Job change notification and FREEZING

Our furnace stopped working and we have called the heating company. I hope they can fix it. Last time it broke, it took 3 repair guys before one finally figured out that there was a crack in the motherboard.

The picture is from an ice storm in January 2004.

So I get this email at work, from HR, that says A salary grade change has been made in the HR system for you. Click on the following link to view and print the Job Change Notification letter: [link]
I go to the link and it says: Currently you do not have a job change notification. If you have any questions regarding the job change process, please contact your manager or local HR representative.

My employer (who shall remain unnamed) has made a huge point that NO ONE will be getting raises this year, because of "cost efficiency" reasons. So . . . what? They just want to mess with my head a little? Two can play at this game.

Dear HR: A work schedule change has been made in the system for me. Click on the following link to view and print the work schedule change letter: [link]

Go to the link and it says: Currently Nina does not have a work schedule. If you have any questions regarding Nina's work schedule process, please write them down on a piece of paper and put it in a glass jar.

Snow Art Pattern

Here is the snow picture. The cracks between the pavers are where snow sticks more quickly and melts last. Here it has melted some, leaving this neato pattern. The picture below is the same view as the starling picture but with snow.

It is probably going to snow some more. It is very cold and windy. It was not warm enough to melt all of the snow today, so we will have a nice coating of ice everywhere tomorrow, possibly with snow on top of it. I am working from home this afternoon and plan to stay here until it is safe outside again.

Starlings on the lawn

This afternoon a flock of starlings decided to visit our front lawn. The street & neighbor's house is in the picture because I took it through the window. With starlings, it's not like you can run outside and go "Say cheese everyone! Oops hold on, not quite ready yet. OK, smile!" because they will be long gone.

You can also see a blue jay down in the lower left corner. And our camellia on the right. Greg has set things up so there is something blooming practically all the time. The dahlias go until the frost kills them usually sometime in November. Then the camellias bloom in December, and in January the winter daphne start up. February you have the bulbs blooming, and then full on into spring. Yes in these dark days just before the winter solstice on Dec 21, we here in the far north dream of spring.

Chief Privacy Officer

For the THIRD time my company or one of its Human Resources vendors has lost my personal information. First it was the 401k provider losing a laptop in Palo Alto a couple years ago. That time they gave us a free subscription to a service where we could pull a credit report at any time, plus the alert service.

Then last August the stock purchase program provider lost a laptop. That time all we got was the alert service -- no free credit reports.

Now today I get a letter from the "Chief Privacy Officer" saying my company itself lost another laptop with my information on it. They are extending the alert service for one year and telling me to go to annualcreditreport.com and get my free credit report. What if I had just done it a couple months ago? You have to wait a year before you can get another one.

Maybe they should just publish our social security numbers, home addresses, dates of birth, bank routing numbers, etc. etc. on billboards in all of the major metro areas. Or put a link on [ninascompany.com]: "click here for employee personal information."

Geese Overhead

This morning I was walking across the parking lot at work when I heard the noise of geese. It was cold and the sky was gray and overcast. There were several goose formations flying over -- magnificent to see. There is a storm coming this weekend and for some reason they were heading north.

It's a mystery why they say geese "honk." Maybe when you are right up close to one, that's what they sound like. But when a flock of geese flies overhead, they make a musical chirping sound.

When I went to look for a picture to dress up this post, one of the google results I clicked on tried to put "exploit.JS.XMLPars.d" onto my computer. So this will not have a picture, unless I get a chance to take one myself.

New hostage rules of engagement

Apologies for the grim topic, but this has been on my mind and I haven't seen it discussed anywhere.

After 9/11, there haven't been many airplane hijackings, possibly because it changed the 'rules.' Before then, everyone would sit quietly and wait for the plane to land in the place the hijackers picked out, and for the negotiations with the authorities, and finally everybody got let out of the plane and eventually made their way to wherever they were going.

After 9/11 it was pretty clear that airplane hijacking will be met with resistance by all of the passengers: because if the hijackers are planning to destroy something by flying the plane into it, the passengers haven't got anything to lose by resisting them. And 50 or 200 people can overcome a few hijackers, even if they are armed.

And now, with the Mumbai attacks, the rules of personal hostage taking seem to have changed as well. Why would anyone meekly obey just because there's a gun pointed at them, when the terrorists don't have any demands and plan to kill as many people as they can? At one point in the Taj Hotel, there were something like 40 people being herded up some stairs by at most two gunmen. Forty people can overcome two armed men. Better for two or three people to die or be injured disarming the terrorists, than for all 40 to sit around passively waiting to be shot.

Security professionals and policemen say that if you are attacked, it happens in a location (Location A). Often the attacker will try to take the person to another more secure location (Location B). The pros say, never allow yourself to be taken to Location B. React immediately and bite, scream, run in a zigzag pattern, make the car go off the road, whatever you have to do. Because what happens at Location B will be worse than what happens during your resistance at Location A.

If terrorists try another attack similar to Mumbai, they may encounter a completely different response from their targets.

Christmas present proposal

Here is my proposal for this year: Christmas Presents go downward only, not upward or horizontal. That is, parents can give kids presents but kids don't buy things for parents. Also, brothers and sisters skip buying for each other this year. We just enjoy the holiday time.

Agreement? Disagreement? Comments?

Better Flicker Picture

We are very happy that the flicker(s) are still hanging around! Here is the better picture I promised. Greg shot this one through the window.

You can get a peek at the orange tail feather that makes these birds so showy when they fly. Also notice the black throat marking and the spots. A flicker is a good-sized woodpecker: somewhere between the size of a blue jay and a crow.

A hobby project

One of my hobbies is to crochet edges, and embroider, on pillowcases. My Grandmother crocheted edges on things. I have some Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck handkerchiefs from the 50s that she actually crocheted edges onto. So apparently I inherited a genetic need to perform this activity.

I enjoy the embroidery because it is the exact opposite of what I do at work all day. I get to choose the colors and stitches. No Request for Change form approved by 3 committees! No Move to Production Freeze/Control period! No submitting instructions/scripts for someone else to do the work! I implement whatever I feel like and if it doesn't work, just rip it out and do it over.

There is one similarity -- figuring out where to go next with the thread is sort of like a 'shortest path' problem -- but that's the fun part of computer science.

The pillowcase in the picture is all finished -- now, to repeat it on the other one of the pair. It will probably take about two months. Oh wait -- no need for planning, scheduling or project status reports. It will get done whenever I feel like getting it done. Ah, the wonderful sense of control and power.

Sleep routine disruption

The finale of my sleep routine is that sometime around 10:30 or 11:00 all the lights are turned off, glowing LEDs are covered up, and I listen to the BBC World News Service for 10 or 15 minutes until I get bored, then turn off the radio and it's bye bye.

Last night something happened to the broadcast. Every so often, randomly every 10-20 seconds or so, the radio emitted a "PFOFT" sound. "The economy is expected to "PFOFT." It was annoying. The only way I can excuse my subsequent actions, is to claim some sort of pre-sleep trance.

Because I didn't check any other stations, or go into the spare room and try the radio there, or anything like that. I rushed into Greg's room where he was sleeping peacefully, and shouted "Is your radio working? My radio is making noises!" As he groggily got out of bed and fumbled to turn his radio on, I awoke enough to realize the folly of my actions and started apologizing: "Never mind, sorry to disturb you, shouldn't have bothered you." He got the radio turned on and tuned to NPR, no noises at all. He glared at me. "I'll look at it tomorrow" he said, falling back into bed. I don't know if he even remembers the whole episode.

Back in my room I listened to the radio, "PFOFT" and all, for a few minutes and then went to sleep. Now in the "cold light of day" I think it was my cell phone charging. For some reason when my cell phone charges it interferes with the radio. When I get home I'll check it out while still awake.

December 1, corporate gloom

Well today is the 1st day of December and back to work! After a relaxing holiday. This is also the second month of having this blog, so the archive should kick over to another month.

Lots of corporate gloom announced today-- must restrict expenses, no travel, no raises, no achievement awards, no Christmas parties or ANY OTHER parties. No word on bonuses though. We will see.

My company, which shall remain unnamed, has decided to not have any IT people working at my site after October 2009. They have half-heartedly offered to move people to another state a few thousand miles away -- but no solid details have been forthcoming since the original announcement last, oh when was it, April I think. It was stated that anyone who has not moved by the end of October must resign without severance.

Well that doesn't sound legal, certainly employees can be laid off (fired, whatever) without severance, but they cannot be forced to resign. However a lot of people, especially the ones who have dependents like kids and nonemployed spouses, have been busy looking for and finding other jobs. Just heard today of another key coworker who is leaving Dec 15.

There are a few people who wanted to move to Texas, but the homeowners among them have not had much luck selling their houses.

Here is my strategy for dealing with it all:

1) focus on the work without being emotionally involved in any particular outcome

2) back off when things get frustrating

3) quit working long hours, get sleep & exercise and eat right

4) ride it out and see what happens

5) look for a different job without getting stressed and anxious about it