January 2009

There were 71 posts published in January 2009 (this is page 6 of 8).

Conn victory!

I did my GPS talk for Ms. Jarrett’s GPS module class at Conn Elementary today. It was teh awesome, just as I expected it to be. I got the kids involved in the talk, gave some examples, and timed it almost perfectly at one hour. I also got to say hello to Hallie at the end of my talk.

My efforts rewarded me with the great feeling I helped kids learn something. I also took home the famed Conn Volunteer Water Bottle With Ribbon, a photo of which I’ll post soon.

I’ve been told I’ll be invited back soon, which is fine by me. It was a blast!

Cheap Thoughts: Traffic light outages

A cold front blew through two nights ago, knocking out power with freakishly-strong wind gusts. Police all over the city were directing traffic through dark intersections. As I drove through my third dark intersection, I questioned why we were tying up police officers in a dangerous job like directing traffic when efforts could be better spent getting the traffic lights up quickly.

Police could arrive with a small generator which could be plugged into the box to provide temporary power to the intersection’s traffic lights. Perhaps chaining the generator to the nearest telephone pole.
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Busy but fun day

I had a great first day at Large Network Storage Company today. Everyone was cool and the hardware makes it geek heaven. My day was over before I knew it.

I hopped in the car and dashed home for a quick supper before dashing right out again for my first meeting of the Mordecai Historic Park Board. After the board meeting, I got a tour of the Mordecai House, including a look in the basement. Had I had more time I would’ve seen the whole house, but time was short and I had to head home. I arrived home right at the point Kelly had to leave for drinks with her friends.There was just enough time for me to tuck the kids in bed but not much more, sadly.
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Unclear on the concept

A few weeks ago I returned downtown for a CAC meeting. Parked near my meeting place was an official-looking Crown Victoria with a North Carolina license plate identifying the owner as a member of the Court of Appeals. I couldn’t help but notice this same car sported a high-end radar detector on the dashboard.

So much for respect for the law, eh?

Mystery Shopping scam

Here’s another scam email I received today. “Mystery Shopping,” indeed.

Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:11:55 -0700
From: Richard Gras richard.gras2755@hotmail.com
Reply-to: richard.gras2755@yahoo.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Mystery Shopping JOB
User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) H3 (4.1.6)
X-Identified-User: {2065:host193.hostmonster.com:cpanelhorde:host193.hostmonster.com} {sentby:program running on server}

Hello,

Am Richard Gras, and working for a company (Shoppers Guide Int.) that conduct
surveys and evaluates other companies which can be simply called mystery shopping.

What is Mystery Shopping…..?

A vast amount of companies are interested in knowing what their customers/clients think of their services and/or products in order to right what may be wrong and help them to improve customer service and productivity. To obtain this crucial data from a non biased view point they hire Mystery Shopping agencies/recruiters like us, who are trained market researchers, to gather the information on their behalf. We get hired to go to other peoples companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in relation to their customers. This is where you come in…
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Basketball coach for a day

Hallie’s started in a Salvation Army basketball league and seems excited about it. I wish it was a bit more organized, though: the staff is still trying to locate a coach.

Hallie went to her first practice yesterday and she and 9 other kids stood around until the athletic director asked if I could pinch hit as a coach for the day. While I’ve often considered volunteering to coach youth basketball, I expected to be more prepared before I took on my first team.
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Quiet in here

I spent a good portion of the day away from the keyboard, taking the kids to/from school and getting some easy-but-long-neglected things done around the house. It felt good to not be in front of a screen for a bit.

I should have some interesting things to say tomorrow as it will be my first day at the new job. Wish me luck!

Interview day

I spoke with two different news organizations today about two different topics. The first was getting my comments on recent security issues at a local high school in my CAC area. The second was about my inability to access the N.C. Employment Security Commission website to file my claim.

The first interview was for a local TV station. I put on a sport coat and met the photographer at nearby Lions Park. I don’t think my answers were as smooth as I’d hoped. I still get hyper when a camera’s in my face. Got to shake that habit, I guess. I didn’t see the segment on the 6PM news so I don’t know if any of it will be used.
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Highlights of 2008: My job at an address verification company

The big thing that defined 2008 for me was my working for an address verification company in Raleigh. Getting that job made a lot of things possible and losing it made many not as possible.

A friend of a friend told me about the company in late 2007. I met the local boss and liked what I saw. I had been feeling frustrated by the one-way communication I got from my boss at my work-from-home job, so I needed a change. I met the owner and liked him. We agreed on a salary and a general job description: North America Support Manager. I came onboard the first of February and was generally happy I did.
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GPS talk is Friday!

I’ve been glad that one thing hasn’t gotten derailed by my job situation, and that is the talk I’m giving Friday to a fifth-grade class on Global Positioning System. While I’m no expert on GPS, I can tell the students how I used GPS in the Navy and some basic information on how it works.

I’m really looking forward to it!