Writing Through The Internal Chatter

A comment I’ve heard from a number of people is that my new job at Check Point has me traveling a bit more. My wife certainly thinks so. Between more trips to the office and speaking engagements, I’m in the air at least once a month now.

This time, I’m going to San Diego for Check Point Software’s Sales Kick Off. It’s a corporate rah-rah session of sorts. A gathering of the troops. And, for me, a chance to dry out for a few days and meet many co-workers for the first time.

It’s funny. With 3 trips to Israel in the past 9 months, I have a different perspective on travel. Compared to the nearly 24 hours it takes to get from Seattle to Tel Aviv, pretty much all the other flights I take are short by comparison. Also, TSA could learn a few things from the Israeli airport authorities.

More than a decade ago, I made a name for myself helping customers with Check Point firewalls. I was a technical support engineer that supported customers directly. I helped out on the mailing lists of the day (and even started my own). I ran a fairly popular FAQ web site about the product. I even wrote two books about the Check Point firewall! The mention of “PhoneBoy” to a long-time Check Point customer will often evoke a fond memory about how my site or book helped them out of a jam.

Of course, that was ages ago, at least in Internet time. The product suite has changed substantially since then. I haven’t been tasked with doing technical support for the Check Point firewall in quite some time. I shut down my mailing list last year. CPUG has taken phoneboy.com’s place as the top independent repository of all things Check Point. And, more recently, I became employed by Check Point.

Now it seems I am doing what I used to do 10 years ago. No, I’m not a guru on all things Check Point like I used to be, and phoneboy.com won’t return to it’s roots anytime soon. But I am helping Check Point customers again–and it’s my job to do so.

Ok, it was my job before, but only in that I worked in technical support and worked for Nokia for most of the time. A lot of what people knew me for was my “extra-curricular” that I did because I wanted to.

This is different. Instead of working things through the technical support channels, I now pretty much have access to the entire Check Point organization. While I won’t dive into the technical details of an issue anymore, I can help make sure the right resources are engaged to resolve it. I make sure customer feedback gets where it needs to and that customers get the appropriate feedback, And, yes, I also help clarify uncertainties around upgrades from NGX to Software Blades licensing

I should note that this isn’t the only thing I do at Check Point. I have a “real” job as well (i.e. something that has nothing to do with representing the company online), though everyone involved knows–and generally approves–of what I am doing online. Better yet, the “real” job puts me at the right place in the organization to get the information I need for our customers out there who are talking about us.

I’m pretty much doing this by the seat of my pants. I haven’t been given any formal guidance on what I should be doing, though I do get the occasional email from someone inside the company asking me to take a look at something. I also periodically check in with our PR and Marketing teams to make sure my messaging is consistent and that I am aware when new products and services are launched.

The general feedback I’ve gotten (internally and externally) has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been making a difference for our customers and for the company as a whole. It’s quite gratifying. And fun.

Today is officially the last day of my vacation. I’ve never taken a three week vacation before, especially one where I was home the entire time. I wasn’t sure what to expect, quite honestly.

Meanwhile, I tackled tasks that had been piling up. Went through the last of our boxes that were still packed from our move two years ago. Things went to Goodwill and the landfill. I finally finished Cryptonomicon. We had Thanksgiving at our house. Wrote a presentation on Smartphones that I will give in March. Wrote a couple of product reviews. I watched the Price is Right one morning.

I went the entire three weeks without reading my work email. I did make sure my expense reports were getting paid and submitted one. Made sure the travel department booked my trip to California, which is where I will be when this hits the Internet.

It’s been August since I’ve been to Redwood City to visit the office. Nothing quite like total immersion to recover from vacation. That and the estimated 5,000 emails that are sure to be in my inbox when I open my inbox on Monday morning

Today is my last day of work for three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks. Seems like an eternity. But it’s either that or lose my vacation time.

Despite having worked for Check Point for the last 7 months, I still have my vacation allocation from Nokia and still fall under Nokia’s policy this year. Nokia grants your entire allocation at the start of the calendar year and you either use it all (except the 80 hours you are allowed to carry over) or lose it. Nokia has a rather generous vacation allocation, especially after working there 10 years.

With a new job, a new company, and my general workaholic self, I entered the last quarter of the year needing to take 18 days of vacation. October had a lot of travel, thus not a lot of opportunity to take time off. I can’t take the last two weeks of December off due to the nature of my job. I’ve taken a few Fridays off, but with the company days off around the holidays, that still leaves a large chunk of time to be taken off in a relatively short span of time.

So what am I going to do with my time off? There’s a few projects around the house that I should finally have time to tackle. I’m sure that, on a non-rainy day, I will do some outdoor work (e.g. gutters, Christmas lights). Maybe I’ll clean out my office. Lots of possibilities.

Next year, I will be under Check Point’s vacation policy, which works much better for me. I won’t end up needing to take a bunch of time off at the end of next year like I’ve had to do over the last several years at Nokia.

Let the vacation begin.

Now that I did the slightly inappropriate Sesame Street clip, here are a few of my favorite non-censored ones to commemorate 40 years of Sesame Street.

Ernie singing about the letter D with Cookie Monster:

Or Sherlock Hemlock singing about the letter X:

And one of my favorite “Kermit The Frog with another fast-breaking news story”:

And one of the saddest moments in Sesame Street history (and I remember when there WAS a Mr. Hooper):

Apparently, this whole debate has gone back a few generations (if not longer).

Ranks right up there with Braille on the drive-up ATM.

I am beginning the rather manual process of going through my old blog on Vox and copying things over. One post at a time. You’ll see a few things copied over here for posterity, but as I go through it all, I realize not all of the material there needs saving.

Some of the stuff was “tweets” or “status updates” I sent through ping.fm, which I had pointed at my Vox blog for a period of time. Most of that stuff is ephemeral at best and probably does not need to be saved. I did run across this quote, though:

Never attribute to incompetence that which may be adequately explained by process-driven behavior.

Not sure what this was even in response to, but I’m sure it had something to do with work. This did for sure (and refers to our old support website at Nokia).

Cursing at our support website, which lately has had all the reliability of a heroin addict looking for their next hit.

That was it of the ping.fm stuff that ended up on my Vox blog. Look for more backdated posts in the coming days as I copy them over from Vox and repost them here. Or simply delete them without a trace.

I’ve previously had a personal blog on Vox (it’s still there, for now), but I’ve decided to restart the blog over here on phoneboy.info, which I bought a while ago but wasn’t using for anything. I’m no longer fond of the “roach motel” that some of these “Free” blogging services are (i.e. you can get your data in, but you can’t easily get it off). I wanted something I could easily get the data into–which Wordpress blogs certainly allow for–but also get the data out of if I desire.

So what will be here that isn’t on phoneboy.com? Non-techie stuff. Interesting photos I take when I travel. Other things that don’t really have a home, but I want to keep track of for slightly longer than an ephemeral tweet. I’ll think of something for it, I’m sure.