Grublist Blog - work

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 21:26:00 -0500

K so this is going to be another one of those uber updates since i've been leading this rock and roll lifestyle too long to be checking in like i should. If i recall correctly, the last time i dropped a line was before cleveland, detroit, chicago, san jose and london. yeah i'm a slackass. so from the top...

Cleveland
cleveland was a side trip because i had to be in detroit for a meeting, so i flew in early, rented a car and drove down to suprise the fam. When i got to cleveland to find out about the happenings at jason's, turns out everybody was already in bed. So i called everyone else i know in ohio in the hopes they were in cleveland. Ruthy was in kent, and Rachel was in Miami, Ohio... but it was her birthday. And what kind of friend would i be if i didn't try to see her on her birthday? right. so off i drive from cleveland to basically cincinatti. I got down there, we had some drinks, and i left in the AM for cleveland again.

I called beth to make sure she was gonna be around, and she told me she had been working in the yard all day, and that Madelyn and Rosita were going to take her out for her birthday to dinner. I got a little worried, because i was blasting up I-71 to see her, and she was going to be OUT!? but that wasn't for a couple of hours. She asked me if i would be home anytime soon, and i told her i didn't think so (soon's a relative term, after all).

2 hours later, i walked into the house and suprised her. we sat on the porch and had a beer, then called madelyn and rosita to pick her up for dinner. i suprised them, and we went to bruno's for italian. god i love their seafood pasta, but next time i gotta try something else. and omg their teramisu. drool

We went back to the house and had some drinks and hung out, then went to bed. in the morning we all went to breakfast, and then spent most of the day bumming around. Cleveland really is great when i don't have a psycotic itinerary to live up to for 4 or 5 days. nobody knew i was coming, so nobody planned anything for me. it was awesome.

I went over to jason's that evening to check out the new house. cool place, will be awesome when he finishes it all up. Then i popped in on Terry on my way out of town and had a couple drinks, then headed back to Detroit with a front seat full of Angelo's pizza and pepsi. ah, cleveland traditions.

Detroit
Detroit was cool. Was nice to see everybody again, and definately good to meet the last few employees i hadn't gotten to meet last time. We went over new product release stuff, merger stuff and generally did a ton of team building. I won a Playstation Portable and sold it to Allen because i knew it was just going to be a money pit.

Chicago
Chicago was crazy. i managed to miss the fact that my itin had no hotel res, and the only hotel i could find was at Midway. So i flew into O'hare and drove to Midway. Then checked in and crashed. I got up early to take the train to the classroom, and got a little lost rolling around downtown chi town. Finally sorted, i got into class and did my "pre-config class" stuff. that's where it all went horribly wrong. Short version: i started teaching my class at 3:30pm instead of 8:30am. it was bad.

Luckily my cass was awesome. they volunteered to stay late, come in early, cut lunch short and stay late summore. we got through everything, thankfully. On tues nite i managed to track down Gina from my trip to mexico, and we had some drinks at TGI Fridays. was good to see her. Lestat, on the other hand, was in DC on a last minute FBI thing, so i didn't get to see her. maybe next time.

Chicago was tiring (long days and long commutes), but cool. the pizza was amazing, and chicago was a LOT bigger than i thought it would be. Can't wait to go back on a low stress gig

San Jose
I got booked a last minute gig in San Jose, which is fine with me cuz i love visiting my norcal friends. But David got booked there too teaching another class, so i had somebody to go hang out with @ lunch and stuff. I got kinda sick from all the travel and stress of the last week, so i stayed in a lot. I did manage to hit up B St Billiards with dale, becky, joe and mary who now lives in san jose! no fair. and of course got a nikko's burrito. next time i'm hittin up rickshaw.

London
London was sort of unexpected, and for some reason i wasn't really looking forward to it. Everybody else was excited for me tho. The flight out wasn't bad, i slept most of the way. I managed to get on a train to the main train station, Victoria, then took a cab. I settled into my hotel room (jesus it's tiny, oh right. europe) and slept to kill the jet lag.

The rest of the week i pretty much just spent on the underground tube to and from class. my class was pretty awesome. Kensington was a pretty cool area, i could track down food and such at night without train rides, and it seemed safe.

On thursday we finished up around lunch, so i went to explore. i got to go see the London Eye (giant ferris wheel), Big Ben, Picidilly Circus and a bunch of downtown london. it was cool, but man i could never live there. everything is rediculously expensive!!!

It was a good run, but i'm excited to have a bit of time off now. 2 weeks off, then sydney for 2 weeks again. Maybe i'll look up my buddy steve @ ozmoto and see about that VFR, or maybe the big GS. hell i'd take the lil 650gs and you know it.

Sydney
When i finally headed to sydney, it was on the heels of a call from my buddy Mark saying i had my pick of the Burton catalog this year. So i went a little crazy... Board, pants, gloves, boots. Laying out all that cash put me on empty, so i didn't hire a bike again in sydney. instead, i spent a lot of time loafing and working on hardbooter. Managed to get the new template all taken care of, up and running. i'm working on a new shopping cart system using paypal's API, which will be cool once it's done.

I went out with Amber, John, Dan and the crew from Clifton's while i was there. had some pints, had a huge steak in Manli (took a ferry at night, it was awesome), and then went out for more drinks. Amber disappeared suddenly when one of her caps came off at the dinner table, and she was too embarrassed to just come out for more drinks. Everybody was super friendly and fun. Had a good time but went home a little early with a headache.

amsterdam the clusterfuck

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 22:47:32 -0500

So when my schedule came up as Utrecht, Netherlands, i was rightly excited. It was to be my first trip to Europe, and they were going to be flying me into Amsterdam! And the office is going to pay for the whole thing. There has to be a catch.
Continue reading "amsterdam the clusterfuck"

welder!!!

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Mon, 09 May 2005 07:39:53 -0500

Yet another fun packed weekend in SLC. I decided all of my hardware hacking had hit a glass ceiling... so i ran out and bought a welder. Now i can cut, grind, polish AND weld. with my new toy, i started building a rack for the daytona so we can fit all the gear for the sport touring trips we have coming up. So far, it's coming together great, but my 1.0 design is going to need some tweaking so that it will actually carry a load. Mainly i just need some down-tube support, which should tie into the passenger footpegs and exhaust mount bracket just about right. And while it may not be the prettiest piece of luggage you've ever seen, it sure is gonna be tough and comfortable to ride with.

Bonnie and Lissa threw a party @ crystal's on sat nite to celebrate graduation and bonnie's birthday. it was a good time. Crystal managed to run over my Canon a40 digicam on the way home tho, but the thing still works! granted the screen is half shredded, but it'll be perfect for the upcomming camera mod for the motorcycle. Now i don't need to worry so much bout breaking it.

Went on a good lil ride with matt this morning. Bounced up to Mirror Lake Highway till the road ended at bridge construction. I rode the CBR back and matt rode the triumph. I REALLY LOVED that CBR, i hope i can find myself one sometime soon. Maybe with my next bonus for all this hard work i've been doing.

Onward i go to Houston. Teaching a CMS class this week. Should be nice not to have somebody babysitting me on the whole thing. When i get back i gotta finish up on the rack and order some new tires. maybe even some saddle bags if i'm really feeling adventurous, tho i think the new rack will allow me to put the wheelie bag up there as well as the tent, sleeping bags, etc. Psh, may even have some room for some of the stuff i mock dave/kris/eric/dawn about, like an air matress.

dodged a bullet in ATL

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:22:06 -0500

so i realize my last post was vague... here's the whole story.

I took a class on CMS so i could teach it in ATL and Houston. upon getting to ATL i realized i didn't know the package as good as i thought i did... i'm pretty sure the instructor skipped some sections or at least didn't explain them very well.

I managed to get it all taken care of, but i had to study a lot in my off time and wing a lot of it. not something i liked doing, but i did a good job.

Had fun with Hunter all week. we ate at a lot of good places. Maggiano's was awesome, as was Bone's. Also got to see Garcia and meet his fiance. she's cool. Definately gonna have to pop in on them when i get back to ATL.

I'm home till tomorrow, then i'm off to NYC for the week for an advanced WPS class... which i've also never taught before, so i think there'll be quite a bit of studying goin on there too. sigh least i can kick it with evan at ill bigatto, get some Drunken Noodles, inhale some cannoli.

screwed the pooch

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 22:21:35 -0500

oh i have so totally and utterly fucked myself in regards to this first CMS class in atlanta. details to come after i have a breakdown and crash in a ball of flames tomorrow.

NYC 1, MC 0

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 08:01:38 -0600

so i had a hard time sleeping last nite... didn't get much rest. was in a big rush to get to class today in a city i've never been in, without an exact address for the classroom i was teaching in. i leave in a hurry down the stairs, and it's pissing rain. (makes a mental note to add an umbrella to the utility belt i carry on the road) So i walk in the rain like 10 blocks, find the building that has the classroom facility, and start wandering around looking for a classroom marked "wise". A nice man sees me wandering with that lost puppy look and asks to help. I tell him i'm there to teach the wise class, and he was like "oh just checking on things?". i give him a puzzled look, and he explains that my class starts tomorrow.

So yeah, totally flew to NYC a day too early. Wandered around Wall St for a little on the way back to the hotel, and dropped off some expense reports to fedex. now im ready to crawl back into bed cuz it's raining to hard to want to go be a tourist.

MC meets NYC

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:59:21 -0600

So i just checked into my hotel in NYC. cozy. Sitting in the SLC airport i got a call from Jules saying that dave was in a wreck on his board today at Park City and broke both his legs. don't have a complete story yet, but he called during my cabride to tell me he's alive. I'm really happy he wasn't hurt irrepairably.

Crystal and Brooke are prolly living it up in Vegas. Should be fun. wish i was with em.

we'll see what the big apple has in store for me.

random short update

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 20:24:24 -0600

so it's been quite a while, here's some of the stuff happenin in the world

-WTC went off smashingly
-loafing a lot
-Matt bought a 91 cbr 600
-finished the s3 conversion on the bike. it rides awesome
-massive root canal

there's a bunch more, but i don't really have the time or attention span to jot it all down

Things slow down in Plymouth

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:32:05 -0600

So the last 3 days of this week i don't actually have class. I'm just chillin in the office, stealing apps from the network, abusing the 'net and doin a lil bonding with the other consultants. Said goodbye to my boss last nite. Don't know when i'm going to see him next. Really weird feeling. He says he'll be in Lindon every other month, so we'll do dinner or something.

Went to Bikram Yoga with Mary for the first time. Mike, our instructor, was awesome. He's gonna be opening his own studio shortly.Bikram uses a HOT room (110 degrees), but after 10 minutes i was working to hard to realize it was 110 degrees in there. I think im gonna have to check out a couple more studios around the nation.

Went for sushi at O'sushi after with Mary. great food, and i was starving by the time we got there. She left to get Evan from the airport, and i went to the hotel to crash.

Got up late (on purpose) today and came into work to tinker with my laptop, etc. just about ready to pack it up and head back to the hotel and chill for a bit. then 1 more day of office fun, and then i can head back to slc for the weekend to catch the Banf Mtn Film Festival, and hopefully get some riding in.

Detroit v1.1

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 09:27:41 -0600

So i drove down to Cleveland for the weekend. On the way down i helped dave sort out his hosting problems with Cleetus, getting him migrated to Moose Hosting. I pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike and created a Virtual Host on my laptop with my cell phone cable in the car. Power geek, baby!

Had some drinks with jason and chris skaryd, and some of chris' wife's friends. Got drunk. THOUGHT i got into some trouble, so i left. Turns out it had very little to do with me but i just assumed i was the cause.

Spent some time with the fam, ate some home cooked food. Went out with Ruthie for coffee and talked about how weird it is to be growing up so quickly in recent months. She's engaged for fuck's sake. Crazy.

Went out for a couple drinks with my dad and we talked about Wise, retirement, home ownership and a bunch of other random stuff. We agreed on most of it besides home ownership, but i think he really assumes Wise is going to move me someplace so he doesn't think i should be tied to a home. PSH. In my current reading i wanna be tied to like 6 homes if i can help it, cuz then i don't have to worry about working

Aaron just walked into class and asked if anyone was observing Lent, because they would have ordered them special lunch. Heh, i didn't even know it was Lent go go gadget christian education, eh?

Now back to the Wise Install System class already in progress

Detroit v1.0

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 21:35:39 -0600

So i've settled in at the Plymouth office for the first week. Everyone seems cool. Jen is totally awesome! it puts me at ease to know my schedule rests in her hands. Went to lunch with Dave and John at the Box Bar. Cool place; they serve their soda in like half pitchers

I'm adjusting to the altiris way of life pretty well. it's kinda weird to have all this free time in a city i don't know, without anyone i know. it's like being on vacation someplace you don't like, alone. weird.

I'm supposed to head to San Jose for 2 weeks of mentoring/teaching with mary. i'm way stoked to know i've got mary to back me up

k, time to hit the sack. big day of wise-ish stuff to do

First day pwned

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:03:45 -0600

So i got up at like 630 am (for the first time in forever) to go hit up my first day at Altiris/Wise. managed to get lost by taking the wrong Lindon exit. Got in just in time to start class and meet Todd for the first time. He's awesome. He taught the class really well. I learned a lot and had a good time.

Turned in all my paperwork to claudette and hung out long enough for her to explain most everything to me from the orientation book.

here's to "being there in a year" as brenda larion would say.

Official Altiris Employee

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:19:26 -0600

so i just signed the paperwork from altiris. I am going to be working for John, I'm going to be working with Mary. wow.

big birthday week

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:50:45 -0600

a little recap on the last couple days:

went to the season premiere of Alias at dave and kris's. everybody drank a TON. i don't think anyone actually knows what the show was about Pics here

Headed out to Wendover for my birthday with Crystal. Her stepfather hooked us up with a room at the Rainbow, which was rad. Played a TON of craps. ended the evening up a couple bux and went to bed. got up in the am, checked out, lost about $50. Went home.

Grabbed some lunch, got ready to head out to the chang. I got a phonecall from mary giving me a little update on my situation at wise. she says things are almost finished, which makes me happy. We shall soon see.

I closed the chang last nite... and watched Jessie throw gift cards like darts. he was deadly accurate. then we rode big trays like skimboards on the entree line. it was pretty damn fun. i'm gonna miss him.

Now it's on to the chang. again. hopefully for one of the last times.

shaken not stirred

nospam@example.com (Mike) — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:44:57 -0600

so i just got off the phone with wise. they either didn't seem impressed or they hid it well. I am shaken from my previous "i think i've got it" attitude. They want me to come to MI to have an in person interview maybe. Prolly during xmas.

sigh