Work
Things have been quite busy at work, especially since I leave early two days a week for class. For one of my surveys, we are having two net conferences next week, one for the eastern states and one for the western. It works out better with the time differences to do two. With a net conference, everyone logged on to the conference sees whatever is on the presenter's computer screen. There is also an audio feature so that everyone can hear the presenter over the computer as well, but we are using a regular teleconference for the audio part. It's for redundancy in case the net conference fails for someone. I am presenting a small section on the analysis tool everyone will be using on the data. Because I only found out about this net conference two weeks ago, none of the changes I planned on making are done yet. I was working under the idea that everything needed to be done for March 7, so I'd been working on other projects. I could have had everything ready for Tuesday if I'd known about the net conference back in January and planned accordingly. As it is, I'm going to show everyone last year's tool and just talk about what changes will be made. It makes me look like I'm behind schedule, but my boss knows the situation, so he knows I'm doing my best. I'll be glad when this survey is done for the year, and I can start helping out with the Census of Agriculture.
There is a big workshop for newish employees in July, but right now I'm not on the list to go. I talked to Boss about it, and he thinks I really should go this year because it won't really be helpful for me if I wait another year to go. By that point, he said I'd be able to teach part of the workshop. There are currently 41 people listed to go out of a maximum of 43. This workshop is particularly useful to employees in my division, so Boss is going to talk to his boss about getting me one of the last two spots. If it works out, I will be in Kansas for the second week of July, right after I get back from the big family vacation. I don't know when I'll find out whether or not I get to go, but I really want to. Workshops like these are really the only chances we have to meet people in other field offices face-to-face.
In other vaguely exciting news, the President was in my building Wednesday morning for a swearing in of the new Secretary of Agriculture. There were several extra security measures for the building that day. I didn't see him or really even get within 100 yds. of his location, but it's still probably the closest I'll ever get to the President of the United States. Weird.
Also check out bakanaonna's most recent post for the video of Kumo's alien face. We filmed this a while back for rudebega as Kumo was formerly her cat but forgot to tell everyone else about it. Brooke's filming, and I'm holding Kumo.
There is a big workshop for newish employees in July, but right now I'm not on the list to go. I talked to Boss about it, and he thinks I really should go this year because it won't really be helpful for me if I wait another year to go. By that point, he said I'd be able to teach part of the workshop. There are currently 41 people listed to go out of a maximum of 43. This workshop is particularly useful to employees in my division, so Boss is going to talk to his boss about getting me one of the last two spots. If it works out, I will be in Kansas for the second week of July, right after I get back from the big family vacation. I don't know when I'll find out whether or not I get to go, but I really want to. Workshops like these are really the only chances we have to meet people in other field offices face-to-face.
In other vaguely exciting news, the President was in my building Wednesday morning for a swearing in of the new Secretary of Agriculture. There were several extra security measures for the building that day. I didn't see him or really even get within 100 yds. of his location, but it's still probably the closest I'll ever get to the President of the United States. Weird.
Also check out bakanaonna's most recent post for the video of Kumo's alien face. We filmed this a while back for rudebega as Kumo was formerly her cat but forgot to tell everyone else about it. Brooke's filming, and I'm holding Kumo.