Go Raiders

From FOXSports.com today:


This won't do much to dispel the bad image of Raiders fans.
Robert Comer, fading to a lethal injection in Arizona, uttered the phrase "Go Raiders" in his final moments, according to the Arizona Republic.
Comer was sentenced to death for a brutal 1987 crime spree that left one man dead.
However, Arizona hadn't executed anyone since 2001 and Comer was forced to fight for the right to be executed. He spent much of the last seven years convincing appeals courts he was competent to withdraw his appeals, saying he owed it to his victims, society and himself to fulfill his sentence.

Moving on

I accepted a job offer from a much smaller company in Sunnyvale last Tuesday which means my 12 year tenure at Applied Materials will end at noon this Friday. When I was first hired as a temp back in 1995 I was a Material Coordinator in the "Spares" division of IBSS in Milpitas. IBSS is such an old acronym and was changed so long ago that I no longer remember what it stood for, something about Integrated Business Spares Solutions. Yeah, that sounds about right when I run it through my internal Silicon Valley bullshit Thesaurus. I worked on swingshift in a warehouse that shipped parts 24/7/365 and was so overwhelmed with work that we were on constant 10 to 12 hour shifts and 8 hours on Saturdays, all of it mandatory. You would get Sunday's off and if you had any energy left to do anything fun, it was probably chemically aided. In other words I spent most Sunday's on the couch. My social life sucked, but I loved the work and it was great money. Management liked me and it wasn't long before I was hired on permanently, and then made the shipping lead where I had 20 direct reports. I was on my way...

For six years we went from riding the tech boom to the subsequent bust and downturn, and then the inevitable downsizing with 5 rifs in the span of 3 years. I watched our workgroup go from 225 employees to 118. And then 9/11 happened. Through sheer happenstance, upper management was plotting to outsource of our operation for months, but it just so happened to take place a week to the day after September 11th, 2001. A week after the twin towers fell, every manager in the building sat in a conference room as one of them would walk out to the floor and in grim reaper fashion, tap someone on the shoulder and walk them to that room where their fate was announced. Minutes later they walked out the door with a big white envelope. Imagine going to work and noone is talking, no smiles, people are visibly shaking. Every few minutes you'd hear a moan from several people as yet another was selected to be laid off and there was no end in sight as two who would go next. You'd be sad for those who were picked, and scared to death that you would be next. In a word it was horrible. 108 people lost their jobs that day and I watched over half of them leave. Most of these people I had known for years and to experience this so soon after 9/11, I'd be lying if I didn't say that getting drunk hadn't crossed my mind more than a few times that day. Instead I went to the gym afterwards and worked out for two hours straight. For those of you non-alcoholics out there, exersize is to alcohol cravings as cold showers are to horniness. I was like a soon to be bride trying to sqeeze her great big fat ass in a wedding dress a week before the big day. . .

After the outsourcing and re-org, I went from operations to Transportation Management and my role of an analyst began. After doing this for four years, upper management decided they didn't need an analyst anymore and eliminated my position. Rather than lay me off they gave me 60 days to find a new job which I was able to do in about 30. I was brought on as a buyer in a new products group in December of 2005 and there I learned the ways of material procurement. Because of my new skill set, I was able to land a job externally.

In my 12 years at Applied I have met so many great people, and a few not so great. I have watched people get married, have kids, have grand kids... I lost three friends in that time as well. Roosevelt "RJ" Jones was a mentor to me in the beginning. I had never had any kind of a leadership position and RJ took me under his wing and showed me not only how to run a shipping dept, but how to manage people through understanding them. A quiet man who's actions did most of his speaking, but when he did speak you hung on every word. RJ took time off for an angioplasty and two days after his procedure, he had a heart attack at his home and died, he was 56. Larry Hanlon was a self described "retired hippie" but I always referred to him as just a cool dude. Larry was in his 50's, married with a daughter, he wore a ponytail and a baseball cap and almost always had a big smile. To say Larry was mellow is like saying the sun is bright, total understatement. Larry was a brilliant man and had knowledge on so many topics yet he had no formal education beyond a high school diploma. You could talk politics, music, history, art, baseball, and women with Larry and I almost always seemed to learn something from him. His view of life was very thoughful and often funny and to this day I miss my conversations with him. Larry was home with his wife when he passed away of a heart attack. Mahesh Sidhu was a troubled soul. Very quiet and polite, he always had lots of friends but you always knew something was awry. Whenever we would go out or have a party, he was beyond drunk. Not sometimes, EVERYTIME. His coworkers would sometimes worry about him openly at work but he always refused help when offered it. Why is it that only the people that need help the most never seem to accept it? He went missing for about two weeks before his body was found on the shore near Sausilito. Whatever troubled Mahesh finally got the best of him and he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, he was 28. I don't talk about these guys very often but that shouldn't give anyone the impression that I don't miss them. To this day I think about them more often that I ever thought I would. The lesson they taught me was that you may end up leaving a lasting impression on someone long after your gone, and you have control over that image for better or for worse. Live well, treat people right, and you'll never have to worry about how you will be remembered.

When I decided to accept the offer at In Print last Tuesday, I sat for a minute in my chair and my Applied Materials life passed before my eyes. So many faces, experiences, changes, happiness and sadness, despair and hope. I grew a lot in the last 12 years and I have so many people to thank for mentoring me. I am a much different person today than I was back in 1995, and I have Applied to thank for that. So as one door closes, another one opens. I am really looking forward to what is in store. More things to learn, people to meet, experiences to have and in the end, more growing to do. I am looking forward to all of it.

A letter to the run team manager

June 2nd is the date for the 20 mile run for Anchorage participants, it is also the date we leave for San Diego. As the coach for Anchorage, I decided to take a later flight so that I could be with these peeps on their last long run and then depart to San Diego and be there in time for the Pasta Party. Initially the run was set for Sawyer Camp, which is a great place to run if you are doing 12 miles or less. Anything longer and you end up doing more than one out and back. In other words you go out six, come back for 12, then you have to leave that spot and go back out the way you came for another 4, and then return. BORING.... And if you have never ran 20 before that can be brutal. Coach Tim suggested to Coach Doug over the weekend that we do it instead at Los Gatos where you can do a traditional out for 10 and back for 20. Doug loved the idea and it was all set.

Becky, our run team manager is upset, mainly because she was never consulted, and starts pitching a fit, not to Tim, but to everyone else including the South Bay run team manager as well as the Marathon Director. Seeing as though I was going to be the only one of the staff present on June 2, I decided to weigh in with my own reasons for wanting to do it at Los Gatos, and this was her response to me, copying everyone else:

"Hi Chris,
I totally understand this would be a better location for you:-) It would have been fine to designate this as the run location back in January.
But, since we have 10 teams a season requesting about 10 permitted locations (tri requests 20) per team in one season (and multiple that by 4 for the entire year) ... we need to follow a procedure for permitting. Basically the head coach has to fill a detailed list of run locations/dates with waterstop locations in addition to the run route so our permit person can request permits from the appropriate park and rec areas and manage the permit budget. In the past this has not properly been done and LLS...."

ZZzzzzzzzz I won't bore you with the entire message but I will say that she basically lectures me on permitting for another two paragraphs.

So in response to this thing, I composed this:

Becky,

I've been doing this for a few years now and for a time I even dated a run team manager, so please believe me when I say that I fully understand the importance of permitting. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'd rather go to an insurance seminar than listen to the permitting process in greater detail. Now, back to the point:

Deep within that procedural rant you sent me I detected between the lines that this is much less about protocol and a lot more of you being upset about not being consulted on a decision arrived to by the head coaches. I can't help but think that if Doug and Tim came to you and said "hey, we think Los Gatos makes way more sense and since there are only about 20 people running, we probably wont need a permit, what do you think?" common sense prevails and I don't think we are having this conversation right now. If this was really about procedure and following rules, I don't think you copy the other coaches and other members of your staff(excluding Tim) for support. I think you would have gotten on the phone and talked to Doug and/or Tim and let them know what you thought.

I also found it ironic that in your second letter you tried to make this about me and my logistical convenience on June 2 in lieu of what this most likely is, your ego somehow being threatened.
We can do better than that, can't we?

Regards,

Christopher Barber

P.S. On second thought, I think I would like a more detailed explanation about the permitting process. No rush, whenever you have time...

Should I send this? I will let you vote and decide. click the comments section and let me know what you think I should send it or eat it!

The Jeep gets a new attitude

The only way I know how to do political, as a total smart ass....

We Believe

What a week for Bay Area sports! Of course the Warriors are normally on vacation this time of year and any discussion of them would strictly be about the Lottery for the draft. But this year couldn't be more different. The Warriors not only made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years but last night they eliminated the team with the best record in the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks.


I was very lucky to be able to attend game 4 last Sunday with my friend Tim, we had such a blast. And again for last nights deciding game 6. I have been to MLB Playoff games, NFL playoff games, Championship boxing, a karaoke face-off and even cock fights*, but nothing was as electrifying as last nights Warrior game. My voice is still hoarse and my ears are still ringing from the crowd noise, not unlike how they felt after Metallica or AC/DC concerts back in the day. People stood on their feet throughout the game, our seats were merely personal space boundaries and where you stored your coat. The cheering turned to celebration that lasted well after the game was over, on the BART ride home, and into the parking lot of the Fremont BART station. It was amazing.

As with most Bay Area teams that do well in the playoffs, the Warriors also drew celebrities from Los Angeles. These are generally the same people you see at Laker games. Shallow, fickle, full-on media whores who seemingly make a living by being seen. Apparently you get famous from your job, and then your job is to remain famous. There were a lot of "stars" in attendance but the people I was able to see were Snoop Dogg, Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Penny Marshall, and rapper Too Short. Two things that surprised me: number one, the attention that Snoop Dogg received was incredible. You would have thought Jesus Christ entered the arena. And secondly, how different celebrities look in real life. In movies and TV, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba are very beautiful women. In real life, they are cute little girls. After seeing Jessica Alba, I actually felt guilty for all those improper thoughts I had with her over the years. (maybe "guilty" is a strong word...) Also in attendance was Carlos Santana, but I won't include him in this group as he is a San Francisco native and a huge Raider and Warrior fan, not to mention an absolute Rock God.

With the Sharks in the playoffs, the Giants pitching messiah starting his first MLB game on Sunday, and now the Warriors march towards NBA greatness, it's a great time to be a Bay Area sports fan!!!

*I never actually attended a cock fight, (of the male chicken variety) this was entered as comic relief. No animals were harmed during the composition of this blog.