Action Figure Daniel

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  • “I am in search of Friends, Advocates and Colleagues”

    Recently work took over some of the operations of our sister company. The move was made as one of their high up managers left the company to venture down other avenues. This is a change that we had toyed with for a long time but the manager’s leaving made the change more of a necessity than a luxury. My IS department was directed to start working our magic. We started our magic show today, or at least got it setup. The tricks will start 1 Jan 2009. (Actually, the company is closed that day so they will really start 2 Jan.)

    It is interesting how someone new can bring change simply because they are new. Many of the changes that we are bringing about had been shared with our sister company several years ago. If it helps us we figure it should help them too. Only the owner’s wouldn’t listen to the existing managers so few things ever changed. It is interesting now that we are able to bring about these same changes, not because we can present a better case but simply because we are new to the company. I guess this might be due to the fact that we don’t know better. This is perhaps a mystery I will never know.

    Our first trick to roll out a web based hour tracking program. One thing that I have learned over my years of work is this: the old dog CAN learn new tricks, but usually doesn’t WANT to learn new tricks. Our sister company has been around for more then three decades. They have kept many of the same processes through those many years and even some of the same people. That is a lot of baggage to wade through when making changes, especially when you are new. Getting the web server prepped with the hour tracking software was fairly easy (we based it on our own installation for uniformity and ease of installing). After it was installed we hit the pavement.

    As we traveled across the parking lot Renown and I talked. I explained that as we roll things our I expect the roll outs to be somewhat bumping as we try to get people to embrace the amazingness we were giving them.

    “Can’t we just say ‘the owner said to, so do it’,” Renown asked.

    I smiled and laughed to myself as I remembered back to a time when I had thought similar.

    “We can,” I said, “but I would rather we get people exited to embrace our changes. As you are the face of these changes you will want alleys to help get everyone else on board.”

    We walked into our destination and after a short tour talked with one of those long standing employees. This one is very forward thinking is always looking for better ways of doing things. I counted him as a critical alley.

    “What brings you here today?” our contact asked.

    “I am in search of friends, advocates and colleagues,” I replied smiling.

    He looked puzzled.

    I introduced his to Renown then explained, “we are getting ready to roll out several new changes. I know that changes doesn’t always go over easy here so I am selling my wares in hopes of gaining friends, advocates and colleagues.” I then proceeded to perform something of a sales demonstration. I showed of the new features of the time clock and email system. He was glad to be progressing.

    As we left I told Renown, “he is someone that would love to play with new things. In fact as you start rolling things out you should them here so they can be advocates with the rest of the company.”

    We again talked about the need for friends, advocates and colleagues then made our second stop. Our second stop was in the warehouse.

    “What?” the manager asked.

    “We are here to give you a new time clock,” I said while Renown brought is up in the web browser.

    “Not something like that,” he said pointing to an electronic punch card system that I hear didn’t work very well, “because we already got something from you and it doesn’t work very well. Will this work better?”

    “Hmm, it’s just the system we’ve been using for the past two years. I think it will keep working.” He was happier now.

    I walked him through the process of clocking in and out while Renown showed him on the computer.

    “But this is my computer,” he interjected. “It is usually locked, and I don’t like to let people on it.”

    “That’s okay,” I said. “Your people can do it from the other computer, or any computer in the company for that matter.”

    “I like it,” he said. I smiled. I had scored a friend. Renown and I got to show him how to fix his employee’s time punches and add new users. It was easier than I thought. Then I found out why, he has to add up his employees’ time card each week. This will definitively save him precious time.

    Two down, tomorrow we will search for the third, our colleague. Of course I really hope that we will get more than just these three, but for now their support will help us get things going.

  • Watergate (more)

    Nathan spent several minutes examining every inch of the gate before Sarah started giggling.

    “You didn’t see did you,” she finally asked.

    “Yes, but I can’t see what they triggered,” Nathan retorted.

    Sarah gently pushed Nathan away from the gate and repeated the motion of the figure. They both waited. Nathan was wondering what was on the other side when he realized that two hooded strangers were on the other side. He jumped when the gate started to open.

    “The right touch,” Sarah said smiling in the moonlight.

    The gate opened as it had before. The two waited just out of the way from the gate to make sure the way was clear. The gate opened into a dingy hallway with some hooks for hanging hats and jackets. The floor had a gold brown tiling that matched the wall boards the crept halfway up the wall. The rest of the walls and the ceiling were covered in a red and gold wall paper that looked ancient. Nothing was even, the walls had odd bulges and it was obvious that the floor had shifted since it was laid, like the hallway was battling with the dirt it was wrested in.

    “I would never leave my stuff here,” Sarah whispered.

    “You know would that it is fairly safe though,” Nathan replied as the continued down the hall.

    There were a couple rooms immediately off the hallway then it split into three hallways, one in either direction and one straight ahead. The one straight ahead emptied into a large dank, dark room that was equally dingy as the hallway. As they passed one of the rooms they peered through the open door. It was a plain room with a dirty desk and an old office chair. They could see a lamp but the faint light was coming from behind the door. Neither one dared to venture inside the room further.

    They continued down the hallway. The whole thing looked so unreal that Nathan wanted to run his hands down across the wall just to make sure it was real. Bad things happen when you touch things that you aren’t supposed to. Nathan put his hands in his pockets just to make sure.

  • A Splendid Christmas day

    My Christmas was amazing (even if you don’t believe in Santa Claus). It started when I was still asleep. I was dreaming about Nathan, the character from the Watergate. He was having a new adventure. It made writing the tale once I woke up so much easier. It was more like I was dreaming that I was writing.

    After writing some my brother came by with flowers for Grandma, who’s house I am currently staying at, then we headed over to Mom and Dad’s house. Mom was feeling creative, and I think a little lazy, and didn’t wrap any presents. Instead we hid each others present throughout the house and then had to go find them. It was fun.

    I also had time to move some of my old drawing into Illustrator. It isn’t hard, it just takes time to retrace all the shapes. But I remind myself that Illustrator is the standard so it will work with almost anything, and it is the newest version so it can do cooler things that the old program can do.

    The evening ended playing games at a family friend’s house. All in all, Christmas was amazing!

  • Action figure Daniel in 2006?!

    You may notice several post dated as 2006. No, this blog wasn’t here in 2006. I have decided that I like this blog much better than my old blog and that it was time to shut the old blog down. I wanted to preserve some of my better writings though, so I moved them over here and gave them their original posting dates.

    (Time travel is just one of the many special talents of an accountant.)

  • The Watergate (continued)

    Nathan sat straight up. Someone was coming.

    Night had fallen and there wasn’t much moon light. The forest trees blocked what little light escaped through the clouds. His eyes finally got used to the dark and he could see that Sarah was already awake. He crouched next to her and they waited. There were figures coming from down the hill wearing dark robes with their hoods up. There looked to be three of them, all walking in a single line. They moved so quietly that he had only known they were there because Sarah pointed them out.

    Both Nathan and Sarah were excited. They were finally going to make it through the Watergate.

    The figures stopped in front of the gate. One of them, the one from the middle, moved his hands around the rusty edges of the wide gate. He stepped back and the three waited.

    A few tense moments past, then the gate started to move. The top split into two pieces and slowly creaked open while the bottom half inched its way to the ground. It reminded Nathan of a cottage door only gross and fashioned out of iron. The gate stopped moving and the first and last figure walked through. The middle one, the one who opened the gate remained outside.

    Once the two were through the gate began to close. Nathan started to panic. He wanted to run and slide in before the gate closed all the way but wasn’t sure how the hooded figure would react. Sarah must have known what was going through Nathan’s mind. She rested her hand on Nathan’s shoulder and whispered “Wait.”

    They waited. The middle figure left and headed back up the hill. Once he was far enough away the two crept out of the woods and examined the gate.