.: What’s Bruin :.

What a way to cap off a crazy week! Last weekend, the day after my right toenail finally recovered with the nail looking normal after more than a year, there was a thin, remnant of the old nail bed in the side of my toe. So it lifted up and I yanked it out, but a little piece of the old nail was stuck in the corner.

So this morning I went and had the same procedure done again. What a weird experience with the novacaine plus the re-cutting of my toenail. Then the doctor digging into the corner to get the little piece out. Yikes. I’ll spare you the pictures since it basically looks the same as last time.

That’s the way to cap off this crazy week of busy busy work and busy busy school (two assignments in Photoshop and an exam in Instructional Design).

Tags: Career, education_and_training, Health, ingrown-toenail, Life, work

For dollars.

At least that’s they way I’ve felt for the last couple of weeks. It’s been “hella” crazy as they say.

Work is work. It just gets busier and busier as my responsibilities increase. But I do like it. I find it rewarding and satisfying. Thankfully, today I finished my latest storyboard just in time before my trip.

School on the other hand is a drag. My Photoshop class is okay, although this weekend I’ve completed two assignments in one day since I’ll be headed for Minneapolis soon. The EdTec class is just plain unmotivating. I hope to find more motivation other than the hope of future promotion and financial gain. But this week, we have an exam that I’m somewhat stressed about. I guess once I take the exam on Wednesday night, I can relax somewhat and pack for the trip.

Tags: Career, Commentary, education_and_training, Life, work

It’s difficult for me to sleep on planes. The seats are very uncomfortable. Fortunately, the flight home was about 2 hours and 10 minutes long, arriving in San Diego about 10 minutes earlier at 10:35 PM. Josephine picked me up at the airport. Yeah Josephine. I’m happy to see you again!

Airport traffic was horrible. I guess whenever flights arrive, the traffic worsens. Imagine if it were during the day when there are also departing passengers leaving. So we made it out of the airport and headed home northbound on the 15. But because of freeway construction, there was a several mile detour…

My head was spinning when we got home a little after midnight. Thankfully, I’m able to take today off and recover, letting life get back to normal where I don’t have to live out of my suitcase or in a strange hotel room. Yes.

Tags: airport, Career, Josephine_Bruin, Travels, work

2:09 PM CST

After packing all my things, eating a “Deluxe Continental Breakfast”, and checking out of the hotel, I still had 30 minutes left to spare before I was due to arrive at the schoolhouse to finish the training session. To kill time, I thought I would just hang out in McDonald’s with a drink or something, but as soon as I parked, a black transient on a bicycle came up to my car talking to me, probably asking for money. But I could not hear anything he was saying, nor did I want to hear. So I just drove off and went next door to the gas station to fill up, but I had some trouble finding where the gas tank was located on the car. So I decided to just fill up after the training.

I arrived at the schoolhouse, again entering with no glitches past security. The training started on time and lasted for about two hours. Again the session went very well. I had the instructors engaged in the content. I had a gut feeling that despite them telling me that they knew this product, I just knew they did not have a realistic grasp of how difficult it would be to use this product without experience. So I had them try to set up a communications circuit. That activity lasted about 45 minutes. And I think only two or three of them were able to successfully complete it. I was not surprised by that result and I think it had the desired effect: they realized that they need more time in the virtual learning environment practicing so that they are comfortable with the virtual gear.

I wrapped up the training with a discussion about scoring and assessment, as well as future revisions to the product.

All in all, I received very positive feedback; they told me my training was helpful and useful to their needs.

I had lunch at Popeye’s chicken for the first time ever. I tried it because one of the Navy guys that I work with swears by its chicken. I didn’t think it was that good. KFC still rulz.

So I’m here early at the Pensacola Airport trying to fly standby early. There’s some room on a couple of early flights to Dallas, but the flight that I have a seat on right now has some maintenance problems. They’re checking it out and hopefully everything will be okay. I don’t expect that this will be my final post or something. I’ll write more once I get to Dallas.

3:07 PM CST

So I was listening to one of the pilots of this flight with the maintenance problem. He was telling another passenger that there was a computer glitch and they had turned the power off, then reset the computer and turned everything back on. So now they were waiting for maintenance to sign off on the computer. My problem with the whole thing is that the pilot says that this particular computer monitors the status of one of the engines. I don’t have a problem with computers that start working properly again, unless of course they are the computer that monitors the status of the engine on a jet! So I decided to give up my standby seat and just wait for the next plane, which should be arriving in a few minutes anyways. One of the agents was telling me that it’s okay to board the plane. But I insisted: “I’m not getting on that plane.” And so they are assigning me to a new plane. They even had a final boarding call for me over the airport intercom. I heard my name twice. “Passenger JoeBruin88 this is your final boarding call for Flight 3888 to Dallas.” I said, “Go ahead and take off without me.”
(more…)

Tags: airport, Career, Dallas, Navy, Pensacola, Skylink, train, Travels, work

After returning to my hotel room, I relaxed for a little bit and chatted online. One of my buddies said:

So let me get this straight. You’re in Florida, and you’re IMing instead of at the beach.

So I decided to be adventurous instead of being a hermit at the hotel; I actually drove myself to Pensacola Beach. Even with Googling directions I stil got lost because I missed one turn due to not seeing the sign. The street signs and street lights in Florida are kinda lame. The lights are weird: each lane appears to have its own stoplight.

Weird Stoplights in Florida

I decided to eat at the same place as the last time I was here– at Flounders. Dinner was great. I had Shrimp Po’ Boy sandwich, fries, and a drink called a Bushwacker. It tasted like a Starbucks frapuccino with alcohol.

Shrimp Po’ Boy and Fries

Beach in front of Flounders Restaurant

After dinner I walked around a little bit, but then I decided just to head back to the hotel. In case I get lost on the way, I would be able to navigate while there was still sunlight.

Flounders Restaurant in the background

I wish Josephine was here to have eaten dinner on the beach with me and appreciate this view with me. I miss her and can’t wait to come home tomorrow!

Tags: Career, Flounders, Josephine_Bruin, Navy, Pensacola, Travels, work

9:00 PM CST

First the clock radio in my hotel room went off followed by my cell phone alarm at 0600 hrs. I wanted to sleep in for a few minutes, but the annoying tada.mid sound from the cell phone would not shut off by itself so I had to get up and “acknowledge” the alarm. The day also welcomed me with a headache. I went to the hotel’s “Deluxe Continental Breakfast”, which totally stunk. Wow. I’ve just been writing a bunch of complaints. Switch gears.

Off to Corry Station, which is just down the road from the hotel. I could actually walk if I wanted to, but it was already 85 - 90 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:30 in the morning. So I drove in the comfort of my air-conditioned rental car. At the security gate, I was not even asked for some kind of verification or authorization. They took a look at my CAC card and just let me through. Good. I was slightly nervous, not about my presentation content or delivery, but whether or not the technical/computer gear would work. That’s why I planned for an extra hour to check out the classroom and get the glitches worked out.

And I’m glad I did because the image projected on the screen was upside down! It took some time for it to get worked. Then the next problem was that the presentation slide show would appear on the primary monitor but not on the computer screen. And that took another chunk of time to work out. The Navy instructors rolled in around 8:45 AM and I think we started at 9:00 AM. Today was also the first day of students starting their IT classes so they also had students to manage.

I felt good now that the equipment was working and began my talk. I find it interesting that once I got started I diverted from what I planned to say in my written-out notes and just decided to go impromptu based on what I had on the slides. I felt like the audience was tracking with me, nodding their heads. But after maybe fifteen minutes, I could tell that they were b-o-r-e-d. I mean blank stares. I surmised that they already knew what I was talking about.

After about an hour and finishing my second topic, I sent them on break. I then talked with one of the instructors I knew and he confirmed that they had been playing around, exploring the product on their own for about a week. One of the chiefs also confirmed this and so I planned to switch gears before the whole thing turned out to be a wash. I was able to touch base with my manager by phone and she confirmed that I was on the right track by wanting to shorten the training to one day, condensing the info since many of them already knew it.

After the break it went much better. I got the instructors to log in and go into our product. We worked on a few learning activities; they also had the opportunity to ask me questions on how to do things as they were in the middle of the activity. I thought this was going much better. They were engaged, no more blank stares. They had good questions. And I was still going through all the content I had planned, in a faster and more engaging way.

For lunch I went to the Chinese buffet place that I’d been to the last time I went to Pensacola. The place had changed ownership so now it was Japanese, called “Osaka Buffet”. At first I thought it tasted good, but then towards the end of lunch I started not to like it, very salty.

After lunch there was a Ribbon Cutting ceremony since today was the first day the schoolhouse had students. So I planned to continue after the ceremony and wrap everything today instead of having a second day of training, but only four or five instructors returned for the afternoon session! So I just suggested we continue tomorrow morning since what is left to go over is the most important part of the training.

Tags: Career, Navy, Pensacola, Travels, work

2:21 AM PST San Marcos, CA

It’s late. And I’m just wrapping up packing my luggage. I’m off to Pensacola, Florida again for the third time in two years. This time it’s with a great company and for the Navy. I’m headed over there to train some Navy Instructors on the new virtual learning product our company helped design.

More to write later.

6:50 AM PST San Diego Airport, CA

So I’m finally at the San Diego airport terminal. The flight through Dallas is going to be full. Fortunately, last night I “checked in” electronically and chose an aisle seat on one of the last remaining available seats. Checking in my bags was interesting. We totally missed the American Airlines gate so I had to walk all the way back to the other end of the terminal. Instead of doing curbside check in, I decided to go upstairs where the line was really long. Fortunately, the self check-in line was very short; I guess a lot of people did not have electronic ticket or something. One guy in the self check-in line did not know what to do with the “computer”. I guess he couldn’t follow instructions on the monitor, so an agent had to check him in even though it was a self check-in line. Going through the security check was even better so to speak. This lame foreigner (I can only guess of Arabic descent given the accent, body odor, and the Koran in his briefcase) did not understand the security agent when she asked him to remove his coat and shoes. When he attempted to go through the metal detector, the other security agent sent him back to the line that was being held up, and he finally removed his coat and shoes. I pray he and his fellow “Arabians” are not on my flight.

At this particular gate there is no wireless access point, so I have no Internet access. I’m hoping there is a wireless access point when I get to Dallas because I need to check my email for some files that I’m expecting via email. I’m actually waiting for two screen shots of the product in order to finish one slide on my presentation. The screen shots I needed were not available on the product web site.
(more…)

Tags: airport, Career, Dallas, Navy, Pensacola, Travels, work

Several months ago we (as in our Growth Group bible study at church) prayed that I would receive a good performance evaluation with an accompanying salary increase. My company has a standard average increase rate of 3%, IF it’s deemed by the evaluation process that you merit an increase.

I’m so thankful to God today. I’ve worked so hard this year. And God has blessed me with such a great work environment with satisfying and challenging work. I have a manager whom I would consider to be a blessing. I’m happy and motivated to excel at what I do.

And it showed up in my performance appraisal. I had a superior rating in almost all the categories. My manager requested approval for a merit salary increase of 8% and it was approved! It’s so nice to be recognized for the work that I always knew I could do and to be rewarded both in praise and salary for it.

Thank you God.

Tags: Career, gratitude, Life, merit, reward, salary, thanks, work

Speak out for truth?

Insects are ruling the office. Stupid, annoying fruit flies swarming, especially since a few of us like to eat bananas.

We converse about how pesky they are. Someone comments on a documentary they saw on the Discovery channel about how “insects rule the earth”. Another co-worker says: “Isn’t it amazing how they have evolved to become so specialized?”

I stayed silent.

In my head, I thought: “No, isn’t God amazing for how He created them?”

But I did not speak my mind.

Tags: Career, creation, evolution, flies, God, insects, Reflection, Spiritual, work

So my friend calls me this morning on my cell phone.

OMG. You’ll never guess who just resigned today.

Yup. The person my friend told me about last December.

It’s unfortunate timing, my friend says, because his work is going through a very rigorous production schedule. And the timing of this lazy employee’s resignation could not have come at a worse time. But according to my buddy, he believes that his leaving will be better for his project and company as a whole, not to mention, no more wasting of taxpayers’ money.

I told my friend to go ahead and get that item for that guy’s next job as a going-away gift. He’s pretty sure that that guy has something lined up already. His guess is that he’ll be returning to the company he used to work for. It’s probably a place where it’s much easier to get paid for surfing the Internet where nobody cares if you waste company time and money.

Update: Surprisingly, I heard that he does not have something lined up already. I guess he must have been really unhappy to have resigned without anything in place.

Tags: Career, work

I think I’ve finally caught up on sleep from this past week during which I worked about 72 hours total.

Mon, Wed - Fri = 14 hours each
Tue = 12 hours

Still getting the hand of this project management stuff regarding our deliveries. There’s quite a bit to do every day, but the thing that slows me down with it is the level of detail I need to be aware of. Each delivery has its own file folder, which can have multiple levels of sub-folders. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but add on to that, the phone ringing, other people needing help, and having to write a storyboard or two in the same week . . . you get the picture.

Anyways, I love it. The work is very challenging and mentally stimulating. I like the level of detail, which adds to the complexity of what I have to do.

Last week, I had two storyboards to write, but my manager was kind enough to assign the second one to the Lead Designer. She’s probably just as busy as me because she has to review all the version one storyboards that go out, as well as help all the designers with their writing of the storyboards from time to time. She participates in development discussions and secondary reviews as well. I surmised that she might have been too happy helping me out this week, but she has a good attitude and is very good at all of this. So I gave her a thank you card on Friday with a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Without her help, there’s no way that we would have made all our deliveries on time for Friday. Plus, I like working with her because she’s very good and I get to learn a lot about this whole process. I think that will come in handy when I start taking more classes in instructional design this fall for the master’s program.

P.S. My manager said I could work two half-days next week since I put in so many hours. That is very cool.

Tags: Career, instructional-design, work

I first met CIDney at a staff meeting last year.  I was impressed by his bright yellow coat and big eyes.  CIDney was a special cat.  No, he was a special “person”.  Cat just doesn’t describe what a huge impact CIDney had on my life.  You may recall that one of CIDney’s favorite things to do each morning was to sing in his loud, booming voice, a veritable cacophony of original lyrics sung in a shrill pitch.  CIDney had so many adoring fans, animal-lovers from all over the world.  Even the mighty US Armed Forces adored CIDney.  He made such a huge contribution to the national defense of this great country.  So it is with great sadness (and relief) to tell you of CIDney’s passing late yesterday afternoon.  According to early reports, a rogue group of Navy SEALS ambushed CIDney, slit his abdomen, and then suffocated him with a plastic bag. 

CIDney is dead

You will be proud to know, however, the SEALS who are reported to have taken CIDney’s life were trained with S Tech-produced curriculum titled: “The Effective Use of Lethal Polyethylene Under Stealth”, a course designed by master storyboard producer K.C. (US Army Reserves).  The family has requested a private memorial service this Friday, 12 May, to honor one of our country’s great heroes.  CIDney will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, 16 May, with full military honors.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests monetary donations in CIDney’s name.  You can make an electronic PayPal contribution payable to Joe Bruin, Chairman for the Committee to Never Forget CIDney.  For more information on how to donate, call 800-CAT-SUXS.

Tags: Career, cats, eulogy, Humor, work

Well my first week as the “project manager” was so C-R-A-Z-Y!!. There is a ton of stuff to do on top of what I was already doing. But you know what? I love it!

My job is so busy with lots of different things to do. I am never bored.

• Manage the Virtual Radio Room (VRR) project.
• Review interactive courseware in the VRR.
• Design instruction on storyboards.
• Manage the team’s deliverables, schedules, and tasks (9 people).
• Interface with the development team in terms of deliveries and graphics and publications catalog.

I devised a new spreadsheet in Excel to track the progress of each of the 99 lessons we’re creating as it moves through the design and development process all the way to the testing phase on the server where it will be delivered. It’s a cool sheet because it gives both a color-visual indication of each lesson’s progress, as well as the date that each lesson reached a particular stage in the cycle. The sheet also lets me know which required elements are missing.

This week I also completed my second storyboard on Antenna Types. I wasn’t that happy with this one, though my manager and the lead designer felt it turned out pretty good. I had to write it three times due to revisions pushed forward first by the Subject Matter Experts, then by the Lead Designer, and finally today, the day it was due, by my Manager.

And I’d like to close with a quote from a co-worker, which I thought was pretty funny:

I think we have a good way to differentiate between us now based on your new responsibilites. Instead of Gerry with a G, can we call you Gerry the Hammer?

Tags: Career, design, development, initiative, instructional-design, leadership, Life, project-manager, work

Last Thursday my manager said to me before I left for that day: “Let’s find some time to talk tomorrow. I want to tell you a few things.”

My initial reaction after saying “OK” was that there was something wrong. After all, I’d been feeling a little irritated with El Jefe. It could have been any number of things that she wanted to talk to me about.

So the next day, Friday, April 28th, she asks me to take a walk outside so we can talk. Here’s the gist of it. What do the following sentences have in common?

You’re quick and accurate.
You’re good at finding ways to improve our processes and and do things more efficiently.
You do good work.
When something needs to get done. You do it and it gets done. No questions asked.
I’ve come to rely on you.
I know what your natural abilities are and where your strengths lie, so I’d like you to . . .

Take on the responsibility of managing the project deliverables, deadlines, schedules, and tasking.

Let me back up a little. Back on the 25th of February I wrote that this is exactly what I would be doing. Well, as our new project launched, she thought that we would be using Microsoft Project extensively. And since I did not know the software very well, she thought that it would be best if I concentrated on continuing my current tasks, but stay minimally involved in the project management so that I could gain some experience while learning some things from the “project manager” she was going to hire.

And I was truly fine with that. It presented a perfect learning opportunity for me: learn the ropes of being a project manager without the responsibility.

So it’s been about two full weeks of the new phase of this project (10 working days). Our “project manager” is a very nice person. But independent of my conversation with my manager, I began to wonder what exactly this “project manager” does all day. I noticed that she is constantly coming to me for questions or my manager is directing her to ask me how to do things. I thought it was odd that after two weeks on the job, she seemed to have no clue about how to best manage our deliverables and track our progress. And so last Friday was this person’s last day of work. She lasted all of two weeks. That’s the only sad thing. She is a nice person, easy to get along with, but business is business. Our project is at a critical junction and you can’t have an incompetent person managing the deliverables.

So that’s what Friday’s walk and talk was all about. Needless to say, I was very excited. I realized that the former “project manager” was just not very efficient. My manager also recognized this and recalled the fact that many of the things that I’ve already done in the past year fit nicely into managing our schedules and tasking.

“Do these responsibilities come with a title change?”

“Do you require a title change? I wasn’t thinking that this would entail that. Let’s talk about it when your year-end review comes around (end of June).”

“Honestly, I don’t need the title. I was just asking because ****** used that title in her email signatures.”

Translation: If a title change comes with these responsibilities right now, then I’ll take it. If not, it’s okay.

“My wife says you’re very smart. She says you know what I can do. I’ve taken the initiative to show you the quality of my work. If you value my work, I believe that I will be rewarded.”

So I am very excited. Today (May 1st) was my first full day of assuming these responsibilities. And I think I’ve already found one way to improve our processes.

Tags: Career, design, development, initiative, leadership, Life, project-manager, work

As I was talking with my manager yesterday about the next phase of our upcoming project, she mentioned that she had made an offer to two new people who will be joining us soon. I asked if one of them was going to be a program manager or project manager. As I learned in her response, my manager is the overall program manager. Of the four new people joining us, one will be the “lead” instructional designer (project manager) who will oversee and guide the design efforts of our team.

I was curious about a position that she mentioned a few months ago about someone who would oversee and guide our efforts with respect to managing deadlines, timelines, schedules, and direction of effort– I don’t know what term would best describe what this project manager would do. But she said:

How would you like to do that? You’ve shown initiative since you’ve been here. You’ve done a great job managing our efforts with [insert name of lame development company that we've been working with here]. Even though you will still be involved in the design efforts, I think in this role, your skill set will bring even more value to the project. You meet deadlines and are task-focused and those things are important to me.

Silently, I screamed with excitement. I wanted to tell Josephine right away, but I waited until I was driving home to pass on this great news.

I’m not sure if my added responsibilities will translate to a salary increase right away since I have only been with S Corp not even nine months. But with my one-year evaluation coming up in May, it seems that a pay raise is imminent.

When this position was described to me a few months ago, I did think to myself that I would like to do that since I know that I would be good at it, especially since the required skills fit so well with my gifts. But I didn’t want to mention it since I had only been with S Corp for a few months and it seemed arrogant of me to verbalize what I was thinking. So I waited for a conversation like yesterday’s to happen. With respect to the money, I think I may employ a similar strategy, just not asking or mentioning it. I’m not opposed to asking, but I’d like to get some feedback from some career-development people whose opinions I respect before I decide about inquiring about a raise.

Tags: Career, design, development, initiative, leadership, Life, project-manager, work