Mar 13

My project has had setbacks, breakthroughs, and small advances in the last few days. First, when I arrived at the office on Monday, I learned that my local project coordinator, and the person in charge of managing the code, are both in the hospital with Typhoid Fever. One of our architects was out for most of the month of December, part of January, and even some of February with the same ailment, so I'm not expecting these employees back any time soon. Don't worry, I've been vaccinated against it, and it's not contagious.

Most of the project I'm working on is very basic: change the timestamp on transactions, change the tab order, add a field. One change, however, is large and complicated. That is the focus of the majority of my conversations on this project, and several different iterations of documentation. Yesterday, we finally cleared all aspects of the project through design. For the first time on this project, I have full confidence in its success. I'd always had faith in the people. Now I have faith in the project.

When I left Michigan to attend ASU, my dream was to pursue a career in international business. Specifically, I wanted to specialize in mergers and acquisitions. It took me 11 years, 7 companies, and 5 mergers, but I'm finally living my dream. Everyone I work with is intelligent. Everyone I work with is focused on doing their best. It's a far cry from the temp jobs I had in banking. Back then, the concept of "Instant Messaging" was sending "net send" requests from a command prompt. One of the guys I worked with sent "dork" as a net send, but sent it to the wrong computer. The woman sitting at the computer who actually received the "dork" message, had just made a mistake and thought the computer was deriding her. Seriously. It still makes me laugh. I worked with people who would surf porn sites at work. I worked with people who would spend 4 hours a day calling her boyfriend in Israel on the company phone. Not anymore.

I truly enjoy working with everyone in Indonesia, and I'm doing a job that I love. There are challenges, there are issues I wish I did not have to deal with, and there are opportunities that I could not get in any other job at any other company.

If only I could get my wife and daughter to come with me on these longer trips......