Here it is spring break, I should've gone to Arizona and stayed with my youngest son who is going to MMI in Phoenix. Nice weather, sunshine, no snow, and did I mention nice weather. Well back to reality here in WI. This past week has been a blur and I believe this semester will be over before you know it. This break will allow me to do a lot of my research on our team subject (Google) and our verge project. The Google part of this is just about finished but as a team we seem to have a few differences of opinion on the verge subject matter. I put a posting up earlier today saying we should vote on what we want to do and now I'm kinda worried about what I'll find for answers. But consensus rules and everyone will have to accept it and give the team effort it's best shot. What scares me is a lot of my team members like my idea, except for our administrator who has ideas of his own. Time will tell all to soon.
We didn't have class this past week so our time working together as a team has been limited. We still have to get all our data together and put a PowerPoint presentation in place for class this week. The Wiki we have for our team is coming along pretty good and I believe google has an application where we can all simultaneously work on a PowerPoint without having to be together in one place. With all my jobs and studies that would help a bunch.
At one of my jobs people donate used computers, and its my job to clean up old remaining files before we re-sell them. This past week someone (local company) dropped of 4 complete systems, as I was checking them out I was floored with the type of data left on them. Bank accounts, names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and lots of other personal info. So that was my dilemma what do I do with this. The choice I made was to call this business and tell them what I had. They were extremely thankful that someone with a high set of standards found this information. They have offered me some compensation to clean this up for them as their IT guy was supposed to have already done this. It took me almost 3 days to get all 4 computers cleaned up and ready for re-sale but I did it. I burned all the old data to a large flash drive and I'm going to drop it off for them to do as they wish. I just feel better about it as I know if it was any of my information on there I would want someone to do the same.
We have another birthday coming up in my house for my oldest son who is an April Fool. Yes 4/01/88 and nobody believed me when I called them to announce his birth. This day allows you to bring up some creative ways to surprise him and each year it gets tougher. At least I have a couple weeks to plan something.
I mentioned my verge idea to my ex-brother-in-law and he thought it was a great idea. We discussed it over a few malt beverages. He said if we don't use it he wants to pursue it on his own and I told him fair enough as long as I'm cut in for 50%. This brought a good laugh to all. I hope we can make some progress on our verge, and all work towards one goal. That is with every one's collaboration and energies focused on whatever we choose to give it their best effort. I will let you know what happens..............
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Weekly Update
Wow!...... Another week has flown by. This past week in another class I'm taking the instructor gave each student a large balloon to blow up. We were then given about 10 minutes to go around and interact with our fellow classmates. Each time we had something in common we put their name and what it was we had in common on the balloon. At the end we compared the balloons with each other. This was a great way to find out things in a rather informal way. Our instructor Kristen explained to us, we were networking and this example showed how to make note of the things you found for future reference.
I finished another computer class on Saturday with our final exam, and wouldn't you know, I woke up with a migraine headache. I think I should still be fine with my results but the headache sure made it difficult to concentrate.
We went on a field trip to Schneider National this past week and got a chance to meet with people from Human Resources, IT people and got a chance to go through the data center. Green Bay is the home base for Schneider and they are a global transportation and Logistics company. The call center with all the customer service representatives was about 500 people. I never seen so many modular desk stations and computers in one place before. They really stress team work and collaboration with fellow employees. This helps the flow of important and pertinent information getting to the right people.
Our team project in Innovations class is coming along as we have a number of ideas for our verge project. This week we will decide on one and then proceed with further research. Our mini project we were assigned Google as a company to describe how the 13 elements of innovation apply to them. We each took different elements and I have people, creativity, and orchestrating the results. We will then work together and put it into a PowerPoint presentation for the rest of the class. On Google we can use Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office and all of us can work on the same PowerPoint all at the same time. Seemed like a really easy application to set up. I hope I didn't put you to sleep with my ramblings, but I hope everyone has a great week.
I finished another computer class on Saturday with our final exam, and wouldn't you know, I woke up with a migraine headache. I think I should still be fine with my results but the headache sure made it difficult to concentrate.
We went on a field trip to Schneider National this past week and got a chance to meet with people from Human Resources, IT people and got a chance to go through the data center. Green Bay is the home base for Schneider and they are a global transportation and Logistics company. The call center with all the customer service representatives was about 500 people. I never seen so many modular desk stations and computers in one place before. They really stress team work and collaboration with fellow employees. This helps the flow of important and pertinent information getting to the right people.
Our team project in Innovations class is coming along as we have a number of ideas for our verge project. This week we will decide on one and then proceed with further research. Our mini project we were assigned Google as a company to describe how the 13 elements of innovation apply to them. We each took different elements and I have people, creativity, and orchestrating the results. We will then work together and put it into a PowerPoint presentation for the rest of the class. On Google we can use Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office and all of us can work on the same PowerPoint all at the same time. Seemed like a really easy application to set up. I hope I didn't put you to sleep with my ramblings, but I hope everyone has a great week.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Self Introduction
Welcome to my Blog!! This site is a class project for my Workplace Innovations class at NWTC College in Green Bay, WI. Just this past week computers were brought in to the classroom for everyone to have one. We have approximately 25-30 people in our class and each one has to set up their own Blog. With each time on on the blog I learn how to set things up. To customize it so it will be more user friendly.
We created a new position at The Salvation Army where I work part time while I'm attending college. This job entails searching the Web on sites like E-bay and Craigslist to find approximate values of some of the things that were donated. I've gotten to help with this and is very interesting. We get books in that are over 100 years old and other antiques that are worth checking out their value.
Alex, Marty, Sandy, and myself discussed our verge project towards the end of class, Gregg another member of our team was absent but Sandy e-mailed him some of the things we talked about and maybe he will have some ideas this week when we meet. Both Marty and myself tossed out an idea and we are going to discuss it further this week after a little more research. Hopefully our team members come through with some other ideas as who knows which one is the right one to use? Maybe none of them.
This past week I updated my ride after someone hit two deer and totaled my wheels. I got a new 2010 Mazda 6i and absolutely love it. Just like this blogger every time I'm in it I find out something else this car can do. So for now I leave you and have a great week.
We created a new position at The Salvation Army where I work part time while I'm attending college. This job entails searching the Web on sites like E-bay and Craigslist to find approximate values of some of the things that were donated. I've gotten to help with this and is very interesting. We get books in that are over 100 years old and other antiques that are worth checking out their value.
Alex, Marty, Sandy, and myself discussed our verge project towards the end of class, Gregg another member of our team was absent but Sandy e-mailed him some of the things we talked about and maybe he will have some ideas this week when we meet. Both Marty and myself tossed out an idea and we are going to discuss it further this week after a little more research. Hopefully our team members come through with some other ideas as who knows which one is the right one to use? Maybe none of them.
This past week I updated my ride after someone hit two deer and totaled my wheels. I got a new 2010 Mazda 6i and absolutely love it. Just like this blogger every time I'm in it I find out something else this car can do. So for now I leave you and have a great week.
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