(no subject)
I previously left off in a whirlwind of thoughts and events that were then steering my life through what could have been fairly called a gauntlet.
Since that time things have fell into place - and the second they did, I left that neat little puzzle where it lay and launched myself into yet another physically and emotionally challenging foray.
Just for the record, I would like to say that I now have a nice townhouse apartment in Deerfield Beach, Florida. My roommate, Jen, and I are very happy with the place. I have a Florida license now, too.
I have only gone out a couple of times before I left Florida for my vacation and training, but I have come to realize a couple things as of yet: The age demographic varies wildly almost wherever you go out at night, and there are many homosexuals. I’m not saying this in contempt - not at all - I only want to highlight that this is more or less a big deviation from the social constructs I am accustomed to.
Right now I am sitting at Gate B-16 in Logan. I’m awaiting my flight to Ft. Lauderdale and relishing this pure moment of repose, using it to reflect and gather my thoughts, as it has been the first in a long while.
The past two weeks I have been gone: the first, in Cancun, Mexico, with some friends from school; the second, in Crotonville, New York, attending a leadership training seminar with some colleagues and friends for GE.
I am not even going to attempt to summarize either event in it’s entirety here, but for the sake of remembrance I’m going to try and attempt to call out the highlights of one or both right now.
Cancun was still relatively in shambles. The entire week I was there, you could not walk a block without witnessing some form of construction; expectedly enough, however, the tourist ‘strip’ around the lagoon was in much better shape than the surrounding provinces. The weather was magnificent and the breezes were revitalizing.
The nightlife was hedonistic and the booze flowed like a summer rain. True, it was a vacation, but it was more a challenge of my constitution and willpower than anything else. To conjure the strength and gusto to press on each consecutive day - party to party, bar to bar, club to club - was treated as something more of an epic journey than simply a bar crawl.
Admittedly enough, my friends and I were a bit older than the average crowd there. Even though we just graduated, I was often reminded of my age thanks to the collegiate contrast. We also weren’t tempted by the calls of open bars and free drinks every day and night. We treated ourselves to a sojourn of sorts in the form of a day trip to Chichen-Itza - the most venerable and significant of Mayan Ruins. It was quite the site to behold: The temples, the architecture, and the sheer skill and thought that went into each. Each construct was designed so that in certain times of the year you would see a certain image on the side of the building, or if you clapped from a certain angle the echo that returned would be that of a bird call. These Mayans understood the earth and the heavens so well that everything they did was just brimming with connections to them - consequently, the ruins themselves just seemed so natural and intrinsic to the immediate world around them. After receiving the grand tour we were treated to some authentic Mexican fare along with some authentic Mexican dancing.
My favorite part, however, was meeting a Mayan descendant who was a silversmith. She provided her services to travelers in the form of cartouches with symbols that represented the letters of your choice - simply stunning and meaningful creations. They are hand pressed and molded with tools not so removed from the original Mayan descendants. I bought one for myself and one for Deanna. I plan on buying a chain so I can wear it sometimes, though I am concerned about wearing a piece made of such soft silver and gold.
We also visited Playa Del Carmen one night in hopes to seek out a nightlife scene more in tune with the real Mexican culture, and that’s exactly what we found there. I enjoyed Cancun quite thoroughly though, but I could have done with a lot less frat guys and stuck up American women - guess I should have expected as much however.
Other key highlights involve: my friend Magic and I wearing wrestling masks around town which ended up with us wrestling a midget and his friend at the place we decided to eat; winning a contest whose key skill could only be best described as dry humping; tequila Volleyball; teaching some guy to do the worm on a booze cruise; finding girls to play beach volleyball with almost every morning; relentless taxis; playing maracas with a Mexican guitarist; smoking a fine Cuban cigar while sitting on the beach outside of our hotel and gazing into the stars - questioning reality, hard.
I’d say that gives a good general idea of what Cancun was like for me. I’d be happy to fill in the plot holes for anyone at anytime, though.
Directly after leaving Cancun, I caught a connecting flight to New York. Literally. I didn’t even have time to stop home and drop off my stuff and repack - I actually took everything I needed for both trips with me to Cancun, since the best flight I could get into New York was an hour after I was supposed to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale. This would have been a great time to rest and rejuvenate myself. However, there is no rest for the wicked.
Seeing as how the training was with many of my good friends from work who I haven’t seen since we trained in the summer, this was, in essence, another sort of social gathering for me. Even though our days were filled with lecture and group exercises and the sort, they ended around 5 or 6. We would have some light work to do afterwards, and have our dinner, but at 7 there would be free open bar at a place called the ‘White House’ on the campus. So, after a week of rampant alcohol abuse, explosive dancing, and infinite walking, I subjected myself to even more open bar for the next 4 days. It was a great time, I had a lot of fun, I learned many things, and was treated very well - this campus is mostly used to train top GE executives, so we get the finest of meals, service, treatment, etc.
In addition, I did stay the weekend after training to hang out in Boston for St. Patrick’s Day. That way, I could meet some friends from home and my brother, as well as party in a more comfortable environment with my work friends. I had a disappointing Malaysian meal, bought a silver celtic knot ring - which brings my ring collection to two, and received the rejection hotline number for the first time in my life. All in all, it was a very exciting two weeks, but it was also exhausting, and I am glad to be going home.
That’s a funny thought in itself, however. When I left, my home was just inundated with boxes. I only had time to arrange them into the room they belonged in, and unpacked a few key items, but my roommate had undertaken the task of decorating and arranging in my absence along with a few of her friends. Have I mentioned how great she is? She’s wonderful.
Although I am not exactly sure what to expect after she picks me up and takes me home in a few hours, I have faith that I will be pleased. The one thing I really hope is that there is Internet.
As far as work goes, I am nervous. With my harried move in and home search, coupled with my Assignment Leader being too busy the second week to debrief me and start initial planning, multiplied by my vacation and training, I am technically 1 month into my 6 month rotation and haven’t done anything significant at all.
I’m nervous because this project seems a bit more significant and visible than my last. Put simply, GE Securities Data Warehouse has been storing customer PO’s, Invoices, and all related sales data, for about 8 years and has not been outfitted with any strategic purging or archiving strategies for this data. All they have ever done was just increase the size of this database. For it to perform optimally - and for the company to save a lot of money - rules need to be identified and implemented to decide when we can delete data that is not being used, and when we can archive data that is used constantly to save space on the main machine. This is a 1.5 million dollar project that has the potential to save much more than that if done correctly, and it is being personally monitored and sponsored by GE Securities CIO. This needs to be done correctly and efficiently. I’m really feeling the pressure to perform, more so than usual due to recent tension amongst the hierarchy in my program, but that’s another story for another day.
I look forward to returning to stability and routine for a while. There are many things I am looking forward to doing with my life right now, many plans I have for myself, and I’m excited for the immediate future.
Since that time things have fell into place - and the second they did, I left that neat little puzzle where it lay and launched myself into yet another physically and emotionally challenging foray.
Just for the record, I would like to say that I now have a nice townhouse apartment in Deerfield Beach, Florida. My roommate, Jen, and I are very happy with the place. I have a Florida license now, too.
I have only gone out a couple of times before I left Florida for my vacation and training, but I have come to realize a couple things as of yet: The age demographic varies wildly almost wherever you go out at night, and there are many homosexuals. I’m not saying this in contempt - not at all - I only want to highlight that this is more or less a big deviation from the social constructs I am accustomed to.
Right now I am sitting at Gate B-16 in Logan. I’m awaiting my flight to Ft. Lauderdale and relishing this pure moment of repose, using it to reflect and gather my thoughts, as it has been the first in a long while.
The past two weeks I have been gone: the first, in Cancun, Mexico, with some friends from school; the second, in Crotonville, New York, attending a leadership training seminar with some colleagues and friends for GE.
I am not even going to attempt to summarize either event in it’s entirety here, but for the sake of remembrance I’m going to try and attempt to call out the highlights of one or both right now.
Cancun was still relatively in shambles. The entire week I was there, you could not walk a block without witnessing some form of construction; expectedly enough, however, the tourist ‘strip’ around the lagoon was in much better shape than the surrounding provinces. The weather was magnificent and the breezes were revitalizing.
The nightlife was hedonistic and the booze flowed like a summer rain. True, it was a vacation, but it was more a challenge of my constitution and willpower than anything else. To conjure the strength and gusto to press on each consecutive day - party to party, bar to bar, club to club - was treated as something more of an epic journey than simply a bar crawl.
Admittedly enough, my friends and I were a bit older than the average crowd there. Even though we just graduated, I was often reminded of my age thanks to the collegiate contrast. We also weren’t tempted by the calls of open bars and free drinks every day and night. We treated ourselves to a sojourn of sorts in the form of a day trip to Chichen-Itza - the most venerable and significant of Mayan Ruins. It was quite the site to behold: The temples, the architecture, and the sheer skill and thought that went into each. Each construct was designed so that in certain times of the year you would see a certain image on the side of the building, or if you clapped from a certain angle the echo that returned would be that of a bird call. These Mayans understood the earth and the heavens so well that everything they did was just brimming with connections to them - consequently, the ruins themselves just seemed so natural and intrinsic to the immediate world around them. After receiving the grand tour we were treated to some authentic Mexican fare along with some authentic Mexican dancing.
My favorite part, however, was meeting a Mayan descendant who was a silversmith. She provided her services to travelers in the form of cartouches with symbols that represented the letters of your choice - simply stunning and meaningful creations. They are hand pressed and molded with tools not so removed from the original Mayan descendants. I bought one for myself and one for Deanna. I plan on buying a chain so I can wear it sometimes, though I am concerned about wearing a piece made of such soft silver and gold.
We also visited Playa Del Carmen one night in hopes to seek out a nightlife scene more in tune with the real Mexican culture, and that’s exactly what we found there. I enjoyed Cancun quite thoroughly though, but I could have done with a lot less frat guys and stuck up American women - guess I should have expected as much however.
Other key highlights involve: my friend Magic and I wearing wrestling masks around town which ended up with us wrestling a midget and his friend at the place we decided to eat; winning a contest whose key skill could only be best described as dry humping; tequila Volleyball; teaching some guy to do the worm on a booze cruise; finding girls to play beach volleyball with almost every morning; relentless taxis; playing maracas with a Mexican guitarist; smoking a fine Cuban cigar while sitting on the beach outside of our hotel and gazing into the stars - questioning reality, hard.
I’d say that gives a good general idea of what Cancun was like for me. I’d be happy to fill in the plot holes for anyone at anytime, though.
Directly after leaving Cancun, I caught a connecting flight to New York. Literally. I didn’t even have time to stop home and drop off my stuff and repack - I actually took everything I needed for both trips with me to Cancun, since the best flight I could get into New York was an hour after I was supposed to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale. This would have been a great time to rest and rejuvenate myself. However, there is no rest for the wicked.
Seeing as how the training was with many of my good friends from work who I haven’t seen since we trained in the summer, this was, in essence, another sort of social gathering for me. Even though our days were filled with lecture and group exercises and the sort, they ended around 5 or 6. We would have some light work to do afterwards, and have our dinner, but at 7 there would be free open bar at a place called the ‘White House’ on the campus. So, after a week of rampant alcohol abuse, explosive dancing, and infinite walking, I subjected myself to even more open bar for the next 4 days. It was a great time, I had a lot of fun, I learned many things, and was treated very well - this campus is mostly used to train top GE executives, so we get the finest of meals, service, treatment, etc.
In addition, I did stay the weekend after training to hang out in Boston for St. Patrick’s Day. That way, I could meet some friends from home and my brother, as well as party in a more comfortable environment with my work friends. I had a disappointing Malaysian meal, bought a silver celtic knot ring - which brings my ring collection to two, and received the rejection hotline number for the first time in my life. All in all, it was a very exciting two weeks, but it was also exhausting, and I am glad to be going home.
That’s a funny thought in itself, however. When I left, my home was just inundated with boxes. I only had time to arrange them into the room they belonged in, and unpacked a few key items, but my roommate had undertaken the task of decorating and arranging in my absence along with a few of her friends. Have I mentioned how great she is? She’s wonderful.
Although I am not exactly sure what to expect after she picks me up and takes me home in a few hours, I have faith that I will be pleased. The one thing I really hope is that there is Internet.
As far as work goes, I am nervous. With my harried move in and home search, coupled with my Assignment Leader being too busy the second week to debrief me and start initial planning, multiplied by my vacation and training, I am technically 1 month into my 6 month rotation and haven’t done anything significant at all.
I’m nervous because this project seems a bit more significant and visible than my last. Put simply, GE Securities Data Warehouse has been storing customer PO’s, Invoices, and all related sales data, for about 8 years and has not been outfitted with any strategic purging or archiving strategies for this data. All they have ever done was just increase the size of this database. For it to perform optimally - and for the company to save a lot of money - rules need to be identified and implemented to decide when we can delete data that is not being used, and when we can archive data that is used constantly to save space on the main machine. This is a 1.5 million dollar project that has the potential to save much more than that if done correctly, and it is being personally monitored and sponsored by GE Securities CIO. This needs to be done correctly and efficiently. I’m really feeling the pressure to perform, more so than usual due to recent tension amongst the hierarchy in my program, but that’s another story for another day.
I look forward to returning to stability and routine for a while. There are many things I am looking forward to doing with my life right now, many plans I have for myself, and I’m excited for the immediate future.