Musings From New York

I'm Not Dead (Yet)

Yes, I know, I did one of my frequent slide-under-the-radar deals recently, but I had good cause. Those of you who are on my many IM-buddy lists would've seen the status/ mood changes ;)

In any case, my project in KC has been wrapped up, and I've now started my next project right here in NYC. I'm a little hazy on some of the details of the project, but in any case, I should be here in the city till the end of the year.

There goes any hope of retaining Gold member status on Marriott!

Toto, I've got a feeling ...

My next project's in Kansas. Yep. Tornado City. I want some red shoes so that before I fly back every week I can tap them three times and say "There's no place like home".

On the other hand, I wonder if I get the chance to drive around searching for Smallville.

Musings from Philadelphia

So ... very ... coooold!

I'm here in Philly this week on training; 4 days of classes followed by an exam on Friday. My hotel's a 5-7 minute walk from the training center, and I swear I could not feel my fingers or nose at the end of the walk this evening. Stud that I am, I forgot to bring gloves. Or a wooly hat.

It's a wrap!

Well, I'm done with travelling to Atlanta. Officially, I'm done on the 28th actually. I'm not sure where I'll be travelling to after that, but I think my next project'll be somewhere in the North-East. Who knows, I may even be in New York over the summer. That'd be nice.

It's kinda sad that although I spent over half a week, nearly every week, for the last 6 months in Atlanta, I still haven't seen much of the city. I've not visited the Coca-Cola factory, taken a tour of the CNN headquarters, or visited the Georgia Aquarium. I guess I should've stayed over a weekend to do any of those things.

The highlights of my travels here were a couple of the restaurants, in fact. There was Saffron, a Persian restaurant, that I visited in December. Then there was Trader Vic's last month. A couple of other nice places to eat that I forget - Indian & Indian-Chinese restaurants in Decatur.

I'll miss a lot of the folks I worked with, of course. Some others ... eh, not so much. :-)

Lovin' An Elevataaaah!*

So a while ago, my project team moved to another building, a modern building. A building so modern, it features an elevator, the types of which have never been seen before!**

This elevator has the floor buttons ... on the outside. That's right ... not inside. The passenger punches some buttons on the outside and tells the fancy box in the back how high he wants to go. And is told which elevator to get into.

I actually wonder if there're any studies that show if this method of operations is faster, or more efficient. Were I able to remember my queuing theory techniques, I might have been able to solve the question myself.***

* Quote from Otis spokesperson, Steven Tyler, in a subliminal reverse dub on track 3 of the 1989 "Pump"

** By me.

*** Not really.

What a week!

I don't think I've worked this hard since ... school, and I mean 10th standard in Bangalore! Remember those History & Geography projects we slaved over after school hours? Kid you not, these last 2 weeks, I was logging 12 hours at work on some days. And a lot of that was unproductive time - in group meetings, doing Project Management stuff (Gods, how I hate those status reports!)

The good news is that I think I've gotten over the learning curve's "hump", and that I finally have a decent idea about the different components and their interactions and such. It took me only 4 weeks, but I'm there! I also interviewed people for my team ... that was an interesting experience ... I mean, my module of the project (business requirements analysis) is so high-level, it doesn't really matter how much technical expertise people have.

I mean sure, you gotta have some basic understanding of the solution, but I need good technical writers ... people who can lead client meetings and such ... I mean, normally I would be doing such stuff, but I've been given a position in the project one level above my current station (all other leads are Managers, I think. At most, there are 2 leads that are Senior Consultants, me included). Which leads me to this week's Project Management lesson: Don't Attend Non-critical Meetings. Send minions instead. Which is why I was interviewing* to fill up my team. Sending minions ensures you look concerned and involved, but they're really work breaks.

But, it looks like my part of the project is getting pushed out, and I might be racking up the Delta SkyMiles until April or May. At the rate of 1500 miles a week, I'm getting about 6000 a month ... only 4 months needed for a Business Class upgrade! I think! Woohoo!

* Yes! Me! Interviewing people! Cue Darth Vader: When I left you, I was but the learner. Now, I am the master!

My Travel Plans

I'm going to be travelling a lot over the next 2 months. I'm headed out to Chicago tomorrow, for the July 4th Weekend. I'm back Tuesday night, and leaving for Scranton Wednesday. I'll be over at Scranton for pretty much most, if not all, of July ... I may get a project here in NYC that'll require me to divide my time ... and I might have to go to Houston for a week.

I've also booked 3 weeks of vacation time, beginning 30th July, and hope to get tickets to fly to India then. I'd be back around 20th August. I'm not sure which route I'll be travelling. Although Singapore is a very tempting prospect (I haven't met Vidya for ... oh, 4 or 5 years), it'd also mean the loss of a day (or maybe even 2) both ways. Which'd effectively cut down the time in Bangalore to 2 weeks or so. Let's see ...

Musings From Scranton

So Alex & I drove down Monday afternoon to Scranton, PA. It's the setting for NBC's "The Office" ... and to be frank, I didn't know what to expect of the town. I believe it used to be a big mining town ... but then the coal mines dried up years ago. Hence, it's this slightly downbeat town. We went to a mall on Monday night, and it was *dead*!

And one thing that struck me entering the city - what's with all the massage parlors? Someone told me that Scranton's a truckers stop ... but I kid you not - I counted 3 billboards hocking massage parlors on the way in. You don't see that in "The Office"!

I also saw my first baseball game on Tuesday night. We'd driven up to Montague and visited the local stadium in the hope of seeing some sports. We were in luck - there was a school (is that the same as Little League?) game. Chris walked me through some of the rules & nuances of the game. I will admit, it's pretty boring to watch baseball on TV ... but I imagine the crowd and atmosphere at the stadium is pretty electric!

Rob's Birthday

Had a bit of an office party yesterday, for Rob's 50th birthday party. We went to a bar immediately after work ... Somewhere on 47th, between Lexington & 3rd (I forget the name). Had a drink there, before moving down to a restaurant on 20th & Park - The Sushi Sambo (something like that). We popped open the champagne, and had a few bottle of sake too. The place was some sort of weird Sushi/Mexican fusion or something.

From R-L: Mike Long, Gavin Allen, Phil Brooks, Lynne Chippendale, Rob Chippendale, An Extremely Handsome Chap, Lisa (dunno the last name), and Blaine Pryce

Anyway, we let the waiter serving us custom-create a menu consisting of .. oh, a gajillion courses. I've learnt one thing - you know you're in an upper-class restaurant when the plate is roughly 10 to 15 times the size of the serving portion! That's why I treat in places like Chinese Mirch, where the whole plate is chock-full of steaming goodness - they measure satisfaction by the pound there! =p

After dinner we went to a bar just up the road ... I left kinda early. I wasn't feeling that good, and got rained on a bit as well. So now, I'm at home, trying to nuke a fever with multiple Tylenols!

Update: Just kidding about it being the 50th birthday! It was his 43rd or so.

The Final (Version) Of The Solutions Document

So yesterday I was going through a mock-run of a presentation I gave today to a client. The presentation was about my firm's consulting methodologies. During my presentation, I used the phrase "the final solution document" ... as in, "outputs from these activities will be used to create the final solution document".

Someone told me not to use the phrase "the final solution", as it was what Hitler used to justify the Holocaust. I am now teaching myself to say "final version of the solution document."

Now, I like to think I'm sensitive to other cultures and sensibilities. But this is ridiculous.