Updates from the TANs!

On Monday, January 8, 2007, the TANs took the time to gather for our monthly conference call.   

Cheryl entertained us with an informative and interesting presentation on Disaster Recovery Planning.  An issue applicable to anyone and everyone, she told us what a disaster recovery plan is, why to have one, and gave us a step-by-step guide to creating one!  

Next it was time for Best of/Worst of for December/early January.  Here’s what people had to say! 

Best thing that happened: 

Tim – He enjoyed his time off during the holidays.  In addition, he took advantage of the opportunity to sit in on a board meeting for his organization, which he found interesting.  Way to learn new things! 

Kamala – Kamala also enjoyed her vacation and took time to spend time with her family.  Work-related, she has been testing databases, which she enjoys. 

Karl – Karl spent his vacation time in Seattle with his family, and we all know spending time with your family during the holidays is a plus.  Work-wise, he’s been spending time cleaning up the database and making it user-friendly. 

Andrea – She successfully completed her EMT classes!  Congrats, Andrea! 

Laura – Laura also enjoyed her vacation time, splitting her time between being with her family in Indiana and seeing friends in Kentucky. 

Corey – Corey got new Taebo videos!  Now she and Laura can spend their mornings getting fit…and waking up the people who live under them. :)

Cheryl – Cheryl has taken the initiative to join an organization and meet new people!  She attended a pot-luck meal, which was quite enjoyable.  

Worst thing that happened: 

Tim – A lot was waiting for him when he returned to work from his vacation.  Getting caught up on things is never fun, unless you like that sort of thing (which he does not). 

Kamala – Her home computer crashed.  :(  ‘Nuff said. 

Karl – He doesn’t think that getting caught up when returning from vacation is much fun either. 

Andrea – Despite the fact that she just finished her EMT classes, she’s been battling being sick. 

Laura – See her blogs Unnecessary (?) adventures and Unnecessary (?) adventures – Part II.  Being sick and taking SevenCorners into account when trying to receive services is no picnic. 

Corey – Her car got mysteriously scratched….and it’s leased, so she has to get it fixed so she’s not fined when her lease is up.  That’s not easy on a VISTA budget. 

Cheryl – One day she was carrying her backpack, and she noticed that her food-containing tupperware dish leaked all over everything.  What a mess!  

 

Our next call is scheduled for 2/2/2007 at 4:00pm EST/1:00 PST.  Until then, be good, stay warm, and keep on keeping on!!

 

Random question of the month (added by Laura): How do you create your smileys? Do they face left? (: or do they face right? :)  In addition, are you right- or left-handed?  I wonder if there's a correlation between which direction you make your smileys and which hand you write with.

Definitely like this:   :) (which I believe is to the left?)

I am right-handed.

However, I am also goofy-footed and shoot pool left handed, so maybe I am the exception to whatever conclusions come from this survey :). <--see

I suppose I could have just done a half-swivel in my chair and told you this.

my answers: right and right.

i think left smilies are more often from people who strongly value uniqueness, and that is a trait i have sometimes noticed in lefties (to make themselves feel special? :p ).

i think some people would have been left handed if they weren't forced into being righies by our right-hand world, so maybe the lefties who we see as lefties (as opposed to the suppressed lefties) are the ones who are less influenced by outside factors and so are also more likely to express their nontraditional smiley directions (left being the nontraditional direction - since we read/write left-right top-bottom, and eyes are before mouth top-bottom they should be typed that way when going left-right).

however, we (at least those in our age group) were older on average when making smiley "choices" than when making hand "choices" so maybe different factors would influence these decisions.

also i have seen left smileys develop as a reaction to chat programs that by default automatically make right but not left smileys into icons.

can you tell i'm putting off some work i don't really want to do? guess i'll get to it now though.

 

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