Tokyo

I shot this out my hotel window this morning in Tokyo. It's always fun for me to look out the window at the ants below! (It's better to watch with a cup of coffee.)

You never know what you're gonna run into

Edit what?

After pulling out most of the stops, I managed to piece together a technical paper (customer C) that’s heading for publication next month. (It’s a cute little deal where I write the paper, then slap my customers name on the paper and they take all the credit.) Anyway, the customer loved the paper, but he somehow had a SERIOUS brain fart and gave the paper to his marketing department.

When times are busy, no one has time to review these papers. When times are slow, like now, everyone, especially marketing people, want to pour over each and every little tiny detail of a paper that’s heading for publication. The paper was kicked back to me today from the customers marketing department, with about fifty changes DEMANDED.

Mind you, I’ve already sent the paper in for publication. This will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few days. I’m not offering to rewrite it. I can’t. It’s already been submitted. I’m willing to make a few modifications, but I can’t do a total rewrite at this point. I’ll yank the customers name off it and publish it under my own name if I need to.

In a strange twist of irony, I was requested by my company to select a gift for my customer to thank him for writing the paper. Is that messed up or what??? I picked a nice watch for myself, err, I mean my customer.

The time has come to address customer B this week.

flush-flush-flush

I’ve come to realize that in addition to being annoyed by my fellow travelers who talk while urinating (in the airport restrooms), I also don’t like my fellow travelers who brag to other passengers about how much they travel. Yawn.

I keeping flushing the toilet on the cesspool I outlined in my previous post, and two of the customers keep floating back up.

The stress has actually been waking me up at night for the past few weeks.

And we're off!

I’m sitting on a boiling cesspool of customer irritation as I begin the New Year.

Customer A is expecting that their equipment will be functional when they return from their two week holiday next Monday morning. It isn’t. I’m a software guy, it’s a hardware issue. Taint happening.

Customer B is expecting that I’ve sent them reams of technical documentation while they were on holiday the past three weeks. That just didn’t happen either.

Customer C is expecting that I finished writing up a paper for publication next month while the customer was off on holiday the past two weeks. Nor did that occur. I suppose it would help me to actually start writing the paper this month if I want to publish it next month. It seems like my publication submission deadline is on the 22nd of this month.

Tick tock…tick tock.

End of the year wrap up

Summary for the year:

Days (working) on the road: 165
Days (Holiday) on the road: 23
Miles Flown: 120,000’ish
Flights: 100’ish
Sick: None!
Forgetting name of grandchild: None!
Using incorrect name of Grandchild: Once

Where I’ve been:
Texas: Austin, Dallas, Houston
Illinois: Chicago
LA: Sulphur
MO: St. Louis; St. Peters; Rolla
OR: Hillsboro, Gresham, Tualatin
CA: Fremont; San Jose; Pleasanton, Oakland; San Francisco
Japan: Tokyo; Naka
Netherlands: Amsterdam
Italy: Naples; Pompeii, Rome, Florence; Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre

Overall, travel was down this year. The economy is certainly impacting my business travel. This is the lowest my numbers have been in several years.

2009 looks like a sleeper!

The short bus

I spent the better part of two weeks traveling from customer site to customer site in the South and Central Plains. Let’s call it a Wine and Dine jaunt. Four separate customers, four separate lunches, dinners, and an untold amount of drinks.

I’m witty, I’m charming, I tell amusing stories, but still…don’t my customers get tired of me? I’m certainly tired of them. I need time away from my customers so that I can recover from my customers themselves.

I see no immediate relief. I’m home for two weeks, but I need to work a bit through the holidays. I may end up working at a customer site on Christmas Eve. Who wants to see me on Christmas Eve? No one in their right mind! Right after the holidays I’m back on the road for the first two weeks of January.

One of my customers is requesting that I accompany her to Japan in January, but isn’t sure when. I tried to tell them that I book up fast, but no luck. We’ll just wait and see how that little ditty plays out.

One of my newest customers is demanding serious hand holding, but they have yet to take possession of the equipment I sold them. Once you buy, you get the love. No buy=no love. They hounded me so hard for documentation that I sent them all the same documentation I sent them six months ago. They didn’t even notice.

Nice summary of my work. I regurgitate the same material, they don’t notice. This lets me know that they’re just seeking my attention.

I need to find someone else to throw under the bus as a diversion.