Day: September 11, 2007

Just give someone a call

ssegraves

On average, my inbox at work receives around 30-60 new messages each day. The e-mails are pretty well spread out as far as timing is concerned, however, the content lately has just left me dumbfounded.

This morning an e-mail was sent out concerning some questions and problems a client is having. The client in question expressed an interest in a certain technology but is worried about performance, so the e-mail attempted to get this questions answered. Instead, the following was sent (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

Fred,

Thanks for bringing us into the loop. We have been discouraging people from heavy usage of that particular technology because of the activity it can generate which can lead into performance issue.

We can certainly have a meeting and discuss options in greater detail. Please send as much detail as you can prior to that. I am copying Todd, Todd has the most insight into this issue because we have had these type of requests before. Todd is currently down with a flu for the last couple of days. Its very important that we have Todd in the meeting. Let’s target a meeting Thursday afternoon or Friday, Todd should hopefully be back by then.

I also copying Joe Blow because he tends to interface with this client a lot and he may have some insight into suggesting alternatives.

Teddy

Let me just say that the e-mail that preceded the above was extremely detailed and explained the issues very well, yet we have to have a meeting to figure out the best route to go. Why do we need a meeting? Why can’t this person address the issues in an e-mail or better yet a quick phone call? Nope, we have to waste a few hours in a meeting that could possibly accomplish little to nothing.

These types of issues irk me because they are blatant time wasters. Meetings for everything, should be the slogan as that best describes how it feels.

Across the U.S. twice

ssegraves

After a fun trip across the U.S. I am back in Houston and in the “groove” of work and the day to day. My plan is to go through my pictures this week, do a little editing and post them to my flickr account as soon as possible. I will give just a quick recap of the trip but I plan to do a more detailed post about it when I post the pictures, because without them, a lot of the words do not do the experience justice.

I started off at the Houston airport on Friday, flew to Newark, met my cousin there, and we continued on to Philadelphia. After the hour drive, we dropped off my things at his home and walked to a local brewpub a few blocks away for a quick beer and some conversation.

The next day was spent with my cousin Jeff and his wife Marnie exploring the city of Philadelphia. From the Museum of Art to South Philadelphia and cheesesteaks, I saw a good portion of the city and enjoyed every minute.

On Sunday morning I awoke at 6am EST to catch my Amtrak train to Newark. Arriving at Newark fairly early, I stopped in to the President’s Club and had a glass of orange juice and watched the ground crew load my flight. I boarded the 777 and took my seat, 5A. This experience turned out to be a great one and the 5 and a half hour flight was fantastic. We had a great crew, amazing food, and wonderful views as we overflew the Canadian prairies.

Arriving in Seattle, I quickly made my way to the PC once again for a quick rest and the possibility of hopping on the earlier flight to Houston. There was no such luck and I took the original flight home, arriving in Houston at 9:30pm CST.

So, I flew 5,400 miles and crossed the U.S. twice in approximately 40 hours. What a trip!