Jehoshaphat

So, my meeting on Friday was a success. Not only did everything run exactly how I had scheduled it, everyone come and brought their A game. Noone was late, noone answered their phones, noone looked at their email…we basically got in a bunker and worked through all the issues at hand. And in the end, everything turned out all right.

I’m now the GIS Coordinator for my office. I’m incharge of managing the GIS resources (several thousands of dollars worth of software, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware) and the GIS users. There are several other tasks at hand, first of which is turning our data into something usable, basically building a data library out of complete trash. Second, I need to organize the users and get them into some training, we really need to update our skill-sets. After that, I really dont know, I’m not their day-to-day managers, so I dont direct them in any way, shape, or form. I’m more of guide for their skill-set. The last thing I’ll be in charge is growing the GIS program as a business group and a project support mechanism. This company doesnt really use the technology and methods to its fullest extent. And they really havent seen the power of web/mobile GIS-based custom applications.

So overall a good meeting, now the hard work begins, but the hardest work is the most rewarding. So…bring it on.

I have a huge meeting tomorrow about my future moving in this company. There’s going to be a national and a regional director there and I pretty damn nervous about it right now. At the same time, the company is really hammering on this idea that New Orleans is the center of work for everything. They are pulling and pulling for time and money and resources, without an clear objective.

I’m to the point that if I cant move where I want to in terms of GIS-based solutions and development and I get sucked into New Orleans more and more and more and more, I’m out of here. I’ve already got the resume cleaned up and posted on the web. It’s amazing how fast recruiters call you now a days. Just leaving the options open…

Couple things really quick…First, I have some training to goto this weekend, so I’m heading out of town tonight to head to……..Tampa. Yep, add work + training sessions + family and they equal fun? No they equal STRESS. So good times this weekend…not really but hey maybe I can completely removed from reality weekend and enjoy the trip home.

I watched the Bob Costas show on HBO last night, all around great show with a wonderful panel and good segments (Farve looked like an old man, seriously the interview they did with him, he looked old, and his answers bordered on guy who was trying to hold on to past glories. If you throw 29 ints in a year and your answer for them is that you thought they were good throws, you need to ponder retiring), and they had a great interview with Reggie Bush. Now I hate, just as much as the next guy, when someone who has never played a game yet is crowned the next “best player of all time”. And while I dont think Bush will be Marcus Allen or Walter Payton, I do think he is a good person. He has setup all of his endorsements so part of them funded a specific Hurricane Katrina related relief organization/project/effort. He’s doing great stuff for the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, if he doesnt turn out to be the greatest of all time no big deal, at least he showed he has a heart and is a good guy by helping those people out.

Lastly, I popped my head into the Syndicate forums and the WoW forums just to see whats going on with that game. I didnt see anything that jumped out at me and yelled you need to play this game again cause you’ll find it fun again. So I cancelled my expansion pack pre-order, and I’m thinking of sending an email to the leader of the Syndicate basically figuring out if I fit in the guild if I’m not going to play a game that guild plays. Oh well, moving on up to different things.

So, along with my studies in the .NET realm (almost finished with the first certification, working now on a some basic Oracle DBA certification, and I finally filled out the paperwork on my GIS certification…can you tell work is making a big push on certifications?!?), I’ve started to study and research the rise of religion. The three major religions I’ve started to look at are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The three major east religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism I’m going to leave for another date (I’ll admit my knowledge of Eastern history is very weak, I only excel in the area of Western exploration and expansion).

The rise of religion is a rather interesting study. You have to have an open mind but at the same time be able to separate facts for legend and myth. The adoption of Christianity by Charlemagne and the conversion of Paul are stories surrounded by myths, legends, and facts. The jamarat in Islamic history may be nothing more than metorite, or as Islam states, it could be the physical manfest of the devil. More than anything over the next couple of months, I’m going to keep an open mind and find sources that have same open mind.