Tamara's Blog

About You: My Noetix Friends

Exactly 3 months ago today, I was in Denver enjoying my last hoorah with my Noetix friends. In two days, I would be starting my new position with Baseline Consulting.

One of my friends, Julia Dane, flew in to meet me on Friday, while the rest of the gang flew in on Saturday. Julia and I had a great day trip adventure on Saturday - but I'll save that fun story (and pictures) for another time.

In the picture below, I am joined by Sally on my right, Julia on my left, and Shannon, Chris and Rene behind us. Not pictured is Jill, a friend and Noetix customer, because she's the one behind the camera. Great shot Jill! We're at the Samba Room in downtown Denver. Great place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Noetix, Chicks Rule!

As a parting gift, Shannon and Julia had this special plate made for me that captures some of of our more memorable experiences over the years...actually, some I would welcome forgetting...

It was an amazing gift and one I will cherish for a long, long time. Right now, the plate is proudly displayed on top of my desk hutch in my office. I love looking at it every day (click on image to enlarge).

Thank you Shannon and Julia!

And Tamara, Don't Forget...

The Noetix folks at corporate also bid me a very nice farewell. Besides the kind words and well wishes, my boss, Daryl, demonstrated that he knew me well with gift cards for Starbucks, the Mariners gift store, and Cold Stone Creamery. I loved it! And yes, most of it is spent now...

As if that wasn't awesome enough, the marketing and sales folks walked in with...you'd have to work with me to understand the kewlness and cleverness behind this gift...my very own SOAPBOX!! I had no idea it was coming, but the instant I saw it, I knew exactly what it was and just started laughing! OMIGOSH! How perfect is that!?

Click on the image to check it out. It's a solid wooden box, and I learned later that one of the sales person's wives made it. Again, this is another lifelong keeper - and a gift I will always cherish!

Thank you Noetix for all the opportunities I was given, for all the fun experiences, and mostly, for all the great friendships!

At Noetix, Chicks and Dudes Rule!

How Obama Reinvented Campaign Finance by XPLANE

XPLANE is a visual thinking company that I've been following for quite some time. I just love what they do: They take complex, verbose explanations about anything and turn the discussion into a visual diagram that tells the same story in an understandable way - with pictures.

What does this have to do with Barack Obama? Well, you probably heard last week that he declined public financing for his campaign. Why? And where is he going to get the money he needs?

XPLANE shows you why and how with one of their just-developed Xplanations (click on the image to enlarge). You will see that it has to do with those online social networks we've talked about - MySpace, Facebook, etc. This social networking thing is not just for kids.

For more download options, visit the special Obama page on the XPLANE site to view in PDF or high-resolution format. Enjoy!

Blowing the Dust Off This Blog (cough, cough)

Hello again! It's been awhile - actually a long while - since you last heard from me. The last time we chatted, I asked you all to participate in a survey for a school paper - and WOW! - the response was tremendous. THANK YOU! I'll post the results from the survey later this week so you can see for yourself. Interesting stuff.

Much has transpired in the last few months, so in the spirit of pithy headlines and snappy descriptions, here's the Top 10 headlines in my life:

1. I went Mac.

   And will never go back. Yup, I bought a 24" iMac for personal use and I love it! I still have my Dell laptop, which I'm using right now to write this post. Seems that Microsoft Windows Live Writer (the best blogging tool out there!) doesn't work on a Mac...whaddup?!

2. Noetix no more.

   In April, I said an emotional goodbye to my employer of 7 years (actually 17 years if you add in its parent company). It was weird leaving the "family nest," but my friends and colleagues sent me off with a suitcase full of hugs and well wishes.

3. New job, same roots.

   I've returned to my roots working for a consulting company, but I'm not a consultant. Check out the press release on Forbes.com to see what I'm doing now. It's really kewl.

4. School's in session.

   I took last quarter off to ramp up on my new job, work on Semper Vita (see #5), and give my eyes a break (that's a story for another day). My break is now officially over. I start class again. Today. The doors open at 8:00 AM. I love summer school...I love summer school...I love summer school...

5. Semper Vita is in its 9th month.

   If you've talked to me in the last two years, you've probably heard me mutter something about "Semper Vita." Well, next week, the interim website for Semper Vita is rolling out, so now you'll be able to learn what all the fuss has been about. Stay tuned for more.

6. My Seattle Mariners, my oh my!

   The team really sucks this year. We're in last place in MLB. They just "let go" of all the top dogs who've allowed us to fall into this deep hole. There's still ~90 games left - plenty of time for a worthy comeback. Go Mariners go!

7. Another blog on ConversantLife.com.

   I have been invited to be a contributing blogger on ConversantLife.com - a site devoted to connecting faith to news and culture. I'll be approaching the conversation from a technology perspective. Stay tuned for that announcement too.

8. Jeannie releases her first book.

   My good friend, Jeannie Keneley, released her first book this month. It's called Beyond My Yesterdays: A Woman's Journey from Darkness to Light. Go check it out on Amazon.com. Congratulations Jeannie!

9. I'm changing my picture. Finally.

   I got a slough of pictures taken recently, so I can finally switch out my "peephole" picture in the banner of my blog. You will soon see that I really do have hair - actually, it's pretty long now. I'll switch it out this week.

10. Coming up.

    This week, watch for: survey results for the Eli Stone paper (mentioned earlier), a video on how to say Thank You to our troops (it's great!), a recent report on the current vision of the American Dream (times have changed), and a link to a visual diagram that explains why Barack Obama is able to decline participation in the public financing system. If you like pictures like I do, you won't want to miss this one.

Noetix Rolls Out New Web Site

Who or what is Noetix? And why would or should you care if they rolled out a new Web site or not? Sorry, I know I'm reading some of your minds...He! Please read on and learn why I tend to be passionate about technology.

What is Noetix?

Simply stated, Noetix is the company I work for. Noetix has been around since 1994 and its primary focus is to provide an innovative reporting solution for Oracle Applications customers. Our flagship product is NoetixViews, which provides customers with a business-friendly view of their Oracle data - as well as Siebel and PeopleSoft - so they can slice-&-dice it any way they want.

What do I do at Noetix? I am the product manager responsible for the technologies that generate these Noetix views into customers' reporting environments. I work a lot with sales, marketing, engineering, services and customers to ensure we're delivering what our customers need to do their business.

The New Web Site

This week, Noetix rolled out a brand new Web site. Susan, in Marketing, did a bang-up job playing the role of director and executive producer for this major production. The project began last fall, and with the help of our design firm and many individual contributors at Noetix, the new Web site was finally launched this week.

Go check out the new site at www.noetix.com. If you're really ambitious and want to know what I do, check out these sections:

• Products > Noetix Platform
• Products > Noetix Generator
• Products > NoetixViews > Siebel CRM

Before I could head out on my 18-day adventure to California this month, I had to put on my product marketing cap and pump out a lot of the copy for the Products and Solutions sections. It was a challenging and fun exercise and I'm happy I had the opportunity to participate.

Kudos to Susan - and the rest of the Noetix team - for a job well done!

Days 17 and 18: TDWI Conference in San Diego

I am a member of TDWI, a leading educational institution for business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW). I work for a company that plays in the BI space.

Each quarter, TDWI hosts a conference and brings in all the industry experts to teach BI/DW practitioners (and vendors like me) about current issues and trends. I attend about two conferences each year. That's why I was in San Diego this week.

It Was a Pacific Northwest BI Summit Reunion

It was great fun seeing many colleagues from the Pacific Northwest BI Summit vacation conference I attended in late July, specifically:

• Jill Dyche, co-founder and partner of Baseline Consulting
• Ron Powell, editorial director for b-eye-network.com
• Shawn Rogers, executive editor for b-eye-network.com
• Scott Humphrey, founder of Humphrey Strategic Communications
• Donald Farmer, principal program manager at Microsoft
• Colin White, founder of BI Research
• Kim Stanick, VP Marketing at ParAccel
• Scott Davis, founder and CEO of Eyeris

From a distance, I also saw Evan Levy (Jill's partner at Baseline) and Claudia Imhoff, president of Intelligent Solutions. I hardly recognized folks - as we were all dressed in our "proper" business attire this round.

I Am Home Now

It was quite refreshing to finally fly home last night. Today, I'm heading back into the office -  the first time in 3 weeks. Of course, I will have to stop by Starbucks on my drive in, say hi to my favorite barista Jenny, and tote off with my grande soy mocha. That will certainly help kick me back into gear.

This post concludes my 18-day adventure on the Caleefohneea Road.

Dan is the Man at Alaska Airlines

It's not every day that you get to be on the receiving end of great customer service. Especially when it comes to the airlines. They say that when someone has a bad service-related experience, that person will usually tell ten or more people. But if they have a good experience, they may tell only one or two people. Consider yourself one of those one or two people.

Meet Dan, the Alaska Airlines Baggage Service Manager at LAX 

As you may have been reading in my blog, Henriet and I spent a lot of time at Los Angeles International airport this past week. Most of our time was spent in the baggage service area, and this is where we first met Dan.

On August 5th, Henriet's bag had apparently taken a later flight than us. Dan was the one who personally assisted us in tracking the bag down. He had a very kind and calm demeanor. He quickly found the bag "in the system," and assured us it would arrive within the next few hours.

Because Henriet & I had a date at the Hollywood Bowl with our friends, Jill and Evan, we couldn't stay and wait for it. Instead, we decided to drive back to LAX after the show to save ourselves (and Alaska) time - so Dan rewarded us with mileage points.

As promised, Henriet's bag was waiting for us when we returned later that night.

We Meet Dan Again

On August 11th, we found ourselves back in Baggage Services. Our flight to Seattle had been canceled and we were rescheduled to fly out the next day, so we came to retrieve our bags. Dan, of course, was on the scene and remembered us well.

Because of the LAX customs computer glitch, dozens of planes were backed up, which created a huge manual burden for his team (and all airlines). Dan was straight up with us about the plight of our bags. He told us it was best that we not wait for our bags and let the process do its thing. He said his team was going to pull a double shift to make sure that travelers' bags made it to their proper destination - either before or on the same flight as the traveler's rescheduled flight.

So Henriet and I headed to the hotel. The next day, we returned to "mile long" lines at LAX. Because we didn't have any baggage (thanks Dan!), we were able to bypass almost all of it. We would have most likely missed our flight if we had our baggage.

When we landed in Seattle, both of our bags were waiting for us. Apparently, they had taken an earlier flight. It's great managers like Dan that make bad situations like this bearable.

Thank you to Dan and his team at Alaska Airlines Baggage Services for all their effort this past weekend!

Shawn and Ron's Second Life

So I'm sitting out on the patio at Weasku Inn eating dinner Sunday night. Shawn Rogers, cofounder and executive editor for the Business Intelligence Network, was at my table - along with his cofounding partner, Ron Powell. I learned very quickly that the two of them together are sheer entertainment.

They Own a House

Shawn starts telling us about his Second Life house. About how he and Ron have a 1-bedroom Cape Cod-style home with a nice living room and bookcases. Ron tells us that he's never been there. Shawn tells Ron that he likes it that way because there is only one bedroom and the two of them are really not that close.

Shawn goes on to tell us how he wants to build out his bookcases so that guests can come in and browse through all the available publications and podcasts. Ron just looks at Shawn.

"HUH?!" Exclaims Scott

Scott Davis, president of Eyeris, is sitting at the next table and can't help but overhear the story Shawn is telling. He makes Shawn back up and explain what this Second Life is all about. Shawn explains how he bought a pair of Second Life-exclusive Nikes that showed up at his physical home. Scott responds as if Shawn is in some sort of Twilight Zone.

Shawn then tells us about one day when he got home, his neighbor, who looks like a phoenix, had parked himself in the middle of the living room. No matter what Shawn did, the neighbor would not leave. So Shawn shot him and the phoenix neighbor disintegrated went away. Shawn's other neighbor who lives next door doesn't wear clothes. Someone suggested that Shawn send him some.

They Own an Auditorium Too

Shawn and Ron also own a Pontiac, as well as an auditorium (just in case the crowds start pouring in). The problem with the auditorium, though, is that they don't have enough land to unpack it. They only have one lot and they need 10. Ron's not yet willing to pay hundreds of real dollars to unpack a make-believe auditorium.

Second Life is For Real Though

So have you heard about Second Life? I was vaguely familiar with it before Sunday night. It's an online 3D virtual world that is designed, created and owned by its residents - like Shawn and Ron (even though Ron still doesn't have the keys to get in).

Currently, there are close to 9 million residents. You can join the community for free, but if you want to start having a life and buying stuff, you'll have to start paying monthly fees. Big businesses like IBM and Nike have joined the community. You may want to check it out.

Catholics Encouraged to Get a Second Life

On Monday, news hit the wire that Second Life Loses Gamblers But Finds God. Apparently, Linden Labs, the owners of Second Life, has recently banned all gambling in this virtual world. An Italian Catholic priest, however, is encouraging Catholics to join the community so that they can stay in touch with the real world.

Huh?!

Is This a Business Conference or Am I On Vacation?

In my last post, I wrote about the spectacular Weasku Inn in Grants Pass, Oregon. Today, I'm going to share why I was there.

So I thought I was going to attend a 5-day business conference in a natural Pacific Northwest setting, which in itself, was a nice diversion from the typical Grand Hotel-style conferences I typically attend. But now that I've returned, I'm not so sure it was a business trip because I had way too much fun.

Read my Top 10 Kewl Moments below and you be the judge.

The Business Side of the Story: The Pacific Northwest BI Summit 2007

For the last 6 years, Scott Humphrey, founder of Humphrey Strategic Communications, has hosted an annual Pacific Northwest BI Summit. He invites data industry experts and software vendors to discuss the latest industry trends - mostly in the BI (business intelligence) space. And all in a casual, informal Pacific Northwest setting. Gotta luv that!

This year, the industry experts were Jill Dyche, Claudia Imhoff, William McKnight and Colin White.  I've written about Jill previously. On the vendor side, Scott invited a handful of companies, including mine (Noetix) for the first time - and I was the Lucky Dog who got to go!

The event would not have been complete without Shawn Rogers and Ron Powell from Business Intelligence Network. They were fantastic, and I'll be writing all about them in my next post. I'm still chuckling about them.

Top 10 Kewl Moments

Listed below in no particular order are some kewl highlights from the trip:

• I got to hang out with some of the neatest people in the industry (besides those already mentioned, Donald, KimS, ScottD, Greg, Steve, Karen, KimD, Joe and Jeff)
• I did attempted yoga for the first time in William's yoga class
• I did my first podcast with Jill (it's now posted on b-eye-network.com and iTunes)
• We attended a wine tasting party at Colin's house in Ashland
• We had an exquisite dinner at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel
• We attended the play "On the Razzle" in Ashland
• We spent an afternoon hanging out in the Rogue River (literally)
• I learned how to fly cast with Megan, Scott Humphrey's daughter
• Some of us saw Jupiter and 4 of its moons up close & personal with Colin
• On my cabin's deck, I read a book I need to finish before school next week

So you tell me: Was I on a business trip or was I on vacation?

Whatever it was...to Scott and everyone else who attended the Summit this year...THANK YOU! It was great fun!