TROOP REPORT: Bushfire Appeal - Poolrite Equipment

Friday, February 13th, 2009 | 501st, Work | 7 Comments

Date: Friday, 13th February, 2009

Venue: Poolrite Equipment, Queensland.

Time: 0900 - 1500

Mission: Collect Donations for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, Seek Out Rebels and enforce Imperial Order.

Detail:
The element of surprise was essential for this troop. I snuck into the building via the side entrance, while some Empire sympathisers created a diversion with Krispy Kreme Donuts. It took serious focus to avoid the box of fresh iced donuts…

Once I was suitably attired, I ventured forth to make my presence known to the locals. Many of the employees were shocked and excited to see me - most of whom cheerfully filled my collection tin with generous donations. Those that weren’t so generous were threatened or arrested.

At one point, it seemed the locals needed a little help. I aided their Warehousing and Sales departments, before fielding some IT Support calls. Their ‘Complaints Department’ has never been so efficient - or so quiet…

A few local businesses, upon hearing that I was in the neighbourhood, persuaded me to visit them by offering substantial donations to the cause. I was humbled and, for the first time in my life, left totally speachless.

I didn’t anticipate the overwhelming support and joy that I was met with. I still cant quite believe just how generous the public has been. Some of the folk today have been personally affected by the Bushfires - many of the staff have relatives and family members in the Bushfire area. They shared their stories with me, as they stuffed large amounts of money into my donation tin.

Today, I am proud to be an Australian Trooper. I am proud of the way this community have rallied around those less fortunate. I am proud, humbled, and awed to state that $24,596.80 was put in my tin for the victims of the Victoria Bushfires.

Even as I type out this brief mission report, donations are still being stuffed into my tin.

Trooper Attendance: TK 6232 “Moxxxie”

Injuries:Very few, for a change. Some minor armour bites to the left arm. May be worth shortening the left shoulder bell strap.

Malfunctions: My right hand guard fell off - twice. Will need to reinforce the velcro with some elastic strapping.

Public Incidents: A few vehicles showed their support by flashing their lights and honking their audible notification systems.

Mission Status:
An overwhelming success.

Tags: 501st, Bushfires, forklift, overwhelmed, stormtrooper, Work

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | 501st, Good Days, Work | 1 Comment

I’ve just posted a challenge to my work colleagues.

From: Jacqui
Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2009 12:06 PM
To: Head Office - All Staff
Subject: Stormtrooper?

Hi there guys,

Some of you may know of my terribly geeky passtime – I am a member of an international costuming group, called the “501st Legion”, and I willingly dress up as a Storm-trooper in order to raise money for charities. The Brisbane squad, the Redbacks, have been involved with several charities including the Variety Club, Starlight Foundation, Red Cross, Breast Cancer Foundation, MS Foundation, Ronald McDonald House. There are 29 of us here in Brisbane, and we’re all willing to sacrifice our weekends (and sometimes our dignity) for a good cause.

In addition to raising money for charities, we also visit our local hospitals – handing out gifts and smiles to sick kids. It’s rewarding, but often heartbreaking.

In any case, over the next few weeks, the 501st Legion in Australia will be doing a lot of work with the Red Cross, in order to raise money for the Victorian Bushfires.

I’m putting a challenge to all of you at Head Office.

If you can raise “AMOUNT” , then I’ll come to work on Friday dressed as a Stormtrooper.

Deal?

The generosity of my friends astounds me, and at moments like this I’m proud to be an Australian. Despite the hardships, the core of our society is mateship and to help somebody in need. The outpouring of generosity and support for the victims of the Victorian Bushfire is unprecedented - but for me, not entirely surprising. We’re Australian. This is who we are.

It’s now 1.06pm, merely an hour after posting that, and I’ve doubled my challenge amount. I’m going to work on Friday dressed as a stormtrooper.

I’ll post photos, and the final amount raised after the dust settles on Friday.

Tags: Bushfires, challenge

Great day

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 | Good Days, Work | 2 Comments

Today is an amazing day.

After months and months and MONTHS of hard slog, my project got approved. It got APPROVED!!! *airplanes around the room with her shirt over her head*

I feel like I just hit a home-run, swam the English Channel, and kicked the match winning goal all in one day. Which is to say, I feel totally exhilarated and knackered all at once.

This means, of course, that this is only just the beginning. From this point on, my life gets busier and more stressful - but BRING IT ON!

I have this poem on my wall… and today, I feel like a Misfit Troublemaker.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The Misfits.
The Rebels.
The Troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you cant do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
they push the human race forward.
and while some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

Tags: crazy ones, great day, misfits, troublemakers, Work

Blow me down with a feather!

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | Good Days, Work | 1 Comment

Some of you may know about my issues that I have at work. Some of you may recall a particular issue involving a personality clash that has been ongoing for well over a year. This was the personality clash that drove me to the point of NEEDING A DONUT to help my anger management issues.

In any case, I almost fell out of my chair this morning when I solved one of my collegues problems and they said thank you. THANK YOU!!!

They thanked me!

Blow me down with a feather - the world has just turned upside down!!

Tags: anger management, donut, Work

Dont die wondering

Thursday, June 28th, 2007 | Good Days, Idiocy, Insanity, Work | No Comments

I’ve spoken before about the personality traits that run through my family. When my mother and father look at me, they dont have to ponder at length on where I get my tenacity, stubborness and smart mouth from. Along with these traits, my rather generous genes have provided me with fair skin (carcinoma, thank you so very bloody much), blue eyes (glaucoma) and strong healthy bones (read: heavy frame and fat ass). I cant wait to have children so I can pass all of this hereditary bullshit on to another generation!

In any case, of all of my brothers and sisters, I am one of the few who hasn’t jumped in with both feet. Am I ready for the plunge?

Ahhh, bugger it! I’ll let you know what the water is like.

Dont die wondering.

I love my job - Jasjam vs Treo750

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 | Doyle Reviews, Geeking, Work | No Comments

As part of my job as IT Manager, I get to play with some cool toys.

Like many companies, we have several road-warriors in our company that rarely see their desk from day to day. These cowboys are rarely tech-savvy, so that’s where I need to step in and tell them what’s what.

Today, I need to compare and contrast the joys and frustrations of an iMate Jasjam vs a Palm Treo 750.

Now, both of these little devices run Windows Mobile 5.0, and have GPRS and 3G. This means that they can be configured to run Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync with DirectPush. The Good Mobile service can also be configured to run on both devices, however we currently prefer to stick with the standard Microsoft platform. Additionally, both have touch-screens and a full qwerty keypad.

We’ve got a few of the iMate Jasjams in our fleet already (Listen to me! Mobile Fleet! Yessir, Wing Commander!) - to begin with, we had nothing but problems. We’ve had busted batteries, busted microphones, busted antenna’s and synchronisation issues all the time - overall, the initial build quality was really rather poor.

iMate and Telstra put their heads together and came up with a firmware update that solved most of the problems. After we returned the faulty battery (which was covered with iMate’s fantastic 2 year hardware warrenty) we’ve had fair weather sailing all the way. I have to commend iMate for their great product support.

In fact, the only issue we’ve had with the device is a few cases of mobile phone envy - “Can I have a Jasjam, too??”

Now there’s a new kid on the block in terms of WM5.0 and DirectPush technology. I’ve been told by a reliable source that the Treo 750 is the business. Actually, I was told that this was the device that would leave the Jasjam for dust. Wonderfully, Palm has given us a 14 day trial of the new 750, so that we can have a look at how this new gadget ticks.

My initial impressions were something along the lines of

“Ooooh… it feels so nice in my hand. Like my hand was designed to hold the 750…”

And it does feel nice to hold. My impression of the Treo is that it has far superior build quality when compared to the Jasjam, but that could be in part to the fact that the Jasjam has the slidey keypad bit that gives slightly.

Now, the iMate’s screen is 45×60mm in size, wherease the 750’s screen looks marginally smaller at 47×47mm. Of course, the resolution on the iMate is higher, but both devices have the option to increase/decrease the font size to suit the eyesight of the user.

Now, one other distiguishing feature of the 750 is the front facing qwerty keyboard. This is much like the blackberry style of data entry, however I find that the buttons are way to small for my blunt club-like fingers to push. The iMate, however, has a nifty slide-out keypad with keys that are large enough for any man-ape to use. What’s more, as soon as you slide the iMate’s keypad out, the screen flicks to landscape mode, so that you’re not trying to type all wonky.