Follow up...

Well today was the first day of Independence...what am I doing? Eating lunch and dinner with my old co-workers...yep kinda !@#$%ed up eh? Not really though...just a lunch, a few drinks at dinner tonight and then I'm sure I'll be collecting more of their resumes heh heh heh.

Karenna - I think we all know why Chong is giving me the finger...because I'm #1!!

Stacey - Thanks for the comment and welcome to my blog. We aren't the long distance guys...we're the guys that fix the large corporate data networks. I did long distance sales for about a week and started looking for interesting ways to kill myself. No way never again. I'd much rather deal with fixing problems than calling people at dinner time and selling them a crappy service.

Jen and Christie...Chong is available for private parties ;)

Tom and Moggie...yes it's finally over...FREEDOM!!!

It's finally over...

Yes that's the bent dusty old badge I turned in tonight. 5 years ago I'm looking like one of the Bee Gee's when that picture was taken. My have times changed.

Well here is another photo of the gang as I left them. Good guys everyone.



The Back Row from Left to Right are:

Himanshu Kalkar, Tanuj "Ted Nugent" Kulkarni, Robert Perry, Basil "BAY-ZUL not BAH-ZIL" Yang, Steve "Chakas" Menchaca, Gurpreet Grewal (center wearing ball cap), Camilo "The 'Rican" Vega, Mikael "What the @$#% is Mundy" Argaw.

The two shorties in the front row are:

Prakash "P Squared" Patel and Chong "Dong Silver" Vang

Last Day...Part 2: Electric Boogaloo...

Oh god will this night end? Sheesh I was hoping that they would walk me out, box up my stuff and tell me to get off prem before 5...apparently they want me to work the last 11 hours. Now I'm the person with tears in his eyes from the sheer pain of how long I'm having to endure this trainwreck of a company. Bleah. More to follow...perhaps I'll need a few drinks first...

Last Day...part 1

Well I'm at work and they decided to have a potluck lunch instead of a dinner so I don't know if that means I'll be gone sooner rather than later as the day goes on or not. It's been emotional as another person put in their notice today and we have another member of the team that's leaving for another position in the company. My manager was reading a poem about changes and broke down into tears which was pretty tough to take. So far it's been pretty emotional but up beat. I brought my camera and took some pictures so those should be up sometime soon. I'll give more of a run down later on.

One more day to go...

Well I got though the 1st of the last two days...I'm off tommorow and Wednesday and then back for my last day on Thursday. Working this insane job and knowing that I'm leaving has been killing my spirits. I think I come home each night more drained that I did before I new I had the damn job...grrrr. And to answers your questions about the last post...No I didn't go in over the weekend and yes I rolled back to sleep...very peacefully actually.

Post # 100

Well I can't believe I've posted this many entries over the last 7 months...wow.

Nothing much but a humorous side note in which I was called this morning to work 4 hours at my current job. I couldn't believe they actually thought I would come in. To make it even more amusing they offered me 4 hours of comp time!! Yeah I just laughed...rolled over and went back to sleep. Man in other parts of the world you have to PAY for this kind of comedy...

Rangers...9-9 baby!!

Okay sorry about that...this maybe the only time all season that the Rangers will be tied for first in the A.L. West, won't be dead last and won't be under .500. I'm sure Tom's Angels will have the last laugh...but...for one shining gleaming moment my Rangers are in the spotlight!!

Well this week was pure hell to be honest. Spent the better part training my replacements and still working the hellish schedule. I was thinking a PMA would help the days go by easier, however, just knowing that I was having to still work there made it worse. The days seemed longer and unfortunately I had to do more work to make sure that everything was transitioned smoothely when I leave. It's been a bit of a downer but I'll only be working two days this coming week so including tommorow I'll have 6 of the next 8 days off which will be sorely needed for my mental and physical needs.

It's not been all bad though. When I announced my resignation it was met with handshakes, congratulations and then was followed by "Oh my god can you get me a job there too????" which was something I felt a need to act on. I set up a meeting with the director of operations to give me him a constructive but very blunt view of the morale on the floor. I felt, if anything, maybe someone with nothing to lose giving him the real pulse on the floor might actually help make a decision, or if he's handcuffed from above find a way around certain red tapes to make live easier for the co-workers that I'm leaving behind.

Overall it was a good meeting and frankly I think the D.O. is a good manager, but unfortunately managed too closely from the top and not allowed to make the necessary adjustments and have the flexibility to be competitive with other maintenance centers and companies in terms of retention, employee morale and overall job performance. I essentially was told what I suspected. Things are eventually going to go overseas for most of the work, our center will be more of a tier 2 (upper level tech support) and that until then upper management would only hire contractors and temps to fill any back fill or increased headcount positions for the time being. I explained to him that when you play the money game like that, contractors and temps become mercenaries and since AT&T is paying the same amount of money but is on the losing team and treats their people like shit...well he knew what I was talking about and again reiterated that his hands were tied. In fact I was half surprised he didn't give me HIS resume to give to my company on the way out the door. Ironically many of the people asking me about jobs at the new company are people 1-2 levels above me in middle management.

So I'll be working Monday and Thursday of this coming week. Monday should be pretty bad but I'm pretty sure on Thursday I'll be on autopilot...who know's maybe sneak a few cold beers in and see what else I can get away with. I've actually saved up a few revenge jokes that I had planned for later to happen on Thursday so we'll see if I get a chance to get them done. I'm not planning to be a hooligan to a large degree but to have a little fun with it...nothing that would come back and haunt me. Additionally I'm gearing up to start my 2nd challenge. I started eating better this weekend and hopefully my system will be ready and responsive and ready to go sometime in the first week of May!!

Why the hell am I still awake????

Okay It's 7 am EST here at my place and I haven't had a wink of sleep since I woke up yesterday at 10 am. I'm going to be a wreck at work and...wait...oh that's right...I don't really work there anymore. Sure I have two weeks left but do I really need to put in the 100 percent effort? No...I won't be a total slackass but I think I've earned to right to throttle down to 75% :)

So my weekend was pretty much spent smelling the roses and doing my part to rid the world of beer. Yes I had beers for the first time in months...outside...in the sunlight...with friends...and relaxed and...wow. 2 years I've been unable to relax and enjoy the weekends because of my job sucking all that energy out and this weekend was just absolutely fantastic. I can't imagine a better way to have fun than just reconnecting with old friends, making some new ones and seeing what the bottom of a bottle of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout looks like!!

As for the blogging...well I'm trying to catch up with everyone. Looks like I've missed out on a lot but I'm catching up slowly but surely...some of you will see that I've actually commented here and there this weekend...I'm trying to do more of that and maybe...just maybe update my links. I'm debating the 2nd Challenge sometime before the 1st of May but we'll see. Mostly I'm needing to get a few things squared away with the old job, the new job and I need to get another MP3 player and Battery charger for my Nikon (both stolen last month) and those shouldn't be too hard to round up I think. Additionally I'm still looking for a new place to live and...well yes the job stress is going to be reduced but I think having a real life will bring in stress in other places...but what the heck I haven't had that in a while so I'll take something different for now.

So I'm back and ready to get back to living again!!

Signed sealed and delivered

Well it's official...I've got the paperwork signed and faxed back to Santa Clara...I'm a new employee of Extreme Networks on May 1, 2006. I gave a verbal notification to my manager last night as there are some things going on at work that I felt would be better managed by him if he knew I was leaving as soon as possible. Additionally my manager has been an incredible mentor, and of all the people at my job that I worried most about letting down, it was him. He, however, took it very well and wished me the best of luck because he's a classy guy and realizes that in the long run your life and your goals are your own and not the corporations. It made me realize how lucky I had been to work for people like him throughout most of my career and a bit sad as though I don't enjoy the work environment I'm leaving, I will very much miss most of my co-workers who were brothers and sisters in arms as we coped with the day to day stress and struggles at that job. Yet, I am leaving and I'm sure they will be happy for me and I hope that someday they will find there way out as well as I'm sure that things at that division will not turn around for the better anytime soon.

Enough of the weepy stuff...two weeks till I'm officially out of there so WOOOO HOOOO

Let the good times roll baby!!

Amazing right? Three updates in less than 24 hours? Sounds like the old Jeremy is coming back!!

Well folks I got the job and I couldn't be happier...well I could be happier if I didn't have to work out the two week notice I plan to give and just sit around and do nothing but that's not going to happen. Overall it's a good job with a small but up and coming company that makes Ethernet switches for all types of needs. I'll be doing tech support but the nice thing is it will be related to the hardware or software that my company manufactures, not 700 different types of devices and processes that I might come into contact like I do now. It's going to be hard work, but that kind of hard work that gets your somewhere and will enhance my career instead of pigeonhole me as the soon-to-be-former-job does. It's run out of Santa Clara, CA (shout out to my west coast peeps!!) and like Google, SAS and other companies from that area...they know how to treat their employees.

For example, in addition to medical, dental, 401k and life insurance I will be getting:

- Bonuses based on company performance
- Stock options, stock options, stock options which I've never had before
- More training than I can shake a stick at...oh and it's free
- A casual work environment and a breakroom that's bigger than the main office with a ping pong table, dart board...on and a keg.
- Did I mention the keg? Free beer on fridays...yeah

Those are the benefits I know about...I'm sure the longer I'm there I realize benefits that I couldn't have imagined. I'm sure some of the first will be reduced stress, more smiles on my face, seeing daylight again, pride in my work and oh yeah...not waking up, going to my old job and feeling nauseous about another day at work and needing a pep talk in the parking lot to go inside. Those are the things I'll be happy to have. My job has gone from bad, to awful, to toxic, to poisoning my life to sheer misery in a little over 2 and a half years and I finally was able to get out and do something about it. So for all of you that are miserable in your jobs...take note that I made it out and hopefully you'll find something else that will make you happy, if not permanently, at least in the short term.

Hell I may just lost 20 lbs from lack of stress to kick me back into my aborted 2nd challenge!! Man that beer may be the end of me though!!

Thanks for all of your support guys...I hope to be back to normal blogging/hours again by the first of May and from there the sky is the limit!!

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I got the job...that is all...more details to come but I think I'm gonna go pass out now!!

A few updates

Well I'm supposed to hear about the job sometime THIS week instead of last week. I finally called them yesterday afternoon to find out what was going on and they explained to me that there had been a delay and that things were supposed to be decided sometime today or tommorow which to me means later this week. It's nervewracking mostly because my job has become even more stressful and now living this dual life has added to it a bit. Thus I'm going to be a wreck until I get word one way or another. I think I mentally prepared myself either way but I'm keeping a PMA because I know they really liked me a lot and i think they know I'm the best overall choice.

In other news I've recovered from the robbery fairly well. As I mentioned last week I got the window replaced, the place insured and overall feel safer for the remaining amount of time that I will be living in my apartment. My new laptop arrived on Friday and it's very very nice and I'll keeping it with me at all times or keeping it someplace that I have insured for stolen or damaged property lol!!

I finally saw V for Vendetta on Sunday. I had been wary mostly because I'm a fan of the man who wrote the Graphic Novel, Alan Moore, for year and as he had taken his name off the credits I was concerned with how much of the character and book they had changed. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Graphic Novel, it involves a late 20th Century London that has been plunged into a totalitarian government and it opens with a man in a Guy Fawkes mask destroying Parliament with a bomb. It a brilliant story in which the lines of patriot and terrorist are blurred and you really aren't sure which situation is better at the end of the novel. Are we as a people better at standing up and making our own decisions or are we better off accepting rule by minority because of our own apathy. He plays both left and right sides of the political spectrum against each other (he's an anarchist politically...although he playfully admits it's unrealistic to be an anarchist but it's unrealistic to believe in other system as foolproof either so he chooses no system) and comes to the conclusion that no one group should hold all the power.

Now the movie on the other hand seems to be pitting one side against another side, making thing more polarized and black and white. It also fails to really explain the gray areas of why things happened except to blame the government, which is of course the biggest villian and the people who allowed it to happen. Anyone can make a "good vs. evil" movie with a magnetic hero and vicious hate spewing villain. However what made the original work so incredible was the fact that it spanned more characters, involved more subplots and definitely made you understand that there really is a hazy line between good and evil even if you think that you are doing something in the best interest of everyone. Now the movie isn't all bad, however, it does challenge you to open your mind and ask that you stand up for rights. It's photographed very beautifully and overall an enjoyable two hours at the cinema. However, in comparison to the it's graphic novel predecessor it does fall a bit short. But as we've seen in the past, most books that make it to film definitely have that problem.

Hope everyone is doing well and hopefully I'll have some good news to report soon :)

It's over and done with :)

Well 8 people later and my third and final interview is over and done with. It wasn't NEARLY as bad as I thought it would be. Looking back I actually liked the format as I interview with the admin/hr person, the manager, the 2nd level engineer, two supervisors and 3 engineers. Overall nearly 40% of the staff and each one brought a different perspective to the process so it was pretty interesting to see how it went. Also...you can drink beer at your desk anytime you want...no kidding...that's going to be hard to pass up dammit. Overall I did MUCH better on my interview but I still couldn't get a gauge on a few of the people that interviewed me although 5 of the 8 definitely liked me. So overall I think it went very well, I gave them my all and I think I made a great impression. Thanks for all of your comments lately and I'm hoping to be back to normal and ready to roll again real soon!!

Back on track

Well I've done everything I can to get past the robbery. I've filed the police report, got some renters insurance, had them repair and secure the window and called my bank and had them put out an alert for any suspicious transacations. It's really all I can do now as I don't expect to find out who did it. I am a little annoyed that I thought about renters insurance a month ago but just dilly dallied around about it until it was too late. Oh well I'll live with the fact that the property stolen was probably worth under 600 dollars and consider myself lucky from a financial standpoint.

Now I need to calm down enough to get myself ready for my interviews on Tuesday and keep my wits about me for that. I'm really nervous but overall I think I'm going to be okay. I don't know what they are honestly looking for at this point since they gave me the impression I didn't do so well in the tech interview but who knows? Hopefully I'll wow them.