Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas to all.

Lets try to keep this Christmas spirit going throughout the coming year. Treat everyone with the kindness and generosity that you’ve been showing over the past few days. It’ll make the world just a little bit better.

Thoughts on Jani Lane

To say I was disappointed about hearing about Jani Lane’s passing today would be an understatement.  I was (still am) a fan of his music.  Earlier this year I was looking to see if Warrant had new music.  Suffice to say they did, but without Jani.

I’m sure I’m one of the few people out there that has more than just the first 2 albums.  Honestly the next 3 albums after Cherry Pie were Warrant’s best work and Jani’s songwriting really shined through.  Dog Eat Dog, Belly to Belly and Ultraphobic were 3 great albums that came out 5-6 years after the peak of 80′s heavy/glam metal.   No one gave them a chance once the music scene changed.  Even Cherry Pie has some great memorable songs.  The only bad tune on the disc was the cover track, but people just heard “Cherry Pie” and moved on without listening to the rest.  Their loss.

If his family reads this, you should know that Jani’s music was and is a part of my life.  I used to love playing my guitar along to all the songs on that album.  When my first child was born, I would sing and play on my acoustic  ”Sometimes She Cries”, “Blind Faith” and “Heaven” to them.  I’ll always be a fan and I’m sorry Jani is no longer with us.

“Sometimes I’m lost
And then I’m found
Sometimes I feel
Turned inside out
I’m often silent when I’m screaming inside” – The Bitter Pill

Bored at work (aka Shut up and take the paycheck)

First let me start off by saying I know how fortunate/lucky I am to have a job.   Especially one that pays pretty good and is close to home. But I’m bored. Bored out of my mind.

Some background may help.  Roughly since the beginning of this century I’ve been involved and doing things.  Doing things encompassed working with clients, building prototypes, managing development and QA teams.  You get the idea.   Even at the hellhole company I worked at a few years back I was doing things.  And frankly I liked what I was doing.  People came to me, asked my opinion and looked for my expertise.  Ever since then at my current job and previous one I’ve been bored.   Perhaps it’s the larger company mentality of  ”this is your job do it” that’s getting me.  I liked wearing multiple hats.  I was good at helping out.  Now it’s, “that’s not your role”.  So what?  If there is an issue, let’s solve it and move forward.  Why wait and see if so-an-so will do their job.  I guess I need to find one of those smaller companies where I can strike the balance of contributing but maintaining a personal life (meaning not like the hellhole I left 2 jobs ago).  I hate sitting around feeling bored because then you wonder about what happens at RIF time.  I don’t want to be let go.  And yes, I’ve told my supervisor that I want additional things to do and that I’ve done alot more than what I’m currently doing.  They didn’t hire a newbie.  I just want to demonstrate value like I’ve done in the past.

In the meantime I find things to do.  Taking courses on the company learning site.  Reading up on current industry and development trends.  Make sure everything I can do is done exceptionally well.  We’ll see how it plays out.

I keep thinking I should just shut up and take the paycheck.  I am paid decently. I am close to home.  I don’t bring work home with me.  All-in-all it could be worse (has been worse).

Another thing.  Two companies in a row where the onboarding has been horrible.  I mean you knew you were hiring someone.  You knew when I was starting.  So WTF have something for me to do.  Have a plan.

I’m back…..

Spent yesterday re-reading all my previous posts.

Interesting to read what you thought nearly 4 years ago.

Anyways, lots has changed. I left that horrible job and started a new one. Then 13 months later I started another. Nothing wrong with the first one, the 2nd new one was closer to home and more money (who wouldn’t choose it). You always have to look out for yourself, not too many people will do it for you.

One lesson learned from that horrible hell job was that money isn’t everything. It helps, but it doesn’t define success. And paying you more does not give anyone, especially a narrow minded, short sighted CEO, the right to treat you like garbage. We have laws about bullying for our schools but there is nothing in the workplace. Not sure if there should be or not. Anyways, I do believe in karma and some day that CEO will get his.

So, I’m back. Maybe I’ll stick around for a bit. I’m on the north side of 40 and life just keeps changing.

Be careful what you wish for…

So like I said earlier I was re-reading some of my old posts.

Man I recall in Nov 2007 being very excited to start that new job.  Well 14 months later and I’m thinking I made a very large mistake.

The company is doing well and for the most part the people are great.  My issue is with the CEO/President.  He is truly the most unprofessional, manipulative person I’ve ever worked with and that’s how he treats his people.  He constantly says that what we do is easy and can’t understand why things take to long to build.  I can tell you.  It’s because we don’t have a complete understanding of what needs to be built.  Sure we have functional specs but they having huge holes in them every time (something is always missing or not elaborated on).  He over commits to deadlines without checking with anyone.  He breeds an atmosphere of “cover your ass”.  And how dysfunctional is a company that is ecstatic that the CEO is out of the office?  No one wants him there, we all walk on eggshells.

Sad thing is he thinks he’s this great motivator.  His VPs don’t want to even manage people.  How are you a VP and not able to manage people?  I want that job.

Biggest issue I have with him is that he believes if he can’t understand it, then it has to be wrong.  No!!!  If you don’t understand then we need to make sure you do before saying it’s wrong.  It’s not wrong by default.  How this guy ever made it to this position I do not know.  I could go on for days ranting about him.  So suffice to say I think I made a mistake.

I know I should be lucky to have a job in this economy.  My previous employer has done some layoffs and who knows if I would have been part of those.  I’m really frustrated that I jumped at the first opportunity and didn’t see this coming.  My friends tell me I couldn’t have seen it and not to beat myself up over it, but I can’t help myself in that regard.  I’m also frustrated that I’m not in the financial position to just quit.  I guess not many would be but again I think it’s something I did to myself.

Enough of that, I’m trying to maintain a positive outlook while I look for a new opportunity somewhere else.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll get hit by a bus.

Or I’ll get truly lucky and win the lottery.

Google still loves me

I haven’t been checking in too often but today I decided to revisit “The Real Me”.  It’s been nearly a year and half since I posted my thoughts on John Lovell and I’m still the number 2 entry on Google for his name.

That is pretty darn cool.

Vote

I really wish I could find the time to update this more, but it hasn’t happened.

Anyways…

Tomorrow, vote.  Do us all a favor and think about who you’re voting for.  I’ve asked this before but tomorrow it matters.  Do not vote for someone because your party tells you to.  Vote for the person you really think will change things for the better.  All I can ask is that you think  for yourselves tomorrow and not for your party.  This isn’t a game, your team does not win anything.  It’s about giving someone influence over you and your family’s life.

2008 All-Star Game

There is no one in baseball who I am more happier for than JD Drew.  Last year I was not liking Mr. Drew.  This year all the hope of last year is being shown.  All around seems like a nice guy having a great year.

The NY fans showed the nation how truly class-less they are when the starting Red Sox players were announced.  I don’t recall Boston showing the same contempt for Yankee players in 1999.  NY needs to get over the fact that the Sox have been fortunate in the past 4 years and concentrate on their own team issues.

My little girl

i was getting ready to go to work the other day and my daughter asked my wife, “Where’s Daddy going?”. My wife told her that he’s going to work. To which my daughter said, “but it’s summer vacation? He supposed to be with us.”. As a father that was great to hear. She wanted me home to enjoy their summer break with them as a family. Nearly brought a tear to my eye. Sometimes you forget the impact you have on your children. And even though they turn to their mother first, they still want to be with me. Now if I can only hit the lottery and actually stay home with them while they’re young.

A.R.K.

OK sometimes a so-so movie makes an impact on me. This time it was Evan Almighty. I only watched it because I like Steve Carrell. Well the point of the movie is God wanted this guy to build an ARK. And it all comes down to is an ARK is one Act of Random Kindness.

It is a great message buried in a so-so movie.

Be nice to each other. Why is this so hard to do?