Vishu Week

Monday, April 12, 2010

Vishu (malayalam new year) is this week, They have already started partying at home. missing them all.

Wake up to the alarm. Big house with no furniture, just a couple of suitcases, sleeping bag and two lap tops..
Had to shower with out a shower curtain. That was a good experiment.
No TV to let me know the latest situation around the world. But iPhone seems to be great with access to emails on the phone. :)

Ready to get cracking, last few hrs with the car.

Got a mail from Indian HR asking for university documents to be sent to Indian fax number.. yea right I am a guy here with free access to international fax. Said sorry not possible and he got back saying ok can fax to US number....

off to office.

Got working on setting up the office communicator (the chat system to chat with in the office). Then went home to get the documents to fax, had lunch with rice and yogurt and mango pickle. Then found a scanner system that also sends out the scanned doc in an email . So sent out the docs related to background check.

Got out of the office early to return the car, went to Costco for last minute shopping. Just about return back in time to return the car to Enterprise. Get a ride back or drop off from the marketing guy Erik back to station sq.

about 7:20 now and the sky is still bright. go out for a walk and check out my posh neighborhood.

Returned back, was talking with AV, now we can talk unlimited as we are in the same country.
Started cooking chicken curry, with the minimum ingredients, well for a hungry guy like me who has been eating outside the past one month, it was like nirvana. Yummmyy nothing beats home cooked food.
Finished cooking and cleaning about 11 and just dropped off to sleep. Have a busy day tomorrow.. Fire fighting to solve a new issues with CTI

Move to new Apt

6:45 wake up after a intermittent sleep. excited and uncertain about moving to new place.
Hoping not to forget anything.

Looks like the hotel slipped in thru the door the invoice of my stay here. Given the fact that I got $20 off the original price per day, looks like a great deal. :)

Best Western - aka - The Inn at Towamencin, my home for the past 14 days.

Long day of shopping and stocking ahead.
11:10 check out of hotel.
go to the Leasing office and give the lady the pending balance and get a receipt. She gives me the keys and I go to the apt. drop the 1st load of luggage and end up locking myself out...ahhh what
a great start hehehe...
The drive back to the leasing office and get the spare keys. move in more of my luggage and then head off shopping. 1 Stop Wal mart. About $118 worth of stuff buy the basic stuff from there and then go to PATEL Grocerries, buy the masalsas, pickels, rotis, and other food items $61
Then head Costco to get some hot dogs in first...that is my breakfast / lunch around 3:30pm. Start shopping for dishes, Milk , tissues , cleaning and bath. food,,, total $368... one after noon of shopping and I am down by $600... Phew!
End up meeting Kannan Rajan at costco, who is there shopping with his wife. Guess I will be running into someone from work in this small village. :)

5:10 start with boiling two glasses of milk in the new cooker. but it takes long to boil.

Call up Balaji to ask about the milk boiling call seems to go to his voice directly.
then call up anil and his wife who are driving back to dallas from his in-laws house in houston about the milk boiling . Then his wife tells to boil it in a smaller container and let the milk spill over on to the stove. I was kind of apprehensive about the new kitchen getting dirty the very first day.... "A messy kitchen means a Happy Family" is the quote she shoots .

5:45 finish boiling milk for the second time in the smaller container.

Here starts my life with out TV and no internet connection. Maybe I will see how long I can live with out the two at home. For emergency I am able to get one unsecured connection. using that to blog now... time about 6:10pm need to get the rest of the stuff from the car....

put my cloths in the washer and
7pm Walk towards work place to see how long it would take. Took me 30 mins to get to work and 30 mins to get back.. 1 hrs walking on the empty street kind of felt good with some physical activity other than carrying loads and just driving.....

returned back and put the cloths in the dryer... cheers

Tax day

Saturday, April 10, 2010

First and foremost had to go and withdraw money from TD bank so that I have the balance to pay before moving into the new house. Then headed out on a whim towards the Indian restaurant. Had an overdose of food and ice cream. ;)

Returned back and filled up the US taxes. did not claim the losses of previous years. so it was easy. Maybe at the end of this year I get to claim.

Atlast filed the taxes online and got accepted.

4:43 called up Michele grims of comcast as I had 3 msgs from her in the Van phone from yesterday and did not get to it like today morning.

Got mail from Joyce about the places to go for salsa dancing during the week in Philly. that was very nice of her to compliment me about my dancing too. ;)

Evening went out for Salsa in the suburbs. Felt like a salsa snob in the middle of all the beginner level ladies. One old lady was even trying to teach me the right way to spin a partner. woooo what a turn off.
Great floor, good music combination, but no one good enough to dance with. Looked like a regular group of people who knew each other.

Started packing up all my stuff to be ready for the move. only scared of not having internet connection. have to do with iPhone for mail checking (well that came in handy).

hectic week

Friday, April 9, 2010

iphone expected at Ajits house by 4:30pm, got to see if I can apply for CTSH phones, as they have free Phones for Managers. Its still not got into my head that I am a Manager.

Got to focus on finishing the Taxes. as after this week my access to internet might be limited to work as I am moving to the New House. :)
So its a MUST DO today

Just went thru the US tax docs and realised that it was not as complicate for 2009 as I had initially thought. Phew what a relief to know that my fears were more related to the past years experience.

It was nice to Banter with Dr Anjali in the morning. She sure knows to lighten up my day.
need to keep an eye on the market today.... crucial.. :)

REached Merck around 8:30am not able to find parkingafter driving around. So parked in the visitors parking. then the security guy from yesterdays remembered me and told me not to. So drove to gate 9 and had to park there. ahh by the time I entered office 9am... from next week it will be just me walking (hiking) every day to work for 2 miles. :)) hope to enjoy it.

CAlled upt CTSH GSD for resetting the password and got access to most of my CTSH related mails and other website to help me with the move and transition to the new company.

Talked with Joannae M, regarding the Payroll and my salary check. She was very sweet and encouraging and had a nice way of calming me down and making me feel good. Sweet.

4:40pm called up
*->PECO for Electricity. 1800-494-4000 8am to 5pm.
And they were not able to find the house in their system. Called up station Sq. was adviced to conf.
Called up peco again with conf and they were able to set up the transfer.

6:00 droped Ajit off at his house and got my new iPhone that was sent to his address.
8:45 headed out for salsa, got lost , but got back on track with the help of the GPS on the iPhone.
met joyce from NJ who kept asking me to dance. Sweet and the best compliment about my lead from a super sexy gal from Maryland. "I could feel you" . Returned back to Best Western with out much trouble again with a bit of help from the iPhone.

Day of Company Orientation

Apr-08-2010 Thrusday

Wake up early as I have two Orientations, one with the Client at 6:00am and the the next at 12 with CTSH. Rush rush rush...... Hope to survive all the hectic movement....

Had to go thru harassment of a lady, who wanted to know where I am from before registering me for the Drug and alcohol test @ MERCK. I said, canada! and she was like where are you from. Well I just gave you my Canadian passport as proof of identity! (where else do you think I am from? was something I should have asked,,, but circumstance does not permit)
And in the orientation, they said its considered harassment if someone is making an exception based on the group I belong to.

Got msg from Ajit saying that my IS id is finally ready so I should get my MERCK laptop and access to other features.
Cheers thats one more hurdle down. :)

Still seem to have issues with hireright wanting more documentation from me.

9:45 hope to pick up Ajit on way back to work.

@12 not to forget the Group Orientation by CTSH...
Radhika the person conduting the orientation turns up late and gives us a lame excuse that there is poor turn out. when in fact I logged in about 15 mins before the meeting and Juhi and Vishal were there on time. Anyways got talking with them Juhi basically from mumbai based in Irving California and Vishal from karnataka and Mumbai based in Atlanta (ex-infosys).
Vishal did not get his Associate id either... and had the movers move his stuff even before he got his associate id.
So contacted Amit and he sent out a mail to the relocation team with CC to me.
Thou Amit said he got my associate id, he did not send it to me even after I sent him a reminder mail after the call.....

Called up Eliazbeth Navarro regarding hireright , left a voice msg. will call back 1:30
called her back again and then followed up with email.

Then followed a series of emails, I guess Amit realizing that he really does not have my ID and then started sending out mails, adding more people in the loop.

I decided to call up Justin and he said he is going to create it in a few hrs time and I should get it from Amit soon.
Called up Joanna and was told nothing can be done with out the Id.....

yet to have my break fast and lunch,, its about 3pm ... been running around since 5 am. feel like falling asleep.

Around 6pm had break fast, lunch and dinner all at once. Still feeling a bit dis oriented and and not in control.

Now back to the relocation and the movers. Contact person Sasi, mails going to and for...

talked with Anil V regarding the 401 k and then with Brother for about 5 mins, talked to him after about 4 years.
yet to get working on the US taxes.... so mentally exhausted.

Early morning rush

Apr-07-2010

IT was a early morning rush to get the Canadian background check documents signed by Ajit as witness and fax it. This it seems was one of the reasons why the processing of my my emp details in CTSH was delayed. All because Amit did not let me know.

It was nice to see Delmas message on FB. Especially after the heart to heart chat we had. She is as I felt a very honest and sincere gal. And naturally very beautiful with a heart warming smile. Wish there were more gals like her.

Back to hotel to send the FAX, utilizing the facilities to the Max possible.

Today need to work on the taxes..... ahhhh been putting it off, no more. have to do it

Around 12:30 Bach sets me up with internet connection.. yeaa now I have access to the net from work

around 3 pm the ar room was been used by another team so I get booted out. But was able to solve on issue that was happening in the Test 4 envi.
Major accomplishment, given the fact that I am still waiting for my id and official lap top to start my work in the company. :)

Then a bit of a set back with the lady from hireright who is doing my background check sends me a mail saying that police rejected my copies of passport and drivers licesce as the pics were too dark.

Then had one of the guys Mohan from Pune help me out with scanning the Passport and Drivers license. Sent it to her ..,, remains to be seen if it goes thru.

It feels good to have skype at work now with the internet connection.

*********************

My reference as they have blocked out all the email sites. using a round about method to store data that I would need to use as reference:

SComm[04/07/2010 13:22:07:371]:DEBUG:Driver(aicd) of channel-type-string(Avaya) supports commands = { AvayaAgentCommand, AcceptEmail, AcceptWeb, AcceptVoicePreviewCall, AgentAvailable, AgentUnavailable, AnswerCall, CancelConsultTransferCall, CancelConsultTransferWork, CancelConferenceCall, CancelConferenceWork, CancelEmail, ChangeAuxReasonCode, CompleteConferenceCall, CompleteConferenceWork, CompleteConsultTransferCall, CompleteConsultTransferWork, DeferEmail, DisconnectWork, EmailAvailable, EmailUnavailable, ForceLogout, ForwardEmail, HangupCall, HoldCall, HoldReconnectCall, InitConferenceCall, InitConferenceWork, InitConsultTransferCall, InitConsultTransferWork, Login, Logout, MakeCall, MuteTransferCall, MuteTransferWork, NewOpenData, RejectVoicePreviewCall, ReleaseWork, ReplyEmail, ResumeEmail, SendEmail, SendNewEmail, SetCurrentWorkItem, ShowStatusText, VoiceAvailable, VoiceUnavailable, WebAvailable, WebUnavailable, SendDTMF, GetEDUData, SetEDUData, RecoveryPop, ResetVoiceChannel, ResetEmailChannel, SetACW, ResetACW }, events = { OnAvayaAgentEvent, OnLoginAgent, OnLogoutAgent, OnCallAbandoned, OnCallBusy, OnCallConference, OnCallConnect, OnCallDisconnect, OnCallDrop, OnCallIncoming, OnCallHold, OnCallHoldReconnect, OnCallQueued, OnCallRinging, OnCallTransfer, OnEmailDeferred, OnEmailForward, OnEmailReply, OnNewOpenData, OnNewWorkItem, OnSiebelWrapUp, OnWorkConference, OnWorkConnect, OnWorkConsult, OnWorkTransfer, OnWorkItemRemove, OnWorkDisconnect, OnEmailCancel, OnEmailSend, OnChangeCurrentWorkItem, OnGetEDUData }

Hectic day and CTSH orientation

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

was supposed to be at the gate by 8:30 but only made it at 8:40 and had to wait for ajit to come and get me in.

Called up home and talked to parents.
Met up with Joe Farrara who gave me a brief about NBG and NFC call center. Then latter went to the NBG call center and joe said he was going to arrange a walk thru for me. Was surprised to see the lavish set up of seperate rooms for each call center agent.

Since I had a CTSH new comers orientation program returned back to the hotel and connected using skype and Centra @ 12. After 3 hrs of some great presentation and questions.

Was then trying to get my Emp id moving. Got call from Vinod about needing to complete background check profile on the net.
Called up Ajit to tell him that I would be stay put in the hotel. got busy sending out fax to Debra about new address. Then sent out fax of Canadian pp and drivers license to hireright. ahhhhhh around 6 got a mail to send across papers with hiring managers signature.

Went out in the evening checking out the apartment I would move into. Then went to costco and got the special granola. Went to check out the Indian grocerry, owned and operated by Gujju family :)... got some snacks and Drove out to Walmart to check out the place and a sleeping bag. got lost when getting back , but returned back to hotel in one piece...

Called up Ajit and left a message. hoping to send the Documents via fax immediately..

Exhausted by all the running around. Wish I could go out and dance with someone special...