Summer '08 Greetings

Hello, dear readers. The family and I have spent the last couple of weeks celebrating mid-summer (yes; I know it's only a couple weeks old, and that we have two and a half months to go.. just seems like it's been here awhile now, what with temps in the midwest reaching the 90s so frequently).

I haven't written much on the presidential race (or other contests); mostly because I haven't felt really qualified to speak on many of the topics of debate. But you know what? I am as qualified as any citizen (more than some perhaps; less than others), so I'm going to open up my mouth and allow some of the hot air to escape.

This is not really open for debate: this is my blog, and if you don't like what I write, you're welcome to ... well, I guess, stop reading. But I'd rather you tell me what I've missed in my argument. Why is it that you believe I'm off base? Do your best to change my mind. Let's see what happens.

First, gay marriage. Wait: no; back up. Homosexuality is not gay. It's homosexuality. To me, because I'm a child of the 50s and 60s, gay means "lighthearted and carefree." It does not mean "light in the loafers." There's a debate about whether homosexuality is a characteristic from birth, or a learned/acquired behavior. For purposes of my discussion here, it doesn't matter: the operative word when discussing homosexuals is "practicing." Even if the desire is innate, acting on that desire is still an abomination to the Creator of the universe. If you want any chance to see that Person (I believe He embodies characteristics of both male and female, which is why leaving your parents and cleaving unto a person of the opposite sex is so crucial: we're made in his image, so if we're with someone of the same sex, we're not following His plan), you'll have to make a conscious decision to accept His terms for that opportunity to be presented. If you refuse and follow your own terms, well, you're on your own.

Okay: back to homosexual marriage: Not for it; in fact, adamantly and vehemently against (but you're a smart reader; after all: look what you decided to read! So I bet you've guessed my opinion already). I have no objection to a male and female engaging in holy matrimony, but when two males or two females decide to exchange vows, it isn't holy any more. It's abominable. And not only for reasons already stated. (See the previous paragraph:we're made in the Creator's image. Check Genesis: "Let Us make Man in our image" and "Male and Female created He them." So if George and Gary get together, it isn't representing God.) But also because it flies in the face of every established law. Contrary to popular belief, the Constitution is not a "living document." (I genuinely abhor that phrase.) It is amended from time to time to correct errors (women's right to vote, for example) and increase our understanding. But it is not open to be interpreted by those who would have it say something other than what it clearly says.

Ah, I'm off track. What Constitutional law covers marriage, anyway? Can anyone tell me? I can think of nothing, yet people always are harping on their Constitutional right to marry anyone they want. But if you bring up the Bible, the definitive work on marriage, people say, “Don’t preach your religion to me.” And in the next breath, it’s “we should be tolerant of other people’s religions.”

Yes, yes; I've rambled on and on and...

So now we're up against two candidates: a pro-life candidate and a pro-choice candidate. One who thinks it's OK the government to step into my pocketbook at the point of a gun and take what I've earned so that another can benefit, and one who... well, one who doesn't think that as much. We have no candidate who thinks the government has no business dealing in health care, in the mortgage industry, in education. Me? I think the government is here to make sure each person minds his or her own business, doesn't interfere in someone else's rights, and defends us against foreign enemies. Now you know why I will never win public office: if the politician robs Peter to pay Paul, he'll always have the support of Paul. So I'll never have Paul's support.

Jeez I've gone on so long I should just cut this off and come back another time to finish. 

I'll write more later.

Create a Business Continuity Plan - wikiHow

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is the least expensive insurance any company can have (especially for small companies, as it costs virtually nothing to produce). Unfortunately, many companies have never taken the time to develop such a plan.
Here you will see suggested steps and considerations, in an abbreviated way, for small companies to create a BCP that will improve their chances of continuing operations during or after significant disasters. Development of a BCP for larger companies is not within the scope of this document.
Business Continuity Plans are sometimes referred to as Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP) and the two have much in common. However a DRP should be oriented towards recovering after a disaster whereas a BCP shows how to continue doing business until recovery is accomplished. Both are very important and are often combined into a single document for convenience.

Steps

1. Document internal key personnel and backups. These are people who fill positions without which your business absolutely cannot function – make the list as large as necessary but as small as possible. Consider which job functions are critically necessary, every day. Think about who fills those positions when the primary job-holder is on vacation. Make a list of all those individuals with all contact information including business phone, home phone, cell phone, pager, business email, personal email, and any other possible way of contacting them in an emergency situation where normal communications might be unavailable.
   
2. Identify who can telecommute. Some people in your company might be perfectly capable of conducting business from a home office. Find out who can and who cannot. You might consider assuring that your critical staff (identified in Step 1) can all telecommute if necessary.
   
3. Document external contacts. If you have critical vendors or contractors, build a special contact list that includes a description of the company (or individual) and any other absolutely critical information about them including key personnel contact information. Include in your list people like attorneys, bankers, IT consultants...anyone that you might need to call to assist with various operational issues. Don’t forget utility companies, municipal and community offices (police, fire, water, hospitals) and the post office!
   
4. Document critical equipment. Personal computers often contain critical information (you do have off-site backups, don’t you?). Some businesses cannot function even for a few hours without a FAX machine. Do you rely heavily on your copy machine? Do you have special printers you absolutely must have? Don’t forget software – that would often be considered critical equipment especially if it is specialized software or if it cannot be replaced.
   
5. Identify critical documents. Articles of incorporation and other legal papers, utility bills, banking information, critical HR documents, building lease papers, tax returns...you need to have everything available that would be necessary to start your business over again. Remember, you might be dealing with a total facility loss. Would you know when to pay the loan on your company vehicles? To whom do you send payment for your email services?
   
6. Identify contingency equipment options. If your company uses trucks, and it is possible the trucks might be damaged in a building fire, where would you rent trucks? Where would you rent computers? Can you use a business service outlet for copies, fax, printing, and other critical functions?
   
7. Identify your contingency location. This is the place you will conduct business while your primary offices are unavailable. It could be a hotel – many of them have very well equipped business facilities you can use. It might be one of your contractors’ offices, or your attorney’s office. Perhaps telecommuting for everyone is a viable option. Wherever it is, make sure you have all the appropriate contact information (including people’s names). If you do have an identified temporary location, include a map in your BCP.
   
8. Make a "How-to". It should include step-by-step instructions on what to do, who should do it, and how. List each responsibility and write down the name of the person assigned to it. Also, do the reverse: For each person, list the responsibilities. That way, if you want to know "who is supposed to call the insurance company?" you can look up "Insurance". And if you want to know what Joe Doe is doing, you can look under Joe for that information.
   
9. Put the information together! A BCP is useless if all the information is scattered about in different places. A BCP is a reference document – it should all be kept together in something like a 3-ring binder. Make plenty of copies and give one to each of your key personnel. Keep several extra copies at an off-site location, at home and/or in a safety-deposit box.
   
10. Communicate. Make sure everyone in your company knows the BCP. Hold training classes – mandatory training classes – for each and every employee whether they are on the critical list or not. You do not want your non-critical staff driving through an ice storm to get to a building that has been damaged by fire then wondering what to do next.
    
11. Test the plan! You’ve put really good ideas down, accumulated all your information, identified contingency locations, put your personnel list in place, contacts, service companies, but can you pull it off? One thing you will definitely learn in the test is that you haven’t gotten it all just exactly right. Don’t wait until disaster strikes to figure out what you should do differently next time. Run the test. If you make any major changes, run it again a few months later. Even after you have a solid plan, you should test it annually. Pick a day – let everyone know what’s going to happen (including your customers, contractors and vendors) then on that morning, act as though your office building has been destroyed. Make the calls – go to the contingency site.
    
12. Plan to change the plan. No matter how good your plan is, and no matter how smoothly your test runs, it is likely there will be events outside your plan. The hotel you plan to use for your contingency site is hosting a huge convention. You can’t get into the bank because the disaster happened on a banking holiday. The power is out in your house. The copy machine at the business services company is broken. Your IT consultant is on vacation.
    
13. Review and revise. Every time something changes, update all copies of your BCP. Never let it get out of date. An out-of-date plan can be worse than useless: it can make you feel safe when you are definitely not safe.
    

Tips

• All critical personnel should keep a copy. It's not a bad idea to keep one in your car.
  
• Prepaid cell phones are an inexpensive option for emergency communications.In some disasters cell phones don't work so considering a satellite communications system may protect your ability to communicate.
  
• The binder you use for your BCP should be very distinctive – bright, neon orange is a good color.
  
• Keep your BCP out and visible so everyone sees it frequently – that way the idea of business continuity will stay on everyone’s mind.
  
• Have a weather plan for your employees with a number they can call to get an update on conditions. Look into some of the new Internet phone services with a voice mail message.
  

Warnings

• Do not rely on a fireproof safe to store your computer media. Fireproof safes are designed for paper; a CD, DVD, floppy disk or a magnetic tape will melt. Get a media safe for those items. Better yet, store data off site!
  
• Do not make pirated copies of important software. Even if you can do that (often you cannot) they might not work, and you could create serious legal problems for yourself. Contact your software vendor if you don’t understand your options.
  
• Do not distribute your plan to people that don't need to have it. Your plan will contain sensitive and secure information that could be used by a disgruntled employee for inappropriate purposes.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Develop a Risk Management Plan
  
• How to Prepare to File an Insurance Claim in the Event of Disaster
  
• How to Make a Disaster Plan for Your Family
  
• How to Be an Effective Project Manager
  
• How to Create a Business Plan
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Create a Business Continuity Plan. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Home Organization

OK: I said in my previous post that I had info on home organization.

I'll start with a bit of history - the "back story."

When Katy and I got married, I moved into her house, a 2 bedroom, 1 bath bungalow in south Minneapolis. About 820 sq ft, unfinished basement, detached 1-car garage, fenced back yard. We did a few small improvements and maintenance items (rain gutter, roof repair, ceiling repair, floor varnishing, things like that), then we sold the place and bought a house in Brooklyn Park with more than double the finished square footage, and tons of storage. Over the years, we acquired more furniture and stuff, and when we moved again, we were overwhelmed with the stuff we had to pack and move! But no worries: we were moving into a larger house! Right? WRONG! Though it had more finished square footage, it had tons LESS storage - and we were splitting at the seams.

So, we had to move AGAIN, to a house with more storage and more square footage. But even so, it still had lots LESS storage than our Brooklyn Park property. That's where we are now, and we've been there almost two years - and still haven't unpacked a lot of stuff because there isn't any place to put it.

OK: enter a home organizer we invited over (whose name and company website we're not sharing, because she was extremely confrontational and it was not a pleasant experience), who shared a few high level ideas and dropped the name IKEA.

So we visited the local IKEA store and browsed...and bought. So far in the past month, I'd estimate we've spent close to a grand there, but the storage space it's bought us is...well, Katy half-jokingly said it would "save our marriage." (At least I THINK it was half joking...)

In the sun room we moved games and toys off a Target storage shelf (designed more with the garage in mind) and onto a piece of furniture...with more shelf space. In fact, we purchased a few items where the kids could put their clothes, where we could put our tapes, CDs, DVDs, books, our other books, the rest of our books, and our remaining books.

I posted an "after" photo (sorry; I wasn't thinking far enough ahead to include "before" photo) of the sun room storage (more photos in later posts). Admittedly we have a ways to go - but if you knew where we'd been, you'd congratulate our progress!

What's the point of this post? Jeez: if you're struggling to find stuff, or struggling to find places to put your stuff, or both, turn loose of some dough and make a few storage changes in your house. It's calmer here now. Really!

Good luck, and blessings.

Contract Update

Well, here we are about halfway through the six-month contract at Aviva Life Insurance and Annuity in Des Moines. Seems to me like I've been able to get a lot done in the first three months, but there certainly is lots left to do!

Not sure what the company's plan is for this position: don't know if they're going to bring me on full time or extend the contract, or if they'll decide they can get along without a Change Manager - or with me.

For my part, I hope they decide the role is required and that I'm fulfilling it well - I think I am doing fairly well in it, and I'm learning a ton!

The downside, of course, is the commute - driving down here Sunday night, sleeping alone in the apartment each night, driving back Thursday night and working from home Friday after work is starting to take a toll on me. Mostly because I lose essentially two evenings a week due to the 7-hr round trip.

The iPod is invaluable to the commute - updating it on iTunes, then plugging it into the car-charger/FM transmitter to listen to podcasts and music over an unused FM frequency seems essential to my well-being and all-around sanity. Katy suggested I use her iPod, but then it would be out of her hands the whole time I'm in DSM. And then I received one of my own in a manner I would never have imagined.

More later - I have a great post on organizing the home!

TTFN

The ITIL experience

Ever since starting at my new employer in Des Moines, I've learned just exactly how much I have to learn. Well actually, I can't say that. Because I'm sure I don't yet know how much I have to learn. I'll just say I've learned how much I don't know. Hmmm. Guess I can't say that either, because it's simply restating the previous....

I've just learned that I have a lot to learn! How about that?

I think I'm pretty good with the process analysis, but only mentally - for some strange reason, they want what I know in my head to be reduced to writing! Now I'm a pretty good writer, but if you ask me, I could use a little help. Like when I was asked to document the Change Management process and put it into an SOP format, for example.

I know the ITIL process; I know what has to happen with a Change from initial request, through the approval, through deployment, through closure. I know what has to be documented for testing, validation and back-out. I know if the change fails it has to trigger a post-implementation review, and that if it's cancelled it isn't necessarily a failed request.I know that the requester can't approve the change. I know the developer can't push to production. I know the tool has to be configured so that people can't make material modifications to their requests after submitting them for approval. I know there has to be some sort of infrastructure discovery component associated with the Change Management system, else changes will be deployed without an associated RFC.

But to put all that stuff into an SOP document?? Daunting, to say the least. After it was all said and done, the SOP doc I submitted was 29 pages!

Sheesh! I didn't think I had it in me!

See ya.

In Des Moines

Well, things have taken a turn for the better. At least for the employment...

I received an offer a few weeks ago for a position in our neighboring state to the south. Yes, it's a three hour drive south of our home, but it's a job. They agreed to pay not only the same salary I was getting downtown at home, but to pay a per diem sufficient to cover transportation, meals and lodging during the week. So after Katy and I drove down with the kids and scoped out the town during the 2nd weekend in Feb, I started at Aviva Insurance the following week and am staying at an apartment during the week. Nice for me; really a busy time of it for Katy though: she has the kids all day every day.

We found a camera on eBay and bought it -- advertised as excellent condition with many of the accessories we already have, but nice to have backups, I guess. Very good price, and the same model as the one we (I) lost, so it'll fit in the cradle without any modifications.

Just got off the phone with the family, and things seem to be going well. I was able to get approval from my boss to leave early on Fridays so that I can drive home to MN and be home by 3 or so. So looking forward to more time with the family.

More to follow soon.

Employment

Well, nuts (and no, that's not what I really want to write)!

Just got a call from UHG regarding a position they offered to me last week. The salary they offered last week was 7.5% less than my last permanent position, and 14.5% less than my last contract position. I asked for a 3.75% increase in the salary component, all other things remaining equal.

They didn't call Monday, so I left a message on Tuesday asking for them to call. They didn't call Tuesday, so I left another message for them today asking for a call. They called at 5:10 PM to advise they were withdrawing the offer!

And I got a call earlier today from an agency in TX advising that they had nothing definitive to tell me about an offer extended by a company in Oklahoma City over two months ago. They could not definitively say even that the offer had dissolved -- only that it wasn't yet in writing.

So although I've had lots and lots of great interviews, I have no real possibilities on the table and it is frustrating - and scaring - the snot out of me! We've done a pretty good job of using a lot of our overdraft protection, so I'm going to have to transfer that balance to a lower-interest credit card in order to stay afloat. We should be good for a couple of months before we'd have to start making emergency withdrawals from our retirement savings (401k).

So here are some lessons for you, readers: number 1, and most important, because this is what got me into this situation in the first place: do not, I repeat, DO NOT ever resign from a position without first signing a contract to take another position as of a specific date.

Secondly, take recommendations in job searching guides regarding negotiating salary with a huge grain of salt. The offer I got last week was 7.5% lower than my last permanent position, and over 14% lower than my last contract position, and I asked them to increase only the salary by 3.75%. They withdrew the offer rather than discuss it.

So keep praying for us. We need and covet your prayers.

Best regards,
P

Hi there. Happy New Year.

Kids and I went to California for a few days last week, mostly to visit family but I was able to sneak in a couple business calls while there.

Had a great time -- till the day we flew home and I lost my camera on BART. If you find it, I'm offering a reward. It's a Kodak DX7630 with a 512MB card in it. Had all of the photos of the week including my son playing piano with my mom, a family reunion with 24 people attending, Jelly Belly factory tour, etc.

I subscribe to a daily reminder service called Simpleology. They've asked me to include the following on my post; here it is for your review:

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Hope all is well; I haven't had much time to blog as I've been beating the bushes trying to drum up business. I'll keep you posted on developments.

Blessings to all.

P