Dave started new job in central OH

I'm very happy; it's exactly my line - Lotus Notes/Domino/Web/Java software development. It's near Marysville which is commuting distance, about 45 minutes from our new residence: Columbus, OH.

(retro-posted in late 2007)

A toast to my father and his new bride.

This weekend Dave Alkire Senior and Judy Lares were wed. I was the best man, so I had to give a little speech. Here's what I came up with.

A very long time ago, in the active imaginations of some Mediterraneans, there were these three women: One very young -almost only a child, one grown up, and one, shall we say, very mature. Three women generations apart in age, and yet - sisters. If they were here, they would be in a cheerful good mood; you can imagine them sitting outside on a hill, on a bright warm sunny day, but they're busy. As always they continue with their tasks, each what they're best at: One of them spinning, as if with wool, one of them measuring, the other, clipping. All of them conspiring.

Hold that image in your mind for a moment, please.

When you're single and looking for a way to spend some time on a weekend, you need to find some clean fun, maybe get a little exercise, a little light chatter. Certainly it's possible to find a nice activity in this town. You could grab a friend and take a bicycle ride, go play handball someplace, or go bowling, or if the weather's bad, just stroll a few laps around the mall, or maybe go to a ballroom dance class.

The point is, it's just a little something to do - it'll boost your spirits a bit, but otherwise it will certainly be something of absolutely no consequence to the rest of your life.

So that's what Judy decided to do for that weekend; nothing terribly important.

And yet, somehow that small decision has set off a chain of events, leading inexorably to this very moment.

Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos are those three women, the ancient Greeks would say: Spinning, measuring, clipping, and for us, engaging in a happy conspiracy, perhaps allowing us to take their product and weave our own events.

Look at Dave and Judy -- their characters -- they attractively match: Judy is astonishingly kind, hard-working, cheerful and open-minded. My father Dave shares all of those qualities. And there's a little something else too, some other unnamed attribute that they share, that draws these two inevitably together.

It's the three fates we can thank, or it's divine will, or it's a more earthy poetic, a combination of natural course and the choices made by Judy and Dave.

At any case, I think there could have been no other outcome; your presence is my evidence, and this is a good thing: A union for two, a reunion for many; for these I thank you, Judy and Dave. A toast!

Light Bulb Change Request System

Using ProcessIt^TM, my plan is to create a system that automates the organizational steps required to replace the evacuated glass globes containing metal filaments which are heated by electrical resistance to produce light.

Any associate: Define the business need for the new light bulb, notify manager with justification.

Manager: Set up exploratory team to investigate possible options.

Team: meet repeatedly to elaborate on the vision through a series of requirements workshops. Bulb size & shape, strength of illumination, wattage and other details should all be decided within these meetings..

Team facilitator: Send the draft requirements to the provisioning group for an estimate.

Provisioning group: send estimate back to team facilitator.

Facilitator: send estimate and justification to the budget control committee.

Budget control committee: approve, put off or reject the funding.

Put off? Project on hold until beginning of next budget cycle.

Rejection: declined, project closed.

Approve? Notification is sent to facilitator.

Facilitator: Send funding, plan, and deadline to provisioning group.

Provisioning group: Stamp the project "in production", but usually back-date the deployment date since they changed the light bulb several months ago when the need was first brought to their attention, before the original manager had even been notified.

I really thought that the job was mine.

After all, I had been told that I was hired. Guy tells me I'm in, so I think, "hey, I'm in!" Silly me. Turns out, they found someone local, with common references or something.

This feels horrible.

Plan A still not dead, but not looking so good, either.

No call yet today, yet. Left a message. At this point I'm concerned. If plan A comes through I'll probably take it, but now things are looking less certain. Now I'm on the lookout for plan B.
Working on the house today.

New Job Not Dead Yet

Seems that Friday was just a really chaotic day for people who were supposed to do the arrangements. Some kind of system problem, and the account manager involved in working it out, and the CIO not available to give his signature? I really wonder what exactly was going on. The guy tried to call me on my cell at around 7:30, but I don't get a good signal here at home; it never rang and I didn't notice the voice mail until two hours later.

The message was that in effect, they'll work it out on Monday. But I just wonder if they really will? And if this really does go through, is this the way things normally go for them? Which circle of hell are they dragging me into?

They don't probably often deal with families that operate like ours. Thanks to Jaye, as long as we can rely on the words of the people we deal with --and we almost always can-- we move like lightning. No futzing around waiting for anyone. Our intent was to sell the house, buy and move into a new one within the space of three weeks. One move, bam-bam. And I think we might be able to do it, as long as people can hold up their parts of our dealings.

But as things turned out, I count at least 15 people whose weekend plans were disrupted or at least altered a bit: At least 7 homeowners in Columbus, one buyers agent, a sellers agent, Jaye's parents, and the four of us would-be movers. If I had the offer letter in hand we would've done a Columbus road trip you see.

So it seems I'll have the new job.

Which is unbelievably great, really. Of course the paperwork isn't done yet, and I can't actually give my two-week notice until I see something in writing. This part may take all week, so I have to keep playing my part, attending these pointless salesLogix-related meetings. Yep even the meeting where the CEO attends, this Thursday or Friday, that one will be pointless too, for me.
Once I give notice maybe for the last couple weeks I can drop the slx stuff and do some things that actually need to be done. Maybe I can talk some sense into a couple of management types, get them to put our group where it belongs: the software development division..

Not happy with the colors here.

Would prefer the nice green I see in my shirt.
Also the "previous posts" URLs don't work right; they don't include the blog directory. Why?
Not enough time to play, though.
Yeah this is mainly just a test..