For those of you who weren't aware, I got laid off in early March. (Curse you, Economy!) The short version of the story is that the CEO discovered that he needed to make staffing cuts because the financial situation of the company had become less favorable than expected; he decided it was a good idea to have a parting-of-ways with the CTO (Virgil, my great boss who I may have mentioned previously) and the majority of Virgil's core team; so I and several of my colleagues were all laid off simultaneously.

It remains to be seen how the company will do, now that the majority of their senior technical staff is no longer there. I hope they succeed wildly! I have tremendous affection and respect for almost all of the people at that company, and wish them well. On the other hand, I am egotistical enough to think that it was a bad idea to get rid of me, so from that angle I would not be devastated to learn that their system maintenance and development isn't going as smoothly as it used to.

Anyway! That's not the point of this post. It turns out that I've been better at networking than I had previously thought. One of my former colleagues happens to be a director of software engineering at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA, for short), was pleased at the idea of working with me again, and set up an interview for me there. Apparently I did well enough in the interview that nobody gave me a thumbs-down, so they made an offer, I accepted, and I'm once again gainfully employed -- hooray! -- not quite at the salary I had before, but in an industry that is almost certainly more stable than online advertising.

(Some of my friends who were laid off contemporaneously haven't been quite so fortunate yet, but I'm hopeful that everything will work out well for them. It turns out the economy really is doing pretty badly these days. I think it's better than it was late last year, though, and suspect that things will continue to recover over the course of the next couple of years.)

I am going to imagine that none of you are particularly interested in the mechanics of the health insurance industry or the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies, so I won't go into detail on that. The thing that prompted me to post this is that BCBSA is, in addition to being very corporate and nearly as bureaucratic as an agency of the federal government, a kind of unusual organization in a couple of ways.

All of the large companies I've worked for -- and the federal government, for that matter -- have had a published code of ethics that everyone at the organization was nominally expected to follow. The government also mandated a training class to ensure that everyone at least understood what the policies were. At BCBSA, they require all employees to take a half-day training class shortly after they start, as well as requiring an annual "refresher" course and an annual filing of a "conflict of interest" form from every employee up to the CEO; and they have a department in place that conducts all this training, reviews the COI forms, and also reviews and audits the ethics compliance programs in place at all of the BCBS licensees.

So far, it seems to me as though BCBSA's leadership really is interested in doing what they can to ensure that everyone in the organization does the right thing -- not just because it's a way of minimizing legal problems, but because they want to be good people, running a good organization. That's not a sense that I've gotten at other large companies. (I've worked at some very large companies, too -- United Airlines had about 80 thousand employees when I was there, and Abbott Laboratories, well, I don't know how many people work there but the campus I worked at had well over 30 buildings, so that tells you something.)

The other thing is safety-consciousness. Every company I've ever worked at conducts periodic fire drills, I suspect that sort of thing is required by law. At BCBSA, every employee is issued -- at the same time as he or she gets his access badge -- an emergency kit packaged in a red hip pouch thing. During fire drills, and presumably during actual emergencies, everyone is required to take their emergency kit with them while evacuating the building.

Sometime last week I thought it would be interesting to see what the emergency kit contains, so I had a look. It consists of:

• Safety goggles
• A respirator mask
• A glow stick
• Two aluminum packets of purified water
• Rubber gloves
• antiseptic ointment
• bandages
• a whistle, and
• a towel

So, huh. That seems kind of cool. In the event of catastrophic building failure, if we're trapped in rubble or something, at least we won't die of dehydration immediately, and we'll be able to signal rescue crews where we are, and we will all know where our towels are. They're not particularly big towels, but still! That's what I call being safety-conscious.

Does anyone else have an emergency towel from their employer?

Right now I am at a geek conference called RubyConf in Orlando, Florida. But don't worry! I'm not going to talk about that. Except to say that ruby is a programming language, and has the distinction (I am pretty sure) of being the only popular programming language ever to come from Japan.

Instead, I'm going to talk about what happened on the way to the airport on Wednesday, because I thought it was both interesting and delightful, and it occurred to me that some subset of you might share that opinion. I thought about putting the rest of the post behind a cut so you wouldn't all have to see this whole big long thing, but then I decided nah, no point. Wednesday, you might remember, was the day after Election Day. I didn't post anything about it until today because I've been either busy, or very tired, or both, from then until now. Or asleep, a couple of times. That's not important to the story, so never mind.

The thing that made the trip interesting (and delightful) was that I was wearing a t-shirt that I got somewhere in the midst of the Loop on Tuesday night. (In Chicagoland, we call the central downtown area "the loop." Did you know that? Of course you did. I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to that other guy). Here's a picture of the shirt, with me inside it -- with apologies to all you people who were happier not knowing or remembering what I look like:




Right. I know my photography skillz are kind of lacking, especially when I'm trying to take a picture using a delay on my cheap digital camera, so I'll just tell you that the front says "GRANT PARK CHICAGO NOV. 4th 2008 Obamapalooza Election Night Rally"; and the back says "A New Hope" and then "I WAS THERE WHEN CHANGE HAPPEN AT GRANT PARK NOV, 4Th 2008."

Yes, there are two typos on the back. I kind of like them. It makes it seem more authentic, somehow.

So that's the background. Here's what happened during the trip to Florida, with approximate times for the notable occurrences. I hope I don't lurch from one tense to another as I describe the following. If so: I'm still kind of tired, and that's my excuse.

5:20pm CST: I arrive at O'Hare. Park in long-term parking. Go to the ATS ("airport transit system," one of those automated monorail-style shuttle things) to be whisked to the terminal. A group of three people -- all somewhere in their middle years, two men and one woman, going I know not where -- board the ATS just after I do. One of the men asks if I was really at Grant Park during the rally the previous night, I confirm it, and they take turns quizzing me about what it was like. The woman, especially, looks kind of wistful, like she wishes she had been there. They talk about how it all looked on television, how happy everyone seemed. They also talk about how fantastic Obama's acceptance speech was, and how impressed they were with McCain's concession, how gracious it was.

5:30pm CST: Exit ATS at Terminal 1, proceed to check my bag ($15 to check one bag! It amazes me that you can't check a bag for free any more, except I guess on Southwest? -- Sorry, I got distracted for a second there.) Proceed to the security checkpoint. I always go to the security checkpoint at the far left side of terminal 1, from which you can get to either terminal 1 or 2, because the line is always way shorter on that one. There is a TSA security woman -- a young brown woman -- in front of the checkpoint, and she's kind of squinting at me with a funny expression. I ask, "Is this security checkpoint open?"

She replies, "Yes, it is. But I want your shirt."

I laugh and explain that it's the only one I have except in my checked bag, and I would be embarrassed to board the plane shirtless.

She asks if I was at the rally the night before, I say yes I was, and again spend a while talking about what it was like and how awesome it was to be there. She mentions that the McCain concession speech really impressed her, he seemed like a good sport, but she was mad at his audience who booed about Obama's victory. I mention that it seemed fair from where I was at the park, since the entire crowd at Grant Park started booing when McCain got to the part where he was thanking Sarah Palin for being his running mate.

The rest of the security checkpoint was unexceptional, except that the TSA guy who was looking at the X-Ray machine pointed at my shirt and said "Obama! Right on!" and the TSA guy next to him (doing whatever the other guy by the X-Ray machine does) said he wanted to know why my shirt says "A New Hope" and will the 2012 election have an "Empire Strikes Back" theme? (I said I hoped not, but if we got Jedi four years later it would be worth it.)

5:51pm CST: I call my friends suddenlynaked and siouxiequeue to chat about the election and related matters. While I am talking to siouxie, two women who I suspect are in their 40s (but I am no good judge of age) -- both of them wearing a couple of Obama buttons each, and one of them additionally wearing a VOTE NOV 4TH OBAMA BIDEN t-shirt -- jog my arm and ask if I was there. I confirm that I really was. They say they couldn't be there because they spent the 4th campaigning in Ohio. Wow! I thank them for their efforts, and point out that their hard work had clearly paid off since Ohio went to Obama.

"Yeah!" the woman in the t-shirt said happily. "We were driving back to our hotel room, listening to NPR, when they called the Ohio race for Obama. We had to pull over because we were screeching and cheering too much to drive the car."

(siouxiequeue tells me it was fun to hear my part of the conversation through the phone. Thanks for mentioning!)

6:20pm CST: I notice a couple going down the concourse. The woman is wearing an Obama t-shirt, one of the kind that has been for sale from the Obama Store for months; the man, in a wheelchair being pushed by an airline staff member, has no visible affiliation. I tell the woman "I like your shirt!" -- she grins back, nods, and says something about "We did it! We really did," clearly still ecstatic about the victory. The airline staff member pushing the wheelchair gives me a thumbs-up and says "Obama!"

7:00pm CST: Boarding begins. A gentleman in boarding group 1, wearing a suit, pauses before getting in line to ask if I was at the rally and what was it like being there? Did I actually get to see Obama? ("Well, I got a glimpse or two from half a mile away, but there was a pretty big crowd and I'm not tall enough. But they had big TV screens set up, and the sound system was great.") He has a wistful "wish I'd gone" expression on his face. But his seat is right up front, and I'm five rows away from the rear of the plane, so, you know, you can't have everything.

7:30pm to about 8:15pm CST: I am seated on the right side in a window seat. Next to me is a woman who is traveling with her husband and three children. The plane is full of families with small children, naturally, because it's going to Orlando. She apologizes on behalf of her son Gabe, who wants to crawl almost onto me so as to get a good look out the window. I shrug and say it is no big deal.

A few minutes later I chuckle, and the woman looks at me inquiringly. I explain, "There's a kid sitting right behind me who really likes kicking the back of my seat."

She looks embarrassed on behalf of all parents of small children everywhere and says, "Oh, you're really in for it this trip."

"It doesn't matter. I don't think anything could put me in a bad mood today." I gesture toward my shirt. She says "Oh, wow, you were there at Grant Park?" ... so then we talk about the election and related matters in disjointed snippets for the next forty-five minutes or so, in between her rummaging through bags of toys and snacks and other child-related paraphernalia. ("My husband and I were saying, we really hope that people don't expect Obama to work miracles. It seems like people are setting themselves up to be disappointed, do you think when he can't just fix everything people are going to rebound toward the republicans in 2012?" "I hope not. It could happen, but, well, I think he's going to do a good job, and we'll see. At least we have a chance, I was worried we wouldn't even get that." -- that kind of thing.)

11:03pm EST: The plane lands and eventually I get my bags and make my way off. The pilot gives me what looks like a real smile rather than the professional ones I'm used to from airline personnel and says "Obama! Right on!"

11:15pm EST: A hispanic maintenance guy in the airport, one of a crew doing something involving ducts and tile and stuff like that, pumps his fist in the air and says "Obama! Obama!" when I go by.


Now...normally...I am not the sort of person who attracts attention. So it was a little bit surreal having a lot of people visibly react to me. But more than that what struck me over and over was how happy everyone was -- and the sense of manifest history that everyone who talked to me seemed to have, like amazing and important things are happening around us and they felt connected to it.

Like I told everyone who asked what it was like: I have never seen a happier crowd in my life. But the really striking thing about it wasn't the happiness, or even the calm and tranquil quality of the happiness. It was the feeling of togetherness that everyone in the crowd had -- it was an amazingly diverse group of people, all colors and ages and genders, and it seemed to me that everyone there felt united by a common purpose and vision and sense of history.

I'm glad I had a chance to be there.

(And I'm glad filigree_shadow and I both got a ticket, with a guest slot for each, so we were able to invite a couple of my Centro colleagues to go with us! I work at a really great company with some really great people.)

For anyone who bothered to read this whole thing, thanks for listening, and I hope it wasn't a total waste of time. You're awesome.

This is a really geeky post, by which I mean it is all about software development methodologies. That means "the set of practices and processes and so forth that a software development team does in order to produce a system", more or less. Also, it is kind of long.

If you're interested, ( read on! )

Dear Advice Columnist,

Some of my colleagues find it necessary to play the song "You All Everybody" (from the television program "Lost") over and over and over again on their computers, at a volume that ensures that I hear it.

What should I do?

I have consulted my legal adviser, and he tells me that this is not sufficient justification for homicide.

Signed,

Wrathful at Work

OK you know how people very often use the word "ironically" when they mean "coincidentally" or "unfortunately" or things like that? Alanis Morissette has a whole song where she does that. It kind of bothers me, since I think it's handy to have a word that means "coincidental and contradictory in a humorous or poignant way."

(this youtube video is a standup comedian making fun of the Alanis Morissette song, in case that's the kind of thing you might enjoy watching. But I digress.)

Here's what happened.

Two weeks ago, my colleague Alex complained that he had a bunch of pictures on his nokia cell phone that he wanted to get on his computer, but he needed a data cable to connect it because he doesn't have bluetooth. I said, "Oh, here you go," pulled a nokia data cable out of my backpack (which is quite large), and handed it to Alex.

Immediately, Finn (another colleague, and incidentally a very funny guy) started making fun of me. "Dude. You have a nokia data cable in your bag? You carry that around with you every day? How often do you need a nokia cable? How much other crap do you have in that bag?"

Well, of course the answer to that last question is "a whole lot" (index cards, a swiss army knife, screen cleaner, my laptop computer, power adapter, zaurus palmtop, a DVD wallet ... and, yes, a jillion cables of various sorts), and the whole ensemble winds up being fairly heavy, twenty five or thirty pounds maybe, I don't know. Weight estimates aren't my forte, I just know it's uncomfortably heavy.

Therefore! Finn's mockery made me think: well, yeah, I bet I could cut down a couple pounds' worth of lugging if I pulled a bunch of cables and such that I seldom need out of my bag and left them at home.

Today, it transpires, Finn needs to back up his laptop computer. "Hey!" he said, shortly before I started typing this entry. "Does anyone have a firewire cable handy?"

Heh.

Well, I did until a couple of weeks ago.

One of you wonderful people out in LJ-land -- if I kept up with my friends page I would probably see it myself, but I am not particularly good about  that kind of thing -- was rhapsodizing about the glory of cheese fondue, and Mrs Random decided that she wanted to have that for dinner. So I went and got a pre-made fondue thing ("Le Superbe Fondue" it's called) from Trader Joe's, and will be cooking it presently.

But this is not the best way to do fondue, and I thought some or all of you might be curious to know what is. So here's the recipe I use when I've got more time.

Ingredients:

• 14 oz of Gruyere cheese
• 9 oz of Emmental cheese
• 0.3 liters of white wine, I use Riesling
• 4 tsp corn starch
• garlic, I use a full clove (But we all love the garlic in Chez Random.)
• 0.5 tsp pepper
• 20 ml of kirschwasser (cherry brandy, 80 proof)
• French bread cut into 1" cubes, little potatoes

Grate all the cheese.  Put 0.2 liters of wine, garlic, and the cheese into the fondue pan and stir for a long time.  It may take quite a while for the cheese to melt; be patient. Once the cheese is melted, mix the corn starch with the rest of the wine and stir it into the fondue. Again, be patient; eventually the entire mixture will blend together and become creamy, and all of the wine will be absorbed into the mix.

Now add the pepper and the kirschwasser, and additional garlic if desired; stir that until it blends in as well. Serve. Enjoy. Mmmm.

I like to have a nice Riesling Spatlese with the fondue; my fondue cookbook says that green tea is good as well, but I wouldn't know.

At the fondue restaurant Mrs Random and I visited in Zurich, they provided a large basket of crusty bread and a little bag of roasted baby potatoes. I recommend having both. American fondue restaurants like to serve fruits and vegetables as well, but I am more of a traditionalist and think it works better with just the bread and potatoes.

(Incidentally, I picked up a little bottle of "Bom Dia" acai berry with pomegranate juice at the store as well as the fondue kit. It's delicious! And purple! And I expect it will keep me up all night, because it has guarana in it.)