Early in my career I worked at WordPerfect Corporation. They were famous for their word processor. I worked on their email product. It was misnamed WordPerfect Office.
It was back in the 1980s. WordPerfect was known for having versions that ran on multiple platforms. Interestingly, Windows wasn’t one of them. It would be several years before Windows even became a product.
The two big platforms were DOS, running on a PC and Apple, running on . . .well Apple. WordPerfect Office also had versions that ran on multiple platforms.
One of the big challenges in those days prior to the internet was getting files transferred and converted from one platform to another. The files were compatible, but the conversion process was complicated and expensive.
That was prior to when WordPerfect Office started supporting multiple servers. It was the beginning of our worldwide email system. See, when you emailed a file from Office running on a Mac to Office running on a PC, the file got automatically converted. Simply and easily.
I had a similar experience this week.
We did a virtual security visit to our site in India. We were all happily ensconced in our home office. We had video going, but we also need someone on site with a camera so we could see the facility. We had a slight problem getting our local employees to join the meeting.
I was actually talking to them over Facebook Messenger. It’s about 12 hours difference between Utah and India, so it was the middle of the night where they were. They were working those hours, but trying to coordinate was a problem.
Tell you what, I’ll give you the meeting information over Messenger and you can. . .
No, I couldn’t. I have no idea how to get connected to a Microsoft Teams meeting from India. I don’t even know the country code. But, do you know who does know how to do all that?
Yep, our old friend email. I quickly forwarded the meeting request to our team (I hadn’t know which members would be joining the call.) And email did the rest. It gave them the link but also gave them all the local contact information for India.
The joined the call shortly after and it went smoothly. People from India, Utah, Texas, Florida and a couple whose location I didn’t even know. The world keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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The music is pounding. The lights on the stage are flashing. The singer, in typical “rap star” fashion are pumping up the crowd.
Get your hands up! Get your hands up!
Up!
Up!
Up!
It’s the end of the concert and the singer ends with,
Thank you, Detroit! We love you!
A stunned silence falls over the arena.
A band mate approaches the lead singer.
Detroit was last night.
Then, the tagline for an airline comes on.
WANNA GET AWAY?
The commercial is 20 years old. But, it still resonates.
Because, don’t we all want to get away at times? Who among us hasn’t dreamed about dropping everything and just running away for a day or a week, or maybe forever?
There have been times, typically when stresses are at their worst when I’ve considered escaping. It’s not a logical or rational thought. Just like imagining what it would be like to be a famous rock star isn’t a rational or logical thought. But, sometimes we day dream.
The last ten days have been a getting away. I haven’t been anywhere, as I shared yesterday (Big House, Small House.) But, even though I’ve been in my house with my family for the past 10 days, I haven’t really been around them. My lovely wife has been locked in our bedroom with a positive COVID diagnoses.
We often just left food outside the door. Other than a few very brief trips in, all masked up, we might as well have been in separate cities, instead of separate states. Today we finally were able to reunite. She came home, or I did.
It was like a homecoming. And having been gone for a couple weeks helped me to understand how much I missed being together. I suppose part of my relief is that for 10 months we’ve lived in fear of my lovely wife getting COVID. She’s high risk. She has a preexisting condition. And we feared that if she got it, she’d die.
And that wasn’t a thought I wanted to consider. And it wasn’t a thought I could express. But, it lingered. Always there in the back of my mind. And then, she got sick. And like many, she got really sick. And we had to face the “what if.”
And I was a mess. Not sure if it showed up in my scribbling, but I was scared to death. . .scared of death. Not mine. Hers. And worst of all there was nothing I could do about it.
Except wait.
And today it felt like the waiting was finally over. I almost don’t dare to hope. She’s still on oxygen, but she’s up and around. We talk. We gathered for family prayer in her room. And even though there were only six of us, it felt like coming home.
Wanna get away?
No. No I don’t. I’m just happy to be back.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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My house is too big. Really, there are six of us living here. Two high school seniors, two adult children, my lovely wife and me.
The house is about 3700 square feet. It has nine bedrooms, two and a half baths, (plus an unfinished bath), two store rooms, a large yard, and a slightly bigger than two car garage and a driveway that will hold six cars. We own two refrigerators, and a separate stand up freezer and a deep freeze.
It’s much bigger than we need. There was a time when it was the perfect size. When we moved in eight years ago, we had eight kids at home. (That’s why we needed the nine bedrooms.) When we were getting the house ready to move into, we had the remodelers build a 16 foot pantry in the dining room.
The house is on what I call a double-corner lot. There are streets on three sides of my house. Despite that it’s a fairly quiet neighborhood. Having all those kids, made shoving hundreds of feet of sidewalks and dozens of feet of driveway go fairly quickly.
We’ve considered what happens when we find ourselves as empty nesters. Do we down-size? I don’t think so. The current plan is to stay. Despite the size of the house, it’s actually a good fit for a couple, especially an older couple. The garage, the flat driveway, the laundry, kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and a room we turned into a library are all on the same level.
We could probably function quite well without having to go downstairs.
Yes, it’s a quite spacious and comfortable house.
And it’s getting really cramped.
Oh, there’s still just the six of us. And there’s certainly room for the six of us. But, we are starting to fall over each other.
We’ve been in quarantine for 8 days. My lovely wife is COVID+. My son was also. He recovered pretty quickly. (The boundless energy and resiliency of youth.) My wife, not so much. She’s been quarantining in the master bedroom. We leave food outside the door. We say family prayers via cell phone. We catch up on family stuff via FaceTime.
Tomorrow one son will be out of quarantine. Ironic that a kid who was COVID positive gets out of quarantine prior to those who were only exposed to someone who was COVID positive.
The rest of us get out of quarantine on Friday. Kids go back to school. My daughter goes back to her service mission at a local thrift shop. All except my lovely wife. She’s still working through symptoms. Her fever is gone, but her blood oxygen levels are still low. She’s on supplemental oxygen. If she moves too much it wears her out. She’s fainted simply trying to walk across the room.
So, our house has gotten pretty small over the past 8 days. And we are all ready for a break, to get back to our normal routines and out into the world.
Except for my lovely wife.
And me, of course. . . I work from home.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
– Phil Conners WPBH-TV Pittsburgh (Although currently being scouted by a major network)
February 2. Why today? Tradition.
It goes back to German immigrants. They celebrated with badger. If the badger appeared and saw his shadow, it was four more weeks of winter. The badger celebration was “dachs” which I think means badger in German. In America the animal changed to “dox” meaning groundhog again in German. . . I think. (I don’t really speak German other than a little Guten tag.)
Actually, the badger makes a lot more sense as the animal to watch. They don’t hibernate during the winter. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect a badger to emerge from his hole on February 2. A groundhog, not so much. They sleep all winter. Okay, not true sleep, but they hibernate all winter and were it not for the guys in black hats and tails pulling him out of his den, he’d probably sleep another six weeks or so.
But, it kind of makes sense, I guess. I mean, really, which would you rather pull a sleepy groundhog out of its hole and hold it up for the cameras, or a badger? Yeah, me neither.
Today, Punxsutawney Phil, (the world’s oldest living groundhog, apparently) was pulled out of his hole and saw his shadow. That means six more weeks of winter. New England just got hit by a massive storm, so I guess that’s not surprising.
Here in Utah, we’ve had a light winter. We are way behind in our snow levels. We’ll take another six weeks, if those weeks are full of snow.
Oh, over the past 10 years, Punxsutawney Phil has been accurate about half the time on his predictions. I know some weather men who don’t have that good of a track record.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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We have some employees in India. Not many, just a few. We have thousands of employees in the United States. In fact, our India employees are not really agents. They are what you would call back office employees.
Our client has really strict security protocols. They include software and network protections, as you would imagine; anti-virus software, firewalls, etc. We also have physical security requirements. In our call centers, where we might three or four hundred employees, that means cameras, turnstiles, and various other security requirements. Since our agents have access to member information, we take the security of that information very seriously.
Our back office folks don’t access member data. Instead, they are concerned with schedules and hours of operations and balancing peak loads. The data is still valuable and still needs to be protected, but it’s not as critical as personal identity information, or PII.
Originally we got a variance for the India employees. But, as time when on, scope creep set in.
My lovely wife and I were once going to build a wall to divide our kitchen from our laundry room. It was just going to be a small wall, about 10 feet long with a door. We figured it would take about a month and cost $500.And then scope creep set in. I was not yet trained in project management.
When we finished, we had our wall. We also had an entirely new kitchen, including ceiling, cabinets, appliances, tile floor, even a new kitchen sink. We didn’t go straight from a short wall to a $5000 brand new kitchen. Instead, it was one change at a time.
I’ve thought about that kitchen as we’ve worked with our India employees. Originally they were in various desks around a cube farm.
We are going to need all the agents to sit in the same location, with their backs to a wall so no one else can see their screen.
Okay. That’s not hard. We have a building where company employees supporting other campaigns also sit. The building is secure. We have badge readers and cameras. But, we needed to isolate the five employees. Easy enough.
Oh, we’re also going to need to isolate the network traffic for these five employees separately from the rest of the traffic in the building.
Okaaaay. That’s a little more involved, but not terribly so. We rewire and reroute network traffic all the time. The next time we had an audit we got additional requirements.
It’s not really going to work to have them out in the open like this. Anyone could just walk by.
What are you saying?
We’re going to need them in their own room.
So we designated an office.
It needs to be a bigger room.
Okay.
With a badge reader.
Alright.
And anti-tailgating controls.
Right.
And we’re going to need a physical cage around the network equipment that services these employees.
Yeah.
And cameras. Don’t forget cameras covering the room and the door, but make sure they can’t see the screens. . .and the screens should not be visible from outside the room, either.
Work from home means that we don’t have a pressing schedule for getting the room done. Eventually, we’ll finish, I’m sure. After all, we eventually ran out of things to replace in our kitchen.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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You know the story, right?
A tortoise challenged a hare to a race. Why it wasn’t a turtle and a rabbit, I’m not sure. Except, I guess turtles are technically amphibious, so the tortoise being a land animal makes more sense. But, the casting director picked a hare, so we’ll go with the hare.
Anyway, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. On the surface it seems pretty unfair. There’s no way a tortoise could compete with a hare. In fact, the world’s fastest tortoise, the Usain Bolt of tortoises wouldn’t stand a chance against even a three legged hare, or rabbit, either.
We’d all bet on the hare. Well, unless we’d heard the story and it’s a pretty well known story, so I guess the betting would be pretty even. The race starts and the hare gets off to a great lead. In fact, so much of a lead, he decides he can take a break. Obviously, the hare hasn’t run in a lot of races, because there’s plenty of time to rest after the race, but he decides to take a nap in the middle.
Meanwhile, Mr Terrapin keeps plodding away. At least that’s what it looks like to us. In the tortoise world he could be doing his best 100 yard dash. I mean, how would we know? Eventually, he gets close to the finish line. Just then the hare wakes up and sees he’s about to lose. He puts on a massive burst of speed as he streaks to the finish line.
Unfortunately for him, it’s too little too late. The tortoise bursts through the tape and is crowned the winner. Vindicating everyone who took the underdog and the points.
The lesson you are supposed to learn is to never give up. Even if you’re slow keep moving. I guess, you are also supposed to learn that if you are a really fast runner, wait until you finish the race to take your nap.
But, I had another thought. Both of them travelled the same distance. And for the poor turtle is was like running a marathon. He must have been exhausted. I wonder if he collapsed once he crossed that line.
It’s Friday after a long week. I’m feeling a lot like Mr Terrapin. I’m not sure if I won or not. I’m just happy to be across the line for one more week.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I went back to school yesterday. It’s not exactly a school. But, it is a class. There’s tuition. There’s an instructor. Classes are held via Zoom with the instructor and the other people in the class.
Students can opt to take the full course, or simply audit. I chose to take the full class. That means I have homework, tests and I have to write three stories. Yes, it’s a writing class.
It’s called 318R. My friend Dave Wolverton is teaching it. It’s the same syllabus that he used when he taught at BYU. Hundreds of people have taken this class. You might have heard of some of the Stephanie Meyers, Brandon Mull, Dan Wells.
This class isn’t being offered through BYU. It’s being offered by Dave personally. There are three times it’s offered. My class meets on Wednesday nights. The course will take longer than normal to complete. At one day per week, we’ll finish up in August.
I’m taking this class to help with my writing. That’s not a big surprise. I’ve talked before about how I’m working on writing more this year. I don’t plan on stopping the blog.
But, I want to write more fiction, short stories, novels. Where will it go? Who knows. I have my goals, my plans. But, for now, I’m just worried about getting my homework done on time.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Yesterday, I talked about being back in quarantine, (Same Stuff, Different Day.)
Today, is a different day (again.) But, the stuff today is different too. My son is COVID+. He’s also 18 years old and an athlete. His symptoms are mild. My other son was tested and he came back negative.
That leaves four of us in the house. Another son and a daughter aren’t showing any symptoms. I’m feeling great.
My lovely wife was also tested. Her results came back positive.
I’ve always thought that the terms negative and positive were backward. Negative should be a bad thing; a negative thing. You should look forward to positive things. You should dread the word positive as some sort of potential death sentence.
Maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Hopefully I’m being overly dramatic.
My lovely wife has preexisting health conditions. She’s high risk. Two days ago she was fine. Yesterday she was feeling down. Today. . .well, different day, different. . .stuff.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Do you have a minute?
Working from home, the shoulder-tap interruptions typically come from family members. My lovely wife stopped by my office.
I was taking Jenson to MTEC and they tested him for COVID.
Yeah?
And he tested positive.
Well, this was different. . .and very, very familiar.
Our family has experienced COVID before. My daughter at BYU had it a few months ago. We found out while we were on a camping trip with her. We spent 10 days in quarantine.
And later another daughter and her family got it. They got it just as she was going into labor with her baby. Fortunately the baby didn’t catch it.
But, this time is different. This time, we aren’t just quarantined at home. Well, we are, but my son is COVID positive, so it’s not just about waiting until the test results come back. He’ll be in quarantine for ten days. So far, he’s staying in his room.
I sepnt a week in my room. A fellow mason at a meeting I attended was COVID positive.
So, we’ll wait the 7 days from last exposure before getting tested.
We had to figure out when the last exposure was? My son, obvioiusly lives here. Was today our last exposure? What if he hadn’t gotten tested until tomorrow, but he’s already positive today? Would tomorrow be our last exposure?
In the meantime, there’s lots that goes into preparing for a COVID lockdown. First we had to call everyone home. One was at a discount store where she volunteers. Another was at high school.
Then, we had to call everyone who might have come into contact with us, and especially Jenson. We’ve all gotten these calls before. It was different to be making them.
Did you remember the grandkids that came by on Sunday?
Yes, and yesterday others stopped by for just a minute.
Eventually, we got all the calls made. We ordered food delivered from WalMart. And we settled down to wait.
We’ve been through this before.
Same stuff. . .just a different day.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m old. I won’t say exactly how old, but let’s say they were playing 80’s rock at my high school dances and it wasn’t the oldies station. Previously I’ve written about how Old Music is Always Better.
Salt Lake City has two oldies stations; 103.5 The Arrow and 94.1 KODJ. Today, I was giving my son a ride home from work and listening to one of the stations. A song from my childhood game on. (Okay, they’re ALL from my childhood, but go with me here.) It was 867-5309/Jenny by Tommy Tutone. It was released in 1981.
The song is pretty simplistic. In fact, most of it involves singing the phone number over and over. (See the full lyrics at the bottom of this post.) The story of the song is found in the last line of the first verse.
“Who saw your name and number on the wall”
Who among us hasn’t called a phone number found written next to a name on a wall? (Wow, that many. Okay.)
The mythology of the song is that the songwriters Alex Call and Jim Keller actually copied the number and name off a wall and put it into a song. The myth goes on that Jenny found out and was very upset to have her phone number blasted across the airwaves. And it’s been blasted for 40 years now.
Despite the coolness factor of the myth, it’s just that; a myth. Alex Call has admitted on multiple occasions that he came up with the number out of the ether sitting in his back yard under a plum tree.
But, it’s a real number. And the wikipedia article on the song lists the many different stories of people who have that number, or had that number. Even today, it’s not only used, but sought after. Mostly by people who want to get a lot of calls.
I didn’t share all this information with my son on the ride home. He’s pretty stoic, but there’s a difference between stoic silence and “Dad, you’re boring me,” silence.
But, I did tell my son who he could use this song to save money. And you can to.
Grocery store loyalty programs.
With a loyalty program, you give them your phone number and you save a few cents on the price of lettuce.
Of course, you are also giving up some of your privacy for the privilege of saving those few pennies. It’s often a good deal. But, it is giving up some privacy. But, you don’t have to. Nearly every program in every city will have an entry with Jenny’s phone number. So, if you don’t have a loyalty card from your friendly neighborhood grocery, enter your area code followed by Jenny’s number,
(xxx) 867-5309
My son was appropriately appreciative after learning this valuable life hack. He said,
Hmm
Like I said, stoic silence.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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867-5309/Jenny Lyrics
Jenny jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you’ll think I’m like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wallJenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your numberEight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Jenny jenny you’re the girl for me
You don’t know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination but I was disturbedJenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nineI got it (i got it) I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (i got it) I got it
For a good time, for a good time callJenny don’t change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I’ve called your numberEight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nineJenny Jenny who can I turn to (eight six seven five three oh nine)
For the price of a dime I can always turn to you (eight six seven five three oh nine)Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)