Year of the Startup

OK, the rumors are confirmed.  I talked with someone in the know today and it’s all true, even the part about my former boss going to China to set up a new layout group –only to be replaced by that group.  Ah, the irony!  It would have been priceless to see him there, in China.  He is a homebody who has never been out of the states before, has no love of travel, and has a very myopic view of the rest of the world (even the rest of the US) as compared to his much beloved Home State.  He was probably cranky the whole time.

I also heard about the local layoffs today, and there were a few of them, though not many.  All were good people who shouldn’t have been let go.  One in particular was the guy who taught me layout 20 years ago and was my boss for a while.  He is a Principal Designer; a “Guru.”  How do you let those guys go?  That’s just stupid!  Designers are the foundation of any semiconductor company; a key designer especially so.  You just don’t let those guys go unless you’re planning on dismantling the whole division.  It’s corporate suicide!  Well, their loss – I’m going to see if I can get him into my company.

I heard that there was a big layoff at my former company today.  Half of the folks on our East Coast site lost their jobs, including the entire layout department… which would include my former boss – the guy who let me go due to a “management decision.”  It would appear that the new VP of the division made a management decision of his own to close down the East Coast facility (in part or in whole) and move everything to the West Coast.  It also appears that layout is going to China, though this is only a rumor.  I had heard a few weeks ago that my former boss went to China to set up a new layout group… and then they let him go today.  Since it is a rumor and I have no way of confirming any of this, the trip could just as easily have been canceled.

I suppose I should be happy that my former boss got the boot – really, he should have been demoted or let go a while back – yet I feel nothing but sadness for him and his family.  I feel even worse for the rest of the layout crew over there.  They were all dedicated and wonderful people who deserved better.  At least my former boss will not be inflicting pain on other people for a while… until he gets hired somewhere else.

He shouldn’t use me as a reference, or anyone else who has worked for him over the last five years.

I also hear that my replacement and her new hire were not let go, but that they received a 20% cut in pay.  Ouch!

I think they will maintain a small layout team on this coast for a while until the China team gets set up.  After that, we’ll see if they keep bipolar as a technology.  If not, then a few folks on the West Coast could be let go… and I’ll be there waiting to snatch them up at my new job!

Long day – didn’t finish work until 7PM.  Half of my day was spent analyzing and simulating two designs and the other half was spent correcting and improving a major powerpoint presentation.  I do believe that I’ll actually get back to layout starting tomorrow!

Dinner tonight was Indian cuisine; bought from a new Indian grocer in our neighborhood.  This is a rare treat for me.  Indian food tends to be pricy, but knowing how much food preparation is involved when making it yourself makes purchasing it totally worth it every time.  Indian food is labor-intensive!

Now at the end of my day, well fed and sitting comfortably, watching TV with my family, I am extremely happy.

Man, it’s getting really dark when I leave in the morning.  The sun is now almost up when I get to work.  Daylight Savings can’t be too far ahead, though I don’t know when it is.  I hope it comes soon!  The reason I mention this is because my blue car never totally “defogs” in the morning and with a massive amount of oncoming light from the oncoming traffic constantly shining on me, I can’t see a thing!  I’m driving by Braille (using the lane reflectors), and when I’m in the fast lane, as I often am, I have “Braille” on the right, but a concrete dividing wall on the left.  It would not take too much for me to crash into that wall – I can’t see it at all because of the wall of lights shining at me from the other side of the highway.  The wall shows up as some hazy and indistinct dark spot from my vantage point.  It would probably be safer for me to drive my yellow car right now – it doesn’t fog up.

With my boss going to China on Sunday, things are going at a frenzied pace.  While he’s away for two weeks, I’ll be the office manager – making sure things run smoothly and on time.

At my last company, I would occasionally be the top manager in the office, but it was always a laughable experience because I was a forth tier manager and I had very little real authority.  Here, I’m a staff level guy… as is almost everyone else at this start-up.  I just love flat management!

The weekend of moving in our new house guest went well.  As it turned out, she wasn’t able to attend her new school today – something legal happened; documents still needed to be signed – so we’ll do it tomorrow.

Over the weekend, we also had our church’s annual voter’s meeting.  As usual, it was long and stressful.  I’m glad this meeting only happen once a year.  Now with the new leadership installed, we’ll begin to move in new and exciting directions… and hopefully the direction God would have us go.  As usual, I am quite positive about our church’s future.

…And yes, the fumes were still at work today.  How long until that varnished wood gets moved?  I’m sick of it – literally!  At least it was a good day.  As per usual with a start-up, I wound up doing just about anything but what I thought I would be doing when I got in the office this morning.  I love this kind of variety and challenge!

The fumes were no better today, but I wasted no time in opening up the doors and starting up the fan, so the smell was minimized.  I still got queasy.  We did discover what happened.  The first floor construction guys had polyurethaned a whole bunch of wood in the abandoned space downstairs, right below our office.  All those fumes were seeping into our office space.  We called the complex owner and asked that the boards be removed.  He said that he’d try opening up the doors first to see if things cleared up.  They did.

My friends Tony and Shirley came to visit the office today to lend their expertise.   My boss and I showed them our business plan and they critiqued it.  They came up with many good ideas and many improvements that we’ll begin to implement on Monday. (wow, where did the time go – a 12 hour day for me, which is highly unusual).

This weekend, we inherit a semi-permanent house guest.  Friends of ours are being forced out of their apartment complex, and the youngest daughter is at a bad school right now, and is hanging out with bad friends.  She is going to live with us maybe five days a week so she can attend my daughter’s school.  The rest of the family will try to find a place in Santa Clara, where the older daughter attends school (she’s a senior).  I hope this whole situation doesn’t break up that family, or cause too much stress with my kids.  My daughter, especially, will need to clear out some of her junk and share her room.

I got to work today and there were major fumes in the place.  I was getting seriously ill so I opened up the doors and did my work out in the hallway for several hours.  The smell seems like it could be varnish or some sort of thinner; perhaps adhesive for carpeting.  The smell was worse when you turned on the A/C.

I checked around the building and there was construction happening on floors one and three (I’m on floor two).  Neither site smelled like varnish, but floor three was putting carpet down.  I then walked around the building to see if any paint supplies were being stored under an intake.  Nope, everything looked fine from the outside.

I never did find out what it was, but it pretty much ruined my day.  It took two hours after I went home before I could breathe normally.

At band tonight, I started what will be an eight to ten week study on why we worship.  I hope the band likes it and learns something from the study.  I know I will!

Another day at home; another successful, efficient and effective chip-making day.  For once I have a free night, so I will no doubt spend it with my family.  They’re great to be around!  I suppose I can also put together that slide show that’s due this Sunday.  Nah, I still have some time.  I’ll probably practice bass with my son instead.

I worked at home today.  I got a lot done too.  In the evening, my daughter and I had an appointment with our church’s youth group director because we had missed one of the recent confirmation classes.  We simply forgot!  We made up the session, and then went home.  My daughter had four hours of homework that night (and with me helping out too!).  Why don’t the teachers coordinate a bit?  It seems unreasonable to me that four classes out of six had an hour of homework (each) to do on a Tuesday night.

I felt like I worked overtime today!

Twenty-two years ago today, I was watching the “Battle of the Bay” pre-game show for the World Series – Giants vs. Athletics – when all the sudden, the house began rockin’.  I got into a doorjamb and grabbed Maxine, the lady my wife and I were living with at the time, and I held her as all her wall-mounted plates went crashing to the ground all around us.  The TV was still on, and you could hear Al Michaels panicking, and then nothing – the signal went out.

The quake didn’t last long, but it seemed to last an eternity.  When it was over, Maxine and I went around the house to assess the damage.  All the dishes in the kitchen cabinets had shaken out and had fallen on the floor; the only ones that remained had been in the dishwasher.  The refrigerator had moved completely across the kitchen.  The microwave and stand had as well.  I smelled gas, so I quickly went to shut off the valve and then the electrical panel.

My wife was teaching about three miles away.  I knew that she’d have to stay with the kids until the parents picked them up.  I decided to go help her out.  Riding my bike there rather than driving was a great decision; every road was bumper to bumper.  When the last child was picked up, we went home together.  The sun was starting to set.  All of us in our cul-de-sac decided to set up tables and chairs in the street, empty our refrigerators, and have a leftover party.  I also wheeled my gas grill out front so we could cook.  That was the evening I found out that my neighbor is allergic to nuts.  I nearly killed her with some tamarind chutney I had made (I was taking an Indian cooking class at the time!).  She got all puffy, but lived.

No electricity, no gas, no water, no phones for three days.  Bottled water, batteries and flashlights became premium items and stores charged accordingly.  It took us about that long to clean up all the mess.  On day three, our cell phones worked again and I could finally call my parents to say that I was alive.  They told me about all the damage that they had seen in the area on the news, and how many lives had been lost.  I only knew the numbers because I had a car radio I could listen to.  Later that day, electricity was restored and I could finally see the carnage for myself.  It was bad.  A week later, the gas inspector came by and we could turn on the gas.  Good thing too, it was beginning to get cold in the evenings.  A month after that, our chimney got inspected and was deemed good enough to use.

Twenty-two years later, I can’t help but think that we’re due for another big one.  I should be more prepared than I am.