Looks like we made it!

It feels like a dream, but.......we had an ENORMOUSLY successful launch yesterday. After hours and hours of consecutive work the team walked into Mission Control Wednesday morning - some wearing the same clothes as the day before (me), not one nice hairdo, an nary a face shaved.

My hands shook violently at 11am as I sent the Green Light email out to the user community to log in and get going. Once the users were in and logging in, I walked away, went into an empty office and bawled my fool head off. I felt the weight of the world flying off my shoulders as I realized no matter what was coming ahead, this excessively long and arduous chapter in my life was over. Even Matt and I were cheerful and chatting, after a very tense and stubborn few days.

I realized last night that my team is going to slowly disband. They will go to other projects and other priorities. We will all move on, one by one as our contributions become less neccessary. I wonder if I will miss this and I wonder what I'll be glad to see go.

Anyway, I'm rambling but the years of work have paid off. The users are happy and I'm ready to MOVE ON!!!

Exhaustion..is an understatement

Been working execessive hours. Last night I got so tired I realized I was not fit to drive. I had started the day with a migraine and continued to push through til nearly 1am. I knew I couldn't drive since I couldn't even keep my words straight (I'd reverse everything).

So I ended up having to go to a hotel downtown and it turned out to be quite nice. In fact, I have one of the best hotel rooms I've ever had in my travels which is high praise. I wish I had brought my camera but you can get an idea if you click this link to the hotel virtual tour.

This room has brushed silver accents with heavy deep purple velvet drapes, crackled gold sheers and another purple velvet accent: a chaise lounge. The beds are the now fairly standard "Heavenly Bed" set up with layers of blankets, comforters and a garden of pillows all dressed in a classic satin pinstriped egyptian cotton sheets. It looks like a fluffy cloud. The headboard is a tall leather affair with buttons - it's hard to explain but gives height to the room. Aside from the dramatic colors from the drapes and chaise, the rest of the room is in shades of taupe, chocolate brown and mahogany woodwork. The lamps are retro modern with basic brushed silver base for the most part but there's one unique lamp in hot pink. Three is real and unique artwork on the walls depicting some southern spanish art (judging by the historical senorita gear one is wearing and the northern african looking fellow in the 'pair' of the picture). Small touches are nice, like notices to the guest that are in picture frames. It's amazing how a picture frame on a desk adds an unexpected layer of cosiness. The Bose wave radio on the night stand adds yet another layer of homey-ness so a nice full stereo sound can be enjoyed rather than the tinny alarm clock radio most hotels provide.

The bathroom is quite nice with one of those arc curtain rods and the white brick tile in the tub. The standard coffeemaker is there but stocked with Starbucks, which I'm enjoying as we speak!! The free soaps and amenities are Gilchrist & Soames, which is funny because one of those names is the last name of a terror at work! But, I also found a smile of familiarity - I haven't seen Gilchrist & Soames at a hotel since I was at the Berkshire on Oxford St in London. The Berkshire, incidentally, has been remodeled and looks a lot like this hotel.

Bohemian is the theme and it lives up to its name. I am finding the silver lining in exhaustion and my breakfast is set to arrive in ten minutes for me to enjoy. I plan to turn off the news, put on the Bose wave, sit on the chaise and enjoy the view from my chair. I want a small parcel of quiet...for the users arrive in the system today.

We have...lift off!!!

Yes, Virginia, We Really Are Going Live

This post will be a big catch up, going backwards on the timeline. On Wednesday we had our official GO meeting. Today, we completed every task required for this part of the Go Live activities. When I finished, I jetted out to Kennedy Space Center to get a few of these (which were on sale - buy two get one free) for a thank you gift for some people who have gone well above and beyond the call of duty:




I also got, for myself, a NASA lunch bag so I can be just an even bigger dork.

The night before I did what is now a Thanksgiving weekend tradition and went to see the Osborne Family Specatacle of Lights at MGM which is one of those ya gotta see it to believe it and pictures don't do it justice. Click on the picture to see it bigger - the larger size photo does the true justice to the spectacle.



The lights dance this year, which is..umm...different. For Thanksgiving I went to a really good restaurant and had some of the best Prime Rib I've ever tasted in my life (second only to the Spirit of Dubuque riverboat featuring the stylings of the Mississippi River legend, Hal Brock). We all went out to eat because with this implementation, who has time to cook a turkey? The turkey was decent. It was hardly a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving but more of a Tommy Bahama meets Ernest Hemingway type Christmas.




No Grandma's posing with turkeys here. A lot of good, good looking men there too which substitutes well for the no-grandmas-with-turkey photos. I was serenaded..twice..by a strolling guitarist who found it funny to sing - to me - "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."

I do not make shit like this up.

Overall, not a bad few days but I've bitten all my glamour length nails off and I'm sick to my stomach. I have to go to work tomorrow and I'm freaked out to no end about how well/bad it will go. By this time next week..who knows what will have happened. But, as the mug says: Failure Is Not An Option.

/

Turkey.

Coma.

I can only Imagine

Imagine what it would be like to go into a store and see the most wonderful, coveted thing you can imagine getting this Christmas. You pick it up and see the price tag. Owch! It's a bit out of your budget and price range. It's too much to ask for your Christmas list, so you sigh and think, "It would be so nice to be rich." Then imagine walking outside and someone walks up to you - a complete stranger - and says, "I saw how much you wanted that. Here's the money, go get it." and then the stranger walks away and you never see them again. How ecstatic would you be? Imagine if you got tickets to the Oprah Winfrey show and you got there and found out you were on her "Favorite Things" show - imagine the screaming and joy you'd feel knowing someone you didn't know was about to give you items you would never ever be able to afford on your own. Things like that can be exhilirating and maybe in some cases even change your life. Wouldn't it be amazing if life worked out that way for most of us?

. . .

Tomorrow is a day we Americans take a day out to give thanks for our blessings in life. It is a distinctly American holiday and it's appropriate because in America we have SO much to be thankful for. We have to be thankful for something as simple as opportunity. Branching off from that, we must be thankful for the mere option of opportunity gives us freedom from ignorance and the information and tools to stay out of harm's way. This means, more Americans understand how AIDS is transmitted than they understand how a bill is passed in congress. The former is probably more important on a human level than the second but today I have a viewpoint that covers both.

My question to any reader is: Are you taking your opportunity to be free from ignorance?

I'm not talking about being in'orant. To me, being "in'orant" is about not knowing that the "S" on Illinois is silent or that Chicago is not a state. I'm talking about being ignorant of the greater world around you and what you can do to change it and TRULY give thanks this year in a meaningful way.

I'm very tired, I don't know how to articulate this as well as I know I can so I'll keep it simple. The Thanksgiving tradition usually means a can food drive that provides stock for shelters all over the United States so our fellow citizens don't go hungry this year. But the day after Thanksgiving, which should be a day of rest has become a day of obscene holiday shopping frenzy. Someone will be hurt or killed this Friday trying to get a PS3 or Elmo at 5am this year, or a bad computer for $250. Odd as it may sound, perhaps we should give thanks that those are the kind of things we fear that could cost us the health or life of someone we love.

I wonder what people suffering around the world must think of a place where people are so desperate for...a toy.

This woman whose image I pulled off the internet - do you think she's still alive? Do you think this child in her arms got hurt buying a video game?




As I think about my Christmas shopping list, the money I'd spend on decorating, music, food, entertainment, gifts, travel and so many other things I find myself getting sick at the thought of spending money on things when there is so much suffering and need in the world. I hope that for anyone who may read this who would consider sending me a Christmas gift this year would reconsider and instead donate what you might have spent on me to any one of these charities or organizations.

What more do I really need? I have all that I want and more. Oh sure, there are things I'd still like to have (a video iPod for example!) but the way that the suffering in this world is in my heart - and I know that sounds cheesy but it's true - it feels like eating a feast in front of the famine. It feels so completely wrong because I got SO lucky that I was born in Chicago, Illinois and started my life in a very simple but secure, warm home where I was fed, clothed and my life was saved at two weeks of age by competent and available doctors. What do I need gifts for?

And I hope, my deepest Thanksgiving and Christmas wish this year is that everyone just at least consider buying one less thing and turning that money into something that can change the world. Give your kids the opportunity to learn how to give too! Tell them Santa wants their help picking out a charity to give a present to. You never know what can happen to the world when children learn at a young age how to give.

The Fistula Foundation
Unicef
The One Campaign
Heifer International (this is one of my favorites. Whenever I find money, I donate it to Heifer)
Blood & Water
Living Water International
Doctors Without Borders

If you must buy something, make your purchase count. There are SO many wonderful, cool products via the Red campaign. It's a positive vicious cycle: a worker in South Africa makes money making the product, you buy the product as a gift, the product maker makes a donation towards AIDS relief and your gift becomes a gift. It's all at Red.

. . .

Imagine what it would be like to have been amputated, beaten, raped and infected with the AIDS virus. You hear there are medicines, there are surgeries, there are sanctuaries but, Owch! It's completely out of your budget and price range to obtain. You wonder what it would be like to be rich. Then imagine sitting in a refugee camp, helpless to take care of your own child and then someone walks up to you - a complete stranger - and says, "I care about you. I care about your child. Here's the money, go save your life" and then the stranger walks away and you never see them again. How ecstatic would you be? Imagine if you got the opportunity to go to school, someone bought you shoes and books, took you to a place where it was safe to learn and become a thriving, healthy, intelligent member of the global society. Imagine the screaming and joy you'd feel knowing someone you didn't know was about to give you opportunities you would never ever be able to afford on your own. Things like that can be exhilirating and would change your life. Wouldn't it be amazing if life worked out that way for most of us?

Wouldn't it be amazing if you could be that nameless stranger, "walking" up to a woman you don't even know and change her life?


Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't Ever After
We will fight not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
Cuase where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing

In then end, only kindness matters.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Fishies!

We had a Go decision yesterday. Now, that doesn't mean we won't go it just means we're allowed to go providing nothing doesn't happen. All systems are NOT Go but most systems are. All must be go before we go. Got it?

Anyway, today was our project team's "Appreciation Day" and we all were taken for a most-expenses-paid trip to Sea World. I haven't been to Sea World in, ahem, 24 years by my calculation. It's very nice but rather small. I'm surprised how expensive it is given how there's not much more than a full day's stuff to do there. I didn't go on any rollercoasters except the little Shamu ride - I was not feeling well (exhaustion I think). I wanted to ride Kraken but I wasn't up to it given my illness.

Here's an aerial view of Kraken - can ya blame me? Davy Jones or not?



The old favorite is still my favorite - the Shark Encounter. It's a lot schnazzier than I recall it being before. Essentially it's a big tube running underwater taking you through a shark tank. It's still an awesome view to see them swimming around you, beside you and over you.



It's hard to get decent photos of the toothy fish but this one didn't turn out too bad -




And then this rather ominous one as well - makes me want to shiver and say "MUFASA!"
Though that would be silly since Mufasa obviously wasn't a shark. I should say with an Aussie accent, "Bruce!"



The evening closed with a lovely Luau with the entire team and their families taking up virtually the whole place. It was great to see everyone together and having a good time. And now, I'm ready for bed and a day spent sitting around doing nothing tomorrow.. Rest, at last.

A Holiday In The Board Room

I am on vacation but I have to go to work. Really. Today I have to go to an executive review so I'm off shortly for that.

Anyway - G had this on his blog but I think it's so brilliant and I'm angry at myself for not thinking of it first!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/show/

Ahem

But as always this is my favorite Despair poster of all time

Ambition and Despair

Anyway, the final go/no-go is tomorrow

Am working mega hours and I'm wired right now and feeling exhausted and helpless. I have a lot of HR decisions to make too and that's distracting. I don't like having staff again. I like being a one-woman band.

Anyway, I have no idea how I will vote tomorrow. I truly feel like I'm on Survivor where I won't know how I'll vote until I go to the ballot box. I can make a solid argument either way and the choice is tough. But it's two years now...two freakin years. It's been so long, I already know what I want to change from a design perspective. I'm ready to go into redesign it's been so long!!
I got an email from my old "boss" today wishing me good luck with the impending end of a 'long road' blah blah blah. I wanted to respond with, "Whatever." but I am more professional than that and R kept me from writing even nastier comments. I am forward thinking, future facing...

But, in sarky honor of this journey of a thousand miles and 720 days...

From Despair.com:

Begin Mission Sequence

Our Go/No-Go session is tomorrow. Assuming we do not have a no-go, our mission to launch begins and so stress, fatigue, tempers and all kinds of eleventh hour activities will begin. If so, I shall be very, very scarce.

This weekend was so nice to be with friends to do the birthday thang. We had brunch at the Plantation Room and spent the majority of the day at Animal Kingdom and saw lions!



From there, we did the last shout of the Food & Wine festival (pink champagne and Bass Shandys for me, so gurly).

No cake - well, I got a birthday cake on Friday. But lots of pressies. This year I guess my friends decided to Sparrow me and Bankroll me.




Ok, I'm off to bed. Hopefully the next three days won't be too mental.

4, 3, 2, 1 Earth below us...

Thirty Four Years

I usually manage to get morose and miserable on my birthday but yes, it is the day I was born. I'm actually not doing too bad today and somewhat in the mood to remember. While I cannot possibly be overjoyed, I thought it would be fun(ny) to do some Before & After pictures.

So these two pictures were taken when I was five minutes old in 1972 and when I was awake this morning for about five minutes.

And then we have our first birthday and our 34th birthday. I got bigger.



And as I've always said, birthdays are for mothers. When you stop being a kid and cake, cone hats and pressies stop rolling in, birthdays are more meaningful to moms. Mine's not here any more. She actually left home 22 years ago today for the hospital. Best I can figure, these are the first and last pictures of she and I ever taken.

1972 to 1984



So there you have it. Have a good day, everyone.

Jolly Holidaze

We're having several swank Christmas parties at work ("holiday" parties, I'm sorry) this year. I have coveted this J Peterman dress for awhile:



You can see by the price tag on it, it does not come cheap. But it's on clearance at J Peterman for $110 but they only have like a size 2 or something. But thank goodness for ebay! Oh how I loves eBay! I got this dress for a third of that so now I'm all set for swank Christmas parties.

I'm having a migraine but I won't let that stop me from attempting a much needed day off.

That's very funny.

A Constitutional Amendement was passed in Florida last night increasing the % of majority vote to pass a constitutional amendment from the current 50%+1 to 60%+1.

The amendment passed with 58% vote.

I like that, we passed a vote to fail what we passed.

iTunes Meme

How I love a survey. This one is using iTunes or Windows Media Player. I have iTunes, here's what I got goin on..

iTune Meme

How many songs? 1980 (7.08GB)

Arrange by artist:
First artist: 10,000 Maniacs
Last artist: ZZ Top

Arrange by song:
First Song: 'Zat You, Santa Claus? Louis Armtrong.. if you don't use punctuation as a sort criteria, it's 40, U2..if you don't use numbers but letters, it's "A Boozehound Named Barney" from the Simpsons
Last Song: Zooropa, U2

Arrange by time:
Shortest item: Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie SHow, Simpsons - 0:14 seconds
Shortest Song: Parachutes, Cold Play - 0:46
Longest Song: One of God's Better People, Robbie Williams, 15:02
Longest item: Same as above (used to be Freakonomics audiobook)

Arrange by album:
First Album: (What's The Story) Morning Glory - Oasis
Last Album: Zooropa, u2

First song that comes up on shuffle: It Must Have Been Love, Roxette
Last song that comes up on shuffle: Don't Go Back to Rockville, REM

How many songs come up when you search for "sex"? 3

1. Sex Bomb - Tom Jones Album version
2. Sex Bomb - Tom Jones Peppermint Disco Radio Mix
3. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? - Rod Stewart

How many songs come up when you search for "death"? 4

1. Death of Titanic - James Horner
2. Justin's Death - The Constant Gardener sndtrk
3. Tessa's Death - The Constant Gardener Sndtrk

How many songs come up when you search for "love"? 84
Too many to list here, but read here if interested


Arrange by play count:

Which is your most frequently played song? "Giving It Up For You" - Holly Brook (but this can't be right, it must have been stuck on repeat once). Other than what's not right, "Original of the Species", u2 with 107 but again, that must have been stuck on repeat. "In The Deep" by Bird York is likely correct at 77

Which is least frequently played: Poppin My Collar, Three 6 Mafia (no surprise there)

Well, that was fun.

Florida history, in flames

Gatorland - an odd (and gross if you ask most women) but historical tourist attraction in Orlando dating back to 1949 is up in flames today. It's very sad. Though I never intend to set foot in that place, it's very sad when an institution such as this ends abruptly and unexpectedly.

Connected, dejected

By the way, this is the new dogleash work has me hooked up to:

Life In Mono

I am starting to wonder if I have mono. I've been run down and weary for so long now with a scratchy throat but I haven't been outright sick. Well, yesterday I did have an unfortunate biological experience but I'm OK on that front now.

I went out today with a friend and I just wanted to go home. I had no oomf, no vim, no vigor. I'm drinking green tea now hoping it will jazz me up a bit but I'm afraid I just want to crawl away. It's got to be stress. The go-live is coming up again and though you'd think I'd be heavily experienced at go-live prep, this is the third or fourth attempt and I don't think I can go through another failure. As Gene Krantz would say:




A nap more than anything is probably what I need.

Am talking to YMCA Girl/Warden about going to Kennedy Space Center this January. I really want to go again and soon. I love it there, it's so much fun. I've gotten good use out of my annual pass and this year they are offering renewals to FL residents for only $38. It's a great deal, unless of course you are a tax payer in which case you'll want to know why you have to pay at all when everyone on the tour bus is from Germany or the UK. Charge them double, the Euro and sterling are so far above and beyond the US dollar they won't notice.

Bed, nap, wake up, spaghetti (whole wheat tonight I think) and then go back to bed again.

aiee

Yeah, so I just finished another workday. I was hoping to not go to work tomorrow and work from home but now my whole calendar has filled up for Friday. My feet are killing me from running between buildings today. Today I got so busy - literally - that I found a chair in the middle of a hallway and sat there to do testing. Seriously - it was some arbitrary hallway with a chair that obviously was left there by mistake. I got a lot of funny looks but hey, it worked.

Politically things are a still a mess/chaos (think Baghdad or Poland after liberation) but getting better. Today I found out what it's like to be looked at as an adulteress too. I took a "rival" consultants solution (an easy peasy one no less) and requested it to be put in. G looked at me with this sort of disappointed, dejected hurt expression and quietly accepted it. Of course the rival consultant just ate it up with a gallon sized spoon, I think he loves it that I've turned on my consulting team. I would not have, were it not for the fact they turned on me. G especially - I've given him so much slack over the years and I finally have stopped the bus. Hard. I found it to be kind of funny - he had a bad day I know but he deserves it. He's a despot and this is what eventually happens to despots. It never works out.

The new leadership has instructed a "quiet" period before our go live. It might be..just might be possible I will get a few days off before the launch. I do believe it will launch this time.

Art imitating life

I was watching that show that I can't think of now - it's got a lot of SNL people and it's like Third Rock or something like that. Anyway, it's a show about NBC comedy writers or summat. Well today's episode poked fun at Six Sigma. And I found this funny because my company is big on Six Sigma but I also found it odd because it's not (imo) all that prevalent in the working world where most people have heard of it enough for it to be a running joke. Well, a lot of the principles of Six Sigma were mentioned and I found it humorous and a bit of an inside joke.

At the end of the episode, Alec Baldwin's character is carrying on about how one of the writers embarassed him with executives..From Fairfield..Connecticut...from G.E.! Then I howled because my company is chock full of former G.E. executives and that would explain the Six Sigma influence. Suddenly, I feel I have something in common with employees of NBC.

Another core competency of my company and G.E. - the Blackberry. I was told when we went to them, "They are big on Blackberry's. Every executive is required to have one." I successfully dodged that bullet - largely because I'm not an executive. But I lost the battle today - guess my boss had enough of my Out of Office notices that "I will be checking email on a limited basis.." because I'm in so many meetings and traveling between four offices on a daily basis. He requested I upgrade my business phone to a blackberry. The Telecom department already ordered it and the synch to my laptop is already in coordination with the PC Help Desk so... my leash just got longer yet tighter.

Today though was a very good day. Guess I can't complain. Well I can, but I won't.