MAGGI PICAYUNE

One of these people is not like the other, c'mon, sing along.

Christmas 2011 has now concluded and I have kicked off my Holiday Shutdown 2011 Vacation (catchier name to follow one day). This time, I made actual plans with an additional road trip to Houston when I return.

As always, Somara and I slept in because we don’t get together at the in-laws’ house until the afternoon; my brother-in-law visits his in-laws during the morning half. While Somara baked cookies and wrapped gifts, I read comic books, prepped some packing or fired off a little correspondence.

This year I was rather stoked over what we got two out of three nephews. Thankfully, they seemed to share my excitement which is tricky since the oldest one, Hunter, has a delayed reaction. Oh, Brian said the box of things went over well for his kids, namely the DVDs (Batman: The Brave & The Bold Season 2) and the comic books (mostly The Simpsons from a few years ago).

Back to the Bridge Faction…

For Hunter, we bought him the Pathfinder Starter Kit which is the contemporary version of a D&D Basic Set. Wyatt was trickier. Anje said he loves to make movies but he’s eight so a book on Martin Scorsese or Kathryn Bigelow would go right over his head. The helpful staff at Terra Toys found a how-to book about making a music video. The best part included a big sheet of green paper to make a CG/Chyron backdrop. Once I explained how it was used for the recent Star Wars movies, Wyatt got it. Cannon received a Playmobil toy from the new Spy Line, a car that can fly and submerge. Only the adults understood my comment about this toy having everything but Barbara Bach. Their parents gave them all an iPad 2 yet our presents did make a dent; we played the intro dungeon to Pathfinder and I helped assemble the car (44 pieces!). Contrary to the past critics of my Dungeonmastering style, Wyatt and Hunter wanted to know when we could play again. The harder sell was finding age-appropriate movies for them to get inspiration on making their own characters. Aaron said The Lord of the Rings trilogy would scare Wyatt. If anybody can recommend a good Fantasy movie an eight-year-old can watch, please tell me. I’ve discounted the D&D movie and cartoon plus I told them the new Conan the Barbarian movie is a dog.

Somara was given cool stuff from her family. The most memorable item was a wheelbarrow. What remained was mostly cooking/baking-related jazz. I gave her an iPad a while back. She agreed it covered her birthday and this Christmas. I may have won it from work but the prize is on our taxes like a bonus.

Me? Sweet stuff. Gifts cards obviously. An autographed hockey stick of the Icebats from a yet-to-be-determined season. Two more shelves for my shoes. A special pair of Chucks…these will be posted when they’re completed by Somara. An Atari shirt. Then there’s gift I gave to myself, a black Stetson hat! Yes, I’m wearing it in the photo above. The biggest surprise was how animated Wyatt became when he saw the box. I thought, this kid definitely has Texas in his DNA if he recognizes the Mercedes Benz of hats.

A cowboy hat? I’ve been living in Austin for well over a decade (practically two) and a stranger once explained their design: it could be an improvised water bowl for the horse…all hats keep the sun of your face. Why a $200 hat though?

• Stetson has been around since 1865, the same year The Nation was founded. Two great things which started after the Civil War!
• Stetsons continued to be made in the America as they should be. The cowboy hat is an American/Canadian icon from the 19th Century. It would be a disgrace to outsource this to a country which has no clue nor affection for the hat.
• Great cowboy hats are made of beaver fur (trust me, beavers are pests, not the adorable creatures cartoons portray them as) plus the material can be steamed into different shapes. More on this later.
• Lyle Lovett’s awesome song “Don’t Touch My Hat” put the bug in my brain in the Nineties. The interior to The Road to Ensenada made it funnier. The Cavender’s where I bought mine had business cards for the hattery who can made this modification too!
• Finally, when it comes to something as important as a hat, do it right, not half-assed. Same goes for a hockey jersey.

The Yankee in me remains strong. I will never by the boots or other accoutrements (unless the shirt is made in the US). I will NEVER take up line dancing…ugh! The hat is probably a sign of my inner hipster trying to get out as per Underworld’s first incarnation; laugh all you want but you can never go wrong when Rupert Hine is the producer.

When I get home I will have my hat shaped like my favorite cowboy

I will leave the prancing matter for him to explain should you ask or care. Trust me, it is rather funny.

This year I’m rather stoked about the Christmas present we found him. Can’t reveal what it is though, his wife Helen wrapped it up to keep the gift a surprise. OK, a hint, this item involves one of his favorite movies…or at least what I remember one he often quoted during our carefree Marquette years. Yeah, I really narrowed it down.

I also remembered to find him a solid birthday card. What were the odds that Hallmark would publish a Taxi-based card? Hallmark must’ve been tapping into my brain with their telepathic App!

As always, if you know the big, crazy optimist…he’s a Chicago Cubs fan, drop him a line.

It happened last night, probably when I was driving home from the Tori Amos concert (or as we used to call her in the Nineties, Torn Anus!). Coincidence? Probably.

It never fails, I’m within days of my planned trip to Chicago plus trying to enjoy a month of three-day weekends when I came down with congestion and a sore throat plus the draining. So I ended up spending Sunday and Monday lying around, doing close to nothing to improve my recovery. Did it pay off? Somewhat but I still hate not feeling 90 percent or better while going to work. Yesterday felt like I had been through half a week by the time Somara and I were heading out.

Today, I’m closer since I need to be in good spirits with the upcoming Tori Amos show this evening. Then comes all the last-minute matters regarding the holiday jazz.

So this means my site will be pretty quiet for the remainder of the year or there will be a flood of stuff. I’m really hoping for the latter because I’ve had to hold back on some really cool things:

• Artwork for our house
• My real cowboy hat
• Whatever!

The short version of my five (originally four) weeks as a Support Engineer or what I call Tier Three…

It was fantastic! I learned numerous things, filed several reports to the engineers in California (the people who write the code) and even got some serious attention with one. I couldn’t have done it without help from these co-workers who belong to all the teams involved, especially Sheree, Ben and Travis. A particular Fortune 500 customer thought I was pretty cool because I also knew how to make an Apple ID that worked without a credit card attached; I give more credit to Somara for teaching me. In many ways, being a Support Engineer is probably what I imagined or hoped doing technical support for Apple would be like when I signed on 16 years ago.

Despite the actual manager I was assigned to being on paternity leave (his wife had a baby last month) most of the time, Wil said my work was good. This was based upon him interviewing others I interacted with, reading my notes and looking over the statistics. My key assets are customer-interaction skills, investigate abilities and note-taking, the technical facets will evolve. I did well enough to be considered for an extension to the end of the year since interviews for the actual requisition won’t begin until January.

The continuation wasn’t meant to be. Walt, my actual manager, vetoed this and it’s his prerogative to make such a decision. He explained that I was needed more with the phone team which he is responsible for. So it’s nice to be wanted and in demand with two teams yet I told Walt, I will be working very hard to land the open spot or another by my birthday this Summer; those few weeks told me I have what it takes.

I don’t want anything to be interpreted as sour grapes. Believe me, I have seen many co-workers get pretty upset when matters don’t go their way with a backfill. Some mistake the opportunity as the lock on the position. I fell into the same trap 11 years ago when I had my chance to be a team manager and what followed (the gig was handed to a less experienced person on a silver platter), it’s something I always keep in mind about any company’s hiring policies…politics trumps competency most often. Washington DC is the biggest living example. The outcome I received was positive which is what I’m taking away and hoping I can hone it to my advantage during the interview process; I am up against at least one person I know whose tech is amazing yet he has the personality of a T-Rex. The alternative would’ve been, I sucked and Wil ordering Walt to take me back immediately.

The other upside is how short December will pan out for me. I managed to get my paid-shutdown days (what we used to call Steve Jobs Days, another story) to be every Monday; four-day work weeks! Three weeks later, I follow up with a long vacation starting on the 23rd with a trip to Chicago-Milwaukee.

Wish me luck in January though. I think after 12-plus years and a good showing in the backfill, I have earned the opportunity to be a Support Engineer permanently.

Since my treadmill-based running has been intermittent, I think the bigger contributor to all the gain would be the holiday-based eating, on top of sitting around like a big lump watching Netflix and DVDs.

Or a better rationalization I just thought of! My body could be preparing for the trip to Chicago which is much colder than Austin around this time of year, therefore, I’m packing extra blubber in order to survive! I wish.

Stress is more likely the culprit yet I hope to get it back under control and into the upper 220 territory before the year ends.

I just thought some of my friends who share geeky, math-oriented observations would get it a kick from what the scale showed.