Mad Max Moto

Went outside at lunch time and saw this "inventive" motorcycle parked out front with the rest of the employee's bikes. This thing has a keg for a gas tank, and combination ammo box / rusty farm tractor seat. Unfortunately I didn't get the opportunity to hear this thing fired up. This guy should hookup a deal to include it in a viral marketing campaign for the next Mad Max movie!

Summary Update

I know it's a blogger cliché, but I have been too busy to post lately. In fact my "internet life" has been nearly non-existent, which in turn is making me feel very detached and isolated. Damn, doesn't that sound contradictory?

Mostly it's all due to me starting a new job at MotoSport, Inc. I happen to have joined their IT team in the middle of a busy shopping season, and while their doing multiple large system installs/conversions. Nothing like hitting the ground running and never getting a break to catch your breath. But I like it that way, I strive in a fast paced environment, especially when the work is fun. I've been out of the full time coding arena for a while. So being back in the game, I'm enjoying the hell out of it. I'm doing fun work, in a fun business environment, and working with good talented people. It's so nice to be not working with medical codes. I'm working with tangible products, motorcycle gear & products, something that is of interest to me in my personal life.

Anyhow, I'll finally get to break away for a bit in the coming weeks. I'm heading out of town to throw my cousin's bachelor party, and then I'm getting out of the city and spending a long weekend in the wilderness. We're doing our annual trip out to the family property. I'll be sure to post some pics when I return.

Enjoying my Retirement!

It's been a while since I've posted a blog on here. That's because I've been busy enjoying my retirement! Well that's what I've been telling everyone anyhow. I got laid off work last month after nearly eight full years with my company. It was a great ride! I have no complaints. I will miss certain clients and coworkers that I have had the opportunity to grow close too. I wish them all the best. I thank the company for giving me a great start to such a young beginning programmer. Starting when I was 19 fresh from college, becoming one of the youngest System Engineers in the companies history (if not the youngest). I have appreciated the support, opportunities, and career growth that the company has provided over the years. I wish them the best in the future. Maybe our paths will cross again someday. Friends/family have asked if I had any prior knowledge about the layoff. No, it was one of those blind sided events that happened on a random Monday. The decision had nothing to do with my work performance. The layoffs where handled at a corporate level, each center given a list of job titles that where to be closed. It was another one of those high level corporate decisions to boost 4th quarter end of the year numbers. It's the stock game. They've continually amputated the good leg in an effort to heal the whole body. Makes more sense to amputate the bad leg right? What can you do? This type of thing is to be expected in the IT business. In all I'm not worried about it. I have exceptional programming & business analyst skills that will lead me to a better job in the near future. This is an opportunity to refine my skills and further my career. I'm taking some time off to get some training in newer languages and technologies that I haven't had exposure to yet. I'll then be even more marketable. I can also enjoy some time off to spend with friends, family, and most importantly my son Logan. We'll have more time for Father & Son activities. I can also use the time off to finish up some of my hobby projects.

Free Food! Run Fattie Run!

It's happened again, it's like clockwork it's so regular. This afternoon one of my coworkers put cookies in the break room and then sent out an office wide "Free Cookie" email. Literally 5 seconds after the email popped up in my inbox, I could feel the floor rumbling. The water bottle on my desk was reverberating just like the one in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex was closing in. (I work on the second floor and due to the weight of all our equipment, the whole floor bounces whenever someone walks down the main aisles. Fortunately my cube is near a wall which helps to keep it from getting too bouncy). So the herd was off, a full on stampede towards the break room to get a cookie. It's moments like this that truly prove the human species has become a docile herd. We even have our own little barn stalls. Moments later all the free cookies had been devoured. Sometimes the stampeding herd can get really ugly. Just try to go in the break room during a "Free Ice-cream" time. Everyone fights to be the first in so they can make sure they can get an Nutty Buddy. I've actually seen two of them having a tug-o-war over the last one. And these are 45+ year old people! Sometimes these free ice cream days are planned, in which case the biggest fiends show up 15 mins early and stake out the break room. It's insane. This brings me to another rant about my coworkers and food. There's a lady at my work who keeps a huge box of free candy in her cube. People stop by every so often to get a little sucker or a small candy bar. It didn't bother me until she moved onto my row. I couldn't believe how many people stopped by to get a friggin piece of candy. And a lot of them stopped by multiple times per day. It annoyed me so much I started to record statistics on the candy box. Who stopped by, When they stopped by, and if possible how many pieces of candy they took. The stats were crazy, the average person stopped by 4-5 times per day, with a total of about 30 people per day. This doubled whenever she would put out a fresh batch of small candy bars. And even crazier the foot traffic started to wear the carpet. There was almost a visible worn path down our aisle that stopped right at the candy box. I was so happy when I was moved off that aisle a month later.