Life After Work

It was a short work day for me today.  I had lunch with some church folk, and then went to church to take that “balloon drop” down.  I tried to take it down all last week, but man, our facility is really busy (a good thing)!  Tonight is Men’s Retreat band practice – the last one before we go on the Retreat.  I’m looking forward to both!

Day 129 mood: Still a little tired… which means that it must be pollen.  My eyes are itchy too.  Nothing like spending a retreat weekend surrounded by pollen-producing trees!  I’ll have a great time despite this.

Today on the chip front, work was fun, but a little rushed.  I tried to do as much as possible today because the designer and I have opposite days off this week so really, I need to get all the changes in to him by Wednesday AM.  He’s off Thursday, I’m off Friday.

Well, I’m so worn out from my effort today.

Maybe pollen allergies have something to do with my tiredness as well.

Day 128 mood: Tired!

I got some good news today at work: My “teammate” in this layout project is now on another chip.  Really, this chip should have been a one-person layout project all along.  I know that one of the goals of the company was for me to train my replacement so she can do all the future bipolar chips without me, but in doing so, we went way too quick for the designer.

Outside of work today, I also had a parent-teacher meeting, which went well, and the kids and I took my wife out for a Mother’s Day dinner; one day late.  The weekend was just crazy, with a visiting pastor and all, so we didn’t have time for Mother’s Day on Sunday.  The pastor visit went great, and celebrating Mother’s Day on a Monday worked out well because the restaurant was fairly empty.  We might make this a new tradition!

Day 127 mood: Happy!

Yup, ran out of chip work today, so I started compacting the cells.

On the church front, we have a pastor candidate coming down this weekend.  I’ll need to spend a little time tonight going over the pastor’s information that we’ve collected so far.  Saturday starts a flurry of activity.  Looks like I’ll need to go to work to rest.

Day 124 mood: Yeah! Pastor Visit!

More of the same.  Actually, the chip is already nearing completion, and layout is probably a week ahead of design.  We’re going to need to stop at some point.

Out side of work, the thing I’m most excited about is tonight’s band practice; not so much because I get to play, though that’s always fun, but because I’m starting a Bible study with the group tonight.  Most of the band doesn’t get a chance to go to the Adult Education hour because they’re playing at that time, so I’ve been asked to lead the band in a Thursday night study using materials I’ve put together over the years for Adult Ed.  The last Adult Ed class I did was on Nehemiah, so that’s where we’re starting.  When I originally did the class, it was supposed to be a single week class, but we only got through a third, and we were rushing to get that far.  It really was a three or four week class.  Now with the band, it’s going to be more on the range of 13-15 weeks.  We’re going to take our time; that, and because Thursday evening’s study will be 20 min, not 1 hour.

Day 123 mood: I am looking forward to the weekend.

Breakfast with Bery & Culley, and an afternoon meeting with Pastor John made for a very short work day.

When I got to church, they asked: “Did you say you came from work?”  I guess they assumed I was at home.  I have been home a lot for the last five months, so this would have been a good guess.  They seemed happy that I had a steady job, even if it was contract and therefore temporary.

Day 122 mood: I’d like more days like this!

I still believe that we’ll run out of schematics.  Good thing I have a short day tomorrow at Company #1.  I’m doing some church work in the afternoon.

Well, Company #1 came to realize today that my contract ends on Monday.  I’m OK with this since I have other work, but since the current chip is running late, Company #1 was in a bit of a panic.  They extended my contract through the end of the month without asking me if it was OK.  I hope I’m not here that long; money or not.  I’ve got two other chips to start and finish, hopefully before my summer vacation in mid-July.  At least during slow times at Company #1, I can work on my other chip projects.  I’ve been told that this is OK whenever there is a lull – they desire for me to be in the office to field questions whether I have work to do for them or not.  This could work out alright–Company #1 does have the good tools that Companies #2 & #3 lack–though all things being equal, I’d rather work at home if not working for Company #1.

Today, I also rebalanced my retirement accounts – ever on the road to more conservative behavior.  You see, I’ve been pretty risky these past 10+ years and it all worked out… except for those two big down market years (2002, 2008).  I got absolutely killed those two times.  I can’t afford to do that to many more times because, in theory, 2011 marks 20 years until retirement for me.  My plan has been to start buying some bigger cap stocks and some bonds starting now… and so I did.  Even with the adjustments, I’m still considered “super aggressive” according to the experts.  It’s just my style, what can I say.  Here’s my plan/breakdown:

Well, I will tell you that I’m less “safe” than this chart appears: my large caps and international stocks are almost all in the sector markets now – not in some index mutual.  The way I figure it, my goal is to beat the index (S&P500 in my case), so to buy an index mutual equals defeat because no mutual can ever match the thing it is emulating.  Even the best S&P500 index fund will underperform the S&P500 by a few tenths of a percent because fees are always involved (Vanguard comes closest because they charge less).  If I’m on top of things, I should  be able to beat the average.  For the last couple of years, I’ve predominantly owned energy & oil stocks, and I’ve done amazingly well.  I’m now adding gold & medical.

Day 121 mood: Another extremely productive day.  I’m beginning to think that my role as a manager was keeping me from being productive on these chip layouts.  I’m getting so much more work done now!

I’m thinking that if this keeps up, I will no longer be able to call this blog “Life After Work.”  It seems that I’m working a fair amount these days.  Today was another fun and productive day at Company #1, but I think we’ll be out of schematics and work by mid-week.  Good thing Company #2 is gearing up this week.  I could find myself with a void in my schedule otherwise.

I actually used work today to rest from my weekend.  Church and family activities wore me out!

Oh ya, last night, they announced that Bin Laden is dead.  I know that politicians and the media will make a huge deal of this and claim it’s a “game changer,” but the truth is that he’s been a figurehead for years now.  In order to keep himself safe, he all but cut off communications to his generals years a go.  The generals have been running things since that time.  Still, killing off a figurehead is a victory because it’s so hard to establish a new figurehead that people will follow.  It won’t change how the Al Qaeda insiders work, but it will change the mood of the outside followers.

Day 120 mood: Happily Productive and not dead like Bin Laden.

Today was a nice easy (and productive) day.  The layout folks remain well ahead of design… which means that at some point, we’ll be doing a lot of rework.  It also appears that we’re quickly running out of room on the chip.  The chip was due to grow anyway.

When I got home, I got my first consultant paycheck from company #1 (my former company that let me go).  As has been the case with all other consultants at this company, the check was late.  Still, it sort of felt good to get a rather large check from the company that “no longer wanted or needed me.”  I’ll be sending invoice #2 to them real soon!

Day 117 mood: Yeah, it’s Friday… and payday!  I don’t know that I should celebrate too much though – four months has passed since I was let go and to date, I have received two consulting checks.  So far, I’m not making my minimum quota – the amount that offsets my burn-rate.

Last night’s Men’s Retreat band practice was awesome!  The band sounds great.  Prior to that evening event, I had decided to beat the traffic, and then have dinner so I scooted across the big valley and wound up near my friend’s house at Tony & Alba’s Pizza.  I love those guys, and didn’t realize that a new one had opened up in the South Bay.  The food was great, and I got to watch a couple of innings of Giant’s baseball as I ate.

Today, it was back to work.  The layout team is still going too fast.  We pretty much finished everything that was available today, so tomorrow will be reviews and revisions unless the designer catches up.  I guess I’ll use the time to also compact the layout.  I did a fair amount of that today already.

Yeah, company #2 called today.  They want me to go over the chip sometime next week.  It would appear that they are at or ahead of schedule.  This is great news because I’m also at or ahead of schedule at my present contract.

Tonight is band practice, and because we are playing in two locations this Sunday, we have two bands practicing.  I’ll run lights for the Youth Band (they’re in the gym), then I’m on guitar for the “chamber group” that will lead the later service in the sanctuary.  It should be a long night.  I hope those balloons are still up in the ceiling!

Day 116 mood: Happy and productive.