May 22nd, 2009
On Travel, Friends, and Work
I've been traveling more for work with my new assignment. I'm on the SWAT team now at IBM. We're the group they drop into your place when there's a crisis and you need a technical helping hand. We're also Support at about L3 level. So when your C&S issues or your client issues get 'escalated' by support, they're likely to come through my hands now. It's been exciting and hectic and the workload is astronomical. It also means that I'm back on the road after a few years with not much travel. Such is life. I have more tools now than when I was traveling for Field Support.
I still have the blogmonkey. He's a great comfort and companion when I'm traveling alone. He mostly stays in his bag except when he's at the hotel. Twitter, which I use rarely has been a great tool for road work. Sitting in an airport alone with a few thousand other travelers is lonesome and boring, but with Twitter, I sat in Logan after Admin2009 and knew that Andy was getting his flight home, Chris was over in another concourse and 3 pals were back at the hotel having one last meal together before heading out. Upon landing, we all checked in the see if we got home, and by some minor miracle, we did. It's nice to be able to stay connected.
Skype has become my office community. There are 3 or 4 little chat groups that sprung up for various reasons that serve as "the office" for a lot of us home-based types. Its great to be able to reach over and tap someone on the shoulder to noodle tings out when you need to. The communities span the Atlantic and the Caribbean, so I can talk to friends at all hours. Sometimes you forget the distances. Like last night I realized that Gab must be up at ...wait 4AM in London?
LinkedIn and Tripit offered me a great treat this last week. I noted that I was headed to Detroit on business thru TripIt, and friend, former colleague and all around good guy Rob Wunderlich saw this and offered to show me a GREAT Greek restaurant and give me a tour of Downtown Detroit from a native son's point of view. Rob, thanks for that fantastic tour - it made me sort of sad, but I see that people do still care about that city - and that's cool. The food at Pegasus was wonderful too! And if anyone reading this needs a Rob to work for them right now, hire him!
The customer I visited this last week supplied me with a list of local restaurants in the Detroit suburbs, so for the past 2 weeks I've had some pretty tasty, non-chain food. Chris, thanks for the tip on the burgers at Miller's Bar and thanks for the company!
Now its a nice long weekend here in the states. I could work, but if I worked all weekend, I'd still be behind on Tuesday, so I won't.
Cheers
Created 5/22/2009 10:19:42 PM by Michael Kobrowski
(Michael Kobrowski )
I love greek food - comes from growing up in Germany and living in Greek and Turkish neighborhoods.
What did you have? I live in Indianapolis area (if you come this way, let me know) and I am not so happy with our greek restaurants here.... never been to Detroit, but now I have one place to look forward to ;-)
[2] On Travel, Friends, and Work
Created 5/23/2009 3:48:33 PM by Susan Bulloch
(Susan Bulloch )
Ah - the food - yes....Saganaki - required at Greek restaurants, Lambchops with rice and peas and a salad. Definitely visit this place if you're in downtown Detroit.
