Shelter Startup
Adventures in Animal WelfareArchive for Uncategorized
Yes, I am in Fact, Still Alive One Year Later
Three years ago today, I was boarding a plane at LAX headed for the Philippines. It was the eve of my 30th birthday, and I was going to spend it on a plane. However, by that time, I had been to the Philippines so much it almost felt like home. I loved the travel, and especially loved going to the Philippines.
One year ago today, I was in Longview turning over my 20 customer accounts to other members of my team, and bringing them up to speed on all of my software development items. I was excited, scared, and nervous, but looking forward to going back into animal welfare.
Sitting here now, I’ve been promoted to Assistant Director at HSWC. I have my dream job, the job I left the corporate world to chase, and it is everything I wanted, though not always what I expected. Everyday I wonder, am I doing a good job? Am I prioritizing my work appropriately? Are things running as they should? Am I making more mistakes than HSWC can afford to make? I lose sleep over these things nightly. Yet, everyday, I return and keep moving forward. I am fulfilled by this work, completely absorbed by HSWC’s mission, and strive everyday to do better. I’m humbled daily by the choices I make, and worry incessantly if my decisions are the right ones for both the animals in my care as well as the organization.
Hopefully, this year will be filled with change, both in myself and at HSWC and I pray my mistakes will be small and few, but only time will tell.
A bit of Shock and Awe
This note is going out from me (Ben) as an administrator for this site to those that might have noticed the NSFW images that show up with the mShots (aka SnapShots) roll-over on the Flickr Photos widget on this blog.
I have disabled mShots/SnapShots, I temporarily disabled the Flickr widget, but after testing it out with the mShots turned off in both Safari and Chrome I turned it back on. The mShots is gone and with it the NSFW material that would appear when you moved the mouse of the ‘More Photos’ link.
I will see about opening up a complaint with the mShots people to fix their stuff, as I doubt this blog was the only one effected.
–Ben
Week One Ends
My first week has just ended, and there is still so much that needs to be done! I’ve had a crazy week of dog escapes, staff leaving, watching how things are done, and trying to find a better way. My list seems to only get longer as the days go by!
Right now my big focus is getting that darn barn clean! I can NOT handle the grossness that is brewing in that place. I feel like I have scrubbed that barn all week and only scratched the surface. Since I do not have much patience, it’s been hard to try and just do one thing at a time and not try to do everything all at once. Like the managing partner at NET used to say, “there’s only one way to eat an elephant, a bite at a time.” That saying is so true here.
I think I am going to start with a list of daily tasks I want to get done, and the times and time frames I want them done. That will be a good starting point. Once that is going ok, I will move on from there. I hate to be so specific, but since there has been either no direction, or directions coming from many different people, the barn staff dont know what or how to prioritize tasks. Hopefully I can get that fixed soon.
The manual part of this job is getting easier, and My body is starting to get over the manual labor shock, and today I didn’t feel like I wanted to die right after work. So that’s good. Heck, I needed the exercise anyway! My hands are dry, my cuticles are a mess, and my feet have blisters, but I think this experience will be good for me.
I’m off tomorrow. Think I’m gonna get a manicure!
