Reconnecting with the Past [26 Sep 2008|08:47pm] The thought of updating my LJ didn't even cross my mind until a moment ago as I told my sister about the events that happened earlier today over im. Basically, I went to PSU Brandywine today after work to drop off my graduate school recommendation form so I could have Mr. Bodek be my recommendation for PSU GV. Anyway, I wanted to do it last Saturday during the IST Reunion but he couldn't make it cause of his son's soccer game. I was instructed to leave it at his mail box or slide it under his office door - neither options were available because I couldn't access either rooms..... On the bright side I did get to speak with Mr. McGlinchey and Mr. Wawrzyniak during my very brief visit. I got there late and I was only there for a short amount of time. I spent a few minutes talking to McGlinchey which I thought was a but awkward. I thought he would've been more excited to see me and etc, but he was busy eating and there were to other folks at his table.... My conversation with Mr. Wawrzyniak was quite short as well but it was much more exciting than the one I had with McGlinchey, because the moment I saw him he knew it was me and I thought he was bad with remembering names and faces. Then I proceeded to greeting him and thanking him for everything he's taught me. I told him that everything he's taught me is exactly what I'm currently using at LM. He was really cool about it told me how a lot of his old students would thank him for all the sql stuff he's taught them. I bet I'm the first to thank him for all the stuff he's taught me about capturing requirements and performing the various analysis work involved with the SLDC. After that I gave Jacquie a tour of the school and we went to the mall when I realized that I couldn't drop of my recommendation form at Mr. Bodek's mailbox or office. I did however did get Mr. McGlinchey to fill out the other form. I'll get my project lead to fill out the third one. Now since I couldn't drop off the form last Saturday, I decided to give it another try today early this week when I notified Mr. Bodek via email that I'd be stopping by today to give him the form. I got there around 12:40ish or parked in the Main Building Parking lot because I didn't feel like walking from the main parking lot to the main building -- besides I don't have a student parking tag so it made much more sense to park in the visitors' section... Well, after a quick visit to the restroom, I walk to Bodek's office and hope that it's still there, haha. Who know if he moved to a different office.... But as I was making the left to go down the little hallway to his office -- I run into Mr. Bodek. He goes, "Oh Hi, Guy!", which is his typical way of greeting someone. I'm guessing he does that if he can't think of the person's name right off the top of his head -- which happens to be me in this case... I said my greetings and we walk back to his office. As we approach his office, he makes a comment about my work clothes and I jokingly said that I have to dress well to interact with the customers we support and then makes a comment about them being low ranking military folk. In my rebuttal, I say they're actually generals which he got a kick from. We stood around for a bit and I handed the recommendation form over to him and he takes a look at. I briefly explain what he has to do and etc. Then I was getting ready to leave but our conversation revs up and he offers me a seat. So we ended up chatting for about half an hour. Overall, I'm glad to say that our conversation was much more delightful than the one I had with Mr. Wawrzyniak and especially much more enjoyable and less awkward than the one I had with Mr. McGlinchey. We definitely joked around a lot and the student-mentor/instructor relationship seems to have evolved into a mutual friendship between two working professions. We shared a lot stories about what's going on in our professional lives and general updates about what's happened since my commencement from Brandywine. Then our conversation had to come to an abrupt end because Mr. Bodek needed to walk over to the Classroom Building and prepare for his class -- IST110, poor guy..... We said our farewells and walked down the stairs together where he told me about his son's soccer game since I asked. Then we parted and went to the bookstore to pick up some PSU gear for my very very boring cube. I picked up a stupid PSU banner that cost 10 bucks.... and the academic planner that I like to use since my sophomore year at Brandywine. The drive home was uneventful and then I got home to change into more comfortable clothes to go get my car fixed... So lame... I've had the car for less than a year and the stupid engine check-light goes off... I wasn't very happy about the guy's method in fixing it other.... he basically plugged the car to a computer and ran a diagnostic test and then told me that these things may happen because of several issues. So what he did was turned the lights off and told me to go back to them if it ever happens again.... At least the guy speaks english unlike the other mechanics which really bothers me. So we'll see if the problem happens again... I better not... Around 7:30ish I get a call from the... PSU Alumni Association about updating my contact information and work information. I provide him with an update and we talk about what I do and etc. Then he unleashes the donation question which I should have expected. He ask me if I could donate a 100 bucks to the IST future fund and I say no I can't at the moment. Then he asks if I can donate a modest amount of 25 bucks and again I declined, but I did let him know that I received a letter requesting a donation for either the IST Fund or to Brandywine (The guy was actually calling to follow-up the letter that was sent to me). I tell him about the letter and said that I will donate at a better time and that I will because PSU had given me so many opportunities and helped me get to where I currently at -- which I feel is true. I've created new bonds meanwhile expanding my network plus wealth of knowledge that I was able to walk away from there. I bet that makes me sound like an absolute tool but it's true. I suppose I got lucky.... post comment

Final Day at SAP America, Inc or as Vince Calls it...... [12 Oct 2007|08:25pm] Bad Touch Friday -- The Final Friday! And man, I haven't heard that phrased used since July when I had declared the month of July as bad touch July! That truly was a horrid time. Vince would bear hug me, try to tickle my side or grab my hand to make me feel uncomfortable in a jokingly way. All in good humor as usual. So today was my last day at SAP America after spending about 6 months there. I started my internship there on the second week of April if I can remember correctly. I didn't want to leave but I had too... I didn't want my sister car-pooling with me to school early in the morning just so I could go to work at 8. I know how much it sucks having to go to school so early in the morning only to have your class later in the morning. It's such a waste of time and more importantly, a waste of valuable sleeping time. Poor Robo... Perhaps I should give her a metal for roughing it out for so long. Otherwise, I would still be interning till I graduated from school or had secured a full time job for after college. On the bright side, Tom, my manager, did offer to extend my internship and full time job, but neither opportunities were available so I had to stick with my self-declared exit date and leave as planned. A few weeks back Tom wanted me to give him exit date so he could prepare the termination process for my internship. I figured I'd leave on the the 12th, because today marks the end of the 1st half of the school semester and it would give me half a semester to rest up and search for full time position somewhere else. I walked into the building around 8:15 today then I proceed through the turnstile to badge in, but I don't hear the clearance clear beep. I figure that the guys in security haven't extended my security access to today. I go to security to ask someone about it, but it eventually gets resolved around 9:00. Apparently, the guys in security didn't receive Tom's e-mail request to extend my security clearance till today afternoon till around 9ish. Luckily for me I bump into Steve and Dan who works in the NOC with me. I wait for them to finish up their smoke so I could get them to let me downstairs to the data center, but then I bump into Vince who caught the elevator with us. I have to say that this was perfect timing because I was about to turn on my pc so I could get the number to call one of the guys downstairs to let me down, but they were out in the back smoking and I bump into Vince. This definitely saved me a lot of time and effort in having to find the right phone numbers and then calling them to pick me up. For the first half of the morning, I was asked by Steve to train Eric, one of the new interns, how to do the DBMON checks for the customer systems. I do that, but boy did I do a bad job. I missed a simple check box which caused him to have to redo it and he was halfway done.... Smart move, eh? The funny thing is that when Steve trained me how to perform the DBMON checks, he had forgot to tell me to check the same check box ALSO so I wasn't checking all server backups for like a month until Rich caught the error! >_< Then I go and review with Marc, an outside contractor from Quatro Systems, Inc., a little more on how to process tickets and use CSS. For the most part, I think I did a good job and either men know what's going on. Well... at least for Marc I did a good job!! I can't believe that I made that stupid mistake with Eric, which forced him to redo the stupid spreadsheet.... I feel pretty bad cause I know how painful it is having to perform the db checks for the customer systems. It takes about half an hour just to complete it and that's only if you're fully comfortable with it. For the most part, I spent the morning goofing with the guys one last time. I got to play one last round with Ryan and Marc. I'd say I played an even match with the both of them. I won and lost an even amount of games. The best part was when Ryan, Vince and I were walking to 8DCF to check on some servers that's in storage. While we were walking away from their desks, I say,"Vince, I'm going to carry you there!" or something along that line. I bend forward for him to grab on and he does but then for some reason I actually do carry him. I was actually going to lift him off the ground using my legs and back but I ended up giving him a piggyback ride out to the floor from the office area, haha. I did this despite my sore knees that I got from running last Saturday with Robo. The funny thing is that while I was carrying Vince out to toward the side door, Ryan runs up and swipes his badge to open it up for us. I walk us through and I started picking up the pace! By now Vince is yelling at me to let him down which I do immediately. I guess the ride just got too scary for him, haha. At 11:30 we leave to leave to go to Qdoba for lunch and damn did it take forever for me to decide where I wanted to go for lunch. Tom had asked me the previous day and earlier in the morning where I would like to go for lunch. I told him that I'll think about it and ask the guys to see what they wanted too do. When I asked them no one would give me an answer and Ryan told me that it's my decision. That's not helpful considering how indecisive I am, so I decided to stick with Mexican and go to Qdoba instead of the Bell cause it's more appropriate to go there since it's a little more upscale compared to Taco Bell. Lunch was good and Tom paid for me as a good gesture to my departure from SAP. I had a Chicken Burrito that was massive! I was so full from eating it! The thing is huge because they pack it rice and everything! While eating it the wrapping broke and the guys were poking fun at my rookie way of eating the burrito, haha. Apparently there is a certain technique to eating it and you must never put the burrito back down on the tray after each bite according to Ryan and Marcus. It's considered traveling if you have to take more than 2 motions to eat it as Marc had so clearly explained to me, haha. Ah, man good times. The ride back was even more outrageous because we were talking about all shorts of crazy stuff. We rode in Tom's Nissan Titan with him, Tim, Vince, Marcus and myself. Ryan rode with Dean and his intern and Ajie who's one of the new data center interns. By the time we get back it's around 1:00 and I help Eric with a problem he was having with saving the DBMON spreadsheet. I fix it for him but I noticed that he hasn't completed it yet because he's been receiving training from Ed on how to image and re-imagine a server using Altiris. As such, Steve asks that I take over for him and finish it up. As I bring up the spreadsheet and fire up the DBMON page on internet explorer Ryan walks in and tells me that Tom wants me to go over to the GSC building to finalize my termination process instead of him coming to the data center to meet up with me. Originally he was suppose to meet me in the noc before he would give a tour of the data center for some people but it got canceled so he wanted me to go over there. Before I go to the GSC, I say my farewells with Rad, Steve and Dan which was extremely touching. It's been a good run with them and I've had fun working with those guys. They've been like an older brother and father figure to me. Rad even begins singing the "nah, nah, nah,nah, hey, hey, good bye" song to me to wish me off, but I tell him to stop, haha. It was just too much to embarrassing for me. The guys tell me that I'll do well because of my ethnics and etc, which I found to be very encouraging. Afterwards, I go over to Center City, where the office area is held at to say bye to Vince, Ryan and Marc. I tell them that I was leaving and Vince gets up and gives me a big ol' hug. I hug back but twice as hard which causes him to fart, haha. I was not expecting that at all. He then lets go and walks toward the back door to go check on something out on the floor. Before he goes through it, I tell him to keep in touch and that we should hang out. He agrees and tells me to call him whenever. Next I walk over to Marc's desk and Ryan gets up. We both check out Marc's laptop cause he has something funny to show up. After looking at what he has to show us I offer my hand to Ryan and he shakes it. We say our good byes and I do the same with Marcus. Next I walk out casually which would be the last time I step foot in that data center. I catch the elevator upstairs to the first floor and by this time I'm debating on whether I should use my $4.25 on some snacks at the cafeteria instead of wasting the money, but because I was short on time I decide to the garage to pick up my car so I can drive over to the GSC building to see Tom. I get there around 1:30, but I get lost because I forget which floor Tom's office is... I haven't been to that building in months!!!!! I finally find the floor after a single try and proceed to Tom's office. Before I go see him, I quickly stop by my old half-desk to check to see if my name tag is still there and IT IS! I quickly take it out of the placard and carefully fold it up so I can put it into my pocket without wrinkling it. I knock on Tom's office and he tells me to walk in. We speak for a few minutes and like the idiot that I am I don't tell Tom' what I really wanted to say when he asked if I had any final comments, concerns or questions. I shake my head no and say that I don't like always.... What an idiot... Obviously I have lots to say but it never comes to me at the right time or place so I leave his office without truly and sincerely thanking him for the opportunity that he has given me and how much of an experience it has been to me. Then a minute later Judy Miller, the lady that handle's the affairs for interns, walks by and Tom calls her in. He tells her who I am and I hand over my laptop and badge to her. Earlier he had checked my laptop bag to make sure that I have everything inside and tells me that he's doing this as it is procedure and not because he doesn't trust me. Judy accepts the stuff, wishes me farewell and walks away. Then Tom asks me if there's anyone I want to say bye too before I leave. I tell him to give my goodbyes to Jim and Rick since the both of them are out. We both get up and I tell that I want to say bye to Tim before I leave. We both go over to his desk and we shake hands and etc. I talk a little more with Tim and Tom about when I'll be graduating how much longer I have left. Then he tells me that he'll show me the way out and walks me to the side door that leads directly to the parking garage. We both walk to the door and before Tom heads back to his office he reminds me to stay in touch and that if I ever need anything just ask him and he'll do whatever he can may it be a letter of recommendation, a inquiry about a job opening and etc. He gives me his business card, then we shake hands and we say goodbye one last time. He goes back to his office and I turn around to walk through the door and down path leading to the garage. That moment felt truly strange because I no longer had my security bad around my neck of the weight of my laptop pulling my right shoulder down. I remind myself that I was no longer an employee of SAP and proceed to my car. I drive out of the garage and through the path behind the buildings that leads to the exit of the premises. By this time, I'm listening to Finch and I get onto route 3 which leads me back to school. I'm running a bit late for my Anthropology class but i wasn't going to go because I wanted to stay longer at work. When I finally get to school, it hits me in the face that I'm back to being a full time student and I go to the library to photocopy my internship evaluation sheet. I want a copy of it before I hand it in to Mr. McGlinchey, which I'll have to do some time soon. And so, that's basically my morning up to 2ish this afternoon. It still feels a bit depressing to think about because I really enjoyed working with those guys. There were some ups and downs but definitely more ups than downs. I wish I could go back to working there until i graduate but things happen and so I must roll with the punches. I still keep in contact with Tim and Kishan and I plan to do the same with the guys that still work there. Perhaps I can call them up next week and ask Ryan, Marc and Vince to go to lunch with me. My school is about 15 minutes away from SAP so it won't be out of the way to meet up with the guys for lunch one of these days before I go to school. And not to go sappy on everyone, but this has been one hell of an experience and I will cherish it. I am going to use what I've learned at SAP and apply it to whatever I do in life and at my next job. I've spoken enough and I will leave it at that, haha. Good night all! post comment

It's already the 15th day into the new year [15 Jan 2007|04:19am] *sratches head* I can't believe that we're already halfway through the money of January! Time sure goes by really quick when you're not keeping track of it. What's even more depressing is that I have about a day left before spring semester '07 begins... NOOO! I don't wanna go back to school! On the bright side it's a light schedule compared to what I've gone through the past two years. The bad thing is that since I'm taking such a lite load I have to get all As to be able to get my gpa up to a 3.5. At least that's not as bad as preparing for my job interview that's less than half a month away...!!! God dammit, do I not want to grow up! I haven't even been able to get my suit yet. Hmm, I guess the purpose of this update is to rant. Haha, this stinks! I wish it was christmas again. It's already 3 and I should go to bed. I don't know how I'm gonna be able to sleep tomorrow night because I'm so use to going to bed really late. Not good... --Felix post comment

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