Career Opportunities

Argh, so much for a Sunday post, been in a conference the whole week.

A work friend told me a story that in his first year out into the corporate world, the tech bubble busted and he got laid off. Ever since, he's been a big believer that no one looks after your career except yourself.

This conference last week has made me feel a little bit different to that. As per my post a few weeks back about my project getting canned, I've been operating at a fairly low capacity, and doing mostly support work. I was starting to consider "what next?" and thinking of other possibilities (even outside of the company).

I came down to Charlotte for some other work, and ended up being invited to this global ICT conference. Within this week, I have been promoted to a Project Manager again, and gotten some global work. It was good to get nominated (without any suggestion from me) in front of the bigwigs as the person to do the job.

Perhaps managers do look after their staff, at least in this company.
Perhaps this comes from being able to deliver in previous instances, and past history in the corporate world counts as something.
Perhaps no one else wanted the role!

In any case, it's project time again. 6 weeks to go-live :)

Why Ski Jumps Aren't Me

So Vail was fantastic, as I mentioned in the post last week. It's worthwhile to share some of my expeeriences there.
Spurred on by a long time skiing mate back in Oz, my skiing buddy (Waz) and I decided to hit the jumps on the last day of our trip there. The weather was perfect, bright sunny skies and I had promised my mate that I would attempt a few tricks.

I decided the trick about halfway down the slope towards the jump...



Emboldened by that success, I tried something a little bit fancier...



Sorry Kevvy, I didn't fulfill your task! Maybe next time :)

Interesting Things

At a work seminar my friend attended, one of the facilitators dispensed with the small talk introductions and asked everyone in the room, "state your name and one interesting fact about you". My friend struggled with what to say, to find something short and sharp that would impress the people around him. Personally, I think it was just an ice-breaker, and he could have said anything he wanted and people would have believed him.

It got me thinking if I would be able to draw from something in my life that others would be interested in. Yes, I have moved to New York, yes I used to hold dance parties, yes I have enrolled to do some meals on wheels for the elderly (hope my application is approved). These things may be interesting but are they things I am proud of?

There are other things that I would say make me proud; making the rep team for volleyball, becoming a better project manager, and hitting the 3.5 year mark with Bec. However, a my friend quite rightly pointed out, these things really aren't that interesting to other people. It's things that are internal to me.

Ultimately, what makes a thing interesting to me in other people is the passion and enthusiasm that they talk about it and live it. A person who is a stamp collector is a "whatever", but if that stamp collector talks about her "$100,000 1904 stamp with the Queen on it", it can make for an interesting conversation.

So note to self: get enthusiastic, get passionate, and naturally people will want to hear more.

Separate note: Vail is fantastic (again!). We've had two days of glorious sun, and now it's snowing outside. Fresh tracks for tomorrow! I have come to the sad realisation that my legs are weak, as is my back, and general fitness. I'm blaming it on the altitude sickness :)

Canned Project

I've had a project cancel on me before, but not one where I was the project manager. I think I didn't feel it as much because we were still in the pre-development stage, and everything I had done was only on word and pictures.

What's there to learn from it? A project manager should never be that fully invested into the project, and they should always be, as I learnt from one of my classes, "a conduit of other people's dreams". Any kind of change in business conditions, as witnessed these last few months, can turn a project on its head. Probably the other thing to learn is that a PM should always have contingencies and different scenarios thought through. If I'm constantly thinking "what if...?" I would probably be better prepared for what was going to happen.

However, my big boss has indicated he's keen on using ICT money to fund the project and have it ready for the business when they need it. I'm not so sure that is a good idea, but if the project gets revived, I'll be ready.

Pity, though, I now can't say I have another project under my belt. I wonder what I should write for my resume for a project that gets the shaft?

Gambling Tour

Having missed out on the Macau gambling experience when we were there (surely I looked like I was money even though I had on thongs!), I have tried and tried to find people in New York to take me to Atlantic City. However, after my flaky friends bailed on me once again, I took matters into my own hands and went down there myself.

I was telling Bec that I would have never considered doing something like that in Sydney.
It's the equivalent of going to Canberra, a 3 hour bus ride by myself to gamble. Along the way, I met a wonderful old lady who was a hardcore blackjack player; serving women at the Borgata that had some shockingly busty tops; and $500 chips (oh they feel so good to hold :))

Going adventuring alone (that is not work related) is a new experience for me, I'm usually travelling with someone(s) else. It is quite liberating, it's always memorable. Especially from a gambling perspective, it is definitely better to travel alone, as I can say when I should stop and run with the winnings, instead of waiting for friends and losing more money. I'll be the first to admit that going to Atlantic City was no major stretch in terms of an "exotic adventure", but we all have to start somewhere!

And for those who care, I did get up in craps, but lost out in blackjack (I should never play that game) and limit poker. Luckily the craps paid for the bus ride and lunch and a bit extra for the dinner that night back in New York.

The best thing is I have now found some other friends who seem just as keen to gamble, so I'm sure there will be more A/C trips to come. Plus anyone who is super keen, Vegas!

Panoramic Shots

I remember when we used physical film, there was a type of film that allowed panoramic shots. Nowadays, I would take three or four shots for a scene, but never found the way to easily merge them into a panoramic shot. With the Dell, I got a cool photo editing software called Adobe Photoshop Elements that actually does the merging for me. Here's a selection, they did end up something like what I thought they would!

Gold Coast Beach


Times Square


Spit Bridge


Yankee Stadium


Great Ocean Road


Pyrmont


Palm Beach


Tokyo

New XPS Laptop

It's ironic that I'm writing this entry about my new XPS M1330 Dell on an Apple Macbook in the Apple store in Soho. I got delivery of the new XPS last week, on a deal that was pretty impressive. In total, I got around $900 off the retail price of the XPS (there was a big discount on the Dell website, and my company also offer an employee discount) so definitely was a bargain, compared to the hardware specs of a Macbook.

Dell have done better with their packaging nowadays, with a swanky leather book to keep all the installation CDs that come with the system. Plus it's all originals as well.

Of course, with these originals, the first thing I did was to reinstall the system. Yes, there were lots of things that were pre-loaded with the system that I really didn't need and made the computer a bit slow on startup, but upon reinstallation, it's very snappy.

Dell have actually included some decent software with the system, I was able to get Adobe Premier Photo Elements (full version) for free, which adds another $100 to the deal. So I've been porting my pics out of iLife and into Elements, which in itself is a bit of a learning curve.

The main things that have impressed so far:

1. HDMI output to the LCD at home works like a charm, and getting a 42-inch TV to edit photos will be awesome.
2. SD Card slot, so no need to plug in the camera anymore
3. Vista I think is not too bad, but just need a few tweaks to remove so of those stupid popup notifications. Aero interface looks slick.
4. Editing photos is so fast!! The 3Gb of RAM is so good for Elements.

I want to see how the computer handles games!

So no post-purchase dissonance, Dell has done a very good job with the XPS. Vista does take a bit more work to get to a state that works well, but I think MS will continue to improve it.

It's funny that at a stage when a lot of people are moving to Mac, I'm moving back to Windows.

On another note, that Mac Air is pretty sweet as a secondary laptop to run around with :)

Fantastic Vail

Wow, Vail is enormous! I went up with a work friend after visiting Denver for the week and have two picture perfect days in the snow. Highlights of the trip:

1. The roads to Vail being closed off because of too much snow the day before we left, causing a backlog of people at Denver International airport. We got out of there one hour late
   
2. Seeing Vail (as a European style snow town) and then being disappointed in Beaver Creek, where we stayed (as a fairly industrial looking place with dive bars and the like). Still can't complain, as it was 1/3 of the price.
   
3. Booking a hotel that wasn't the one we got dropped off at. Luckily no problems getting a room at the new place. It was confusing, Comfort Inn as opposed to Comfort Suites!
4. The weather was so good. Didn't get to see/feel much powder as my friend was of only an beginner level, but the groomed runs were so easy to ski on. They even groom some of the black runs!
5. We covered only 1/4 of Vail in the days we were there. It's big. Looking forward to going back and doing the back bowls in mid-March.
   
6. Being allowed to take a day to get back home, instead of having to do a red-eye flight. I swear I did some work on the plane.
7. I can still do black diamond runs!
8. Still too scared to do trickz :)
   

Attempted panoramic shot:

Love and Memory

I watched "The Notebook" the other day with Bec. Not a bad story, it's got a few funny parts and the overall film was very endearing.

*spoiler alert, for those that haven't seen in*
One part that did strike me was the tension between Noah and his kids when they come to visit Ali, who does not remember them at all. The kids were telling Noah "come home, we miss you" to which Noah replied "this (the nursing village) is my home now."

I had always wondered why Grandpa was move into the nursing village with Grandma even though he was in fairly good health at the time. Grandma, similar to Ali, was at the mid-late stages of Alzheimer's and was in need of constant care. Perhaps in his mind he could help her remember those things that she had forgotten, to "bring her back" to a world where she knew who Grandpa was.

It must be devastating to know that your wife of 50ish years cannot remember you. And to have those moments when all the memories and lucidity comes back to them (I don't know if this is true or not) and for it to leave again was be immensely painful for him.

I think I respect Grandpa a lot more as a husband now, and that his love and devotion to his wife was something wonderful.

Love and Memory

I watched "The Notebook" the other day with Bec. Not a bad story, it's got a few funny parts and the overall film was very endearing.

*spoiler alert, for those that haven't seen in*
One part that did strike me was the tension between Noah and his kids when they come to visit Ali, who does not remember them at all. The kids were telling Noah "come home, we miss you" to which Noah replied "this (the nursing village) is my home now."

I had always wondered why Grandpa was move into the nursing village with Grandma even though he was in fairly good health at the time. Grandma, similar to Ali, was at the mid-late stages of Alzheimer's and was in need of constant care. Perhaps in his mind he could help her remember those things that she had forgotten, to "bring her back" to a world where she knew who Grandpa was.

It must be devastating to know that your wife of 50ish years cannot remember you. And to have those moments when all the memories and lucidity comes back to them (I don't know if this is true or not) and for it to leave again was be immensely painful for him.

I think I respect Grandpa a lot more as a husband now, and that his love and devotion to his wife was something wonderful.