On Thursday, our new system went live. On Friday, we hopped on an airplane to head down tot sunny Florida for a week at Disney World. First, about the work: I'm in shock, but things seem to be going well - there were some issues in areas that we had already known might cause us some trouble... and the fact that there were no OTHER major issues meant we were able to focus our resources on those trouble spots. I've been checking my work email no more than once a day, just to see if something huge has emerged, but no, it seems to be going ok. SO I'm just fine with being here.
The flight down was good - on time and relatively smooth... but the last 10 minutes had us hitting some pretty major bumps... and poor Isaac wound up puking all over the place as we taxi'ed to the gate. Of course I wasn't quick enough with a bag, and it wound up EVERYWHERE. Fortunately the door opened shortly and people were able to flee. The flight attendants were very pleasant - apparently Isaac wasn't the only kid to have lost his cookies on the flight, either.
The downside is that Isaac has been announcing that "i think I'm going to frow up" at every opportunity. It figures - he didn't really see why he puked before, so it's a potential for every minute now.
So Friday we checked in to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, an African-themed hotel with a gorgeous atrium and wild animals wandering around right outside our windows. There are 4 giraffes, a pair of zebras, and many ox-goat-bull style animals. Some with absurdly large horns. The room isn't big, but the view is great. Nothing like having morning coffee watching a giraffe nibble on some leaves 100 feet away.
On Saturday we did the Animal Kingdom park. Here's where Pamela's obsessive planning came into play - We did all the rides we wanted to do, with no waiting at all. She got us hooked up with Tour Guide Mike, which is a "Disney Insider" website. She set up an itinerary that was based on going "contrary" to the typical flow of guests at the park, and strategic collection of "fast passes" which let you jump to the front of the line (but need to be planned out). For most of the day, we were like Salmon spawning, flying against the crowds. We started with a character breakfast at Tusker House, where our not-very-African bacon and waffles were complimented with visits from Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy, all in safari gear. The kids were thrilled.
We passed out early after that day, but not before running into Rick and Kari, parents of Bailey and Ty, who were at the tail end of their weeklong trip. We retired to the pool for drinks while the kids swam (mostly with Rick) - Bella discovered the water slide at the end of the pool and went down it thirty times. She counted.
Sunday was a chillaxing by the pool day - the kids were tired, we were tired, and we spent many hours at the pool, Randy, JeMae, and Jenny came by after THEIR day at Animal Kingdom, and there was another swim-fest into the evening. We had dinner at the big buffet in the hotel, which has African-themed foods (which to my tastes means "sort of BBQ, but with a great red harissa sauce you can put on everything"). The food was great.
Monday was our day for Epcot, and it was a RAINY RAINY DAY. It started drizzling, but by the time we finished our first ride on "Soarin'" (the imax flying ride), the lightning was flashing and there was a half inch of standing water everywhere. We stuck to plan and got to do the indoor rides we wanted to do, but by 11:30, we were getting hungry - we ducked into the british pub in the "international" part of Epcot and had a leisurely pub lunch... while the rain thundered down. "A Beautiful British Summer's Day" as Papa said a few times. More than a few times.
Since we were in the international area (which has exhibits from Canada, Great Britain, Morocco, Germany, Italy, USA, China, Japan, France, and I'm sure I'm forgetting one), we decided to fill out a "passport" for Bella - where you go to each country, find the "kidcot" station and get a stamp and talk to a native speaker.
It was actually very fun, though by the end of it we were thoroughly soaked. Highlights included Japan, which had an amazing gift shop, and Great Britain, where we ran into Tigger AND Mary Poppins! Mary was very nice to Bella, and Isaac did some jumping with Tigger.
Soaked to the bone we made our way back to the hotel, and we're taking another day off Tuesday - we all need the break. I wound up carrying Isaac for most of yesterday and my shoulders and arms are all a-twitch from exhaustion. I'm sitting in the grand lobby using my phone's connection, since Disney has taken the admirably retro approach of not only NOT having any Wifi, but also charging $10/day for a cabled connection.
It is forcing me to think twice about checking emails... so I'm really only checking in once a day with work, and am offline a lot.
And I needed some serious offline time. I'm very happy to be relaxing.
NEXT UP: We're doing the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, and we hope the weather agrees with us!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
In case you're wondering
The golive went very well. The 36 hours of conversion pre-live were successful, and as of this writing, we've been up and fully live for over 18 hours, with no major incidents to speak of (knock wood). I leave on my vacation knowing I brought them right up to a good golive. Now it's just watching and fixing, which the team can definitely do.
And I'm going to Disneyworld!
And I'm going to Disneyworld!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Countdown!
1) Yesterday Isaac was dancing around the kitchen, with Spiderman in one hand and Electro in the other (small plastic dolls), singing "Chicka Wow Wow!.. That's what my baby say,.... Chicka Wow wow... That's what my baby say". I have no comment.
2) I'm terribly thrilled about a product for the iPad: The Fairlight CMI. Back in the 1980s, the Fairlight was between $30-60,000. It was big and white and had a video screen with green text and you used a LIGHT PEN to program it. Duran Duran had one, as did Thomas Dolby, and so many others. I have written about my Fairlight Lust many times in the past.
Well, the co-inventor of the Fairlight, Peter Vogel, went and made a version of it for the iphone and ipad. It has the same sounds, it works in a lot of the same ways, and you program it in the same way. It is in every way that matters, a full on Fairlight. And it runs in an iPad. What's even more fun is that when you load sounds or select programs, it plays the sounds of the clicky keyboard and clunky disk drive. It's a bit gimmicky, but perfect for me. So I've been playing with it a bit, loading up the breathy ahhh sound and playing "Ghost in You" by Psych Furs, and "Shout" by Tears for Fears.
3) We're going live this week... and I really do think we're ready. My team is at the hospital now preparing for chart conversions that start at midnight. To kill time before gotime, I've declared a Haiku competition.
4) I had a good work weekend for my Maryland stuff too - I heard back that they were very happy with the info I delivered. That made me happy. I do like doing good work.
5) Friday is when we take off for vacation and I am INCREDiBLY READY for this.
2) I'm terribly thrilled about a product for the iPad: The Fairlight CMI. Back in the 1980s, the Fairlight was between $30-60,000. It was big and white and had a video screen with green text and you used a LIGHT PEN to program it. Duran Duran had one, as did Thomas Dolby, and so many others. I have written about my Fairlight Lust many times in the past.
Well, the co-inventor of the Fairlight, Peter Vogel, went and made a version of it for the iphone and ipad. It has the same sounds, it works in a lot of the same ways, and you program it in the same way. It is in every way that matters, a full on Fairlight. And it runs in an iPad. What's even more fun is that when you load sounds or select programs, it plays the sounds of the clicky keyboard and clunky disk drive. It's a bit gimmicky, but perfect for me. So I've been playing with it a bit, loading up the breathy ahhh sound and playing "Ghost in You" by Psych Furs, and "Shout" by Tears for Fears.
3) We're going live this week... and I really do think we're ready. My team is at the hospital now preparing for chart conversions that start at midnight. To kill time before gotime, I've declared a Haiku competition.
4) I had a good work weekend for my Maryland stuff too - I heard back that they were very happy with the info I delivered. That made me happy. I do like doing good work.
5) Friday is when we take off for vacation and I am INCREDiBLY READY for this.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sail the Skies
Another Dream, transcribed for your consideration and enjoyment:
Started in a communal loft space where me and my friends are all staying - we're wrapping up a visit to Tokyo, and preparing to head to the airport. I'm setting my facebook status, and linger for a moment on my Facebook picture: It's a small animation that I recognize as a student movie I had done in college - short movies of my friends eyeballs, shot in grainy black and white. As I'm reviewing the movie, I try to remember which eyeballs were for which friends. The last one before it loops is of a guy with pretty bugged out eyes, shifty, and I remember "I don't recall his name, but boy was he a jerk".
Facebook status updated, it's time to head to the airport. I'm running late so I commandeer one of those airport carts. For some reason, the airport has been done up using a fake beach theme, with big plastic palm trees, and huge dunes of sand, making "islands" on the blue concourse carpeting.
Naturally, I swerve the golf cart into one of the beaches and get stuck on the sand, so I jump out and hightail it for the gate.
The airline I'm using has a "nautical theme" - "Sail the Skies". The upshot of this is that instead of having a regular jetway to the airplane, the airplane is sitting out on a blue painted circle on the tarmac (the "sea"), and they ferry me out to the plane on a "boat launch" (which is basically a rowboat on the end of a forklift). I'm sitting on the prow of the boat, as I'm ferried out to the airplane, and clamber out into the open airplane door (without a stairway). The stewardess has a sailor outfit on.
I settle into my seat and look at my flight itinerary: Looks like this isn't a direct flight, but a one-stop. Hmmm... This flight goes direct to DALLAS Texas, at which point they're transferring me to a BUS to drive to Minneapolis. I have two options - either one of those tall shuttles they use for rental car transfers, or a long Ford Econoline van.
As I'm reviewing the options, I'm disappointed: It's 20 hours in a van, and EITHER option is not that big of a vehicle. "Oh man, that's a long time, and I don't want to have to talk to the driver that whole time"
And that's when I woke up.
Started in a communal loft space where me and my friends are all staying - we're wrapping up a visit to Tokyo, and preparing to head to the airport. I'm setting my facebook status, and linger for a moment on my Facebook picture: It's a small animation that I recognize as a student movie I had done in college - short movies of my friends eyeballs, shot in grainy black and white. As I'm reviewing the movie, I try to remember which eyeballs were for which friends. The last one before it loops is of a guy with pretty bugged out eyes, shifty, and I remember "I don't recall his name, but boy was he a jerk".
Facebook status updated, it's time to head to the airport. I'm running late so I commandeer one of those airport carts. For some reason, the airport has been done up using a fake beach theme, with big plastic palm trees, and huge dunes of sand, making "islands" on the blue concourse carpeting.
Naturally, I swerve the golf cart into one of the beaches and get stuck on the sand, so I jump out and hightail it for the gate.
The airline I'm using has a "nautical theme" - "Sail the Skies". The upshot of this is that instead of having a regular jetway to the airplane, the airplane is sitting out on a blue painted circle on the tarmac (the "sea"), and they ferry me out to the plane on a "boat launch" (which is basically a rowboat on the end of a forklift). I'm sitting on the prow of the boat, as I'm ferried out to the airplane, and clamber out into the open airplane door (without a stairway). The stewardess has a sailor outfit on.
I settle into my seat and look at my flight itinerary: Looks like this isn't a direct flight, but a one-stop. Hmmm... This flight goes direct to DALLAS Texas, at which point they're transferring me to a BUS to drive to Minneapolis. I have two options - either one of those tall shuttles they use for rental car transfers, or a long Ford Econoline van.
As I'm reviewing the options, I'm disappointed: It's 20 hours in a van, and EITHER option is not that big of a vehicle. "Oh man, that's a long time, and I don't want to have to talk to the driver that whole time"
And that's when I woke up.
Friday, March 11, 2011
That's odd
I'm back in Maryland - a 24 hour trip to meet with the project sponsors and give a status update. Given all of the things happening in JimmyVille these days, I was perhaps a bit ill-prepared for this meeting, so I pulled some late nights across the week, worked on the plane, drove the hour from Baltimore to Frederick, got in after midnight, and worked in the room until the wee hours, got up early to finish, and met with them at 10am.
Fortunately, I actually pulled it together, and we had a very good 4 hours of meetings.
I hopped back in the car for the hour drive back to the airport, got through security with PLENTY of time to spare, found a seat, and actually fell asleep in the chair for 45min. Flat out, snoring, drooling (i assume from the dry corners of my mouth). I woke up, found I still had all my stuff and celebrated with a Potbelly sandwich. I'll be actually BOARDING in another hour - it was better to get here early and beat the traffic.
Now I'm squatting behind an unused gate agent desk, since the Thurgood Marshall Airport has about 7 power outlets spread across 14 gates, and all of us power vampires are hovering around waiting for someone to finish charging... I'm here for another 5 min to top it all up, and then I'm giving up the spot to one of the three guys who are watching me type this.
Looking forward to the weekend, I am. LOOKING FORWARD.
Fortunately, I actually pulled it together, and we had a very good 4 hours of meetings.
I hopped back in the car for the hour drive back to the airport, got through security with PLENTY of time to spare, found a seat, and actually fell asleep in the chair for 45min. Flat out, snoring, drooling (i assume from the dry corners of my mouth). I woke up, found I still had all my stuff and celebrated with a Potbelly sandwich. I'll be actually BOARDING in another hour - it was better to get here early and beat the traffic.
Now I'm squatting behind an unused gate agent desk, since the Thurgood Marshall Airport has about 7 power outlets spread across 14 gates, and all of us power vampires are hovering around waiting for someone to finish charging... I'm here for another 5 min to top it all up, and then I'm giving up the spot to one of the three guys who are watching me type this.
Looking forward to the weekend, I am. LOOKING FORWARD.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Another Evening
1) Bella and I finished Harry Potter 4 - The Goblet of Fire. This is the "pivot" book where things start getting pretty dark in the series, and I was a little worried about whether Bella would track it all... but heck, she was right there with me, and I loved revisiting it. I must confess that the full three chapters before the last one were very full of "monologuing" - first Voldemort, then Moody/Crouch, then Dumbledore - everybody was giving these very story-heavy speeches that explained all the strange happenings in the book in detail. On one hand, I sort of resent the spoonfeed method, but on the other hand, Rowling was really trying to make sure everyone (kids kids kids) understood all of the things that were happening. And Bella got it.
2) Isaac and I had our Tuesday MAN DATE, since Pamela and Bella were at Synchro. We went to Edinborough Park again, and he was WORKING me hard - we had a game of tag around the gym that had us running top speed for 6 laps, before we both collapsed. After a while of this, I told Isaac to "go find some kids and just PLAY will you?" I turned to my iPhone for a minute and when I looked up I saw Isaac standing with ANOTHER DAD, playimng bounce-catch with a basketball.
Basically since his dad crapped out, he found another dad and just started playing. The other dad had his eye on his own kid (WHO WAS PLAYING WITH OTHER KIDS), and indulging Isaac pretty well, but I had to get up and get engaged again - don't want to look TOO much like a deadbeat.
3) Tonight Isaac said he was sad that there were no real superheroes "In This World". In This World is his way of saying the real world vs pretend, but what I love about the turn of phrase is that it really doesn't deprecate the other world: It's equivalent, just not this one. Scooby Doo lives, but not in this world.
Anyway, I asked if he wanted to be a superhero, and he said no, not really. He just wished there WERE real superheroes, and he'd want to have their costumes to dress up in. He doesn't like that he can dress as spiderman and batman, but that they're not in THIS world. He thinks it would be much better to dress as a "REAL" superhero.
4) Ok, I'm over my snit about the Washburn Reunion. The popular people and I are now reconciled, and I'm helping plan this with them. Actually the committee is three people, a popular girl, a burnout who got expelled, and me, the arty nerd. It's like some sort of unholy trinity, and it's actually an excellent metaphor for how the walls and the labels disappear as the years go on. I'm very happy about it now.
And that's it!
2) Isaac and I had our Tuesday MAN DATE, since Pamela and Bella were at Synchro. We went to Edinborough Park again, and he was WORKING me hard - we had a game of tag around the gym that had us running top speed for 6 laps, before we both collapsed. After a while of this, I told Isaac to "go find some kids and just PLAY will you?" I turned to my iPhone for a minute and when I looked up I saw Isaac standing with ANOTHER DAD, playimng bounce-catch with a basketball.
Basically since his dad crapped out, he found another dad and just started playing. The other dad had his eye on his own kid (WHO WAS PLAYING WITH OTHER KIDS), and indulging Isaac pretty well, but I had to get up and get engaged again - don't want to look TOO much like a deadbeat.
3) Tonight Isaac said he was sad that there were no real superheroes "In This World". In This World is his way of saying the real world vs pretend, but what I love about the turn of phrase is that it really doesn't deprecate the other world: It's equivalent, just not this one. Scooby Doo lives, but not in this world.
Anyway, I asked if he wanted to be a superhero, and he said no, not really. He just wished there WERE real superheroes, and he'd want to have their costumes to dress up in. He doesn't like that he can dress as spiderman and batman, but that they're not in THIS world. He thinks it would be much better to dress as a "REAL" superhero.
4) Ok, I'm over my snit about the Washburn Reunion. The popular people and I are now reconciled, and I'm helping plan this with them. Actually the committee is three people, a popular girl, a burnout who got expelled, and me, the arty nerd. It's like some sort of unholy trinity, and it's actually an excellent metaphor for how the walls and the labels disappear as the years go on. I'm very happy about it now.
And that's it!
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Not the Midas Touch
For some reason, as has been documented many times in this journal, I have something of a black thumb when it comes to technology. You’ve seen me writing about laptops with dead batteries and cracked hinges, about hard drive crashes and fried motherboards, about smashed screens on Kindles, about home phones that lose their battery charge in a matter of minutes.
There’s just something about me and my own personal electromagnetic field that is somehow perilous to tech. It’s not ALL bad: I have become VERY good at making sure everything is backed up. And it does keep me on an aggressive upgrade path as well. And it’s not EVERYTHING: I have pretty good cellphone mojo, and my home TV/DVD/Cable/Internet setup seems pretty solid (knock on wood).
But in this past week, I’ve had two more outages: My Macbook Air has been one of the more troubled units – first it was a dead battery. Then it was a broken screen hinge, then I had to have it tuned up because the screen hinge fix came loose, and now it’s in the shop for another dead battery AND the screen hinge has come loose yet again, AND it has a roaring fan. And they took it from me just before some business travel.
I sat and thought: How will I make it through a week or more without my laptop? I have no spare. The work laptop from my current client is locked down very tightly and I can’t use it for anything not on their network (I don’t even take it home anymore – there’s no point). I needed something.
So I’m typing this on a new Macbook Air – the smaller 11” one. I admit to having lust in my heart for this thing since I first saw it months ago. Looking back on my history, I’ve had several very small laptops, and I’ve always loved them – my little Sonys of the early 2000s come to mind. I love having a tiny computer. Pamela, on the other hand, does not love my little computers. She is not as in denial as I am about our age and the eyesight, and she wants big keys and big letters on that screen. We agree to disagree in this realm.
But I sort of resent that my hand was forced on it. The resentment isn’t too bad, because dang it this is an AMAZING laptop. And when the old one comes back from the shop, I’ll work out what to do with it – maybe Pamela will want it, maybe we’ll sell it.
FAR more galling is the fact that my THIRD Kindle has died: Kindle 1 was the small one, and it got a cracked screen. Kindle 2 was the larger DX, which died due to a design flaw – the hooks that hold the cover on can get bent if you open it wrong, prying the case of the kindle apart… which happened. So they sent me another Kindle and another case, and within a month, the case started cracking the side AGAIN, so I took it out and have been using it bareback.
And the other night I took it out of my briefcase (in a pocket without anything else in it), to find the screen completely fritzed out – it looks like a pressure crack, but might “just” be a bad motherboard. Whatever it is, it is dead.
I must now give Amazon some amazing credit here: I called to ask about it, and they said “well, you’re just out of warranty, and it doesn’t sound like you were abusing the unit, so I’m just going to send you another one.” That was at 6pm Friday. At 8:30am Saturday, there was a new Kindle on my porch. WOW.
So now I can get back to work on Infinite Jest. What a crazy book.
There’s just something about me and my own personal electromagnetic field that is somehow perilous to tech. It’s not ALL bad: I have become VERY good at making sure everything is backed up. And it does keep me on an aggressive upgrade path as well. And it’s not EVERYTHING: I have pretty good cellphone mojo, and my home TV/DVD/Cable/Internet setup seems pretty solid (knock on wood).
But in this past week, I’ve had two more outages: My Macbook Air has been one of the more troubled units – first it was a dead battery. Then it was a broken screen hinge, then I had to have it tuned up because the screen hinge fix came loose, and now it’s in the shop for another dead battery AND the screen hinge has come loose yet again, AND it has a roaring fan. And they took it from me just before some business travel.
I sat and thought: How will I make it through a week or more without my laptop? I have no spare. The work laptop from my current client is locked down very tightly and I can’t use it for anything not on their network (I don’t even take it home anymore – there’s no point). I needed something.
So I’m typing this on a new Macbook Air – the smaller 11” one. I admit to having lust in my heart for this thing since I first saw it months ago. Looking back on my history, I’ve had several very small laptops, and I’ve always loved them – my little Sonys of the early 2000s come to mind. I love having a tiny computer. Pamela, on the other hand, does not love my little computers. She is not as in denial as I am about our age and the eyesight, and she wants big keys and big letters on that screen. We agree to disagree in this realm.
But I sort of resent that my hand was forced on it. The resentment isn’t too bad, because dang it this is an AMAZING laptop. And when the old one comes back from the shop, I’ll work out what to do with it – maybe Pamela will want it, maybe we’ll sell it.
FAR more galling is the fact that my THIRD Kindle has died: Kindle 1 was the small one, and it got a cracked screen. Kindle 2 was the larger DX, which died due to a design flaw – the hooks that hold the cover on can get bent if you open it wrong, prying the case of the kindle apart… which happened. So they sent me another Kindle and another case, and within a month, the case started cracking the side AGAIN, so I took it out and have been using it bareback.
And the other night I took it out of my briefcase (in a pocket without anything else in it), to find the screen completely fritzed out – it looks like a pressure crack, but might “just” be a bad motherboard. Whatever it is, it is dead.
I must now give Amazon some amazing credit here: I called to ask about it, and they said “well, you’re just out of warranty, and it doesn’t sound like you were abusing the unit, so I’m just going to send you another one.” That was at 6pm Friday. At 8:30am Saturday, there was a new Kindle on my porch. WOW.
So now I can get back to work on Infinite Jest. What a crazy book.
Working Stiff
We are at a few weeks from golive at the Minneapolis client, and that means one thing. We are at a few weeks from our trip to Disney! My team keeps forgetting that I’m there to take them right up to the edge, but not across the finish line, and it’s a little odd to keep reminding them… but on the other hand, it’s forcing me to be smart about allocating responsibilities across the team: If I was going to be here, there are any number of tasks that I would have been tempted to say “I’ll just take that”, when in fact it would make better sense to farm it out.
So I’m trying to look at this as a positive. I mean, for me it IS a positive – I’ll be spending days in the sun with my family having fun instead of sitting 12-14 hours a day in a hospital basement manning a command center. So yeah, positive. And I WILL be in that command center the day I get back… but by then, the sheer naked panic should have subsided and we should be in crisis management mode.
I was afraid that my holding to this schedule would somehow impact my standing with the client, but oh look in my inbox, they just asked me to stay on to the end of the year. So they must not be TOO disappointed with me.
With the big golive behind us, and with me having a safe home base for the next 7 months, it’ll allow me to spend more time on building out other parts of the business. Specifically, we are starting to grow the data analytics line, which is MINE. I have one analyst already, and am looking for a second. We have one gig underway, a second one being negotiated, and clients 3 and 4 are identified and ready to go this summer.
This is the sort of thing I was hoping to be able to do with this company – to have the time to organically build out a practice area, while not being on the hook for DOING all the work myself. My boss/mentor Dan says it’s building a “long tail” – anyone can do work, but to grow you need to be able to find it, start it, and hand it off to someone you trust. It’s tough for a control freak like myself to trust that someone else can do work as good as I can… so I’m definitely keeping a close eye on the deliverables, but so far so good.
Business is on my mind because I’m flying home now from a leadership meeting in Philly. We spent 2 days talking about our staff, our growth, our strategic plans… and I was just happy to HAVE one. At the last leadership meeting, I was stymied because I had been trapped in Cleveland with a full time job and not really able to focus on growing my own work. Now I do have a big project, but I’m not on the road, and I have flexibility to take time out in the day to make things happen. Plus, it’s WAY easier to take a day trip out to Maryland or Philly from a home base, instead of tryng to work out flights from Cleveland.
I still love my company – whenever we get together for a few days, I leave liking us just as much as I did when I walked in. We have strong personalities, but we’re all competent in our own ways. There’s a good base of respect across the organization, and while we do go down the rabbit hole on minutae sometimes, it’s always a fun journey. And we’re doing GREAT – we have had 35% growth over the past 3 years, and are on track for that this year – we’ll be over $12m this year if we just work the business we’ve already sold. We could hit $16m easily this year, and over $20m next year. It’s not a bad place to be.
We do need to be smart, however: There’s a lot of business out there, and we’re not getting it at the expense of anyone ELSE: So while the growth is great, it’s not only because we’re good – we need to recognize it’s a great market. It’s that sort of humility and drive to keep ourselves tied to our core values and integrity that further cements my love for the company.
That and the fantastic dinners we have when we get together…
And now something a little different:
One of my co-workers is Gregg, who brought me into the company. He is an abrasive east-coaster who has a penchant for strange turns of phrase. From this trip we had two gems:
“Let me throw something else into the wrinkle”. This is like one he had last year “we’re all going to have to put our hands in the fire here”. The classic mixed metaphor.
“I’m superstitious – I’m the kind of guy who carries around a lucky rabbit head in his pocket”. This one had us completely unable to work for about 20 minutes as we tried to stop laughing.
So I’m trying to look at this as a positive. I mean, for me it IS a positive – I’ll be spending days in the sun with my family having fun instead of sitting 12-14 hours a day in a hospital basement manning a command center. So yeah, positive. And I WILL be in that command center the day I get back… but by then, the sheer naked panic should have subsided and we should be in crisis management mode.
I was afraid that my holding to this schedule would somehow impact my standing with the client, but oh look in my inbox, they just asked me to stay on to the end of the year. So they must not be TOO disappointed with me.
With the big golive behind us, and with me having a safe home base for the next 7 months, it’ll allow me to spend more time on building out other parts of the business. Specifically, we are starting to grow the data analytics line, which is MINE. I have one analyst already, and am looking for a second. We have one gig underway, a second one being negotiated, and clients 3 and 4 are identified and ready to go this summer.
This is the sort of thing I was hoping to be able to do with this company – to have the time to organically build out a practice area, while not being on the hook for DOING all the work myself. My boss/mentor Dan says it’s building a “long tail” – anyone can do work, but to grow you need to be able to find it, start it, and hand it off to someone you trust. It’s tough for a control freak like myself to trust that someone else can do work as good as I can… so I’m definitely keeping a close eye on the deliverables, but so far so good.
Business is on my mind because I’m flying home now from a leadership meeting in Philly. We spent 2 days talking about our staff, our growth, our strategic plans… and I was just happy to HAVE one. At the last leadership meeting, I was stymied because I had been trapped in Cleveland with a full time job and not really able to focus on growing my own work. Now I do have a big project, but I’m not on the road, and I have flexibility to take time out in the day to make things happen. Plus, it’s WAY easier to take a day trip out to Maryland or Philly from a home base, instead of tryng to work out flights from Cleveland.
I still love my company – whenever we get together for a few days, I leave liking us just as much as I did when I walked in. We have strong personalities, but we’re all competent in our own ways. There’s a good base of respect across the organization, and while we do go down the rabbit hole on minutae sometimes, it’s always a fun journey. And we’re doing GREAT – we have had 35% growth over the past 3 years, and are on track for that this year – we’ll be over $12m this year if we just work the business we’ve already sold. We could hit $16m easily this year, and over $20m next year. It’s not a bad place to be.
We do need to be smart, however: There’s a lot of business out there, and we’re not getting it at the expense of anyone ELSE: So while the growth is great, it’s not only because we’re good – we need to recognize it’s a great market. It’s that sort of humility and drive to keep ourselves tied to our core values and integrity that further cements my love for the company.
That and the fantastic dinners we have when we get together…
And now something a little different:
One of my co-workers is Gregg, who brought me into the company. He is an abrasive east-coaster who has a penchant for strange turns of phrase. From this trip we had two gems:
“Let me throw something else into the wrinkle”. This is like one he had last year “we’re all going to have to put our hands in the fire here”. The classic mixed metaphor.
“I’m superstitious – I’m the kind of guy who carries around a lucky rabbit head in his pocket”. This one had us completely unable to work for about 20 minutes as we tried to stop laughing.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
To the Rescue
As I was (am?) the senior class president of Washburn High 1986, I have a responsibility to organize the reunions. Well, I didn't do it for the 10, nor the 15, nor the 20, but I decided to really try to organize the 25. I got a facebook page together, I invited people, I organized meet-ups... and only one guy showed up to any of it. So imagine my surprise to get a facebook notification that "we're throwing the 25th" from a few people in the class, asking if I wanted to help out.
At this point, with everything else going on in my life, I'm EXTREMELY comfortable shuttering my own effort and backing the competing party. Same weekend, and let's face it, it's the popular gang organizing it... so it will succeed.
I did run my Senior President campaign on only one platform: Everyone could be in the Senior Movie, and I would do really fun Morning Announcements. And I did both - with a camcorder at a school assembly... and at least I think I did good announcements. I was probably a legend in my own mind on that. So it's no surprise that the "real" leaders of my class would be organizing this sort of thing... I was just a goofball who stole the crown. From my former best friend, actually. But that's another story.
Sigh - I really pity people who say High School was the best years of their life. Moving on:
Bella competed this weekend in Regionals for Synchro, and her team actually won the GOLD MEDAL!!! This is in spite of the fact that during their performance routine, one member decided to get creative and do her own routine separate. It's called SYNCHRONIZED swimming, people. Apparently our girls got enough on the technicals to pull ahead, so good for them! It's been a hard season so far with so much snow and missed practices. But they did it!
That had Bella up VERY late Friday and Saturday nights, and she took her time going down tonight too. She'll be a tired girl for school I imagine. All this Synchro had me and Isaac hanging out a lot. It was very fun.
Ok, it's a short update - my eyes are blearing, so it's off to bed.
At this point, with everything else going on in my life, I'm EXTREMELY comfortable shuttering my own effort and backing the competing party. Same weekend, and let's face it, it's the popular gang organizing it... so it will succeed.
I did run my Senior President campaign on only one platform: Everyone could be in the Senior Movie, and I would do really fun Morning Announcements. And I did both - with a camcorder at a school assembly... and at least I think I did good announcements. I was probably a legend in my own mind on that. So it's no surprise that the "real" leaders of my class would be organizing this sort of thing... I was just a goofball who stole the crown. From my former best friend, actually. But that's another story.
Sigh - I really pity people who say High School was the best years of their life. Moving on:
Bella competed this weekend in Regionals for Synchro, and her team actually won the GOLD MEDAL!!! This is in spite of the fact that during their performance routine, one member decided to get creative and do her own routine separate. It's called SYNCHRONIZED swimming, people. Apparently our girls got enough on the technicals to pull ahead, so good for them! It's been a hard season so far with so much snow and missed practices. But they did it!
That had Bella up VERY late Friday and Saturday nights, and she took her time going down tonight too. She'll be a tired girl for school I imagine. All this Synchro had me and Isaac hanging out a lot. It was very fun.
Ok, it's a short update - my eyes are blearing, so it's off to bed.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Man Date
Isaac and I just got back from a boy's night on the town: We went up to the Chatterbox Pub up the street and had dinner and played "Tee Vee Games" (as Isaac calls it). Isaac has been talking about going there again for weeks, and loves playing Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo, and a game of Candyland too. Mostly Mario. He likes to play Mario, and asks me to play "Moe-WEE-gi" (Luigi). Of course my Mario chops were honed to a fine edge from my year at La Maison Francaise, where my Super Nintendo not only dropped several students' GPAs, but also gave the Native Speaker Jean Michel the idea to go back to France and start Guillemot, which became UbiSoft, which basically was a hugely successful video game company.
Anyway, Isaac and I had a great evening out. He had a hamburger, I had a jerk chicken pizza, and we spent almost 2 hours just having fun.
Other things:
Bella woke up in a TERRIBLE mood yesterday: Pamela and I had tidied up the house and had inadvertently destroyed a space station she had built (a blanket on the floor surrounded by dining room chairs). She saw this first thing and was in tears. She stormed off to the basement. After a few minutes I went down to check on her, and she wasn't talking, but I could see she was drawing something, and wanted me to leave her alone. This was good - we've been working on having her have creative outlets for her feelings.
5 minutes later, she came upstairs with a thundercloud, with raindrops, cut out of construction paper, held over her head with pipecleaners. I almost died, it was so adorable. She got a big hug, and everything was ok. We talked about other things she could have over her head (lightning for anger, sun for happy). But I was very proud of her for recognizing her mood, and doing something to lighten it. And did I mention it was completely adorable?
As Friday was kind of nice, we let Zinsser out the back door (full yard access, not just his poopoo palace). Pamela saw him chomping on something, and shortly thereafter he seemed to be choking - coughing up phlegm. Got us all worried, and by 10pm Friday night we were sufficiently worried to take him to the emergency vet. We got x-rays, and found that there was no pinecone his trachea... but still the coughing and gagging continued. Monday we took him to the daytime vet, and he has Kennel Cough. Turns out a cough sounds a lot like a puke for a dog. Poor Zinsser is now on Antibiotics, and he really needs to rest. He tries to play, and runs around for a minute, then falls down coughing. It breaks our hearts.
So we're giving Zinsser lots of cuddles.
Isaac is in the bath now, and I'm hoping it chills him out a little - he was excited to the point of speaking in tongues when he found out I was taking him to the Chatterbox. I even asked if he'd prefer to go to Edinborough Park, and he said "another day, tonight Chatterbox!!!". So with the 'Box out of the way and a lot of Mario played, I'm hoping he'll fall off to sleep nice and easy.
Anyway, Isaac and I had a great evening out. He had a hamburger, I had a jerk chicken pizza, and we spent almost 2 hours just having fun.
Other things:
Bella woke up in a TERRIBLE mood yesterday: Pamela and I had tidied up the house and had inadvertently destroyed a space station she had built (a blanket on the floor surrounded by dining room chairs). She saw this first thing and was in tears. She stormed off to the basement. After a few minutes I went down to check on her, and she wasn't talking, but I could see she was drawing something, and wanted me to leave her alone. This was good - we've been working on having her have creative outlets for her feelings.
5 minutes later, she came upstairs with a thundercloud, with raindrops, cut out of construction paper, held over her head with pipecleaners. I almost died, it was so adorable. She got a big hug, and everything was ok. We talked about other things she could have over her head (lightning for anger, sun for happy). But I was very proud of her for recognizing her mood, and doing something to lighten it. And did I mention it was completely adorable?
As Friday was kind of nice, we let Zinsser out the back door (full yard access, not just his poopoo palace). Pamela saw him chomping on something, and shortly thereafter he seemed to be choking - coughing up phlegm. Got us all worried, and by 10pm Friday night we were sufficiently worried to take him to the emergency vet. We got x-rays, and found that there was no pinecone his trachea... but still the coughing and gagging continued. Monday we took him to the daytime vet, and he has Kennel Cough. Turns out a cough sounds a lot like a puke for a dog. Poor Zinsser is now on Antibiotics, and he really needs to rest. He tries to play, and runs around for a minute, then falls down coughing. It breaks our hearts.
So we're giving Zinsser lots of cuddles.
Isaac is in the bath now, and I'm hoping it chills him out a little - he was excited to the point of speaking in tongues when he found out I was taking him to the Chatterbox. I even asked if he'd prefer to go to Edinborough Park, and he said "another day, tonight Chatterbox!!!". So with the 'Box out of the way and a lot of Mario played, I'm hoping he'll fall off to sleep nice and easy.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
So what else?
I haven't posted so much recently - here's the short version: Work is hard and the project is some degree of doomed, but we're trying, and people are really doing a good job. There are no villains in this story, nobody being obstinate or stupid that I can rail against, just a lot to do and not QUITE enough time to do it without people working a lot harder than I would like them to have to.
There have been a lot of Jimmy Johns lunches (hey, they deliver), and I'm growing a little weary of it... but all told, it's a project, and I get to sleep in my bed every night, so that is worth a LOT to me right now.
I am kicking off another project next week - one that I'll be managing remotely with a "boots on the ground" resource I hired... It is going to require both a lot of trust and a lot of oversight to make sure this goes well, because if it DOES go well, it's my new business line, and I can sell it to a dozen more clients. I had mixed results outsourcing my work for a different project late last year in Allentown - the person did a good job, but didn't really LAND it in the end, so I wound up parachuting in and making it all better. Of course, at the same time I was leaving Cleveland and starting Mpls, so my attention wasn't as focused as it could have been. I learned, and will manage this next one better.
My car is in the shop again - this time for a simple "check engine" light and a burned out headlamp... and they've had it for 2 days and counting, without a call about when I might get it back. But I'm not complaining. Why? Because the loaner they gave me is a $90,000 2011 Jaguar XJ Supercharged. IT IS AWESOME. I'm driving the HECK out of it, and having a lot of fun. I got the phone all bluetoothed in, and the music is flowing... it's a lot of fun. It's a little odd to be driving something that is worth over 7 times the bluebook value of the car that's in the shop. And if they think they're going to tempt me into upgrading this way... well they're right. I am tempted. It would be a lie to say otherwise. BUT temptation can be resisted. Especially when you look at $90,000 as the potential cost of 2 years of a good college.
I make good money these days, but not THAT good, people.
Let's see... Pamela is a busy busy bee: Since Christmas, we've had two big "events" she's been planning - the ECFE Gala we went to 3 weeks ago, and the ECFE winter party she's planning for this weekend. As a result of both, there has been paperwork and party supplies strewn around the house pretty much nonstop for weeks. I am patiently waiting for this to be over.
The house is a mess, partly because of the party fuss, but also because we had a cascade failure of appliances: The Microwave which would take 5 min to boil water started billowing black smoke one day. The dishwasher (both drawers) decided to stop washing and coat the dishes with black oily substance, and the oven burned some scones while leaving the middles raw. Yes, this rogues gallery of appliances joins the Fridge in being officially "dead to me", And you know what happened to the fridge. IT GOT REPLACED.
(And yes, we have tried to fix the dishwasher - they've been fixed 4 times in the 7 years we've had them. It is time to try something else. The rest are all over 10 years old, and frankly we want a change).
The big truck is coming Friday to put in our new Bosch appliances - fine German appliances that will not disappoint us.
And what else? I'm taking my Japanese studies seriously now - I'm sort of turning a corner where I actually am reading those hiragana characters with some degree of fluency, and even a few Kanji. Still a work in progress. But if I can identify "mens room" and "Coffee Shop" with any degree of fluency, my next trip to Japan will be a good one.
That's enough for the night. Good night!
There have been a lot of Jimmy Johns lunches (hey, they deliver), and I'm growing a little weary of it... but all told, it's a project, and I get to sleep in my bed every night, so that is worth a LOT to me right now.
I am kicking off another project next week - one that I'll be managing remotely with a "boots on the ground" resource I hired... It is going to require both a lot of trust and a lot of oversight to make sure this goes well, because if it DOES go well, it's my new business line, and I can sell it to a dozen more clients. I had mixed results outsourcing my work for a different project late last year in Allentown - the person did a good job, but didn't really LAND it in the end, so I wound up parachuting in and making it all better. Of course, at the same time I was leaving Cleveland and starting Mpls, so my attention wasn't as focused as it could have been. I learned, and will manage this next one better.
My car is in the shop again - this time for a simple "check engine" light and a burned out headlamp... and they've had it for 2 days and counting, without a call about when I might get it back. But I'm not complaining. Why? Because the loaner they gave me is a $90,000 2011 Jaguar XJ Supercharged. IT IS AWESOME. I'm driving the HECK out of it, and having a lot of fun. I got the phone all bluetoothed in, and the music is flowing... it's a lot of fun. It's a little odd to be driving something that is worth over 7 times the bluebook value of the car that's in the shop. And if they think they're going to tempt me into upgrading this way... well they're right. I am tempted. It would be a lie to say otherwise. BUT temptation can be resisted. Especially when you look at $90,000 as the potential cost of 2 years of a good college.
I make good money these days, but not THAT good, people.
Let's see... Pamela is a busy busy bee: Since Christmas, we've had two big "events" she's been planning - the ECFE Gala we went to 3 weeks ago, and the ECFE winter party she's planning for this weekend. As a result of both, there has been paperwork and party supplies strewn around the house pretty much nonstop for weeks. I am patiently waiting for this to be over.
The house is a mess, partly because of the party fuss, but also because we had a cascade failure of appliances: The Microwave which would take 5 min to boil water started billowing black smoke one day. The dishwasher (both drawers) decided to stop washing and coat the dishes with black oily substance, and the oven burned some scones while leaving the middles raw. Yes, this rogues gallery of appliances joins the Fridge in being officially "dead to me", And you know what happened to the fridge. IT GOT REPLACED.
(And yes, we have tried to fix the dishwasher - they've been fixed 4 times in the 7 years we've had them. It is time to try something else. The rest are all over 10 years old, and frankly we want a change).
The big truck is coming Friday to put in our new Bosch appliances - fine German appliances that will not disappoint us.
And what else? I'm taking my Japanese studies seriously now - I'm sort of turning a corner where I actually am reading those hiragana characters with some degree of fluency, and even a few Kanji. Still a work in progress. But if I can identify "mens room" and "Coffee Shop" with any degree of fluency, my next trip to Japan will be a good one.
That's enough for the night. Good night!
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
A valuable service
I have been ruminating on the perils of time travel. One of my favorite little stories is here. It's basically a wikipedia chat history outlining newbie time travelers continually trying to kill Hitler, and the weary veterans who go back and preserve the timeline. If it was a book, I would have bought copies for everyone I knew.
I've been toying with a time travel story myself, and one of the little nuggets I've come back to is a strange piece of advice I had got from an economics teacher back in junior high school. I don't remember much from his lessons, but once he did explain how compound interest works - how at a decent interest rate your money will double every 7 years at 10% interest. So his advice to us was (REALLY) if you ever got a time machine, you should go back about 70 years, drop a thousand in a bank, and come back to find you'd doubled ten times ($1000->$2000->$4000->$8000->$16000->$32000->$64000->$128000->$256000->$512000->ONE MILLION DOLLARS) To turn a grand into a cool million just sitting in a vault somewhere... wow.
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't daydreamed that scenario quite a few times. Take a grand, step into the time machine, come back, and withdraw a Million. Of course to a 12 year old, the concept of $1000 is pretty high too. But now I'm a man, and as time has gone by, I've come up with several... issues... with this get rich quick scheme. (And hey, let's not rain on the dream: Time travel is the EASY part.)
Ten percent interest was pretty normal in the early 1980s. Nowadays, you try to find a bank that gives more than 3% on interest. At that rate, your 70 year investment of $1000 is only worth about $8000. Hardly enough to buy your unstable isotopes for the time journey. You need to go to the stock market for an over time performance of higher than 5%. And that takes some active management. Definitely not set-and-forget. There's talk about going back and buying 1000 shares of GE or Xerox at IPO and letting is grow and split... but you just know that some time in there, someone would be wondering "who the heck owns 12% of this company? Let's do a proxy, and do a shares exchange for new stock, and if those old missing shares don't turn up, they're worthless..." It's just too risky. I'll at least assume that you would do your homework and pick a bank that you know won't go out of business before you'd withdraw your money.
Plus, really, how do you get that first thousand? Go back to 1930 with a handful of 2010 minted $20 bills? Ha. So you need to buy 1929 issue bills, which in good condition go for about $100 per. So you're paying $5000 for that first $1000. Ok, but we're talking a Million, so maybe that's not so bad. Still, if the interest rate is down to 3%, You're paying $5000 for $8000. Not the best deal.
Gold is always an option, of course. The problem there is that an ounce of gold in 1930 is worth $20. Today an ounce of gold is worth over $1000. So your $1000 in gold to deposit in 1930 will cost you $50,000 in gold to bring back. Again, if you can get your 10%, no worries... but at 5% you're losing money, bro.
Now I know what you're thinking now: You'll just withdraw that $50,000 from the bank - the same bank that you went back and deposited that gold into those years ago. SORRY - that one is going to be a causality paradox... This is the equivalent of you going back in time to give yourself the plans to build a time machine in the first place: The money has to have come from someplace outside of the causal loop, just like you actually need to invent the time machine in the first place. And don't even THINK of funding your time machine development with the funds you've grown by using the time machine. Do not mess with causality. I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that once you cross a causal line, the whole timeline you just set up winks out of existence, and you're right back at the moment before the time machine entered your life.
I guess my point in all of this is that even WITH a time machine, it's going to be pretty hard to follow my economics teacher's advice.
I think a potentially good business idea would be to open a time traveler's bank: We'd accept payment in commodities, things that have a somewhat constant value over time, but are perhaps less inflated than gold... or heck we'd take gold too, because who is to say they haven't figured out a way to make cheaply it in the future... though at that point you need to wonder what a time traveler would want with a compound interest bank account when gold can be made at will. In the interest of timeline preservation, we'd need to make sure that none of our deposits are alloys or isotopes that are impossible to create in our current timeframe, and no technology trades of course (unless they want to bring next year's iPad... I'd violate causality for one of those).
Anyway, we would provide a certain level of stewardship for the assets - we'd manage a conservative stock portfolio for a 7% return. We'd also be prepared to cash out based on a certain code word and document combination, with no troublesome need to pretend to be your own great great grandson.
Naturally, we would make targeted investments based on our client's requests, and we may just make some minor piggyback investments of our own (not big enough to create attention) so we could take advantage of the information we have...
The only problem is that if the time traveler does violate causality by dipping into those funds before the time they had left to come back and deposit them (and I could see that happening a lot with the human resistance, trying to stock up BEFORE the robots take over), then the whole time loop would collapse. For all I know I've already had dozens of clients, and each one tripped up causality and I've reset to 2011 each time.
It's possible.
I've been toying with a time travel story myself, and one of the little nuggets I've come back to is a strange piece of advice I had got from an economics teacher back in junior high school. I don't remember much from his lessons, but once he did explain how compound interest works - how at a decent interest rate your money will double every 7 years at 10% interest. So his advice to us was (REALLY) if you ever got a time machine, you should go back about 70 years, drop a thousand in a bank, and come back to find you'd doubled ten times ($1000->$2000->$4000->$8000->$16000->$32000->$64000->$128000->$256000->$512000->ONE MILLION DOLLARS) To turn a grand into a cool million just sitting in a vault somewhere... wow.
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't daydreamed that scenario quite a few times. Take a grand, step into the time machine, come back, and withdraw a Million. Of course to a 12 year old, the concept of $1000 is pretty high too. But now I'm a man, and as time has gone by, I've come up with several... issues... with this get rich quick scheme. (And hey, let's not rain on the dream: Time travel is the EASY part.)
Ten percent interest was pretty normal in the early 1980s. Nowadays, you try to find a bank that gives more than 3% on interest. At that rate, your 70 year investment of $1000 is only worth about $8000. Hardly enough to buy your unstable isotopes for the time journey. You need to go to the stock market for an over time performance of higher than 5%. And that takes some active management. Definitely not set-and-forget. There's talk about going back and buying 1000 shares of GE or Xerox at IPO and letting is grow and split... but you just know that some time in there, someone would be wondering "who the heck owns 12% of this company? Let's do a proxy, and do a shares exchange for new stock, and if those old missing shares don't turn up, they're worthless..." It's just too risky. I'll at least assume that you would do your homework and pick a bank that you know won't go out of business before you'd withdraw your money.
Plus, really, how do you get that first thousand? Go back to 1930 with a handful of 2010 minted $20 bills? Ha. So you need to buy 1929 issue bills, which in good condition go for about $100 per. So you're paying $5000 for that first $1000. Ok, but we're talking a Million, so maybe that's not so bad. Still, if the interest rate is down to 3%, You're paying $5000 for $8000. Not the best deal.
Gold is always an option, of course. The problem there is that an ounce of gold in 1930 is worth $20. Today an ounce of gold is worth over $1000. So your $1000 in gold to deposit in 1930 will cost you $50,000 in gold to bring back. Again, if you can get your 10%, no worries... but at 5% you're losing money, bro.
Now I know what you're thinking now: You'll just withdraw that $50,000 from the bank - the same bank that you went back and deposited that gold into those years ago. SORRY - that one is going to be a causality paradox... This is the equivalent of you going back in time to give yourself the plans to build a time machine in the first place: The money has to have come from someplace outside of the causal loop, just like you actually need to invent the time machine in the first place. And don't even THINK of funding your time machine development with the funds you've grown by using the time machine. Do not mess with causality. I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that once you cross a causal line, the whole timeline you just set up winks out of existence, and you're right back at the moment before the time machine entered your life.
I guess my point in all of this is that even WITH a time machine, it's going to be pretty hard to follow my economics teacher's advice.
I think a potentially good business idea would be to open a time traveler's bank: We'd accept payment in commodities, things that have a somewhat constant value over time, but are perhaps less inflated than gold... or heck we'd take gold too, because who is to say they haven't figured out a way to make cheaply it in the future... though at that point you need to wonder what a time traveler would want with a compound interest bank account when gold can be made at will. In the interest of timeline preservation, we'd need to make sure that none of our deposits are alloys or isotopes that are impossible to create in our current timeframe, and no technology trades of course (unless they want to bring next year's iPad... I'd violate causality for one of those).
Anyway, we would provide a certain level of stewardship for the assets - we'd manage a conservative stock portfolio for a 7% return. We'd also be prepared to cash out based on a certain code word and document combination, with no troublesome need to pretend to be your own great great grandson.
Naturally, we would make targeted investments based on our client's requests, and we may just make some minor piggyback investments of our own (not big enough to create attention) so we could take advantage of the information we have...
The only problem is that if the time traveler does violate causality by dipping into those funds before the time they had left to come back and deposit them (and I could see that happening a lot with the human resistance, trying to stock up BEFORE the robots take over), then the whole time loop would collapse. For all I know I've already had dozens of clients, and each one tripped up causality and I've reset to 2011 each time.
It's possible.
Monday, January 31, 2011
And so....
My project got delayed, which was simultaneously a bit of a bummer and a bit of a relief. I can say without doubt that from the point I had entered the project 2 months ago, we had really turned that ship around and rebuilt confidence in my team. I did what I was brought in to do: Keep everyone from quitting, and get us somehow across the finish line. I got us there.
But there are other teams than mine, and not all of them were QUITE as ready to go. Notably the hospital billing team, who were having a hard time proving that they were 100% sure whether all of the charges were ready to go to the right buckets. They weren't helped at all by a database tool they had built to track their testing progress that seemed to actually EAT their results on a regular basis. Every single status report included some variant on "well, this isn't QUITE right because the database..." This tool was supposed to help them, but became their downfall.
I'm not sure exactly WHEN we will go live: Option 1 is a mere 3 week delay, which again is fine for MY team, but may not be enough to solve the other issues. Option 2 is to go live the day I take the family to Disneyworld. I already told them: If that's the date you pick, I will be happy to get you right up to golive, then swoop in during week two with a fresh set of eyes. There is no version of that story in which I cancel our trip to Disney, FYI.
So it's all very exciting. I was at a gala this weekend and ran into a physician who was grateful for the delay: He is transferring to another hospital and this delay means he doesn't need to touch this new system before he's safely at a new site.
It's just work...
But there are other teams than mine, and not all of them were QUITE as ready to go. Notably the hospital billing team, who were having a hard time proving that they were 100% sure whether all of the charges were ready to go to the right buckets. They weren't helped at all by a database tool they had built to track their testing progress that seemed to actually EAT their results on a regular basis. Every single status report included some variant on "well, this isn't QUITE right because the database..." This tool was supposed to help them, but became their downfall.
I'm not sure exactly WHEN we will go live: Option 1 is a mere 3 week delay, which again is fine for MY team, but may not be enough to solve the other issues. Option 2 is to go live the day I take the family to Disneyworld. I already told them: If that's the date you pick, I will be happy to get you right up to golive, then swoop in during week two with a fresh set of eyes. There is no version of that story in which I cancel our trip to Disney, FYI.
So it's all very exciting. I was at a gala this weekend and ran into a physician who was grateful for the delay: He is transferring to another hospital and this delay means he doesn't need to touch this new system before he's safely at a new site.
It's just work...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Disguise
Driving tonight:
Isaac: Dad, I wish I had a disguise of you.
Me: A what?
Isaac: A disguise... OF YOU.
Me: So you could look like me?
Isaac: Yes. A full suit. For a four year old, like me.
Me: And what would you do, while you were disguised as me?
Isaac: (Long pause....) DANCE.
Isaac: Dad, I wish I had a disguise of you.
Me: A what?
Isaac: A disguise... OF YOU.
Me: So you could look like me?
Isaac: Yes. A full suit. For a four year old, like me.
Me: And what would you do, while you were disguised as me?
Isaac: (Long pause....) DANCE.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
An odd day of work
Today I ran into one of my direct reports in the hall and was asking him some questions about his status... and he said "you know what's strange? I actually had a dream about you last night". Really? Not a bad one I hope!
"Well, you were trying to kill me". WHAT?
"I was in a hospital bed with my arm being prepped for surgery. You walked in with your green checked coat and a container of nitrous oxide. You were trying to force the gas down my throat, and it was because I hadn't finished my build for the project. I woke up and my arm was asleep which I suppose explains the arm surgery thing..."
I was speechless... then assured him that I had no plans to kill him, and that I was actually really happy with his team's progress.
"Well, you were trying to kill me". WHAT?
"I was in a hospital bed with my arm being prepped for surgery. You walked in with your green checked coat and a container of nitrous oxide. You were trying to force the gas down my throat, and it was because I hadn't finished my build for the project. I woke up and my arm was asleep which I suppose explains the arm surgery thing..."
I was speechless... then assured him that I had no plans to kill him, and that I was actually really happy with his team's progress.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Another Dream
I was called in to help investigate a prison break: It's England, and there was a special prison built for WW2 War Criminals. Being civilized, they decided to let them live out normal lives in isolation, so it's a walled village surrounded by another town. Inside the village there are houses and streets and shops. Very drab and gray, but a typical village.
The criminals are all old German men, and one has escaped. As I'm walking through the facility, I see that the way of keeping them contained was by having elaborite rules for everything. For instance, the roads are covered with white arrows, numbers, and line markers, and there are various signs around pertaining to each of the road markings. On one corner is a nine-sided stop sign with the number 7 in the middle.
Next to it is an engraved stone tablet outlining the meaning of the different stop sign codes. The 9 sided sign is a 'multi stop', and the number indicates what you're expected to do there. In this case, a 7 Stop means you are expected to slow and veer left.
It occurs to me that there aren't really any GATES in this prison, and someone could likely walk or drive right out, if it were allowed, but the rules and signs make it impossible for you to actually GET out by following the signs.
Clearly what has happened is that one of the prisoners has decided to break the rules.
And I woke up.
The criminals are all old German men, and one has escaped. As I'm walking through the facility, I see that the way of keeping them contained was by having elaborite rules for everything. For instance, the roads are covered with white arrows, numbers, and line markers, and there are various signs around pertaining to each of the road markings. On one corner is a nine-sided stop sign with the number 7 in the middle.
Next to it is an engraved stone tablet outlining the meaning of the different stop sign codes. The 9 sided sign is a 'multi stop', and the number indicates what you're expected to do there. In this case, a 7 Stop means you are expected to slow and veer left.
It occurs to me that there aren't really any GATES in this prison, and someone could likely walk or drive right out, if it were allowed, but the rules and signs make it impossible for you to actually GET out by following the signs.
Clearly what has happened is that one of the prisoners has decided to break the rules.
And I woke up.
Tough Guy
Isaac is in a pretty defiant place right now, and he's been harumphing a lot, shoving, and talking back. I also think I saw him shake down a kid for lunch money, and I've noticed a few unaccounted for miles on my car and cigarette butts in the ashtray. Today at swim lessons, he was ignoring the teacher a few times and got time outs sitting on the edge of the pool. I told him this was NOT a good thing, and he said "I LIKE it on the side of the pool. I WANT to be there".
Later, when Pamela told him he needed better "listening ears" because he had got into trouble at the pool, he crossed his arms and demanded to know "WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT?"
That said, he's still pretty cute, and there is still nice stuff happening.
I have a new daughter, by the way: We have been working on relaxation exercises for bed and also a little Melatonin. It makes bedtime a lot less stressful, and it comes around to the next day with her being in a much better mood in general. She told us "Every morning I sit down next to Jenny on the bus and say 'today's going to be a good day', and you know what? Every day IS a good day!". The wonders of a good night of rest and a dad home in the house.
After last weekend's cousin invasion, we're still sort of recovering and we are feeling things SLOWLY come back under our control. There is still a big bin of unmatched socks which I am so scared of that I purchased two new packages of socks at Target today just so I could defer the pile.
Work is work. On Friday I ran out for some takeout asian food, and ran into my Dad at the shop, so I had them dump the food out of the carton and onto a plate and joined him for lunch. It was an impromptu moment and I was so happy to have been able to grab it. This would not have happened in Cleveland.
Being home has many perks, not least evening cuddles with Pamela watching shows (which I understand people DO these days - watch shows). We're almost caught up to realtime on Glee, which is a wildly inconsistent mess, but a lot of fun nonetheless. I'm not the biggest fan of Rachel, but would watch a show with Brittney any day. She's just such a delightfully loopy character... and man she can dance.
And that's the update.
Later, when Pamela told him he needed better "listening ears" because he had got into trouble at the pool, he crossed his arms and demanded to know "WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT?"
That said, he's still pretty cute, and there is still nice stuff happening.
I have a new daughter, by the way: We have been working on relaxation exercises for bed and also a little Melatonin. It makes bedtime a lot less stressful, and it comes around to the next day with her being in a much better mood in general. She told us "Every morning I sit down next to Jenny on the bus and say 'today's going to be a good day', and you know what? Every day IS a good day!". The wonders of a good night of rest and a dad home in the house.
After last weekend's cousin invasion, we're still sort of recovering and we are feeling things SLOWLY come back under our control. There is still a big bin of unmatched socks which I am so scared of that I purchased two new packages of socks at Target today just so I could defer the pile.
Work is work. On Friday I ran out for some takeout asian food, and ran into my Dad at the shop, so I had them dump the food out of the carton and onto a plate and joined him for lunch. It was an impromptu moment and I was so happy to have been able to grab it. This would not have happened in Cleveland.
Being home has many perks, not least evening cuddles with Pamela watching shows (which I understand people DO these days - watch shows). We're almost caught up to realtime on Glee, which is a wildly inconsistent mess, but a lot of fun nonetheless. I'm not the biggest fan of Rachel, but would watch a show with Brittney any day. She's just such a delightfully loopy character... and man she can dance.
And that's the update.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
The strangest thing of the year
In the past year, I have picked up a skill: Letting people go who work for me. I have had to fire people from projects in Cleveland and now my Minneapolis gig too. I've had people quit. And I've had to learn that it's not a failure on my part when someone is not right for the job and needs to go.
In Cleveland, I had to fire 3 people from the team who were simply not performing. It was very hard for me, given my desire to see the best in everyone. But when a person takes an emergency leave because his wife has taken ill, and then shows pictures in the office of the fishing vacation he took from that weekend, then there is a problem.
I knew coming into this gig in Minneapolis that there were problems. Within 3 weeks I had taken two leads and "helped them" demote themselves: This was good - they were FTEs who were promoted past their comfort levels and were going home crying every day from stress. I helped them find roles on the team that were more to their speed and brought in leaders.
On another team, I had a very bad contractor lead, and I had to can him straight out: I worked with him for 4 weeks, coaching him, but he never rose the the challenge, and when he left me holding the bag during a crisis, I decided "I'm doing his dang job already, I might as well stop paying for two of us to do it". So he's gone.
I had one consultant who couldn't take the pace of the project and requested to be removed, so she's out next week. Another saw her pull that off, and has asked the same of her company. One is good, one not so much, so it's hard, but it's not personal. These people were run hard and beaten down before I got in there. The fact I've only had 2 go so far is actually pretty good.
Then i had some new contractors start: Nice enough people, but after 2 weeks, we can tell they don't know what they need to know, so they're out too.
I'm like Eric the Red. And we're 45 days from golive. But I am still happy. And I have learned this skill. It's not one I knew I needed, but I'm happy to have it.
YOU'RE FIRED!
In Cleveland, I had to fire 3 people from the team who were simply not performing. It was very hard for me, given my desire to see the best in everyone. But when a person takes an emergency leave because his wife has taken ill, and then shows pictures in the office of the fishing vacation he took from that weekend, then there is a problem.
I knew coming into this gig in Minneapolis that there were problems. Within 3 weeks I had taken two leads and "helped them" demote themselves: This was good - they were FTEs who were promoted past their comfort levels and were going home crying every day from stress. I helped them find roles on the team that were more to their speed and brought in leaders.
On another team, I had a very bad contractor lead, and I had to can him straight out: I worked with him for 4 weeks, coaching him, but he never rose the the challenge, and when he left me holding the bag during a crisis, I decided "I'm doing his dang job already, I might as well stop paying for two of us to do it". So he's gone.
I had one consultant who couldn't take the pace of the project and requested to be removed, so she's out next week. Another saw her pull that off, and has asked the same of her company. One is good, one not so much, so it's hard, but it's not personal. These people were run hard and beaten down before I got in there. The fact I've only had 2 go so far is actually pretty good.
Then i had some new contractors start: Nice enough people, but after 2 weeks, we can tell they don't know what they need to know, so they're out too.
I'm like Eric the Red. And we're 45 days from golive. But I am still happy. And I have learned this skill. It's not one I knew I needed, but I'm happy to have it.
YOU'RE FIRED!
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Happy New Year!
In this new year, I am looking forward to watching Bella and Isaac grow, with me home with them every night. I will read Harry Potter 4 to Bella, and probably number 5 too. I'm looking forward to being a good partner to Pamela, and having lots of evenings out together to re-kindle our friendship. I'm looking forward to a fun family vacation at Disney this spring, paid for in full in advance by the spoils of my days in Cleveland.
I'm looking forward to being a better friend to those who I haven't had a lot of time to see in my year(s) on the road. This includes seeing more movies with the neighborhood guys, having more whiskey tastings with the Avengers, more lunches with my former work buddies, and more dinners all around.
I'm looking forward to a successful rollout on my current project, and more work beyond that. I'm looking forward to new sales and revenue with my company, who I still love even though they sent me to Cleveland... because they also got me OUT of Cleveland.
I'm looking forward to getting back into language learning, and possibly visiting Japan later this year. I'm looking forward to using my new iMac in the production of music, and finally getting that album of retro-80's songs put together with Caesar and Paul.
I'm looking forward to buying an iPad2 when it comes out. It's just going to happen, ok?
Looking back, 2010 was not an easy year. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, and we need to do some back surgery this year. But I think we're going to come through this just fine. I'm looking forward to 2011. I really am.
(And of course, I'm looking forward to more blog updates too!)
I'm looking forward to being a better friend to those who I haven't had a lot of time to see in my year(s) on the road. This includes seeing more movies with the neighborhood guys, having more whiskey tastings with the Avengers, more lunches with my former work buddies, and more dinners all around.
I'm looking forward to a successful rollout on my current project, and more work beyond that. I'm looking forward to new sales and revenue with my company, who I still love even though they sent me to Cleveland... because they also got me OUT of Cleveland.
I'm looking forward to getting back into language learning, and possibly visiting Japan later this year. I'm looking forward to using my new iMac in the production of music, and finally getting that album of retro-80's songs put together with Caesar and Paul.
I'm looking forward to buying an iPad2 when it comes out. It's just going to happen, ok?
Looking back, 2010 was not an easy year. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, and we need to do some back surgery this year. But I think we're going to come through this just fine. I'm looking forward to 2011. I really am.
(And of course, I'm looking forward to more blog updates too!)
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Merry!
Christmas Eve was wonderful - my sister Carrie hosted us at her house with the in-town relatives. The food and company were great, and the kids were well spoiled with gifts. Papa decided it was time for some noise in the house, and gave Isaac a REAL Timbale and Cowbell set. My little Tito Puente is all set to go. Bella got a whole lot of art materials - somebody let the cat out of the bag that the girl's an artist.
Before heading to Carrie's, we had a quiet day in the house. We ate, watched movies, including Christmas Story: I had thought that the language in it was tame except for the one "bad word" Ralphie uttered... but boy it was full of "SOB, Smart Ass, Stupid, Idiot" and the like. I'm just getting too old... I'm grumpy about cuss words these days because I just don't want to hear my little ones saying them. ANYWAY the movie was funny and then we exchanged family presents: We gave the kids "night goggles" - sunglasses with brilliant blue LED lights on them. When we left Carrie's the kids both had their lights on, and they looked like a cross between Star Wars Jawas, and the Hartnoll brothers of Orbital (a techno band of the 90s where the guys had pen lights attached to their glasses to see the knobs they were twiddling). They kept them on for the ride home and the interior of the car was flush with blue light, and I kept thinking I was getting pulled over.
We left just in time... I wound up with a somewhat severe asthma attack (first one of consequence for years, really) - not sure if it was the tree, the dog, or the rich food (or all of them), but I was gasping for air by the end of the evening, but playing it cool so as not to ruin the time for the rest of the gang. Of course the puffer I had put in my coat pocket was dead as a doornail. So when we got home I hightailed it up to Isaac's room and grabbed his penguin shaped nebulizer and used some of his old meds. 15 minutes later, my lungs were clear, but my heart was pounding - boy that albuterol is intense when delivered in that manner.
The kids were asleep by 8:30, and I was out by 10... Pamela headed out to an evening service with her friend Carla - this time at a Lutheran church, which she was visiting more out of anthropological interest than anything.
It was another magical Christmas Morning - Santa had come in the night and had carefully arranged the kid's presents in the living room. The gifts were amazing: Bella got a retro Snoopy's Sno Cone machine, and Isaac got a REAL 1970's era Evel Knievel motorcycle set. The revving jet engine sound of that bike filled the house over and over again. Daddy was lucky enough to get a couple of Lego sets, and I got a lot of help building the Empire Strikes Back AT-AT walker. Well, once I built the mini-figures, the kids were off playing with them, while I did the hard work of building the large grey machine thing.
A couple of cute things:
1) Isaac: Instead of "I've changed my mind" has been saying "I cross-ted my mind".
2) Isaac has been singing "Release Goldilock" to the tune of "Feliz Navidad". Not sure why. UPDATE: Last night i misremembered it as "Rapunzel" - it's Goldilock. Still don't know why.
3) Bella has been grilling us on where we hide the presents in the house: Which presents I ask? The ones we give them, like the night goggles (I was concerned about a possible lapse in Santa Faith, but no worries). She has it down to one closet, or "someone else's house". Neither are correct, but I'll never tell. Then we were laughing about TERRIBLE places to hide presents. Like on her pillow. Or lined up on the toilet seat ("You'd see them, and if you DIDN't see them, they'd fall into the toilet water!!!"
The madness continues tomorrow with Bella's birth family coming over for stew and presents... it'll be a blast!
Before heading to Carrie's, we had a quiet day in the house. We ate, watched movies, including Christmas Story: I had thought that the language in it was tame except for the one "bad word" Ralphie uttered... but boy it was full of "SOB, Smart Ass, Stupid, Idiot" and the like. I'm just getting too old... I'm grumpy about cuss words these days because I just don't want to hear my little ones saying them. ANYWAY the movie was funny and then we exchanged family presents: We gave the kids "night goggles" - sunglasses with brilliant blue LED lights on them. When we left Carrie's the kids both had their lights on, and they looked like a cross between Star Wars Jawas, and the Hartnoll brothers of Orbital (a techno band of the 90s where the guys had pen lights attached to their glasses to see the knobs they were twiddling). They kept them on for the ride home and the interior of the car was flush with blue light, and I kept thinking I was getting pulled over.
We left just in time... I wound up with a somewhat severe asthma attack (first one of consequence for years, really) - not sure if it was the tree, the dog, or the rich food (or all of them), but I was gasping for air by the end of the evening, but playing it cool so as not to ruin the time for the rest of the gang. Of course the puffer I had put in my coat pocket was dead as a doornail. So when we got home I hightailed it up to Isaac's room and grabbed his penguin shaped nebulizer and used some of his old meds. 15 minutes later, my lungs were clear, but my heart was pounding - boy that albuterol is intense when delivered in that manner.
The kids were asleep by 8:30, and I was out by 10... Pamela headed out to an evening service with her friend Carla - this time at a Lutheran church, which she was visiting more out of anthropological interest than anything.
It was another magical Christmas Morning - Santa had come in the night and had carefully arranged the kid's presents in the living room. The gifts were amazing: Bella got a retro Snoopy's Sno Cone machine, and Isaac got a REAL 1970's era Evel Knievel motorcycle set. The revving jet engine sound of that bike filled the house over and over again. Daddy was lucky enough to get a couple of Lego sets, and I got a lot of help building the Empire Strikes Back AT-AT walker. Well, once I built the mini-figures, the kids were off playing with them, while I did the hard work of building the large grey machine thing.
A couple of cute things:
1) Isaac: Instead of "I've changed my mind" has been saying "I cross-ted my mind".
2) Isaac has been singing "Release Goldilock" to the tune of "Feliz Navidad". Not sure why. UPDATE: Last night i misremembered it as "Rapunzel" - it's Goldilock. Still don't know why.
3) Bella has been grilling us on where we hide the presents in the house: Which presents I ask? The ones we give them, like the night goggles (I was concerned about a possible lapse in Santa Faith, but no worries). She has it down to one closet, or "someone else's house". Neither are correct, but I'll never tell. Then we were laughing about TERRIBLE places to hide presents. Like on her pillow. Or lined up on the toilet seat ("You'd see them, and if you DIDN't see them, they'd fall into the toilet water!!!"
The madness continues tomorrow with Bella's birth family coming over for stew and presents... it'll be a blast!
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