Shock and Awe

Monday, December 19, 2011
Prepare to be the victim of Shock and Awe.

The Deal that Apparently Never Ends™ has CLOSED. That means a number of things:
  • I will now be referring to it as "The Project that Apparently Never Ends™." Trust me on this one - it's a phased project, and the final deployment is a moving target (one of the reasons it took so long to close). There's also the fact that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and the current, related project for this customer is taking twice as long as predicted to end. That whole moving target thing. 
  • I can now spend some of my professional time on other projects and opportunities. I'm glad of this, as there's some exciting stuff on my professional horizon, and my teammates have been doing the heavy lifting since I've been MIA. It'll be nice to work on more than one thing again.
  • I won't be traveling as much, as the Project that Apparently Never Ends™ has been turned over to our Professional Services organization, and another engineer is now the technical lead. I'll still be peripherally involved, of course, but I've passed the baton.
  • I am going to be getting a fairly substantial commission check when it actually books, probably payable in my end of January check. Of course, if it hadn't closed we'd be eating Top Ramen for the rest of the year, so there's that. It's the risk and reward of sales. 
So money = good. Especially since my Hot Daughter announced last week that she has found a study abroad program through her University that perfectly suits her educational and career goals in both the near and long term. It's scheduled for May, and the destination is China. I strongly believe in the value of living and studying abroad, and I really want my Hot Daughter to have this opportunity. So you can imagine my relief when this thing closed in time for me to be able to use some of the money to help make that happen.

While I intend to be practical with most of the money, I have also decided to buy myself this fabulous new Tag Heuer Formula 1 ceramic watch with the diamond bezel. I promised myself that if I made it through this process without killing someone, then I'd reward myself with something nice. Because I want to, and because this sale has been more than little painful.


It also comes in black, but I'm pretty sure the white suits me more.

So in the short term - Yay, me.

9 comments:

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Oh my, CHINA! Please tell Mo that I am so jealous!.
Now quick, change your phone number and email address!

Anne C. said...

Congratulations on surviving the PTANE™! :D

Phiala said...

Closed? Hooray! And congrats.

Steve Buchheit said...

Ohhh, that's a nice watch. Congrats on the closing!

John the Scientist said...

OK, have her get her shots NOW. Hepatitis vaccine, tetanus booster, zoster vaccine, Japanese encephalitis vaccine(JE‐IXIARO VIS).

Get a full dose of cipro or augmentin to take in the travel kit. Food poisioning even in the big cities over there is no joke.

I don't know where she's going, but if she gets the chance to get out of the big cities she should jump on it - but jump on it with both feet protected from disease vectors. Because many, many Chinese still think hygeine is a greeting.

(For anyone about to get offended, Janiece knows my special situation re. China and Chinese culture, and this is not American bias or racism, merely a statement of fact from someone who has spent more than 20% of his adult life in the Far East, and has been, seen, done and bought the t-shirt on nasty traveling bugs).

Megan said...

I'm so happy for you!

Janiece said...

Thanks, John. I was going to send you a note to find out what you recommended.

Anonymous said...

Totally deserved purchase. Nothing like a self-earned bling to make a girl feel like an accomplished woman!

John the Scientist said...

One other thing - bring a couple of those vials of camping iodine water purifyeand the iodine flavor remover tabs, along with one of those purifying straws. If she travels in the hinterland, she might not be bale to pack enough pure water, and no shit, I was shitting orange for two weeks after drinking water in Bangkok that had been boiled (but apparently not boiled long enough.