This company frickin’ rocks. They know how to treat their employees. With Tybrin, I realized the other day that I had been coasting for the last few years, just collecting a paycheck. I’d go to work with a fake smile, and I’d come home with a less fake smile. If I were the slightest bit tired, I’d be grumpy, pissy and generally unpleasant. That was with Tybrin. Sunday night/Monday morning, I woke up at 1:30 in the morning, and was up until 11 pm Monday night. Monday, of course, was Memorial Day—traditionally a bbq day with Lori’s family. Ralph and Barbara had made no announcement or invite for their place, so we called them to find out what was going on. “Oh, ummmm . . . pretty much nothing.”
“Well why don’t you guys come down to our place for a bbq?”
So they came, as did Rob and Mel and their two boys. Mind you, I had been up since 1:30 am. I did all the grilling, all the cooking, most of the cleaning, and a lot of the watching of our two girls. Granted, later in the day, Rob and I watched “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, but still—most of the day was busy.
But I wasn’t grumpy. I wasn’t pissy. I was pleasant, fun, and . . . dare I say it—giddy! I was actually excited to be awake and with everyone . . . even in my sleep-deprived state. I talked to Lori about what the reasons could be, and it hit me like a ton of bricks: for the first time in about 4 years, I actually enjoy—and I mean *really* enjoy—going to work. My company appreciates me. Everyone here is on the same page. We’re all fighting to get a good, quality product out the door. I don’t have to battle other contractors (read: other contracts, SEIC!) or programs to get a good product out the door. I can come to work, do my job, KNOW that I’m going to get the support I need from everyone . . . and it feels *foreign* to me.
Don’t get me wrong—everyone I worked with directly in my company was good to work with. I always had the SME support I needed. Our hardware team was great to work with. Our SST group was outstanding. Admin, our government reps . . . all great. CM, my team, IT . . . all really nice. It was when we had to wander outside of our group to accomplish anything where the head-butting would begin, and it would never end. You would think that, with such an end-game as supporting war fighter pilots, everyone would be on the same page. Nope. Hidden or not-so-hidden agendas permeated every aspect of our day-to-day activities. “Who’s watching us now? Who’s talking crap about us behind out back now?”
Granted, maybe it’s the newness of everything down here, but there is a completely different feeling down here. And it’s good. REALLY good.
Music for the Masses
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
What Else Can You Do at 2 in the Morning?
So, here I am . . . awake at 2 am. Actually, now it's 2:50, but I've been up since about 2. What am I supposed to do? Yah, I'm a little groggy, but I'm literally incapable of falling back asleep. I'd toss and turn until I finally give in and get up anyway; might as well do something productive while I'm awake, right?
But what to do? I mean, I can't go upstairs and clean; I'd wake up the girls. I can't vacuum down here; I'd wake up Lori. So what's something nice and quiet that I can do and feel productive?
How about organize the computer desk? Since Saturday, I've been on this MASSIVE kick to organize everything over here. For those of you (read: Happy Mom) who have seen this embarrassment of a desk, it's humiliating. There's stuff scattered everywhere, thigns within the girls' reach that I don't want them messing with . . . so it's been an organizational weekend. That includes taking the entire bookshelf worth of CDs that I have and organizing them into back-up discs, appz discs, drivers discs, and games discs. Those are being put on 50-count cakebox spindles. That alone entails verifying usability/feasibility of the discs. Some of these back-up discs have incredibly archaic executables, like a Win95 bootable floppy app that goes,of course, on a floppy. A) Who still uses floppies? Other than my old SME buddies back in the MP world. :) Curse you, Solaris 2.5.1. But other than that, pretty much no one uses floppies.
But you get my point: there is some massive overhauling to be done. WHy not use the quiet time between now and when the girls wake up to keep organizing and cleaning?
And, of course, blogging about the organizing. :)
But what to do? I mean, I can't go upstairs and clean; I'd wake up the girls. I can't vacuum down here; I'd wake up Lori. So what's something nice and quiet that I can do and feel productive?
How about organize the computer desk? Since Saturday, I've been on this MASSIVE kick to organize everything over here. For those of you (read: Happy Mom) who have seen this embarrassment of a desk, it's humiliating. There's stuff scattered everywhere, thigns within the girls' reach that I don't want them messing with . . . so it's been an organizational weekend. That includes taking the entire bookshelf worth of CDs that I have and organizing them into back-up discs, appz discs, drivers discs, and games discs. Those are being put on 50-count cakebox spindles. That alone entails verifying usability/feasibility of the discs. Some of these back-up discs have incredibly archaic executables, like a Win95 bootable floppy app that goes,of course, on a floppy. A) Who still uses floppies? Other than my old SME buddies back in the MP world. :) Curse you, Solaris 2.5.1. But other than that, pretty much no one uses floppies.
But you get my point: there is some massive overhauling to be done. WHy not use the quiet time between now and when the girls wake up to keep organizing and cleaning?
And, of course, blogging about the organizing. :)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Milk Fairy Cometh
Due to an unforeseen oversight on my and weef's part, we were milk-less this morning when the girls woke up at the sad, pathetic time of 6:08. Hearing them bump around in their room, I quickly flew up the stairs and told them that it was too early to be up. Per their norm, they both whined in unison, "Daddy, I want miiiiiiiiiilk." Girl 1, who's quickly learning that we insist on being polite, hesitantly added a half-hearted "please" to the end of her string of wailing. I told them that we don't have any milk, and that they could have some water.
The cacophany that ensued could have, and probably should have, awakened the dead. Ironically, we live about half a mile from a cemetary. I actually thought that we'd be the victims of a zombie attack within 20 minutes (cuz, you know . . . zombies don't really walk all that fast . . . they more or less drag their feet wherever it is they're going). Thankfully, and maybe it's just because it's Saturday, they never showed up. Hey, zombies probably like sleeping in on Saturdays too, right?
But I digress.
So I offered to give them water in their sippy cups. No dice. Much whining. Girl 1 kept on about the milk. I flung open the refrigerator door and asked her to point out the milk. "Hmmmm . . . we don't have any, daddy!"
"That's right. Now walk your little bum back to your room and crawl back in bed. I will give you some water, but we have no milk."
As is so often the case with my rantings, it's too late to make a long story short, but to summarize the next little bit, I got them back in bed, ran to the store, grabbed some cereal and a couple gallons of milk that *might* last us through tomorrow, and a block of cheese. Ran home, quietly opened the door, and listened for the tell-tale signs that they were both out of bed. To my amazement, they were both stone silent. "Hmm! Must've gone back to sleep."
**INTERJECTION**
Girl 1 has a favorite song right now: Hysteria by Muse. It's hilarious. She even knows when to bang her head. I'm in awe. So, right now, both girls are upstairs eating their cereal. Girl 1 must be done; she's bellowing at the top of her lungs, "I WANT IT NOW! I WANT IT NOW!! GIVE ME YOUR SOUL!!!" Granted, there's more to the song than that, but that's what she knows right now. It's so adorable.
**END INTERJECTION**
So I came down stairs, started setting up my new phone with some better ringers, when I heard then start bumping around again. Conceding the fact that they are simply not going back to bed, I went upstairs and got them some breakfast--some kind of flake and granola cereal.
Now . . . remember, I went to the store and bought some milk. Both girls knew that we didn't have any milk before I sent them back to bed. When I reached in the fridge to pull out one of the gallons I had just bought, both girls looked at each other and screamed, "MIIIIIIIILK!!!" I don't think they were quite that excited at Christmas. It was seriously hilarious. All grinning and clapping, squealing with joy at the site of a gallon of milk sitting on the counter. I wish I had the video camera rolling when they went off; it was that priceless.
Anyway, ha ha.
The cacophany that ensued could have, and probably should have, awakened the dead. Ironically, we live about half a mile from a cemetary. I actually thought that we'd be the victims of a zombie attack within 20 minutes (cuz, you know . . . zombies don't really walk all that fast . . . they more or less drag their feet wherever it is they're going). Thankfully, and maybe it's just because it's Saturday, they never showed up. Hey, zombies probably like sleeping in on Saturdays too, right?
But I digress.
So I offered to give them water in their sippy cups. No dice. Much whining. Girl 1 kept on about the milk. I flung open the refrigerator door and asked her to point out the milk. "Hmmmm . . . we don't have any, daddy!"
"That's right. Now walk your little bum back to your room and crawl back in bed. I will give you some water, but we have no milk."
As is so often the case with my rantings, it's too late to make a long story short, but to summarize the next little bit, I got them back in bed, ran to the store, grabbed some cereal and a couple gallons of milk that *might* last us through tomorrow, and a block of cheese. Ran home, quietly opened the door, and listened for the tell-tale signs that they were both out of bed. To my amazement, they were both stone silent. "Hmm! Must've gone back to sleep."
**INTERJECTION**
Girl 1 has a favorite song right now: Hysteria by Muse. It's hilarious. She even knows when to bang her head. I'm in awe. So, right now, both girls are upstairs eating their cereal. Girl 1 must be done; she's bellowing at the top of her lungs, "I WANT IT NOW! I WANT IT NOW!! GIVE ME YOUR SOUL!!!" Granted, there's more to the song than that, but that's what she knows right now. It's so adorable.
**END INTERJECTION**
So I came down stairs, started setting up my new phone with some better ringers, when I heard then start bumping around again. Conceding the fact that they are simply not going back to bed, I went upstairs and got them some breakfast--some kind of flake and granola cereal.
Now . . . remember, I went to the store and bought some milk. Both girls knew that we didn't have any milk before I sent them back to bed. When I reached in the fridge to pull out one of the gallons I had just bought, both girls looked at each other and screamed, "MIIIIIIIILK!!!" I don't think they were quite that excited at Christmas. It was seriously hilarious. All grinning and clapping, squealing with joy at the site of a gallon of milk sitting on the counter. I wish I had the video camera rolling when they went off; it was that priceless.
Anyway, ha ha.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
and the winds keep on blowing!
so last thursday, my new company gave me a cell phone. not just any cell phone; this is a t-mobile dash. slick little pda-style phone. it does all the regular phone stuff, plus it syncs with my work and home emails, it has wireless and bluetooth, it syncs with any files i need/want, it can access office 2003 or 2007 files, it has windows mobile 6. in short, this thing is slick. and they GAVE it to me. unlimited minutes and data tranfer, 250 text messages (big deal . . . i never text anyway).
then yesterday happened. to summarize, we are vehicle-less for about another day while my wife's car is worked on. for those of you familiar with my truck, it is no more. it's permanently parked where it is, and i'm not planning on moving it unless someone comes and tows it away. we'll donate it to charity for the tax write-off, and that'll be that. because of being mobile-ly dysfunctional, weef's folks said we could borrow one of extraneous cars. another problem: weef has to go in to work to finish up all her reports. the girl who normally watches our girls can't do it today, and apparently neither can anyone else, so i'm going down to work, picking up my laptop, and coming home to work on the stuff here. nice, eh? i'm rather happy about that. when i called my team lead last night, he said that it was fine--it happens on occasion.
so, let's see where this company stands so far:
- $17k more a year
- free snacks and drinks
- free phone
- work at home when necessary
- casual dress environment
the only question left to ask is: why didn't i move down here before!?
then yesterday happened. to summarize, we are vehicle-less for about another day while my wife's car is worked on. for those of you familiar with my truck, it is no more. it's permanently parked where it is, and i'm not planning on moving it unless someone comes and tows it away. we'll donate it to charity for the tax write-off, and that'll be that. because of being mobile-ly dysfunctional, weef's folks said we could borrow one of extraneous cars. another problem: weef has to go in to work to finish up all her reports. the girl who normally watches our girls can't do it today, and apparently neither can anyone else, so i'm going down to work, picking up my laptop, and coming home to work on the stuff here. nice, eh? i'm rather happy about that. when i called my team lead last night, he said that it was fine--it happens on occasion.
so, let's see where this company stands so far:
- $17k more a year
- free snacks and drinks
- free phone
- work at home when necessary
- casual dress environment
the only question left to ask is: why didn't i move down here before!?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
When Those Winds of Change Blow . . .
It's like the Santa Anas . . . taking the cold chill out of the air and replacing it with warm, balmy wonderfulness.
Take, for example, my new company. Today, I'm wearing a hockey jersey and jeans. Yesterday, I wore shorts and a t-shirt (stupid, since it was kind of cold, but just because I could . . .). The company provides snacks and drinks of all kinds—from Rockstar to Mt. Dew. Office hours are basically from 7 am to 6 or so pm, but you can take your laptop home with you and work on what you need there too, if you have other pressing matters, like a doctor visit. Everything here is run on a wireless network. For meetings, we drag our laptops with us. We check email, send files back and forth, we have SKYPE installed for instant messaging . . . I don’t know. Maybe it’s the environment in which I worked for 4+ years—isolated, locked down, button-up shirt and slacks, no cell phones, cameras, video devices, pdas, wireless ANYthing . . . the contrast between there and here is so stark.
Don’t get me wrong—I understand the reasons for the lock-down in my old position. The level of security in that building was high. But here . . . it’s just different.
I do miss my old friends though. That's the biggest down side to working here: no one I've known for half a decade. I'll give it some time though. I've only been here . . . what? 7 full days? All in good time.
Take, for example, my new company. Today, I'm wearing a hockey jersey and jeans. Yesterday, I wore shorts and a t-shirt (stupid, since it was kind of cold, but just because I could . . .). The company provides snacks and drinks of all kinds—from Rockstar to Mt. Dew. Office hours are basically from 7 am to 6 or so pm, but you can take your laptop home with you and work on what you need there too, if you have other pressing matters, like a doctor visit. Everything here is run on a wireless network. For meetings, we drag our laptops with us. We check email, send files back and forth, we have SKYPE installed for instant messaging . . . I don’t know. Maybe it’s the environment in which I worked for 4+ years—isolated, locked down, button-up shirt and slacks, no cell phones, cameras, video devices, pdas, wireless ANYthing . . . the contrast between there and here is so stark.
Don’t get me wrong—I understand the reasons for the lock-down in my old position. The level of security in that building was high. But here . . . it’s just different.
I do miss my old friends though. That's the biggest down side to working here: no one I've known for half a decade. I'll give it some time though. I've only been here . . . what? 7 full days? All in good time.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Humor at its Best (sort of)
Funny moment the other night: Weef and I were watching “The Holiday”—a movie that’s been on our watch-list for a while, but we hadn’t had the time to sit down and watch. Saturday night, we remedied that.
One of the characters was a real gung-ho cleaner . . . keeping her house all tidy and organized. Weef was watching this and taking note. At one point, she said, “Ya know, I wish I were a neat freak.” Without skipping a beat, I replied with a smile, “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think you’re a really neat freak.”
My right shoulder and arm still sport the results of the ensuing beating.
One of the characters was a real gung-ho cleaner . . . keeping her house all tidy and organized. Weef was watching this and taking note. At one point, she said, “Ya know, I wish I were a neat freak.” Without skipping a beat, I replied with a smile, “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think you’re a really neat freak.”
My right shoulder and arm still sport the results of the ensuing beating.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I's been taggified!
A: Attached or Single: attached
B: Best Friend: WEEF!
C: Cake or Pie: What about pie cake? You know . . . something with a crust, but all cakey and icingy.
D: Day of Choice: Saturday. It's a special day.
E: Essential Item: ipod
F: Favorite Color: blue
G: Greatest Accomplishment: getting married.
H: Hometown: Good question. I moved to Utah from Buffalo NY (GO SABRES!), but I spent a lot of time in southern Ohio before moving there, so . . .
I: Indulgences: Right now, pudding.
J: January or July: yah, not so sure on either.
---Where did K go? Did .
L: Life is Incomplete Without: weef
M: Marriage Date: May 11, 2000. Best day EVER!
N: Number of Siblings: 1 brother, 2 brothers in law, and 3 sisters in law
O: Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P: Phobias or Fears: failing
Q: Quotes: "Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, 'would an idiot do that?' And if they would, I do *not* do that thing." DKS
R: Reason to Smile: WEEF!
S: Season: Fall. Halloween. 'nuff said.
T: Tag Four Friends: By "friends," I'm assuming this means other bloggers. I tag all y'all that actually read this pathetic global offering.
U: Unknown Fact about Me: I was almost born in Japan.
V: Very Favorite Store: Best Buy, followed closely by Gray Whale, but EARLY Gray Whale.
W: Worst Habit: They're all equally bad.
X: X-ray or Ultrasound: I would have to with x-ray, based upon gender and chromosomes.
Y: Your Favorite Food: right . . . like i have a "favorite." how about a favorite food group: red meat.
Z: Zodiac: Aquarius.
B: Best Friend: WEEF!
C: Cake or Pie: What about pie cake? You know . . . something with a crust, but all cakey and icingy.
D: Day of Choice: Saturday. It's a special day.
E: Essential Item: ipod
F: Favorite Color: blue
G: Greatest Accomplishment: getting married.
H: Hometown: Good question. I moved to Utah from Buffalo NY (GO SABRES!), but I spent a lot of time in southern Ohio before moving there, so . . .
I: Indulgences: Right now, pudding.
J: January or July: yah, not so sure on either.
---Where did K go? Did .
L: Life is Incomplete Without: weef
M: Marriage Date: May 11, 2000. Best day EVER!
N: Number of Siblings: 1 brother, 2 brothers in law, and 3 sisters in law
O: Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P: Phobias or Fears: failing
Q: Quotes: "Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, 'would an idiot do that?' And if they would, I do *not* do that thing." DKS
R: Reason to Smile: WEEF!
S: Season: Fall. Halloween. 'nuff said.
T: Tag Four Friends: By "friends," I'm assuming this means other bloggers. I tag all y'all that actually read this pathetic global offering.
U: Unknown Fact about Me: I was almost born in Japan.
V: Very Favorite Store: Best Buy, followed closely by Gray Whale, but EARLY Gray Whale.
W: Worst Habit: They're all equally bad.
X: X-ray or Ultrasound: I would have to with x-ray, based upon gender and chromosomes.
Y: Your Favorite Food: right . . . like i have a "favorite." how about a favorite food group: red meat.
Z: Zodiac: Aquarius.
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