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 twentieth 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.
01/24/02 – Dell-lightful
Dear Sooner Friends,
For a person that has been doing this type of job for their whole adult life, this may not have seemed like a great week. I, on the other hand, have found this week to be fascinating!! First of all — Or “Last of all”, we have a meeting with “Michael” tomorrow. — We call Michael Dell, “Michael”. It gives us that chummy feeling, like we are all one big happy family. (I’m sure you know the feeling — The “One Big Happy Family” feeling).
Anyway. We have a meeting with him in the morning. I’m not sure what he’s going to talk to us about. My guess is that he’ll bring Ben Curtis along with him (The “Steve” Dell Dude on the Commercials), and do something to cheer us up. I don’t think we really need cheering up. We seem to be doing real well. (Of course, I can’t say anything about how well we’re doing — That Insider thing you know. — At least until our next Quarterly report comes out).
I figure that “Michael” will bring the Dell Dude guy along, because he has been doing that around the company lately. Especially during the Holidays when we were swamped with so many orders, that I can’t tell you about, that people had to work a lot of overtime on the manufacturing floors.
Anyway. Tomorrow he wants to meet with the IT guys around here, so we will all get in some tour buses and take a trip into Austin and go to some convention center meeting place where there will be some kind of a presentation. — More on that to come, since that will be tomorrow.
The rest of my week. That is, the part that I’ve already had, (I guess I did that backward. I did “First of all” and told you about the last part, and then said “The rest of my week”, and now I’m talking about the first part), has been kind of slow.
I’m between jobs, and I’m in the Stabilization mode, as I have mentioned before. So I have been studying those computer languages that I told you about last week. — Well, this has been great. I have been reading away, and learning, and taking it fairly easy.
Then today, a guy came to my cubicle and asked me if I knew why some new hires were not able to log into a particular Database, and could I help him out, and so, instead of studying today, I have been helping install new users on servers and installing users on computers, and since they made me a Mail Exchange Server Administrator the other day, I even installed people’s e-mail systems for them. — This is not my normal job, but it was fun. — You guys know how I enjoy fixing people’s computer problems. I almost like doing that as much as I like writing programs.
So I had to contact Server Administrators, Database Administrators, install programs, run back and forth, smile at my customers, apologize to the Database Administrator for asking them to do the wrong things, run back and forth, write a bunch of e-mails, write trouble tickets to get things done, and say “Your Welcome” when everyone said “Thank You”. — So, you see, every once in a while, I have to do the same sort of stuff I had to do at Sooner Plant.
It just kind of reminded me of the days when I was at Sooner Plant, and Darlene would call me and ask me if I could run by the tool room because she was having trouble with her SAP, and Linda would call me on the radio and ask me if I could drop by her desk, because she was having trouble with her Outlook, and Jody would call me and ask me to drop by the foremen’s office, because he was having trouble logging on, and Gene Day would call me and ask me to drop by the Control Room for a few minutes, only to forget why he wanted me, when I finally arrived.
Note to Reader: For more information about Gene Day and jokes I would play on him, see this post: Power Plant Humor and Joking with Gene Day.
Oh yes, and Jasper would call me and tell me that, “We decided that no one at Sooner plant needs access to the Internet except Jim Arnold and Summer Goebel and only then to use e-mail”, and Jim Arnold would tell me that it doesn’t matter what you do, it is impossible for a computer to use more than 640K of memory. (yes. he said K, not Mb or Gb — That was when he got mad at me for calling him stupid – Some people just get mad for the funniest reasons).
Note to the Reader: for more information about these stories, see this post: Power Plant Quest for the Internet.
Anyway. Yesterday it was 80 degrees. Today a cold wave moved in and it’s getting down to the 40s. Brrrrr. There’s even “Wind” today!!!! What’s going on? And me in short sleeves!!!! At least I’m inside all day.
Thanks for keeping in Touch. Congratulations to George Clouse. (I guess he’s to be congratulated, — The poor guy).
I’ll write later,
Kevin James Anthony Breazile
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Kevin J. Breazile
Programmer Analyst II
Dell Computer Corporation
Power Plant Men 