04/18/2008
Team Spirit Award 2008
One very nice detail of American workplace culture, something I haven't seen in over 27 years of employment in Germany, is the recognition that you get for working hard.
Today Indiana Tech celebrated the annual employee awards ceremony, where individuals and teams are honored for their outstanding contributions to the success of our institution.
The surprise at the very end of this ceremony was this year's winner of our *Team Spirit Award* - the Information Technology department. We each received a nice plaque and a $100 gift certificate for Eddie Merlot's - a fancy local restaurant.
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03/26/2008
getting a *new* car
Our old 1990 Geo Tracker, with 207,000 miles on it's first engine, had been very convenient and fun to drive for two years. We bought it cheap, did only minimal maintenance on it, and got a lot of use out of it.
But the water pump was showing signs of imminent failure: random squeaks and anti-freeze on the ground underneath the car.
We had been thinking about replacing the old junker anyways - so now was the perfect time to actually go do that. Tom had seen a 2005 Ford Taurus at the same car dealership where we bought our van two years ago.
They took the Tracker for a trade and gave us a good deal on the Taurus. It cost us $7,000 - almost $2,000 below the Kelly Bluebook value. We are now the proud owners of a flexible fuel car, it runs on E85 (or regular unleaded). I like the idea of burning Indiana's corn instead of OPEC's fossil fuel.
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12/14/2007
go to class, get a degree
OK, you might say that, after roughly 30 years in Information Technology, it's maybe kind of late for me to start pursuing my Bachelor's Degree - but this is exactly what I'm going to do.
I am going to take advantage of Indiana Tech's generous offer - free tuition for employees - and start working on my BS in Business Administration. My major is going to be Management Information Systems. I'll be going to class for the next approximately four years, one night per week.
I picked an easy one for my first class, starting in January 2008: Foundations of Quantitative Methods.
Today I went over to the bookroom and received my algebra book for that class.
I am very excited about it!
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11/05/2007
go run, before you know how to walk
One of my colleagues found himself a new job. Good for him, a little scary for me. With the entire IT department consisting of 7 people (including our boss) just one of us leaving means at least 14% of our manpower is gone. And with only two weeks notice, which is a relatively long time for the USA (but still unbelievably short in my opinion), there was really no way I could have absorbed his six years of working experience at Indiana Tech, while he was still here.
So, until we find and hire a new database administrator, I'm going to be flying this thing by myself (mostly) with some much needed help and moral support from the remaining team. Now that I was barely starting to wrap my head around client-server application development within the .NET framework, I'll have to quickly get a grip on things like Jenzabar EX (an ERP/ERM system for higher education institutions) and administration of the MS SQL server database it resides on.
Coming to think of it, I'm going to love every bit of the process!
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06/28/2007
Refinance our Mortgage
When we bought our house, in March 2006, we were lucky to get financing at all. My credit history being non-existant, Tom's having a bankruptcy as the last entry, and then nothing else for over six years. So we had to take hat we could get. Which was a five year ARM, with an initial APR of 7.5%.
Now, a year later, with both our credit scores somewhere around 700, we thought it would be easy to refinance that first mortgage. So we responded to one of those *lower-my-bills* ads. We explained our financial situation in full detail, submitted about 50 pages of paperwork to prove it, and got pre-approved.
The mortgage broker sent an appraiser out to our house, we had to pay $400 for that. And then, very much to our surprise, the broker told us *Sorry, but we can't give you that money - Tom hasn't been self-employed for two years yet.*. We were pissed, to put it mildly.
But at least that mortgage broker knew somebody who works at a bank. And, using this personal connection, we finally managed to get the deal done. It took another two months, another 50 pages of paperwork, and approximately 20 phone calls. Now we have a 30-years fixed rate, at 6.4% APR - and sufficient cash back, so we can build a fence around our back yard. Armani will enjoy that!
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04/05/2007
got my first major .NET application done
Once you get the hang of it, you'll agree that application development using VB.NET and SQL Server Reporting Services is so easy, it should be illegal.
My second *practice project* involved more than just calling a stored procedure and passing two parameters. I had to develop a new user interface for the existing key database. This was a great way to learn everything I'll ever need to know about developing a database interface.
There's functionality for searching certain records in a relational database, then there's adding, deleting and updating records in the database, and there's also generating printable reports.
What I like the best about it is, that I realized all my long years of experience and all the accumulated knowledge from *stone-age IT* are not obsolete. It wasn't a waste to do mainframe IT, build MFS blocks, or work with DB2 databases. All this is part of the bigger picture - and not really different from what I'm doing now.
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02/09/2007
old dog learns new tricks
OK, when I first realized I was going to have to learn how to develop applications with the .NET framework, I was a little scared. After working within a mainframe environment for over 25 years, I thought it would be hard to get a grip on object-orientation and active server pages.
Good thing I just dived in and did it - my first web application went live yesterday. Nothing fancy, just a little screen that accepts two user inputs and runs a stored procedure on an SQL Server database with those.
Of course I still need to learn a lot more to be considered an expert, but I am now confident, that I will be able to learn these things on the job. This is so much fun! 
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01/06/2007
New Year - New Job
I admit I had been worried when Lincoln Foodservice Products said they didn't need me anymore. Two days before Christmas is not the perfect time to be looking for a new job. Life seems to be at a standstill over the holidays, only your bills keep coming in at the usual pace.
But, since Lincoln was a temporary assignment from the start, I had been constantly looking for something more along my lines anyways. I strongly believe in never giving up, and I stayed optimistic throughout all of 2006. On my last day at Lincoln I had an interview during lunch hour, for a programmer position with Indiana Tech.
Yesterday I received a phone call from their HR Director. Out of over 50 candidates they had interviewed three - and picked me. I was so excited, thrilled, happy! Finally a *real* job, a career that fits with my experience, skills and personality. January 16th 2007 is going to be my first day. This year is off to a very good start.
Here's where I work now: Indiana Tech's website
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09/12/2006
OK - job secured for another month
It took some patience on my part, and some talking on Lincoln's part - but now at least I know I'll have a job to come back to after our trip to Munich.
I'll be a temp for another month, to fill the 1000 hours with Office Team so Lincoln can have me for free. And then, "if something comes open" during that time, I might be hired permanently.
That gives me another month to show them all the tricks I know, and maybe learn a couple new ones. I'm getting a lot of good vibes from people there, we'll see.
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08/24/2006
I get to wear jeans again
Now that the new office in fabrication is set up, the Merco team wanted me down there, so that I can really help with production planning and scheduling.
It took me half a day to clean my new desk, move my stuff, get the computer hooked up. 
Now I'm right there, where all the fun and action is, inside the factory!
I love it! I'm not alone in a cubicle anymore, there's four very nice guys in here with me.
And the dress code isn't all that strict either - as long as I don't walk around outside the office with open-toed shoes, or without safety glasses on.
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08/01/2006
once a programmer, always a programmer
It took Lincoln Foodservice Products, Inc. about 4 months to find out that I can do more than just make copies and mail letters.
Once I had gotten my hands on the project schedule, they wanted me to improve and automate the production schedules and the vacation schedule....... and there's more in the pipeline.
Now, I haven't done much Excel VBA programming before, none at all, to be precise - but with a little help from Tom and doing some reading and playing around with it, I'm getting there.
The main thing is: I'm having fun!
The job isn't boring anymore, my colleagues and superiors seem to appreciate my work more, and I might be securing my temporary job and turning it into a permanent one.
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