Musings of an Info-Geek

Traffic Signals: Are You Using Them in Your Career?

Jennifer Brown — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:41:00 GMT

I'm a pedestrian by choice.  I walk to the gym, to the grocery store, and sometimes to the theater.  Lately I've noticed a lot more people not using the signals on their car. Sometimes the turns they'd make were obvious, but other times, they weren't. As a pedestrian, this always makes me nervous because I can't anticipate where they're going and avoid collisions.

What's equally annoying is people trying to be helpful to me as a pedestrian, and then getting frustrated at me because I can't see them trying to wave me on through the very strong Texas sun glare on their windshield. One woman even yelled at me when I had stopped before a crosswalk to let her continue through the intersection.  If I can't make eye contact, I don't assume they can see me.

I was walking home from the gym the other day, I thought of something else; not signaling is a problem a lot of people have when it comes to their career, in good times or bad.

Are you letting people know where you're planning on going or doing? If you aren't, how can people anticipate your needs?

People are often very willing to help you, but you need to speak up. If you can't articulate it, how can you expect to get it?

#TroopFlix Initiative, or, Tweets with a Cause

Jennifer Brown — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:21:00 GMT

I've been neglecting this blog. I apologize. I'm going vow to update at least once a week. In the meantime, you can read some of what I've been up to at Slackerwood.com.

I would like to call your attention to a little story about Twitter for good. Scott Nuemeyer, a friend of several of my friends and someone I follow on Twitter. Most of us are somehow connected to film, from critics to makers, to enthusiastic fans of moving images.

Scott decided to try for 2,000 followers by Friday April 17th. At one point he offered a DVD to one of his followers. It evolved into 100 DVDs to troops, then friends and followers got into the spirit, and operation #TroopFlix was born. This campaign, done solely based on twitter connections, has resulted in pledges of nearly 1,000 DVDs in total. At some point over the weekend, it was over 850. With so many film associations, even film companies have gotten involved, donating an undetermined number of DVDs. It's been hard to track down numbers.

The DVDs are not going out to the soldiers in the field, but to the Warrior Return Unit, which, according to the official US Navy website, has a mission to "maximize the quality of life for service members of coalition forces during the period of convalescence, expediting return to duty or transfer to definitive care." These are troops with time on their hands and in need of distraction. It's also location based, with a high turnover of troops, so the DVDs are gifts that keep on giving. Duplicate DVDs will be sent to other units at the discretion of Scott's contact at the WRU at Camp Arifjan.

If you would like to participate, let Scott know, and send your DVDs (gently used are OK) to:

c/o LCDR Tim Drill
Camp Arifjan, EMF Kuwait (Navy)
Warrior Return Unit
APO AE 09366

My package was under four pounds, but because it was going to an Army address, a special customs form had to be filled out (2976-A), and it had to go priority mail. It's a bit more paperwork, but the good side is it will get there sooner. Make sure to indicate on the customs form it's a DVD donation.

No matter your political views, it shouldn't be hard to support such an effort.

SXSW Eve

Jennifer Brown — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:31:00 GMT

Starting tomorrow, I'll be living SXSW nearly 24/7... well, more like 18/10. If you're interested in news from there, check out Slackerwood.com, where I'm a contributor. Slackerwood is Austin's answer to Hollywood, and focuses on local film related news. If you need help deciding which films to check out during SXSW, I recommend it.

If you're in Austin, do look around for the free and budget minded events if you don't have a badge. There's Bar Camp Austin IV, which is free, and all day long, and into the evening on Saturday. If you're looking for more, just do some googling for free SXSW events for all three conferences (film, interactive, music), as well as for unofficial events. Not having a badge is no excuse for not partaking.

Drive By Review: Watchmen

Jennifer Brown — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:34:00 GMT

I was nearly as hyped up as any fangirl, although I haven't read the graphic novel (I haven't read any, so no shock there). I really enjoyed 300 despite the lame dialogue because it was visually luscious; it was gore ballet, but still ballet.

The trailers, which no one with any sort of electronic media device could escape, looked gorgeous. It's not bad. But not as great as I'd hoped.

And I don't think the whole "unfilmable" rap was it. It was the 'music video' component that annoyed me. Yes it had a very complicate plot, but I have a brain, I could follow that. It felt a bit dated, but I can live with that, too.

Instead of integrating the music in to support the rest of the film, it became a focus several times. Most notable was the sex scene supporting Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". That and the incendiary money shot. The music worked best when it was subtle, like the elevator muzak version of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." I could tell there was a lot of story cut just from the possibilities of storylines. I found myself thinking about them during the music video portions.

Still, it's visually stunning, and worth watching. Performance wise, Jackie Earle Haley steals the scenes he's in, especially his final scene. If you thought his performance in Little Children was a fluke, this will change your mind.

If you're in Austin or anywhere near it, you MUST see it at an Alamo. Get there extra early, as it will be sold out, but also for the pre-show, which has some great fangeek featurettes, and some useful ones for us on-graphic novel geek types.

And for those who've seen it... is it me, or was Nixon's nose growing?

Epic Fail: Customer Service and Me in February

Jennifer Brown — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:12:00 GMT

I did not have good customer service experiences throughout February, in different ways with different companies.

My saga of getting a replacement card with CapitalOne was finally resolved, but I'm even less impressed with their documentation system and procedures. Apparently the original replacement card I requested went through some 'approval' process, and no one could tell me about it til three days before I got the card, with the 3rd request for priority mailing. And when the account supervisor misheard "reporting" as "recording", well, I suspect that there's a reason for his paranoia.

But I will say this; the last customer service rep I spoke to, Vik, was very nice, very helpful, and put me through to a supervisor almost immediately. He actually cheered me up, and made me smile, reminding me it's a good day, and not to let the problems get in the way of enjoying it.

I had trouble with my new HD TV, with the picture being zoomed bigger than the screen. No matter what picture mode I chose, I could not change it. The problem was ultimately with the Time Warner remote, but neither Samsung nor Time Warner's sites were very helpful. No information about functionality online. The Samsung site was insanely unhelpful, and I kept going in circles. I had to create a service request online to get phone support, which didn't have the support hours available, so it took a few calls. They couldn't help me, but I was able to finally get a field support request.

It should've been resolved online. If not that, the phone, by first tier support. But it had to go to field support. Where the situation completely changed. I got a call two days before the "first available day" estimate from First Choice, the contracted field support company. Then the assigned tech called me a few hours early to say he thought he knew the problem, and walked me through clicking on the # pound button, which is not lableled as Zoom, and I've never knowingly used. The cats probably stepped on it.

It should have been resolved by looking at the website, either Samsung's or Time Warner's. Or both. But I'm glad Eric (?) of First Choice is getting paid for it, because he was doing his job and doing it well. Good for him, since he had all the right stuff; good attitude, clear instructions, and repeatedly asked if I had any other questions. I feel better about this TV purchase because if I need further assistance, I'm confident in the field support. If not the web and phone support.

And lastly; convenience and initial cost savings aren't always worth it. My old computer has been dying for a couple of years, So I figured it was time for a new one. I'd built this thing the day after knee surgery, when I still had a pain pump and loaded up on Vicodin. It worked perfectly the first time. Unfortunately, it had been dying the last couple of years, and finally I couldn't take it any more. I opted to go to NewEgg.com and buy a pre-built system, as it was cheaper than what I was planning on building, and could be modified as needed, and I didn't need all the bells and whistles I was considering just yet.

Stupid me. It was an Acer system. It died literally 30 days after it was delivered. Very loudly. I noticed the day before it died the HD was spinning a bit loudly, and since I got it, the mouse was not very responsive after being in sleep mode. But that last night, 30 days after I got it, it spun up loud enough to compete with a lawnmower engine, and died. And revives just long enough to get to a boot screen before dying again.

My confidence was already waning when they sent me an email telling me to back up before I tried their fix. Yeah, I can backup a computer that stays on for less than a minute. I am not a fan of generic responses that aren't tailored to the actual situation.  Let alone it took me a half hour to gather the information required to get help.

Their online support is slow, with more than 24 hours to respond to follow ups. And their phone support is worse; the guy actually talked over me and didn't seem able to provide any information without me specifically asking for it.   They did eventually send me a URL to request service. But they want me to provide my password with no privacy policy statement. And I have to pay for shipping. Or, very generous of them, I can give them my credit card number to ship a new hard drive, and send my old one back. Uh, no, I'll just fix it myself. And not buy Acer products ever again.

And lastly, I did my first, and probably last Zappos order. I wanted sassy new shoes to wear to a conference on the 27th. With the free shipping both ways is great, but the shoes, shoes aren't one size fits all, and despite lots of reviews saying true to size, were too snug on the toes. It was very easy to get the shipping label and send them back. But therein lies the problem.

I shipped them back on 2/18.  It took until 2/24 to actually get the credit code to use for replacements, two days after I saw the credit showing on my account. There seemed to be a real disconnect with processing the return and issuing the credit. And the replacement shoes I wanted were sold out by the time I got the credit. I ended up getting a pair of sandals I wasn't going to buy for another few weeks, and never got the shoes I'd wanted for the conference. And the sandals aren't that comfortable, and make that evil "flickeh flickeh" noise when I walk. I'd return them, but it's not worth the hassle.

Zappos deserves a whole post in itself, because in some ways they have fantastic features, which are diminished by the really frustrating ones. I could see I had the $75 credit days before I could actually use it, and when the return status was still showing "return in progress". It never showed "received" but went straight to "completed" (and before I got the credit code). I had to make a customer service request to get the credit code sent again,

I had to get the credit code in email, instead of having it post to my account. The original email arrived several hours after the followup email. Ands speaking of email, they're great with finding ways for you to get email alerts, but you can't readily manage them. After trying five times to get unsubscribed from their daily digest, I had to resort to yet another customer service request to actually getting unsubscribed. Having email management options on the account page seems pretty basic to me, but that's apparently not a priority for them. Although after all this, I got two emails about being part of their new VIP club. Thanks, but I don't think so. I'm not sure how much saying if this wasn't resolved that day, I wanted a refund. All lthe cheery "customer loyalty team" verbiage doesn't work on me.

Their CEO and social media guru are following me on Twitter because I mentioned Zappos. Well and good, but could you all spend more time in making your site work a bit more like, say Newegg?

I'm not completely soured on online ordering, as I've had really good experiences with NewEgg.com and Amazon.com, and Reuseablebags.com, but this has all been a reminder to not be so open minded.

The Well-Equipped Festival Goer: Surviving SXSW Film Conference and Festival 2009

Jennifer Brown — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:55:00 GMT

I've been a badge holder for SXSW film for the last several years, with the exception of last year, when I had a film pass. If you're going to really do a film festival, and get 4-6 screenings in a day, with all that line standing, you can make it easier on yourself with:

A Big Bag/BackPack
If you're a badge holder, you get a great big bag full of swag and ads. You can carry your stuff in there, or use a backpack. Either works. But you need one to carry the necessaries to make your festival experience more enjoyable, and survivable.

Re-usable Water Bottle
In the past, I've re-used plastic bottles, but I've been looking for a good, non-plastic one. Another attendee at the Austin Film Festival last year had one of these, and it looked the perfect size for stuffing into a bag. And apparently, it keeps water cool for a long time, which is great in Texas. I'm not a fan of ice water, but I'd prefer my water to be at least a bit cooler than body temperature. It's also got a wide mouth, making it easy to clean.

You definitely want to stay hydrated, and this can help you save money and the environment. Good all around. I just ordered two of them in different sizes on reusablebags.com, which is a great site with genuinely green bags, and bottles, and related products.

Just make sure your bottle is not visible when entering venues, especially the Paramount. The water Nazis'll getcha.

Sweater/Jacket
It may be Texas, and it may be Spring by the end of SXSW, but there's no guarantee the weather will cooperate, and some venues have turbo AC. If you want to get double duty out of it, you can use it to hold your seat on restroom trips before the show. Best if it's not black, though, so people can see it.

Umbrella
Just because we're back in full drought mode doesn't mean there's no possible chance for rain. Get one bright enough to find if you put it on the floor in a dark theatre, and the more unique the better. But make it compact, so you can stuff it into a waterproof bag and easily store it your big bag.

UPDATE: Despite the drought, the weatherman is suggesting possible rain this week, so there may be rain next week. Stuff one of those 5,434,006 plastic bags you pick up during the week for storing your umbrella in your bag/pack so you aren't stuck searching for it, or lose it. You will want the umbrella, because Texas rain is by deluge most of the time.

Nutrition Bars
You only need a couple of them, but they're very handy when hungry and waiting in line, or when you're at a venue without food. Or, if you oversleep from the late screenings and partying, and have to dash to your first screening of the day.

I'm not a big fan of Luna or Cliff bars, but I rather enjoy Pria and ZonePerfect. ZonePerfect bars also come in snack size, perfect to take the edge off hunger until you can make it to an Alamo screening. The ZonePerfect fudge grahams are better than some candy bars. The Pria Complete chocolate mint bars are pretty good, too.

Trail Size Pain Reliever
Personally, I prefer Aleve. You may have another. Most drug stores will carry trial size of the more popular brands. You might also want to get some travel packs of tissues, and face wipes, too, for when you're not feeling as fresh as you'd like. I'm pretty retentive about this stuff, so I also have bandaids, and change and a couple small bills for emergency. And nail clippers. Yeah, you want to know me when you have those little emergencies.

Sun Block
This is Texas, after all. Even the locals will use sunblock this time of year, and you will be standing in line for hours over the course of the festival, if you do the full festival. While it's currently cool for us, we've already flirted with 90F this year.

Vitamins
These don't have to go with you, but I do recommend taking them even if you don't normally. You're likely going to stay up longer, partying harder, and eating worse than you normally do. It doesn't mean you can't take care of yourself a little bit.

Comfortable Shoes
I'm always surprised to see some women in heels at screenings, then I remember they're the ones who're usually just attending that one. Unless it's your film screening, stick to comfortable shoes. If you're an Austinite or frequent visitor, you know that sandals are acceptable just about anywhere, anytime in Austin. After your first 45 minute line, you'll thank me.

Keychain Flashlight
You're gonna be in a lot of dark theatres. It makes it a helluvalot easier to check for fallen items, umbrellas, etc. And for those of us not using hotels, a lot easier to find -and use- keys. At Fantastic Fest, I helped someone find something that would have been irreplaceable. You can probably even pick one up at the trade show.

Go Local Austin, Water, and Tips
You can save quite a bit of money on your soft drinks by purchasing a Go Local Austin card. For just $10, you get discounts and other offers at local businesses, several of which are near the Alamo locations. Mekong River has great Vietnamese food, and is just a block or so away from the Alamo Ritz. If you have hat envy, Hatbox is a block down the other way. If you buy two large softdrinks at an Alamo, it's paid for itself. There are so many local businesses participating, you need to check out their website to see them all.

Just remember to tip, please, based on the full price of your order (15-20%). Please, please, please, make sure to tip your staff, even if it's for the water they bring you. They take care of you, you should take care of them. They do everything any other waitstaffer will do, but they do in the dark and with stairs. Fifty cents for a water is fair, if you ask them to bring it to you.

Not tipping just makes you look cheap, and the wait staff is working extended hours with packed houses every screening, and for some of them, it's their spring break. So give them a break and appreciate them the best possible way. And if you can't afford the tip, you can't afford the meal.

These are just the highlights I can think of; what suggestions do you have?

AWT Austin Women's Business Conference 2009: Success! (And a personal fail)

Jennifer Brown — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:45:00 GMT

With the uncertain economy, companies are just not as willing to invest in the indirect ROI to sponsored events like conferences, seminars, job fairs, etc., I was sure the annual conference AWT Austin puts on would be a success. And it was.

It was definitely scaled back. No vendor bingo, as there were very few vendors. The door prizes weren't as extravagant as past years. But it still was a hard choice between the three different tracks for the three different breakout sessions.

The biggest problem for me was the fact I was in the midst of a multi-day migraine, so I was not as focused on prep work, or at the sessions. I forgot to bring business cards with me. I didn't network as much as I could have. I sat like a stone a few times, dealing with the migraine. But I did meet a few new people, and catch up with some old friends I haven't seen in a while.

I love the fact that AWT does a good job of networking, and it's looking like they're partnering up with other professional associations. I'm really looking forward to seeing what events are coming in the coming year. And hopefully I won't have a migraine during those.

Competing with Love

Jennifer Brown — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:05:00 GMT

I was a bit disappointed when Carla Hall didn't win Top Chef on Tuesday, but of all the chefs I've ever seen cook on there, she's the one I most like to have cook for me. And meet.

Ironically, her missteps in the final meal were being open to change, which is usually a good thing. She was open to new ideas, and while that led to a less than perfectly executed meal. It doesn't make her any less of a winner in my eyes.

In the interview excerpt they showed in the final episode, she nailed the reason why she should be considered a winner; she said that she wanted to show it was possible to "compete with love". And that's the primary reason I loved watching her.

It's not just her energy and perspective. Or the fabulous glasses I can't help but admire. Throughout the show, she was showing love every time she was on camera. She cooked with love, and competed with love. I remember her talking to Arriane when she was feeling bad about a particular elimination round. While most of the others were riffing on each other, she was focused on the food. She'd cheer on her competitors, and help out when she could. Even the self-absorbed Stefan was moved to comfort her in the final episode.

With all that love, she never boring, or fluffy-bunny conjuring; she could be feisty, awkward, sweet, and all the while honest. She proved entertaining doesn't require ego on overdrive. When she didn't have a perfect quick fire challenge dish, I'd love hearing how she'd critique herself.

Some of her competitors would get good with the blame-throwing, but not Carla. I know the producers selectively edit and promote certain drama strains, but the fact that two of the last three contestants were spending so much time talking down each other, and focusing on beating each other, Carla's focus on her food stood out. Watching the sniping between Stefan and Hosea went from boring to annoying.

How refreshingly unique she is on television was underscored by the finale episodes. We need more people like her in the world. Now if more people could embody her attitude.

She can cook for me any time. I hope that her catering company, Alchemy Caterers, can take advantage of the Top Chef exposure. If I lived in the DC area, I'd definitely check them out.

So regardless of owning the official title, Carla Hall is a winner.

Garbage In Garbage Out: Why Dis eLearning?

Jennifer Brown — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:04:00 GMT

Rob Chapman’s "The e-learning diet: Not recommended for long term results" has caused a bit of a stir in the global eLearning community. This very polarized article makes a lot of assumptions, basically comparing eLearning to a candy bar, versus a nutritious dinner. It's more like apples to oranges when the real question is what fruit is best suited to the meal.

I have been doing knowledge & process technical writing for years, and have had, and run, a lot of online and instructor led training, and one rule is always true. Garbage In, Garbage Out. It's not the tools, it's how (and when) you use them that matter.

Instructor led training can be a real value add scenario. But only if the course and the instructor are high quality,and it's the best option for delivering the content. ILT should be reserved when a high quality trainer who really knows the material is needed to deliver content that is not effective in an online format.

My previous employer had a lot of instructional (ILT) and online training (OLT). I can tell you a lot of horror stories about both.

On the ILT, the highlights include trainers insisting on teaching clearly outdated and false information, students having to take over the class, "graduating" new hires who couldn't handle the most tasks, to dozens of hours wasted by me personally being in training that didn't teach me anything I already knew, when they weren't wasting my time flirting and joking and trying to impress the class with their superiority, with different information being delivered depending on who's facilitating the class. Let alone being trapped in a classroom with students with vastly different learning curves. And that's all within one organization.

On the OLT side, dozens of courses with the correct answer being wrong, or outdated, spelling errors, nearly incomprehensible content not geared to the learners, the objectives not clearly defined, too interactive, not interactive enough.

That's not to say I haven't had wonderfully effective trainers, and haven't experienced high quality online training. The point is, ILT and OLT are just two tools in the Learning and Development (L&D) tool box. Not all tools fit all needs. And not all tools can be used effectively and the right time. Has having to be in a classroom ever caused you problems on the job? It's happened to me more than once.

I can think of several scenarios that make eLearning a cost effective tool:

Confirmed Delivery. Have a message you need to share with your entire, global organization, and ensure they all get the message? Simply load the video or presentation on the LMS, and you can quickly run reports on completion.

Express Data Mining. That 200 question evaluation that 345 people in 5 countries must complete, that requires scoring as well as reports on individual results, as well as comparisons between roles, individuals, regions, and countries. Instead of two temps getting carpal tunnel recording the results, and having to tweak the results, a raw data report can be fed into a database and voila, it's done, no human errors in the recording, and ready to be massaged any way you want. And it's neatly stored to be pulled out next year for the annual evaluation.

No Waiting. Don't want to wait on having enough students to justify the time and expense of running classroom training? Put it online. Not all information requires an interpreter, and most OLT is available over the internet, so you don't even have to be in the office to take it, you can be at home in your pjs.

Consistent, Accessible Content. Many of us have to learn dry, boring stuff. But it's important to know. It can be mind numbing sometimes to be stuck in a classroom to learn it, only to forget it when you're back in the real world. OLT can remain online indefinitely, allowing students to access at need.

To make a long story short, one size does not fit all, and no learning tool suits every learning need.

Pimp My (Austin)Recruiter

Jennifer Brown — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:32:00 GMT

This is a shameless advertisement to help you help yourself and your friends. It's all about the powers of social media. And a good recruiter.

Vanessa is a recruiter. She's really good; it's not just about throwing bodies at the reqs. She looks beyond the obvious, and cares about making the right fit. She'll also tell you if it's not a good match for you. If not for her, I'd have been without a paycheck for the summer of 2007, in a job I'd've never thought of otherwise. I'm eternally grateful, as it was a very tough year.

Now she's gone on to impress me even further. She's following the spirit of Web2.0; thinking outside of conventional paradigms. Social media shouldn't be limited to the personal, but can easily be expanded to professional. Her twitter account is more than just a personal one. She's tweeting about open reqs she's trying to fill.

That means you can see if she's got something for you. And more importantly, it means you can reach out to her quickly if you fit the need. Fortune favors the prepared, folks. And in these uncertain times, you really need to be prepared.

In other words, you can have another tool to take advantage of opportunities as they become available. No waiting on phone calls, no searching job boards... it's as instantaneous as the 'net can be. It means those who are actively looking and following her get the instant news, and those who aren't can forward to their friends who are.

For those of you not familiar with twitter, it's a microblogging tool. You "tweet" a short something, which your followers can view. They may reply or retweet. Your tweets can link to Facebook, be updated and viewed from mobile device, and anywhere you can access the internet. This very blog has a bubble for current tweets. It's a grapevine at the speed of bytes.

So check her out on twitter under AustinRecruiter. If you see an alert about a position you want to know more about, her profile has a link to her LinkedIn account, where you can email her. Which is also smart, because she retains some privacy, and can view the profiles of those who are interested in the positions she posts, making it even more efficient.

Brava, Vanessa.