End of an HPI Era

I formatted my computer this afternoon; today was my last day with High Plains Internet, Inc. I’ve been employed there since January 17th, 2001 – a term of three years, eight months and twenty-nine days. Well served, I might add. Had an exit interview with Mike this afternoon, where we basically went over some basic day-to-day things, and then got down to business: what are the single best and worst things about HPI. Worst thing about HPI: management bullshit. Too much non-decisiveness, too much restriction on those who can produce, too much hmm & haa, not enough motivation and direction. The best thing about HPI – since the fateful blowout that occurred right after [L=http://rand0m.org/viewcomments.php?NewsID=407]this post[/L], the only thing that kept me there is my loyalty to my fellow coworkers. I know that Angelo, Sam & Jack would go to the mat for me in a heartbeat and that I would do the same for them; that kept us together and kept the company moving. It felt really weird packing up all my stuff. It was almost cinema material – me, standing there, alone in my office, packing things into a random paper bag. Picking up a hat and having the memories come rushing back. Changing my voicemail and thinking of all the friends and associates that have become a part of my life. Thinking of the kinky things that happened in my office and the wild quirks of my coworkers. And remembering the difficult and somber times that we endured. Picking up my coffee cup and thinking of how out of place it feels to be putting it in a bag instead of setting it on the desk where it resided. Thinking of how far I had helped take the company – from the basement of a shoe store, plagued with a spiraling income and even less customers, to a profitable business with an outstanding infrastructure housed on the cushy 11th floor of one of Colorado Springs’ only highrises. It has been a long, hard road and although there is a lot of road ahead, this is my stop. Opportunity is a wild beast. There was a lot of inertia that made want to stay where I was – security, power, ego. Unfortunately, that was a static inertia as I had already reached the ceiling of all the things HPI could offer me — with no room to grow in sight. It was very difficult to decide to move on to greener pastures. Extremely difficult. I can’t tell you how much time I spent thinking about it, how many of my friends, mentors and family I spoke to and consulted with about that decision. I can tell you, however, that there is only one thing you can do when opportunity rears its head in the form of risk & uncertainty: smile, cast aside your indecision and go for it.

2004-10-15 21:14:06 – GrooveMan
I know the Happy / Sad / Excited / Scared feeling quite well… Congrates! The Skies the Limit, or is it? Up Up and away! Just don’t forget us little people ๐Ÿ™‚ Oh btw I’m Newly Employed too.
2004-10-15 23:33:51 – rand0m
Congrats steve-o. I’m really glad you found a job so quickly — it’s a barren market in this industry, but I guess having some experience helps a lot ๐Ÿ™‚
2004-10-16 23:27:26 – tony
Best of luck
2004-10-20 02:31:13 – WC
So hows the new job treating you? :-p … N E hot girls at your new job?
2004-10-20 21:41:20 – Netheus
random- I saw Ben (your old room mate) today at UCCS. It was strange, and I don’t think he recognized me. How is your new job?

more debates, work/documentation, pledge case

So I just finished watching the [L=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134937,00.html]Presidential Debate, round 2[/L], or what I would like to refer to as “Nice Nice Time Is Over”. In NNTIO, Bush looked to come out a LOT more aggressively, incredibly so. He focused less on issues and more on disarming Kerry’s arguments and mounting his own offensives. I was glad to see less reiteration of tired rhetoric from Bush, and was even more pleased to see that the townhall approach fit him much better than the talk-head-asking-questions from the first debate. Kerry, on the other hand, tried to be aggressive but often had his feet yanked out from underneath him, especially RE: stem cell research and abortion – but maybe that’s because I’m conservative. Additionally, the only memorable pause/stutter of the NNTIO was Kerry’s. I definitely thought that Bush totally bowled (??) Kerry over with regard to the economy and jobs, but maybe that’s because I’m very in-tune with the fact that recession=debt+nojobs, and the best that can be done is to attempt recovery, which Bush has done quite admirably. Regardless of your political standing, you -have- to give Bush credit in that he came out looking 20 times the speaker and showman of the first debate while Kerry didn’t seem quite as polished. This coming week is my last one at HPI. I’m on a massive documentation kick that is horrifyingly large – it doesn’t include anything about basic how-to-admin-servers and covers only the complex how-stuff-works-and-interacts parts … and it’s approaching 30 pages of single-spaced, 10pt text. I found it quite odd that the [L=http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/09/fraternity.death.ap/index.html]death of a CU pledge[/L] hasn’t received much media attention (or that I haven’t been watching the news?).

2004-10-10 02:51:46 – Master Ha-reed
If recession = debt+nojobs, drastically increasing the debt part of that equation is not going to bring us out of recession.
2004-10-10 13:49:28 – rand0m
The increase in the national debt is a side effect of the steps taken to level out the recession. Of particular note is that no jobs means less revenue for the government, which means more debt. The main thing about the recession is that it’s basically balancing the national debt against the economy & people – you get to pick which one is going to be worked on. You can work on the national debt by NOT decreasing taxes, by NOT reducing the fed’s rate … but all of those things sap money out of the people but help the national debt (see Clinton’s era were prosperity=less debt). Unfortunately, sapping money out of people during a recession will only prolong and worsen the situation. Instead, the President decided to hell with the economy, let’s help the people — by reducing tax rates and reducing the fed, it injected more liquidity into the economy, which in turn bolsters itself – takes money to make money, and once that’s been done, money makes it’s own money. Now, somebody is going to bitch that the tax reductions only affected people with an income greater than 100k/year. Well, sorta. I know that I got a tax credit, and I’m certainly not making $100k/yr. But yes, it is not aimed at middle-middle class – it is aimed at people who HAVE the money who are more likely to reinject it back into the economy via small businesses & employment. In a situation where the national debt and the people’s/economy’s stability is in the balance, fuck the debt. Always. Maybe that’s just because I know that Ol’Glory will pull through and get back on track, or maybe it’s my personal preference for day-to-day people over confusingly large numbers. $.02
2004-10-11 14:28:21 – pinky
I still think Kerry did better because he wasn’t yelling the first 30 minutes of the debate and also made very good points on abortion and stem-cell research, as well as actually outlining his policy rather than making stupid claims and capitalizing on 9/11. I think it is very important of Kerry to say that he has to abide by the law and legal interpretation on abortion, rather than, say, amending the Constitution or passing laws to override such things, which is what the repubs are trying to do (they’ve passed (or are trying to pass) bills saying that the supreme court can’t rule on abortion, or gay issues, or the pledge of allegiance in schools). and just because bush didn’t look like a total buffoon as he did in the first debate, isn’t a reason to give him props. maybe if he wasn’t such a fucking idiot, he would have done better. Also, the death of a CU pledge has been huge news up here, as well as the deaths at CSU and Nebraska.
2004-10-11 15:19:21 – nick
Not gonna dot he politcal thing, but wanted to note that, re: the CU pledge, we’ve heard a reasonable amount about it. Aside from hearing from my brother (who is at CU), it’s been around campus here at Mines in Golden. I do find it odd, though, that, thus far, the administration here hasn’t seemed to say anything about it. Granted, I’m not at all associated with any of the Greek stuffs, so maybe they have and I missed it.
2004-10-11 18:40:36 – Netheus
re: politics Kerry seemed more controlled, more organized. Bush seemed like he had a puppeteer in his ear telling him what to say. Neither of them really answered the questions, and neither layed out specifically what they were going to do about anyt issue other than that Kerry is going to cut the tax cut to people who make more than 200,k a year. I don’t mind paying taxes to run things. The politicians need to quit wasting my time on shit like bj’s and jesus though. I can kinda see the conserv. pov with the govt wasting money, but I disagree with them immensely on where to cut the money and where to spend it. Nice to see that Randal is on the New Deal wagon. Rosevelt loves you man. I also disagree with almost everything this administration has done on the longer and future outlook. Did you know that Paul Wolfowitz once said something about how their is no need to conserve our resources for the future because the apocalypse and rature was going to happen before we ran out? I mean, come on. The one thing that I was suprised about with the debates- now I missed the first 15 min, and I might have missed it, but no one brought up gay marriage. I mean, if they did, then I am an idiot, but if they didn’t like I am aware of, does that mean that it is non-issue to the straight public at large- like they don’t really care one way or the other if gays get married or not? Re: Dead moron. I’ve seen it in the paper like constantly, but as I would never join the greeks, let alone would they have me, I could really care less, and I haven’t heard anything over at UCCS.
2004-10-14 21:58:02 – Netheus
We went to high school with this guys two sister, the pring twins- the pringles. [L=http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/10/14/harvard.student.ap/index.html]Harvard student convicted of manslaughter[/L]

Debates, New Job, Parents, Misc & Lonely?

So I watched the debates last night via Fox News’ [L=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134152,00.html]streaming video[/L] and it turned out exactly how I didn’t want it to turn out: Bush, though maintaining his position doggedly, was doing a fair amount of stumbling. I was hoping that he would have been a better speaker. Kerry, although a good speaker, still has his flip-flopness hanging over his shoulder, and looks menacing. I was really hoping that he would stop the smear campaign and instead focus on what -his- plans are, but I don’t get everything I want in life. [L=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134263,00.html]John Gibson’s article[/L] kinda hits it on the nose for me. When the intelligence and decision went to congress, Kerry was as pro-war as everybody else, and now it’s this huge debacle and he’s anti-war. Is he anti-war because it’s not a sterile operation, but instead a bloody one? WOw, I figured with him being this hardcore vet that he would understand that war is never pretty and that extremely difficult decisions have to be made and cannot wait for the polls. Granted Bush has his follies, and I was glad that he addressed some of them and admitted where mistakes were made — yet always maintained his non-waivering stance of finishing the job and keeping the vile people of the planet on their toes. I put in my two weeks notice to my day job yesterday at 5:00pm. I have been hired on at a colocation facility called [L=http://www.data102.com]Optimum Network Services[/L]. So, if you ever need some cheapo bandwidth, a managed facility, or somebody to be a kickass admin for your box, data102.com is the place to be. I haven’t spoken to my parents in ages – almost 4 months. Ack, how can I do that when they live less than 20 miles away? I’m going to schedule some family time with them next Sunday to talk about all the many things that have been going on as of late. I think it will be a good time ๐Ÿ™‚ A couple other interesting things of note. I signed up for a Whole Life Insurance plan through Guardian Financial. I had never really heard about whole life insurance, but it’s dividends & returns are good (6-10%/yr), it has a very liberal liquidation policy and has total indemnity against life-altering things. Oh, and anonymous. It’s great, and I think it was a good idea to let somebody who knows a lot about money manage my funds, instead of me, joe-sixpack consumer. Also, I’m considering buying a house. No, not a grandiose, 3000sqft monster, but something small and kinda homey. Maybe something I can fixup then resell, dunno. I’m pretty sure I’m going to pay off a large chunk of my debt before I move forward on it, though. Regardless, pissing away the blingbling on rent is not the way to be doing things if I’m going to become financially secure. Been feeling kind of alone lately. It’s great having some super guy friends who I can talk about things with, but it’s nothing like having a warm-smell-good girl around to talk to and confide in. Aww, bachelorhood.

2004-10-02 22:12:08 – pinky
did kerry ever say he was anti-war? no. he said the war is stupid and admitted that he was fooled by the intelligence when he voted for it and that he would stay in iraq to get the job done and work with other countries rather than acting like an arrogant douchebag like shrub has. you see, the president is supposed to defend his decisions, he’s the incumbent. kerry offered more solutions than bush did, but to say kerry was running a smear campaign on his opponent (when he had more facts and ideas and shit during the debate) is ridiculous. has anyone forgotten the swiftboat liars for truth? that was a bush smear campaign. making fun of kerry’s service is a bush smear campaign. what smear campaign has the kerry/edwards campaign run except to say that they think they can run the country better (which is what an opponent is supposed to do). I think kerry did a good job of making the president look like an imbecile and arrogant and stupid, which is what he is…wooooo john kerry.
2004-10-03 09:20:38 – Netheus
I went to Rocky Horror last night and I got to play Riff Raff on stage ๐Ÿ™‚ Congratulations on the new job Randal. Laura- I agree with you, but I still think that Kerry is the lesser of two evils, and in a trully fair democracy, I could actually vote my conscience instead of my fear.
2004-10-03 14:41:03 – Master Ha-reed
I like the Kerry impersonation on SNL that was on last night: "I haven’t been a flip flopper. When I’m talking to a pro-war crowd, I’ve consistently been pro-war. When I’m talking to an anti-war crowd, I’ve consistently been anti-war. That’s not flip-flopping, that’s pandering"
2004-10-03 18:30:52 – pinky
christina, i entirely agree that kerry is the lesser of the two evils. however, i also believe that the way our constitution and our concept of democracy (and mostly voting systems) are set up will always lead two a two party system. i think if we had instant runoff voting, it would be more effective, but i’m not even sure if that would be able to ensure the viability of third party candidates, but would just give people the illusion of a real choice.
2004-10-04 14:37:26 – Netheus
The guy who impersonates Jefferson says that Jefferson thought there shoud be a new Constitution drafted about every 20-30 years because of the changes that take place in that time period, which I’m not sure if that is what is construed as revolution, or if he also suggested bloody rebellion style revolution, but damnit, something needs to change. Really, in my mind, the biggest thing Kerry has going for him in my mind right now is that he is against the Patriot Act. But will that change if he gets elected? I also want to start a betting pool as to what day this month they will "find" Osama (in a prison in Afghastan), and favor will tip toward Bush. I say that it’s going to be before the last debate by 2-3 days, but up to a week before hand.
2004-10-04 14:39:27 – rand0m
I’m still rooting for Bush to plant … er … find WMD in Iraq right before the elections.
2004-10-04 16:11:53 – Master Ha-reed
I think the "change the Constitution" bit was one area Jefferson was very wrong. Can you imagine what the Constitution would be like if we rewrote it today? About 10,000 pages long with so many contradictions that the Supreme Court could say anything is true to the Constitution. I don’t think the "Osama popping up October 30th" thing would be a good bet for Bush – simply because I can’t imagine how people wouldn’t see through it. "Oh look – we found Osama three days before the election. WHAT a COINCIDENCE"
2004-10-04 17:59:05 – nick
re: the last part of Master Ha-reed’s comment: I dunno, people are pretty fucking stupid.
2004-10-05 10:14:08 – Netheus
What if Bush orders the invasion of Syria or Iran between now and then, thereby f*cking Kerry, in both support of a war president and, if elected, keeping him from tackling any domestic issues in the first year *at least*.
2004-10-05 15:24:25 – Hellbent Rob
Bush wouldn’t declare another war before the election, he’d just give us another tax cut, oh wait he just did that. I’m not against keeping more of my money but even basic Keysian economics says that the trickle-down theory is a bunch of B.S. and instead of saving to recoup the economy, people just blow it and restimulate it that way. The Gov. is actually much more effective at stimulating the economy through strategic spending… But, spending in Iraq ain’t bringing home the bacon if you know what I mean. You have to admit both Bush and Kerry are completely full of B.S. and they’ve both contradicted themselves so many times it’s unreal. Take Kerry’s stand that he wants a coalition in Iraq but only wants bilateral talks with N. Korea, yet Bush wants a coalition to talk to N. Korea and only recently has made minimal efforts for a renewed coalition in Iraq. Go figure. Anyhow, Hi Randal long time no talk. Congrats on the new job! Consolidate your debt into a mortgage for a really low APR, and then stay the heck outta debt, and the mortgage is tax deductible which fundamentally mitigates the interest, and real estate typically appreciates. (BTW, there’s no better chick magnet than a dude with a nice house, just prep. the nup. cont.).
2004-10-06 23:43:58 – GrooveMan
I’m Voting for Bush and you can’t stop me ๐Ÿ˜›
2004-10-07 17:22:12 – Netheus
at least you’re voting.