Aloha again,
Last week was incredibly busy. In the office we worked hard to put together a report for the governor of Hawaii stating how we used federal grant money. The proposal was close to a thousand pages long and took up three binders. I stayed late several days to help put things together and to allow Corrie and Lenny both to attend meetings and other things that also required their attention last week. It really was a group effort but it was very rewarding to be apart of a project that big from the start till the finish. I even got to hand deliver the report to the state building, which was a lot of fun.
Immediately after we finished our report for the governor we started on a report for the auditors that are in this week. This project was a lot easier since we had already collected a lot of data for our report to the governor. I also started wrapping up all of my projects last week and am begging to hand off my projects to others who can continue what will still be going on after I leave this Thursday!
This past weekend I relaxed on Saturday and took a day to my self and went and got thank you gifts for both Corrie and Lenny. Although Corrie was technically my mentor for my mentorship, I felt as if it really was a tag team effort between both Corrie and Lenny. They both have taught me so much and have done a lot for me while I have been here in Hawaii. On Sunday I went to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling in the wonderful bay. Snorkeling ended up being quite an adventure and a lot of fun. The fish were a lot of fun to swim with and I brought a underwater camera with me so hopefully my pictures turn out well.
I have been trying to take both Corrie and Lenny out to a thank you dinner but it is looking as if we may be doing lunch before I leave on Thursday.
Anyway, I am sorry about not posting on my typical Monday. Yesterday I stayed late to help prepare for a board meeting this morning. Well its my last week but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.
My flight leaves Thursday at 2 pm and if all goes to plan I should be back in Chicago by 6 am.
Mahalo,
Travis
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Working hard or Hardly working?
Aloha,
I have definitely been working hard during the week days but I have been relaxing on the weekends. It really has made for a good balance.
Sticking with my trend of bloggin on Monday nights here I am again.
Last week I finished with some more edits for my sponsorship package, I am currently on my fourth draft. It is going very well but, lately I have been doing it in spare time at work, which has not happened much lately. Since I last wrote Corrie (who returned physically to the office on Friday), Lenny, and I have been working on reproducing documentation required by the government due to grant money they received from Obama's push to create jobs. We are have been hard at work putting together all of the documentation in an orderly fashion that is presentable. As of tonight it is three giant binders that I have all but put my own blood, sweat, and tears into. One of the more memorable events was all of the searching for documents, copying, and organizing I had gone through last week as I did what ever I could to help make our deadline (which happens to be tomorrow afternoon). Although Corrie and Lenny have done all of the writing and formulating for the project I have done a the brunt of the grunt work and although I have a new hate for overheating copy machines (they both died on me at some point in the day on Friday and one is now out of ink). I stayed late tonight to hole punch and put some finishing touches on the binders and I also did some calculations for how many jobs we created with their grant money. So it has been a long week or so but, I will feel very rewarded when I get to deliver the documents tomorrow afternoon.
I also put together a three page sponsorship package for a business that they are meeting with tomorrow. I got to make drafts, corrections, and deliver it to the president of ROC for him to look at and make comments on. But, hopefully get a nice sized sponsor and I know I helped it happen. So as you can imagine I am very excited to see how that goes. A few of the side projects I have been working on are I heart Robots campaign ideas, planning a business cocktail party (in order to get sponsors) and various other sponsorship and marketing ideas.
But this past weekend the two big highlights were eating Hula Pie at Dukes on the beachfront and going to Pearl Harbor.
I spent the day at the beach on Saturday and then I made my way to Dukes to have this famous Hula Pie I have heard about and enjoy the chance of getting to eat down on the beach. I had very enjoyable time at Dukes, it was a great restaurant with an amazing view and atmosphere. The Hula Pie was definitely work my time all by its self though but it was a lot of fun to spend the day at the beach and then just sit back and relax eating some great food.
Pearl Harbor was an amazing and heart touching experience, if you are ever to Oahu, you have to go.
I felt that it did the history of the battle of Pearl Harbor great justice and gave visitors a great opportunity to pay their respects to those who were at Pearl Harbor, those who died at Pearl Harbor, and all of those involved in WWII. The museums were fantastic and the memorials were great to see. I took a few pictures of the USS Blowfin, nicknamed the Pearl Harbor Avenger, because it was launched exactly one year after Pearl Harbor. It was a very pleasant reminder to be thankful for all those who have served and are serving our nation.
Well I will be on my way home in 9 days now and the time here just keeps going faster and faster.
Lots to do and so little time.
-Travis
I have definitely been working hard during the week days but I have been relaxing on the weekends. It really has made for a good balance.
Sticking with my trend of bloggin on Monday nights here I am again.
Last week I finished with some more edits for my sponsorship package, I am currently on my fourth draft. It is going very well but, lately I have been doing it in spare time at work, which has not happened much lately. Since I last wrote Corrie (who returned physically to the office on Friday), Lenny, and I have been working on reproducing documentation required by the government due to grant money they received from Obama's push to create jobs. We are have been hard at work putting together all of the documentation in an orderly fashion that is presentable. As of tonight it is three giant binders that I have all but put my own blood, sweat, and tears into. One of the more memorable events was all of the searching for documents, copying, and organizing I had gone through last week as I did what ever I could to help make our deadline (which happens to be tomorrow afternoon). Although Corrie and Lenny have done all of the writing and formulating for the project I have done a the brunt of the grunt work and although I have a new hate for overheating copy machines (they both died on me at some point in the day on Friday and one is now out of ink). I stayed late tonight to hole punch and put some finishing touches on the binders and I also did some calculations for how many jobs we created with their grant money. So it has been a long week or so but, I will feel very rewarded when I get to deliver the documents tomorrow afternoon.
I also put together a three page sponsorship package for a business that they are meeting with tomorrow. I got to make drafts, corrections, and deliver it to the president of ROC for him to look at and make comments on. But, hopefully get a nice sized sponsor and I know I helped it happen. So as you can imagine I am very excited to see how that goes. A few of the side projects I have been working on are I heart Robots campaign ideas, planning a business cocktail party (in order to get sponsors) and various other sponsorship and marketing ideas.
But this past weekend the two big highlights were eating Hula Pie at Dukes on the beachfront and going to Pearl Harbor.
I spent the day at the beach on Saturday and then I made my way to Dukes to have this famous Hula Pie I have heard about and enjoy the chance of getting to eat down on the beach. I had very enjoyable time at Dukes, it was a great restaurant with an amazing view and atmosphere. The Hula Pie was definitely work my time all by its self though but it was a lot of fun to spend the day at the beach and then just sit back and relax eating some great food.
Pearl Harbor was an amazing and heart touching experience, if you are ever to Oahu, you have to go.
I felt that it did the history of the battle of Pearl Harbor great justice and gave visitors a great opportunity to pay their respects to those who were at Pearl Harbor, those who died at Pearl Harbor, and all of those involved in WWII. The museums were fantastic and the memorials were great to see. I took a few pictures of the USS Blowfin, nicknamed the Pearl Harbor Avenger, because it was launched exactly one year after Pearl Harbor. It was a very pleasant reminder to be thankful for all those who have served and are serving our nation.
Well I will be on my way home in 9 days now and the time here just keeps going faster and faster.
Lots to do and so little time.
-Travis
Monday, June 6, 2011
Fast Times With Hawai'i Robotics
Aloha Again,
It was a great weekend! I went to the beach and relaxed on Saturday and just took it easy but on Sunday I went and hiked Diamond Head! It was very nice and I took lots of pictures which I will be sharing! I made it to the top in 45 min and took pictures and enjoyed the view at the top and then 30 min and I was back down again. The state park was very nice and very well kept, it was a really cool experience!
Today I did a few things. I responded to some emails first thing in the morning and finished editing another two pages for my sponsorship package, which is almost done. I also copied some legal documents to be kept on hand and did some more editing to their web page. I also had a meeting with Richel with a fellow that runs a clothing store down town Hawaii about products to be sold for the I <3 Robot campaign. It went really well and he was very nice. We talked about options for products to be sold, pricing and estimated availability. Toward the end of the meeting he shared information with us about a graphic designer he knows who might be interested in doing some of the logo design work for us since neither Richel or I were very satisfied with our current design we had to show him. Also, we may be on our way to picking up another sponsor for ROC, as he offered to talk to some friends of his and see if they would be willing to be a sponsor for the program. Over all it was a very successful day and it kept me very busy.
Enjoy the pictures from Diamond Head!
-Travis
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