My Personal 2008

I already spent most of 2008 explaining my post on starting a new company.  I’ll give a quick summary:  the beginning of 2008 began slowly, but picked up during the middle of the year.  At the end of the year, it stalled because of the economy and most companies are not hiring right now, so the business side is not what I hoped for but I’m going to patient about it since a business is a marathon (my family has a different view about it).

However, 2008 has been the most fun time I ever had.  I got my first national TV appearance on C-SPAN from a book signing I attended.  I have been attending more social events for the sake of business and friends.  I went to my second trip (ever) outside the DC area to Chicago this past summer, attended my first two playoff games in DC, went to the 4th of July in DC, got partial season tickets for the Nationals (just want to see the new stadium and the Nats sucking), and partial season tickets for the best team in DC, the Caps. 

Although my business was stagnant and left my last company at the end of summer, I’ve been doing a lot of blogging on this site since I left and felt a lot better sharing my feelings, ideas, sharing my point of view to the world.  I feel like right now, you (the readers) are getting the real me.  If I’m a co-worker or meet you for the first time, I tend to stay conservative since I don’t want to shock them or get fired.   The internet has given me many opportunities to find old and new friends and open up a lot to many topics.  If it wasn’t for the social media sites, I wouldn’t know how to create dialogue.

To sum this up; if you’re going to take this on a monetary basis, it was not a good year for me.  Not because I made bad decisions, it was mere bad luck ( I blame W., Cheney, Adam Archuleta, the whole works).  If you’re looking at this on a “spiritual” basis, this was the boldest, most fun, adventurous time I ever had.  I also want people who got laid off or having problems, just look at your “spiritual” side and not monetary when reflecting in 2008 and find something to carry momentum into 2009. 

For 2009, I can surely tell you that I won’t do anything bold or adventurous.  Let me get this out of the way:  losing weight in on the list and will probably continue to be  until the end of time or when toning my body is feasible.   I’m also going to save my money until either the economy becomes stable, either of my family members hit the lottery (a big thing in our family), or I hit the jackpot of something unexpected such as my company making $100K or someone wants my service other than HR.  Probably the most fun I want to do in 2009 is actually I want to start to grow a beard.  I think it will be cool to have a beard:  shows comradery, people think you’re intelligent, and I would be a sexy beast (ok, sexy is too strong a word, but you get the point).  I got the new hairdo this year, so why not a new image for next year?!

Finally, if there’s a chance, I would like to see my friends on the week of January 20 when the Inauguration of Obama comes that week and see their faces for the first time in a long time, which includes my high school and college friends, fellow NPR interns, Mr. Tony’s fansite group, and the HR bloggers.  Also, if you’re wondering, I’m not going to split my blog into 5 different areas like many others have tried.  What you see is what you get from this blog:  all me, although I want nicknames (The Mr. Tony Group and my best friends are set, what about the others, hmm?).  Also, I’m going to do a few more vlogs for the hell of it and write the topics that interest me:  Me and Potpourri.

Anyway, I’ll see you in 2009.

The Holiday Rush

The past couple of days has been the most hectic I’ve been in work in a long time.  Some might think work will slow down before Christmas break.  Might be true for some jobs, but not in HR.  Work was blistering since our company is switching pension plans and getting contracts out.  I’ve never realize there would be so much work before the holidays.  I understand December is a busy month, but these past couple of days were crazy before the holidays began.   I’m not complaining, but an observation that I might be doing this in the next few years.  Now, I’m vacation and will soak every minute of it…until next year.

My Halloween

It has been a long time since I wore a costume.  To be honest, the last time I wore a costume was in seventh grade.  As you know from my other posts, I do not go out that much.  I wasn’t interested in attending Halloween parties during high school and college because it was too hectic and beer is the name of the game.   This was truly my first grown up Halloween party and appropriately, it’s at an office.  In my Halloween costume, I wanted to embarrass myself.  My dream costume was wearing a bear costume with a diaper (If you want to know, I stole that idea when I saw one of the poker players wore it to the table because he lost a bet.).  However, the bear costume is expensive, so here were the looks I went for:

Morning:

Afternoon (The Party):

Evening (For the little munchkins):

I will tell you my costumes during my random thoughts for November.  Just to follow up on black days;  I think your safe if you’re wearing black during the “darkest” day of the year.  I didn’t have any trouble today wearing black (Ok, minor glitches, but that’s fine).  Happy Halloween everyone, and I’m going to sleep so I need to go to church tomorrow morning.

Cosmos Club

I went to the Cosmos Club in DuPont Circle for the customer appreciation event with my HR crew.  The Cosmos Club is elegant with their setting, as well as their members.  It felt you’re in a castle feeling not worthy to be in the building.  The event was great with presentations and dinner to die for (Steak and Salmon if you want to know).  But the shocking thing about the event was that I was the youngest in the building.  The next youngest was at least 28.  I don’t have a problem socializing (except being a topic starter), but it just feels weird to be young not only in the event, but to attend an exclusive building.  Same thing at work; I’m the second youngest employed throughout the company.  It just to show being young can be cool, nut sometimes you are stuck in an awkward, yet unique place.

I’m relieved

As I mention before, I was a one-man HR department person for two weeks. I can tell you now that I have a new co-worker. Well, its the old co-worker who quit then came back. Apparently those two weeks, my co-worker didn’t feel comfortable at the other company and came back. So, my mind is refresh and kicking ass.

Also, I watched “An Inconvient Truth” with Al Gore and it is stunning about how global warming has become an issue. The great thing from the movie were the Republicans thinking global warming was a conspiracy the liberals are creating. If you see the film, your get a real appreciation of what were doing now.

Finally, I’m seriously addicted to fantasy football and no one can stop me.

When you know you have a long week

Here are symptoms you are having a long week:

• Saying your co-workers wrong name.
• Give a raise to the person, yet the salary stays the same.
• Someone is heckling about contracts (not 5 people all at one time, but the same person comes in every ten seconds).
• Seeing documents as puzzles.
• Sleepy and cranky
• Ready to go home early.

The funny thing about this is I had a 5 month vacation before going starting work. I think God is forcing me to make up time. I don’t mind the work because I am actually learning all aspects of HR the hard way; but having all the workload, plus the heat wave, plus the variables equals summer school. Oh, if you want to help me and your in human resources, got http://www.counterpart.org and apply. Like a pledge drive, I need your help, fast!

This might take some time

This is ten days since my last post here and might be another 10-14 days or longer. This week, my other co-worker from HR resigned and took a better job at AED. So, for the next few weeks or a month, I’ll be controlling the HR department for Counterpart. I might be lucky to have this post and energy, but after every week, I’m going to be one tired bulldog, so be prepared for a stretch of hiatus (or not).

My picture blog

If you notice, I hadn’t written anything in the past week. Well, there’s good reason, I went out for 5 days straight from Friday June 23rd to the 28th. Now, I can’t put pictures here because there’s too much kilobytes to handle, but if you go to my Facebook photo account, it will tell the story. The link is on the right side that says “Facebook me!” and click on one of my photo blogs during the SHRM Conference I went. Here are some behind-the-scene details that are not in the photos.

Friday:

• Meet all my former co-workers from CTAA to NPR. I also saw the first person from the NPR Interns of 2005, Jill. After that, I went to the National Museum of American history to see Rachel, but no luck, just got the Swedish Chef.
• Went to Reagan National Airport to greet the New Mexico State people I met last year in San Diego. Gave them gifts, gave them directions and off we go. Well, I needed a dress shirt and bought one, watch soccer, and off we went.
• The Aggies gang and I went to Adams Morgan since they were looking for great food. Went walking for one hour and finally stop at Al Castino. The food was great and it is a great restaurant with their presentation, atmosphere, and taste.
• When we left, the NMSU gang took the bus, while I went walking towards the Metro stop. Thirty minutes later, we met again.

Saturday:

• Went to the student conference (although I’m not a student) to see how my alma mater, George Mason is doing since they are hosting the event. Oh so proud of my former club, I finally did something right. It went well, except my messenger bag broke and bought a new one.
• After that, I was trying to go to a restaurant at the Metro Center, but saw there was the DC BBQ festival that I overheard. One, the event is $10 to get in, which is typical in an event. But here’s the kicker: You have to pay $2 for one ticket. Then, you hand in the ticket and ask what drink to have. Ok, that’s a little extreme; can the event have a set rate? It was solid, but it could of been better.
• My final destination for the day, the Jammin’ Java. The Brindley Brothers were playing and were releasing their new CD, Filled With Fire (Buy it at Jammin’ Java, their upcoming concerts, or their website). The reason I want to go is they were the first music group I personally met. In 2004, I was a DJ at WGMU and my timeslot was 5-7PM. Coincidently, the Jazzmans’ Cafe holds the Tuesday Jamz at the same time. The first band I paid attention was the Brindley Brothers. They gave me their CD to play over the air and I promoted their album and tell everyone to go to the Jazzmans’ Cafe to see the guys. It was then I realize I touched gold and began a series of promotions that fall semester of local artists at the Jazzmans’ Cafe. By the way, the album sounds great and they rock the concert.
• There are two pictures I didn’t post: one was a woman in a bikini in a spa (waiver issues) at the BBQ festival just to show my macho side and the second was taking a picture at the bar at the Jammin’ Java as I accidentally took the picture of the register and woman got pissed at me and I understood when I look at the picture, so its deleted.

Sunday:

• It rained hard all day.
• Went to a humorist speaker and sounded a mix between Brett Butler and Roseanne. Favorite joke: I learn line-dancing from those skinny hallways (Then demonstrated).
• Colin Powell was the guest speaker. He was great telling stories in his time in the Army and his transition phase to retirement. Sat to my former advisor at Mason.
• Made business deals at the EXPO.
• Went to the Monstertini Party at LOVE in NE DC. It looks industrial on the outside, but nice inside. Didn’t realize at the end, they ahd an arcade. After the party, the rain came hard and penetrate to the Monster buses. Then I went to the Metro and fun began.
• The Yellow Line I went to flooded and the train backtrack. then I had a thirty minute delay on each transfer (Yellow to Blue, then Blue to Orange). Got home at 1 AM Monday Morning and had 3 hours of sleep.

Monday:

• Got up at 5 AM to attend the early session. Went to the Metro at 6 AM. Got to the Convention Center at 8 AM, and it usually takes 40 minutes.
• Guest speaker was Louis Gerstner, formerly of IBM. They did the CEO Exchange with Jeff Greenfield of CNN.
• Attend a couple of sessions and picked up free stuff. Did saw my friend from GW, Stephen, at the workplace law session.
• Headed back to work to give out free stuff and hand out the Monster Spa Night to one employee (the person who got it didn’t get in because they had a limit of people entered and she stood out in the rain. Felt so guilty, I gave a tote bag with a lot of stuff in it.)
• Went to the Odyssey because the company that was sponsoring, also sponsored a great party last year in San Diego with the “Some Like It Hot” theme. This year, it was disappointing because it was one boat and two parallel parties. They should have a dinner and dance floor on one end, and a gambling table on the other. Oh, this was my first boat ride ever and although it rained, it was cool to see the Potomac River (although murky)and overseeing DC and Virginia.

Tuesday:

• Finally attended the morning session, but a few minutes late.
• David McCollugh (1776, John Adams) was the guest speaker. He was great, if you’re talking about parenting.
• Got a bunch of free stuff to hand out to the employees at Counterpart.
• Attend more sessions and headed back to work.
• At my workplace, I emailed everyone that I got free stuff. Soon, a mob of workers were coming to the HR office to get their free stuff. I got pummeled.
• Headed back to the Convention Center and saw my old friends and people I met last year.
• The Gladys Knight concert was electric and much more entertaining than last year with Hall and Oates.

Wednesday:

• Liz Murray was the guest speaker and retold her story about being the “Homeless to Harvard” lady, although she has join the HR side, yes.
• Attended one session and headed back to work.

Overall, I expected better not just of the event but the friends that I expect coming in, but didn’t and realize its the adult life. I wish the rain would of stop a few days, but it continued throughout the event. The only time it shine was the last day of the conference. Either way, it was intriguing and I wouldn’t forget these 5 days (thanks to the new camera I bought last week).

Another episode w/ moi

Hello out there in internet world.

It’s been nearly a week since my last blog. The job is improving steadily; liking it more and more and know what the hell is going on after a few weeks of rebuilding the department. The Steelers won the Super Bowl and had the prediction wrong as always (Damn refs!). Now its to the best season of all: The offseason. With the hot stove and Mel Kiper, Jr. and his over the top analysis of every football player in the planet, I’m in. Finally…ugh, I got nothing. I’ll be back with the Sly Stone look.

Your typical day

Well, lets began in the morning. I picked up lottery tickets for my family for the Powerball drawing tomorrow worth around $135 Million. Don’t let me down lady luck. That’s it for the morning.

In the afternoon, I went back to NPR to meet up with the staff again for their internship fair. Just hoping a lot more George Mason students go in so I can start the Tracy Tran tree (similar to the Bill Belichick, where I was made them stars, literally I was the first George Mason student to go to NPR). It was a great feeling again, seeing the potential interns and the old staff. I always love to go back to memory lane because these people took a risk at hiring me and both sides enjoyed the experience. I might not want to come back every year, but from time to time, I want to see not only the staff, but the other interns I worked with, although I’m very slow to develop a relationship at first hand. The only sad part is that NPR will only do HR interns for the summer semester. Now, I have to wait who replacing The Prodigy at the HR department.

After that, I went to the second half of work and everything went crazy. Not to go in the deep end, but it will take a long time to settle in since the last person who held my job basically gave me an idea of not to file. But I can say I rebuild the department with someone else and looks good on the resume. Point for me!

After work, I did “spring cleaning” for Vietnamese New Year (yes, its suppose to say Chinese, but were not communists). At the end of day, the house actually smells like strawberries and lemons.