Rant & Rave Thread

Rant: And I thought the North Koreans were the fucked-up ones.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2012/05/07/19727471.html

 

Rant: It's only Monday and I feel like my head is going to explode with all the shit I need to prepare for this week...

Rave: Breakfast date with the new girl in the morning.

 

Rave: Done! Just got home from my last class! One and a half more days on the internship and then ceremonies Friday afternoon! What an awesome feeling.

 

RANT Disclaimer – drinking Johnny black, 11 pm, still working while configuring an LDAP server, and slowly writing this post. Spell checking and meticulously going over grammar.

I honestly trust a lot of members on this board, so I’m airing this little bit of info I can’t post anywhere else. I will gladly accept constructive feedback.

I’m writing this because it had to be done. I’ve been kicking myself every single day for months over this issue.

To stay with the company:

> Got in early with good stock options. I know this company like the back of my hand. I can tell you 300 names, reporting managers, and what they do.
> Amazing boss/ genuine leader that I trust.
> Free reign of my dept, with EVP level support and backing.
> Full autonomy.
> It’s been a wild fucking ride. I cant emphasize that more.
> High level global IT Governance, Info Sec, Policy, Audit remediation, SAS 70 / SOX2 compliance. Pre-IPO. You cant pay someone for this level of career exposure.
> Seriously great product and company, growth at 100% every year. 300 head count right now, expected to be 600 by December.
> We’re in the black, only needed series A funding.
> Fast track position. 99.99% of college grads in my field don’t get this lucky.

To leave the company:

> They are fucking me hard on compensation package. I had to fight tooth and nail last year at my comp review. Threatened to quit just getting to an average pay... It’s like this for everyone in the products dept, and they wonder why we lose talent to other companies. We don’t make bonuses or commission, but build the product that others reap benefits from.
> I’m taken for granted, to the point of exploitation. Work 10-12 hr days. I’m addicted to my job like a heroin addict. Best friend put it like this ‘You’re a glutton for punishment.’
> I’m underpaid 45%. That’s no joke. I’ve turned down 4 poaching attempts in the past 9 months from other companies in the Bay Area offering similar numbers, and more in stock. I'm fucking loyal.
> Google ‘Equity Theory’ – nuff said.
> Boss loves me, but he’s a people pleaser. That’s his one weakness that I can find. He simply doesn’t want to rock the boat. He knows this is a problem, he knows me, and that I love this job and wont leave unless absolutely necessary. However he won’t have the conversation with the CFO until I’m literally holding an offer letter in my hand.
> I don’t believe in counter-offers.
> The market is on fire. I’d have a new job before I could get around to doing weekend chores.
> I have 3 open offers, 2 of which are from companies I could take and whip into shape for SAS 70 / SOX2 compliance. I’d take my time, and gain their trust, but there’s easy work to be done that I’ve already accomplished at my current company.
> My boss’s boss has no fucking clue what I’m doing. That makes compensation negotiation hard. I can’t pull what I did last year.
> I’m seriously being fucked on pay. It’s that bad.

So at this point I love what I’m doing and everything about the company, where it’s going, where my career is going, etc. However it’s hard knowing how badly I’m being burned. Especially when I see my buddies doing ‘mercenary contract IT’ making insane amounts of money with ¼ the responsibility I have.

I bust my ass for this company, every single day, and they can’t even pay me right. If I left right now, they’d have to hire 4 people to handle this workload. Somehow senior management doesn’t understand this fact, because they don't actually know what I do.

I know this is going to work out just fine in the long run, but I’m sick of feeling exploited every day.

Anyone in the IT field with some knowledge and experienced wisdom. PM me if you've got some advice.

 

RAVE Met a childhood hero last night!

 

Rave: I started a new job last week. So far, so good. It's a very cool company and it's based out of Seattle but they have an office in Indy. So next week, I'll be in Seattle for training. If anyone is familiar with or lives in the Seattle area and can tell me some cool things I should do, bars, restaurants, etc - I'd love any suggestions.

 

RAVE: Got a last minute ticket for Childish Gambino at a venue that's 6 blocks away from my house. WAIT IT GETS BETTER!. I'm going with a cute Persian girl I've already hooked up with. Probably my best Wednesday ever coming up.

 

Rant: I wasted my ability to neg-rep Parker on a ridiculous joke.

Rave: Basketball seasons started up again!

Rave: 1-0 so far on a last second buzzer-beater. We came back from 8 down with 3 minutes left, including being down 5 with less than 20 seconds left. Only rant...

Rant: I fouled with 8 minutes left. The reffing is definitely better than last season, and I agree with most of the calls, it's just...tough to get dinged for lowering your shoulder a little bit into a defender who has 60 pounds on you.

 

Rant: In the last 24 hours on my street

1. a car was left on blocks
2. 2 guys were robbed at gun point
3. a homeless guy exposed himself to me

Why can't people just not rob or be crazy?

Rave: Maybe adopting a kitten that my mom rescued.

 

Rant: Despite what you might think, making a student cry is not awesome. It makes one feel like shit and look to liquid love on a Tuesday night to ease the anguish.

Rave: Black velvets are as good as I remember from St. Patrick's Day.

 

Raves: Applied for The Dream Job in Australia, listening to Blackroc at work (Seriously, if you don't have the song "Coochie" by the Black Keys, Ludacris and ODB in your life, you are missing something spectacular), three day weekend.

Rants: In 8 days, I will have no job and I'll have to go back to the US with no job, no car, no insurance and just enough money to go, say hello, and get the hell back out of the country.

 

Rant: My head, body, and mind are utterly exhausted. 14 hour day today, and I didn't even get to fly.
Rant: I still haven't done 1/3 of the shit I need to do by Thursday.
Rant: I have literally no time to do most of this shit without breaking some rule. This means, I brief at 0730 tomorrow, after my flight ends at 1230, and after I go to the mandatory retirement ceremony an hour and a half away, I have to go back to the squadron for about 8 hours of planning still, which would put me at close to leaving the squadron at 0300 in the morning for my flight the next day at 0730. Should be close to a 20 hour work day tomorrow. How is this conducive to learning in the least bit?
Rant: The higher ups keep changing shit on us last minute which almost completely nullifies any plans we made before. Then they add something that we should be planning for. Then interrupting our planning process with their own little hip pocket class.

Spoiler

It's funny, some of the experienced pilots keep saying that they all went through it. I call BS, at no time were they expected to build and memorize a 100 slide brief with routes, landing zone diagrams, scheme's of maneuver, communications link ups, ROE, fire support, enemy and friendly situations, radio procedures, medical link ups, low level routes, traffic deconfliction, time lines, etc. and make it all make sense, then do it for two different scenarios having never done anything like that before, ever. They'll say we had a week to prepare for it, but no, we had something like two days. We were told we were doing this flight last Friday, so we came in and spent 5 hours prepping what we though was a decent skeleton of the brief only to come find out yesterday that it's basically useless. Sunday, we were volun-told to man the static bird at the air show for 6 hours, so no planning that day. So we spend a solid 6 hours yesterday fixing the brief, planning today's flight, and planning tomorrows flight. Today comes, and they change the brief again along with add new shit to it. We still have to go fly, but our helo wouldn't start, but we have to sit it out and wait for the repairs to happen, all while sitting in the aircraft away from our planning stuff, which makes us stay there until about 11 pm. Tomorrow we fly from 0730-1230, then we have to go to a retirement ceremony an hour and a half away for a couple of hours. Afterwards, we have to come back and plan the rest of the flight...which puts us at 3am ish leaving the squadron for a 0730 brief on Thursday.

Even some of the pilots are starting to say we got royally hosed...

 

Rant: First speeding ticket on the motorcycle. 56.1 in a 35, $123. I should be thankful that's all they caught me doing. I regularly do 135 in a 65 on the local expressway.

No way I'll get out of it but I'm still going to try to get the penalties reduced.

 

My day was ... interesting.

I want to say rant because some of my best friends hand their house hit by lightning and lost maybe half their house. That shit sucks. They are OK and have insurance. (They have my support regardless. I'd hide bodies and such.)

It's a rave because I had a fantastic date. The girl blows my mind. Not sure I could be happier. (If I could, I would love to see how that is.)

 

RANT: Broke up with the girl last night. I think it was destined to happen the way it did.

RAVE: Volbeat tomorrow night.

 

Rant:

My aunt is a well-respected and intelligent attorney. She also happens to be a difficult, spoiled bitch and, as I discovered today, apparently completely retarded.

My uncle just emailed me and said that at my sister's grad party coming up at the end of the month, my aunt would like to join us for cigars. Cool, sounds good to me.

However, she wants someone to light and start the cigar for her, as well as finish the cigar, because she only wants the middle portion (at this point, my eye began twitching).

When I asked why she made such a spoiled and stupid request, my uncle replied that she doesn't want to start it because the beginning is too harsh and she doesn't want the carcinogens at the end (eye is at maximum twitch level).

I swear this is what she told him, and I have no idea how a human with a functioning brain could ever believe that. It's like saying you're not going to finish your beer because you don't want the alcohol at the end.

On top of that, she has requested that someone provide her with a Montecristo #4--a world-renowned cigar--or "something comparable" (slow nose bleed begins).

I told my uncle that she can light her own fucking stick and toss it away whenever she feels like she's struck the cancer point. As for the Montecristo, I'll gladly bring her a decent starter cigar, but if there are Montecristo's to be smoked, she's not getting one unless she brings her own.

Unbelievable...

 

Rant: Looks like it is time for us to go out and buy our first pregnancy test. Jägerette is showing all the signs. Here is hoping for a negative, as we are just getting settled, she is in the running for a good job, and I start official university classes in the fall.

Not to mention the bender we went on last week for her birthday...

 

Rave: Picking up my fishing license and some gear today has put me in an awesome mood. In two weeks my ass will be in a canoe on a remote Boundary Waters lake and my only concern for seven days will be catching fish and not getting drunk enough to fall in the lake.

Rant/Rave: Last night I re-assembled a shotgun I've been working on for close to a year and as it turns out, some critical parts (i.e. the fucking trigger) are no longer functioning. To make matters worse, it's a very old gun that hasn't been made for 70 years so there's zero replacement parts out there. However... I just found a guy selling the same model gun in godawful condition and it's cheap enough that I can buy it to salvage the parts I need. I'd feel gut sick right now if If hadn't found his for sale ad, and I'm less than happy with myself for not detecting such a big issue this far into the job.