LANL: The Corporate Story

LANL staff sitting 'mesmerized by Mikey' (Director Anastasio) at generic All-Hands-Meeting. (Note the love in their zombie eyes, the cheery looks on their pasty faces, the deep-throated roar of approval, in unison ...)

Will there be a new blog for LANL after this present one goes dark on April Fools' Day?
It's really up to you.

Just a couple of weeks after I started "LANL: The Corporate Story," with Doug's generous help, blogspot.com retooled itself with a new, more user-friendly version. It's really quite easy now to become a new blogmeister, from startup to up-and-running. Of course, there is some learning that will occur as you go, but you don't have to be a computer genius, and I surely am not. (I've even learned more about html as I went along, thanks to Google.) The blogspot.com utility allows for easy uploads of pictures now, so that after the first week or so, when that new capability became available, I no longer had to rely on Doug's server for that.

Doug has graciously allowed the "Contact Pat" link to my anonymous e-mail (patthedog@parrot-farm.net) to continue for the time being. As a result, I can post a new link to YOUR new follow-on blog right here on this old blog: all you have to do is e-mail me; I'll check out your home page; if it looks good, I'll post the link; and then, if you have any questions about operational subtleties, e-mail me and I'll try to guide you through the problems as best I can. If I can't figure it out, I'll pass the question on to Doug; if he can't figure it out, well, maybe you're hosed. Usually, the defaults and simple stuff are good enough -- for government work, anyway.

Yes, beginning Sunday morning, no more comments will be allowed -- no sense in anyone wading through a bunch of ridiculous April Fools' jokes. There has been talk in the hallways and some comments here on the blog about the desire to keep a LANL blog going: for example, to see who gets the Livermore contract and to announce the new slate of RIFs sometime around October 1st. However, your present blogmeister will not be doing much after Sunday, as I contemplate a welcome rest from the world of blogging. (It isn't really all that bad, but it's time for a new perspective from someone else out there. I confess that I am burned out from watching LANL crumble under the weight of NNSA's and Congress's incompetence -- and often outright hostility -- not to mention the greed and the level of sabotage by LANS upper management.)

My suggestion is that a couple of you get together and do like Doug and Brad did on the previous blog, "LANL: The Real Story." It would have been good to have someone to spell me when I was out of town, or when I just couldn't get to the computer to browse the web, though it is easy to remotely log in from my laptop or my Blackberry when on travel.

So, as I said before, go for it. It's really up to you, my good friends.

--Pat


P.S. Now, here's an example of the art of blogmeistership: This was sent to me today at patthedog@parrot-farm.net:

_____

"Pat"

I would like to submit a few paragraphs on "retribution" a few years ago, as well as now, if you show me how to do it ANONYMOUSLY.

Thanks.
_____

So, as you can see, all mention of the sender's name can be kept in confidence, and an honest blogmeister like yours, truly, will do just that. For even greater anonymity, set up another account with your internet provider, using a pseudonym -- such as, for example, PatTheDog@internetprovider.com.

--Pat