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.

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?).

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 🙂 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.