A Problem Recitified

Yesterday I had a problem with the machine that dispenses the tickets for parking at a lot near my work. I ended up spending $10 instead of $5 because the machine wasn’t recognizing my credit card correctly. I was a little upset, but I took it all in stride.

However, today the same problem persisted. But, this time I just put cash into the machine and it worked… sorta. But, this time I decided to call the owners of the lot, Pike Place Market, and voice my concern with the automatic ticket dispenser. When I called I couldn’t get through to the parking supervisor, but I left a message.

When my call was returned he was really nice and understanding to my problem. I explained it to him and what I had done to cause the problem and in return for my double paying yesterday they are going to credit me $5 on Thursday. So, that’s pretty cool of them.

Overall, I was really happy with how the situation was handled. I wasn’t looking to get my money back, but they offered it and wanted to hear me out about what I did to cause my problem. I was a little skeptical about parking in the lot before today, but after talking to the supervisor I feel much more confident about parking in this lot.

It Almost Happened

Tonight, on my way up to Jamie’s for some Halloween eats and fun I saw an accident on the University Bridge. There was a bus (Route 66 Southbound) and a car on the southbound lanes of the bridge. The car looked to take a pretty good beating, but the bus look like nothing hit it. Judging by the way the cars were lined up behind the accident, I’d imagine that it was recent. I was just glad that I was not involved, despite the fact that I was heading northbound. However, on that bridge, you just never know.

Fast forward to my way back home from Jamie’s.

I am coming down the hill from 45th and it’s still raining and it’s dark out. I am trying to look a head to see if the right lane is closed (the one the accident was in) or if I was safe staying in my lane. As I approach the bridge I notice that there is a truck with it’s flashing lights on in the bicycle lane on the right side of the road, what I don’t see is the car stopped in my lane just to the left of them. Yes, stopped.

I have no clue why you’d stop a car on a semi busy road, right before the slippery bridge, in the darkness of night, nevertheless in the rain. But, it happened. Luckily, I was slowing down to give caution to the gentlemen in the city truck, because if I had not, I would have rear ended that car. Not like a little bit, but probably at 30-40Mph. So, thank God I was able to stop. The worst part about it is that the bridge is not well lit at all and to top it all off the car didn’t even have its break lights on! It was just sitting there in the road, presumably talking to the workers about what was going on or if something had happened!

When I almost hit the car the workers yelled something that was inaudible to my ears, but it got the attention of the car in front of me enough to have them speed off and take the next right. I don’t know if they were as scared as I was, but they sure took off like they knew they almost got hit.

Now I am home, and am writing about it and thankful that I am able to do so. Because if it wasn’t for that split second when I slammed on the breaks, this would be completely different night for me.

My New Rule

OK, time to be blunt: Don’t ask me specific things about Avanade unless I know who you are.

That’s my new rule. I don’t mean to be so harsh or blunt, but it’s a self preserving issue. Now, you can contact me asking me specific things about interviews, work environment, etc… via e-mail, IM, snail mail, what have you, but I will not respond. Why would I do this? Well, here are some reasons that I can think of:

  • I don’t know you.
  • I don’t know who you work for.
  • I don’t know if your desire for information is legitimate.
  • You could be a competitor.
  • You could be a client.
  • You could work for Avanade and see what I’d say.
  • You could want inside info on our internal processes.
  • Hidden interests are a dangerous thing.
  • Mainly, I don’t trust you.

Why do I even bother saying this? Well, I know that “avanade blog” or “avanade interview tips” are a couple of the highest hitting searches to find entries on this site. I also have been contacted in the past and I have done things that I no longer will do. However, I will say that I have been blessed with information from those much more wise than myself and am heeding that advice.

You might think that this is kind of a silly thing to do, but I see it otherwise. I don’t mean for people to think that Avanade is making me do this (they are most definitely not). I love working for them and I would speak highly to general things about the company, given the right situation and only giving up already publicly available information. Also, it’s not that I write about work on here that much, or with any regularity. I’m just not comfortable with it.

Now, when I was interviewing for jobs out of school, I didn’t know who I was going to be working for and I was sharing my experiences of the process with anybody who wanted to read it. I’ll keep those experiences archived here, but I just don’t write a lot about what I do. There’s a couple of reasons for that. Foremost is an NDA. You’d mostly be interested in what specifically I do and I can’t really talk about it. Secondly, blogging about work is just a mine field, in my opinion.

I don’t know why I’m even writing about this, but it’s been coming across my mind and I figure that if I write it down, I’ll move on. So, here’s to a topic that’s more interesting than this… like Buster the Pumpkin.

Poker Party #1

The Winning HandLast night was the first little poker gathering that we’ve done and it was a lot of fun. We ended up playing for almost three hours and in the end Jamie was our inaugural champion, winning $40. She was followed by Dan and then myself. It was cool to see everybody again, even if not everybody played. But, after the game was over it was off to Red Robin for some dessert or late dinner. All in all, it was a good night of games and fun. For some more pictures, check out my Flickr photoset. Now that the first one is over, expect to hear from me sometime this week about the next game.

Not a Part of the Flock

OK. Help me out here, I don’t get Flock.

So, it’s social bookmarking w/ del.icio.us, blogging with your favorite blogging program, pictures courtesy of Flickr, and searching of your search/page view history. But, how’s that better than what I already do with Firefox? I have the del.icio.us plugin for Firefox, I have a bookmark synchronizer, and I can live bookmark Flickr feeds if I wanted too (but I use NetNewsWire). So, what am I missing? Continue reading “Not a Part of the Flock”