San Angelo Ho!

Who are you calling a ho?!

Do you know, at my old job, I wasn't really expected to show up on time. I still get quite a bit of slack at the new one. The general rule in workplaces seems to be that, if you really get your job done and you're efficient, proactive, and productive, a few minutes here and there is no big deal. If you're a useless schlub who can't produce your way out of the bathroom, you damn well better be there by 8 o'clock sharp.

Why is this? It doesn't really make sense. If you don't actually do anything, what difference does it make what time you show up to not do it by?

Those are musings for another day. Today's pearl of wisdom is merely this: if you're going to ride your bike to work in the rain, bring a change of clothes. And bring a change of clothes if your usual coffee flask is dirty, and you've been forced to carry a rather less waterproof one in the water-bottle pouch on the side of your backpack as a substitute. Mud splatters all over your oft-reprimanded, protruding upper female parts are unprofessional. So is a stream of coffee all down one side of your shirt and around the back of your leg.

Anyway, conference is next week, and as far as I can tell we're ready; every single tiny niggling detail is squared away, though I still have to figure out a way to plan out the group photo shoot (89 people) so it takes under 25 minutes. One of the things I find exhilarating about my job is that I have to figure out how to do things where, honestly. I have NO idea. It's fun!

Using an elephant gun would probably be quicker... however, it might not be a good idea for me to suggest this.

A former coworker, likewise, has been working on the planning of a different conference I helped with about a year and a half ago. I complained, at the time, of having to sit through planning committee meetings once a week for six months. Never mind that we didn't have to plan offsite trips, timing of tours, catering, meeting venues, audiovisual needs, transportation, sleeping rooms, registration fees, or any of the other things that generally make planning a conference complicated. This year, my former coworker told me, they're hoping to cover a great deal of the subject matter via videoconference.

This is amusing. Before I left, I took a crash course in using our videoconference equipment for this purpose. It turned out that using the videoconference equipment to transmit the image of the green-screen, DOS mainframe application my former division uses to perform most of its functions doesn't work. The videoconference trainer's explanation was that the screen resolution didn't transmit well; mine was that mixing mainframe and videoconference technology, if unchecked, will probably cause the universe to explode.

All well and good, except that our mainframe happens to be housed at the University of San Angelo - where I'll be all next week. So wish me luck!