Success

Well, it finally happened this morning.  I accepted a position at a company this morning.  I start on Wednesday.  So here I sit, shortly to join the ranks of the gainfully employed.

I got the call Thursday afternoon with the offer after interviewing with them on Monday.  I was at the ballfield, waiting for my son’s baseball game to start.  I had gotten some information from them about benefits and such.  The main difference between my last job and this one as far as benefits is that the new company only allows 2 weeks of vacation rather than the 3 I was used to.  With my parents in Mississippi and my in-laws in Kentucky, we generally used all of my vacation.  So with only 2 weeks, I knew it would take some getting used to.

The offer was not as much as I was making at my last job, but at the same time, I will be working with newer technology, much more current.  That has to be one of the best reasons for getting laid off.  Working for a financial institution like MetLife, there is little chance to be anywere near the cutting edge of technology.  That is a good thing for a finance company.  After all, who wants their money being handled by a company that jumps on every new technology that comes around.  All those financial companies are gone with their data after that technology messed everything up one too many times.  So I get to work with newer technology, which is a plus. 

So after the call yesterday, I told them I needed to talk it over with my wife before I said yes, but that I would call them today.  I had every intention of taking the job, after all “employed” is far, far better than “unemployed”.  But I didn’t want to seem so desparate that I said yes right away and I did want to talk with my wife to see if she had any specific questions.  She didn’t, so I made my plans to call them this afternoon (Friday) after I was up and awake.

Then I get a call this morning on my cell phone.  My soon-to-be boss is letting me know that there was an HR policy change that took place this morning.  Seems my new employer is giving new employees 3 weeks of vacation instead of just 2 weeks.  This was really great news for us, and simply confirmed the fact that this was the job God had for me.

So I made the call, and I’ll have Monday and Tuesday to finish my son’s bedroom and closet before starting on Wednesday morning bright and early.  More about this new job as it progresses.

CC

“Walker luck”

I play in a simulation fantasy league called IBL, the Internet Baseball League.  My team is, of course, the Carolina Cajuns.  What “Simulation” means is that we actually play out the games.  Each player that qualifies is given a card with a set of numbers on it for different outcomes.  We use a private IRC server that generates random numbers to determine the outcome of the play, the batter from 0-499 and the pitcher from 500-999.

So I played my first series earlier this week.  Actually, I played my home and away games (3 games each), and I had a very difficult time getting a win.  I only won 2 out of the 6 games, which is very frustrating because I am supposed to have a good team this year according to some of the other owners.  The problem is that I have what we call in our family “Walker luck.”

“Walker luck” is somewhat like Murphey’s Law applied to randomness.  My dad is probably the founder of “Walker luck,” and I probably inherited it from him, so he is to blame. :)  The idea is that when you need to roll/generate a random number, and you need it to be anything but a 4, you will roll a 4.  There isn’t any question or doubt in our minds, it will happen.

So, this translates to my fantasy baseball league in several ways.  The most frustrating is when I need to roll a 3-digit number between 265 and 332 for a positive outcome (home run or walk), I will generally roll a 264 (high fly to right field) or a 333 (strike out).  Same goes for my pitchers.  When I need to roll a 763 to 920 for a strike out, I’ll roll a 762 (deep fly, possible home run) or, more likely, 921 (walk).  That is what Walker luck is all about.

I was grateful to roll well enough in two of my games to win them, but I didn’t keep that much luck in my week 2 games that I played on Friday (just home games).  I lost all three of those, and “Walker luck” was in full force.  I rolled a “wild play” which means we have to consult a special chart with an additional roll, and it will often end up in an injured player.  Well, it did, and it wasn’t my player.  Sounds like “Walker luck” was not hurting me, right.  Well, that is how “Walker luck” works; it strings you along so you can fall farther or harded with the rub comes.

Yes, it was the other guys player who was injured.  Unfortunately, it was his pitcher, and it was only for one day.  That means the lineup that I had set up to bat strong and well against a left handed pitcher was gone when he brough in a right handed pitcher for long relief.  Not only that, it was the worst of his starters for the series.  Even worse, it was my best pitcher throwing.  So, “Walker luck” gave my opponent a chance to bring in a better pitcher, who my lineup wasn’t ready to face, all when my best hurler is on the mound.  Well, 10 long innings later, we lost 3 to 2.

That is what “Walker luck” is all about.  It is a very good thing that I enjoy the fantasy baseball league I am in because otherwise the frustration generated would drive me away from it permanently.

CC

The Smell of Fresh Cut Grass…

The roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat, yes, it is time for baseball again.  Opening night was last night (my daughter was supposed to play, but got postponed), and my son’s first game was tonight.  Wolverines (my son) at home against the Gators.

Beautiful 45 degree evening for spring baseball.  I was glad I was just coaching and not playing.  But the boys played a great game and pulled out a win, 8-6.  There were several times we got lucky from the mistakes of the other team, and a few times we made mistakes on our own.  But in the end, we pulled it out.  I say we because I was coaching third base.  I had a few mistakes, but we had a good game when it was all said and done.

But the story of the night is not me.  My son, Christian, had a great game.  In fact, it was probably one of his best games ever.  He played catcher for the first two innings and did a great job.  A few steals of second on him, and maybe one or two at third, but did some great stops to prevent any runs from scoring.  Another couple innings in left field where he was backing up everything.  He almost caught one fly ball, but it was just a little too short for him to get to.

His bat was great.  First time up, he hit a grounder to the right side to advance a runner, despite the out.  Secondt time up, he struck out swinging.  Sure it was a strike out, but compared to last year when he struck out standing there.  He was swinging, and anyone who has coached kids knows this can be a problem.  Final at bat of the game was a bases loaded situation.  He sent a fly ball to right center field for a double.  It would have been a triple, but the runner from first wasn’t very fast.  Christian was a step behind them when they passed the short stop position and I had to send Christian back to second.

A great game tonight and even better given the results.  Christian had a great game and I was very proud of how hard he has prepared this year and at how well he is playing.  Of course, like I told him before the game, I am very proud of him and I love him regardless of the outcome of the game.

CC

Paul For President

OK, step aside Barak, Hillary, and John, I’m declaring myself for the election this year.  I’m fed up with politicians and their minions and all the games they play and I’m throwing in because I think I can do better than anyone running right now.

OK, maybe not.  I mean, if anyone wants to write my name in, I’ll not object, but I doubt there are enough that will do that to get me anywhere close to getting elected.  Actually, this year is the first year that I am old enough to run for President, and I had told several people that I was going to run for this election.

So what would you get if I were to actually be elected.  First, I can guarantee you would see some nepotism.  I’m an only child, so no brothers or sisters to give jobs to, but I would give my dad a position in my cabinet.  He is one of the smartest guys I know, and while we don’t always see things eye to eye, I would definitely value his opinion on things.

The War:  OK, here is the problem with the war.  Most everyone, me included, is very upset over the loss of life, and the seemingly poor handling of the war by the current administration.  I don’t want to minimize the loss anyone has experienced, nor do I want to debate the facts (or lack thereof) that got us to the point we are in today.  What I would want to do is make the best out of what has become a bad situation.  I’m very disappointed that the candidates all seem to be sticking to what they think is right despite the suggestions of the commanders involved. 

My solution is to make an official announcement so that the insurgents, the Iranians, Syrians, and anyone else involved in the country.  The announcement is simple.  Iraq will be an internally governed, democratic country.  Period, the end, no discussion.  If it doesn’t happen with the government that is in place, that is, if everyone doesn’t let it happen, we will make Iraq a US protectorate like Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, and others.  Then, any outside involvement will be considered an act of war against the US.  No, we don’t want that outcome, and that is a worst case scenario, but if the fighting and involvement doesn’t stop, that will be how we will handle it.  I’m not naive enough to believe this will instantly solve the problem.  Quite the contrary, it will cause many other problems, but one thing it will do is let everyone know that we are serious.

Immigration:  There are a couple of issues with immigration.  The first, and most important issue is terrorism.  We have to secure the borders in order to prevent another 9-11 massacre.  The second issue is the drain on the US economy from illegal immigrants.  It is interesting that we have this problem on these two fronts.  One group wants to get into our country because we are so evil, the other group wants in because we are so successful.  While I don’t begrudge anyone coming to our country to better themselves, we have to enforce the way they do this. 

The best solution is to require that companies not hire illegals.  If they do, they should have to pay severe fines.  Included in the fines, should be the money required to help the illegals become citizens or to return home, whichever they prefer.  The focus of the INS should be to patrol companies suspected of employing illegals, and in ensuring the communities where illegals might reside are educated as to the facts of the laws.  Again, I’m sure it will not solve the problem tomorrow, but, with enforcement, it will hopefully make companies think twice before employing illegals.

The Economy:  I can see three areas where the economy has serious problems.  First when the gas prices go up, the prices of everything goes up.  I’m not certain what the number is now, but 15 years ago, I seem to remember that something like 50-60% of the price of gas is taxes.  With the economy where it is, and the price of gas where it is, this has got to change.  Also, while I don’t want to see the price of gas regulated by the government, gas companies should not be allowed to milk people over the summer and on holiday weekends just because they can.  There has to be a happy medium that will allow companies to make money while not ruining the economy. 

The second major concern with the economy (and this one hits close to home) is the business off-shoring.  The interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t really save the money companies think it will, but that is good fodder for another post.  The government should increase the taxes on companies that use off-shore models and offer tax breaks for companies that do not use off-shoring.  Simple solution, and the simple reason is that we need to encourage US companies to employ US workers.  When our economy is recession-proof, and we no longer have problems, we can worry about helping the economy of others.  Along with this is the overt money-grubbing of company leaders.  Any company that lays off employees should have to show equal percentage of pay cuts from their officers and above.  How can you justify paying someone a million a year but expect people to believe you can’t afford to employee people who make less than $10K per year.  Doesn’t make sense, and while I don’t have a problem with someone making a lot of money, but not at the expense of their employees or the US economy. 

The final issue is the so-called mortgage crisis.  I have a hard time accepting this as a crisis of anyone’s creation aside from the people who took too big a mortgage.  While I understand the problem of not being able to pay bills (may be there myself soon), I don’t have much sympathy for people who extended themselves too far.  The bailout, if there is any, needs to take all of this into account.  Just because someone can’t make their payments, it doesn’t mean they need a bailout.

So that is where I stand on three of the biggest issues that are out there.  I’m sure that everyone has their own ideas of what will work and what will not.  At least now you know what will happen if you decide to write me in for President.

CC

The Long Awaited Return

Well, it has been a while since I have done a blog post, and now that I have a bit more free time, I’m hoping to get back to regular (or at least semi-regular) posting.  I have some ideas on how to move forward, but that may take a few days to implement, so for now I’ll just keep that stuff to myself.

Let’s see, to fill everyone in from last time.  I think I mentioned that in October I was going to be taking a new position at work.  The new position was with the Production Support team and required me to be on-call essentially 24/7.  Well, it officially started in the beginning of October, but I had one remaining project for my old team to finish.  The last post here, October 14, lines right up with my transition to the new team.  Things got so busy and hectic that by the time I got home in the evenings, I wasn’t interested in spending more time on the computer.  Don’t misunderstand, I loved the new position.  It was the most excited I had been about work in several years.  The team was new, and we were still figuring out how the processes were to work, and at the same time, we were fixing things, both quick fixes and longer term corrections.  I enjoyed the variety and balance of the work.

Early this year, my bosses determined the model for our group.  There was to be an on-call team, and a long-term fix team.  The on-call person would field the problems coming in and after discussion, would decide whether a long-term fix was in order.  At that point, the long-term fix team would work to get the problems corrected.  I volunteered to move into the lead position on the long-term fix team for the applications I supported.  The official transition to this new model was going to be in late April, but the position would start earlier to help with transition.  I wish I could tell you that everything went great and that I had just transitioned to that new position, but unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened.

There had been rumors about a coming round of layoffs for several months.  Seems the funding had been cut and the IT group had to adjust to meet the funding.  Our team was not expecting to be hit for several reasons.  For one, most of the members of our team were contractors.  There simply weren’t many employees to choose from.  Also, while we were the new project, we were also the “pet” project of one of the higher up managers, one of the ones making the decisions.  Finally, we had our model and while there was some overlap in jobs, there wasn’t really any room for cutting anyone because of the required skill sets and such.

Well, much to everyone’s surprise, when the layoffs came in early March, I was in the group being let go.  This came as a shock and surprise to everyone on our team, my bosses included.  In fact, my manager and I had just discussed some of the new responsibilities I would be taking on the day before the layoffs.  However, as I have been telling most everyone since this happened, God was not surprised.

Since March 6th, I have been officially laid off.  I am still officially an employee until April 18th, but I am currently not working on anything more than a job search and my “honey-do” list. :)  We were asked to work a couple weeks for transition, and after discussing it with my boss, I agreed to work a week and be available for phone calls the second week.  We went on our planned vacation a few days early and got to spend that extra time with my parents.  And while on vacation, my wife and I were able to see a Braves spring training game (more on that later).

So here I sit, typing in my blog once more, soon to be officially unemployed.  I have a few job leads and even have an interview this Wednesday.  I hope to keep writing this time.  I have so much to write about and yet, I almost think I’ve been busier since I got laid off than I was before.  As always, thanks for reading, and keep checking back.  As I dust the cobwebs off,  maybe I’ll touch on something that is near and dear to your own heart.

 CC

Sunday Morning Praise

Psalm 109

1 Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set Thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the stranger spoil his labor.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord continually, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

21 But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

25 I am become also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

26 Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that Thou, Lord, hast done it.

28 Let them curse, but bless Thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.

31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

F. A. T.

Are you FAT?  I believe that it is important for all Christians (and even all people) to be FAT.  Let’s examine:

Faithful - When you say you are going to do something, are you faithful to do it?  Psalm 15 refers to the man who “sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.”  How often do we hear people backing out of their responsibilities because it isn’t convenient for them, or because they just don’t want to do what they said.  Whether we are talking about God, your family, your boss, or even just your friends, we need to be faithful in doing what we say we will do.

Acceptable - In Hebrews, God says that He was “not ashamed to be called their God”, speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This has always been an amazing thought to me.  Do you live your life in such a way that God approves of you, or is God ashamed of you?  In other words is your life acceptable in God’s eyes?  We should strive to live a life that God would not be ashamed of.  Romans 12:1 tells us we need to present our bodies as a sacrifice to God that is acceptable.

Teachable - The Scriptures were given for us to learn from God how we should live.  When we stop learning, we stop growing.  When we stop growing, we become stagnant.  Are you open to learning the truths about God?  In Acts 17:11, the Berean Christians were praised for the fact that the searched in the Scriptures for whether the things they were being taught were true.  Are we as faithful with what we are hearing?  Do we search the Scriptures to ensure what is true?

CC

Vacation - The Good and the Bad

Well, we got home late last night (near 11:00 pm).  It was a LONG drive, and I’m very grateful for my beautiful wife for driving part of the way.  We had a great time visiting family.

On Thursday we drove to St. Louis to continue on our “tour” of baseball stadiums, and we kept our sting of wins intact as the Cardinals routed the Pirates 16-4.  After six stadiums (Braves, Cubs, White Sox, Rangers, Astros, and Cardinals) we have notched six wins for the home team.  At the Cardinals game, we had a great time despite the nearly two hour rain delay.  Rick Ankiel blasted a 3-run homer to give the Cards all the runs they would need, but they didn’t stop.  It was a great game.

Before the game, we were able to visit the famous St. Louis arch.  That was a really impressive structure, and despite the cramped quarters in the “tram” to the top, I’m glad that we went up.  St. Louis looks pretty impressive from 630 feet in the air.

After the game, we drove back to western Kentucky from St. Louis.  Two or three times, it rained a torrent along with the wind.  It was stressful to say the least.  Because of the time, we were able to listen to the NFL game.  It was really nice during the first half, then Indy made my Saints look foolish.  It was painful to listen to.  Hopefully the boys of the black and gold will figure out what went wrong and correct it for the rest of the season.   So there was the bad of our vacation.

As we left, we stopped in Marion, Kentucky at the Clement Mineral Museum.  If you are anywhere near Western Kentucky, I would strongly recommend a visit.  Ben Clement had one of the largest collections of fluorite as well as other minerals.  Much of the collection is on display and it is an impressive collection.  If you are close by, go visit the museum.

CC