Thanks for letting us share your shelter.
My pleasure. You look really familiar. Have we met?
Robert Frost wrote The Road Not Taken in 1916
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhpas the better claim,
Because itwas grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,And both that morning equallylay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
We were up American Fork canyon in the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah. The overnight had blessed us with about 3″ of new snow. It was a welcome sight considering we were about to shepard a couple dozen groups of boy scouts through a winter competition called the Klondike Derby.
As we had in previous years, we had secured the Whitlock pavilion as our “campsite.” What that meant was that while others pitched their tents in the snow, we set ours up on the floor of the covered dining pavilion. We were still technically “outside,” but we didn’t have to contend with the snow.
During the night, we’d picked up a couple of visitors. As I got up Saturday morning to start boiling water for hot chocolate and oatmeal, at first I thought some of my boys had climbed out of their tents. Turned out it was someone from the neighboring camp whose “burrito” sleeping method hadn’t been quite up to protection from the snow.
My name’s Mike Sharp.
Mike! Great to see you again. It’s Rodney Bliss.
Hey, how ya been? With your hood up and the headlamp, I didn’t recognize you.
Mike and I worked together 12 years ago at a company called Agile Studios. We were a software development site that mostly focused on custom websites. But, we had one big project called RESMARK that was a reservation system for the rafting industry. Eventually, we split it off and I ran RESMARK while Mike and several others stayed on at Agile.
Eventually, Mike and his partners closed Agile to launch a new company focused on business phone systems. They named their company Jive Communications.
This was Frost’s Road Not Taken. RESMARK still exists, but never really had the potential for dramatic growth. Eventually, the investors took ownership of the company and I moved on to other things. That was the road I took.
Jive Communications was named by Forbes.com as one of 25 current companies likely to reach a valuation of 1 billion dollars or more. That was the road not taken.
I tried to figure out how it made me feel. I have followed the rise of Jive for years. Genuinely happy for my former collegues success. And standing there in the Whitlock pavilion, I realized I was still genuinely happy for Mike’s success.
The narrator in Frost’s poem is constantly looking over his shoulder. He’s constantly longin for the greener grass in the other pasture. He’s never content with what he has. Jive Communications has over 500 employees and is expanding rapidly in my town of Pleasant Grove.
It’s easy to get caught up in looking back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
I suddenly understood exactly what the narrator was feeling and what the author was warning us of. No. No retelling with a sigh for me. There is no telling what I would lose if I exchanged the last 12 years, some of the most painful of my life, for the daydream of getting in on the ground floor of a multimillion dollar company.
Mike, I just can’t tell you how excited I am for your guys’ success. That’s fantastic. I’m really happy for you all.
Yes, I took the other road. And it has made all the difference. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I started Friday morning in Richmond, Virginia. It was clear but very cold at 5:30AM when I woke up. We should probably call that 3:30AM MT, since time zones become important later.
There was snow on the ground in Virginia. But, the storm which had dumped snow and plunged temperatures had moved off into the Atlantic. It was snowing in Washington DC. I didn’t know that, but I was going to care. It wasn’t snowing in American Fork, Utah. (That would come later.) Mutual Dell is a church owned camp about 10 miles up American Fork Canyon. The year has been a return to form, after a huge snow pack last year. This year we are looking at decreased snow levels again. “Drought” is an unpleasant word when you live in a desert state.
I was leaving Richmond early. My team was staying on through the weekend. They will be finishing up our migration this week. But, I had a family event that took precedance. (When Life Wins The Work/Life Battle.)
I’ve travelled a lot this year. It’s been tough on my family, especially as my lovely wife tries to keep the house running and do everything else she needs to do and has to shoulder single-parent duty. It’s also been tough on my volunteer work. I’m a volunter assistant scoutmaster. There are three of us that help the scoutmaster. I’ve been gone more than I’ve been home.
Rodney, I need to know if you’ll be around for the Klondike Derby campout?
When is it?
Friday, January 19th. Matt and I can’t go. I don’t want to saddle one of the dads with being in charge. David can go, but you’d be our two-deep leadership.
What time is it?
You mean what time are we meeting?
Yeah.
I don’t know. Four o’clock at the church, I guess.
Yeah, I can make that.
The scout campout wasn’t the reason I was cutting my trip short. But, it was a great chance for me to step up and be a little more involved in our scout troop. But, the timing was going to be close. And after 2900 miles and 13 hours I almost pulled it off.
Before my trip to Richmond last week, I packed. . .twice. First, I packed for 5 days of business travel to our call center in Virginia. Then, I packed for an overnight in the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah.
I’m a natural procrastinator. I’ve travelled so much that packing for a business trip takes about 30 minutes. And I typically do it as late as possible. Count the days: so many pairs of socks and underwear. So many shirts. Typically a single pair of dress slacks. A packed sport coat. I always almost forget a tie. Shoes, computer stuff and have it by the front door the night before for the shuttle to the airport.
I approach packing for camping the same way. Especially a “car camp,” which this was, I don’t stress about packing my gear too carefully. Backpack, sleeping bags, pads, tent, extra food, extra water, hand warmers, hiking stick, camera, headlamp, hat, and the clothes I will wear.
Interestingly, I wear the same clothes the day of travel as I wear on a campout. I wear nylon “expedition” style pants, nylong t-shirt, nylon overshirt, boots, sweatshirt and leather coat.
Unlike my normal, pack-15-minutes-before-you-leave, I was actually all the way ready for the camp a week in advance. I had to be. My flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake was scheduled to land at 1:00pm on Friday. I’d catch a train that would put me in American Fork at 3:00. My lovely wife would pick me up and drop me at home where I would get in my car and drive straight to the church to be there by 4:00.
I was quite proud of myself for managing to coordinate cross country travel and still plan to get to the campout on time. I didn’t count on a snow storm in Washington DC. It shouldn’t have impacted me. I was flying from Richmond South to Atlanta and then catching a plane West to Salt Lake City. I wasn’t going anywhere near Washington DC. Unfortunately, my connecting flight in Atlanta was originating in Washington DC. They had a weather delay that pushed our departure back an hour. That was at 10:00AM mountain time that I ended up getting on the plane instead of 9:00AM mountain time.
I ended up getting to Salt Lake at 2:00PM instead of 1:00PM. Caught the later train which put me into American Fork at 4:00PM.
I PLANNED BETTER THAN THIS!
(Okay, maybe the lack of sleep and a little jet lag was making me cranky.)
Fortunately, 12 and 13 year old boys are rarely the easiest to get moving. By the time I got home, kissed my kids and headed out again, I easily had 15 or maybe even 20 minutes to spare before the troop was ready to move. We arrived and set up camp with even a little light left.
As the clock showed 9:30PM Friday night, I announced I was done. Eighteen hours and 2900 miles after leaving a hotel in Virginia, I crawled into a sleeping bag under the pines of American Fork Canyon in the beautiful Wasatch range. I slept like a baby.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’ve been working on this project for about 18 months. When we got ready to do the migration, starting in November, we had to migrate fives sites in five states in three months. And that was while taking time off for the holidays. It’s my project. It was quite a bit above my pay grade when it was offered to me. I jumped at the chance, naturally.
We’ve spent this past week migrating agents in Richmond, Virginia. The team will stay over the weekend and migrate the last of nearly 3000 total accounts to the new system next week. It will be the end of a long, hard and very enjoyable trip.
But, I’m not going to be there. I’m headed home to Utah for the weekend. And it’s not like I normally ditch work tasks for personal life stuff. I’ve taken work calls hiking up the side of a mountain in Utah. I’ve worked an outage call during a 22 mile mountain bike ride in Park City. I’m going camping tonight with the boy scouts and, like all our campouts, I’ll have my phone with me and deal with any issues that come up.
But, this weekend is different. I made it clear that I would not be staying with the project team. The fact that the team is fully qualified to finish up the migration without me is a comfort. But, make no mistake, I was leaving.
This weekend Life wins the “Work/Life Challenge.” My youngest granddaughter will be blessed on Saturday. And since the Mormon church has a lay priesthood, in an extra special experience, I will be the one to give her a name and a blessing.
My granddaughter almost didn’t make it. Three hours after she was born via emergency C-section in American Fork, Utah, she was on a Lifeflight helicoptor headed for Primary Children’s hospital. A very frail and very sick little girl. She spent months at Primary Children’s Hospital in the Neonatal ICU. The doctors were unsure what was happening. They did multiple tests and then more tests and still more tests. The sent blood work off to labs around the United States to try to diagnose her condition.
Finally, they narrowed it down to a rare genetic blood disorder. She requires blood transfusions every few weeks. She’ll most likely need a bone marrow transplant in the next year or so. Now, months later, she is a happy baby. She smiles and coos and is one of the joys of her grandparents’ life.
Tomorrow, family will gather at her parents’ house and the men who hold offices in the LDS Priesthood will take her in our arms and I’ll give her a blessing. A baby blessing is supposed to give some thoughts and goals for her to live by. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to say. Everyday she survived in those first frightening weeks, was a gift from God. Anything going forward is an even greater gift from Him.
I love my job and typically simply take it with me as I live my life. It’s not really an imposition. But, there are rare occasions, where my job is quickly and easily regulated to the “not really important” category. The kind of day where you say, “Twenty years from now, will it matter what I do today? Will what I do today be important a generation from now?”
Tomorrow is one of those days.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I should have enjoyed the show a lot. I did. Well, I enjoyed it, but like a dirt clod on the Mona Lisa, there was one scene that not only threw me out of the show, I couldn’t think of anything else the rest of the show.
The show was The Librarians, a TV series about a group of super powerful, super smart librarians. I know, you’re thinking maybe super smart, but super powerful librarians? Yeah, it works. I don’t normally watch TV. I don’t have TV at home. Well, I have TVs, I just don’t have cable.
Anyway, I’ve seen the promos for The Librarians and it looked fun. I can’t say I understand the back story, but the librarians are tasked with keeping history in sync, or something like that.
In the episode I watched, they ended up in a town that straddled the line between the area controlled by the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. In fact, the town was literally on the line. In fact, there was a big line that ran right through town separating the North and the South. The line ran right up to the museum and split the building into two halves. On the left hung the 1860 version of the flag of the United States of America. On the right hung. . .it was the wrong flag.
This is not the Confederate flag.
I don’t care who says they think it is. It’s not. And those super smart librarians should have known that.
The Confederate States of America had three official flags. This was the first one.
However, as you can see, it looked a lot like that “other” flag. You know, the one for the real United States. So, they changed it to this one.
The problem with this one was wind. Seriously, if the there was no wind, the flag just hung there and looked like a totally white flag. Not a great look when you are trying to rebel against your country. They finally decided on this one.
Yeah, the red line was a good touch. The point was that the Confederate flag was well known. And should be well known. I’ve spent the week in Richmond, Virginia. It was the capital of the Confederancy. Those three flags flew over this city.
This flag did not.
Who cares, right? One flag or another what’s the difference? The difference is that saying that flag represents “Southern Pride” is wrong. It’s ignorant. Someone could decide, I suppose that for them this flag does represent southern pride. Okay, saying that your Volkswagon Jetta for you reprents an S-series, doesn’t turn it into a German luxury car. It just makes you ignorant.
That flag actually was a Civil War era flag. In fact, it was the battle flag for the Army of Northern Virgina. That was Robert E. Lee’s army. Unlike General Grant, who led all Union armies, Lee was not general of all the Confederate armies. He was commander of one army. So, I suppose if someone’s ancestor was a soldier serving under Robert E. Lee, his battle flag could represent some sort of historical heritage. But, the battle flag for a single army doesn’t represent much of anything today.
If it doesn’t represent Souther Pride, what does it represent? You’d have to ask the ignorant people waving it. Just don’t ask the Librarians. They totally failed this one.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I don’t drink. Partly it’s a religious conviction, partly it’s a the fact that I come from a family with addicting tendencies. It’s not that I’ve never had a drink. It’s just that I haven’t had a drink since I was 11 years old. (Don’t judge. It was a different time.)
So, why was I checking the wine list for restaurants in Richmond?
How about that retro diner by the hotel?
Nope. Doesn’t sell alcohol.
Carolina Ale House?
Let me check the web. . . yeah that might work.
Dinner is important to a team. It’s not just food. It’s a chance to reconnect, and strengthen bonds. It’s a chance to learn about your team members. And one of the things I had learned about my team members was that they liked to drink. That sentence makes it sound like they are getting drunk over dinner. Or, maybe that’s just because I don’t come from a culture of drinking.
In any case, it’s not anyone getting drunk. It’s a glass of wine with dinner. It’s a bottle of beer with pasta. As I said, I come from an addictive personality. I tend to obsess. I’m concerend I’d end up overdrinking. But, not my friends.
I checked the catered containers containing our recently arrived lunch. The lunches this week had been amazing. Multiple ways of fixing chicken. Today was chicken breast, in a cream sause with cheese and peppers. Mashed potatoes and a beautiful cucumber pepper salad. One of our team members has pretty strict dietary requirements.
So, Rodney, anything I can eat?
I think it’s all okay, Doris. Looks delicious.
Doris had her own list of acceptable and unacceptable foods. It wasn’t too outside of normal diets. The biggest issue, eating in the South was pork and BBQ sauce. None of that was on the menu today.
I’m a big fan of Mexican Coca-cola. It’s made with real sugar rather than corn syrup. And it’s served in a glass bottle. I was talking to my boss about it.
Everything tastes better in a glass bottle.
See? That’s why some of us like beer. It’s not really the alcohol. It’s just drinking out of that glass bottle.
I think was more than a little serious.
So, we are going to dinner at the Carolina Ale House. I’ll see if they have Coke in a glass bottle. Some will have beer. And Doris will stay away from the BBQ pork.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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The first movie I ever bought on VHS was “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid,” starring Paul Newman as Butch and Robert Redford as Sundance. Modern viewers will remember Newman as the voice of Doc in the Pixar Cars movies. And Redford played Alexander Pierce, the corrupt politician in Captain America: Winter Soldier.
“Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid” was filmed in 1969, nearly 50 years ago. There’s a scene where Butch Cassidy has been challenged for leadership by one of the members of his gang. And not just any member. “Logan” is huge. Easily 5 inches taller and 50 lbs bigger than the slim Paul Newman. When it becomes obvious that there is no way to get out of the knife fight that he will very clearly lose, Butch turns to Sundance,
There might be a way to make some money in this.
Oh yeah?
Yeah. Bet on Logan.
I would, but who’d bet on you?
The movie was written by William Goldman, the screenwriter for Princess Bride. The entire movie is quotable, but that line stands out.
A key member of our project team announced his resignation last week. He was offered a great position at another company. I can’t blame him for taking the new job. However, it left my project and to a large extent our business in a bind. Reggie was a key player. He’d been at all our migrations. In addition he was a key part of the management team. We have a big quarterly client meeting coming up. Reggie was part of the presentation team.
I had a choice to make. As the migration project leader, I had to figure out how to fill Reggie’s role. We’re nearly done. It was easy in consultation with our vice president, to decide that I’d take over much of Reggie’s role. The entire team would also pick up additional pieces,
But, yeah, Rodney, you should probably brush up on IRuff and the reports issues.
I was also asked to step up and do more in the client presentation, something I often hadn’t been invited to in the past. Our project was very high profile. And it was coming to a very exciting and successful conclusion. Reggie was the one that was going to get to be in front to accept credit for the team. That task now fell to me.
And that’s where this quote comes in. It’s very difficult when a key project member drops out in the final home stretch. It’s easy to become upset at the prospect. There isn’t time to bring in a new team member, and everyone else is already stretched. What you need to understand is that while it’s not an ideal situation, there is a way to turn it to an advantage. Maybe, you won’t find yourself in front of the company president describing how your project came in on time and on budget. But, even if you don’t, this is your chance to show your versitility and value to the team and to your company.
Look for an chance to help your team in a time of crisis. You never know, there might be a chance to make some money in it.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It’s the start of another week, I’m on another airplane. On my most recent flight, I flew back in time. Fortunately, the issue that I had last month haven’t returned. (All Of A Sudden I Couldn’t Breath.)
Our corporate travel office books my travel. I submit a request and they handle all of the arrangements, including seat assignments. For this trip to Virginia, I got my request in a little late. (Okay, it was a lot late. I got my final travel docs on Friday for a Sunday flight. When I went to check in it told me that for my SLC -> Atlanta leg, I was on Standby. Fortunately, I had all day to get there.
Of course, my shuttle to the airport had to pick me up at 6:00AM for a 9:30 flight. I got to the airport an the automated kiosk told me that I would have a seat assigned at the gate. It also didn’t want to print out my boarding pass for my connecting flight in Atlanta. I had questions. Have you ever tried to ask an automated kiosk questions? Yeah, it’s responses are pretty limited.
I got a nice seat near the gate and sat down to wait for the gate agent to arrive. My anxiety (I wasn’t really anxious, maybe just a little concerned) was unnecessary.
How can I help you today?
Yeah, my name is Rodney Bliss. Um, my company booked the trip and it said I was on the standby list?
Let me check. . .No. You have a ticket for seat 28G. Here’s your boarding pass.
Can I get a boarding pass for the next flight out of Atlanta, too?
Sure. Here you go.
On this particular flight row 28 is a bulkhead row.
The bulkhead row means that you don’t have another seat in front you. Instead you have a wall. As I took my seat, I noticed the wall and was immediately transported back in time 14 years and a half a world away.
See those three silver spots on the wall?
They have a purpose. A wonderful purpose. They are clamps for a bassinet. An airplane baby crib. I know this because 14 years ago, my lovely wife and I were returning from New Delhi, India. Accompanying us was the newest member of our family, an 18 month old little girl.
It takes about 19 hours to travel from New Delhi to Seattle. That’s a long time on a plane. It’s an especially long time for a scared little girl, just learning to love her new mom and dad. We flew on Singapore Airlines. The flight attendents went all out to make sure we were looked after and our new daughter was made as comfortable as possible. That included making sure that we were sitting in the bulkhead row and we had a bassinett for our little girl.
It’s a little more than a 3 hour flight and about 2500 miles from Salt Lake City to Atlanta. But, on this day the flight took me 14 years and a half world world away.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m doing a lot of traveling this month. I’ll be in Utah, Kentucky, Richmond, Florida and Louisiana during the first six weeks of 2018. I’m really hoping that I can get to the Medalion level for Delta airlines if I get this much travel in early.
But, my flight schedule aside, it means I’m going to be eating out more than I’m eating in. Yesterday I talked about my approach to eating on the road. (Are You Going To Eat That?) But, often eating while travelling isn’t about the food.
Roger and I went to dinner with Jerry. Jerry was in town, like us to do a survey on our site. Jerry was a very thorough investigator. Even though we were well prepared, we were somewhat nervous during Jerry’s investigation. A red flag would mean follow up reports and remedial training. Jerry kept his finding pretty close to the vest during the day.
Tell me about your backup process. Tell me about your security settings.
How often do passwords change?
What software is installed on the workstations?
Who has access to the data closet?
It was a huge relief when we had the Findings meeting at the end of the day. We passed with just a couple of documentation questions that we had to follow up on.
So, Jerry, when do you fly out?
Tomorrow morning.
Do you want to go get some dinner?
Sure, what do you have in mind?
It wasn’t exactly a casual invitation, but stopped short of a formal meeting. Clients are people too. We would be working with Jerry in the future. The dinner was more than to consume calories.
It went great. It turns out that Jerry is a completely different person after work. He was jovial, laughing and telling interesting stories. The food was gone and the desert too. I kept wondering how long we were going to stay when I realized that I was the driver.
It wasn’t about the food.
Next week, I’ll be in Virginia. While there, we’ll have some of these “more than food” dinners. I will also make a run to WalMart and buy 5 pints of their most expensive ice cream. Probably Haagen dazs, but Ben and Jerry’s if needed. The ice cream will be for the analysts who work on the production floor. When there’s an outage, I work with those analysts very closely. They are my eyes and ears on the production floor.
I don’t eat ice cream. In fact, I don’t eat many sweeets at all. There is nothing that requires me to by ice cream. In fact, I had to get permission from my manager to expense the cost of the ice cream as a business expense. If hed said no, I’d still buy it. Because, it’s not about the ice cream. In fa weird sort of way, it’s also not because I’m a nice guy. I’ve done it at all our sites.
Thanks for the ice cream Rodney. That was really nice of you.
You’re welcome, but it wasn’t nice of me.
What do you mean?
I mean I didn’t buy you ice cream to be nice. It’s a bribe.
Really?
Yeah. See, I know you have lots to do. There will be times when I need you to do something for me and someone else needs you to also do something for them. I figure if I bribe you with ice cream , when you have to choose between the two, you’ll pick me over the person who didn’t buy you ice cream.
Ha, ha. That’s funny.
They don’t understand that I’m serious.
It’s not about the food.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Did you know that peanuts are not actually nuts? You did if you think about it. Nuts grow on trees. Peanuts grow in the ground like potatoes. Except peanuts aren’t potatoes either. They are actually legumes. Kind of like lentils, I think.
Food is a big part of business travel. I’m spending this smonth travelling to all five our our locations. Sometimes I’ll be onsite with our client. Sometimes I’ll be with my boss. Sometimes I’ll be alone.
Food is not super important to me. I need it to live, of course. But, I’m typically not what you would call a “foody.” Still, having travelled to our locations in the past, I have my favorite restaurants in various cities. In Louisville, it’s The Brick Tap House and Tavern. In Shreveport it’s a little hole in the wall place called Crawdaddy’s Kitchen. In Richmond, it’s the Ale House.
And while I enjoy each of those restaurants for different reasons, after eating there once on a trip, I’d just as soon eat in my hotel room the rest of the time.
Most companies have two processes for business travel meals: reimbursement and per diem. Reimbursement is just what it says, you get reimbursed for your meals. There’s generally a limit. In my company that limit is around $40 per day. That’s a little low for most companies, but you can reasonably eat for that amount. Whatever you don’t use one day doesn’t necessarily roll over to the next day. Just because I spent $20 today, doesn’t mean I can splurge and spend $60 tomorrow. And I have to keep my receipts and turn them in to get reimbursed.
Per diem, on the other is a lump sum. If you are going to be somewhere for 10 days, you get a check for $400. Anything you spend over that you pay for yourself. Anything under that and you keep the difference. And you don’t have to keep any receipts.
Which one is better? That depends on if you are giving or getting the money. As an employer, you naturally want to limit costs. So, reimbursement is preferred. Your employees are probably not going to spend exactly $40 per day. So, that ten day trip will be less than $400 in food. If you are the employee, per diem is the one you want. There’s the fact that you don’t have keep track of receipts, but more importantly, you aren’t going to spend exactly $40, so at the end of that ten day business trip, you are going to have some cash left over.
I had another reason for preferring per diem. I don’t much care about food. When I was on per diem, I’d find a Marriott Residence Inn. They have a full kitchen. I’d go grab some frozen pizzas or whatever from Walgreens and throw them in the freezer. At the end of the day, I’d head back to the hotel, cook a pizza and not have to go out.
I haven’t been on per diem for years. I now find myself fighting agaisnt the “use it or lose it” mentality. After all, if I don’t spend that $40 for food today, I won’t get to use it tomorrow.
And yet, I get no satisfaction out of it, and it’s actually not a good deal for my company. So, find myself at a diner with a burger and fries: satisfying a coloric need and feeling better about saving the company a little money. In the grand scheme, it’s not a lot of money. Just peanuts, really.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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This post concerns the game Star Trek Attack Wing (STAW.) Read more about it here.
One more STAW post before I beam back down to my day job. Yesterday, I talked about my fleet for the Resource Rumble OP (The Headless Horsemen.) What was fun was that all four fleets that played that day had a unique flavor.
The Headless Horsemen
My two ATR 4107s and two fighters were a weird contrast. The ATRs steer like a bathtub. They have a great 180 degree firing arc and pack a huge punch. But, they are big relatively slow targets. No defense. I added some upgrades to help, but basically they are a flying boat. If I can’t kill the opponent quick enough, I’ll be out of position and the opponent will whittle away at me like a pack of wolves taking down a bear. The fighters are the defenders. They can soak up a lot of damage. Their job was to protect the ATRs. They are manueverable, but again are not built for a long fight.
The Racers
Another fleet was a Federation fleet with a Voyager, a Prometheus and an Intrepid. These three ships, in addition to being Federation ships, all have the ability to move at max speed 6. And it’s a white manuever meaning they can fly across the board and still take Actions. My fight against the racers ended in a draw. We ended up rolling dice at the end to decide the winner. Although, if we could have gotten negative points for bad driving, my opponent would have won easily. I nearly flew my ships off the board because I couldn’t tell my left from my right in planning their turns.
The Constitutions
Constitution is a class of Federation starship. If you’ve seen the original Star Trek series (the one from the 1960’s) that ship is a Constitution class. One player loaded his fleet with four of them. The captains read like a who’s who of Star Trek lore: Spock, Sulu and Kirk. The fourth ship was captained by Matt Decker. In the series Capt Decker was kind of a Captain Ahab character. The Constitution class is a tough ship. I scored a couple of lucky hits. The battle went back and forth. I was down by a single point with 10 minutes to play. On the last play, I lost a fighter squadron but managed to kill another ship (Spock’s I think) and ended up winning by a single point.
The Bruisers
The most powerful ship in Star Trek Attack Wing is generally considered to be the Romulan Reman Warbird class. My son flew two of them. The generic version and the named ship, the Scimitar. He paired them with a D’deridex class. He rolled through the Racers without too much resistance in the first game, and in the second game completely destoyed, as in killed every single Constitution. The final game, had we played a third round would have seen my Headless Horsemen going up against the Bruisers. Time prevented that matchup. My son was declared the overall winner.
The Resources
The Resource Rumble OP is broken. As written, you have to pick at least one resource and pay for it out of your 130 SP fleet. The acknowledged winning strategy is to take Senior Staff as your only resource. It cost 0 SP. You then go attack your opponent and hope he spent a bunch on resources. We changed the rules. We decided that each player would bring 3 unique resources but didn’t have to pay for them. Then, when you discover a resource, you draw from the pool of your and your opponent’s undiscovered resourced. We also allowed retired resources. The results were what we hoped. Resources were a wildcard that wasn’t enough to tip the scales of the fight, but were enough to make it interesting.
I brought the Elite Attack Die, Auxiliary Power and the Cardasian Fighters that were a resource. In both fights, my opponents got my fighters. I pulled a fleet commander at one point. It boosted my Dreadnaught to a Captain Skill of 13. I also pulled Skilled Helmsman. Since my ship did not have a come-about manuever, it was a complete waste for me.
The important thing was that we actually stayed true to the spirit of the OP. It was a rumble that was heavily influenced by Resources.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2017 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
