Operation Ginger-Bulldog Sendoff

…was a complete success.
Thanks to everyone for turning out for a great babecue and day at Jim’s pool. And especially to Jim and Mego for setting it all up. You guys are awesome.

Last Day

So, after just over a year, yesterday was my last day as I.T. Manager. I met this with mixed feelings. While I am confident that my replacement will be able to handle my duties, I am nevertheless reluctant to leave such a great job. My coworkers were great, my boss was great, the commute was awesome, and I learned lots of great things.

While I will be back in three weeks or so as a consultant on the project that we’ve been working on, it will likely be different when I return. At least I hope so. I hope that they will have moved on as a company, getting necessary things done in my absence, completing projects I hadn’t finished, starting new ones, etc. I hope that my replacement will have figured things out, gotten over being the new guy and be working hard at it all. I hope that when I return I will be a consultant, here to finish a project, and be able to move on with little more than a hiccup in the day-to-day. I also, however, hope that I will be welcomed when I return and sent off with more fanfare than other colleagues have received.
This has been a great job and I hope that I am able to find another.

Thanks, Bill

As you may or may not know, today is Bill Gates’ last day as a full time employee of Microsoft.

There are a lot of lists of the best and worst of Bill’s tenure, reminiscences of what he’s done (and should’ve done), and a lot of snide comments about his legacy.

Say what you will, but I can’t imagine anyone who has had a bigger impact on personal computing, business computing, and the industry in general.

Directly or indirectly, Microsoft has, I suspect, created more jobs than anyone. Besides the thousands of people that work directly for Microsoft, worldwide there are probably millions of people who have jobs because of Microsoft.

Think about it: What if Microsoft’s products worked quickly, easily, intuitively, and with little or no maintenance!? How many people do you know that would be out of jobs? How many fewer international phone calls would you have made? How much less stressed, more productive, and more happy would you be? How much less would you spend on Advil, Excedrin, Tums, stress-reduction toys, therapy, etc.? How much less would you get to spend on manuals, guides, training, certification, seminars, etc.?

What if personal computers were like tools? How many hammers do you buy in your life? One. Maybe two – if you lost the first one. Conversely, what if everything you used on a daily basis was as reliable, trustworthy, simple, and easy as your computer? Ugh.

Unfair comparison, I know.

This was actually supposed to be a sincere “Thank you,” to someone who contributed (and wil continue to contribute) a huge amount to the world around us. So, before I start ranting again: Thanks, Bill. You may be hatefully remembered, but you will certainly not be forgotten.

Giving Notice

So, yesterday I gave the official notice to my company that I’ll be moving to Chicago this fall.

FYI – here’s some good information on doing so: LifeHacker, WikiHow.

I thought that by including “moving to Chicago” in my letter of resignation, I had escaped having to have the “counter offer” discussion. I was, obviously, wrong. In addition to “Congratulations. That’ll be good for her and you.” I also got, “How much will it cost us to have you stay on?”\

Which caught me by surprise.

I am, obviously, flattered that my employer wants me to stay on enough that they’re telling me to name my price. I am also, however, apprehensive about doing so. It would mean a kinda big pain in the ass. Pains in the ass are something I try to avoid.

So, I’ve come up with this as my list of things my employer would need to cover in order for me to do it:

Flight from Chicago to PDX    $350
Rent + Util in Chicago            $850
Rent + Util in PDX                  $750
Drive PDX to Chicago            $560 (2200/20)*4+80
TOTAL:                                ~$2500
3 Weeks Vacation to move.
Remain full-time (hourly w/ benefits)

This would be a temporary thing, just until we finish implementing this big business management system implementation, but it would still mean that I’d be here in Portland for another month while my special lady is in Chicago, settling into our new home.

This is still a draft list, so if anyone has any opinions or thinks I omitted anything, please share.

One big factor in this is whether or not I have a shot at being Midway Games’ Network Administrator. That might be too much opportunity to pass up, regardless of price

Day 1

…it begins.