31-V-2001.
More email to mom and dad, same shitty outlook at work. Again, replaced each ch, sh, th with c, s, t but kept the wh and th as they were to simulate the effect.
Well now we made ourselves at home, may I say disrobed.
Tere are fewer high scools so tey cover larger areas, ie Nina just switced bus lines. Even as we moved se recognized some guy uphill from us whom se saw at german class. Se wasn't qute happy wit tat, te guy is some wank.
But ten te line switc was a fuss, because I didn't write a little letter - and even tough se told Violet (te advisor) tat we move and se will switc lines, tey still barely let her into tat bus (Violet said "ah what will I do wit you" at least ten times), because for paperworkwise regularly listed passengers te insurance is on te county, for stowaways it (i.e. damage in case of pitcwise) is paid by te driver. Ten I had to write tat seet of white letter, where I said tat "I tought eleven-graders are considered adult enough to be able to manage tis temselves, but I forgot te security issues you have to deal wit.". Te formalist assoles.
Lena will have to cange scool, it will be Woodspring or some suc wooden name. Tese two weeks I drive her, no oter way, whic ten extends my lunc break to almost two hours. Tis is where I already gave up, so I work from eight to six, wit two hour lunc break. I gonna switc to eight to four witout lunc, as soon as se goes on te break.
Lena and Nina opened te season on te pool yesterday, and tat during tose two afternoon hours. Tat's really great, tat for te same money you can go to pool whenever it crosses your mind to, and tat ten you don't have to fry for hours. Every day a bit so te tan catces, and ten te problems wit excess skin falling off.
We adjusted te AC to almost 80, whic comes out to around 25, and te ambience is as when it's summer, hot everywhere, and you sit into deep sade and it just breezes lightly from somewhere. A beauty. Specially tat I haven't even unpacked my slippers - it's carpet everywhere, except te vinaz* tiles in te kitcen and batrooms, but under tem it's wood so it turns out to te same, we go barefoot everywhere around te appartment.
Te phone is still not moved over, I already complained - by email, it's faster and easier tan by phone. When some suc company is to be called, ten you have to listen trough te menus and press all te additional digits untill you break trough to te extension you need ("if you wis to become our user or order extra service, press one, if you have tecnical difficultie press 2, ...if you want to hear all of tis again press nine"... and so in several levels). For Adelphia (cable TV and internet over cable) I already had by phone (again, of course), but tis time I had more luck, i.e. te lady tried to solve te problem (for whic tat one on friday held me fifteen minutes waiting) while I heard what se was doing, and it was about te zip code. Allegedly tat address has had 4-5 different zipcodes so se had to ceck. It seems I sounded determined enough ("I confirmed wit bot te Sprint and post office guys, and bot confirmed tat tis indeed is 36701") so se eventually accepted it. Tey arrive next wednesday, until ten witout TV (and better so).
Te yugo guys arrived te day before yesterday afternoon, but just briefly visited te office, since tey came after five tirty. Yesterday after work I dropped by to pick te package, and ahem everyting came fine, only te eurokrem leaked (lucky wit te bags, ie only outside te bag it dripped just a little). Tis will, unfortunately, be te last time tat tey carry food, as tis time tey just barely made it trough - te Amers are in about te same psycosis regarding te foot and mout disease as ours were when it appeared in Romania ten. Just reminded myself about tat time when we smased two-tree cartons of eggs - likewise it is pointless to explain tat eggs are unrelated: no food can be carried over, and te fines are draconian (seems like up to 10,000 dollars). So far tey weren't looking muc, but now it's gone more strict, and for how long will it - we don't know.
I suppose you have connection trouble or dad is in te vineyard for a few days, seeing as you are not emailing, tough it's not te first time so I'm not surprised muc. When it works, at least you have someting to read. And now we also have - I told Go tis morning tat I'm tinking of delaying te visit, to make time to read all tose books :)
Now that we do have cable, it's a different game. So easy to get used to the idea that the web is at hand at all times, permanently connected and priced in bulk, no meter attached. The internet just got reinvented. Not that I didn't have it on the job, but this is at home, don't even have to turn anything on, it's just always working, whenever you think of it. I may even run Napster on zmajček, wow.
Our new CEO, Egon Koontz, wrote this to everyone:
Hi all-
The purpose of this message is two-fold. First, to provide a brief status report on various goings on at Zero. Second, to ask you all to participate in a self audit of Zero's inventory of skills - this is explained further down, and includes an assigment that hopefully will take each of you a short time to complete.
Status Report
* Hossy at Leevor: The implementation at Leevor continues to go well. My Hossy, including the procedure module are in place. Evaluations are in test and looking good. The next steps are integration of the scheduler and completion of the administrative module. Many thanks for the entire New Hossy team for their dedicated efforts.
* ASP Facility: We have completed negotiations for the ASP colocation facility at Adelphia Business Solutions, including additional bandwidth for us to use here in the office. I have used ABS in other businesses and they are a very competent providor. Ted is now working on implementation of the facility, to be used first by Leevor.
* Vermont D.U. SOM: We have received a go ahead to submit a full proposal to DUSOM for a major portion of their MSAA system. This means we passed our due diligence test last week. We will be proposing only a part of the entire SUMMIT project at this time, to ensure early success and provide the opportunity to do further development for them in the future.
* Vermont DWM: During their visit here, we took the opportunity to begin outlining the conversion of old Hossy to New Hossy at the DWM. Immediately after the bager implementation, we will begin this conversion. The target for completion is October 1. In the meantime, we have put on hold JCS, taking a bit of time to figure out how it fits with New Hossy. A decision on this will be made in the next two weeks. The entire company needs to be congratulated.
* Scheduling: Thanks to the efforts of Pete, MJB and DF, the grueling scheduling season is just about complete (MJB is finishing up on site at Scott and Findley). Start conserving your energies for next year.
* New Cusomers: We had another demo session with Strider yesterday. It appears that we can be of great help to them with the scheduler and Hossy, and expect to complete a contract in the next several weeks. We have also had very serious inquiries for a two hospital, enterprise-wide installation in Long Island, NY (two of my kids were born at one of them, though I played no part in establishing this business contact) for New Hossy. In addition, we will be making a presentation at Texas-San Antonio in July for an enterprise-wide installation. Greg has done an excellent job in keeping these contacts alive while awaiting completion of Hossy.
* Financing: Things are very active on the financing front. We are confident that we can complete this round of financing by the end of June, which will provide enough funding to get to profitability next year.
* Executive Committee: We have established an executive committee, comprised of Greg, DF, Ford, Jeffrey, Pete, Anthony and myself to provide decision making leadership for the company. We invite questions and feedback from all of you.
I will continue to keep you all aprised of any new major developments at the company.
Self Audit Project
Given the expected higher level of activity at Zero in the near future, what with further development of Hossy, re-engagement of SUMMIT, conversion of Hossy at VDU, new enterprise-level clients, and heightened investor relations activity, we have decided to conduct a self audit of Zero capabilities. In order to do this, we have invited a consultant, Travis Duquesne, to visit with us for a full week, beginning Monday. Travis, a high performance, senior consultant in the information technology field, has a long list of accomplishments and experiences in software product development, the management of IT departments, advising large and small clients on development processes, strategic product direction and organizational planning and assessment.
The goal of his engagement is to provide for us an assessment of our key skill sets, developing a "company resume", assess our technology and software development processes, define key personnel we need to grow the company, and recommend an appropriate organization structure for us.
In order to accomplish this, Travis will meet first with senior management to understand our product and company vision, then conduct interviews with EVERYONE in the company, one on one. Travis is a terrific interviewer and great listener. My first contact with him was at ProsperMatthews Publishers 8 years ago, when he was responsible for implementing a management system for me. The initial interview involved him extracting from me the requirements for the system. The way he asked questions, listened and understood my needs was a revelation. I am sure you will all find the experience very educational.
In order to prepare for Travis's visit, we are compiling an employee list, organization charts and job descriptions, to provide him with enough background to have fruitful one on one discussions.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: We need each of you to prepare the following, sending it to me by mid-day Monday (those that have it done by tomorrow COB please send it early, so Travis can get a head start):
* What you believe your job description is today. No more than 1 page, bullets if possible.
* What have been your key accomplishments since you joined Zero. Obviously, several of you have joined only recently and won't have a long list, if any at all, so substitute what you've learned in the time you've been here. Once again, no more than a page, bullets if possible.
I thank everyone in advance for participating in this program. I believe you will all find it rewarding. I also want to thank you all for your efforts in getting Hossy to where it is today, the help you may have provided for our VDU dealings, and for your future contributions to the success of the company.
If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free.
What a fucked up language, corporate stiff yet trying to sound casual. This guy could have been writing speeches to our directors and politicians back in the eighties.
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* vinyl-asbest, Yugoslav brand of the same; in the source email I actually wrote viđaz, from hungarian vigyázz, watch out, which is the nickname we used among us
Mentions: 08-I-2002., Allan Robin (Ford), bager, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Greg Reubenthal, Hossy, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Leevor, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Pete Citroën, Ted Gulding, yugo, Zero Distance (Zero), zmajček, in serbian