In The World…

Howdy everyone. I know I’ve been super lax about blogging lately but I do have at least a little something to show for it. Couple little somethings, actually.

If you would like to see the website I have been crunching away on for all those hours the past couple weeks, you can go here: http://www.limelightnetworks.com/

I didn’t design it, I just took the design mock up and actually created all of the html and javascript to make it actually work. Turned out well, I guess. Supposedly, the client is getting a lot of positive reviews, so that’s a good thing.

But, more importantly, I was able to spare a few hours to crank out our wedding site which eventually will be chock full of tasty info about the impending nuptials. Really, what I needed to do was get this up in order to coincide with our sending out of the Save the Date dealies. More on those later.

To view the Wedding Site, just go here: http://wedding.jasonhaberman.com

Like I said, there will be more content (and probably some edits and refining of current content) once I get a little more time. I have another website or two that are in the queue at the moment, so I gotta move on to those for a little bit. Mark and Dad, I haven’t forgotten you.

The funny thing about being a web developer, is you wouldn’t believe how many people out there “need a website”.  Like I said, I have a few sites in the hopper, but I am approached all the time.  We are refinancing the house, and when Jess filled in the occupation box for me, the mortgage lady told her, “Web developer huh?  Well, I need to talk to him…”.  Yeah, get in line lady.

Good thing I still enjoy it.

In two days. That’s what I’ve worked.

27 hours.

This project has been absolutely brutal. Long long hours.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Come tomorrow at 5pm MDT I officially wash my hands of it. That is the hard deadline to deliver the code to the client and I can relax for the first time in 2 weeks.

All told, I’ve probably put between 150 and 170 total hours on this project since I began in full on March 24th. That’d be 12 business days. Wow. That’s a lot of work. The project manager and creative folks have been terrific as I have pestered them at great length about stuff I needed from them. No offense Lee, but it will be nice not to have to bother you 14 times a day here for a little bit…

On the plus side, I’ve learned a bunch. Nothing like living under the gun to make you perform. The best thing I can say is that I will absolutely meet the deadline, despite all of the little technical problems along the way. Even today, I was battling with more uncooperative code that just wouldn’t play nice. Pounding headache. Nothing to do but muscle through. So, I did.

You better believe, the first beer I throw down tomorrow at 5pm is going to taste mighty sweet.

I don’t think I did 170 hours of work in my final 6 months at HP. My how times have changed.

Some of you might be wondering where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to… ok… maybe not. Perhaps I have an inflated sense of self-worth… No matter. I’m telling you anyway, whether you want to know or not.

Working. That’s it, that’s the list.

I got handed a rather large website project last week. I spent last weekend dipping my toes into the pool but began with vigor on Monday. This site is quite involved, and consists of many many gradient background pieces and other items which just add to the complexity. I spent so much time staring at gradients that when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom Thursday night, the light through the window cast a gradient on the wall… All I could think was how I needed to slice that up and make it into html. Yeah, I need more sleep.

I’ve got <div>’s, classes, and pixel widths coming out of my ass. Don’t get be started about Internet Explorer’s, shall we say, “limited” standards implementation…

Plus, there were a number of technical challenges I ran into. Strange corner cases with CSS and javascript that took me forever to try to solve. The worst day this week was Wednesday. I was at work for over 12 hours and when I left I was in the EXACT same place as I was when I started the day. I actually accomplished nothing. Spent the day banging my head against the wall. I would fix one little thing, or think I had, only to find it didn’t really work, or worse yet, broke something that was previously working perfectly. Let me tell you, that was frustrating.

Counting the 9+ hours I worked today (Saturday), I am at over 62 hours for the week. It was nice and quiet at the office today though. I was the only one there. I do think I need to invest in an additional monitor for my home PC, so I don’t have to always work in the office. Any of you out there with dual monitors will agree with me on how much more efficient you can be with them. I think Costco might be a destination tomorrow…

As of this evening, I have conquered all of the real sticky technical pieces… and even better, I can reuse all of the code I’ve developed on future projects, which will save me a ton of time. Sometimes, there is nothing better than really getting in that groove where everything is working and you are making killer progress.

Speaking of which, as an aside, have you seen those bumper stickers that say something like “A Bad Day Golfing Still Beats A Good Day At Work”? Bullshit. I would MUCH rather have a good day at work kicking ass, than have one of those rounds where you put 12 balls into the water. It’s not even close to a tough decision. Maybe that’s just me.

On the plus side, Jess is actually out of town in Portland, OR visiting an old college friend this weekend. So, I’ve been able to completely focus on work. Not that I can’t when she is around or anything, but it is tough when you have a metric shit-ton of work but would rather spend time with a certain someone, ya know?

So, the ‘beta’ site is due to show the customer by end of business on Wednesday. With the stuff I got knocked out today, I don’t think I should have a problem hitting that deadline. That being said, I will be working long hours up until then to be sure. Not to mention, that the client will then review it, then provide feedback. Judging by how this client has been up until now, there will be a TON of changes and alterations. I think the final product is due the 8th or 9th.

I will be neck deep until then. It’s unfortunate that I’ve been so slammed, because there has been a lot I wanted to blog about lately… bitching about daylight savings time, Boise State winning the WAC and making the Big Dance, my brackets performance (or lack thereof), so on and so forth… maybe I’ll get to them sometime.

Today was Wirestone’s holiday function.  It consisted of a Bad Sweater party, coupled with a Crock Pot cook off, all in our recently remodeled office which we opened for all to see.

Frankly, it was a hell of a time.  I brought my now-famous Stroganoff Dip which was a gigantic hit with everyone who tried it.

I bought a horrible acrylic sweater at JC Penny’s yesterday.  I figured $15 was enough to spend on a joke.  The office was absolutely filled with the most horrible collection of sweaters ever collected in a single location.  If it wasn’t so amusing, it would have been horrifying.

But, we had a lot of beer, wine, hot buttered rum, mulled wine and an open bar.   It was a nice turnout.  Jess came by as well as my folks.  I was able to show everyone where I work and give them the nickel tour.

I, personally, started drinking at about 1:30pm and the party didn’t start until 3.  I spent the morning help set up and get everything setup.  So, I figured I earned a beer…

Anyway, it was a great party and I can’t be happier to work in such a terrific place.   Keep you fingers crossed that I won the crock-off… watch this space for updates.

Happy Holidays!

I haven’t written in awhile.  You may have noticed this.

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about.  Quite the contrary.  My head is busting with ideas and topics.  The real enemy here is time.  It is simply that time of year when events get ramping up and there just isn’t anything I can do about it.  For example, here is my schedule since the day before I left for Vegas with Jess on the 28th of October.

• Saturday - Party at Friends
• Sunday - Vegas
• Monday - Vegas
• Tuesday - Vegas
• Wednesday - Return from Vegas (Halloween)
• Thursday - blessed rest
• Friday - BSU Basketball
• Saturday - BSU Football
• Sun - Leave again for Vegas
• Mon - Vegas
• Tue - Return from Vegas, exhausted
• Wed - Steelheads Hockey
• Thurs - a little more rest
• Fri - BSU Basketball
• Sat - Drive to Logan, UT (and back) for BSU Football Game
• Sun - Dinner at Jess’ folks
• Mon - Finally, nothing
• Tue - BSU Basketball
• Wed (yesterday) - Friend’s B-Day dinner and Steelheads Hockey.

For those of you scoring at home, that would be 3 separate trips, 7 sporting events (3 basketball, 2 football, 2 hockey), 3 dinners out (not counting travel days) and a grand total of 3 evenings of rest where I had nothing going on.

Of course, those ‘rest’ days weren’t even all that restful since they landed on weekdays and because in the midst of all this, work has been absolutely crazy.  Not bad-crazy by any stretch, just super busy.  Everyone is trying to get sites I’m working on done before the Thanksgiving holiday, and its putting a pretty good crunch on me.

To be perfectly honest, I’m kinda surprised I’m still fully functional.  This does sort of resemble my previous life except for a few crucial differences.  a.) Before, this sort of schedule would go on for weeks or months at a time.  b.) Also, back then, most of the events we’re not ‘my’ things… All of this stuff I’ve been doing has been stuff I wanted to do.  Not events to which I was committed and had no say at all, but was still expected to attend and have my game face on.  That makes a big difference.  c.) Top that all off with the fact that I really like my job now, and the whole world has changed.

So, yes, some things have suffered.  The blog for one.  Dad, your website for two.  I ain’t seen Georgie or Hillman in weeks.  There’s been a bunch of movies I’ve wanted to see, and my TV sports watching has fallen off dramatically.

At least, with ye olde birthday coming up, I should be able to catch up with just about everyone then.  For anyone that hasn’t heard, I’m heading to Busters on Broadway on my birthday (6:30pm, Saturday the 24th) for finger steaks and beers.  Anyone and everyone are welcome to stop by, even if only to have a drink and laugh at me for getting old.

And if you think I’m not looking forward to a most relaxing Thanksgiving, hanging out at the parents, watching football, drink in hand, before gorging myself on mom’s excellent dinner, you’re crazy.

Stay tuned.  Maybe I’ll get a few spare seconds to write some more.  No guarantees.

No, “Vegas Home Vegas” is not a totally awesome spin on Home Sweet Home. It is actually my itinerary for next two weeks. Lemme explain.

A few months ago, Jess found out that the national Charles Schwab conference was going to be held in Las Vegas this year. She used to work for Schwab before her little company broke away and went independent. But, she still knows a lot of people over there and still works with them for her clients. Anyway, she also found out that the keynote speaker is none other than Bono of U2. For those that don’t know, Jess is a rather obsessed U2 fan and has seen them something like 9 times in concert. (despite the fact they’ve never been to Boise).

Obviously, she was geeked to go. Plus, since Vegas is one of my favorite places on the planet (I’ve been there like 9 times), it was a perfect match. So, she went to work on her boss to get the company to pay her way down for this conference. Needless to say, she finally wore them down and they agreed. She got her hotel and air paid for, and all I had to come up with to go down with her was my own airfare. No way was I gonna skip this one.

We leave Sunday morning (the 28th) and return Wednesday afternoon on Halloween. 3 days of Mandalay Bay. Of course, she will be in meetings and seminars a good deal of the time… I wonder if there is anything fun for me to do in Las Vegas… Hmmmm… I’ll have to check into that.

As many of you know, I started a new job in August with probably the coolest company on the planet, Wirestone. I had heard rumors, even before I started, that Wirestone has it’s own Las Vegas conference where they send all 200+ employees (from the various offices around the country) to Vegas on the company dime. Supposedly, the first few years they did it, they actually attempted to get work done. Well, recently all pretense of “work” has been thrown out the window and it basically turns in to 2 days of drinking. The words of advice I’ve received from those who have been before, “Bring your stunt liver.” Check and Check.

Not long after we got the go-ahead from Jess’ boss for her conference, I found out when Wirestone was planning their Vegas party at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
November 4th through the 6th.

Basically, what this boils down to is I am in Vegas Sunday through Wednesday with Jess, am home for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then head BACK to Vegas on Sunday to return home on Tuesday.

Either, this will be the greatest 10 days in the history of mankind, or I will return a broken empty shell of a man. I guess those aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

Plus, the first Boise State Basketball exhibition game is on Friday, the 2nd, and on Saturday is Boise State Football home vs. San Jose State. So, I guess technically, the title would be more accurate stated as “Vegas, Boise State, Vegas” which might well be the definition of heaven in my book.

You’ll hear from me again, provided I survive.

Mom, I just wanted to take a second to wish you a happy retirement day. It is currently 6:37pm, so I’m sure you’re probably still in the office. If you see this, wrap it up! Go home. Relax a bit. Sheesh.

I’ve told you this for years, but you have given that place MORE than enough. You have been so grossly overworked and underpaid… and I mean damn near criminally underpaid, it is long overdue for you to leave.

Your boss… er… EX boss is in for a rude awakening when come Monday and you’re not there. She will try to fill your position for what she paid you, and maybe then she will realize how good she had it with you around. She won’t be able to find 3 people who earned what you did to split the work you covered.

Now, you can relax. Check that… you should relax, but you probably won’t. At least you won’t have to dread the end of the month any more. Plus, you can travel whenever you damn well feel like it. How great will that be?

Even better, you can now jump into the junk biz full time with dad! How exciting will that be!?

Today was the first day of my next career.  I have to admit, it was a strange feeling that I haven’t had in a long time.  Everyone knows those first day jitters, be it in a new school or job.  Just those butterflies about what’s new and different.

New faces, new places.

But everyone I met was exceptionally friendly.  I think I will fit in just fine.  I did bring 4 dozen Krispy Kremes to bribe my way to a leg up in people’s minds.  You gotta do what ya gotta do.

Of course, my first day didn’t exactly come off without a hitch due to a combination of issues.

Apparently a developer left the company yesterday, and he had a desk by the windows.  Thus, there was a seniority rule in effect for anyone who wanted to sit there.   All this shifting could cause a cascade of desk moves, so exactly where I would sit was up in the air.

But the bigger issue was that the PC they ordered for me was on backorder.  It was supposed to arrive today, but somehow got delayed until tomorrow.   So, I had nothing to work on, nor anywhere to do it… but everything should come together tomorrow.

Basically, my day went like this.  I got there about 8:45 after making the Krispy Kreme run and after a quick loop around the office, it was time to get down to all the paperwork.  Who doesn’t love paperwork anyway?  After getting that all finished, I met with some of the tech people for a bit.  Then, Mike, the tech manager, pretty much said that I could bug out if I wanted to, since there wasn’t much for me to do.  I figured I might as well, since I didn’t want to keep anyone else from their work by entertaining me.  So, I left about 10:30 with plans to return at 3pm for the tech team meeting.

That meeting took all of 30 minutes, so all in all I “worked” just over 2 hours today… and that was STILL more than I had to do at HP.

Tomorrow, I’m heading in at noon (as they need to have time to receive and setup my PC).   Whew… all this work is really taxing!

A few more post HP thoughts.

I have to say, it is now quite strange to drive past HP and realize that I no longer work there.  Just a very odd feeling.  Also, another odd feeling was to be technically unemployed for an entire weekend.  I mean, the last time that happened was in 1994 when I was laid off from the law firm runner position before I started delivering pizzas for Pizza Hut.  Thats a long time.  I suppose, technically it is only the second time since I started working at the age of 16 to not currently be employed, and that was when I quit Nu Look Car Wash in the last few months of my senior year to be able to enjoy those festivities.  Of course, I started working immediately after graduation.

I have to admit, I feel a bit odd about not working today or tomorrow morning, despite the fact that this is no fault of my own.  Damn this pesky work ethic!

Anyway, I’m off and running in Wirestone’s corral.  Granted, I didn’t exactly shoot from the gates at top speed, but I will get there soon enough.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

-T.S. Eliot

Indeed, this is how my HP world ended. Certainly not a bang, but with a whimper. I got home from what was my last “day” with HP and started this post. Actually, this day was exactly 38 minutes long. My exit interview was scheduled for 9:30am Friday morning. I arrived a little before 9 to finish cleaning up some things on my PC and to get my last load of crap out to the car.

I find it amusing that they still call it an “exit interview”. Quite frankly, it was more of an “escort out of the building” than an interview. According to the HP Portal, the exit interview consists of sitting down with one’s manager who asks about why you’re leaving, your overall HP experience, how they could improve things, etc. In actuality, here’s how it went.

The guy performing the “interview” was someone I’d never met since my latest manager (as of 3 weeks ago, I think the 10th I’ve had in 8 years) was remote. In fact, I spoke to my actual manager exactly once. So, this process was sub-contracted out to a local manager. Now, he was a nice enough guy. I think he was more happy that my leaving was on good terms. I really got the impression that he’s done more than one of these where the person leaving is none too pleased about it. Welcome to the wonderful world of corporate layoff culture. Anyway, I soon realized that there was going to be no “interview”. I gathered up my remaining shit and headed to the door.

Opened the card controlled double doors, handed him my badge, and poof… Gone. That’s it. The ultimate whimper.

The accompanying picture you see above is, in fact, the final door closing on my HP career. I was able to whip out my camera and snatch one shot before the door finished closing. Not often that you get an image of both and actual and metaphorical event in one shot.

(more…)

We made it.  It is finally August and I couldn’t be happier.

I barely survived the smoking, sun-scarred moonscape that was existence here in July.   In case you’re not from here or didn’t leave your house for a full month (in either case, I envy you) but July was officially the hottest month on record here in Boise.  The Statesman said that there were 14 days of 100+ temps.  Well, if you look at this pdf you will see that in addition to those “official” triple digit temps, there were 8 additional days that were 97-99.  As I see it, if you’re driving around and its 97 or above ‘officially’ you will find somewhere in some parking lot or whatever is over 100.  I think that should count.  Just because where they took the measurement didn’t hit 100 doesn’t mean that somewhere you were didn’t.

That makes 22 out of 31 days that were WAY to friggin hot.  Not to mention, its not like those other 9 days were cool and breezy.  They were still hotter then hell.

(more…)