November 2010

There were 28 posts published in November 2010 (this is page 3 of 3).

Trial by fire

Well, I pulled off a miracle yesterday and today. At least it seems that way to me.

I’m on my first sales call with my new employer, I have been with the company all of two months, have conducted one training session with them, and have been on NO sales calls with them before. There is the sales guy and there is me, and no other technical resource onsite. In spite of all this, today I was able to conduct a technical demonstration of our product that lasted eight whole hours and I did it without once sounding like an idiot.

I had no idea when I took this gig that I would be on the front lines within two months. Judging by the product’s sophistication I would’ve thought that was sheer madness. And yet here I am after Day Two, riding high. I’ve got years of experience doing the sales engineering thing under my belt, but I was skeptical I could pull something like this off – all the way up until I actually did it. Now I feel I can handle anything!

We’ve got one more day here in Rochester before we wrap up. It’s all downhill from here for me, and I’m greatly looking forward to a relaxing weekend before things get crazy for me with my Busy Third Week Of The Month.

Smoke alarm times it right

Public safety officials always tell people to check their smoke alarm batteries at the same time they change their clocks for Daylight Saving Time. This is a practice that hopefully gets people used to routinely checking their smoke alarms.

I’ve long been in the habit of checking our smoke alarms at the time change but this morning offered a bit of a surprise. Around 6 AM, our “extra” hour of sleep was just beginning when we hear a chriping sound. It seems the battery in one of our smoke detectors picked this morning to quit: the very day it would’ve been tested, anyway.

In less than 10 minutes I had a new battery installed and was snoozing again. Being a bit superstitious, though, I made sure rest of our smoke detectors worked today, too!

Hawks settle in

I’d been preplexed that our bird feeders have been staying unusually full over the past week or two. Then yesterday I saw a young hawk perched on the roof of my neighbor’s house and started to wonder. When three hawks flew lazily over our home this morning I became sure of the reason.

So, hawks seem to have the run of the place. What kind of predators do they have? It seems they’re thriving in this area, for better or worse.

Lots going on

As usual when you don’t hear much from me, there are a lot of things happening at the moment. And they’re good things, really. Can’t complain.

On the work front things are cranking up. I was busy with a few projects which have expanded my knowledge of the product. I was expecting to be traveling south to Orlando next week for a trade show but my plans changed abruptly today when the company realized I should be in New York state instead. So rather than enjoying high temperatures of 80 degrees I’ll be looking at 55 degrees instead. Oh well: at least the work will be interesting! I will be far more active in NY than at any trade show, so my product knowledge will increase exponentially from this change of plans.

Outside of work my community involvement continues. I nailed down the East CAC’s November agenda, and through the magic of Le Calendar I have proclaimed this month’s to be the last meeting of the year. We’ll have a holiday social event and hobnob this month. It’s always one of my favorite meetings.

On the Raleigh CAC front, I’ve been asked if I would like to become chair. I’m not really looking for any more feathers in my cap but I don’t want the organization to lose ground, either. Still trying to figure out if I want to take something else on, though as of now I’m leaning towards “no.”
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Cold stone crazy

Like almost everyone I know, I’ve spent the week battling a cold. I’m so ready for it to be over. Work is heating up and I’ve got meetings and other responsibilities looming on the horizon. I’m so looking forward to the upcoming holiday break where I can simply relax in the evenings.

N&O mistakenly says Raleigh out of Google Fiber hunt

There was a small story in the political section of the News and Observer last month, noting that Raleigh City Councilor Bonner Gaylord’s twins weren’t named after Google’s founders as he had jokingly pledged to do if Raleigh was chosen as the site for their 1Gb Internet Google Fiber project.

Twins weren’t Googled

Raleigh City Councilman Bonner Gaylord is now the proud father of twin boys, who were born early this week. But no, they aren’t named after Google’s founders Larry and Sergey as Gaylord had previously promised – without consulting his wife – if she had boys and Google wired Raleigh with high-speed Internet. Google passed on the City of Oaks, so instead of Larry and Sergey, Gaylord’s sons are named Demetri and Mont. Overall, it’s bad for Raleigh, good for Gaylord’s marriage.

The problem is that Google hasn’t passed on the City of Oaks. It hasn’t passed on anybody, actually. The company has yet to make its selection.

A few days ago I left word on the N&O website, pointing out this error but the paper has not yet responded. Hopefully a correction will be printed, lest Google think the City of Oaks has written them off.

Election Night

Well, that was interesting. Election Day was yesterday and, nationwide, Democrats took a drubbing. The U.S. House is in Republican hands again. The Senate remains in Democratic hands. Can’t say results on the national level surprise me.

I found the local races more interesting. GOP took control of the General Assembly for the first time in over 125 years. The Republicans face tough decisions with a looming $5 billion state budget deficit. Cutting taxes won’t solve that problem, so now Republicans will have to govern rather than whine.

For all the “throw the bums out” talk, nearly all North Carolina Congressional incumbents were reelected. At this time Bob Etheridge is calling for a recount against political newcomer Renee Ellmers. At this point it looks like Etheridge is done. If so, he’ll become the only congressional incumbent to lose this election.
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Cheap Thoughts: democracy and the Constitution

On my morning walk today my groggy mind became fascinated by the curious tension between “majority rules” and “minority rights.” It’s not like I’ve never considered this contrast before, but it never seemed as absurd to me before as it did to me this morning.

We have democracy, where if a majority of Americans agree on something it can become law. Then we have the Constitution, which protects the rights of the minorities. If a majority of voters decided that only beer drinkers could be citizens, the Constitution would protect non-beer-drinkers. At least, they’d be protected until said majority changed the Constitution to explicitly deny citizenship to non-beer-drinkers.

l suppose this is what captured my attention this morning: how one’s rights last only as long as the Constitution does before the majority strips it away. That huge gap between the two must be how some once conveniently considered black people and women to be non-citizens, and how other minorities are still in danger of the same treatment.

Winston Churchill said “democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried.” I can see the man’s point.