Hibernation Nation

After weekends of visitors, late nights and rock climbing, I decided to make this a weekend of zero ambition. Part of this decision was dictated by the fact that I am on strong antibiotics which mak any movement result in audible flatulence.

I had a pretty late night Friday going out stag while Meg recovered from her work week in deep slumber. I have not been out with Bentley kids in a bit and it was a change of pass. Saturday night we both skipped going out, manged to still sleep in until almost 2.

We are starting to plan on the next round of travel, but the cost of anything is still pretty prohibitive to me. I am getting close to being out of credit card debt, but my student loans have conveniently come due in time to slow down the process. For good measure my car is now sitting at 169,379 miles which by my calculations means it could explode at more or less any moment. The plan for now is to replace Bessy with another Honda or Acura for under $7K. I had dreams of BMWs but that might have to wait a few more years.

Back to travel... we are shooting to go to Vietnam/Thailand in about a year. In the mean time we are trying to get to Tahoe or Jackson.

Ou est le neige?

Corporate Corpulance

Today was my presentation to sell myself to the IS community as worthy of another position. I've spent the last week sweating bullets about it, and stuck in a level of denial that felt very much like pre-finals procrastination.

I'm not sure what it is that still makes me so nervous about presenting, but whatever it is, it grabs into my back with some pretty deep claws.

The presentation did not quite go according to plan, and some of the people I was both most afraid of and most eager to impress were AWOL. In standard Bill Gates form my video demo melted down 7 minutes before I had to present, so I was scrambling to get things fixed up to the last minute. Subsequently the lights, projector screen, MS NetMeeting and the room thermometer all malfunctioned and getting things working took a serious McGyver effort by most of the parties in attendance.

When the smoke settled though, I had managed to get my accomplishments across to the people that mattered, and got a positive response. One of the projects I have been working on since July even got enough attention to be hijacked as a new Global standard.

Hard work, success and recognition in the office do not always come as a package, but I have to chalk today up as a win. I am feeling good about getting the position I want for January and that is really all I can ask for at the end of the day.

Rotatation Time!

Well, it's been almost four months since I joined the BSC IS rotational program, and the time is coming to rotate.

The idea of the program is that after four six month rotations in different sections of the Information Systems organization, the participants come out rock stars who know everyone and everything that can be crammed into two years. From this knowledge they (I) are meant to be able to make a good decision about what they want to do for the company, and have the skill set to do it well.

Pretty peachy.

The hard part comes with making the transition between jobs. It is a little like how I imagine rushing a frat to be. I need to chose the three positions I want the most, and pray that the managers of those open positions will also choose me. Not extremely stressful, but I am going to miss my home in International IS, and my office with a basketball hoop.

In other fun news, I went to Neko Case at the Wilbur with Meglet last night. She was a bit toasted when she got on stage (very late). The first words out of her mouth were that she was pissed at the promoter and having a hard time feeling like herself. We were ready to write the night off as a loss, and assumed that the show would be shit.

Oh contraire!

By the third song, she was getting into it, and started to look like she was having fun. An hour and a half later she was rapping up an amazing set. She had truly soft rocked us all.

Opportunity Abuse

There are aspects of corporate speak which I have learned to live with, and some that I even enjoy using in civilian conversation to mess with people a little. For instance, throwing in “leverage” from time to time confuses some and makes those who are in on the joke chuckle. As in: “I think we should leverage our fridge full of Magic Hats before we go to the bar to make our evening cheaper and more enjoyable.” See what I did there? It’s awkward, and nerdy, but it’s usable. I can and have said that and it makes sense, despite being cumbersome. There is one phrase that does more than bother me. It upsets me. In the quest to eliminate negative language from the work place lexicon the words issue, problem, failure and inexperience have been replaced by the word “opportunity.” This does not make sense, and the proof is in the fact that it is absolutely unusable in conversation outside of the office. Ask me to use synergy in a conversation and I will. “I think if we had both our birthdays on the same night there could be some real synergy.” Sure it’s retarded but it still means SOMETHING. It does not work that way with opportunity. Some things are just bad. If I crashed my car, I would not call it a “car opportunity”, if I lock myself out of the house it is not a “break in opportunity” and if a 16 year old gets pregnant, it is not a “shot gun wedding opportunity”. No. These are fucking problems. As is showing up for work or being bad at your job or having a system crash. When these things happen, there is the choice to FIX them, but that is not the same.

I am asking; please join me in killing this trend in meaningless positivity, or else soon nothing will mean anything.

My Memory of the Fall

Twenty years ago this week something changed. After 70 years as a monolithic empire, the world finally saw cracks show through in the USSR. Long pent up frustration with the grey repression of life behind the Iron Curtain culminated in protest which overwhelmed the East German police. The government of East Germany called on Moscow for support, but they had been forgotten and no help ever came.

As the wall came down my parents took me to a Christian freedom conference of some kind. I don't remember much, but it was truly a post hippy affair for families that had given up on counter culture and found Christ. There were a lot of children my age (4) there, and between watching the Land Before Time we were corralled into a room full of large card board blocks. We were instructed to build a wall, and build we did. When a 10 foot long wall was built up past our low eye level the parents were brought into the room and sat. We then were instructed to ceremonially destroy the wall which we did with great enthusiasm.

Sometimes Weekends Last a Week

My weekend started last Tuesday with a run to the bar with Kroot, Raynor and a number of other affiliated fun Bentley kids. Needless to say before we knew it, closing time had arrived at one of the Irish pubs down the street and we were there with pitchers.

Thursday we were back at it playing bags over on Malbert St.

Friday I worked until 7 and drove to Raynor's place on lake Winnapasake (sp?) and had a few beer. We were up the next morning at 6:30 to get onto the Saco river in Maine, and by 10 AM everyone was feeling pretty good, except for Kroot who finished a 64oz. Madres that I allegedly made for him with a liter of Stoli.

In fact Kroot was in bad enough shape that he fell asleep by 1PM on a dragon raft towed behind the canoes. Raynor and I cut the two lines holding him on and watch him float down the river and get stuck against the bank. When we went to retrieve him he was starting to wake up as a result of being covered in mosquitoes and adventurous slug.

Other highlights included 4 rope swings, a bonfire and s'mores. We also successfully established that you can do a keg stand in canoes if you tie three together.

I got home Sunday just in time to find the living room set up and the new TV in place. It felt like Christmas. McCreary had arrived earlier that day and done all the grunt work with his dad. By 8 Ryan and Matt had come too, and after a bit we headed off for another night of closing down the bars.

Monday was a beach day in Gloucester. My proudest moment involved chasing a seagull who had taken a back of chips 800 feet down the beach and successfully retrieving them.

Tuesday I worked from home and headed to Fenway to see the O's get crushed. Matt C was crying in his beer by the end, and even the Sox fans that had been giving him shit were started feeling pretty bad for him.

Tonight I'm off to an SSC reunion at Kalah's house to catch up and watch this years ski movies.

I feel great, I'm just having a hard time staying awake at my desk.

M3 Fast, Prius Green: More Good News from BMW

Sad about Polar bears drowning? Full of venom because your girlfriend cheated on you? Worried about a dismal future where those fortunate enough to drive will own dung powered Tata Nanos?

Here's something to raise your spirits (a bit) -- BMW has rolled out a concept this week which primarily runs on battery and has the assistance of a small diesel engine. Not feeling any better yet? It has the 0-60 time of the current v8 M3, it maxes out at 155MPH, it can run 30 miles on battery alone, and when the juice is gone return 60-75MPG.

The bad news is that it's still a concept, it's made of a carbon-unicorn future fiber and it looks like a prop car from the seizure inducing speed racer.