Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Mixed Opinions on Snow

I was kind of hoping to catch some of the lunar eclipse last night. I had thought maybe I could since I was scheduled to get off work right about the time the eclipse was supposed to start. It was snowing in Green Bay, though. Which in turn meant I was delivering pizza in the snow again. At least for the last hour or two.

However, the snow was so beautiful, I really couldn't bring myself to be disappointed. Huge, fluffy, slow falling flakes. Standing outside felt just like watching a snow globe. From the inside. There was almost no wind, almost no one outside. Just gentle, peaceful snow drifing down through the street lights.

And of course, when it snows, the temperature warms up. Something to do with cloud cover trapping in heat, if I understand correctly. Kind of like a local quilt in the sky. I mean, it wasn't actually warm, but the temperature rose from right around zero degrees to the mid 20s. Which felt very nice.

Then this morning while I shovelled the driveway, Tabby played in the snow. She had a great time throwing snow onto where I had just scraped it off. And making a snowman. It was difficult convincing her to come inside. But after a good cry about it we shared some hot cocoa, looked at pictures of her playing in the snow and she's happy again.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Pizza Delivery and the Law of Large Numbers

Random pizza delivery thoughts because that's what I'm thinking today.

Being the "on call" driver hasn't been a big deal most nights because mostly it hasn't been busy enough for the "on call" driver to come in. Both last night and tonight, though, I was called in. Which is a good thing. I like the hours. Tonight was a lot of work. I was on call from 6-9pm. At about 5pm, while Jackson and I were helping an older lady from church carrying her Christmas decorations from her basement upstairs, the manager calls me in. So I hurry up and finish, skipped dinner and got in about 5:45. Tonight was the first major snowstorm of the year. Roads were awful, drivers were sliding all over, it was cold and we were very, very busy. I finally got home about 10:45.

Keeping track of some things while delivering has been a wonderful confirmation of the Law of Large Numbers. That's the law in probability theory that states that if you perform a number of trials, say n trials, for example, the average result as n approaches infinite will approach the calculated expected value. Which basically means things average out over time. The classic example is tossing coins. If you flip a coin 3 times, you may get 3 heads in a row, i.e. 100% heads, 0% tails. In fact, it's likely enough that if you try a bunch of tests of 3 coin flips each, it will eventually happen. However, the longer you flip the coin, the closer you will get to 50% heads and 50% tails. If you could flip the coin forever, you would get exactly 50% heads and 50% tails.

I average 3 deliveries per hour. $2.50 tip per delivery. Just under 4 miles per delivery. I understand how averages work, so I expect that some days vary from those numbers. But over time, that's what I get. And I'm very impressed with how close I get to those numbers pretty much every day. Today for example, in my five hours at work I took 15 deliveries and drove 55 miles. I would have expected to get $35-$40 dollars, but today of all days, weather and driving conditions notwithstanding, I was stiffed five times. I only got $29 in tips. That's what a $.50 drop in the tip average means. It means I got paid about $1.50 per hour less than normal. That's a big deal on low income wages.

Do a little math because, you know, math is fun and all. Assume the other 10 deliveries were normal, which they seemed to be. Recognize that the resulting $2.90 per delivery average occurs only if you exclude all tips of $0. We can calculate that, normally, I could expect to not get tipped about 2 deliveries out of 15. We just need a theorem defining some number, X > 2 that is considered to suck. If 5 > X, we can claim to have mathematically proven that tonight, indeed, did suck. I don't have such a theorem, though, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.

On the upside, it was a beautiful night. The air literally seemed to glow. I assume it has to do with the city lights reflecting off the new fallen snow, or off dense, low hanging clouds, maybe some combination of the two. Or I don't know. Something like that. In any case, it was so bright out that I could see address numbers even when porch lights were left off. That was just kind of a corollary benefit, though. What was really impressive was driving through the city with that new fallen snow radiance. It was very, very pretty.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Probability Exam

Apparently I have fans. So I'd better write something. I appreciate the kick in the butt. Even if it was anonymous.

I had quite the time signing up for the probability actuarial exam. The exam in in January, so I figured I'd register for it a couple months ahead of time. So I searched, and searched for ways to sign up online. On soa.org I found a page for online registration, but it only listed registration for the November exam. Which was closed. I found the registration deadline was December 9th, but as much as I looked, I couldn't find any way to register for it.

As we got closer to the end of November I actually tried to contact people. I sent e-mails to the "contact us" link on soa.org. Found an e-mail for the president of the Wisconsin Actuarial group and asked him how to sign up. No responses. So I just found myself hoping that onine registration for January's exam would open up once November's exam was done, i.e. after 11/30.

Sure enough, 12/1, online registration opened up. 12/1 - 12/9 seems like kind of a small window to me, but who asked?

In any case, I'm signed up now. Class finishes up next week. Now I just have to find some sample exams.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Good News, Bad News

Becky got a job through a temp agency called QPS working at a cheese factory called DCI. It was an awful job. She was never sure which days she'd work from week to week or how many days she'd get, the hours were 4am to 2pm, it was cold, repetitive work at an insane speed. Her wrists hurt all the time. She was so anxious about her performance and how much she hated the job that she had trouble sleeping, which made getting up at 3:15 even harder. And of course, the pay was crap. On top of the work conditions, it was extremely unsatisfying working where the pinnacle of performance was putting on all your date labels right side up.

However, she decided she'd stick it out until Christmas before going back to take some classes to recertify to teach. At least that was the plan until DCI called QPS and told them not to send Becky back because "she wasn't a good fit."

Becky really wasn't sure how she felt about it. Despite how much she hated the job, she was starting to get to know and like some of her coworkers. Plus rejection is always hard. Even if you hate what's rejecting you.

Fortunately, QPS, the employment agency, had another job all lined up for Becky. It's a warehouse job putting together order packages. It sounds better. The hours are every day, 9-3:30. Pay is a little better. Her QPS contact tells her the pace is different at this job. More focused on getting orders right than just getting it all done fast. Becky started this morning, so we'll know more when the day's done.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

advanced potty training.

Becky got home from work yesterday and just collapsed. It's been a long week. I then went in to work all night. So Sam put Tabby to bed last night. As I was getting up this morning he says to me, "Guess what Dad. Tabby wore underwear to bed last night."

/gasp.

But she was dry all night. She always is, but still, the first night not in a diaper is kind of unnerving.

Potty training has been going well. We still remind her frequently to go, but sometimes she decides to on her own and she hasn't had any accidents in over a week.

Yay Tabby!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Scar Night

I checked out Scar Night by Alan Campbell from the library a while back and really enjoyed it.

It's an apocalyptic type fantasy set mostly in Deepgate, a Church run city suspended by chains above what seems to be a pit into hell. The main character is the last Archon, the last angel in a long line that has served Church and city.

The story is about him, his protector and the beast that comes out each new moon to hunt the city and their fight against an evil that would destroy Deepgate.

The book is full of fast paced action in an intriguing setting with well developed characters. If you like apocalyptic fantasy, this is a good book.

Only after finishing it did I realize it was just book one of the Deepgate Codex. Scar Night still stands on its own well enough, coming to a satisfying conclusion. But there is obviously room to expand the story. I'll be checking out others.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sadness

Yesterday I attended the funeral for a four month old.

It was a family from church - someone I knew from when I was a teenager in Wisconsin Rapids, in fact. At least, we knew each other's families. The father is about the same age as my brothers. He would have been somewhere around ten at the time. So we didn't actually know each other, but we know who each other was. His son was born right about the time that we moved to Green Bay this past summer. Then this last Saturday night they went out to celebrate the mother's birthday. The sitter went in to check on the baby some time after putting him down to bed and found him not breathing.

I haven't really attended many funerals. They've mostly been for people who were expecting it, though. Cancer, age. Whatever. Death wasn't a surprise. I've only ever been to funerals where most everyone there shared my religious beliefs. We have a faith in a loving God and a better place after this life. The funerals were somber, I guess, but not really sad affairs. Death was just the next step, you know?

A funeral for a baby is different. Everyone said the right things. God has a plan. The child was here for a purpose and brought love and happiness. There is so much we could learn even from his short time here. The family is eternal and some day they can be with their child again. Those are all things I believe and I'm glad they were said. But it was still a very, very sad service. It's just hard to lose a baby. For the whole community, but especially for the family. I just can't even imagine how hard it must be for them.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

WoW


Tabby wants to play World of Warcraft. Of course, she can't. Aside from the "T" rating, the game play is absolutely too complex for a three year old. However, she doesn't really want to play World of Warcraft, she wants to play with World of Warcraft . . . she wants to mimic me and her brothers. And there are aspects of the game she can play. Like exploring a section of woods or a city or changing outfits and pets. It's like having an electronic doll.

So I made a character for her. I actually put a bit of work into it. Levelled it up enough that she can stay in low level areas, fight small monsters and always win. She especially likes whacking giant spiders. She can ride a horse, a sparkly pony in fact, or she can ride giant cats. She can fish, pick flowers. She has a ton of small pets she can run around with and some cool looking dresses she can doll up her toon in. A couple of the outfits took some time to get. The best one is probably the rarest dress in the game, called the Formal Dangui. As I understand, it only spawns at its special in-game vendor once every few months. And I got it. There are thousands of players on a server, only one gets this dress every few months, and Tabby has it.

Then she deleted them all. Almost all of them. All the best ones.

I had been cleaning while she played. Went over to check up on her and noticed all her clothing icons we set up were dark, meaning the clothes were gone.

"Oh no, Tabby! What happened to all your outfits?"

"I gave them to my friend."

I quickly ran to a vendor to see if she had sold them, but none were listed in the buyback tab. So I'm thinking she just dragged them out of her bags, maybe on top of a computerized NPC, and pretended to give them away. Accidently deleting them in the process.

"Oh, I'm so sad," I told her over and over again. "That was a lot of work you just deleted." I showed her how to press "no" when the "are you sure?" button pops up as you delete items. I made sure she understood that if she deleted things they were gone. They didn't respawn, or just come back next time you log on. She didn't say much, so I wasn't sure if she understood.

Until today. She was playing again while I read and she suddenly called out, "I found her!" So I got up to check out what she found. Tabby was at the in-game bank. "I found my friend!" We clicked on the bank teller and Tabby's bank vault opened holding all the stuff I thought she had deleted.

"Oh this is great, Tabby! I'm so glad you found all your outfits!"

"Yeah! I'm so sorry I made you sad Daddy

I nearly started crying. "I love you Tabby. Thank you."

"I love you Daddy."

"Now let's get your bars all set up again."

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Autumn

The Mary Ann Cofrin Building, where I have my class, as seen across the field I walk through on my way from the parking lot.



Venus Drive, where it intersects with Sun Terrace right about at our driveway.


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Book report

Becky checked out a book called Dead Reckoning: the new science of catching killers, by Michael Baden, M.D. and Marion Roach. She seemed pretty engrossed when reading it. I picked it up the other day to skim over the contents and could not put it down.

It is a fascinating collection of anecdotes illustrating what is forensic pathology and why it is important. If you're a fan of crime lab dramas, you'll love the book. This guy is the real thing. He's worked on JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., O.J., the Romanov's and a whole host of other high profile cases in addition to "normal" cases. The book is extremely well written. Smart, accessible, straight forward.

I really enjoyed it.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Potty Training

Tabitha has been in underwear for two days now with only one accident. She has refused to wear underwear for a very long time despite being good about using the potty. As far as I can gather from trying to talk her into it, she's simply been self conscious about having an accident.

Well on Sunday, Becky decided to push the issue with Tabby and put her in underwear. She came to me crying about how mean Mom was and please would I put on her diaper. After a bit of "no, you need to wear underwear" I finally broke down. "Tell you what, let's set a timer. You wear underwear for this long and then we'll put your diaper back on." She understands timers. We set them for how long the kids play on the computer. It seemed to work. The tears dried right up and she went to go play. Half hour later, the timer beeped. Of course, we decided to let her tell us she was ready for the diaper to go back on, and she never did. About another half hour later she said something about her diaper, I didn't hear it clearly, so I asked if she wanted it back on and she said, "No, I'll wear underwear."

Well, this morning she went to a friends house and insisted on wearing a diaper. Trying to talk her into it, I think she's worried she'll have an accident while she's there, so we made a deal that she'd wear underwear when she came back home. Personally, I'm kinda' glad we're doing it that way, so it wasn't too hard for Tabby to talk me into it.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Jack

That kid, right there? Turned 17 yesterday. He's a certified lifeguard. Now looking for work in the field. Bought that computer on his desk all by hisself. We're getting mail reminding us to sign him up for college entrance exams. Man, he's getting all growed up.

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Flag

Today I got behind a car that was flying a Confederate flag. Not just plate holders or a decal on the window, but a full size flag on a pole affixed to the trunk. Man, the older I get, the more that flag sets me off.

Can you imagine it happening today? Say, in Florida, for example. "Hey, United States of America, thanks for all the infrastructure investment. You know; roads, airports, military bases. We are now the United State of Florida, though. We're going to start regulating your trucks using those roads, your planes using those airports, and your soldiers are no longer welcome on our bases. We're going to request that they store their arms and that you evac them to bases in your country. If you don't cooperate, we're going to start shooting them."

That is what the Confederate flag means to me. Wisconsin sent soldiers to fight in the Civil War. Some of them died fighting against an army that flew that flag. That flag stands for a people who took up arms against their country. Against my country.

I dunno'. Maybe it's different down South. It would probably still drive me nuts . . . but here? Especially here. What are they thinking?

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Becky's new job

Becky was "hired", or whatever it's called with a temp agency, by a place called QPS to work at a cheese factory called DCI. It sounded convenient. She was told she could pretty much pick the days she worked. The hours were miserable (4am-2pm), but if she only worked two days a week, they allowed her to coordinate around my class and mostly not conflict with me working at Pizza Hut. Which meant only needing a sitter periodically and for short times.

What that turned out to mean was, Becky could pick how many days a week she wanted, they'd schedule her for the specific days, and then call to tell her some machine had broken down so she wasn't needed. It was almost three weeks before she actually got a day of work . . . and a machine broke down, so everyone was sent home. Yesterday she finally got to work for a full day. Bagging Swiss cheese.

Ah well, not an exciting job, but it pays. It's still pretty convenient in terms of taking care of Tabby around our work schedules.

In fact, Tabby and I had a great time while Mom was at work. We grabbed donuts for breakfast, ate them at the mall and wandered around with the mall walkers for a bit. We saw that Cats & Dogs 2 was playing at the re-release theater and decided to return after lunch to watch it. It was a cute movie. Nothing to deep, but still a lot of fun. Tabby absolutely loved it.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Requests from the delivery guy

Just two quick things.

First, if you order a pizza (or whatever) delivered at night, please turn on your porch light.

Second, some night when you have a spare moment, turn on your porchlight, get in your car, pull onto the street in front of your house and locate your address numbers. If they are hidden by your flag or in the shadows under your eave or in any other way not clearly visible, identify a location on where they would be visible and some time in the near future, put them there.

That is all. Thank you.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Happy Labor Day

The rest of the world celebrates it on May 1st. International Workers' Day, a celebration of the common laborer and the contributions of the labor movement. It had a hard time gaining traction in the US, though. Too much of a commie holiday. Until we had a president who wanted to make nice with labor unions and pushed for the holiday, but celebrated American style. Instead of on May Day, like the rest of the commie world, we'd celebrate at the end of summer. By giving all the white collar guys the day off and telling the blue collar laborers to get back to work. If they're union bastards, they get time-and-a-half and can consider themselves lucky.

Sorry if I seem kinda' cynical today.

I was scheduled to work 10:30am to 8pm. And, no, not as a lucky union bastard. It was busy. Very, very busy. Normal work day? With steady deliveries for 8ish hours? 20ish deliveries. Today? 35. So busy we ran out of hand tossed dough. We ran out of stuffed crust. We ran out of breadsticks. And the whole day we were somewhat understaffed. You want to know why? You ready for this? Because today, of all days, they were worried about labor costs.

I'm not kidding. I didn't make that up.

I ended up working just over 10 hours without a break (there was never time for a break) and with about enough food for an anorexic teen girl. They still shouldn't have let me go. There were dishes, no exaggeration, piled up to my face waiting to be washed. And that was just the beginning of the clean up that had to be done. And delivery orders still being called in. I mean, they should have let me, specifically, go home. But they really needed at least one more employee there instead of me.

Friday, September 3, 2010

First day, part two.

So how was my first day of school. It was good. Man, the UWGB campus has changed so much. My class is held in a building that wasn't even there when I graduated. And a 300 level math class with over 20 students? Unheard of back then. One guy looks to be about my age, everyone else could be my kids.

The most exciting thing, though, was the homework I did that afternoon. I mean, Dr. Davis is a fine lecturer, clear and thorough. Actually doing the math, though, was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

First Day of School

For an end of summer project, Becky let the kids each design their own t-shirt, printed the designs onto transfer paper and voila . . . $4-$5 for the shirt, $3 for the transfer paper and you get a pretty inexpensive artsy/craftsy thing the boys really enjoyed. Even if you add in the 2 sheets of transfer paper and one shirt we ruined trying to figure out how to do it. I mean, at least, considering the cost of buying a new t-shirt someone else designed.

First day of school, everyone wore their very own personalized shirts.



So how was the first day of school?

Ben
It was all right. Okay, here's what happened. We sat in a class while they told us about the school and the rules. Then we toured the school. Then they talked to us more.

Sam
Really good! I hardly got lost at all. I met one kid I even have several classes with, including study hour.

Jack
Good! I really like my AP chem teacher. Also I can get college credit for the class, then take AP physics next year. But I'm the only Junior in a class full of Seniors. Math and English will be okay. Gym should be fun.

"I hardly got lost at all" is significant. Edison Middle School is huge. I think it's a rambling five stories built into a hill, so not all stairwells pass all floors. And the number of students is crazy. Green Bay has an open enrollment policy allowing families to choose which schools their kids go to. Most still choose their neighborhood school. I mean, transportation becomes an issue if you don't, right? But enough choose otherwise, and I guess Preble and Edison are the popular choices.

So Jack, Sam . . . are the schools noticeably bigger than Farnsworth and South were in Sheboygan?

Both (simultaneously)
Yeah!

Sam
Like five times as big.

Jack
So big we had more people than could fit at our lunch table.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Long fun day

Spent the morning at Whitefish Dunes. One last day out with the kids before school starts on Wednesday. They had a great time playing in the water & sand. I had a great nap on the beach.

Then this evening went to a cub scout family picnic at Green Bay's community built playground. The scouts grilled up hot dogs for their families.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Paycheck

Pizza Hut has a new way to pay employees. Instead of a paycheck, we get a card that works like a debit card or credit card. Our wages are put into an account the card draws from when we use it. I thought it sounded pretty slick up until the part about a service fee every time I use the card.

Fortunately, there's a way to get our pay direct deposited into a checking account. I just have to go to some website and enter all the right code words. So I'm trying to figure that out this morning.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Floods

I was scheduled to work at 5pm yesterday. So at about 4:58 I pulled up to the corner of Main and Mason, about 1/4 mile up from Pizza Hut, and traffic was backed up from that light all the way to the next light up on Mason. Gah. But I happened to be about middle of the pack, right next to the Walgreen's parking lot at the corner. So I quickly turned in the Mason Street entrance, cut through and noticed as I pulled out the Main Street entrance that traffic was backed up because of a police barricade blocking Main Street. Oops, I looked down the road towards Pizza Hut and realized they were barricading off Main Street because it was flooded out about 1/2 way between the corner and Pizza Hut.

There were two cars right at the driveway entrance to Pizza Hut submerged up over their hoods. A river flowed across the parking lot and flowed away down Main Street. There was no way I could drive there. I literally would have had to swim to the store.

So instead, I returned home, called in and explained that I wasn't there yet because I couldn't get there. "Don't worry about it," said the manager on duty, "We're closing for the night. Just waiting for the water to subside so we can clean up before heading out."

This morning I was scheduled to work 10:30AM. When I arrived, there were puddles all over the parking lot, debris all over the property. Two managers had arrived earlier in the morning to continue cleaning everything up. Dine-in remained closed until about 5PM, and the morning was real slow, so I spent most of my time helping to clean things up until deliveries started coming in regularly about 2PM.

Of course we talked about what it had been like at the store yesterday. Apparently there was about 4 inches of standing water throughout. One of our waitstaff tried to drive in when the water was only 1/2 way up her car door, without considering that our parking lot was a depression. As soon as she started to pull in, her car sank. One of the drivers swam out to help her out of the car. By the time she had climbed out the window, water was about up to the cars roof. One of the customer's cars was entirely submerged.

It was crazy.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Bugs

One thing about living in Manitowoc and Sheboygan that I don't think I appreciated as much as I should have was just how few bugs there were. I mean, there were bugs; mosquitos, spiders, basement crawly things. After each trip back to visit Becky's parents in Wisconsin Rapids, I did notice how few mosquitos we had on the Lakeshore. But man, I'd forgotten how many bugs there are in Green Bay.

There's a park Becky would like to take our kids to for pictures, but it is so mosquito infested that she just can't. And spiders. Wow, so many spiders. Big, healthy, well fed spiders. Sometime toward the end of September or beginning of October I'll have to get a picture of one of the glass walls on a UWGB campus building. The whole thing gets to be a giant spider community. I mean, the community is giant. And the spiders are pretty big too. It's a mix of creepy and fascinating.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Visitors

Becky's sister, Sherry, came up from Wyoming to visit this weekend with four of her kids. Becky's parents took three of Sherry's kids plus two of ours up to Iron Mountain, Michigan for the Ore to Shore bike race. Becky had a great time with her sister. We don't see them nearly often enough. Tabby absolutely adored having another girl around the house.


Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Exciting work day

I headed out on a double delivery today - taking two homes' orders. A couple minutes on the road and I found traffic at a dead stop at the intersection of I43 North and Manitowoc Road. A couple cars were pulled off the side, everyone else stopped in their lanes, even a couple cars in the intersection itself.

Suddenly, I saw this dark little blur, a Terrier, bolt between cars and someone quickly cut between the blur and the lane of oncoming traffic to herd it back to the side of the road. So I stepped out of my car to see if I could help. About six of us were circling the dog, trying to trap it between us. As we talked to each other, I found out none of us owned it. Apparently, the dog had jumped out of her car as it turned onto the highway and the owner hadn't noticed.

So this poor little thing was scared absolutely to death. Snarling, shaking, snapping and most of all, trying to get away from us. One of the guys even had a bag of Doritos he was trying to lure the dog over with. But no luck. Eventually she found a spot under an SUV that none of us seemed to be able to reach. There she sat.

I knelt next to the vehicle and slowly inched my hand toward her, pausing when she snarled at it and starting again as she calmed down. Eventually I was touching her paws, then her shoulder, then I grabbed her collar. Wow. You'd have thought I put a cattle prod to her. Yelping, snarling, biting, struggling. It was rough pulling out from under the SUV and my hand was half covered in blood by the time I had her in my arms. As soon as I had her in a hug though, she calmed down like nothing had happened.

She had on tags with a phone number. Her name was Zoe. Someone called the owners, took the dog so I could wash off my hand. Dorito guy had a first aid kit, gave me a band aid. A policeman pulled up about that time. He made sure there was no accident, no one injured, asked if either of the two of us who had been bitten wanted to file a report. No, I didn't want to file a report. The poor little thing was just scared to death. The only thing filing a report would do is drive up the owner's home insurance rates.

So I delivered the pizza's, got back to work. We had a manager trainee in today. "Way to go, new guy," said our store manager, "Now trainee here has an extra hour of paper work to fill out. Next time just run the dog over."

I think he was kidding. Kind of.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Yay work!

Today was my first official day. I spent three hours with what Pizza Hut calls the "Learning Zone" - it's training software. Nothing I didn't already know from, well, working at Pizza Hut for 4 years. But I guess that was 13 years ago. Long enough that there was no such thing as a "Learning Zone".

It was just my first "official" day, though, because I actually got called in to work last Saturday. Another driver called in sick (or something), so I was there just in case it got busy. It didn't. But I got to take a few deliveries and a jump start on my training, so it was good.

Oh, and I got paid. That was good too.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

On the water

Becky's brother, Mike, took us out on his boat yesterday.



The kneeboard was the biggest hit. Even Becky got out on it.









We had a ton of fun.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Three years old

Tabby turned three years old today.



Becky had hung a whole bunch of balloons in front of her bedroom door which she was absolulely thrilled to find and play with for most of the morning.



We spent all morning in the library, played at home all afternoon, then had cake and opened presents. I think her favorite is a pink tent. Becky bought it a long time back and has been hanging on to it for right now.



Tabby liked it so much she's sleeping in it tonight.





Whitefish Dunes

The kids had a great time in the water.






And playing in the sand





Jack hoped that maybe if he planted himself and was watered, maybe he'd grow a little more.



Didn't really work



Really, I was there too.



Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Pizza Hut

Brittyn (store manager): "Good to meet you, Jack."

Me: "Thanks. Good to meet you too."

Brittyn: "Okay, these are the hours you're available?" (shows me the weekly schedule format from the application).

Me: "Yes. Everyday except Sunday. Any time of day, Saturdays, weekends, holidays. I'm available any day but Sunday."

Brittyn: "Okay." (Crosses Sunday off the chart). "And you want to work full time?"

Me: "I do. As much as possible if it's available."

Brittyn: "All right, well, you passed the DMV screening and that means we hire you. I've already ordered your shirt and name tag. I can start putting you on the schedule August 10th."

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bay Shore Park



Becky took us all out to Bayshore Park yesterday. I have to admit I'm the only one who didn't want to go. I had things I wanted to do at home and the sun and beach just don't do anything for me. But she made me go.




Of course, we had a great time.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Phone Service

I have always been pretty happy with our AT&T service. But man, this has a been a bad week for it. They were supposed to hook up our phones the Friday we moved in. It didn't happen. When I called they said it got put off until the next Monday. No reason. It was really like they just ran out of time on Friday and were taking the weekend off. We have cell phones so it wasn't that big a deal.

Monday they hooked up our service. Tuesday it was dead. A technician came and looked at things Wednesday evening and told us we had a bad jack. When we plugged our phone in, it shorted out the line. Again, not a big deal. We have enough jacks in the house that we plugged the phone into a good one and we'll tell the landlord about the bad jack when we get a chance.

Over the next few days our kids notice that the phone line upstairs (not the bad jack) has no dial tone, but if they unplug the phone and plug it back in again, the dial tone comes back on.

This morning our phone rings, but only the downstairs line. The upstairs line is dead again. When we answer the phone, there's no one there. So I play around with my cell phone and find that I can make outgoing calls from our home phone, but incoming calls are getting a "number has been disconnected" message. I called AT&T, they did their thing where they ping the house to check the signal. No problem. Called our house, they got through fine.

Frustrating. I mean, are prospective employers going to get through? Or get told I no longer have a phone? Fortunately, Pizza Hut got through last night. With an inconsistent problem though . . . who knows if anyone else has tried to call?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Stress

I ran a red light yesterday. One of those roads without much traffic, but with a light in the middle of it? I saw the corner, saw no traffic anywhere around, but missed the light and totally blew through it. That's not something I do. I'm a very good driver, very safe. I guess I was just preoccupied with . . . well, Becky and I had been talking about jobs I was going to apply to and I just started thinking about the whole unemployment thing. It's been over seven months looking for jobs and being told no over and over and over. I handle stress really well, but that's a lot. I guess I'm starting to feel it a little bit.

Over the past week I've put in applications at United Health Group, Pizza Hut, Pondersa, Applebee's, Papa John's and Jimmy John's. Hopefully something pans out so I have some type of job while taking my class.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

A sinkful of Tabby

Apparently our bathroom mirror needed washing. Being the industrious girl she is, Tabby took the initiative to get the job done.

Or maybe the soap needed playing with. Either way, Tabby's the right girl.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Moved In

Whew.

Friday through Tuesday with no internet. Played Civ IV for the first time in ages. The boys and I played a game together all Sunday afternoon. Jack and Sam have been playing Age of Empires III.

Phone service was supposed to be hooked up Friday, was delayed to Monday, died Monday night, couldn't be fixed until Wednesday. Turns out we have a bad jack that shorts out service if we use it. Yay cell phones.

HOT!

Storage pod was mostly emptied into the house Friday evening. Becky's dad stayed long enough to help set up the beds.

Saturday morning while Becky went to the store, the boys and I finished emptying it. Stocor took it out of our driveway Monday night.

Who would have thought restocking the kitchen from nearly empty would be so hard? Becky has gone to the store pretty much every day. She even let me go once.

There are a dozen or so boxes we plan to just not unpack given that six months from now, when my class is done, who knows what we're going to do. They are finally put away in their closets and everything else unpacked. I mean, well, we need to straighten the garage in order to get both vehicles in. But other than that.

We're close enough to church that we walked on Sunday.

Ben spent a day and a half in bed with a puke bucket.

I've applied for jobs at Ponderosa and Applebee's (currently fully staffed, but taking applications), Pizza Hut (constantly hiring drivers) and Universal Health Group.

Jack has applied at a host of fast food places; McDonald's, Subway among them.

Becky has applied for jobs at Hancock, Joann's and Wal-Mart.

Had a wonderful chat with my grandmother.

There's still stuff to do, but we finally actually feel moved in.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Moving again

One benefit of having our vacation cut short is that it accelerated our plans to move to Green Bay. Today we are going to pack a few boxes to put in our storage unit, tomorrow we will pack up the rest of bags and Friday we are actually moving.

Today we also have on the agenda to get utilities, water, phone and internet set up for the GB address. And a trip to the post office to change address.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Peeking into the profession

SOA blog has an entry with the results of their Retirement 20/20 initiative, which was basically a call for actuaries to submit papers proposing new retirement designs. I just finished reading the winning paper. It proposed a plan to replace current "tier II" plans (401K or similar voluntary saving plans) with a mandatory participation plan using smarter investment strategies, requiring annuity payout, and incentives to maximize amount of investment. Or I guess it doesn't totally replace tier II plans, it just fills the same role they do and would likely, for all practical purposes, result in replacing them for the majority of workers. Current retirement savings would still exist and could be used. In fact, the proposed plan would still use current providers, but with some different standards, higher degree of worker particiapation and more strict federal oversight.

Personally, I liked it. I think it is smart that the plan didn't try to replace Social Security, but provided a model which once proven could be expanded to phase out Social Security to some degree. Possibly. I like that the author recognized that while his plan might be controversial with individuals who would prefer to manage their own risk, he wasn't proposing a savings or investment plan (which is what those individuals are actually looking for), he was proposing a national retirement plan and considering the interest of that much larger pool.

It was well written and for the most part intellectually accessible. I have to admit, though, there were some technicalities of the plan that I only vaguely grasped. I mean, as someone just getting into the actuarial field. I don't yet have experience working in it, am currently reviewing the math for the first actuarial exam and my only exposure to the financial aspect of the field (outside, you know, personal experience with my own 401K), is from taking a single accounting course a few years ago.

Mostly what I read it for was to see some hot topics in the profession. I wanted to see some examples of what actuaries do, what they write. The blog, like most, has a comments section and the blogger, Andy Peterson, invites commentary on the papers. I was hoping to see some discussion by other actuaries. After all, Andy mentioned that in the panel where the papers were presented there was considerable discussion inspired by some healthy disagreement on some aspects of the plans. I figured, the blogosphere being what it is, there was sure to be some comments! But there's nothing.

I guess there's all sorts of reasons there may be no comments. Maybe no one reads the blog. Though I guess I do, huh? And one is significantly greater than zero, isn't it? Maybe actuaries just aren't the type to comment. Insert stereotypes about timid math geeks . . . or more likely, if my experience with actuaries is any indication, they're just smart enough to not troll their own professional boards. Maybe the blog's readers tend to be newbies like me who feel underqualified to comment meaningfully.

Whatever the reason, while I enjoyed what I read, I would have liked to see what interaction goes on in the professional community.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Heart Rate

I have to admit, I don't use the suggested high end/low end heart rates when I'm on the exercise bike each morning. I find I hardly break a sweat if my heart rate stays between 130-165. So I just push myself enough that I do sweat a bit. I have a routine I use to keep my heart rate up. I set high and low "load" targets as measured by the bike's "load indicator", whatever that means. High = 4.5, low = 2.5. I stay at high for four minutes to spike my heart rate. Since I can't maintain 4.5 for 20 minutes, I then go two minutes at low and repeat that 4 min:2 min cycle three times. I start with a 1 minute slow warmup and that leaves 1 minute for a sprint at the end.

My heart rate ends up fluctuating between 160 - 230. Enough higher than suggested that I wonder if it should concern me? There really doesn't seem to be any physical distress though, just a good invigorating workout.

Except . . . every time during the third repetition of the cycle I know I should be at high speed from 7 mins to 3 mins, then low from 3 mins to 1 min on the countdown timer. But every time . . . every time . . . I've confused it and gone high speed from 7 mins to 4 mins. After about 30 seconds at low speed I always catch it and tell myself I won't do it next time. But I do.

It's not a big deal in terms of the workout. Just means the last bit goes 3 mins fast/2 mins slow/2 mins fast instead of 4 mins fast/2 mins slow/1 min fast. But I think it's interesting to note the effect of heart rate on brain functionality. At least I think that's what I'm seeing.

Fortunately, as exciting as my calculus reviews are, they don't quite get my heart pumping that much.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Fourth of July

Hadn't planned on being here today . . . we were going to spend it in Laramie, Wyoming with Becky's sister, Sherry's, family.

But it's still the same free country, still grilling out, lighting off explosives, going to see fireworks. And Sherry's daughter Amanda is here. Hopefully her husband, Tony, will be back from work in time to go see the show with us.

Happy Fourth!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Good news, bad news

The good news
Our 1996 Plymouth Voyager is reaching the point where it needs work. If I had the skills to fix it's periodic problems, it would still be a fine vehicle. Since I don't, it's gonna' nickel and dime us for more than it's worth.

So my father-in-law watches used car adds for deals. It's just something he does. And he found a 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager for only $1800. It seemed to be well taken care of, so geez . . . if we get just 3 more years out of it, that's $50 a month for a vehicle. We delayed leaving on vacation a few hours so that we could pick this vehicle up. Previous owner said it's a good thing we did since he had 3 more interested parties scheduled to come look at it that day.

Score!

The bad news
13 hours later we're cruising down I680 about a half hour from arriving at Becky's Aunt & Uncles place in Omaha when a deer bounded in front of us. We must have caught the thing mid leap. It collapsed the front of our van and we sent it flying head over heels about 10 feet in the air into the field off the highway.

The van ain't goin' nowhere no more.

The good news
Other than the poor deer, no one got hurt. Becky's aunt & uncle have gone beyond any expectations. Came to pick us up and are letting us hang out here until we straighten out our plans. Becky was smart enough to transfer the insurance coverage to the new vehicle before we hit the road, so calling in the claim went real smoothly.

American Family has treated us very well in the past, so we have reason to hope they will again. Just waiting on them to find out where our vehicle was towed and when an adjuster can look at it.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

A place

Our original plan was to spend the summer in Wisconsin Rapids. We'd get summer jobs, save money on rent, keep our stuff in the portable storage pod and in August we'd move to GB. The more we thought about it, the less sense it made. Other than that "save money on rent part." There ends up being very little time for a job and if we got one it would mean skipping out on going to Utah for sure. Plus there's the stress of sharing a home. As much as we love Becky's family . . . well there's still stress about things we used to control and now don't.

So we spent this past Wednesday and Friday in Green Bay looking for a place to live. We found a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath duplex on Green Bay's east side. The kids will go to Edison Middle School and Preble High. The kitchen is small and all three boys will be sharing a room, but overall the place is bigger than we had dared hope. The bedroom are easily big enough for three and it has a huge family room. It's within walking distance of church and East Town Mall. Clean, quiet leafy subdivision. We met our neighbor and one of her sons. They seem nice. Our landlady seems real nice too. And, small world, her husband's brother is an IT manager at Acuity.

We're kind of excited about the place.

Monday we're leaving for a vacation out to Utah and back. We'll visit Becky's uncle, grandmother and sister on the way out and/or back. We should be back around July 7th or 8th, then plan to move into the place in Green Bay the next weekend, July 16th-17th.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Pony

My niece's husband, Tony, came from Wyoming to Wisconsin to interview for a job (which he got) at the Rhinelander Wal-Mart. While here, he is also staying at Becky's parents' place. Somehow, Tabby got it in her head that "Pony" was coming to stay with us. Wishful thinking maybe? I mean, she can get the "T" sound just fine . . . but ever since arriving, she hasn't called Tony anything but Pony.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Hitting the Bikes

Becky is concerned about my weight. Not because I'm fat, but because my parents, my Dad especially, have health issues that she's afraid I'll inherit. I mean, I'm not thin either, I weigh a little more than I should. So she wants me to exercise and had a relatively long, emotion frought discussion about it this morning.

I know I should exercise. I just don't worry about my health like Becky does. Worrying just isn't part of my nature, I guess. I've gone through active periods where I exercise regularly and I'm not really sure what motivates me to do so during those times . . . but it's just not here now.

But Becky seems to need me to exercise, so here I go.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hitting the books

I got some academic advising from UWGB yesterday. After being passed from person to person on the phone, I ended up speaking with Greg Davis, whom I recognized from my years at UWGB oh so long ago. He was one of my favorite professors there, in fact. Good lecturer, obviously enjoyed what he was doing, approachable. Apparently he's in charge of helping people like me figure out what classes they're supposed to be taking.

So we talked about me taking courses to prepare for the actuarial exams. The Society of Actuaries modified the exams a few years back. When I took the exams in, like 1997, I remember taking a calculus based exam that was straight out of my calc III course and a statistics based exam that seemed to cover both material from my math probability course and a lot of material I'd never seen. Stuff I'd expect to have learned in the math stats class I never took. I remember looking at the calc exam thinking, "Man, if I had eight hours and my text book, I'd ace this." But I didn't. I had 2 hours and a crappy calculator. So I scored a 3 (10 being a perfect score, around 7 considered passing). Well I guess the calc test is gone. The probability test just covers probability. What most people now think of as "exam 2" covers financial models. Dr. Davis assures me that taking math probability should be sufficient to prepare for "exam 1".

The theory of probability course, however, is still pretty calculus heavy. I mean, it's a 300-level course with calc III as a pre-req. And my math is still pretty rusty. So I'm going to be hitting the math books to prepare for classes in the fall. Get back into the swing of things, you know? Do a couple hours of math per day to review material I'll have to be able to use in the probability course. This morning, I did most of the review chapter at the beginning of my calculus textbook. Just linear and quadratic equations on a Cartesian plane, i.e. graphing lines, circles, parabolas, etc. It was fun. This afternoon I'll spend an hour with my linear algebra text. Once I get a feel for how quickly it's coming back, I'll adjust the schedule to make sure I'm ready for the fall.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Happy Anniversary

A long time ago I was talking with a group of coworkers about getting a television. Not a new television . . . a television, period. For various reasons, Becky and I didn't have one yet and had agreed not to get one until our son was going into Kindergarten. So he was about ready to enter Kindergarten, and Becky was getting cold feet. Another coworker, the eternal bachelor, walked up on the conversation while we were talking about me wanting a television, but us putting it off because Becky had changed her mind about it. That led to all sorts of tangents about what being married means you give up and Bachelor Guy says, "Dude, you have got to come with me . . . the women on my team are trying to convince me how much it benefits guys to get hitched and you totally make my point."

It was funny. In part because, of course, Bachelor Guy is right in his own way . . . but in the complexities of things, he just entirely missed the point. It's hard to explain why being married is a good thing. It is, though. It just feels right, like I wouldn't want it any other way.

18 years ago, on June 12th, I married a wonderful, beautiful woman. I still can't believe I lucky I am. And I wouldn't trade her away for anything. Not even a television.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Settling In

Becky's mother is a wonderful woman. She has done so much for us and it so very, very kind of her to open her home to us for the summer.

She is the type of person who sees value, or the potential value in so many things. She goes to a fabric store and sees projects that she would love to do. She goes to garage sales and sees items she can decorate with. Heck, she goes to the beach and sees items that would look perfect in the yard or a certain room. So she has stuff. A lot of stuff.

Becky is also a wonderful woman. I mean, that's why I married her, right? But she is just the opposite about stuff. She is brutal about keeping only what we need. We often joke that if I sit still long enough in front of the computer I'll get tossed out. Or over the last few weeks as we razed our belongings, we had to bolt the kids to the floor.

You see where this is going?

My mother-in-law just went out west for a couple of weeks and left her daughter with all her stuff. Becky is gnawing her fingers off to keep from just totally cleaning house.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Downtime

Packed up the storage unit yesterday, packing up the computer in about 15 mins, thoroughly cleaning the house.

Tomorrow when school gets out we'll be driving off to Wisconsin Rapids.

Friday, June 4, 2010

How High?

Becky: "Is Tabby downstairs getting lunch herself?"

Jack: "I think she might be."

Becky: "Oh, I thought you were with her."

Jack: "I told her I wasn't going to eat yet."

Becky: ". . . "

Jack: "Did you tell her to come get me to make her lunch?"

Becky: "No, I just assumed . . . you know . . . "

Jack: "That Tabby said jump so I would?"

Becky: "Well, yeah."

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Coverage

Insurance companies can drop people or refuse to cover people or charge higher premiums for all sorts of reasons that those people may perceive as arbitrary. The classic example is that males under the age of about 25 are charged higher premiums for auto insurance. I've talked to a lot of people who think that is entirely unfair. Most of them males under the age of 25. They swear that they're not getting in any accidents and they know, they absolutely know, that girls get in more accidents than boys do. So what gives?

"Fair" actually has very little to do with it. And your anecdotal experience is totally irrelevant. Even if it's true that girls get in more accidents than boys . . . I mean, I don't know whether or not it is . . . but even if it is true, all the insurance company cares about is that boys cost them more money than girls. For whatever reason. Maybe boys drive faster, which in turn means the "few" accidents they get into are more severe. And funerals, or extended hospital stays, are significantly more expensive than fender benders. The "why" is something insurance companies look at and can tailor specific plans' rates around related factors like number of speeding tickets. However, the general principal is that when they set rates, it has less to do with you specifically than it does with risk factors associated with your subset of the population.

We're human beings, though. Knowing what insurance companies are doing doesn't necessarily change how we feel about it. I understand that. When Acuity began using credit profiling to influence premiums, that didn't really feel fair. It felt like they were denying insurance to the population that would need it the most in a crisis. The company leadership explained it to employees very well. Explained that there were some very careful studies done to verify that there is no correlation between credit score and socio economic status. They weren't discriminating against the poor. Credit score varies virtually identically regardless of if you're rich or poor. It's just that low credit score correlated significantly with higher insurance risk. They don't really know why and other than making sure they aren't breaking any discrimination laws, they don't care.

The one that still gets me in that irrational, "hey not fair!" part of my brain is denying home coverage to people with certain types of dogs. Not just the stereotypical "bad" dogs, like Pit Bulls or Rottweilers, either. Acuity would flat out turn down coverage if you had a Siberian Husky or German Shephard. Even with no "incident" to prompt a risk assessment. The dogs I would want if we could get one were on the list. My parents couldn't get coverage with Acuity.

But "fair" actually has very little to do with it, right? It's just the risk levels the company leadership sets as acceptable and the rest is math.

So anyway. My brother-in-law, Mike, knows someone whose insurance policy was recently dropped by Acuity. I guess that individual empathizes with my employment being "dropped" by Acuity. He, in turn, knows a recruiter in Milwaukee that sometimes looks for mainframe programmers. He passed her name on to Mike who passed it on to me and I'll be contacting her today.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day celebrates something pretty lofty. We honor those who have given the most a human being can give for his or her country.

The service members I've known don't really tend to lofty discussions, though. I mean, they can. They will when occassion calls for it. But they don't seem to spend a lot of time dwelling on the risks of their occupation. Their days are not spent in endless reflection about what they can do to protect our freedoms. For the most part they've been very straightforward, down to earth people. They've got jobs and families and hobbies and they love to have a good time.

So yeah, Memorial Day is a great holiday. Yes, those who have given their lives for our country deserve our utmost respect and eternal remembrance.

And yeah, it's entirely appropriate, I think, to celebrate by getting together with friends and loved ones for a barbecue.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Craig's listing

As part of our moving process, we've identified a bunch of stuff we really don't want to take with us, but which would be just wasteful to toss out. On suggestion from Becky's brother, we gave Craig's List a shot. It has been pretty nice. We've already sold a BB gun, shelving unit, a bunch of 2x4s, a safety gate and a swingset. And we've heard back from people about a papasan chair, a hitch haul and a toddler backpack carrier. Only things that haven't moved have been a toddler swing and a fold out bed couch sectional.

I will never, ever list something as free again, though. I got so many responses to "free lumber!"

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Course Set

I'm still looking for a mainframe developer job. Those are looking scarce, though. At least relative to the number of job seekers. Great Lakes answered my e-mail to let me know, "You weren't lacking any specific skill. It's just that we had nearly 400 applicants." So, a career change is looking more and more . . . well, not so much appealing as adviseable.

Which got us thinking about, if I'm going to take an entry level position, does it have to be as a programmer? No. And why not do something to broaden my skill set? So I am registering for school . . . but not something that would take so long as law school. I'm going to retake some math coursework at UWGB that will prepare me for the Actuarial exams. If a good mainframe developer position comes along, I'll take that. Otherwise, after this next school year I'll expand my search to include actuarial positions.

Until school starts, because we have to leave this home, we're moving in with Becky's parents in Wisconsin Rapids until we can find a place in Green Bay.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Changing course

Getting an answer from Great Lakes was a critical point for us. With the pace things seem to move, even if we hear back from Land's End, Kohl's or Transamerica this week for an interview, and even if I were to get a job, by the time the process is over, it could be past the June 11th cutoff date for us to be out of our house. At the very least, so close to June 11th that we are concerned that we wouldn't have time to find a place to which we can move before we have to be out. So we're looking for a 3 bedroom place with the best accomodations for moving out when I get a job. Our first choice is here on the south side of Sheboygan, so our kids stay in the same school in the very unhappy chance that I still don't have a job in September. Second choice is to move to somewhere else in the Sheboygan area, still close to our support network of friends.

It's also become a critical juncture in my job search itself. That's three places now that have told me some variation of, "We're looking for someone with job skills more closely aligned with the projects we're working on." That's not an answer I expected to get when I started my job search back in January. I've got more than 10 years experience working on IBM mainframes with COBOL and DB2 and the whole suite of acronyms that goes with that. However, pretty much everything we did at ACUITY was home grown. I guess there enough unemployed mainframe programmers who do have experience with specific software packages that companies can look for candidates who know the packages used at the company.

We kind of figured we wanted to find a job within a day of Becky's parents, and not any further from mine, so I've been looking in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. It didn't feel like we were limiting the search too much, but given the market, maybe we are. So I'm going to expand the search to anywhere. I'm also going to expand the type of work to any developer position as opposed to just positions for experienced developers, i.e. I'm open to taking entry level jobs despite the lower salary. Lower salary is certainly better than no salary. That also opens the possiblity to being a java developer. I took those online programming courses and had enough personal experience with website development that I'd feel comfortable with an entry level position doing it.

Related to that, as long as I'm looking at entry level work, I'm going to go ahead and look at a career change. Law school is still a consideration. I'm going to take a practice LSAT tomorrow. More promising, though, I'm going to see what's involved in retaking Calc II and III, Stats and Probability to prepare for the first two actuarial exams. That would take less time, only about two part time semesters of school, and be less expensive than law school, and just as satisfying. Maybe even more. Math was fun.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Gray Day

It's raining. The kind of nice steady, slow drizzle that I really love. The only problem with it is that I'm going out camping with Jack and Ben tonight. There was a brief, "what if it's still raining?" thing that Becky brought up . . . but we'll still go out. It's just over night and the forecast says just drizzly all day, clearing up late.

The big downer of the day was hearing a "no" back from Great Lakes. Becky and I had a long, more serious conversation about applying to law school, or what other options are available if I change careers. Take some refresher math courses and the actuarial exams? I'll look at that.

I mean, I'm still looking for a mainframe developer job until some other plan is finalized, but if that is continuing to go nowhere . . .

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Tweeting

Got an interesting e-mail through LinkedIn from a former coworker at ACUITY named Art. He advised me to cut the twitter link I have up on LinkedIn, to keep LinkedIn a professional network and twitter a social network each with its own content for different audiences.

I don't think I'm going to do that. According to what Lisa Cruz said in that forum at the job fair a few weeks back, tying your various networks together creates more opportunities. As long as I'm not "pulling a Michael Phelps," as she put it, the synergy of the connected networks outweighs what professional contacts see of your casual activities. The thing to remember is that these people in your various networks have their own lives, casual and professional, with their respective networks and they can hook you up with contacts you would otherwise never have known.

Art's e-mail did, however, inspire me to go look at my twitter feed more closely in the LinkedIn context. I really do need to go look for some IT twitter groups.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Kung-fu fighting

It's been about 20 years since I took Tae Kwon Do with my family. I loved it. One of those things that I think I'd like to get back into, but there's the cost and the time . . . which I really wouldn't mind if I was taking it with Becky or some of the kids. Going just by myself, though, seemed kind of . . . like I was ditching my family to go play. On a regular schedule, a couple times a week. So I never got around to seriously looking at signing up for it.

Well, back in January, Becky decided "we" needed more exercise and signed us up to take a martial arts class through the rec department. After the first eight week session, though, Becky realized she didn't much like it and had me just sign myself up for the next eight.

It's an Okinawan form called Sui Ki Do that is kind of Karate based, borrowing from Hapkido, with a lot of emphasis on body mechanics and force vectors. It is fascinating to compare Sui Ki Do with what I learned in Tae Kwon Do. I think that, being as young as I was, I didn't really appreciate some of the nuances I pick up on now. For example, it never really struck me how defensive a martial art Tae Kwon Do is. I mean, you're kicking people in the face! With your foot! And it sure feels like there's a lot of power in the leg driving that foot, know what I mean?

But behind that kick there was a lot of set up. The stance was a defensive back stance, the blocking and initial set of attacks and feints, the footwork is designed to deflect an opponent, not just his attacks, but the opponent himself away from you. To create distance. In part, the distance is a pragmatic nod to how much room is required to execute a kick. I think it is not insignificant, however, that distance results in defensive positioning.

In Sui Ki Do, we are taught to fight in a front stance, in very close range. Bag work is emphasized both to practice striking with full force and, just importantly, to teach proper distancing. It was quite a shock, especially for someone coming from a Tae Kwon Do tradition, to realize how close you need to be for a good hook or uppercut. Such proximity necessitates that blocking not merely deflect your opponent, or at least not deflect him out of your striking range. Instead the idea is to smother attacks and throw an opponent off balance. Deflect his attacking vector while keeping him close for your own attacks.

I really don't think one style is necessarily superior to the other, despite how it might sound in lessons. We're taught in Sui Ki Do that front kicks are very weak, opportunistic strikes that we learn just in case the opportunity presents itself but don't count on it. And really, don't ever try to kick someone above the belt. You're aiming for the knee or inner thigh. I mean, totally oppposite what we learned in Tae Kwon Do. The thing to remember is that the lessons are taught within the context of this fighting style. And it is absolutely true that if the goal is a series of quick strikes to the head and body, then the range, positioning, timing is going to be all wrong for kicking someone in the face.

I am enjoying Sui Ki Do. The only drawback is the total emphasis on self defense. That may seem an odd criticism for a martial art, but again, I'm comparing it to my Tae Kwon Do experience. There was, of course, a self defense component to Tae Kwon Do, but it was also a sport. It was competitive, a real team spirit developed within schools. It was fun! I mean, Sui Ki Do is fun in a whole different way. In kind of a satisfying, cerebral, "I enjoy this" kind of way. But not in the social, I'm going to go play a sport with my friends kind of fun.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Leukemia

Last night I got back kind of late from a church activity with Jack and Sam. Becky had just gotten Tabby ready for bed, was in the process of tucking her in, had just read her a story and Tabby asked for me to come sing her good night songs. There's this fun short song that I learned as a kid and have sung to all my kids called I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home. My Dad said it was his favorite kids song and now I think I understand why.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home, Glad as I can be
Clap my hands and shout for joy and climb upon his knee
Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this
Pat his cheek and give him what?
A great big kiss.

Tabby was sooo proud of herself for making the connection of asking for that song with, you know, Daddy actually coming home. Then she had me change up the words like she always does to I'm so glad when Tabby comes home . . . then Mommy, then Ben, then Sammy then Jackson. Oh man, she is just so adorable.

So I finish up singing to her, say goodnight and log on to play some World of Warcraft. There's this good group of people I play with, including my brother, Jeremy and his wife, Leah and a bunch of people they've played with. On any given night when 10 of us get together to go do something, six are likely to be playing with their spouse or significant other. On top of that the group has grown close from playing something they're passionate about together over a long period of time. A bunch of them even plan to get together in the near future in Vegas.

One of the couples is Sholandria and Condon. Sholandria let us know last night that Condon's 13 year old daughter had died to Leukemia Sunday morning. We kind of new it was coming. She'd been in a coma for a while. But it was still . . . I don't know. There was an outpouring of love, concern for both Con and Shol. You really want to say the right thing, but you know that no matter what you say or do, it can't really be enough. So you just hope they understand that you feel for them.

And this morning at breakfast I just held my daughter on my lap. We laughed while we ate, made jokes about our cereal being frogs or worms. And sang together again about how glad we were to have each other home.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I've learned a lesson while searching for a job. I mean, I've learned several things, but one came up again yesterday.

I've been contacted twice by Infinite regarding positions in Cedar Rapids, IA. Which Becky and I are okay with. Her uncle lives in Cedar Rapids, we've visited once and driven through a couple times on our way out west. It seems like a nice place. After the initial contact, resume sharing, position specific information sharing exchange of e-mails occurred, I was called back by Vinay asking me for a detailed list of projects I'd worked on. So I modified the resume I'd originally sent to include a sampling of a dozen or so brief project descriptions. Vinay then called me back again to clarify that he meant a complete list of all projects I'd worked on, my responsibilities, technologies used, length of project, budget and results.

As far as I know, no such list exists. At ACUITY I worked as an in house maintenance developer. I was assigned to a team responsible for several home grown systems. When the systems needed updating (and they always needed updating), a project was estimated, run by a committee and if approved, assigned to me to complete. Over the 12 years at ACUITY I probably worked on 30-40 such projects along with a whole slew of small maintenance activities. But I didn't keep track. I just did them. So I wracked my brains and came up with the best I could remember for Vinay, but it was woefully short of everything I did in over a decade of work.

It was Vinay who contacted me for the second position as well and we went through the whole rigamaroll again. "Here's my resume with a sampling of projects." "We need more details." "I'll try, but quite frankly there is no more detailed document than what you're already holding."

It was kind of frustrating. Did Infinite just not know what it was like to work in a mid size shop? Or is there some standard within the programmer profession that says we should track all the projects we work on? I don't recall ever learning any such standard. No other agencies had asked me for such a list. At least, not until yesterday.

After talking to Tami about the positions recruiters had contacted me for in the Madison area, it appears that they really are two positions. She's going to submit me for a 6-9 month contract at Land's End. She didn't recognize the other one, though, so I got responded to Muthu from Technosoft with a resume and other information he requested so he could submit me to an unspecified client of theirs. Then Muthu responded asking me for a more detailed list of my project history.

Gah. At least the work was mostly done already from when Vinay asked me for it. I just had to put it together and send it off to Muthu.

But lesson learned. Wherever I end up working, I'll keep a list of projects I work on. I mean, I may never need it. Ideally, I'll get a job at the place where I'm going to retire right? But that's what I thought about ACUITY, too. So you know, just in case.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The waiting game?

Well no. I'm not actually just waiting. Since, you know, I'm not actually employed. I'm still checking job listings, still checking in at LinkedIn, still sending out resumes. But I am waiting for a call. I interviewed with Great Lakes Higher Education last Wednesday and they said they'd make their decision "in the next week or two". Between them getting back to me so quickly about an interview, the professionalism of the interview itself and the paperwork they had me fill out afterwords, they seem to really be on the ball. So I'm letting myself hope for a call sooner rather than later. And sooner starts today.

The waiting part of job hunting is driving Becky absolutely batty. She just wants to hear SOMETHING DANGIT AND SOMETHING NOW!!!! Even if it's "no", at least that's an answer we can solidify plans around. When she's at home she is practically sitting on the phone. She's trying to get out and do things to take her mind of it. This morning, for example, she took Tabby to Plymouth to go with some friends to the Plymouth Library story time.

So as part of the continued job hunt, I've got my resume posted on Dice.com. Recruiters see it and can call me. This morning for example, I've gotten two calls. One for a position at Lands End and another for an unspecified six month contract position.

That's fantastic, but here's a question it raises. I've been working with a Tami Sailing from Stratagem on positions in the Madison area. I've really enjoyed working with Tami, she's been very communicative and helpful. But she's not the one who called me this time. So the question, which I ask in general not just specific to this situation, is do I work with the recruiter who called me? The first one? Or the one who calls 5 minutes later? Or the one who sent an e-mail last night? Or do I wait for Tami to call? Or do I call her?

I went with "call her". I think that's only fair given the work she's done to try and find me positions in the area. I'd feel really bad to let some other recruiter submit me for a position only to have Tami call and ask if she can. But is that fair to the recruiters who called me? I'm not totally sure what the right answer is, just trying to be fair first to people I know, I guess.

Anyway, I'm waiting on a call back from Tami.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I got a phone call on Mother's Day from Jeanie Baker, a friend from church in Manitowoc. We haven't seen the Bakers in, geez, I don't know how long. But her son, Chad, is a computer programmer and they had heard we were out of work and were thinking about us. It was very nice.

Chad was recently hired by Daugherty in St. Louis and they are still looking for more java developers. I'd be willing to do that except that I would have to be hired as an entry level programmer. All I've got in java is a single beginners' course. I'd feel pretty comfortable with the web page development, between my course in online programming (basically XML and javascripting) and my experience putzing with my own website a few years back. But object oriented programming is still new territory for me. No actual work experience.

Lots of demand for java developers, though. And man, an entry level job is starting to look a whole lot better than no job, know what I mean? I guess while there's a decent hope for a job as an experienced mainframe developer, that's what I'll keep looking for.

And actually, Becky and I were discussing what to do as I go longer without work . . . we actually discussed the possibility of me going to law school. That's something I would really enjoy. The big hold up is the 3 years or so of living in poverty with four kids. Anyway, that's what we're comparing to the prospect of an entry level java developer position.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Hello World

I've kind of done this before. Not exactly the blog thing, but I had a website. It was more of an html exercise. I did some fun things setting up whole sets of pages where I could display pictures of the family, talk about hobbies, post news. So here I go again, but this time I'll let e-blogger take care of the site maintenance details while I handle post updates.

What motivated me to get back into it? Well, I went to a job fair last week in Green Bay. While there I attended a forum on using social media in your job search presented by Lisa Cruz of Red Shoes PR, Inc. She emphasized that a modern job search really needs to include LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog. So here I am.

I wish I'd gotten the advice back in January. I've been using LinkedIn the whole time. At least, I've been listed on LinkedIn, posted a resume and have contacted others and been contacted by them through LinkedIn. But that and Dice.com (my Dad's advice) has been about the limit of my online activity.

I'm actually waiting to hear back from Great Lakes Higher Education whom I interviewed with last Wednesday. The interview seemed to go well. They seemed to be highering for positions that do exactly what I've got 12 years experience doing. I should find out how well the interview went this week.