mcjeff215

OS X: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchataqua/

Was just going to say that. Yes, reverse.

The place I left four months ago sold off most of it's technical assets (minus the employees) about a week ago. The buyer of those assets wants me to go work for them and start building up their infrastructure and put together an engineering team. I built most of that stuff originally. The downside, though, is that they want me to start as an employee of the original place - pending an offer to transfer to the purchaser. I guess it's easier from an HR perspective. I really like the idea of owning those systems under different management. All of the knowledge and experience, minus the problems that started everything. I want nothing to do with the original place; I thought I expressed that hesitation in my previous post. If it came down to employment versus food-stamps, I'd do it, though. -Jeff

Bills win? 13 - 7. Third scoring drive is setup by long return. Bills Loose? 10 - 7. Die by a FG, 7 points is on a punt return on an int reception. -Jeff

Well, my situation keeps getting more and more intense. The company I left four months ago sold off a lot of it's properties last week. They called me out of the blue today - four months later - because one of their storage systems went down and they have no one on staff that can fix it. Long story short, I end up going down there on an hourly rate to fix everything for them. I do. On the way out, a director at the NEW company hits me up with.... "So when do you want to come back?" He mentioned that the VP made it a point to tell him to try and get me back. I'm the only one that knows these systems. I'm the only one... I'm the only one... blah blah blah. You know these systems, you built these systems, you understand these systems. You get the point. They want me. Bad. I'd love go go into it like that. Feels right. But. There's always a but. They want me to come back as an "old company" employee, and they'll give me an offer to the NEW company within the next 90 days. The SEC filing states that those that do not get offers in the 90 days post sale get severance. I told them if they could swing a "new company" offer, I'll do it tomorrow. Realistically, this is probably more stable, higher paying, and more secure than the place I'm at now. Holy crap my life has gotten interesting. At least football is back in two days. -A very very confused, Jeff.

I'm not sure that's even a problem. I'm worried about perception. If the perception is that they're getting rid of two of the three "minority" employees, they might have trouble... thus the get-him-to-quit grace period and the recent "lets create a we-tried paper trail" message. I'm not looking for people to blame, I'm trying to figure out what on earth they might be thinking. This is really turning into a fiasco. Will be heading in for that talk soon... turns out another guy here got the same talk yesterday ( in my department ) and the same letter this morning. -Jeff

$300 a week is the max and it's based on a graduated scale. My father is an old school Buffalo metal worker that moved down here. His shop closed last summer. ON ANOTHER NOTE.... I just got an email from the VP that gave me that speech last night. NOW he's saying that "we've figured out how to make you successful here if that's what you want, stop by this morning some time." What the hell? None of this makes any sense to me. It's looking like it's time to move on regardless. I don't think they know what they want. -Jeff

The situation keeps getting more and more complex. Rumor now has it that each department was told to get rid of two people, because we should "always be removing the weaker players." They just hired three more people. I guess that means the poor new guy that likes to visit his family once a week. None of that core group I believe I mentioned is vulnerable. You know, the more I think about it, the stranger it becomes. How did he know I "wasn't happy?" I've talked to the guy three times. Once at interview time, once in an elevator, and today. That's a BS reason. Tried to lure me into saying "You're right, I quit." Some of the guys I work with have some conspiracy theories. That that "elite group" tells the CEO how they see things, and he in turn passes his orders down to our VP. I stay as clear away from that kind of political junk as possible. I'm not a political guy. I'm a Buffalo guy with a blue collar upbringing. Do lots of good work to get noticed. Or something like that. Interview on Monday already. At the risk of sounding racist (which, I promise you I'm not), does it matter that I'm one of three white guys on a team of ~25 Indians? I wonder if he's worried about that, thus the "grace period." -Jeff

I have no idea what I prefer. I've got a CCNA, RHCE, and a SCJP, plus most of my BS. Yet, for all of that, I just continue to get dumped on. Benefits suck, and so on... but I've never been much of a labor union fan.

You know it. Very interested as of 11:00 this morning!

Four months. Yeah. They changed management between my offer letter and my first day. They canned the procedure guys. My hiring manager quit. The guy doing the talking earlier told me that if this was the situation when I interviewed, he wouldn't have hired me. That we're playing a game of "hang on and try and survive until the end." I'm not assigning all of the blame on them. I'm sure some of it sits on my shoulders. I came in thinking I had a 9-5 gig. I worked in that mode until I got chastised for not staying until 9....

That was my initial thought. I was very blunt and truthful. I think the problem exists because of X, Y, and Z. The reaction was something like "yeah, that's probably part of it. I know. Next." It's a small-ish shop. The CEO and the group that I'm not "fitting in with" hang out on the weekends. They ride in together. They all attend the same worship institutions. They... I think it comes down to the fact that I don't do that. I come in, do my job professionally, and go home. I asked around about previous turn-over. The only other turn over they've had in this group comes from people who are in my boat. I'm not trying to put the blame on them. It's as much my fault as it is theirs. I could have worked my way into those evening dinners and those weekend get-togethers, but I can't convince myself that that should have been necessary. The guy doing the talking even told me that if you don't fit in with them, or you put them off, you've above done yourself in. -Jeff

Yeah, that was my thought. I'm above petty crap like that. Well, I *do* plan to spend a lot of company time looking for a job, but I don't want to DAMAGE them. As much as it sucks, cordial, cordial, cordial.

I'm not worked up, really. I saw this coming. I've been looking pretty hard for about a week now. Now that I've got it figured out, finding another job is the biotch!

Yeah, I figured as much. It was a face to face conversation, scheduled via Exchange. Guy told me that I've been screwed since I got here, but there comes a time in which, regardless of fault, it's not possible to repair the relationship. I'm welcome to try, but blah blah blah blah. There's more to it, as well. Not that it matters. Anyone need a Unix guy in Atlanta?

I just got a "I think you might want to find something else, this isn't working for you. If you don't want to, I can't argue that, but we might have to make that decision for you if your not able to fit in with the group. You're not happy. This isn't what you expected. You need to make sure you're happy. You don't have to make up your mind now." This place has screwed me pretty hard since I got here. I think the grace time is the VP's apology. -Jeff

You know what the worst thing about Buffalo really is? The negative attitude a lot of the people in Buffalo have. I grew up there. I live down South now. I promise you if the economy was better, I'd move right back. Every time I try and show my wife (who is from GA) around and make a comment to local about how we're "thinking of moving back", they give me this long winded speech, something such as... "You don't want to move here. This place sucks. This place will always suck. Nothing we do will ever make it not suck. We're doomed. Politicians suck. Laws suck. Taxes suck. Weather sucks. Hockey sucks. Bethlehem has closed. The waterfront sucks. The parks suck. Erie county sucks. Property taxes suck. We'll never dig out. They're killing us all slowly. Run. If I could get out I would. Go Bills!" That defeated attitude *really* doesn't help anything. You need people moving back into the area! /rant off. -Jeff

I'd take it a step further. Anything can really = RJ. For instance, I believe it would be correct to state "Man, Atlanta traffic = RJ." That statement of course translates into "Atlanta traffic blows beyond description." No?

JP's job, hands down. But I'm going to qualify that. If *ANYONE* sucks up the field, they need to be benched for a few plays or a quarter or so.

I like to put my cheese curds in the microwave for ~15 seconds.. mmm... squeakies...

I miss living a mile from that stadium. Got tickets? Walk!

As many have said before me, get a second opinion, and then a fifth.. and then an Nth... When my wife was ~22/~23, she had a severe headache one night (my birthday, of all days). We took her to the ER. They found a mass in her brain. Three days later, the mass became legions. Her doctor (neuro) gave us the "you have MS" speech. Introduced us to the drugs. Told us what to expect. Setup the appointment to have the nurse come to the house and teach us how to inject, wheelchair-ify the house, and so on... So we got a second opinion. Migraine. Then we went to some big specialized MS center in Atlanta to get yet ANOTHER opinion. We wanted one of them to match up. Migraine. They *almost* started juicing her up with crap. Get other Doctors to give you the once over. Get your treatment plan verified. Ask questions about EVERYTHING. Read up on it. Know your care plan. Understand your care plan. Never shrug anything off as "because the doctor said so." Read the RIGHT sources. Get a book. You need to be careful with the 'net, though, as you'll worry yourself to death. I had a pain in my groin area one day and after three hours of 'net time, I was convinced I had cancer. Edit... bring someone else to the appointments with you, so you don't miss anything. If that's not possible, as your doctor if you can record each meeting with a tape recorder. -Jeff

Simple pop or not, it doesn't do much for me. They might be the most technically correct musicians in the business; I could care less. Good for them, nice to see more than three chords and screaming and all that, but if it doesn't appeal to me, it doesn't appeal to me. There are too many artificial boundaries. I feel a cliched speech about how labels suck and how alternative is mainstream coming on... insert that rant {HERE}. -Jeff

First three? Yes, obvious differences. The other ones all sound the same to me.