Projects

Contrary to popular belief, I am a creative person with a lot going on.
Sorry if this shatters your image of me.
I'll do that now and again.
This shows what I am working on that may be of interest.

I'm reading books... books about stuff.

Lots and lots of work with training. Creating sample DB's. Meetings with management team. Conference calls with training coordinators. All sorts of stuff. The culmination of which is me flying out to Chicago June 24th to June 26th to personally oversee the Chicago training class and make sure it goes off correctly.

June Tech Tip is done. Recurring appointments.

Reviewing the F1 Help Menu at work for the new build of the software.

The May Tech Tip is out. Anyone want to know how to pull demographic info out of our program?

Consolidating documentation at work. Every single Sales and Tech document we got. Plus, cleaning my cubicle up. And I am going to be learning some of our server side applications for credit card processing and faxing. And of course escalated lunatics.

Random song ideas...I wish stuff would congeal into something more solid.

You won't believe what I go through just to get a damn CD burner to work!

The winner of April's Employee Recognition award is...

John

Congratulations John! As a thanks for all of your hard work, you will receive a $25 American Express Gift Check.

And congratulations to ALL of the nominees this month. Your co-workers thank all of you for all of your hard work - all of your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks to everyone who voted. Keep the nominations coming for next month!

Adding more dynamic stuff to the page. Did you notice the guest book? New ads for band members are out there. Re-wrote 3 year old technical documents for the Tech Tip at work. More lyrics and riffs. New workout regimen. Trying to make a plan to get out on the scene and be social more often.

TRYING to do a lot with the site that you can't see. But there's a few obstacles to say the least. Just keep looking. Working on improving my singing voice (Steve says it improved). Playing with music software. More new (?) riffs & yet another new way of songwriting with Steve. Randomly recording vocal lines. Essentially being assistant manager at work. Setting up new software. Working with training classes. Surveys and such. Teaching family how to IM. New band member ads. Scheduling all my summer concerts.

The demo insert is done. Been working on Step By Step Guides Lessons 1 & 2. Also reworking as old Jaias riff with some new changes. I have been playing around with more lyric writing and working on my singing.

More riffs. A lyric here and there. Who wants to see?

I'm writing a little thing to insert into everyone of our demo CD packages. So that people will know how to install the software and get it up and running. Also working on streamlining the processes of the Sales Dept.

Apparently in May sometime I will attending a symposium for some group of therapists. If you don't know what symposium means look it up. But I will be there in a suit.

Rehersal spaces? 16 year old drummers? Random trips to Mars? Sing alongs in the truck? Also, more of the same. Lyrics and riffs. I'm been learning some extremely simple Savatage riffs and also studying Zakk Wylde's Guitar World column. And a step by step guide to demoing my company's software with the sample info already built inside is almost done.

More Tech Tips... 2 training documents...Point person for the Q&A session after the February training courses...assorted riffs & lyrics...and something called "Every Little Thing".

Been planning to take a trip.

Been tinkering with new workouts. Nothing etched in stone just yet.

The Sales Dept. has moved into the back of the office. My cubicle is bigger than ever before, in a nice little corner where I have my privacy. I guess this is more befitting the "Technical Advisor to Sales". I will be working on more documentation and I also have another new Sales associate to train come Jan. 28th.

I have been editing video like mad. In a variety of ways. And getting ready to push it to a whole other medium.

Steve and I have once again been evolving our sound. And I have been playing with lyrics. A few tunes have been basically completed. Now it's just finding someone to sing, and play bass and drums. I've been scanning the local classifieds and not finding much. Ho hum...

I have been learning a lot about the finer points of "presentation" at work. How you say things and how you don't. But an interesting parallel to this is also learning where so many human beings are just plain ol' lacking in quality.

Been giving myself lots o' Brain Food (reading and such). And the first Jaias Jam in a few months due to scheduling conflicts. Steve and I came up with a few things. Not the least of which being "Pistaschio Moves". Quite an exercise.

I was a resource to stop in and attend/observe the Therapist Helper training classes. I did a breif question & answer session, and gave them some supplimental resources. They'll be in touch if they need me. This ties right in with some of the complaint calls I have been fielding at work. They get escaleted to me. Yes folks, John is customer friendly!

Even more riffs. Some ballad type stuff, melodic punk rock bass lines, and addendums to old material that gives it a swerve. A song title? Accidental Irony.

Apparently I will now be responsible for writing the monthly Tech Tip for the email newsletter at work. From a sporatic thing, I have now been called to a permanent position.

More general musical stuffs... And possibly some band-type changes in the future.

Looks like I have a hand in writing another Tech Tip for the Therapist Helper email newsletter. This one is about filtering the data within the programs views. It should go out in the November Newsletter on or about the 26th.

Looks like a will be doing phone training for a class of 20 people or so in Puerto Rico on Therapist Helper. There are perks to being Technical Advisor to Sales.

I recently created a mock infomercial starring my mom for MATV certification. I also worked video swticher for a producer profile. Expect to see both on the channel soon.

I am authoring the "Technical Advisory Newsletter" weekly because as the Technical Advisor to Sales sit in on the Technical Support meetings and relay relevant info directly to the Sales staff.

Rave Reviews for my video taping of my cousins wedding. Not only could I do wedding on the side, but my house is a duplication factory now.

Would you come to a computer class taught by me?

Anybody wanna make a movie?

More TV workshops, more lyrics & riffs, more software...more things...

Designing the training program for the new Therapist Helper Sales staff.

Production Workshop Imminent at MATV.

Chris & Jim with their little wrestling things have me involved in many areas. Creative Development, Camera, & Commentary.

New newsletter at work detailing highlights from Tech Support meetings that are relevant to Sales. Caught the eye & compliments of the Regional Manager.

CD Burner works now... What do you want?

More riffs, more lyrics... How do I remember them all?

I will soon be implementing a new way to designate just who gets what lead in the Sales Department. Seems that keep track on little slips of paper might not cut it anymore? What happens if you lose your slip of paper? Go ahead and ask me. I know. Soon we'll have a way to hopefully make it all fair and even and a lot easier to keep track of. Anyone know anything about graphs and grids and stuff?

Hmmm.... just the other day lyrics popped in my head that fit with a melody from 1999...who knew?

More developments on the songwriting front. Another couple hours of fiddling yielding more development in the song structure department. The really nice part is the variety of stylistic nuances in the material. Exactly where I want to go.

After about 22 months being a Tech Rep I have decided to move on. My company has creeated a position especially for me. I am the Technical Sales Coordinator or some such. To be honest, the job's title is not defined yet. I have yet to make it up. But the idea is that I will be working out of the Sales Department from now on, but still maintaining an active footing in Tech Support. It a great situation. I'm going to be learning the in's and out's of Sales while also providing ongoing training and documentation resources for both the Technical Support and Sales departments. I will also be liasoning with both departments and Shipping. I will be doing a lot of things... A lot of it is still being defined... Check in with me to see what's up!

Nothing horribly new to report so far...even more new short story ideas developing and the skeletal structures of songs. Writing random lyrics and riffs. Life has chosen to fill me full of experiences lately and also drudge up some memories and emotions and thus it is all manifesting itself creatively. Actually, I have also had the random desire to do more in the visual medium as well. I really liked how some of my recent videos and photographs came out. And someone recently suggested I get into acting. More to come on all fronts I guess. It will be interesting to see which ideas end up manifesting themselves in combination with which people.

Hmm...I must be damn good at my job! Check this out. This is a letter I got at work the other day:

Dear John,

My office manager, Nancy Yang, and I would to thank you again for your help reinstalling Therapist Helper, the upgrade, and transferring the data from the backup after our hard drive was replaced. Your patience was remarkable. I think both of us learned some of the reasoning behind the difficulties as well as how to resolve them.

I purchased Therapist Helper back in the early years when Dr. Brand was answering the phone, so I've had lots of experience with Technical Support and you have all been consistently helpful. Thanks again

Sincerely,
Patricia C. Forman Ph. D.
Licensed Psychologist

Watch out... lyrical ideas a flowin!

I have another short story in the works... So far it's dark. Very dark. We'll see what happens.

Looky looky...once again it seems I'm good at my job...

Hey Everyone!

If you haven't had a chance yet, please check out the June metrics on our bulletin board. Congratulations on a job well done to Joyce Blaho, with 384 calls (that's ten more calls than she took last month!), as well as to John Bruder and David Hanna. John came in a very close second to Joyce, with 362 calls. Special thanks to David, as his contributions this month far surpassed his 'rookie' status. It's great to see all three of you working so hard - we all appreciate your efforts. We do have room for improvement in July, however, as our average answer time for the department has dropped noticeably to nearly 3 minutes. Everyone please focus this month on staying off release whenever possible - especially during the critical lunch times. Once again - super job everyone, let's have a great July and a great summer!

Dan

Me? A tech writer? Who knows? But I do know that I wrote the brand spankin' new Therapist Helper Backups tutorial. The rave reviews would seem to indicate we have a hit on our hands!

I updated my resume! Yippee!

Ya know...there's tons of programs I bought but never used...into the laboratory for me!

I've been lending my camera talents to a few wrestling leagues in the area. Problem is, they aren't used to having cameras around so they don't like to tell me what is going to happen when and random people have a habit of just walking in front of or standing in front of the camera. Oh well.

I've been thinking about classes. At a local college on the side... Ideas?

Me? Heading up the Tech Dept weekly meeting? Well, GOLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Check out this email that went around my company...

Hey everyone -

The March ACD statistics are now posted on the bulletin board. Congrats and thanks to John Bruder for an outstanding month, finishing out tops in the department with 415 calls and an average call length of only 614 seconds!!! Nice work, John! Steve Reed ranked second with 369 calls... Keep up the great work!

Dan

I'M PUBLISHED!!!!! Back in December I made a contribution to my company's newsletter. This newsletter was sent out via email to about 10,000 of our users around the world. Needless to say I'm proud. So take a quick read if you would like. Mine is the Tech Tip...

Therapist Helper December Newsletter

Table of Contents
1. Tech Tips
2. "10/2" Program - Earn 12 Months Maintenance Free!
3. Pilot User Group in Boston
4. Year End Tax Purchasing

1. TECH TIPS FOR THERAPIST HELPER

DOUBLE CLICKS OFFER QUICK SHORTCUTS

Many of the common functions in Therapist Helper can be more quickly and easily navigated with a few strategic double-clicks. Familiarize yourself with these options and you can greatly reduce the time and effort used to complete tasks in Therapist Helper.

Here are some places in version 5.31 where you can use double-clicking to save time and keystrokes:

* If you double click on a name in the patient list screen it will open that patient's facesheet.

* If you double click on an entry in the transactions ledger it will give you a quick edit window for that entry.

* If you double click on a session date in the billing ledger it will open that session for editing.

* If you double click on a field that has an ellipsis at the end of it anywhere in the program it will open the corresponding library.

* If you double click on an entry within a library it will open that entry.

* If you double click on a date field it will open the calendar.

* If you double click on an entry in scheduler it will open that entry.

* If you double click on a blank white area next to a given time in scheduler it will allow you to add an appointment for that time.

* If you double click on the gray area for a given therapist in scheduler it will bring you to that therapist's office hours in their library entry to edit them.

For those with active Maintenance Contracts, there are several avenues for accessing support information. Call the technical support phone line at 781-937-0080; or, email your questions to support@helper.com. Remember, you will also find additional support documentation, company information and software upgrades on our Web site: www.helper.com.

2. "10/2" Program

Beginning in December the new "10/2" Program debuts. Simply: refer 10 qualified colleagues contacting Therapist Helper staff for the first time and if 2 buy within 60 days of the referral, you'll receive a year's free maintenance. For more information, visit our Web site: www.helper.com/referral.

3. Pilot User Group in the Boston Area

We are currently seeking to start a pilot User Group in the Boston area. We will host the first meeting at our offices in Woburn, MA in the second half of January (date TBA pending attendee input).
The User Group will provide a forum for current users to share expertise, discuss Helper's role in managing their practices and to ask questions of the Technical Support staffer who will attend the initial meeting. Interested parties please contact Ellen O'Brien via email: eobrien@helper.com
If we are successful in launching this group, we will work with others around the country who would like assistance in setting up and running a User Group. Again, interested parties should mail Ellen O'Brien at eobrien@helper.com indicating their level of interest, availability (ie would you look for an evening meeting, something on weekends, etc.) and the nearest large metropolitan area.

4. Year End Tax Purchasing

Just a reminder: the 2000 Tax Year is almost at a close and if you are planning to purchase additional licenses, Expedite! Credit Card Processing, Traveler or Quic Doc Software, you may want to make them in December so that you can claim a deduction on this year's taxes.

I got a few ideas for some short stories...Great literary works in the making?

2001 maybe the year of buying, selling and trading... stay tuned for details.

As previously stated, I have assembled quite the collection of videos chronicling some pretty unusual events. If you'd be interested in possibly finding out what those events might be and getting a compilation tape made drop me a line.

I still have a CD writer. So hopefully soon I will be burning CD's of games, music or any number of other things. Let me know if you want a copy of something. I have been having problems with the unit but will get it fixed soon.