Hugh Laurie's Protest song.

Pachelbel Rant (5min and funny)

Rob Paravonian going off on pretty much the music industry as a whole.

Happy Anniversary Honey

19 years ago this day I made my best choice ever. And got married. I had met Tina at a Church Dance. Two days later we went skating and aside from a minor bout of insanity I had, we have been together ever since.

Life does have its twists and turns, good times and bad. I am pretty lucky that our worst times are pretty dang good in the overall scope of things. If I do have times when things get me down, Job loss, bad day at work, etc. I just have to sit back a minute, think of Tina, and the rest of the day is easy.

It's pretty cool being in love.

First day at work

And what a day! Still have a lot to go over and more to learn.

but, its fun and I am being handed quite a few projects. So its all good.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance

They say that there is a series of mental processes you go through with a loss. My call center closing was not any different.

One minute I'm helping a customer on the phone, next moment I'm cleaning out my desk. I just grabbed the personal stuff and left. I thought it was acceptance, but it was denial.

Next day it hit me harder and I got some anger and some depression. Prayed a lot, which is your classic bargaining. Weekend was the Anger, Bargaining, Depression bits.

Monday I interviewed for the job I accepted this thursday. Closer to home. Better money and a pretty challanging occupation.

There are bunches of questions about what exactly happened that will never fully be answered. Even though things seem to be working out pretty good (nice bonus from the severence that we dont have to dip into). I'm still not in that acceptance phase.

Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. There is a great comedy act on that in the 1979 movie All That Jazz. I tried to find that video link but wasnt able too..... yet....

Out of Work

Thursday August 2nd we were called into a meeting, I was about two hours into my shift. Earlier we had received an e-mail that 'big-wigs' would be out and about today. At the meeting they announced they were closing the call center and handed us our final checks.

This took everyone by suprise. Not even the upper management seemed to know what was going on. Now in retrospect you can pierce the veil and see what happened.

Dell went after the home market with a vengence. The $399.00 pc. They expanded the sales force and went after other electronic markets. MP3 players, Plasma Televisions, Home Entertainment technologies. This was all under the tenure of Kevin Rollins.

The stocks tumbled, the company did some cost saving measures and outsourced a bulk of the customer care and technical support. Quality all around slipped. The Bloggers really went into overdrive and the bad press etc. Kevin 'left' the company. If you look at his parting gifts compared to other CEO's you can read between the lines.

IMHO it was a line on a spreadsheet that delivered our fate. Anyone looking for a smart tech savvy guy with excellent personal skills. Dependable and loyal.

I'm looking,.

mini-Trampoline

Connor, likes to jump. It used to be he would jump on the couch or bed. This is not what those are designed for, so Tina went out and found him a mini-trampoline (two actually).

Mini-Tramps are usually found at garage sales and they are in pretty good condition. You do not see one that has heavy use. They are in-fact, near perfect condition.

The only one I have ever seen used... is connors...

It has had the legs welded on (he stripped the screw on legs) I have replaced about 1/4 of the springs. It may be time to start looking for a new one.