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 one hundred and seventh letter I wrote.
10/26/04 – More Training At Dell
Hey Soonerites!! And friends of Sooner Plantians,
Well. I thought I would take a minute to drop a line to you guys (that’s fishin’ lingo, ’cause I know how much some of you like to fish) to see how you’re doin’ up there. I was in training all last week taking another .NET class. (See? I knew that .NET would peak your “Fishin’ Interest”).
Actually. The .NET course had to do with the .NET computer programming language called C# (sharp). You may have remembered me mentioning this before. Well. That’s where I was all last week.
The week before that was when we had the VP off-site, and we went to this place at Lake Travis and messed around all afternoon. After 2:00 in the afternoon they said we could drink all the Margaritas and beers that we wanted as long as we were safe driving home.
Yeah. Like how many would that be? They had a boat that we would take a long ride around the lake. — The biggest surprise for me was that the Vice President gave me another award. I had gotten one last quarter for “Customer Experience”, so I wasn’t expecting another one (so soon — you know how managers like to pass the awards around so no one feels left out).
Anyway. It was actually a team award, and I just happened to be on that team. So we each received the “Vice President’s Leadership Award”. That was because I was on the team that implemented CMM.
CMM stands for Capability Maturity Model. So now that you know that, I’m sure everything is clear. I can hear you now saying to yourself, “Oh! CMM. Capability Maturity Model. That explains it.”
Actually, our group was the first organization at Dell to Achieve CMM Level 2. Which is a big thing if you are an IT person. We are on our way to Level 3. — I know. (bowing), I have accidentally impressed you with my greatness……Hey…. You didn’t have to……WELL!!!! Some people just don’t know how to accept the fact that some are at CMM Level 2, and others are NOT!!!!
Anyway. I should change the subject. — I noticed the last time that I sent a letter to all you guys that a particular donut-eating person no longer had a valid e-mail address. I had heard that this was the case, but no one so far has offered any information as to why this would be the case. Which just makes me wonder all the more. I have a theory, and I’m just waiting to see if it pans out.
I had a strange dream about the Precipitator the other night (How’s that for changing the subject?). It was during overhaul and the entire roof of the Precipitator had been removed to do some major “overhaul” for some reason.
Well, for some reason, my cat was up there chasing around a mouse, and there was fly ash caked up all around the top, and I was walking around up there like I was supposed to be looking for something, but I don’t remember what it was (you know how dreams are).
Anyway, At one point, I was standing on a real long ladder that went all the way from the ground to the top of the precipitator (about 100 feet — for those who haven’t seen it), and I was trying to hold on to the top of the precipitator on the corner and my cat was dodging in and out chasing that mouse, and I was doing everything I could to keep that long ladder from falling off and trying to grab the cat every time it came close enough. — Pretty weird huh? Well. You know how dreams are.
Well. I had better get back to whatever it is that I’m supposed to be doing. Oh. Yeah. That’s right. I’m supposed to be doing something.
I hope all of you are having a good day. Stay safe.
Your friendly Dell Programmer,
Kevin James Anthony Breazile
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Kevin J. Breazile
Global Financial Services I/T
Dell Inc.
(512) 728-1527
Power Plant Men 