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 eightieth letter I wrote.
7/25/03 – Bridge over the River Dell
Dear Soonerites,
I have a few minutes of my busy day free, so I thought I would write to let you know how my week has been, since it has been a little interesting. I hope everything is going well with you guys, and that the “heat” hasn’t been too “Hot” for you. I hope you guys haven’t been having too many pastures on fire around there. I would hate to think that the Fire Department might run out of water or something…..
Anyway. I was in training for three days this week. I was learning the fun and exciting technique known as “Requirements Management with Use Cases”. Yes!! That’s right!!!! I actually was able to attend that training!!! After trying for so many years to go to “Requirements Management with Use Cases” training at OG&E, Dell has sent me to that class!!!
I’m sure you are all impressed that I have finally received training in “Requirements Management with Use Cases”. — No wait a minute……… It was Precipitator Training that I was always asking for when I was at OG&E. — Silly me. That’s right. It’s all coming back to me now.
For 17 years I was requesting Precipitator training and they kept telling me that I didn’t need it. Then 4 months before I left the company they not only gave me precipitator training, but they told me that I HAD to take the class. — Boy do I feel silly.
All week I kept thinking that I was finally getting that training that I had been requesting for so long. Now I realize that I have never requested to go to “Requirements Management with Use Cases” training. — Well, at least I thought I wanted it when I was taking it. I’m sure that helped me to pay more attention since I thought I was learning something that I thought I wanted to learn. — Oh well.
Well. Yesterday we had an “I/T All-Hands meeting. (again). We went to this place called “The Alamo Cinema Draft House”. It’s a movie theater where you can eat dinner and watch a movie at the same time. So they gave us an unlimited supply of pizza and drinks and popcorn and we sat there and watched a 3 hour movie. (Which meant 3 hours of eating pizza and drinking cokes and eating popcorn). The movie we watched was called “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”. — I’m sure a lot of you have probably seen that one before.
They told us to watch this movie and think about Dell as we did. — It was funny how, when you do that there are a lot of times in the movie where it’s supposed to be rather serious, but it comes out being very funny when you think about it as if it was your company saying and doing those things instead.
I suppose you could say that we were watching the movie as part of our training curriculum. — You know. It might be a fun team-building activity for your next Men’s Club if you showed “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” during your next meeting.
Oh. I forgot. Men’s Club is only 1/2 hour long. Well. You could save up a few Men’s Clubs and then show the movie and make popcorn and enjoy yourselves for three hours and you might recognize a lot of things in the movie as things that happen at work all the time. — It’s really rather funny. — Especially the last line in the Movie.
Well. As always, I better get back to the grind. — You know. All this paperwork and stuff. I’ll write to you guys later. Have an enjoyable weekend.
Your friend from Dell,
Kevin James Anthony Breazile
______________________
Kevin J. Breazile
Programmer/Analyst III
Dell Inc.
(512) 728-1527
Power Plant Men 