Mexican Cardinal
23 06 07 15:13
I was sitting outside in 100+ degree weather making calls to family with a hot laptop on my lap when Carl came out and said "come look, quick! It's a Mexican Cardinal!" Grabbed the camera with zoom lens and caught this. Thought you all might enjoy! Out of focus but you can't tell so much at this low resolution...
Last day of first week at OSCR
22 06 07 06:15
Wow. I am in love with my new job.
Those of you who know me well know about the problems I had in my previous position with the College of Education. I will not dwell on them here. What I will say is that I truly loved working with people throughout the COE, and apparently the feeling was mutual given recent awards.
Well, my whole world has changed. The Office of Student Computing Resources has hired me as Support Systems Analyst, Senior. I will be transcoding video, printing on a large format printer, answering questions about the campus wireless network, managing a video streaming server, training walk-in clients, and presenting workshops.
My primary duties are the following:
• OSCR contact for campus wireless issues
• Provide technical administration for large format-printer in the Multimedia Learning Lab
• Technical consultation for OSCR multimedia clients
• Hardware, OS, and admin of "foster's" QTSS server / VR Annex fileserver
• Hardware, OS, and admin of CALA fileserver
• Hardware, OS, and App admin of Anystream transcoding service
• Hardware, OS, and admin of HD streaming server
Sounds like fun, eh? Well, even if it doesn't sound like fun to you it's great fun for me! I'm finally doing the kind of creative work I was doing at the College of Santa Fe Contemporary Music Program! One of my colleagues in the College of Education grumbled about my capabilities, but hey, OSCR tested me before hiring me, so they have reason to believe in my abilities here. In addition, my resume and qualifications speak for themselves, as do all of my former clients both in Santa Fe and the College of Education! Finally, I will be able to put my skills to excellent use.
The most exciting thing about my new job, though, is the philosophy behind it. They actually have an internal mission statement in addition to their external mission statement. This internal mission statement is to (this may not be 100% accurate, it's from memory...) "mutually support, inspire, and educate the team." Every indication so far demonstrates that they take these mission statements seriously. They also follow the Fish philosophy. If my new coworkers' attitudes are an indicator, it works.
I only wish I could share the energy and excitement of my new position with my former coworkers in the College of Education. It was a "toxic energy dump" over there. One coworker actually used to lecture me on the need to not be too helpful to people or I would be "inviting trouble!" Advice I ignored. On the contrary, I tried to be as helpful as possible. What happened was my skills were a gift to the entire college, people appreciated me, and I was rewarded with job satisfaction and positive reinforcement on a daily, nay, hourly basis. This is how I survived in the College of Education despite working with a coworker who could not view me as an equal. Sigh. Oh well. Enough of that.
I love it here. This is going to be a fun year.
Below is a photo of me with some of my new coworkers at a Freshman orientation fair, photo taken by Mark...
Those of you who know me well know about the problems I had in my previous position with the College of Education. I will not dwell on them here. What I will say is that I truly loved working with people throughout the COE, and apparently the feeling was mutual given recent awards.
Well, my whole world has changed. The Office of Student Computing Resources has hired me as Support Systems Analyst, Senior. I will be transcoding video, printing on a large format printer, answering questions about the campus wireless network, managing a video streaming server, training walk-in clients, and presenting workshops.
My primary duties are the following:
• OSCR contact for campus wireless issues
• Provide technical administration for large format-printer in the Multimedia Learning Lab
• Technical consultation for OSCR multimedia clients
• Hardware, OS, and admin of "foster's" QTSS server / VR Annex fileserver
• Hardware, OS, and admin of CALA fileserver
• Hardware, OS, and App admin of Anystream transcoding service
• Hardware, OS, and admin of HD streaming server
Sounds like fun, eh? Well, even if it doesn't sound like fun to you it's great fun for me! I'm finally doing the kind of creative work I was doing at the College of Santa Fe Contemporary Music Program! One of my colleagues in the College of Education grumbled about my capabilities, but hey, OSCR tested me before hiring me, so they have reason to believe in my abilities here. In addition, my resume and qualifications speak for themselves, as do all of my former clients both in Santa Fe and the College of Education! Finally, I will be able to put my skills to excellent use.
The most exciting thing about my new job, though, is the philosophy behind it. They actually have an internal mission statement in addition to their external mission statement. This internal mission statement is to (this may not be 100% accurate, it's from memory...) "mutually support, inspire, and educate the team." Every indication so far demonstrates that they take these mission statements seriously. They also follow the Fish philosophy. If my new coworkers' attitudes are an indicator, it works.
I only wish I could share the energy and excitement of my new position with my former coworkers in the College of Education. It was a "toxic energy dump" over there. One coworker actually used to lecture me on the need to not be too helpful to people or I would be "inviting trouble!" Advice I ignored. On the contrary, I tried to be as helpful as possible. What happened was my skills were a gift to the entire college, people appreciated me, and I was rewarded with job satisfaction and positive reinforcement on a daily, nay, hourly basis. This is how I survived in the College of Education despite working with a coworker who could not view me as an equal. Sigh. Oh well. Enough of that.
I love it here. This is going to be a fun year.
Below is a photo of me with some of my new coworkers at a Freshman orientation fair, photo taken by Mark...
A couple photos from home...
20 06 07 20:08
Bats in our front entry in the middle of the night last night:
...and one of our transplanted "peniocereus greggii" or
"reina de la noche" cacti blooming last week:
...and one of our transplanted "peniocereus greggii" or
"reina de la noche" cacti blooming last week: