As promised in my last blog, below is a link to the pictures from Halloween.  Yay for cheap fun resulting in good, free food!

http://picasaweb.google.com/LauraEHanley/FunTimesOnHalloween02?authkey=_Q0N8fn_TriV-ul21-g8SKLPRqo

Hi all,

I hope that everyone had a great Halloween! Laura and I followed through on the Chipotle Boo-rito idea and I believe she will have the pics posted in her blog, so check them out! Besides that, work has been picking up quite a bit. It's nice to feel like I have a place in my organization now. I'm going to give a quick rundown of my most recent tasks:

1. Training Manual Updates: Basically, taking new screen shots and writing explanations as our systems are constantly evolving. I'm working on the version for the end-users (service coordinators in our case).
2. Laptop/Desktop Deployment: Setting up laptops for our co-workers to use at conferences for a computer lab they set up as well as for doing demos of the software we develop.
3. System Testing: We had to check that transfered data was moved correctly from one system to another by spot-checking different residents' info. Also checking that links, titles, content, etc are correct and working within the system.
4. Software Architecture: Continuing to develop the software for our Mentoring program including building forms, researching inputs and reports and working with the actual program functioning - watching the trainings. These trainings help us to see what kinds of activities go on and help us to make our forms more comprehensive and useful.
5. Researching for Education project - Our company received a grant to build software for tracking AP and Honors classes/tests in San Diego high schools. The idea is to see if classes like AP, Honors, AVID, etc are adding to students' abilities to succeed (i.e., go to college, get a job, etc).

So, that is basically it for me. I'm still working on my loan issues. No one seemed to be able to help. I wrote a scathing letter to my university with a referral from a past professor. Hopefully something will work out :-/. As far as the rest of life, things are going very well. I've been playing indoor soccer (highly recommended), going bike riding a ton, and doing some baking. Laura and I went to the Haunted Trail in Balboa Park (near our apartment in San Diego) and got chased by ghouls, goblins and creepsters running with chainsaws - good times. We even rode our bikes to visit this random, self-maintained topiary garden a few miles from our apartment. Some person turned their entire yard into a zoo full of topiary animals. Pretty nifty. Anyway, hope all is well!

Greetings!  I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!  I hope everyone checked out Corey's most recent blog, Free Food Alert!!! and some of you took the opportunity to get free food while having fun.  Last night, Corey and I did just that, dressing up as burritos and heading to Chipotle for free ones (estimated value between $7-$8).  Afterwords, we decorated sugar cookies and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas.

I'm working on how to get the pictures up.  I'm not a Flickr fan, and apparently you can't just post photos directly into a blog.  I'll keep working on it; as a last resort, I'll just post them to what I use for photos (Picasa), but I want it to be easier than that.  We'll see.

Hey Everybody!

I just wanted to tell you all about this fun/free Halloween opportunity. I did it last year and it was a total blast. Basically, at Chipotle (really good burritos - is it only a West Coast chain?) if you dress like any of their menu items (using tinfoil) on Halloween, they'll give you a free burrito!!! My friends and I misunderstood and just dressed in tinfoil - Chip n' Dale dancer, Jailbird, Angel, Baby, etc. It was way fun and funny. Plus, what cheaper costume can you get than a roll of tinfoil? Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Happy Halloween!

http://www.chipotle.com/email/06-html-198.htm 

I had the best day yesterday - I got to take my new boss' Crown Vic across the state to Springfield MA to meet with some folks about doing a digital storytelling train the trainer workshop out there and I met some amazing community workers. 

I'm going to make a little video over the weekend to brush up on my Final Cut Express skills, but here's a lil preview photo of an exhibit I saw in the public library in the North End, made by the most amazing woman named Yolanda.  She's been bringing this growing exhibit about the culture of Latin countries around Dia De Las Muertos (the Day of the Dead).  The great thing about it is that it all started as a way to teach her local police officers not to fear going into Latino houses with these types of decorations as "devil worshipers."  It's all about making community change by distilling fear and ignorance, people.