Fate
Fate has a funny of way of putting a vacation
exactly when you needed it. I have never before so wanted to unplug for a
while. Look for regular updates from Hawaii, at least pictures
anyway.
Posted at 11:00 PM
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Two Firsts
The first time I realized I really am getting an
MBA: When considering a business dilemma, my first immediate thought was
"reorganize." I figure I will know that I got the MBA when my first thought it
"layoffs!".
Today was also the first
time I requested funds from petty cash. I always remember my dad doing this to
cover parking or something like that. Today I did it for the first time because
the soda machine downstairs wasn't accepting bills, and the client I had in the
office needed a soda. Life is so glamourous in the
office.
Countdown to Hawaii: 8 days...
I can't wait.
Posted at 10:17 PM
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Go Rams Go!!!
Let's see if our champions of mediocrity can pull
off another upset in Seattle!
Posted at 02:35 PM
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Traveling Man
I'll be out the next few days, traversing the
hills of central Illinois. Catch up with all of you this weekend.
Posted at 06:28 AM
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This was supposed to be the slow season
Work is shaping up for a heavy push through the
end of the year. This is unusual because usually starting in November we move
towards a seasonal slump. It usually works out pretty well because most of us
worker bees decide to burn off the remainder of the paid time off. We have the
option to cash it out, but hey, you get it to take it, not put money in the
bank.
I've got two proposals to
finish as well as a document that is shaping up to be more of a novella than
typical deliverable. Which means, Matt stays up late tonight. He needs to get
some MBA stuff done as well.
Posted at 08:47 PM
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Wow
So the assignment I am on is turning out to be a
lot more interesting. I'm currently in the middle of Amish country in Illinois
working with a pretty neat client. I'm going to be doing a really large scale
integration project which ties into applications across the enterprise. What
also makes it interesting is the nature of the integration. I spent yesterday
talking about the collaborative power of allowing employees to blog, and it was
at that moment that I realized, "Hey, I'm actually consulting..."
Posted at 08:57 PM
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It's official
Well, finally the email from my then boss's boss
came out, announcing what I had known for the last few days but haven't been
able to say to anyone.
Principal Consultant
Announcement
I am pleased to announce that ---- ------- and
Matt Winkler have accepted the Principal Consultant positions for the Microsoft
application development team and ----- ---- has accepted the Principal
Consultant position for the IBM WebSphere application development team. As
Principal Consultants, they will continue to participate on customer
engagements, be focused on researching new and existing technology to identify
opportunities and solutions, assist with educating sales reps on identified
opportunities and solutions, and work with Team Leads and me to develop training
plans that would enable team members to obtain the skills needed to develop the
identified opportunities and
solutions.
I'm excited, a
little concerned, and ready to try to do some cool stuff. My job now consists
of creating, developing, promoting and improving various solution offerings. I
will be a lot less billable, and be doing a lot more "business"-type thinking,
especially as we begin to develop a solution and bring it to the market. In the
process I am going to get to do some cool stuff to help improve the group, and I
am going to be more involved in the business side of what we do. It creates a
great opportunity for me to remain technical and explore other ways of doing
things. Oh, and the best perk, I get an office! It's finally out of cubeland
for me!
This is also my first big
promotion (I've been promoted before, but that was simply a change in grade
really), and so I am pretty pleased. To celebrate, Libby and I went out to
Sidney Street Cafe, arguably one of the best restaurants I have eaten in. We
had a fantastic meal. What else to do with a promotion? Start looking for a
different car of course :-) I'm not seriously looking for one, but I will
probably be doing more traveling with this position, and I need a car I can
really fit a suitcase in the trunk.
In other news, Libby and I did yard
work all day. We are landscaping the front of the house, and we worked
ourselves silly. We need to get back at it tomorrow and plant the bulbs for
flowers in the spring. I'll try to get pictures posted once we are all done.
Last night I met up with my goddaughter, and then we went out to dinner with
Pam, Jim and Kurt to a hole in the wall Mexican place which we will be visiting
again. Kurt had some spiced rice milk that was out of this world good.
Libby's little sister turned 18 today,
which made me feel really old. When I first met her she was 8 or 9. She was
given a ring by her grandmother that has been in the family for five generations
now. It was really cool to see something that has been passed down since before
the Civil War (or War of Northern Aggression, for Kurt's
sake).
The stress and hectic-ness of my
life the past few weeks has been due to this job stuff. I am glad to have it
behind me now, and I realize I let myself get too worked up by it. Need to
chill out just a bit. And with that, I'm done for this entry.
Posted at 10:29 PM
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links
winksquared.com