Mostly Harmless

Today was an odd day. Not bad exactly, but definitely odd.

I went to work for a scheduled systems upgrade.  Lily and the kids went to Central Park and after work we met in Chinatown.  When we returned to Long Island we found my front passenger window was broken and my GPS unit stolen.

Now I didn’t exactly leave the unit out, it was in the center console.  But the window mount was sealed to the window so I left it there.  The round rubber from the suction cup is still there, just not the rest of it.

According to the police there has been a rash of break-ins with people looking for GPS units.  They smash the window and look into the console for the unit.  If you don’t have a GPS then you’re just pissed.  If you do have one put away then you’re also out a GPS unit.

I’m not really angry about it since these things happen.  I’ll take the car to the dealer and hope that my insurance covers most of it.  Other than this, today was pretty good.

This morning Lily was going to head to LaGuardia airport and catch a plane to Detroit. I was going to head to the office at my regular time and put in a fully productive day at the office.

The person who was going to pick her up forgot.  I ended up getting dressed in record time and driving her to the airport.  She was running late and had to leave NOW.

She made the flight but it was close.  I headed back home and called my boss to apologize for the last minute change in my schedule.  If I headed to the office I’d have gotten into the city almost 2 hours late and I was not sure if I had any conference calls. I don’t like making changes to my work schedule all off a sudden. Do it too often and it’s abusive.

The day worked out but the high point was my being on a call with my 6 year old son stage whispering “Daddy, can I play with the Nintendo DS?” and me pantomiming the reply of “LEAVE NOW OR FACE THE AWESOME WRATH OF DAD”.  All this while replying to people on the call with “Sure, that change should work. Let’s do it Friday after hours”.

Sign language is a parenting tool.

With Lily not coming back until the evening, I had to bathe both kids.  I need to install a power washer; did you know that little girls need hair conditioner?  Boys are much easier. Ivory soap can double as shampoo and no one ever notices on a boy.

Later on it was her turn to play a game but she kept giving the game to her brother.  She also complained often that he’s not letting her play. This is a life lesson for my son: watch out for girls.  That she just gave him the game did not stop her from trying to get him in trouble.

I’m really glad Lily came back today.

Well not really panic, just your usual vulnerability patching day at the office.

When I saw Dan Kaminsky demonstrate voice over DNS, I was convinced that he dreams in BIND source code.  It was a neat demonstration.

Now he has uncovered another vulnerability in BIND regarding UDP source port prediction. It’s causing some excitement in the work place as to what the impact could be and how soon our vendors can release patches.

I’ve had to do some explaining as what it means;  see Matasano’s blog for more information.  Thomas Ptacek sums it up really well here and states the impact more here.

You’ve got to love someone who can explain the seriousness using a movie quote from Jack Black.

It doesn’t happen to me often, but this is what it looks like when I work on a Saturday.

Non-stop being on conference calls.  It’s not bad, just I have a lot to do today.

I heard on 1010 WINS this morning that a tentative agreement between 9 unions and Amtrak was going to be announced today. That’s a relief as both Lily and I both take the LIRR to Penn Station get to work. It would have been a pain for us to get to work, likely we’d have gone to Queens and taken the MTA.

We both enjoy working in NYC. When I started commuting again it was like I’d been banished to a third world country and had returned to civilization. My first week I was walking to work and trying not to look like a tourist.

That’s an exaggerated reaction and there are advantages to working close to home in Long Island. But I just prefer working in Manhattan and never mind the 90 minute commute.

Picture from of Wikipedia article on Penn Station.

Lily subscribes to the Wall Street Journal and today there is an article online that reads “Citigroup CEO Plans to Resign As Losses Grow”.

That was not hard to see coming. The article shows that the stock price is currently at $37.73. Last year when I worked at Citigroup the conversation was if it would stay above $50. Having some of my retirement in Citi stock does not concern me; retirement is a long term investment and Citi’s a good company.

But I wonder what his successor will do? Citigroup is a monster because of its size. One, two, or five businesses within it could not drive the stock in any direction. It took a major industry wide hit to drive the stock down that far. The challenge was not (well till recently) keeping the stock from plummeting, the challenge was to get the stock to grow. It just did not move. It was like seeing a group of people say “We’re going to move that glacier with tablespoons”.

I can’t wait to see what happens next. Wonder if my old workplace is going to change dramatically? Getting paperclips was a minimum 6 month exercise and projects were 18 months of paperwork and meetings. It would be cool to hear that global IT gets a fire about so high to make them move.

This came up in conversation at work (today it’s applicable).

Prince Humperdinck: First things first, to the death.
Westley: No. To the pain.
Prince Humperdinck: I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.
Westley: I’ll explain and I’ll use small words so that you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon.
Prince Humperdinck: That may be the first time in my life a man has dared insult me.
Westley: It won’t be the last. To the pain means the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose.
Prince Humperdinck: And then my tongue I suppose, I killed you too quickly the last time. A mistake I don’t mean to duplicate tonight.
Westley: I wasn’t finished. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.
Prince Humperdinck: And then my ears, I understand let’s get on with it.
Westley: WRONG. Your ears you keep and I’ll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, “Dear God! What is that thing,” will echo in your perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.
Prince Humperdinck: I think your bluffing.
Westley: It’s possible, Pig, I might be bluffing. It’s conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I’m only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again… perhaps I have the strength after all.
[slowly rises and points sword directly at the prince]
Westley: DROP… YOUR… SWORD!
[mouth hanging open, drops sword to floor]

The Princess Bride, what a classic.

Since July 30th I work with my identical twin brother. He’s been there for many years and many people know him in the work place.

Tuesday I was on the coffee line right behind the manager of another group I know. That’s when someone stopped to say hi to the manager. In a minute the guy looks at me an says hi too.

After a month I know what to expect. I pulled out my building ID, pointed to my first name and said “I’m not who you think I am. I’m Jan, his twin brother.”

Him: Huh? Oh that’s nice. Did you get the info I asked you about?

Me: I’m not him. I’m his twin brother. I started here only a month ago.

Him: Very funny! So you’ll send me an email?

Me: Who are you? (I continued to point to my ID)

Him: ???

Me: See the ID? Look at the first name?

The manager in front of me was laughing and finally the lights went on. It’s going to happen repeatedly but no big deal. At least it happened before I had my coffee.

After Friday July 6th of this year I was officially no longer with my previous company. As of Monday July 30th I will be working at another financial company. Check out my LinkedIn page for more information about where.

It will be in Manhattan so I’m going to enjoy walking and eating good salads for lunch again. I’m really looking forward to this; me and idle time are not a good combination.

I used the month off well. I took the kids to their swimming lessons and they enjoyed having me around. I learned about adding JavaScript to my web page and finally figured out how to adjust the CSS for the WordPress theme I am using (I can control the horizontal and the vertical, do not adjust your TV set). I also caught up on the current episodes of the anime Claymore, Darker than Black, and saw the whole Ergo Proxy series.

Nice to have some free time once in a while .

I’m returning to work as a consultant. I had been a consultant for years before becoming an employee in 2004 and I have to say that I personally prefer consulting. It might be a simplistic view but as an employee I had to worry about too many intangibles and politics.

The new job looks like I’ll have to get up to my elbows in network equipment and firewall design. It will include long hours, support calls, lots of change control, routing protocols, proxies, and application support.

Excellent, I so can’t wait.

There probably should be some disclaimer about me and the work place…

Question: How many bosses does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: One. He holds up the light bulb and expects the universe to revolve around him.

How to Change the World: Is Your Boss an A**hole?.

I don’t have much opportunity to suffer through this list as my problems are usually my doing. But I have seen other people’s boss behave this way.

It’s a fun read, scroll to his comments afterwards. Some of them are choice too. People really shouldn’t say things like “describes every boss I’ve had since” if only because it really shows they have a problem.