First thing I need to do now that I am a Googler...

Stop using Bing.

I do genuinely love Bing.  I am sure there is some loyalty from my Microsoft days.  But, I also like the picture and the animations.  But, mostly it's habit.  I have been slowly trying to switch.  Updated the default on my (Google) phone.  Updated the homepage at home.

It's been real, Bing!  I will miss you.  But, I am a loyalist.  I am a Googler.  It's not you, it's me.  I've simply found someone else.  But, I wish you well!

Goodbye Microsoft! Hello Climate Corporation!

Yup...you read that correctly.  I have left Microsoft.  My 2nd home for over 10 years.  Wow...it feels weird reading that back right now.  But, it's real.  Today was my last day.  I have turned in the ol' Blue Badge and rode off into the sunset.  Well...actually, I left around 3 so the sun was still pretty high up there.  But, whatever.

I have left Microsoft to join another company.  The Climate Corporation. 

Climate is a San Francisco based company with an office in Seattle.  In a nutshell, they make technology for farmers.  Imagine getting to work on products that impact our every day life in fundamental ways.  I spent 9 years working on a super fancy product...Xbox.  It was amazing, it was sexy...but, at the end of the day, it was a toy.  Something only some people could afford and not everyone was interested in.   Outside of Xbox, Microsoft focuses mainly on productivity.  Our tools impact people all over the world...but, in ways that, ultimately, we could live without.  

In my new role, I will be impacting everyday life.  I will be impacting something that affects billions of people in ways that we can't live without.  If the world crashes, we can live without our computers.  We can't live without our food. 

The job is super cool.  I'll be working on college recruiting and staffing programs.  It's a lot, but it's a small company. :-)  My focuses, as I understand them now, will be on university relationship building, college hiring, and programs such as diversity.  I get to work on things I am passionate about and I get to take myself out of a comfort zone I have sat in for a long time.

Microsoft has been amazing to me.  I have zero hard feelings.  I grew more in my first year at Microsoft than I did in my 5 prior years recruiting.  My life is so different now.

Ten years ago...

• Desmond wasn't around,
• I was married, but not to my current wife,
• I had 2 cats and an adorable puppy with perfect eye sight and a weird itchy problem we couldn't figure out,
• I lived in Tacoma,
• My list of close friends was almost 100% different (save for the longtime besties like Eric, Liz and MichaelPaine),
• I was in the Navy Reserve,
• John Paul II was the Pope,
• George W. Bush was just elected to his 2nd term,
• Pluto was still a planet.

Whether or not to leave Microsoft was a super hard decision.  But, it's the right one.  It's time to grow and it's time to evolve.  Microsoft is on a great path and I plan to continue to be a Windows/Xbox/Bing user for a long time (Windows Phone, on the other hand...well, I may have already switched there). 

I'm excited!  I'm ready to go!  Let's do this!!!

Island Wedding Memories RULES!!! Yelp SUCKS!!!

Getting hitched in Maui isn't easy when you live in Seattle.  Therefore, having a wedding coordinator on site is pretty essential. 

The coordinator Kim found, Leah Robb from Island Wedding Memories, was rad!  Here is the review I posted on Yelp:

I just got hitched in Maui last month.  The day was simply perfect.  In every way.

The main reason for the perfection was Leah Robb.

Obviously, planning a wedding from across an ocean is difficult, so we knew pretty early that we needed a coordinator.  My (now) wife found Leah through a referral.  Where we had previously been doing a ton of our own research and were going into a destination wedding knowing very little, Leah was quick to identify our needs and guide us through our process.

Her first, and easily her best, recommendation was the wedding site.  Had it not been for Leah, we would have never found our site.  And, it was amazing.  So amazing, that my wife barred me from posting pictures before the ceremony because she wanted a breathtaking experience for our guests when they arrived the day of.

Next, we gave her our budget and she gave us suggestions.  Instead of constant negotiating and adding/subtracting various different costs, she put together suggestions for catering, photography, decorations, floral, etc, all within the budget we gave her.  We simply had to pick our favorites.  And, again...all services on the day of were spot on.

We even had some quirky requests.  We didn't want cake.  So, she rented us a shave ice truck!  This was SUPER popular with the guests.  We wanted to have yard games for the kids.  Done!  Some of our guests had dietary restrictions.  Handled!!  Perfect, I tell you.  Perfect!

Leah was professional and fun. Seriously.  She made us laugh and she made the day 100% stress free.  Arriving in Maui was more stressful than the actual wedding day.  Guests arrived at 3 and there were still people hanging on until the last shuttle (arranged by Leah) left at 10.

Perfect!

____________________________

Now, for the complaining part.

Yelp sucks.  Like, really really sucks.

I never used it before now.  I would read reviews, but I wouldn't post.  I have been hearing a lot about how they may or may not play favorites with certain posts, but I didn't really care that much. 

Until now.  You see, Leah Robb was an amazing coordinator.  Like, super fantastic.  Our wedding day went off without a hitch.  It was as perfect as it possibly could have been.  If there were hiccups, we didn't see them.  In fact, the only thing I noticed that wasn't 100% on point was that the Shave Ice truck (yes, we had shave ice instead of cake!) parked in the wrong place.  But, the only reason I noticed was because, 2 days before during our walkthrough, Leah told us the truck would park somewhere else.  I can pretty much guarantee that nobody else noticed.

Let me back up a little.

Kim found Leah through a recommendation.  As with most of Kim's decisions with the wedding, my input was, "That sounds great, honey!"  Such was the case with Leah.

One day while I was bored, I decided to do a Yelp search on Leah.  I found that she was indeed listed.  And, she was ranked with only 1 star.  ONE STAR!  In case you're not familiar with Yelp, that means she sucks.  This made me nervous.  Did we just hire a crappy coordinator to run this important day?  I brought it up to Kim and she basically said, "Oh...well, we already gave her a deposit."  So...there we are.

Fast forward.  As I mentioned, the day was amazing!  We could not have been happier!  I was so happy, in fact, that I was inspired to create a Yelp account and post a review for Leah!  It was not fair that she was represented on Yelp by these 2 crappy reviews.  Especially when you read the review.  Seriously...one person was mad because the wedding party wasn't paired up properly.  Um...hey wedding party.  Maybe you could have pointed that out to her.  Regardless, not a reason to review someone with one star.

Kim and I both wrote 5 star reviews!  It boosted Leah's average to 3 stars.  Still not as good as she deserves, but whatever.  It's better than 1 star.

I popped back onto Yelp today, about 3 days after I posted.  Leah's score is once again 1 star.  Both my review as well as Kim's had disappeared.  What the hell?

It was then that I noticed a little drop down category called "Other reviews that aren't recommended."  You have to click to see these reviews and they don't factor into the final score.  Both of our reviews are in this category.  So, neither of our glowing reviews made it in to impact Leah. 

We are there with 9 other reviews that aren't "recommended."  Many of them Great reviews!  In fact, if these reviews are counted, Leah's average would be 4 STARS!!!

What the hell, Yelp?  This basically makes me conclude that your service is bullshit.  And, while I have watched your little video and understand the supposed logic, it is clearly proving to be bullshit in this circumstance.  Your algorithm is crap. I currently have zero trust in you as a referral service based on this. 

I've forgotten how to write!

No...really.  I can't do it anymore. 

I'm talking about hand writing, mind you.  Do you remember how to write with your hands.  None of this typie typie stuff.  I mean actually putting a writing utensil in your hand and putting ink to paper.

Let me explain.

Since Des started Kindergarten, I have been wrangled into volunteering for a bunch of stuff.  School Commission, Parish Leadership Team, Fund Drive Committee, etc, etc, etc.  At a meeting of the Fund Drive Committee last night, we were asked to write Thank You cards to the donors. 

It took about 5 minutes before my hand started to hurt.  Seriously...5 minutes.  I was stopping and making and releasing a fist because I don't work those muscles for 5 straight minutes at a time, anymore.

Then, even more annoying...I forgot how to spell.  When you write, there are no red marks underlining misspelled words.  A simple word like donor.  Is it donor...or doner?  See, when I write it here, I can easily tell that doner is misspelled because it has a red underline!  So...what do I do?  I simply right click and pick the correct spelling.

Not that long ago, I remember getting into an argument with my mom over the teaching of cursive in school.  She was annoyed because schools are beginning to stop teaching cursive.  My mom thinks that's dumb.  Me, on the other hand.  The guy who doesn't actually hand write anymore, the guy who, when I do hand write, it's not in cursive, things it's completely ok not to teach cursive.  Because, kids are never going to need it!  It's not like someone has to write another Declaration of Independence or something.  And, even if they did, it would likely be written in Word...not on parchment.

Anyway...just thought you would like to know.  I can't write anymore.

In case my page goes away....

So...I am having some problems with Google.

I purchased pankow4president.com in November 2012.  During the following year, the card I used to make the purchase expired.  I updated in Google Wallet, but apparently that wasn't sufficient.  I am getting monthly-ish mails from Google telling me the payment failed and my blog will expire if I don't pay the soon.

Only, when I go to pay them, they tell me I don't have an admin account, which is what I am supposed to use to pay them with.  I only have the one account with Google (actually, I guess I have 2, but I never ever ever use the other one.  Not even sure I remember the password.  Regardless, that one isn't an admin account, either). 

I find myself in a position where I need to pay Google, but they don't seem to be very interested in taking my money.  What the heck is that about?

Anyway...it won't be disappearing until later this year.  I can't seem to find any solution.  And, in my hunt for Customer Service, I am told I can't talk to a live person unless I have a paid account.  Which I do.  But, I can't seem to log into it because it needs to be an admin account, which I apparently don't have even though I used this same account to purchase this page.

*sigh*  Time to move to another hosting site? 

Spam?

Sheesh...apparently, my ramblings are so incoherint that Google flagged my blog as Spam. So, I've been unable to post for the last week while they reviewed it. Why it takes over a week to read 2 posts, I don't know. But...whatever.