Saturday, June 25, 2005

BBQ-powered Saturday

Today I went with a bunch of my co-workers from IBM to Day 2 of the Great Kansas BBQ Championships in Lenexa! The weather was super hot! Man, it's good we found shade. We sampled awesome barbecue chicken, pork, beef, and sausage. People here like it spicy.

It's true that people here have a great sense of humor. One guy was showing off his BBQ sauce called "R-M-T" which stands for "Rub Me Tender." And there was a picture of Elvis on the label. :-) Plus, some of the banners had some really "strange" messages on them.

I. B. M. - I Burnt Mine

3 Guys with Wood

Butt Rubbers

Others were just plain sick, as you see here....

We rub our meats until they smoke
(I thought this was a family event???)

Nobody beats our meats better than we do

Master Basters: We rub our own meat

I never knew I'd have this much fun at a food festival. Without my friends there, I would have been bored out of my mind. We hung around--and I finally took pictures! WOOHOO! I'll upload them tomorrow morning when my camera batteries recharge.

Does anyone have a Kodak digital camera? Is my camera the only one that sucks life out of the batteries like the stomach flu?

We left at 3:30 to rest at our apartments, then we shot pool at the local AMF Lanes bowling center. It was great fun for all--experienced and newbie. I think they went to the movies afterward, but I called it a night. Too hungry. Hey, BBQ is filling, but it doesn't last forever. At least I wish it did. :-)

Tomorrow is laundry and church. Big change of pace compared to today's excitement.

Mood: Good

Thursday, June 23, 2005

20 hours until the Lenexa BBQ Championships

At last! I'm going to the infamous Great Lenexa Barbecue (Web site). Charcoal, or wood chips? Woohoo!

Work is great. I'm actually working on some QA stuff right now. Not a lot of code development for me at the moment, but that's all right. I'm an IBM team player. Yeah baby!

I went to lunch with some of the interns and recently hired at Thai Place. Sam (our fearless leader) said that it was the best Thai restaurant around. They serve authentic Thai cuisine, which is awesome. If I should ever come back here after I leave, that restaurant will be one of the first places I visit.

The last intern started today. He comes from UCI, and it's his third year as an intern. He's working on his PhD in computer science. My boss is his boss from last year, and we joked about how she gave me his old cubicle. I displaced the poor guy. No complaints from either end.

I've really grown accustomed to my work. We stop by each other's cubes while we wait for our programs to compile and stuff. Even though we always have smiles on our faces and occasionally have a laugh, we are still committed to putting in our 8 hours of work. We'll stay until 6-6:30 PM just to wrap up our stuff. I look forward to going to work every morning.

Soon to come: a picture of me wearing my IBM badge. :-D

Monday, June 13, 2005

I hate potato soup

Today wasn't as good a day as the ones before.

At lunch, I poured potato soup on my chicken fried steak. I asked the lunch lady why it wasn't labeled, and she pointed out the tag...which was next to the wrong tray.

After the lady let me try again with a clean plate, I got a bowl for potato soup. Ooh, but I spilled some of it on my hand. Dang! It was burning hot! I guess the lunch lady felt sorry for me and helped me wipe the mess off the counter.

A lady in the row behind my cubicle has this annoying cell phone ring tone that sounds like "Now or Never." The guys in my row already told her to change it, complaining that "The guys here are already singing it whenever it goes off!" Thank you!

OK, now I'm going home. I figured, hey, why not stop by the bank on Pflumm Rd. to deposit last week's paycheck? So here I go...looking...and looking....hmm, where's the bank? I pull into a pizza restaurant and asked a guy if he knew where Wells Fargo was. He's like, "Sorry man, I'm sure there isn't a Wells Fargo Bank on this street, and I've been living here for 20 years." DRAT!

Isn't anything going right today? I get to my apartment and turn on my ceiling fan...PLOP! Aw man, that stupid chain came off....

OK, I'm going to watch wrestling. See y'all later.

Mood: in need of entertainment

Friday, June 10, 2005

Flexi-Friday

Awesome day today! The boss was really impressed by my work, which she forwarded to some other managers. Not bad for a guy that's only been on the job for two weeks! :-)

The site manager started a thing this week called "Flexi-Friday." Basically, our direct supervisors can let us leave early on Fridays (like at noon) and make up the time on the weekend or the following week. I love working for IBM! These are some of the coolest people I've ever worked with.

Either that, or they're going easy on me because I'm starting out....

Keep your eyes on the storm activity here in Kansas. Click on this link to take you to the Kansas doppler Web page.
http://www.reflector.com/weather/content/shared/weather/kansas_doppler.html

PJ

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Tornado, Tornado!

Wow! Second tornado watch since I arrived. Looks like the 4th of July, when you look outside.

Ahh...life.

Speaking of life, here are some Web sites you can visit to learn more about my surroundings. Click on each link to go to the respective site.

Lenexa

The Kansas City Star

Visit KC

Experience Kansas City

Uh-oh...better publish before electricity goes out!

Monday, June 06, 2005

IBM Rally Songs

The staff at work said that the interns had to perform one of these hymns during their performance evaluations. Then they said it was only a joke, but the songs themselves are real. If you click on the "Hear a..." links, you'll be taken to a recording on the Web.

Enjoy!

IBM music clips
· "Ever Onward" (IBM rally song)
Hear the audio file for IBM Rally Song, Ever Onward Hear a rousing rendition (1,499KB)
"Ever Onward" (IBM rally song) Words & music Words & music
· "Hail To The IBM" (IBM anthem)
Hear the audio file for the IBM anthem, "Hail To The IBM" Hear a performance (2,617KB)
"Hail To The IBM" (IBM anthem) Background and words Background and words
· "IBM One Hundred Percent Club"
Hear the audio file for "IBM One Hundred Percent Club" Hear a performance (1,227KB)
"IBM One Hundred Percent Club" Words Words
· "March On With IBM"
Hear the audio file for "March On With IBM" Hear a performance (3,298KB)
"March On With IBM" Words Words

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Weekend

Heavy rains tonight and last night. Lucky I had the chance to do laundry this afternoon while it was dry.

I bought a wireless networking kit in L.A. for my apartment. I wanted to have a more "spiritual" experience here in Kansas, so I gave my router an appropriate name:



My co-workers have been asking about where I went to school. No one seemed to know Cal Poly Pomona. At least some heads turned after I told them that "GATTACA" was filmed there.

BTW, I got my first assignment at IBM yesterday. I'm real excited about it.

For you programmers out there: we develop exclusively on Eclipse.

Currently watching: Saturday Night Live.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Starting work

Made my first-day runs yesterday...meet manager, project team, other people, and find cubicle. Interesting thing: I got pulled into a teleconference between the team and a customer. Lasted about 2.5 hours, but very informative. All the while I wondered, what part of this are they going to have me work on?

Today we had an office picnic. Nice turnout of about 60 people. The 12 co-ops/interns introduced themselves. Volleyball seemed to be the favorite sport. A lot of the staff (interns and permanent emps) are pretty good. They were still going at it when I left at 6 PM.

Had a bad headache this evening. Slept it off until 10:30 PM. Now I have to go back to sleep for my 9 AM orientation in the morning. :-P

Listening to: "Spoiled" by Joss Stone