I Saved a Frog

I saved a frog this morning. He (or she) was on the ground near the office door. When I opened the door, he (or she) hopped in. He (or she) was small (~1.5 inches long) and jumpy, but I caught him and put him back outside.

I have always been partial to frogs. I remember in second grade, 2 or 3 friends (David, Danny, and Corey?) and I had a club called the Froggies. I’m not sure if my love of frogs pre-dated the club. Maybe it inspired the club? Who knows? I just know that I really like frogs.

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And now a haiku:

Frog, jumping inside
Trying to join me at work
Frogs and work don’t mix

Find Me a Work Hat

And now a haiku:

Bald head and cold air
Sitting underneath the vent
Find me a work hat

Open Office Sounds

And now a haiku:

Open office sounds
Noise cancelling headphones help
Can’t filter loud laughs

Transition by Acquisition

I have worked for 3 companies in my over 20 year career. Actually, that is not entirely true. I have actually worked for 8 companies. Every company that I have ever worked for has either been acquired or spun off.

• My first job out of school was with Westinghouse, which was bought by Northrop Grumman
• Then I worked for Stanford Telecom, which was bought by ITT Industries
• Then I got my current job, which I have been at almost 17 years. I was hired by a company called AppNet.
  • Within my first 2 weeks on the job, it was announced that we were being acquired by Commerce One. I apologized to my new co-workers. I explained that acquisitions follow me wherever I go.
  • The marriage of my division of AppNet with Commerce One was not a good fit (i.e., a disaster) and we spun off into a small, private company called Aquilent
  • Aquilent had an amazing run led by an incredible and dedicated management team, but it got to a point where we were too big to compete with small businesses and too small to compete with the juggernauts [at least that was the impression that I got]. We were shopped around and were just acquired by Booz Allen Hamilton.

The acquisition by Booz went a little bit differently than I have experienced before. I had heard rumors for months that the-powers-that-be had decided to sell the company. Even though I was expecting it, it was still a shock and a surprise that Booz bought us. I go from working for a company of around 350 people to a company of around 22,000 people. Quite a difference! From everything that I have been told, this marriage seems like a perfect fit and I am genuinely excited by the potential that being a part of Booz will bring.

The deal was supposed to close on Dec 31, 2016. However, in late December, we were told that there was a delay and to stay tuned. Little did I know that one of the projects that I work on was causing the delay.

I work(ed) on an e-procurement system for the Navy that is heavily used by their vendors. Booz is one of the biggest users of this system. This could potentially lead to serious conflict of interest issues, since employees of Booz would have access to other vendors’ proprietary data. While I am 100% confident that my colleagues would continue to keep that data safe and secure, the perception to the outside could cause suspicions. The solution: sell the contract to a 3rd party and send the entire team of 25 or so with it. However, one team member was not part of that deal: me. A part of me feels like I have been orphaned.

Why was I left behind? Even though that was the project where I spent most of my time, it was not my only project. To be honest, if I was given a choice, I would have stayed behind anyway. For several reasons:

• I would feel limited by working on one contract
• I have a desire to continue to architect solutions using AWS cloud solutions and this contract does not provide that opportunity
• I live in NC and Aquilent is located in Maryland. I have worked remotely for the past 4+ years. Since Booz has a nationwide presence, there could be local opportunities that I could take advantage of one day given the right fit.

While I am excited to see where Booz takes us, the whole transaction leaves me feeling strange because about 25 of my co-workers and friends no longer work there, several of whom I have known and enjoyed working with for 10+ years. The team is made up of an incredible group of people and collaborators and I will miss helping them execute the customer’s vision and seeing them when I am in town.

Next week, I am going to Maryland for the first time since the acquisition. It will be strange to see how quiet the 2nd floor will be without my teammates.

And, so a new chapter begins.

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And now a haiku:

A new chapter starts
Endless possibilities
Career transitions

And now another haiku:

Same team (minus one)
Starting fresh, new company
Good luck to you all!

No-mageddon

Today, there is much snow falling from Maryland to Maine. I am currently sitting in my home office in Wake Forest, NC, some 275 miles south of Laurel, Maryland where my employer is located. A co-worker asked me the following question yesterday:

snowmegadon missing you… don’t you feel lucky?

It did not take me long to formulate a reply:

not lucky…forward thinking.  snow was one of the reasons i wanted to move in the first place. 🙂

Luckily, I have a blog to prove my foresight. Back in June 2012, I laid out the criteria for finding a new place to live. To save you the effort of reading through that post, here is what I said about weather requirements:

Warmer winters. After the back-to-back blizzards of 2011, I decided I’d had enough snow to last a lifetime.

I happily traded Snowmageddon for No-mageddon. We do get snow from time to time, but no where near the accumulation. I hope I am not jinxing myself.

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And now a haiku:

Snow, blizzard, shovels
All signs of Snowmageddon
Eradicated

Missing Out

About a year ago or so, I started to become fascinated by Food Trucks. I have never eaten from a food truck, but the Food Network had a new reality competition show called The Great Food Truck Race. My previous impression was that food trucks all sold greasy hamburgers and fries at construction sites. What I was seeing on the Food Network was unreal. Yes, there was a food truck called Grill ‘Em All that sold hamburgers, but these were not your typical hamburgers. The other participating trucks included Vietnamese fare, gourmet French, crepes, bar-b-que, and others. While I did not really enjoy the competition part of the show that much, I really enjoyed the food trucks and watching the chefs in action.

After we moved to Wake Forest, I discovered a show called Eat St. on the Cooking Channel. The show is essentially a food truck version of “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”. The quality of food and the sophisticated cooking techniques being employed by the chefs rivals many fine dining, ‘brick and mortar’ restaurants. These food trucks all seem to have one thing in common: they go where the people are and that usually means a big city. When we lived in Maryland, we lived in close proximity to Baltimore and DC. However, we did not frequent the city and certainly not during the work week when it would probably be the easiest to find a food truck. While my obsession with food trucks has grown, I still have not had the opportunity to become a food truck customer.

Missed it by that much.

Back in February, my company announced that a food truck would be parked in front of the building to coincide with the grand opening of our fancy, new lunchroom. Fantastic! — except for the fact that I now live about 270 miles away from the office. The event was such a success, that the food truck now comes once a month.

Word has gotten out. There are now 4 different food trucks scheduled to be in the parking lot at work at different times during the month. Who knew that Laurel, MD could be such a hot bed of food truck activity? I wonder if the novelty wears off and if the lines become shorter and shorter with each visit. I need to plan my next trip to coincide with a food truck visit, so I can get in on the action before it is too late.

I honestly have not tried to find any food trucks in the Raleigh area. I just did a quick search and found a site that lists the Twitter handles for a bunch of local trucks. Ironically, I just need to look out my window to find a local truck. Last weekend, we saw a food truck parked in my neighbor’s driveway, which I thought was a bit odd. We had not met these neighbors yet, so my wife and I used the food truck as a reason to stop over and say hello. Our neighbor is a trained chef and bought the truck last summer and is about ready to start up business. Of course, he is not going to to set up shop in the neighborhood, but he said that he will have some kind of pre-launch event in the neighborhood, which I am looking forward to. I cannot remember the name of the truck, but he will be specializing in New York-style diner food.

So far, I have been very passive about this obsession. I think it is time to get out and experience some mobile cuisine.

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And now a haiku:

Mobile restaurants
Fancy meals served up curbside
No delivery

Virtual Office Door

Now that I am working remotely, I do not have the opportunity of printing out Dilbert and xkcd comics that I think are funny and relevant to my job and/or co-workers and taping them to my office door. I could do that on the office door in my house, but I do not think that my wife and kids will appreciate the humor.

I know that xkcd allows anyone to reuse their comics via a Creative Commons License. I do not think that Dilbert is as generous. The truth is that the audience for my blog is probably smaller than the number of people that walk by my office door at my company. I could start posting Dilbert comics and wait for a cease and desist letter or I could find out for sure what the policy is. The Dilbert website does allow me e-mail comics and make lists to send to friends, so I do not think there will be much harm. Hopefully, I will figure it out, so I can have a place to view all of my favorite Dilberts and xkcds.

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And now a haiku:

Tech and work based strips
xkcd and Dilbert
Nothing like Garfield

Crash!

I live in Ellicott City and I work in Laurel. I am fortunate that my commute is typically about 20 minutes. I take 95S to  MD216 to get to work. MD216 runs perpendicular to 95 and there has been construction on the bridge on MD216 that goes over 95. During the construction, the merge lane has been replaced with a stop sign.

While the stop sign is a pain, it hasn’t been too bad. However, I had a little incident yesterday on the way to work. I swear that I saw the car in front of me stop at the stop sign and then pull out onto MD216. I was surprised because I saw a lot of traffic coming quickly. Since it was my turn, I inch toward the stop sign while looking for oncoming cars.

The problem is that when you get to the stop sign, you have to turn and look back to see if cars are coming. I’m inching. I’m inching. I’m inching. Crash! WTF just happened?!? I look in front of me and the car that I thought had already gone was still there! Oh my! I just rear ended someone!

I doubt I was even going 1mph, so there was little chance for damage to the car or to the driver. As I stopped, and the car pulled away a bit, I saw that there was, indeed, no damage to their bumper. I was all prepared to pull over and exchange information. I was trying to see if there was enough of a shoulder for us to pull over.

All of the sudden, the car in front of me sees a break in traffic and takes off. I’m thinking, “I guess there isn’t enough room on the shoulder here and they’ll pull off ahead.” So, I wait for some cars to go by and I pull onto MD216 and see the car I rear ended nearly out of sight. There was no chance that the car was pulling over. I was a bit perplexed and I felt bad, but what am I supposed to do?

I saw the car at the next traffic light in the left turn lane and I was going straight. The light was green, so I kept going. It was pretty clear that the car had no interest in exchanging information.

Later in the day, I actually felt some stiffness in my lower back. It’s amazing what even the slightest bump will do to the body.

I can’t understand why the driver didn’t pull over and imagined a bunch of excuses. I wonder if the person thought they were at fault or if they even felt me hit them. It was definitely a weird experience.

Stairmaster

I’ve been with my company for 9 years and have changed offices on many occasions.  In fact, I’ve had an office on every floor of our 5 story building except the 5th floor:

• 6/2000 – 11/2000 – 1st floor
• 11/2000 – ?/2003 – 4th floor
• ?/2003 – ?/2005 – 3rd floor
• ?/2005 – 11/2008 – 4th floor
• 11/2008 – Present – 2nd floor

I was on the 4th floor for about 6 of my 9 years with the company.

My entire project team is on the 2nd floor, so I don’t venture to other floors that often. However, when I do, I often find myself on the wrong floor. I think my brain hasn’t caught up to the reality that I am no longer on the 4th floor.

Today, I needed to go talk to someone on the 3rd floor. I was preoccupied by something as I entered the stairwell and quickly realized I was going down instead of up. I cursed myself and went up to the 3rd floor.

I finished talking to the person I needed to talk to and entered the stairwell deep in thought again. I exit the stairwell and immediately got the feeling that something wasn’t right. I look around to get my bearings and realize that I was on the 4th floor. What is my problem?

Luckily, each floor is painted a different color. If not, I probably would’ve found myself in my old office before I realized my mistake. At least I got a little extra exercise in the stairwell.

Why Am I Awake?

I’m not sure why I’m awake. My sleep schedule is totally out of whack. I was on a good roll and feeling really good. I think most of that was due in large part to the boot camp exercise class I was taking. When the 8-week session ended, I decided to try to work out on my own to see if I could be disciplined without a class to go to. Unfortunately, I’ve barely been getting to the gym 2 days/week. I need to get back on the stick.

Right now it is 1am early Wednesday morning and I’m still up. I think my problem started last week when I got my new computer. I stayed up late configuring it and moving files over from my old computer, etc. Then, I had to work all day on Saturday. I thought I’d be done by 2pm, but unfortunately, I ended up working from 7:30am to 7:30pm. On Sunday night, I went to the Redskins game and didn’t get home until 12:30am. The bad sleep cycle continues.

The rest of the week isn’t going to be any easier:

• Thursday night: I am hosting poker.
• Friday night: I am going to the Capitals game
• Saturday night: I am going to my company’s holiday party
• Sunday morning: I have to drive car pool to Sunday school

I could use a day off.  No…that’s not true. Sure, I’d like to take a day off, but what would be better than a day off? Sleep. Even if I could take a day off, I wouldn’t be able to sleep because I have two young kids. I’d like to go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 10am. Twelve hours of sleep ought to do the trick.

Maybe I’ll call in sick tomorrow. Nope…can’t do that…my boss reads my blog. I’ll be in the office bright and early and I’ll have a very productive day.