Kyle – Page 2 – Andelin Adventures

Kyle’s Trip to Florida

Before starting back at Symantec, my manager had let me know that there would be a training in Florida, at our Heathrow office, covering one of the products I would be supporting. Since I had been gone for so long, we felt it would be a good refresher. It would also be a good chance to meet with people outside the company, as there would be partners that would also work with it.

At the airport, I met a coworker from our Oregon office, and we would end up traveling together on the trip. This was my first trip to Florida, and the flight from Salt Lake airport was entertaining. A large number of the people on the flight were families going to Disneyworld. Once we boarded, the flight attendants pointed out that our flight was full, so to be sure we got airborne, we had to lift our arms in the air like it was a roller coaster. They did other silly things and jokes, for example when we landed, they got over the PA system and asked if anyone lost a briefcase full of hundred dollar bills, as they had an empty briefcase to return. It added to the experience, which really feels that Disneyworld (and the other parks in the area) get a lot of attention. Some day I hope we get there for a vacation.

We arrived in the evening to mild, rainy weather. I understand Florida is like this quite often, and was a decent change from a Utah winter. It took around an hour to reach the hotel from the airport, but fortunately the hotel was pretty close to the office. During our trip, we got a chance to explore the area whilst looking for food and other things to do, although they wasn’t much. We drove down to Cocoa Beach, the city I Dream of Jeannie took place in, although it didn’t look like I imagined it from the TV series.

We got a chance to try some new food, like Alligator and Frogs Legs, at a local place a coworker recommended. Whoever thought Frogs Legs taste like chicken was eating some bad chicken, because it tasted nothing like it, and not good at all, either. At least the Alligator was decent, when battered and deep fried.

As for the trip, the training was good. Over the few days I was there, I met some people I had worked with in the past, and got the refresher and update I needed on our product. I am glad I went, even if everyone missed me during the trip.

Job Shuffle Continues

So, I was sitting at work one day when my mobile phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was my old manager from Symantec. Wondering what he could want, I quickly stepped away from my desk to answer the call.

He explained that he was talking to his fellow managers at Symantec, and one of them mentioned I had expressed an interest in coming back. I confirmed this, and he said he had an opening on my old team again, as they had put an offer out to someone who turned it down, and he was wondering if I would be interested. I answered that I was, and he asked what I was making and how much I made before I left. He then said he would look into it a little more and get back to me.

When I next heard back from him, he ended up making me an offer to return to my old position at roughly the same pay as before. He added that if I returned within a year from when I left (back on 8 March), I could resume my time off accrual, getting more per year than if I were to start over. Although sorely tempted, I didn’t accept just then, as I needed to discuss the situation with Rebecca. He said his manager wanted to talk to me about it, too, before I decided.

Instead of going in to meet in person, I ended up talking to him on the phone. He explained that although there were rumours about Symantec closing down the Lindon location, they reversed course on it and were trying to build it up, keeping some of the best talent in the company here. Compared to what I had heard previously, this sounded promising, so I decided to accept.

However, I did not tell my manager at EMC yet. We went to California for Wendy and John’s wedding, which felt ironic since last year I changed jobs during a different family trip. Fortunately, my EMC manager was supportive with whatever decision I would make, and I began the paperwork to return to Symantec. It was a bit of a hassle to get all the paperwork in, but it worked out and now I’m back!

Nokia “Tell My Story”

So a few weeks ago, I had read about a program Nokia was doing where they send out their latest device, the Lumia 1520, for people to use. Part of this program is they want one hundred people, between the ages of one to one hundred, to tell their stories: take pictures that show who they are. I thought a chance to play with the phone sounded good, but also the project they were going for sounded really interesting. I applied for it and wasn’t needed, but they actually had room for younger people, and Jeremy and Ethan fit the bill.

I had to send in pictures of my two lads with brief biographies about them, and Nokia sent out two 1520 phones from England, one for each boy to use. Here is what I sent as pictures and bios:

My name is Ethan. I love LEGOs. My favorite LEGO theme is LEGO NINJAGO. I HATE GETTING MY HAIR CUT. I love everything Pokémon, including cards, marbles, movies, figures, and pretty much anything. I am in 5^th grade and doing homeschool this year. I am the oldest of 7 kids. I am a Webelos scout and my dad is our leader. I love burritos and doritos tacos, but my favorite food is pizza. My favorite color is purple, and I have a seven foot long purple snake that I got at the aquarium, and take with me everywhere.

Hi, my name is Jeremy. I am eight years old. I am the third of seven children. I am in second grade and this is my first year doing home school. I just started cub scouts, and I am in the wolf den. I love chili and tacos. I can eat a whole can of chili, maybe two, or eight tacos in one meal. I am a king at making silly faces. My favorite characters are Snoopy, Donald Duck, and Jar Jar Binks. My favorite colors are yellow, green, and blue. My favorite animals are turkeys, dogs, bats, and skunks.

The boys were excited for their own chance to have phones, even if only for a month, and they didn’t even mind that they didn’t have phone service. Jeremy actually got his phone first, and Ethan’s is still on its way.

Once Nokia has collected enough pictures and videos from all their testers, they will create a website documenting the lives of all their participants. It should be fun to see once complete, and my boys are lucky to be part of this!

LDS BSA 100th Anniversary Celebration

I heard about the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the LDS Church’s relationship with the Boy Scouts of America a few months ago, and thought it would be fun to go as a troop to the meeting. However, since moving to Utah, it seems that tickets are extremely rare, as they have around 20,000 seats in the place, and typically we only get a couple tickets for the stake to use. So, I went on, thinking to encourage the boys to go to the local broadcast.

At church a couple weeks ago, I heard that our stake has a couple dozen tickets available. I was thrilled and asked for enough tickets to take all our Webelos. I went around and passed out permission slips for each boy and let them know I would plan on leaving early enough to get there on time, but as the day approached, a complication came of not having an additional adult to go with, as my co-leader would not be able to get home early enough. I sent out a text asking if any fathers would be available to go. Then about 15 minutes before we were planning to leave, I had to send out another one, telling them we didn’t have another adult and we wouldn’t be able to go as a troop. One boy still came, a newer addition to our numbers (as he hadn’t been active in scouts until recently), and it really made me sad to tell him he needed to go home since we didn’t have anyone else to go with. His mom sent me a text that he would just go to the stake broadcast with his grandpa.

I still took Ethan and Jeremy. We left to give us plenty of time, as I didn’t know how close our assigned parking lot would be. We got there an hour before it started, and walked the few blocks through downtown, including the shopping area, then got into the building. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many people in scout uniforms. Perhaps the Jamborees that we used to go to when I was in scouts? We got into the building and kept working up, as our seats were in the top section.

The performance was outstanding. The whole program was hosted by a group of teenage boys, dressed as boy scouts through the century. They sang songs and acted out scenes, with many other scouts (possibly hundreds) assisting with the acting and songs. They also gave everybody a phone number to text to count how many people participated, and said it would be available online. Once home, I pulled up the “Mom, You Earned Your Eagle” song to play for Rebecca, which was a tribute to mothers and the hard work they put into their scouts’ achievements. Overall, I think the highlight was being in the conference center when President Monson spoke. I had no idea how much he has been involved in the scouting program, and it really makes me want to try harder in my role as leader, and in our boys’ lives.

After the celebration was over and we left, the boys were hungry so we stopped by the food court across the street, in the mall. Ethan chose pizza from Sbarro’s, and Jeremy picked a footlong from Subway. Ethan only ate 1 1/2 slices, but Jeremy finished the entire footlong by himself! I knew the boy was growing. He’s almost 8, not quite in scouts officially, but he still loved the chance to go.

Sick children

Rebecca has pointed out to me on multiple occasions that when it comes to having children get sick, she much rather prefers sleepy lethargic children, the type that just want to sleep all day; over barfy children (need no explanation here, but its worse with the young ones that don’t recognize the feeling and fail to reach the toilet on time.)

Well, after the last two nights of being up most of the night with feverish crying children, she exclaimed, “I wanted them sleepy sick! Not this!”

To which I had to point out, “you just said you didn’t want them barfy sick. You need to be more specific on your order.”