Thursday, May 27, 2010

BYU for mayor!

So, somebody has created a Twitter account called bobs_yer_uncle and has been tweeting about stuff from work.  Normally I wouldn't even mention this, but apparently this Bob character has caused quite a stir.

It started during Technocon, which was a joint tech conference put on by the UofA and the COE.  Apparently tweets were made during the conference that were basically making fun of a bunch of stuff.  The thought was that this person had to be at the conference as they were referencing stuff that was happening - as it happened.  Instead of talking about individual tweets, you can read them for yourself.

Now...the thing that stood out for a lot of us, was that these tweets basically captured what a lot of people were thinking, but nobody had the balls to say.  Most everyone that heard about it assumed it was me!!!  I know I have been very vocal about stuff in the past, but why would I need to create a fake account when I am vocal on my own twitter account?

A lot of people are trying to find out who is behind the account.  It would seem we all have our suspicions, but nobody seems to know.

Our CIO was at a web conference in Toronto and apparently did some sort of panel discussion.  During this discussion he apparently talked about BYU and how this person was rumored to be one of Chris' staff using twitter to criticize him.  The fact that this has been brought up in some nationwide public forum is almost funny.  Bobs_yer_uncle is famous!  LOL

BYU was quiet for a while, and then made fun of some survey results.  Through all of this, if nothing else, it got a lot of people animated, engaged and talking about all the things that BYU said in his tweets.  Is that a bad thing?  I don't think so.  HOWEVER...it now appears that there is a manhunt on for BYU.  Rumor now has it that HR is trying to track this person down.  For what?  From what I have read, nothing was said that: wasn't true; was hurtful; slanderous; or personally attacking someone.  Perhaps the line was bent somewhat on some of the posts, but I personally don't think he ever crossed it.

What is going to happen if/when the secret identity of Bobs_yer_uncle is ever discovered?  Will the person be "Merl'd"?  Will they get a slap on the wrist?  Will they be publicly ridiculed?

As some other people in the branch have said, even if they knew who this person was, they wouldn't tell.  That is the stand I am going to take.  As long as BYU continues to keep his tweets clean, concise, honest and to the point, I will quietly cheer him on.  BYU has been quiet lately, so maybe someone found out who it is and he decided to quit, or maybe the person behind BYU is away...here's hoping we never find out.

Oh yeah... BYU for Mayor!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Honest...

So, every time I think to myself "I should really update my Blog", something comes up and I forget about it.  Then another week goes by and I repeat the process.  Well, today I decided at the very least I will make a small contribution to the vastness that is the interwebz.

In the past few months I have purchased a motorbike, taken my bike safety course, and have booked my road test.  You may say this is nothing more than my mid-life crisis, and you would probably be right.  However, as far as mid-life crisis goes, this one is pretty tame IMHO.

The bike course was actually really good.  Anyone can get on a bike and go fast.  It is the actual SKILL stuff that we all need to learn/practice.  This course (at TNT Motorcycles BTW) was fantastic.  We spent like 12 hours on the bike, right from the first hour we were there.  Learning everything from the correct way to make u-turns, to controlled swerves and stops, the course was awesome.  If I had something bad to say, it was that the bikes were too small for me.  I am not so much concerned about the power, but the physical SIZE.  I was unable to try out the Honda CBR's because the handlebars kept hitting my knees.  Oh well...still learned a lot.

The next step is to actually GET my Class 6.  May 28 I take the road test and if all goes well, I will be able to legally ride my motorcycle without a chaperon.

Other than the motorbike stuff, I did a small amount of work around the house.  We had a Sunshine Ceiling that had all but one of the ballasts go within a 2 week span.  I spent literally months trying to decide what to do - replace them with new ballasts, replace the whole fixtures, or tear down the sunshine ceiling and replace it with something else.  I finally decided to replace the ballasts and the panels with new ones.  Looks really nice now.  Here is an example of what a Sunshine Ceiling looks like (not mine) in case you were wondering.

That's all I have for now...like every post I promise to update more often.  Don't hold your breath.  :P