Jason’s Demetia
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There's an old saying: "Those who speak, don't know; and those who know, don't speak." I don't know if that's true or not, but I know that by and large the press doesn't care who really knows what as long as they've got a quote. Last Friday, we had our Week Ahead meeting in the Roosevelt Room. Some of you were there, most of you weren't, but I'm talking to all of you now. Bruno Gianelli and I were leading a discussion about whether or not the President should stop in Kansas on his way back from the West Coast, and I remarked that the Vice President is polling better than the President right now in the Plains states... ...and that if the President is re-elected, it's gonna be on the Vice President's coattails. That remark made its way to a White House reporter. We're a group. We're a team. From the President and Leo on through, we're a team. We win together. We lose together. We celebrate and we mourn together. And defeats are softened and victories sweetened because we did them together. And if you don't like this team then, there's the door... It's great to be in the know. It's great to have the scoop, to have the skinny, to be able to go to a reporter and say, "I know something you don't know." And so the press becomes your constituents and you sell out the team. So, an item will appear in the paper tomorrow, and it'll be embarrassing to me and embarrassing to the President. I'm not gonna have a witch hunt. I'm not gonna huff and puff. I'm not gonna take anyone's head off. I'm simply gonna say this: you're my guys. And I'm yours. And there's nothing I wouldn't do for you.
As a reminder, today is the last day we’ll be accepting new teams in the keeper league for crap players. Please visit this post for more information. We have 9 teams so far and want to move to 12 overall. It’s ESPN Fantasy Baseball, which is the only free league that would let us do something like this.
If there’s three people out there who wouldn’t mind playing with Tap, B, Julia, Maggie, and myself, please sign up by asking for an invite. 
Thanks.
On the advice of my wife and Tap, I have created a Keeper Crap League!
To those on my friends list who hate certain players, be advised.. this league promotes crappy play and comes down harsh on good play. Here how things will get scored:
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Anyone who hasn’t already received an invite from me, please comment here. So far, I’ve invited:
We can take up to 20 teams, but we need 12 minimum to do this. Oh, and did I mention keepers? You can have 10 piss-poor players to carry the title. And we’ll have trophies for shitty things, too.
The first day was pretty amazing. It was one thing to be there for a one hour interview, but quite another to spend the whole day there. I got there a little after nine o’clock and I thought that I was supposed to head over to the classroom for new hire orientation, but I got pulled aside and told to wait for the HR person to meet a group of us contractors. So, the HR person showed us how to use the timecard system that Yahoo uses to submit to the payroll server, and then we got our badges. And then that was it. No more orientation or further discussion. I was told to head over to the NOC and I shocked my new boss when I walked in and said hi.
So, most of my morning was spent learning their network architecture and all I can say is that it’s pretty much unlike most anything I’ve worked with in my years in operations. Very complicated and challenging; I’m looking forward to really sinking my teeth into it. For the most part, I spent a good deal of time sitting with my co-workers and shadowing them. I have to learn a whole new set of procedures and that’s nothing new, except that the way they utilize the tiering system is somewhat like how eBay uses their lead-supervisor system in their NOC. The interesting part of this new gig is that my boss is incredibly flexible with time, which is pretty unusual for a NOC job, but I guess the reasoning is that if the engineers remain accountable to one another for coverage and coverage is maintained, that it doesn’t matter much who’s there and who’s not. I’m used to a way more rigid system or governing shift work. I’m wondering how this is going to work with the other grave person, whenever they hire him or her.
By the way, any NOC people on my flist are welcome to send me their resume so I can refer them.
Yahoo’s campus is absolutely beautiful. And I think Building C is my new vice, because anyplace with awesome and cheap food and free iced chocolate frapps is eventually going to kill me. I had lunch in the cafeteria today and their grilled chicken sandwich is to die for, and the fries taste like heaven. I think tomorrow I’ll have something else, and I’m sure I will enjoy that, too. The one thing I realy like about the cafeteria is that you can ‘charge’ your employee badge with money and use it like a dorm food chit at college. Except that I’m not dependant on parents for food money… I guess I’m actually dependant on my wife to give me food money, these days. Okay, so not much difference there, eh?
Like I said before, sometimes a negative like a firing turns into a real positive. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
I win bread!
… some of you might recall that I didn’t have a really good night at work. Unfortunately, this morning, it came to head with the result of my no longer holding employment there, anymore. Yeah, I got fired for gross incompetence and the only thing I can say about it is that I had to agree with the call. When the company loses over a hundred thousand dollars on your watch, there’s very little for you to do but stand up and take responsibility for your actions or inactions. It’s just that simple. If I had been given the opportunity, I think I would have resigned my position even if he had written me up. Because, folks, this goes deeper than simply firing me. My boss’ job is still on the line, as of this writing, and that’s how bad it got. The decision was made before I walked into that meeting and were I on the other side of the table, I would have come to the same conclusion they had. With that much revenue lost, someone has to toe the line.
Anyway, so in spite of this hanging around my neck, I’m job hunting again. And I’m not just looking for another NOC job; I’d really like to do something different. I just hope it pays as well as this industry does…
… not my best night of work, folks…
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