Letters to the Power Plant #13 — Dellbert at Dell

After I left the power plant and went to work for Dell on August 20, 2001, I wrote letters back to my friends at the plant letting them know how things were going.  This is the thirteenth letter I wrote.  Keep in mind that at the time when I originally penned this letter I didn’t intend on it being posted online.

11/09/01 – Dellbert at Dell

Hello to overhaul worn buddies,

I have had an interesting week.  On Monday my 2nd line manager took me and another guy out to the Macaroni Grill to eat.  They had this paper table cloth and he started to write all over it with a crayon drawing diagrams about things at Dell.  I kept looking around knowing that there might be some spies lurking about, but it wasn’t that crowded, and there was just a couple of ladies sitting by us with some very young kids, and all they were doing were eyeing the crayons wishing they had some so they could draw also.

We sat there for two hours discussing this and that.  (Notice how I’ve learned to avoid the dreaded — “DELLSECURE” notice).  This and That is a good phrase for just about anything.  Anyway when we were done with our discussion, the manager started to scribble out everything that he had drawn, and that was just about all those little kids could handle.

They had been complaining to their mom earlier that they didn’t have any crayons, but when they saw that grown man scribbling all over the table, they went ballistic.  Needless to say, the Hostess quickly supplied them with their own set of crayons.  — I think the manager was a little jealous by this, because they clearly had a pink crayon, and we didn’t.  He didn’t make a fuss about it though, but it might have been reflected on the tip.  I’m not sure.

Anyway, they’ve been upgrading things here, and so servers have been going up and down all week, and sometimes I could write programs on one server, and sometimes I could write them on another one, and at other times, I could write them on two servers, only to have them completely reformatted, and loose everything I had.  —  Luckily I back everything up quite regularly now.  Especially after my manager made the point to tell me that I should back up my work many times.

I had one of my monitors pushed all the way back in the corner of my desk and the other clear down at the end of my cubicle, and I was wondering if he wanted me to do a circle for safety again, when he finally explained that he wanted me to back up my work so I wouldn’t keep losing it.  He also went the extra mile to point out that he didn’t care one way or the other where I placed my monitors on my desk.

Backing up by the way doesn’t always have to be done in a “pickup”.  It can also be done on a computer.  Actually, it’s quite the opposite.  Where you have to do the circle for safety before you back your vehicle, you only have to click and drag stuff to back things up on a computer.

I suppose, if you weren’t paying attention to what you were doing (as some people like myself are apt to do) and you got things mixed up, you might end up clicking and dragging your truck around the parking lot, and running rings around your computer monitor.  I suppose that would look kind of silly.  At least that’s what some members of my team have said.

Anyway, today we had a “Mixer” for lunch.  That was where we had a lunch in that big room I have so frequently mentioned.  It brought back memories of how Eldon Waugh never wanted the Women’s Club to have dinner with the Men’s Club, because that would lead to “Fraternizing”, and that was nothing but “Evil”.

Well.  We had a lot to eat for lunch, and I’m very full of it, (at least that’s what some have been known to tell me), and if that is Fraternizing, I will have to agree with Eldon.  Anyway, that is where I think I ran into Dellbert, and finally you can see why I have the Subject as Dellbert at Dell.  I’ll tell you more about him later, because, it is Friday, and it is 5:00 and I have to go.

I realized after I sent the last letter that I had left off the subject line.  Oh well it was too late by then, and you could probably have guessed by reading it, that the subject of last weeks letter was:  “Fun at Dell”.

I hope everything is well with all of you.   Way to go Mark Fielder!!!

Your Dell Pal,

Kevin James Anthony Breazile

______________________

Kevin J. Breazile

Programmer Analyst II

Dell Computer Corporation

(512) 728-1527