Ireland -7 days

I'm quickly running out of time to get everything done!

Thankfully my parents agreed to pick up the traveling money for me when they pick up their own. I'll just need to write them a check.

Last night I took the time to attend the SSMT production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Went to dinner and the show with a couple of friends from work--good girls night out. As Disney's Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite animated Disney movie, I wasn't sure what to expect from a stage production. Overall, I enjoyed the show very much.

Last night was opening night of the production and the biggest problems were all technical issues--manuevering sets, getting props working, consistency in the sound. SSMT doesn't usually have these types of problems so noticably, but this is a very technically demanding show. I'm a bit curious if they'll be able to work out most of these problems for the future performances.

Another disapointment was the dance scene between Belle and the Beast. Based on how the scene was choreographed and kept as short as possible, I strongly suspect the actor playing the Beast could NOT dance. Instead of a waltz around the room, they assumed the ballroom dance position and proceeded to walk around the stage...oh yeah, they were walking in time to the music. After a short bit of that, the beast stood in the center of the stage and Belle showed off a few simple dance steps and spins...while holding the hand of the Beast. Fortunately, they kept it short and moved on with the story.

However, the special effects that were used added proper flairs of drama and fun. They had a real variety--extra sound effects, dry ice, fog, lifts, fireworks. I was impressed with the handling of all the transformations, but especially the final one.

This morning, I took 2.5 hours out of my day to attend the mandatory training for the new e-mail software that is being implemented this weekend for PHC staff. General conclusion--does about what our current software does, just a bit differently. Lots of ideas are being tossed around about how the new software can be used to be more efficient--sharing schedules, scheduling meetings, creating rules--but it's all stuff that we could already be doing in the current software system, except the features have never gained enough popular support among staff to be effective across the college. Maybe the training and change will be a catalyst for promoting the features and bringing them into use. The primary reasons for the change are technical and support issues, so it really doesn't matter if the users make any changes in the way they work.

The downside is that they are encouraging everyone to clean as much out of their mail files as they can before the change this weekend. I'm not sure I'll have time to make any significant progress on that before 5:00 tomorrow.