the web version. We'll probably take the text version and dump it into Word, where we can add the images in (as I did for the website). Anyway, Rich and I talked for nearly two hours today -- and we're going to meet about this next week.
This initial version is for USERS, but not Administrators. So there needs to be a second version done, too, at some point. I'll try and get to that next week... SmugMug is pretty easy to use, actually. The funny thing? It's not that easy to reason out how to LOG IN to the site! You go to their main page and it's all about buying the service! They have two huge buttons in the center of the page, neither of which are for logging in! To log in, you have to go up to the right-hand corner where there's a login link. Now you'd think this would be more prominently placed on the page, wouldn't you? I sure would!
Last night I started reading a book on simplifying life. I've also been reading a different book about organizing your home. Both have information I'm enjoying, considering my goal to pare down on material things and get my house the way I want it! That's also something Rich and I talked about, as he's getting ready to move into a 900 square foot house with another person and dealing with the smaller space. I'll have to get the info on these books to share, but I don't have it with me right now (my Kindle is in another part of the house). Anyway, one of the interesting statistics had to do with what the size of the average house was back in the 1950's compared to today. Again, I'll share some details, too, as I continue reading. I do love the way I'm feeling about this: So ready to part with items I haven't been able to part with in the past.
Today I took time to clean out under my bathroom sink a bit. I threw out some stuff and packed other items up for the Goodwill. I believe I need to try and do this daily, even if I only go through one drawer, or cabinet or whatever. And even if I'm doing an area that I've already done before, because every time I put my hands on, I'm able to get rid of more! This might end up being one of the most important life changes for me this year, who knows? But if it makes life easier, I'm all for it! Yes, there's work involved. But there's something that feels so very good about it.
Marilyn put in another very long day, which included an evening out by invitation of our festival President. I guess the entire Staff -- except for me -- attended! They went to a hockey game and Marilyn got to ride the Fanboni (zamboni) with several festival folks and appear up on the big screen in the venue -- how cool is that? Marilyn went with Angel who did the driving, happily. Anyway, she came home hungry and tired and is currently asleep after having chili for dinner. I've been making some really tasty chili recently, so we're more hooked than ever! Winter is certainly a perfect time of year to have a hot bowl of chili, that's for sure...
While Marilyn was out, I watched the 2006 Queen Latifah movie "Last Holiday" (which I'd never seen before). It wasn't the most amazing film ever, but there's something so enjoyable about movies featuring Queen Latifah! Besides, it was a 'feel good' movie, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've watched a lot of crappy films (especially made-for-TV movies) that had no redeeming qualities at all, so there's a lot to be said for one that deals with good people doing good things -- and being kind to one another. Plus Georgia Byrd not only treats others kindly, but encourages others to do the same. More power to her! I just find joy in Queen Latifah. I really do...
That's pretty much my Friday! How was YOUR day???
(Again, friend June is very upset about her son, Jim Jim. Your continued good thoughts for June and Jim -- and the entire family -- are greatly appreciated. She was crying when I talked to her today -- but still trying to be hopeful, even so... Thanks!) - Feeling:chipper
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Guess what I (finally) figured out today???
Okay, if you saw my rant from yesterday about this subject, then you know I was really on a roll. But it turns out you CAN select any number of 'places' for various phone numbers -- if you know what you're doing.
I guess the issue is more about how you're just supposed to 'magically' know how -- and considering I train others how to use computers and do other basic tech-type stuff, it's ridiculous when even I can easily reason these things out... I mean, I'm the person that writes tutorials ('How To' things) all the time. So I think Apple (and others) should be concerned if I have to search and search for the answer to these things!
For those who want to know HOW it's done:
1. You go to your Phone > and go to Contacts
2. You go to one Contact > you click the Edit button
3. In the line where your phone number appears, you click DIRECTLY on the WORD that precedes it (such as 'mobile') -- and you'll receive the option to pick from a long list of places.
4. Select one (it will be checked).
5. Click the Done button to Save.
I need to type those up for those people at the office who have iPhones, I'm sure...
Hey, at least I admit when I was wrong, though -- and I was wrong. So I have to apologize to Apple (ugh) and my iPhone. (sigh)
Well, back to work! - Feeling:sorry
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This has been yet another crazy-busy day.
I had to re-do the ClubRunner tutorial piece. But at least the support people FINALLY got back to me and fixed my main area of complaint. (sigh) Actually, that was one of the reasons I needed to re-work the document, because I had steps included that were no longer needed. I wanted the URL to go DIRECTLY to the home page -- but they had it re-directing to an 'instructions' page. I had to ask them more than once to change this, but it's done now. (How many years have we owned this site???)
It should prove interesting to see how the Board ends up cooperating with the use of the website, by the way. Hopefully they'll embrace it and get and do what we ask, but I'm doubtful, of course...
My next piece was the Twitter tutorial. Yeah, yeah, I know that there are TONS of these out there already. But I needed one that's geared toward those who people our Board -- and much of that demographic is older. These aren't people who want to be Power Users -- they just want to learn how to set up and account and maybe participate now and again. Yeah, some of them already ARE power users -- but they don't need this help to begin with! (smile)
Anyway, I got it done by around 8:00 p.m. tonight, anyway.
Now Marilyn has helped me color my hair, so I won't feel too yucky tomorrow. I need a hair cut in the worst way (it's been months and months -- in fact I just checked, and my last cut was September 30!!!). There was no time on Saturday, and the place I want to go was closed both Sunday and yesterday (when I could have gone). So... Hopefully I get there next Saturday!
I'm sitting with color on my hair and typing this.
Okay, it's AGES later and I'm done coloring my hair (thanks, Marilyn!). I need to go dry it and have a quick nap now...
Tomorrow is a LATE and SUPER BUSY day!!! - Feeling:busy
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