Tim Rettig's Blog

I wish I could claim credit on this one, but it is actually the out of office message of Nick Giordano, our professional services manager:

Tis the week after Christmas, and I’m not in ‘da house’

I’m not using my computer, not even the mouse.

I will check my email, some here and some there,

In hopes to get back to you with timeliness that’s fair.

 

We’re still fixing PCs, the sick and the dead,

So give us a call, we’ll put issues to bed.

Whatever you need, we’ve got it on tap,

And if you’re nice, we may even gift-wrap.

  Read the rest of this entry »

Today, December 21st, 2011, is my wife Mary’s 40th birthday.  Being the great person that she is, she has chosen to donate her birthday to charity:water, our favorite charity.

Normally, when you donate your birthday to charity:water you have a party and people make donations instead of bringing gifts.  Without the party, the whole donations in lieu of gifts isn’t going to work.  So what I have done is surprised Mary with a special “virtual online party” by using social media and crowdsourcing.

For the past week I have been posting videos and pictures on her Facebook wall.  Those videos and photos were produced all over the world by all kinds of different people that I interacted with via crowdsourcing tools.  Mary had no idea who the people were in the videos, or how I got all of them to wish her happy birthday.  She was stumped.

Here is a recap of the best videos for you to check out:

Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t go to the office today because my basement flooded.  I figured I might as well let people know what was going on by setting up my out of office message:

Greetings!

You are probably accustomed to getting these automatic replies when people are on vacation in some exotic place, or at an important business conference.

Unfortunately, this is not one of those times.  This morning I awoke to a flooded basement, so today I am at home dealing with that mess.

Since today’s technology allows me to work anywhere, I’ll be on email, but it may be a slightly slower turnaround than to what you are accustomed.  I will only be checking and responding to urgent messages as time allows me to between emptying my wet/dry vac, calls to the insurance company, and paying the bills of the plumbers and carpet cleaners.

If you have a service request or technical issue, please e-mail…….

If you need immediate assistance, please contact our service desk at (513) 469-6500 option #1.

Why the funny message?  Find out here: http://blog.timrettig.com/outofoffice/

Thank you!

I hope I don’t ever have to use that message again……