Eric Mack On-Line

Print a next action form on the back of your business card.

I'm still processing an overflowing in-box, a variety of notes - both digital and analog, a backlog of blog comments - and a stack of business cards that I collected on my recent business trip. (If you're waiting for a reply from me, thanks for your patience.) Today, I will address the stack of business cards.

Over the course of the past 10 days, I handed out and received many business cards. As I received each card, I carefully noted the date, occasion, something remarkable, what we discussed, and the next action I intended to take upon my return.



Some of the people I gave my card to took meticulous notes on the back, while others simply placed them in their coat pocket. For this latter group, I wonder if, now that a week has gone by, if they even remember what we spoke about and why I gave them my card in the first place.

It occurred to me that I could do something simple but powerful to increase the likelihood that the people I gave my business card to would take notes and define the next action on the back - I could print a next action form on the back of my cards. Now, I know that there's not a lot of room on the back of a business card to begin with; however, a simple trigger list should be sufficient to encourage folks to think of and write down the most important keywords that will help them deal with these business cards when they get around to processing them.

Here's what I've come up with so far:



What if everyone did this?

Thoughts? Additions/Changes?

I've just returned from a road trip with my good friend and colleague, Michael Sampson. Michael flew up from New Zealand to spend a day in the digital sandbox with me. From there, we headed off together for meetings in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. We met with David Ferris in SF, spent 4 days at the Collaborative Technologies Conference in NYC, where Michael presented his 7 Pillars of IT Enabled Team Productivity workshop, and then a day with David Marshak at the IBM offices in Boston for a series of product briefings on the new offerings from IBM. (Neat stuff coming from IBM!)

A combination of Internet and Tablet PC issues prompted Michael to remark that this blog would be more appropriately named "EricMackOffLine." I won't go there right now ...

While I've not made any blog posts in the past 10 days, I apparently showed up on several other people's blogs - mostly in conjunction with the CTC conference and the GEEC dinners around the country - so search around.

Meanwhile, I've queued up a bunch of draft  posts and podcasts. I'll try to edit and post these soon. For those of you who've written or posted to ask about the Tablet PC, I did take it and use it. More on that later. I did do several impromptu demos of Tablet PC technology, mostly OneNote and MindManager. In fact, Michael and I did a live demo to OneNote shared sessions at the CTC conference. While, there, I sat with Mike Jetter of MindJet and I made my case for MindManager as a visualization tool for Lotus Notes. Let's see; what else? The highlight of the trip was hanging out with Michael for a week. Lots discussed, lots to share. more to come.

Yes, I wore all of the shirts and ties.

Several people have written to share that, as a result of my blog, they have purchased a Tecra M4. One friend even surprised me with an announcement of his new M4 acquisition. (More on that soon.) This past week, I've demonstrated the M4 to numerous clients as well as people who come up and say "that's really neat; what is it?" As far as I know, I've apparently helped sell another ten M4's for Toshiba and at least as many licenses of OneNote, MindManager and other Tablet-related software.

I've been working with document management on the Tablet PC. Scanning books and documents for review on the Tablet seems to work well and, despite the weight and size of the unit, I really enjoy the large screen. (I would not switch back.) As I explained to someone today, since I can display a page in a window on the left and run MindManager or OneNote in a page on the right, I'm quite content to carry around a large Tablet.

I continue to enjoy the Tablet PC and the M4, well mostly. To be fair, four  items remain on my persistent tablet problems list.

1. Wireless conflicts - It seems there's disagreement between Windows XP Tablet Edition, the Intel PROSet Wireless Client, and the Toshiba Config-Free drivers as to who should get control of the wireless card. If I leave things alone for ten minutes the drivers seem to sort things out. Still, a big inconvenience. Ultimately, only the Intel PROSet application works.

2. M4 Goes into a standby or hibernate and I cannot get out of it except to power cycle. I still cannot explain this one.

3. At times, tablet goes into snail mode. I still suspect a power management or Intel Speed-step issue, particularly with pen mode. (The fixes I've tried don't seem to help.) Unfortunately, I have no time to reload until the end of June, so I'll continue to limp along. (For now, I'm  only run in high-power mode, which means that battery life is terrible.)

4. Most of my attempts to hibernate result in a windows error indicating that insufficient system resources exist to complete the operation.

These seem like issues with the Tablet OS, or perhaps a hardware conflict. I realize that problems 2-4 may also be due to software that I've installed; we'll see. Hopefully, my experiences are unique. I certainly hope so.

My friend, Michael Sampson, who's here with me, thinks this is hilarious and reminds me that I could have bought a Mac.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm down on the Tablet PC or Toshiba; I'm not. At this point, I have no plans to go back to a laptop only.  Still, since people seem to be relying on my blog for product information, I want to be honest about my experience thus far, sharing both the good and the bad.

Until I get these problems sorted out, I cannot consider whether or not I'm YABHTU, but I remain very optimistic.

I know that many of my clients read this blog and have been following my Tablet PC pursuit. I want to get through the initial start-up process so that I will be better equipped to evaluate and recommend this technology to these clients in the future.

For Father's Day, my daughers presented me with some really wild shirts and ties. Yes, ties. I've got one with hand prints all over it, one with pink stipes, some with vivid colors and still another with Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat. The shirts are equally unique. My daughters were not sure I would wear them; they were concerned that these might be too over-the-top for a professional to wear. Well, today, I proudly wore one of the new shirts and ties. Why not. My kids gave them to me in love, and I will think of them each time I put one on.

These are not just ordinary ties. These are the ties that bind.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Eric

PS. This week's shaping up to be a busy week. Several blog entries, podcasts, and comment responses in the draft queue. I'll get to these soon.

Several people have written to share that, as a result of my blog, they have purchased a Tecra M4. A friend even surprised me by showing me his new M4 that he purchased after reading my blog. (More on that later.) This past week, I've demonstrated the M4 to numerous clients as well as people who come up and say "that's really neat; what is it?" As far as I know, I've apparently helped sell another ten M4's for Toshiba and at least as many licenses of MindManager, OneNote, and other Tablet PC applications.  Still, I've probably discouraged an equal number of folks from buying an M4 or a Tablet PC, too. To these folks: please understand that I push my systems to their limits and I'm quite harsh in my expectations of what a productive system should be like.

I continue to work with document management on the Tablet PC. Scanning books and documents to read and review on the Tablet seems to be working well and, despite the weight and size of the unit, I really enjoy the large screen. (I would not switch back.) As I explained to someone today: my screen is large enough to allow me to display a page in a window on the left and run MindManager or OneNote in a page on the right, I'm quite content to carry around a large Tablet. MindManager and Windows Journal remain my current favorite Tablet PC apps, however, OneNote is growing in favor. I've got GoBinder and a few other apps, however I've not had the time yet to explore their features.

I continue to enjoy the Tablet PC and the M4, well mostly. To be fair, four  items remain on my persistent tablet problems list.

1. Wireless conflicts - It seems there's disagreement between Windows XP Tablet Edition, the Intel PROSet Wireless Client, and the Toshiba Config-Free drivers as to who should get control of the wireless card. If I leave things alone for ten minutes the drivers seem to sort things out. Still, a big inconvenience. Ultimately, only the Intel PROSet application works.

2. M4 Goes into a standby or hibernate and I cannot get out of it except to power cycle. I still cannot explain this one.

3. At times, tablet goes into snail mode. I still suspect a power management or Intel Speed-step issue, particularly with pen mode. (The fixes I've tried don't seem to help.) Unfortunately, I have no time to reload until the end of June, so I'll continue to limp along. (For now, I only operate in high-power mode, which means that battery life is terrible.)

4. Most of my attempts to hibernate result in a windows error indicating that insufficient system resources exist to complete the operation.

[M4 owners, have you experienced any of the above?]

These seem like issues with the Tablet OS, or perhaps they are due to hardware conflicts, or both. I realize that problems 2-4 may also be due to software that I've installed; we'll see. Hopefully, my experiences are unique. I certainly hope so.  

My friend, Michael Sampson, who's here with me, thinks this is hilarious and reminds me that I could have bought a Mac.

I know that many of my clients read this blog and are following my Tablet PC pursuits. I want to work through all of the issues to determine my ideal Tablet PC configuration so that I can fully recommend Tablet PC Hardware, Software, and applications as possible eProductivity tools.

One last point: I don't want to make it sound like I'm down on the Tablet PC or Toshiba; I'm not. I have no plans to go back to a regular laptop. Still, since people seem to be relying on my blog for product information, I want to be honest about my experience thus far -- good and bad. I still see sufficient potential and promise in this technology, so I plan to stick with it.

Until I get these problems sorted out, I cannot consider whether or not I'm YABHTU; however, I remain very optimistic.

Michael Sampson's just arrived in the United States from New Zealand. First stop: a visit to the Mack's and a day in the digital sandbox. We plan to record several podcasts and post some blogs about tablets, collaborative technology, OneNote, and MindMaps, so stay tuned. (It may take a while for me to get these up on the web; we've got a lot going on over the next 10 days.)  For one of the first podcasts, I've asked Amy & Wendy to join us to talk about their experiences with OneNote.

Here's a picture of the welcoming committee at LAX:

I've been occupied with a number of eProductivity projects for clients, but I've not stopped capturing notes about my tablet adventure. In fact, I'm preparing a 30-day paperless/tablet challenge. If there's interest, I'll invite you to join me in this adventure to see if it's possible to live paper-free, with only a tablet, for a full 30 days. More on that soon.

I continue to work with the M4 - both as my most recent venture into the Tablet PC platform and as my first non-IBM laptop in 10 years.

Many people have written to tell me that they have purchased an M4 based on my blog. I've also heard that several people have decided not to purchase an M4 for the same reason. I hope that my posts, based on my own experience, were helpful either way. I plan to continue posting and podcasting on this and other eProductivity-related topics, sooon.

Meanwhile, now that I'm fully migrated to a Tablet, what do I think of the M4 and Tablet PC's in general?

The short answer is that both are growing on me. Most of the hardware features of the M4 that I found curiously placed (i.e. indicators, buttons, etc) now make sense to me.  It's obvious that Toshiba's put a lot of thought into this machine. (Except, perhaps, for the lack of a way to permanently shut off the CD drive. I continue to eject mine at the worst possible times. Recommendation: how about a switch to lock the drive: Closed, Locked on/Locked off)

As for the Tablet PC Platform, I'm close to sold on that, so I guess you might say I'm getting closer to YABHTU. I've now used the TPC in several meetings and I find it preferable to the traditional laptop. I'm still working to get used to the Toshiba Keyboad Layout, but that's improving. (FYI: I did take a look at the new IBM Tablet and I'm still pleased with my decision to choose the M4. I like the large screen. Worth the $.)

Some of you have written to ask about the problems I've experienced with my M4. I'm pleased to say that I've found solutions to most of them. I'm still trying to find the cause of the heavy CPU Utilization. This remains the biggest challenge, but I don't have the time to start fresh at this time. For now, I run in high-power mode, which means the battery life is not as good as it used to be and the fan runs all the time. In fairness to Toshiba, this may not be a hardware issue, though it still "feels" like a speed-step or tablet pen driver  issue to me - I'll work on this when I have more time.

For those of you who are wondering if I'll ever get to be YABHTU ...  I expect that I will. I want to be. I'm in the process of defining exactly what YABHTU will look like for me. When I have a benchmark, I'll share it.

Perhaps you'd like to share your thoughts on this?

What benchmarks define when a Tablet PC user has crossed into significant productivity gains with a Tablet that were previously unavailable by conventional means?

I wrote an email to somone and I compared a computer address book to digital Rolodex.

"Rolodex" is not in the MS word Dictionary.

On another note, I'm mapping out a paperless challenge.  I'll post some details, soon.

This afternoon, my family and I attended a memorial service for Dr. John R. Dunkin. Dr. Dunkin was a pastor, teacher, and president of the Los Angeles Baptist College and Theological Seminary (now, The Master's College and Seminary).

I did not know Dr. Dunkin personally, but it turns out that I know many of his family, friends, and the thousands of people whose lives he touched. Today, he touched my own.

For almost two and a half hours, I listened, in awe, as family and people who know him shared testimony of the faith and deeds of this man, a man who loved the Lord and God's Word, the Bible, and who devoted his life to others in Christian ministry. It was an awesome celebration of a life.

Since I did not know Dr. Dunkin personally, I was able to be, in some ways, a disconnected observer of his life through his memorial service. I could not help but think about the beginning of Dr. Stephen Covey's book "The 7 habits of highly effective people," in which he admonished us to "begin with the end in mind." Dr. Covey challenges us to consider what it would be like to be a guest - an observer - at our own memorial service. What would we want those present to say about our life? What would they say about it? Thinking about this today reminded me of the power of that visualization. The 600-800 people present today, are a testimony to Dr. Dunkin's legacy.

From what I can tell, Dr. Dunkin indeed began with the end in mind. He was certain of his eternal future, he knew what his purpose was, and he knew on whom his plans depended.

Dr. Dunkin's home with the Lord now. He will spend an eternity in the presence of his Lord and Savior.

He lived a rich life and he leaves a legacy of family, of leadership and changed lives.

His race on earth may be over, but his real adventure has only begun.

He finished well.

Here's a quick eProductivity tool: ink gestures that will make your Tablet PC experience more productive.

The ActiveWords team has done it again - this time, in ink.

[Notice: If you're a Tablet PC user, move it away so that you don't drool on the screen. If you are not yet a tablet user, here's another reason to consider one ...]

Yesterday, during our geek day in the digital sandbox, Buzz treated David, Paul, and me to a preview of the next release of ActiveWords InkPad for the Tablet PC.



The new ActiveWords InkPad, presently in beta, allows for the immediate launch of any of the productivity features of ActiveWords with a simple gesture. Now, that's an eProductivity tool I can blog about!

Tonight, I installed the 1.5 InkPad beta on my Tablet PC, hovered over the target region and inked the letters "EMO," A few seconds later, my blog appeared. See for yourself ...



More encouragement for my wild journey to Tablet PC productivity.

I've got a busy week ahead; lots of client meetings. I'll blog when I can.

Last night, when Buzz and David Allen were here, Buzz show us some of his work at the Microsoft Search Champs project. Buzz searched Google on various terms. For fun, I searched on "Tecra M4" and found my blog, www.EricMackOnLine.com, was the #1 returned  search result.  (Searching for "Toshiba Tecra M4" is only slightly different.)

Not that he has more than a passing professional interest, apparently James Kendrick noticed, too.

Surprisingly, no one at Toshiba or any of the other vendors, whose products I've mentioned, have contacted me to see if they might help me resolve the few remaining issues that I have blogged about. If they did, it might help me reach the tipping point to finally become YABHTU.

If I were a vendor, and if I checked the search engines daily for my product, and if I saw that the most popular search result was from a guy who mostly loved my product, but who was having troubles, I'd get on the phone immediately to find out if I could help him resolve his issues.[hint]

Imagine what kind of customer evangelists, not to mention good PR, this small investment of time would return.

Meanwhile, I'm fortunate to have made many new friends via my blog - friends who have posted or sent email to help me resolve some of the issues that I'm experiencing. I'm testing some of the suggestions and I'll post my experiences as I go.

I've previously blogged that my new Tablet PC is very slow and that the CPU utilization jumps to 100% and stays there - even at idle.

Lately, I've been experimenting with the speed settings for the M4. What I've found so far is that much of the sluggishness goes away at the high power setting. At the high-power setting, CPU utilization drops to about 12-15% at idle.  While this is an improvement - when the Tablet is plugged in - it is not an acceptable solution when on battery. (Besides, when I'm at full power, the not-so-quiet fan stays on full-time.)

Given the connection to the speed setting I now wonder if this is not an end-user software issue, but an issue with the CPU throttling or the tablet OS. based on the CPU utilization and some intuition, the problem appears have something to do with the Ink Recognition - at least that's where I see it the most, meaning that I can writing something and then the system will freeze until I tap. Then, everything works fine. [Note: This has been going on all week - long before I installed the ActiveWords beta this evening.] Other than this slowdown issue, I'm getting closer to YABHTU. In fact, If I could solve this, I would probably be there.

Of course, it could also be me and my expectations for how a productivity tool should perform. Perhaps I'm being unreasonable.

I'm still having fun and I'll keep trying to find a solution. At least, for now, I have an interim work-around.

Thanks to those of you who have sent tips and utilities. I'll work these and post as soon as I learn something new.

It's a busy day here in the digital sandbox. David Allen just drove Buzz Bruggeman up in his Mini for a geek day in beautiful Pine Mountain Club. (David decided to drive up the back way, on Highway 33, on windy mountain roads. I'm happy to report that Buzz survived; breakfast intact.) I invited my friend, Paul Edwards to join us, too. We're now sitting in my conference room, having the most amazing conversations about tech, productivity, ActiveWords, Tablet PCs productivity, Notes, and getting things done.
Is there anyone Buzz does not know? David and I lost count of how many people Buzz knows but we decided that he's definitely one connected guy.  
Buzz has had a new a new Tablet PC for 40+ days and has yet to use it. I've had new Tablet PC for 14 days and I'm trying to use it. Together, we taught each other a few things - except how to get the external VGA port on Buzz' HP1100c to work. No matter, there's lots to show and tell.


Eric and Buzz demonstrate Tablet PC and ActiveWords technology to David and Paul

This afternoon, Buzz plans to give us a private demo of the new ActiveWords product for the Tablet PC. Then, we'll probably take turns sharing cool gear, tips, and tools that each of us use.

I'm not sure if we'll do a podcast today - too much happening, too fast. I'll try to post some highlights and photos later today. If I don't, I'm sure Buzz or David will ...

My clients know that I live on the bleeding edge of technology. Well, I've been bleeding all week ... I'm used to it. I get the wrinkles in technology ironed out, so that my clients never notice. Still, the process can be painful at times.

James Kendrick shared these words of encouragement this morning:

We who live on the edge, sometimes fall off.
- A very wise technology addict."

I continue to face challenges with the Tablet PC as I work to integrate my applications. (I'm still not YABHTU. Soon, I hope.)  Right now, the biggest challenge is the pen speed issue. It appears that this may be an issue with pen utilization in the Tablet OS. I hope not. Several readers have posted excellent tips. Thank you. I'm still hunting this down.

Meanwhile, the problems I've encountered do not stop me from seeing the potential benefits of the Tablet PC platform and the Tecra M4 Tablet PC. I've shared plenty of negatives lately; here's a list of some of the positives I've observed.

10 Things I like about the Tecra M4

• Big Screen, High Resolution. I can view two pages side by side
• Accupoint - reminds me of a ThinkPad
• Best of Laptop and Tablet in a single device
• Crosspoint for Navigation in Tablet mode - very helpful
• DVD Multi-Burner with Dual Layer 8.5 read/write
• Everything's built-in. No expansion cards needed. (EVDO extra)
• Bootable SD Card. Great for ghost, & special apps
• East to see indicator lights
• It's great to have both a tablet and a laptop with me at all times
• I like having enough power to run CPU intensive imaging apps

10 Things I'd like to see added to the Tecra M4

• Instant Mute
• Keyboard Light for Laptop mode
• Functions keys that are easier to read
• Power Management to power down and lock CD from a profile
• Legs (fold out)
• Softer TrackPoint with smoother scrolling
• Wide Angle viewing
• Fuel cell for 10 hour continuous use OK, I'll wait for that.
• A really nice bump-case for tri-mode use
• A set of vanilla recovery disks free of embedded spamware

Meanwhile, I'll continue to work on the Tecra - I hope to have a final eMack configuration soon.

Special guests coming to play in the digital sandbox today. Gotta run ...

Many of you know how I feel about hardware manufacturers forcing me to use or remove their unwanted software from my new computer. I call it spamware - unsolicited commercial programs.  (My most recent adventure with this was last night. I installed a Creative WebCam on my tablet. guess what I got back, absolutely free ... AOL. No further comment. You know how I feel.)

Here's a twist from Adobe:  I downloaded and evaluated Acrobat 7.0 for use with a document imaging application. This morning, I learned that my evaluation period has expired. (No problem, I've got the product on order.) But, take a look at the last sentence ...



Isn't that odd? Am I to fear that an expired evaluation will harm my system? If that's true, should we ever evaluate Adobe products? Or, is this just an idle threat from Adobe to coerce me to buy their product? Either way, I think it's wrong.

[Sorry, I thought I had posted this last week ...]
I know that many people are reading this blog to learn of my experience with the M4. I'm making progress adjusting to the M4. I'm enjoying it; in fact, this is my first blog entry from the M4. (Sorry, not in ink, yet.) I plan to keep the M4, but I've decided to return the ToshibaTecra M4  Portfolio case. It's a beautiful case, made from glove leather. It's a very clever 3-in-one design for use in three modes; however, it does not work. I'm short on time to write this up in detail, so instead, I'll share my recent correspondence with ToshibaDirect:

Dear Nicole,

Just a quick FYI:  I'm enjoying my new Tecra M4. Thank you for your help in getting it to me so quickly!

I just contacted Toshiba Customer Service got an RMA for the Toshiba M4 Portfolio case.

I want you to know that the reason I'm returning the case is that it is defective and poorly designed. The elastic straps block the vents, which cause the  Tablet PC to overheat. The "Made in China" label is in the worst possible place; it gets caught in the DVD every time I close it. I'm afraid that to continue to use the Toshiba Portfolio case with my M4 would damage the unit.  [Additional observation, post-email: the zipper extends high enough to interfere with laptop use.]

What really hurts is that I paid FedEx to have this case shipped to me. It arrived with these problems, and now I have to pay -- my dime - to return it and hope that I will get credit. I should not have to pay twice (or at all) for an unacceptable product that I am returning to you. It does not seem fair.

I do hope that you will forward this summary of my product experience to management.  I will certainly share it with a few people that I know.

Thank you,
Eric Mack

I received this response

Hi
I'm glad you are enjoying the notebook.  I emailed you an on line fed ex label to use to return the portfolio that way there will be no charge to you.  Thank you.

To which I responded ...

Nicole,
Thank you for the FedEx tag. Too bad I have to pay the other way. It's a matter of principle with me. It's not about the $15 in rush shipping. I purchased the Portfolio in good faith. The product does not work The inconvenience is bad enough. But having to pay to find that out hurts. Ouch! Live and learn I guess. I suppose that's the best I'll get from ToshibaDirect.

Meanwhile, I need another AC adapter for the M4.  (I don't need AC/DC)  Please let me know price and availability of such an item.

Eric

There you have it.

I routinely evaluate and use room and desktop video conferencing software for use with clients and associates. At ICA, we've used video conferencing in one form or another for the past 10 years. When you can't meet in person, a video conference is the next best thing. (In fact, a few years ago, the LA Times did a write up about our experiences.) For the past several years, we've been using a variety of IP-based video solutions internally across our VPN links.

Today, my colleague Michael Sampson, of Shared-Spaces, turned me on to a new product, still in beta:

Dialcom released Spontania video4skype, a free video conferencing plug-in for the Skype voice-over-IP and IM client. Available immediately, at no charge. For Windows only. Dialcom

Michael and I just tried Spontania on a video conference between the US and New Zealand. It worked very well. The integration with Skype is seamless. Overall the quality of the video was very good, and unlike MSN or other free video clients, no annoying ad-spam.  

Very promising.  I think we will try this out in the next geek meeting in my digital sandbox. (Coming soon, stay tuned)  [Update: If you want to join me for a geek dinner or breakfast in Boston or NYC, get in touch with me. We've got some neat things planned.]

If you decide to evaluate Spontania Video4Skype, let me know what you think.

Ever seen an ant farm? Remember how you could watch the ants moving around? Well, I have the same capability on my Tablet PC. What I thought was a stray comma, turns out to be a piece of dust trapped inside my new Tecra M4 Tablet PC. I've only had the unit open for less than 2 weeks and now this excitement. Like the ants in the ant farm of my childhood, the spec moves.

Right now, it's in the middle of my screen.

I'm speechless. [sort of]

I can't find the link at the moment, but I recall a recent discussion on TabletPCBuzz about this problem.

I remember thinking to myself: that won't happen to me ...

I've noticed my Tecra M4 getting slower and slower -- to the point where it's difficult to even use a stylus or a mouse. I first noticed this in MindManager. (I've done the routine AV scans, AdAware scans, etc.)

Suspecting software to be the culprit, I've experimented with a variety of options. I found a post about some known issues with MindManager in Pen mode. Lately, I've been experimenting with CPU speeds. What I've found, while inconclusive, makes me wonder if the M4 CPU, when running in a power efficient mode (I'm actually not trying to save power - just keep the fan quiet) slows down considerably. Is anyone experiencing a similar problem?

Before I reload the OS and the dreaded spamware that comes with the M4 preload, I want to rule out anything obvious (and, possibly self-inflicted) such as CPU settings, or specific applications.

I've got a client demo in a few days, and I want to make the best impression possible. Right now, I'm not there. :-(