John & Jayne Stark Family

Back in December a member of our congregation donated 19 new HP computers along with LCD monitors to replace our aging Dell machines our staff uses. Because of this unique opportunity to set-up all our machines from scratch, we obtained the latest version of Microsoft Office 2007 and Symantec Ghost Solution 2.0 for all the machines. With Symantec Ghost Solution 2.0 we’ll be able to set-up one machine and clone it to all the others. Tomorrow we plan to see how it goes.
Our outsourced IT support is sending a guy over in the morning to help with getting things set-up and working. I’m hoping things go smoothly. A couple weekends ago a volunteer and I spent an afternoon loading up our master machine with software. Hopefully that work will payoff tomorrow.

Tonight I got all the machines started up and attached to our server. I was really amazed at how long it takes to simply unpack cables and hook 19 machines up. It does look impressive seeing it all at once.

I’m relatively new to IT work in an official capacity and know far more about the things I don’t know than the things I do.

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I’ve heard the word change tossed around all my life. This week it is everywhere. We want this to change. We want that to change. Changes means so many things to so many people I believe it is a matter of perception.
Heraclitus wrote over 2,000 years ago that:

Nothing endures but change.

The variant of this I grew up hearing all the time was:

The only constant in life is change.

Then again… I also remember that I’ve heard the opposite said many times as well.

Things will never change [but they typically do].

Life is all about change. The only thing I’ve ever known in life not to change is God. While my understanding of God has changed as I’ve grown up, God has been a rock on which I could depend upon. God doesn’t flip-flop on the issues. He doesn’t rewrite history to spin the truth of actual events. God just “is”. Despite how the winds may blow from one day to the next I can rest assured that no matter what each day will brings he’ll be with me each step of the way. How about you?

Filed under: Politics | 1 Comment »

I came across this blog that had the speech Fred Thompson gave a few days following 9/11.

Fred speaks from the heart and shows a deep understanding about the issues of those days. His tune hasn’t changed over the years since 9/11 regarding this war our country continues to fight.

If you haven’t seen Fred speak or checked him out then this is a great example of the kind of statesman and leader his is.

Thanks JammieWearingFool for sharing this!

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QAQNA: Whether you are an anonymous cog in the gears of a giant call center or you are self-employed working in your home office, it’s important to answer your phone well. By the time you finish greeting the customer, he or she has already made a judgment about you, what kind of mood you’re in, and how easy you’ll be to work with.

If you want to up the level and quality of your interactions with people on the telephone then you need to check out what Tom Vamder Well wrote. This simple bit of advice is so full of common since it is easy to forget.

Thanks Tom for referencing this post in your blog this week. This kind of advice goes along well with the other simple bit of advice I gained from a friend here at work… always greet people with a smile. Until she took the time to explain why smiling was important (similar to this post about the reason for the same ol’ greeting) and encouraging me to do it (since I wasn’t), I didn’t know any better. Now I do my best to always smile when meeting people (even in stores). It makes a huge difference like the simple things in life typically do.

About Tom: I now read all posts from Tom Vander Well’s blog QAQNA. Tom is partner and Vice-President of c wenger group, a consulting firm in Des Moines, Iowa that specializes in helping clients measure and improve customer service in their contact centers. I think he is pretty smart.

Filed under: Work | 1 Comment »