Drink Rum

On Monday I had a job interview. It went well. Great place to work it sounds. I'd need to pick up a couple of technical skills very quickly, but I need to do that anyway. Salary might be an issue... lack of some development skills might be an issue, but I certainly nailed the interview. If I get the job, it was on charm and charisma.

Today, I went back to visit the orthopedic surgeon.

He'd read me report from Dr. Steve the physical therapist and did a very, very brief exam. The conclusion is that I do have a torn meniscus. To what degree is unknown. I will have an MRI done next Monday to map it out. Following that (about another week), it's very likely that I'll be having the surgery. We discussed it briefly today. The surgeon was in favor of the surgery pending the MRI. The location and the severity of the tear will determine the success rate and recovery time. The procedure is the same in most cases and is done via arthroscopy. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

Then more physical therapy again.

Note: Having rehabbed and strengthen my knee before surgery greatly increases the success rate and decreases recovery time... so it wasn't time wasted.

Posted by Monty at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got a call from another HR person... this time for a video game company. Specifically, video games on demand. They're partnered with some big names it the industry... it seems that their big claim to fame is the yahoo games line.

Good news... working for a video tech company... actually the reason I got into IT so many years ago. Bad news... tough commute. About a 45 minute drive without any traffic to get from here to there (in Maryland).

We'll see. The job looks good and I think I'd like the work. The drive would be pretty damn tough and I'm seriously looking to never do that again.

I'm going to do a phone interview and keep options open.

Last week... no leads on anything... this week... in the queue for four jobs with three companies.

When it rains it pours.

Posted by Monty at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've got a job interview on Monday. It's actually part of a process with the bank that I mentioned. I'll be meeting with a VP and this should be the final step in a go-no go for that job. I could use a job about now.

My physical therapy visits are about $100 a pop... twice a week... just finished week 4.

And that's not the bad news.

Something's wrong with my meniscus. It's cartiledge in the knee. As everything in my knee is getting better, it's also clear that something isn't. As I bend my knee towards the 90 degree mark, it feels like my knee is a water balloon and the compression of the joint is squeezing to the sides all the water... almost to a popping point. Because my knee was all jammed up, it wasn't a big deal. No that the other pain is easing... it's clear something is still wrong and isn't getting better with PT.

The PT guys, Dr. Steve and Jason limited my workout today after noticing pretty bad swelling. We did some tests and their suspending PT pending a review by my ortho. Their belief is that I've got damage to the meniscus. An MRI is needed to determine the extent... and/or scope it. If it's torn or partially torn... we're back at the surgery conversation again. If it's some scar tissue or a bit of loose cartiledge, it can be scoped out or worn down through exercise... but it's probably not the latter since nothing is locking in the knee.

Anyway... Tuesday... I go in for a visit to the ortho. Probably then to the hospital for the MRI.

Then either surgery or more PT... or surgery and a lot more PT.

I'm somewhat worried that in the kharmic amazement of my life, I'll get the job and then have to take a leave of absence after my first week to get surgery and then be out of commission for 3 or 4 weeks.

Posted by Monty at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well... hold the phone on moving away.

The bank called back today requesting authorization to start a background check. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have some interest.

Also, got a call from AOL, a recruiter with HR regarding TWO positions. I'd submitted my application for them some time ago via my personal AOL recruiter (my brother-in-law). I'd forgotten what I'd specifically applied for... but I still did well on the phone interview. He's sending his recommendation to move forward with the process... so hopefully an interview or two with the hiring manager.

Also, apparently AOL was supposed to have contacted me some time ago... but something broke I guess. Anyway... I've been down this road with AOL before. I'm not going to get myself all jazzed yet.

So the good news... the really good news is that this is happening at the same time. It helps to go into an interview with other interviews scheduled... an old saying in the hiring world that my favorite boss in the world told me once is, "you're only worth to us what another company is willing to pay you". It's a kinda harsh statement... but it's true. That's why people always want salary histories, etc. If someone is paying you $70k, you must be worth it or they wouldn't pay it. Hell, I got caught in the middle of a bidding war once between Northrop Grumman and UUNet for my services. My former boss went to UUNet and wanted to take me along. My new Northrop boss was determined to keep me in place. I didn't start the war either... I got an offer from UUNet, it was good and I accepted. Northrop gave me a verbal counter, and I said no thank you.. I wasn't interested in playing around with bids and counter bids. The UUNet guys asked me if I'd received a counter offer, and I said yeah, and before I said a word, they said we'll match it plus 10%.

pause

I said ok, to that.

They day before I was to leave Northrop for good. My program manager and the govt director asked me into the conference room and they gave me the world. New position, govt backing/support for projects, visibility, and a massive raise... like 50% and a cash bonus.

I stayed with Northrop.

For the record, the money was great, but the govt/support and visibility within the contract was amazing. My career took off. I had the best team, was peered with senior govt people, given a blank check for software/hardware and given serious support from the govt directors to take on the political staff that were making lives miserable. One political appointee, who loved to antagonize me and my team, had her computer removed from the network and told she couldn't speak to anyone in our department.

When it was time for Northrop to rebid the contract, I was part of the proposal team. I was responsible for the enitre application supprt and dev group. It was huge. I was scuplting a great workplace.

But Northrop lost the fight.

New govt directors had come in and were under a "bend over to the politicos" policy. Northrop was out. Unisys was in.

I lost my visibility, I lost my support, and I lost half my team in the transition.

My claim to fame was that I was the only person in a management role to be hired by Unisys. They fired the rest of the Northrop management team.

The next two years I spent collecting a paycheck until I finally gave up.

That was a strange story. Anyway... it just got me thinking about the salad days at the White House. I had a great team, great boss, and great client. It's been a long time since I've had that. It's been three years since I've had any of that actually.

Carry on.

Posted by Monty at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So UPN and WB are going to close down and turn into a new network... The CW. Like the O.C.? I dunno.

UPN and WB are probably the two worst channels on television. So who approved the business plan to take the two crap channels and merge them into one crap channel? The only group that'd benefit from that would be Dish Network and DirecTV... because it frees up a spot to broadcast something else on their satelites.

UPN was home of all the Star Trek shows... which were crap. I think the one with Picard and that turtle head guy was fun to watch drunk in college, but everything after that was weak. WB has, what? Moesha? I actually farted typing that. Maybe WB doesn't float my boat because I'm not black.

Not a racist comment, WB is self-described as targeting minorities with their programming. I always roll my eyes when I see various special interest groups that shout about the unfairness of Hollywood and the lack of roles for minority actors. Here's a station full of them... a failing station. Activists, take note... television... all television, is about making money through advertising... if your show doesn't draw people... it won't draw advertisers. Network executives would put turtles killing midgets on TV if they thought it'd sell ad space. If you want to see more minority actors given roles, you need to get people to watch the shows.

Anyway... I give the new channel 26 months. Then flushed.

Posted by Monty at 12:05 AM | Permalink