I don’t even want to go into the back story about how my iPod Touch was horrifically dropped into a big pool of water for a good 15 seconds – I’ll just skip to the point and let you know how I fixed it.  Once I saved my favorite gadget from complete and total annihilation – I quickly tried to turn it on to assess the damage.  To my dismay, I got a pathetic little blank screen that immediately turned itself off and would not turn back on. 

I went online to see if anyone else had successfully revived their iPod from the same misfortune and to my surprise the answer was really easy and something that I already had in my house – rice!  If you put your iPod in a box of rice and leave it for a couple of days – the rice draws the moisture out of the device.  So I threw my iPod into the box of rice and let it sit for 24 hours – when I first checked, it still wouldn’t turn on, so I put it back in for 2 more days.  On the 3rd day, I took my iPod out of the box – and low and behold it turned right on!  I checked out all of my apps and it looks like everything is working exactly as it had before I clumsily dropped my iPod into water. 

If you ever go through the same situation – just put your iPod into rice as soon as possible (I just used plain old Uncle Ben’s Minute Rice) and you may save yourself from having to buy a completely new unit.

I have an old Dell laptop from 2004 that was literally painful to use because it had become so darn slow! I really hadn’t used it that much because I’ve always had a work laptop so I really didn’t think it was necessary to buy a new computer since my Dell had barely been used. I did some research and found out that the combined RAM in my laptop (including both chips) wasn’t even 1 GB total – ugh.

I didn’t even really know what RAM was, but I asked my techie step brother and he put it in a way that totally made sense. He said to think of the “hard drive” as a big huge mountain of coal – and think of the “RAM” as the truck that moves the coal from place to place – so the faster your truck, the faster that you’ll move the coal from place to place. I did a quick search on YouTube and found about a billion videos for upgrading RAM – after watching a couple, I realized that it was literally as easy as changing a battery or light bulb.

So the next step is to buy the RAM – if you have no idea what to buy – just go Best Buy and they’ll tell you what’s compatible with your laptop. I just brought my laptop with me and they looked up the type of RAM that I needed to buy – I ended up getting 2 RAM chips that were 2 GB each (4 GB total) – so I was going from the equivalent of a bicycle to a Ferrari! I unscrewed and popped out the small plate in the back of my computer and replaced the old RAM sticks with the new ones – it took less than a minute and cost about $75 bucks total for both sticks.

So the moment of truth – I turned on my 2004 Dell Insperion, and to my amazement – it wasn’t just a little bit faster – it was faster than my work computer, my netbook, and my desktop computer – it’s like a brand new 2009 model! After this cheap and easy upgrade, I went ahead and bought new RAM for my desktop and my netbook. So don’t throw out your old computer – spend less than $100 bucks and make it like a brand new model (minus the fact that those old laptops weigh a ton)!

Here’s one of the videos that I found useful for upgrading my RAM:

Please come out and join us on Saturday, September 12 at 2:00 p.m. to support the Laney Herrin Scholarship 7K Run in Liberty, IN.  This scholarship is in honor of my mother who was a teacher at Union County Middle School.  She loved teaching and she had a special passion for encouraging children to read.  This race is designed to financially contribute to her scholarship fund which is awarded annually to graduating Union County High School seniors.

The 7K run/walk is open to all ages and will begin in front of Union County Middle School (488 State Road 44 E. Liberty, IN. 47353).  The entry fee is $20 and it is due by Friday, September 4.  All participants will receive a t-shirt and awards will be given to the top men’s and women’s finishers.  If you are interested in signing up, please visit the web site: http://www.wix.com/nolannp/LaneyHerrin7K or you can also click here to access the entry form: Laney Herrin Run 

Those of you who know me know how close my mom and I were – and I would greatly appreciate it if you would participate in this race if you are able – she would be so thrilled to have a scholarship in her honor since she valued higher education so passionately.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions and please spread the word!!

The national Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) and WorkplaceDiversity.com recently announced that Monsanto was one of 11 winners of the 2009 Best Companies for Blacks in Technology Award. Monsanto has been recognized for this award for the second year in a row.  This year’s winners also included Allstate Insurance, American Airlines, Compuware, Eli Lilly and Company, Health Care Service Corporation, Merck and Company, State Farm Insurance, Sun Trust Bank, Wal-Mart Stores, and WellPoint.

In addition to this award, Monsanto was also named by ComputerWorld as one of the 100 best places in the US to work in IT. Monsanto moved up eight positions in the rankings, from No. 13 in 2008 to No. 5 this year. The magazine indicated telecommuting and flex schedules as a determining factor in receiving this accolade.  ComputerWorld 100 also recognized Monsanto as No. 1 in Training.

At Monsanto, the Monsanto Pledge defines what we believe and how we make decisions. It is the heart of our identity as a company. It is our commitment to employees, our customers, community members, other key stakeholders and the public, to behave ethically and responsibly. Our commitment to having integrity in everything we do.

And every year we honor the best examples of this commitment with a Pledge Award. The Pledge Awards represent the highest honor that Monsanto gives its people for demonstrating commitment to the Pledge while creating value for the company, its stakeholders and the public at large.

This year, we are devoting two weeks to recognize our Pledge Award finalists and winners–Monsanto people worldwide who have combined these core values with outstanding performances in agricultural sustainability, technological innovation, community involvement, environmental performance, process improvement and other areas.

Congrats to all of the nominees, finalists and winners – my personal favorite is the Bollgard II Introduction in Burkina Faso! Below are 6 video’s highlighting this year’s winning teams: