Well Oppo, it seems like it is going to happen. The interview went tell on Monday for the kiwi land gig. First offer came in Wednesday morning. It's been a lot of back and forth with the Missus but we are going to make the leap. We are looking at this like an extended working vacation. We'll stay for a few years and then come back. Store our stuff here and rent out the house. Sure it may be beat up a bit when we get back but our rate is 2.875% and I want to hold onto that for dear life. We won't lose any real equity and we won't lose 30K in commissions.

I've responded with a very reasonable - to me - counter offer. Nothing ridiculous or insulting and something I think they will agree to.

We'll see what they say over the next day or so. At that point it will be working through the Visa process. NZ or bust.

In honor of putting the horse before the cart, post pics of RHD I should get over there. I've got my eye on that V60R polestar from the other day. I hope no one buys that before I get there.

Anyone want to buy a Ram, TourX, an 09 Daytona with a new motor, or an 01 bayliner with a whole bunch of water toys?

for my auto loan. Sayonara sucker. I sent in a check last week to pay off the TourX and I just got the email that GM has begun processing the title.

Feels good to be loan free. There was about 7,500 left on the loan. I could have waited but the TourX will be gone in a few months and I don't want to deal with title issues from half way around the globe. The bank account is a bit smaller but it'll be fine.

I've also just sat through a day long meeting to create the mission statement for my division. I've earned a drink.

Tales from the Blackbird was a good one.

Getting a bump from Oppo onto the front page was always a nice touch.

Mergio Sarchionne was great.

Fancy Kristen was amazing towards the end.

Oppo being legitimately the back page and referencing the FP.

I remember....

Settle in and let me tell you a little story. A couple years ago, in the before times of Jan 2020, I interviewed for a small company in New Zealand for a mechanical engineering position. It didn't go anywhere but they said I interviewed well and while my experience was about as directly related as possible, they went with a local candidate. Covid hit a couple months later so that was probably a good thing that I wasn't attempting to move halfway around the world in the middle of a pandemic where borders weren't exactly "open".

Fast forward to last week. One of the guys I interviewed with reached out to me on linked in to connect and asked how are things going. I commenced the small talk and said more of the same and I'm open to work down in New Zealand. I didn't expect much of anything but.........

I have an interview tonight, for a job that isn't posted, and that I didn't apply for. I'm on this weird inside track where I feel like I found a shortcut that is only accessible to people on the "inside". Except now, I'm on the "inside". It's all very weird.

Anyway, the company seems to be growing even though it isn't a very large firm. They have more people listed on their website, have more services offered, and have branched into oil/gas in the past few years.

Now the wheels are turning and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself but I couldn't help but look at some cars available in Christchurch. I found this. This is the easiest sell to my wife in the history of all mankind. I taking it as a sign.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell somebody other than my wife, who is on board in a big way - Not about the car, yet - but the move. That's all. Enjoy your Monday, Oppo. Send good thoughts this way.

Update: Turns out I'm a hell of a salesman. Or a con artist. I guess we'll find out! The last 24 hours have taken a hell of a turn.

Last night I come home to the missus opening a bottle of champagne. It's Valentines Day so nothing special. She tells me her job may or may not be going away in the next 6 months. I won't go into too much detail but Company A and Company B got together and had Company C. Company B doesn't like the fact the Company C seems to be playing favorites benefitting Company A over them and want a divorce. My wife works for Company C. Who knows how that will all shake out. We toast to a good interview from Monday and let the future come to us as it may.

I wake up this morning to a tentative offer for the job in Christchurch. Holy balls batman. There will be a deep dive with the missus about time lines and actively hoping she gets laid off. A severance package would come in handy for the logistics of moving halfway around the world. Salary is good. Just need to iron out a few details before accepting but it appears I'll be heading to the land of the kiwi.

Does anyone need a boat? Some power tools? A TV or two? Maybe an old surround sound. I may need to offload a few items.

In other timing. I just finished this damn thing and I'm not sure I can bring it. At least the dishwasher doesn't leak!

True story and I'm still a bit jumpy as my heart was racing. Buckle up. This'll be fun.

I get a local Denver number calling me saying that my Excel account is delinquent and that I'm about to have my services shutoff. Well that's not good. I assumed it was a scam and I was going to screw with them. No Indian accent, clearly native to the US. Maybe something is amiss. The guy seems friendly, they changed their billing services and something must have happened in the switch. They sent out a bunch of stuff. I never got anything. Seems odd but okay, shit happens. Starting to panic a bit. Excel runs my gas and no heat would suck. He says he'll start an investigation and transfers me to billing. The lady is nice, says I need to come down to their office with cash or pay with Zelle. Cash I get, Zelle is odd and wouldn't take a CC over the phone. Weird but okay, if an account is in arrears, maybe.

I ask where can I go with cash. Address checks out as an Excel building. Okay worried a bit now. I trying to sign up for Zelle as I can't make it before five and she keeps telling my the order will be processed once I hang up. Mmmm. Who should I send the money with Zelle to? Clark West huh. Not a corporate account. Okay fine. Can I call you back with the confirmation number, I have to sign up? No? I have to do it immediately to this random person? The phone number comes from New York.....something is off...

I'm panicked a bit at this point. I've really bought in. My log in shows my old address. My wife signed us up from our current house. My name isn't on the account. Her info is. According to the increasingly pushy lady, I'm on the account with my number. How long has my account been overdue. She says 2 months and the bill is 469.xx. Something smells fishy at this point. Excel only provides gas to my address and my bill is usually around 50-75 per month. 2 months at 75 plus the next month would only be like 225. I tell her something doesn't add up. I furiously trying to log in to my bank account, I can't find the excel drafts. Maybe she is right? I'm pushing back on her, I never got anything how come you are going to cut me off. She says you didn't pay your bill, we are going to shut off your power. She back tracks heat and what not. At this point I'm in my wife's Excel account. She says my name and phone number are on the account. Now you slipped up lady. I don't use Excel for power, just gas and I'm not on the account. Would you look at that, the website shows out monthly drafts went through.

I tell this to the lady on the other end and she stonewalls me. Says she pay or you can get shutoff and wait for the investigation.

Shut off my gas then. I call her bluff. I'm still half convinced that I owe money but I'll have electricity and I have enough firewood to last a damn month. I'll wait for the investigation.

I hang up. I call up the 1800- number for Excel I find online. While on hold I hear this...."If you get a call threatening to shutoff your services without an immediate payment, hang up. It's a scam." I talk to a much more real sounding person who hates their job and can't wait to get off. My account is current, and autopay is all good to go.

I was legit panicked for a moment but I'm calming down now. I was thisssssss close to send a scammer almost 500 dollars.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/11/middleeast/afghanistan-taliban-analysis-intl/index.html

I don't bring this up much, but once upon a time I was an Army grunt immediately post high school. I was a senior and vividly remember 9/11. Anyway, fast forward a bit and I'm in basic train 4 months after my graduation. Landed boots on the ground in Afghanistan for my first tour 4/20/2004, OEF V.

I knew back then that the Afghan National Army(ANA) was weak but damn did I not realize just how weak they were. It is 14 years later and they are far worse than I could ever have imagined. They've been overrun in a matter of months and realistically could control the country by the end of the year. All those stupid hearts and mind missions, all those talks with the village elders, the wells dug, generators given away, national elections, and weeks long missions - all of it pissed away because they can't/won't stand up for themselves. Reports of soldiers leaving their uniforms so they could blend in civilians makes my blood boil. All the guys that got chewed up or worse.

I rarely get upset but I'm legitimately angry. What was the point of it all?

This is me doing a word find in 100+(probably) degree heat. We lived in those wood frame tents for 9 months.

I'm doing a reunion next week with the guys I went there with. Some are still one. At least one is SF and will most likely have to go back.

I don't know where I'm going with all this but I just needed to vent a bit.

HMMWV pic for your time. I'm 2nd from the right with my head down.

Honest question, why bring in the lock nuts to begin with? I would have just handed them a box of the lug nuts I want without the locking ones in mix.

I deal with dumb people a lot so part of my job is to dumb proof things for future idiots. Removing options for errors is always good in my opinion.

Took the kids to a new playground yesterday with the missus. I tagged along on the bike because it was too nice not to ride and I had just put a new battery in it.

Last year at this time they were both scared to sit on daddy's motorcycle. Now the more adventurous of the two is all about it. Decent posture for her first time. They grow up fast.

Potato pic because life happens fast.

I'm a firm believer that everyone should be in a commission based sales job for at least a few months in their life as their some means of income. Regardless of your profession you are always selling. There is a fancy term that I heard in a development class for it, non-authorative persuasion(?). It's selling. You sell your ideas.

Now I'm going to toot my own horn for a minute. I'm in engineering. Heavy on the design side and project management. Today I get a chat from the supervisor of the electrical group saying they aren't meeting schedule because the new guy sunk instead of swam. Not his fault, in not blaming him. It's hard enough coming into a project at 90%, let alone have it as your first project.

She says she needs two weeks, the deliverable is on Friday. Fun.

I have a call with the client on that project for another problem that isn't our fault but it's rearing it's big fucking ugly head and causing big issues, cancel the project issues.

I convince the client that resolving the big issues, which isn't really a big deal on our end, before the design package goes to them that we should bump a couple weeks to tidy up the last details. Things get missed of edits are made after the package goes out and this project is having similar issues to project number two that we are just getting started on for them. Same facility, similar issues. It's best to delay a couple weeks and iron our sooner things that will affect two projects versus creating unnecessary headaches once the contractor is on site and things get expensive.

Ladies and gentlemen, is how you go from asking the client to delay so your product doesn't suck to getting the client to ask you to delay. Guess what my change order is going to have on it as the reason for the delay? Client requested.

That is how you maintain good relationships with clients and have an industry leading reason for change status. We are sub three percent on precessing change orders where the reason is us. Apparently that's good, the instructor from the professional development series I went to said he would kill for those numbers.

Now it's off to the house. I'm getting a salmon on the way for dinner tonight.

Have a good evening oppo. I'll be having a cold one toasting myself from turning around a crappy situation.

So....good times ahead.

My colleague sends me an email this morning apologizing for screwing up a drawing of mine. No big deal. The 90% deadline is only two weeks away and I'll be out for one of those weeks. This is fine. In an effort to lessen his workload he copied my completed models and drawing and was going to shortened his work load. Not a big deal. For his effort he didn't create the necessary breaks in the model and over wrote not just the simple drawing I had done but proceeded to overwrite a core model that underlaid multiple set of drawings.

Not only would I have to recreate the model but also essentially redo my drawings my scratch because all the links would be broken. It's fine. It's only ~12ish drawings that are highly detailed, checked, and reviewed for the 90% milestone. It's fine. I've just spent the past month busting my ass to get all my drawings done ahead of time because I knew I was going to be gone that last week before a huge deadline. It's fine. Now, I'm going to have to unfuck his mess and help him get ready for the deadline because he is behind - to be fair, isn't entirely his fault, but it mostly is. It's fine. I'm fine. All those longs nights in hotels when I was traveling and staying late at the office which I loathe to do, to have my shit done and ready to go. It's fine. It's all fine.

For your time, this is where I'll be when the deadline hits. I'm excited, I'm going to need it after this weekend.

Edit: I've begun the process of restoring the files through our IT department. I'm going to have a great workout this evening if they can't get it restored within the next day or so. I have low hopes as our IT sucks.

Are you sure it wasn't aliens? Can't be certain until you're not abducted.

$15,000?

I have no idea.

You can fit a Lincoln in there along with a Caddy. Having the Highlander and Subaru means you could find something from Mazda that handles decently.

Honestly though, there's something from every manufacturer that'll fit in that category.

Buick
Mazda
Lincoln
Caddy
Lightly used Macan
Inifiniti

I'm going a bit philosophical. My dream road trip is the next one and whatever car I'm in.

I weirdly dig family road trips with the kids. Finding weird nooks and watching the kids discover new stuff.

Check your alternator. Clear the codes a few times and see how long it takes for them to come back.

@Miss-Mercedes The pressure wave from the bike moving the grass is just awesome.

@Svend Public transportation? What's that?

@trivet That's a great scene.

@davesaddiction said in Ford "Re-Organizes" It's Financial Reporting Because Stonks:

They're looking forward to the point where cars are just mobile living rooms.

You're saying the quiet part outloud.

@davesaddiction I had this argument which a fairly tech bro friend of mine. He could not articulate why Tesla was a tech company nor what a tech company actually was.

I posited that your primary product or service has to be software based to be considered a "tech" company because every company uses tech to their advantage.

Here's hoping the new Ford tech company will be well received and be valued more than Toyota because reasons.