Pre-Arisia...
No, just kidding. *sigh* Have a good time, those who will be there.
Things of which I am proud recently:
- I handled a very disgruntled student this week who has made his rounds through the other Arts Degree Advisors. They know him to be difficult, goes on at length on the phone as well as in person, and very demanding. He spoke to me about wanting something that, basically, he had no way of getting, but he thought he was special and better than most other people (no, seriously, that's what he said but in less nice terms) and by the way his family is very prestigious in education, you can look them up. (I did not look them up.)
One coworker of mine said this guy is the reason ze doesn't pick up zir phone for unfamiliar numbers - he'd call 12 times a day when he wanted something. This supports the student's claim that I'm the only person around here who seems to follow through on things or get back to him. }:-\
The key to this situation for me was listening to his initial rant; it had been only a few hours since he got his "bad news" so even though I knew there was basically no appeal and no reason to appeal his request, there was a lot of validation of his response, and him *making* the request; I would look into it - and I did, and got back to him, and contacted the graduation officers for him, and basically allowed him to explore his (non-actionable) options.
Today, after getting the emailed response to his final question from the grad office, he emailed me, saying: "I just want to thank you for your assistance in this matter. It was a stressful time for me, but you handled it with a lot of professionalism and class. Take care." That right there is why I am right for this job. I am putting this in my "Thank you" folder.
- I worked on a revision of the advising website that is part of the main website for my university. It was created by the central advising unit, before the various degree advisors had their own websites, and before some of the advising units actually existed. The "Contact Us" referred only to them, some of the links and info only applied to their populations, and basically it's been outdated for a few years. We've been complaining about it for that long; the guy nominally in charge of it said "okay, you fix it," so nothing happened. I held a meeting in December to gather other advisors' input (always a good idea, since it needs to lead to and be used by them as well), and I finally got around to typing it up in a reasonably representative fashion to what the website might look like - I am not a programmer nor do I want to develop those skills, since they are ever evolving and there are a large number of other people who have them. I mocked it up in Word, enough to get feedback and then pass it on to a person who can make it happen. We're having an all-advisor meeting in two weeks; I will make it an agenda item and push forward with it.
- I finally bought Benito's last Hannukah present, from the money Mom and Abba sent for him. I had told him that they had given money so we could go get him a game, and we had to do that, so he's been asking where is the present from them. I tried to take us to the actual store, but didn't get to it. We had spoken about a few games, but then he mentioned that he'd like Magnatiles. He does enjoy playing with those at daycare, so I decided that would be the thing. We ended up going with these ones, which were a bit more than the money sent but completely worth it. I would've bought a larger set but funds are not abundant. He LOVES these. I brought them with us to sushi dinner and he happily played with them around eating a little. I'm entirely sure it helps that he plays with them at a lot at daycare, but it's great seeing him do this kind of creative playing.
- I made good chicken, where both the white meat and the dark meat were cooked just right. Take a chicken divided into 8 pieces, (thaw) rinse and pat dry, coat in mayo to which you've added spices, then coat with panko breadcrumbs, bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes, bake uncovered an additional 15 minutes to crisp. I put the breasts back in for another 15 minutes as they were really thick, then toasted them under the broiler for a minute or two, and they came out super juicy and tasty. The spices in the mayo make a HUGE difference - they pack the punch of flavor that makes chicken great. This is highly repeatable; I got the recipe from Spice and Spirit, which seems to be both a cookbook and a website and a Facebook page. (hrm, website not bad but not super, needs more time baking.)
That might be it. Three things make a post, and this is four, so I'm good.
This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/714199.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Things of which I am proud recently:
- I handled a very disgruntled student this week who has made his rounds through the other Arts Degree Advisors. They know him to be difficult, goes on at length on the phone as well as in person, and very demanding. He spoke to me about wanting something that, basically, he had no way of getting, but he thought he was special and better than most other people (no, seriously, that's what he said but in less nice terms) and by the way his family is very prestigious in education, you can look them up. (I did not look them up.)
One coworker of mine said this guy is the reason ze doesn't pick up zir phone for unfamiliar numbers - he'd call 12 times a day when he wanted something. This supports the student's claim that I'm the only person around here who seems to follow through on things or get back to him. }:-\
The key to this situation for me was listening to his initial rant; it had been only a few hours since he got his "bad news" so even though I knew there was basically no appeal and no reason to appeal his request, there was a lot of validation of his response, and him *making* the request; I would look into it - and I did, and got back to him, and contacted the graduation officers for him, and basically allowed him to explore his (non-actionable) options.
Today, after getting the emailed response to his final question from the grad office, he emailed me, saying: "I just want to thank you for your assistance in this matter. It was a stressful time for me, but you handled it with a lot of professionalism and class. Take care." That right there is why I am right for this job. I am putting this in my "Thank you" folder.
- I worked on a revision of the advising website that is part of the main website for my university. It was created by the central advising unit, before the various degree advisors had their own websites, and before some of the advising units actually existed. The "Contact Us" referred only to them, some of the links and info only applied to their populations, and basically it's been outdated for a few years. We've been complaining about it for that long; the guy nominally in charge of it said "okay, you fix it," so nothing happened. I held a meeting in December to gather other advisors' input (always a good idea, since it needs to lead to and be used by them as well), and I finally got around to typing it up in a reasonably representative fashion to what the website might look like - I am not a programmer nor do I want to develop those skills, since they are ever evolving and there are a large number of other people who have them. I mocked it up in Word, enough to get feedback and then pass it on to a person who can make it happen. We're having an all-advisor meeting in two weeks; I will make it an agenda item and push forward with it.
- I finally bought Benito's last Hannukah present, from the money Mom and Abba sent for him. I had told him that they had given money so we could go get him a game, and we had to do that, so he's been asking where is the present from them. I tried to take us to the actual store, but didn't get to it. We had spoken about a few games, but then he mentioned that he'd like Magnatiles. He does enjoy playing with those at daycare, so I decided that would be the thing. We ended up going with these ones, which were a bit more than the money sent but completely worth it. I would've bought a larger set but funds are not abundant. He LOVES these. I brought them with us to sushi dinner and he happily played with them around eating a little. I'm entirely sure it helps that he plays with them at a lot at daycare, but it's great seeing him do this kind of creative playing.
- I made good chicken, where both the white meat and the dark meat were cooked just right. Take a chicken divided into 8 pieces, (thaw) rinse and pat dry, coat in mayo to which you've added spices, then coat with panko breadcrumbs, bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes, bake uncovered an additional 15 minutes to crisp. I put the breasts back in for another 15 minutes as they were really thick, then toasted them under the broiler for a minute or two, and they came out super juicy and tasty. The spices in the mayo make a HUGE difference - they pack the punch of flavor that makes chicken great. This is highly repeatable; I got the recipe from Spice and Spirit, which seems to be both a cookbook and a website and a Facebook page. (hrm, website not bad but not super, needs more time baking.)
That might be it. Three things make a post, and this is four, so I'm good.
This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/714199.html. Please comment there using OpenID.