Monday, August 31, 2009

bailout profits? believably stupid

I wish this was more unbelievable, but it's not. Instead, this is just laughably moronic, but I have grown to accept that most forms of general/mainstream/old media have a poor understanding of, well, almost everything. Of course, Ritholtz nails it like always. If I was delusional enough to only count gains and not losses, I'd be broke many times over. And I would have paid more taxes!

Let's make this simple. The US government has not now, and never will 'profit' from the numerous bailouts doled out in the last year-and-a-half. No clever bookkeeping can ever change that. However, we could always have the government file for Chapter 11. That would be a strange loop for the ages.

sweep

You got your sweep. And in grand fashion too. I suppose it wasn't too much to ask for.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

VIX = Victoria, TX and other TLAs

Three letter acronyms (TLAs) abound at work. And at airports. At work, I often refer to places by their location codes. Hence, my first district becomes FNM (Farmington, NM) and last location VIX (Victoria, TX). Curiously enough, the airport code for Farmington is slightly different (FMN) as a result of the different way that the airport code and the work location code are generated. (For Victoria, the airport was VCT.)

Now, I'm in SGD (Szeged), which is in the CEU (Continental Europe) area, which is in the EAF (Europe/Africa - sort of) uber-area. Before, in the States, I was in USL (US Land), and the sub region of USW (US West) when in New Mexico, which sounds suspiciously like an airline or possibly a phone company from 20 years ago.

The TLAs aren't limited to just geography. Business divisions, segments, service lines, etc are almost all referred to by some TLA. You might be able to guess what some of them are, especially the ones with three letters in their full names.

As for airports, I almost always write airport codes when writing myself notes about my travel scheduel or for any other reason I might want to refer to an airport, or even a city. Can you name the cities that these airport codes belong to without looking them up?

SJC, OAK, DEN, ABQ, PHX, SAN, SAT, DFW, AUS, IAH, ORD, LHR, ZRH, FRA, BUD, MUC, BRE, HAJ, JFK, MSY, AMS, MSP
Hint: I have been to all these airports in the last 2.5 years. I suppose that hint is only useful if you know where I have been in the last 2.5 years.

Monday, August 17, 2009

go-karting

I finally went go-karting with some colleagues at a going-away party for one of our engineers. Lots and lots of fun. I have blisters on both hands from my death-grip on the steering wheel and a sore back. But I posted the fastest individual lap time of any of my colleagues so I guess I've got that to hang my hat on. The best part: we didn't sign any liability waivers. Non-litigious society is great.

On an unrelated note, I am soliciting theories on why my washing machine takes 2+ hours to do a load of laundry.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

stepped into a bit of busy-ness

If I saw you a week ago in the charming Upper Midwest and I made allusions to being in the middle of something important at work, that was a half-truth. It was more like several somethings. The good news: Some of those several things are completed with excellent field execution. Actual results are pending evaluation of a couple of the items, but it's out of our hands now. The less-good news: Contracts and other legal-ish aspects of what we do are tiring to deal with. They have a certain ability to suck the good cheer from any day. The legal hoops we jump through with some of our registered legal entities and subsidiaries would be quite amusing if it didn't make getting a piece of paper signed so difficult. We want to do it. The client wants us to do it. We're ready to go. They need us there soon. We need signatures!

At least we got that last main job for that big (remember: really big) client finished. Operationally excellent, but marred by some bad employee attitude during clean-up. I do so enjoy getting sternly spoken to by a client representative about one of our employees. So close and yet so far. Hopefully (yes, I know, not an actual plan), we can get through the last couple minor jobs left on that site without screwing the pooch any further.

Monday, August 10, 2009

e-mail, how i didn't really miss you

Maybe I should have sorted some of these before I left town. Trying to do certain types of work for the first time and getting contracts in place is very time consuming. Rewarding and fruitful? Yes. But lots of running around. Or typing around.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

leaving minneapolis

Good times. Pink tie has been worn. With flip flops.

Despite the fast pace of the weekend, today was a nice relaxing day. It almost felt like a vacation for a few hours. And yesterday was just a really, really good day.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

will be in minneapolis

For reasons that I will say are directly related to why I was in New Orleans three weeks ago, I will be in Minneapolis this weekend. Or I could just say that it's for my brother's wedding. See some of you soon. Pink tie has been acquired.