Sitting at the airport waiting for my flight which is now deplayed for another hour, I have to keep myself distracted from thinking of the goodbye ealier with my wife and kids. Especially, it was hard when Gracie phoned me to say goodbye again, and crying a river. I was all mushy up.

Ok distraction, let’s talk about my new job. It has been going good. I was working with a project that is scheduled to be finished in first week on January. Considering the deadline and they are OK with letting me taking time off, that is a blessing. I was able to finish all the tasks that were assigned to me before I go.

It’s busy, but so far has been a good kind of busy. There will definitely be lots to learn at this company, but here are few things I have learned from first couple weeks working:

• I need to update my wardrobe, and iron more frequent. Can’t don on jeans, t-shirt, and tennis shoes anymore
• Too many names to remember. I’m not good at this at all. With over 150 people in the department, it will take me some times OK Susan, I mean Lisa, I mean what’s-her-name
• People here whisper. Man, I mean I’m spoiled with having my own room before. Beside, I’m Asian, I’m loud. That will be quite an adjustment.
• Cubicle is not sound proof, or lunch odor proof. If no one is talking or on the phone, it’s awefully quiet there except he clicking sound of typing on keyboard and the humming of the heater, which can rock you to sleep. So, don’t eat too full at lunch.
• There’s no where in the cubicle area to take a nap after lunch. Note to self: need to look into George’s idea from Seinfield to build the napping compartment under the desk
• It’s like Indy 500 race track in the parking garage at the end of day. Nice guys do finish last here.

There are quite few adjustments to adapt to, coming from a small company to a big size company such as this. With all jokes aside, I have great starting weeks at the new job, met some friendly people, handed on and learned the system and able to do development right away. I’m looking for more of that when I come back.

It took me sometime to be able to say that, and finally published this post. This is a bidding farewell to my company that I’ve been working with for the last 10 years. We have been through many ups and downs, success and challenges, but now it has come down to this decision that we will soon going into hibernation mode.

We have been working majority with non-profit business and organizations, developing web application software and services catering to the needs of those businesses. We take pride in our works which have been the key in their success. Unfortunately, the non-profit market does not fare well on the roller coaster ride of the economy, our company has been trying hard to hang on to the rail, but now is deeply affected by the motion jet lag. It is a tough decision, especially for my boss whom is the president of the company, to decide whether continue on course and hope the bumpy ride will smooth out eventually, or jump ship.

We believe “there is a time for everything,  and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  We strongly believe God is the Master of all plans, and nothing can succeed His ultimate plan for us. We move where He tells us to move, that’s where success at. In fact, in the past, we took a leap of faith knowing that was what He wanted, and He would catch us. We did, and He was faithfully bringing us right back to the top. It is different this time. It was amazing, yet scary at the time, but very satisfying when we obey His direction. Now, it’s a different direction this time. It is hard. We don’t understand it. Decision is made, not reluctantly, but in faith knowing that God is in control, and He has the best plan for us. Every single one of us.

It certainly has been a good run indeed. I am proud to be a part of the company and contribute to its value. Having been with the company from the get-go, I have learned many business aspects, developed wide set of technical skills more than any school or typical job could have offered, and formed relationships with great people. I have been involved with nearly all the projects in various phases, from the design phase to the release  phase. But mostly, the feeling being a part of something huge that has greatly impact on many lives and business and ultimately contribute to the work of building God’s kingdom is satisfying and making my work meaningful to me.

I’m not doing well with good bye. It’s a lot of emotions, and memories. But I’m ready for the next season, the next frontier, the new page that God has planned and placed before me. I will certainly miss my company, fellow workers, and the experience, that’s for sure.

Last Lunch with Agilize

.. with David's family

Today I learned:

Have Faith

Faith and Hope is when my boss brought his broken work laptop to the shop for repair and came back happy and said: “I knew something good will come from this set back!”  He explained that coincidentally, the repairman is someone he had came across and worked with in the past, and now this guy owns the computer repair shop. On one of the projects we work with, we were thinking it would be great if someone with good technical skill, not working full-time but be flexible to take care some of the tasks when needed. My boss thinks we found a pretty good candidate!  That is “something good” despite the broken laptop, don’t you think?

You know, we say things happen for a reason all the time, but many times we tend to focus on problems and issues rather seeing the big picturen or sit back and look at them with different perspective. God is great, I tell you. Nothing comes at us that He doesn’t know. Neither does He forget or ignore  when we are in need.

“All we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Suddenly, I remember my bookmark (or of someone else, LOL): When life gets tough, toughen the faith!

By the way, this is a new category for my blog. Looking forward to post more under this category, I hope. We learn new things everyday, ain’t we?!  ;)

Normally, I don’t dread the  Monday workday, but today I feel its effect.  My Monday’s blue: my Samsung LCD monitor is dead.  It was a nice monitor  but too bad that it didn’t last too long,  granted it has been in service for four years or more.  I don’t know what is the lifespan of a LCD monitor, but 4 years of service is a short amount of time.

Anyway, my boss has ordered a new LCD monitor to replace the dead one. Pretty awesome and generous boss, I’d say.  Meanwhile, I carried and setup my desk with the old, clunky, off white, back-breaker 40lbs  (actually I don’t know the exact weight but it seems to weight that much) 21-inch monitor that I ditched years ago. It uses the analog VGA that I have to find the DVI-VGA adapter for. I have to mess with the refresh rate, sizing, spanning options just to get the screen looks right. Oh yeah, degauss screen too, remember that? Then, I have to adjust the window blind to get rid of the annoying glare reflected on the glass of the monitor. Oh, how I miss my LCD monitor!

There are many things I use and interact with daily without realizing their importance, until they are gone or taken away. Then there are things I simply just can’t live without. It’s funny (or scary) seeing how technology slowly integrates, spoils and soon takes over my life through time. When I was:

4 years old –  These weird sticks have color coming out from them. I can decorate walls with these. Crayons rules!

5 years old- No more sharpening with mechanical pencil. Oh, and markers, how I love to smell them.

9 years old – First digital hand watch with light. Ask me the time . I can’t believe how I live without knowing the time at all time before.

10 years old – First black and white TV. How did I went to bed at 7pm before is beyond me.

12 years old – Calculator. Oh elementary Math would have been so easy. Why did they not telling me about this gadget before?

14 years old – Uncle let me play on his computer with a monochrome screen. Somehow this black screen with a blinking cursor just looked so  attractive.  Spent hours on it trying to beat the Price of Persia levels.

17 years old – First computer family bought. Came with Windows 95 and 16MB of memory. I got email now. Don’t call me, send me email. How come I have waited hours and no one send me an email yet?

18  years old – Created first personal HTML website on Geocities (now defunct.) Oh yeah, I’m on the Internet now. I’m plugged in to the matrix.  Computer is my buddy now.

23 years old – Married to my wife. How did I survive being single before? (Oh, I know this is not a tech “item”, but it certainly fit the “can’t live without” category so it belongs. hahaha)

Well, then comes high speed Internet, pda, cell phone  with data plan and text messages, Adobe Photoshop…  the list goes on so let me stop here. Several items have become must-have items and life is a struggle without them.  See the trend here?

Technology changes our lives, in good way and bad way.  Being attached or relied too much on technology is not all beneficial. I gotta find that balance so that I am not living under a rock, but not being a moth attracted to the technology flame either.

Oh wow, that was long. There’s another long rant of Monday’s blue for you. Well, here’s your reward for reading this far: an epic fail in technology usage (see picture)

An epic fail in technology usage.

Last night was the movie night for Thao and I. Thanks to Redbox for giving away free rental code every Monday. It’s 10h00PM. Thao had finished cleaning and preparing foods for next day. I already put kids to bed. Now we could cozy up on the sofa and watch ….  Bride Wars.  Yeah, it’s not my cup of tea, but Thao is not watching any violent or scary movies. Oh well, spending time together is what matter. I didn’t expect much of the movie, but it actually was pretty funny.

Anyway after the movie, I wasn’t sleepy yet.  That’s pretty weird because for the last couple days, I was totally out by now.  So I grabbed the guitar. Time for some practice. It’s 2h10AM. So hungry. Thao cooked chicken rice soup, and it was still warm. Had some! Delicious!!! … Back for some more guitar practice! …. Ooh  fingers hurted after playing a while.  I still wasn’t sleepy yet. Maybe I should finish my blog post on the Shane and Shane music tour. Flipped open my laptop, I typed away…. Yarn!!! Oh, wow it’s 4h15AM already.  Sleeping time!… 7:30Am. Up! Get Grace ready for school, and I for work.

Staying awake is not a problem today, but I couldn’t say the same for staying focus at work.   I start a new project  today. It is not quite exciting as other previous projects I worked on. This one has lot of reading. I have to read it carefully or I might miss the important stuff.  I need to be able to train others  how to use this product later too. Pretty important stuff!!  But I don’t work well with this type of project…. no-brain-stimulation …  Ahhh!!! I need some fresh air and relax a little bit.

I have like a zillion things to do, and they are so overwelming that I don’t want to start to work on any. Don’t you have one of those days sometime? Even though I’m swamped, I want to take a break for a little to say hi with my fellow blog readers (or maybe just 1 reader at this point … hahaha), just to show I care… hahaha. Actualy, I just finished one of the tasks at work, and somehow I feel a little  pleased and relieved, so I thought I want to share with you all. Remember that TransformAsia Website Project that I mentioned a while back? Well, I have finished the design for it. The webiste is now being update with the new design, and it will be up soon or in no time. Be sure to check it out at http://www.transformasia.us when it is finished. Here is the peek at the design.

I was talking with my brother having a profile, or a porfolio, listing things that I have worked on, demo, mockup or what not. I screencaptured some of them. But, I  just have no time. One day, I will work on that, but that’s one day far far  in the future. When I get there,  I will  let you know