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 seventy first letter I wrote.
4/4/03 – Interns at Dell Computer Corporation
Dear brave Soonerites,
By now, I suppose you are in the middle of an overhaul. I wish all of you well. Work safe. Think of the “Yellow Flag” before the accident happens. Lift with your legs and not with your back. Do the circle for safety. Watch out for the other guy, and don’t take any wooden nickels. Oh, and finish your work two weeks early so that you can “Help the team!!”
I cleaned out my cubicle this morning. — I mean. I took out the Windex, (Well, actually it’s called “Screen Guardian”, and sprayed some paper towels and wiped off my desktop, and wiped off my computers and cleaned off my whiteboard (That’s a white chalkboard where you don’t use chalk). — When my neighbors were wondering what I was doing, I said, “What? — It’s Friday. — You know. Shop Clean-up. — Don’t you do shop clean-up?” I guess around here I should call it “Cubicle Dusting Day”.
Well. This weekend is the time when we move our clocks forward one hour. Now we all know what that means. — That’s right!!! That means that yesterday, Bill Green handed out “Smoke Alarm Batteries!!!!” at the Monthly Safety meeting!!! — Am I correct? I’m just curious.
How many of those batteries were already dead when he gave them to you? He always managed to give me a dead smoke detector battery. At first I thought it was just because he was handing out old batteries that had expired past their useful life span. But as I pointed out in my going away presentation, it appears as if only the “troublemakers” were given dead batteries. — That would also explain the box of matches he handed out to my kids. (No. Not really — I was just kidding — about the matches, that is).
Note to Reader: To read about my Final Presentation when I left the Power Plant see the post Power Plant Final Presentation.
Well. (Hey. I like using “Well” at the start of the paragraph better than “Anyway”, — at least for now anyway). Yesterday I went to a High School and taught the teachers how to use Microsoft Word. — You would think that would be an easy task, since it is just a “word processing” program.
Well. I taught them how to use more advanced features in Word, so they were learning new stuff. — In our next class we are going to integrate all the Office applications together, so you may have a form letter in Word, that uses an address list in Excel or Access so that they can use Mail Merge features, and a presentation in PowerPoint that has updatable links in Excel and Word, and that flashes funny things up on the screen real fast so that you’re not sure whether you actually saw it or not. — They will have fun I’m sure.
Well. My manager came by the other day and told me that he wanted me to be the “mentor” for the new interns that we are getting. I guess in about a month our team is going to be getting some interns to help out around here. I asked him if he thought it was wise to assign me as their mentor, instead of some younger team member who could speak their language a little better.
He told me I would do just fine, and that I would probably pick up their language quickly. — Well. If I start writing strange letters to you guys in about a month. You’ll know why. — I mean strange in the sense of the words I’m using. Not Strange in the sense of these letters that I’m already writing. — Yes. It’s true. Dell really does have Interns.
Well. I hope everything is going well with you guys. It’s good to hear from those of you that write. I’ll try to write back soon.
Your Friend at Dell,
Kevin James Anthony Breazile
Power Plant Men 