My head might explode!
It's crunch time - less than 3 weeks until our TAP Kickoff Training Session. Crazy. The next few weeks are going to go by in a blur of activity, making sure every last detail is set and things happen according to plan. Kind of reminds me of my wedding, only somehow there's more pressure here. I guess I just wasn't that hyped up about my wedding being *perfect*, but I really, really, want this Kickoff to go without a hitch. I guess I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to work-related stuff. That's a whole 'nuther discussion in itself...
Oh, and I started school again. Not just a class, ladies and gentlemen, but an actual Degree Program. A B.S. in Computer and Software Systems, to be more exact. What I should have done when I first went to college, but was too intimidated by the guys who spent 24/7 in the Unix lab. (Am I allowed to say Unix here?) So in just 75 credits, I can get a 2nd B.S. degree. At one class per quarter, I'll be done in 2009. Ha ha. Seems like a lifetime away. I'm going to try to get up the courage to take two classes per quarter once the next version of Speech Server releases. Anyway, the first class I'm taking, Technical Writing, meets on Saturday mornings for four hours (!) which is painful, but less so than having to leave work early during the week. So now I'm juggling the next couple of crazy-TAP-Kickoff-Planning weeks with getting my homework and reading done for the class. Hopefully my husband will still remember who I am next month! But in all seriousness, I'm thrilled to be in this program at UW, it's geared towards working professionals, and most of the class material seems like practical stuff I can actually use. Oh, and Microsoft is paying for the tuition and books, so all I have to invest is my brain and time. Sweet!
I went back to Bldg 20 last week to learn how to use their video-capture system. Grant, one of the Lab Managers, actually built this thing himself, and it's great. I can record the audio for the presentation and the image of the Powerpoint slides, and then compress/edit the digital file later. It uses Windows Media Encoder, which I haven't really worked with, but seems easy enough to deal with. We won't get video of the person talking, but I'm not too worried about that. Folks watching the video will just have to imagine how cute we are [;)].
I'm working with Monica, who works on a lot of the event planning for our team. She's got some really great ideas for the evening social events, which we're finalizing this week. I'm really looking forward to the events, and I know my team will be super excited as well. Hopefully our attendees will enjoy them.
Tomorrow, just for about 5 minutes, I get to be an honorary software tester. I am responsible for ensuring the CDs we burned of Visual Studio 2005 are the right edition, and install properly. I did this a few days ago and it turned out we got the wrong edition from the VS team, so I guess that means I found my first "bug", too. Though it's not super technical, it's a different sort of activity, and a welcome change to my usual responsibilities.
Oh, and I spent a good part of the day tracking down how to get SP1 for Win2003 on CD. Thanks to a friend on the Windows Sustained Engineering team, where I used to work, I got exactly what I needed. Sometimes at a big company, the best way to get information is through the people you know. I guess that shouldn't surprise me anymore!
