so, this is it.

I’m working for the first time in 2008.

What am I doing?

I started out the day by going to executive headquarters and powering on their conference equipment and putting it in a ready state.

One room was uncabled and a TV antenna had been hooked up. I guess maybe someone wanted to watch TV badly enough to bring their own antenna. NOT permitted.

I unhooked the antenna and recabled the system for it’s intended purpose, VIDEO CONFERENCING.

Drove from Executive HQ to my actual office. Yes, I drove to work today. I would have taken the bus, and hopefully will do so tomorrow, but I had some equipment that I had to return. Monday I had a doctor’s appointment (all good news, yay!) and I had a trouble spot near that medical building. So, on friday, I packed my car with the needed equipment and brought it with me so that on monday I could do the tests.

WHICH MEANS, today, wednesday, i had to take my car back to work to return the equipment I had used the previous work day.

My job involves a lot of shuttling STUFF around.

And so, today, I shuttled things to the office. When I arrived at my building, I took the equipment out of my car and put them in the van.

Then I went upstairs to the 3rd floor to my cube. I started my email and all other computer things…admired my GTD-style empty inbox. Well, it had one email in it. A survey about how my company is doing regarding diversity. In GTD style, I did the survey RIGHT THEN.

They asked some vague questions and then got really personal. No, I am not transgender. I feel secure in saying that.

Then had a long intense conversation with co-worker about politics, religion, euthanasia (one of his favorite topics) and suburban sprawl (another favorite).

During this long conversation I drank some wretched instant cofee..I have run out of the good instant coffe. I like the international coffees sometimes. You know, the kind that are powdered and sweet and milky? And I try to get sugar free and fat free, which reduces the yumminess. This one, the wretched one, it a generic brand of the reasonably yummy kind. I have NO IDEA what flavor it’s supposed to be.

“Cafe Vienna” it’s called. It is not chocolate. It doesn’t taste vanilla. Or hazelnut or cinnamon…I can’t really tell what vienna is supposed to taste like. If I go to vienna, I don’t think I will lick it to find out.

I should throw the can out. It is my emergency reserve. I should have bought something yummy, like mocha or french vanilla hazelnut.

But I had the indefinable beverage and a banana.

I scheduled a work trip to antelope valley for next week. Handled some personal business. Bought firepit I’ve been admiring. Asked my Credit union to fax me a release of lien on the broken car.

I started to check other people’s blogs, but then I thought I should write on my own!

hence this post.

I must go to Hollywood soon. I should have left already, but I am eating a rice and corn cake with a piece of soy cheese on it. MMMmm. When I am done with my little sandwich I will leave.

I am musing about all the things that are broken.

Oh yeah..I called our support contract people and asked them to send (again) the three tv monitors that were supposed to be here two weeks ago.

“They aren’t there yet?”

“No, the guy from shipping said he had to call you.”

“Why would he ask you to call me?”

“He didn’t. He said HE would call you.”

“oh. What was his name?”

“I dont’ remember.”

“Hmmm.”

“could you go ask them when or if the TVs are being shipped and send me an email with the status?”

“Okay.”

“Okay, Happy new year!”

“You too.”

I changed the battery in our clock which had gone dead. I realized I need to clean the microwave.

When I was first here, I resisted cleaning the ferociously dirty microwave for at least 6 months. I knew that if I cleaned it I would always clean it, and I didn’t want it to be my responsibility.

Responsibility. Like, the clock has needed the battery changed since last friday. YET! I am the one who changed it, today, Wednsday. There is a common saying, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” I modify that here at work. “If I want something done (at all), I have to do it myself.”

Anyway, the microwave. I resisted as long as I could, but at last, my daily soup or frozen entree lunch was halted because of the smell. I could put something I intended to eat in the microwave that smells like that. I had to clean it.

Since then, I have come to terms. I microwave something almost daily. The others microwave only a few times a month.

So, maybe it is my job to clean the microwave. Since I use it most. I choose to ignore that before I arrived, the microwave began as wretchedly filthy.

That’s my day so far. I have finished my rice cake. I should probably get to hollywood.

I wish you all a productive new year.

Okay people, pay attention!

yes, this means you.

My job title is Senior Videoconference Engineer

I work on video conferencing equipment. I also sometimes help with audio conferences, and with web conferences.

ALL of those things can be correctly called “teleconferences” and none of them may accurately be described so.

the prefix “tele-” refers to distance.

A telephone is a device that sends SOUND (phone) over DISTANCE (tele).

A television is a device that sends PICTURES (vision) over DISTANCE (tele). Televisions also send sound, but that was old technology by the time television was invented so it got ignored when naming the device.

So, a teleconference is a conference that takes place over distance.

If someone calls me and asks for help setting up a teleconference, I immediately must ask them a bunch of questions that (to them) appear stupid.

“Do you want to have a conference in which all the people dial into a phone and can speak to one another and hear each other throughout?”

or

“Do you want to have a conference in which all the people are sitting in a room looking at a TV that shows someone in another city?”

I sound like a kindergartner because I have been placed in a position of redefining terms EVERY TIME the word teleconference is uttered.

Those questions do sound stupid, but the stupid comes from the question. Just because a word has 5 syllables doesn’t mean it’s meant to be used or that it makes sense.

A phone conference is a clear accurate phrase. Even a “telephone conference” is okay to say. A “television conference” is a phrase that never gets uttered. A telephone goes both ways, meaning you can talk and the other person on the other end can talk and you can both hear each other, so it seems right to have a conference (a back and forth discussion) using a telephone. But a television is one way. You recieve the video (and the sound) but you never send. So a “television conference”, as far as I know, has never been used, and kinda doesn’t make sense because when you talk to a TV you really don’t expect it to talk back.

A “video conference” is the correct term. But because televisions and telephones are such common household items, AND because they both start with tele-…we in the business tend to call phone conferences AUDIO conferences. A whole other word can sometimes shock a L-user into rethinking what they are asking for, and when they have insisted (for the 5th time) that they want “a TELE conference” and we ask “An audio conference or a video conference?”…we use words that are not part of the television/telephone diad.

audio or video…take your pick

TELECONFERENCE, no
expunge this word from the dictionary. It is non-specific to the point of destruction.