And finally: Charlie!

Today's the day I've been anticipating for the past 4 months: I got to meet my nephew Charles! Look at this kid! He's gorgeous! (My sister sent me that picture on graduation day).

He smiles, he talks (well, not really, but he does make sounds, and that still amazes me!) and most of all, he has a look like he's figuring things out.

Seriously, I never know what to expect from babies, because I never know what they're supposed to do and at what age they're supposed to do it. I can sympathize now more than ever with a character from a book I read a while ago ("The Best a Man Can Get" by John O'Farrell), in which the main character bluntly admits that his newborn son, Alfie, bears little interest for him because he doesn't interact. I'd always thought that was a brave thing to admit, because, let's face it, there is a bit of a baby fetish in our society, and everything a baby does is supposed to be of the utmost interest.

And while I agree that this isn't necessarily the case, I have to admit that Charles charmed me from the very first moment. Then again, I did only meet him at four and a half months of age. Maybe that's when they start being "interesting" ...

In any case, he has now heard my voice. I just have to make sure he hears it often enough to remember!

Nic

Emil Poulard

Today saw the arrival of my good friend Michel Poulard's first child, Emil Poulard.

The official record books will list him as arriving at exactly 5:28am on May 11th, 2006, but by my own personal register, he arrived at the exact moment Michel turned from great man to great father. (Quite a coincidence, eh?)

In his honour, the redoutable quote monkey that I am has some choice words for the occasion:

For you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence.

Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you--indeed, don't even know that you are there. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse to keep you you.

—Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Make the most of your chance, Emil. You'll have great guidance from your parents. Pay attention, and then, when you can, strike out on your own, and explore the vastness of your potential.

Cheers and congratulations, Michel and Sofia. I love you and I'm proud of you both.

Nic

The Philadelphia Job, Part 2: The result

I got the job. What about Honeywell, you ask? Well, as long as they keep pushing me up the food chain and have me talking to ever higher levels of management, I won't be inclined to make myself available for a firm that needs seven layers of management to sign off on new hires.

But it's still an interesting opportunity, so I can't dismiss it outright. Anyone V. speaks of with such regard cannot be a bad person to be involved with. Let's just hope something happens soon.

But I got the Philadelphia gig, and the world is a slightly better place today.

Picard out!

The Philadelphia Job

Well, I did what I could, and the guys in Philadelphia were all hinting an at ecxiting and interesting place to work. Personally, I know this is where I need to go. When IBM no longer became an option, this kind of opportunity is what I had in mind. Granted, I never thought it would come down to the wire like this, but whatever it takes to start things off right is what I'm willing to do.

But I did everything I could do. I know I can do this job, for a variety of reasons, but it's up to them now to decide whether they're willing to take a chance on a "career changer." So it's in their hands now. All I can do is wait and expect the best.

Nic

Philadelphia

Philadelphia, PA
Song of the day: Elbow, "Any Day Now"

So, add another notch in my MBA travel log. After a brutal 4 days spent essentially chained to my desk to put my social capital paper to bed, I'm now here in Philadelphia chasing an opportunity it appears I was made for. First, the paper.

"Social Capital in Virtual Communities" will soon be posted to my ideas blog, but in the meantime, a good post mortem would have to include a mention of the sheer hubris that formed the basis of much of the problems I had with this thing. I don't know why, but I had just too many things to write about, and no "story" around which I could organize my thoughts. In fairness, this is an immense topic, and perhaps it's best understood as a first cut. We'll see what Viva thinks, but in all honesty, I kinda felt like I should have included a small note of apology with this thing. Ah well. Water under the bridge now, thankfully.

So after wrapping all this up, I once again went through the Picard last-minute scramble to the airport (I'm getting quite good at it, unfortunately). M. had sent me some documents to read in preparation for my interview tomorrow, and my interest couldn't be any higher. This stuff is exactly what I spend my idle time thinking about. Even better, the work we did on Apple in the fall of 2004 was essentially vindicated by some of the research that M. had sent.

So who am I interviewing with? A small consulting firm that does strategy work for the telecommunications industry. Anyone who knows me will know how badly I want to get into this business. So I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. This job is mine, and I won't let it go to someone else.

Picard out!

Francine and Ski Puskarich

Syosset, NY

So here I am in Syosset, NY, preparing for a full slate of interviews with Honeywell scheduled to start at 8am tomorrow. I'm still unsure of how I feel about this company, but one of the reasons I'm here, I'm sure, is my relationship with V. and, in turn, hers with my prospective boss, Yvonne Hao. I've done all the routine MBA pre-interview diligence, i.e. downloaded relevant articles from Lexis Nexis and steeled myself for possible case interviews. Being that I'm not quite convinced yet about my potential future at Honeywell, I decicde to take the evening off and spend some time with Dana's parents.

The original thought was to meet them for dinner, but my schedule made that impossible, and I only managed to show up at their place at 9:30pm. Ski's just like I remembered him: full of life, and he has that unmistakeable wry married-guy wit--the kind Andre had. No wonder I liked him immediately. I met him at the Navy tailgate, and though the fact that he showed up with $50 worth of meat would have been enough to make him any MBA's best friend, he accomplished that by just being a plain, ordinary good guy. Dana's clearly her daddy's daughter, and Ski's all too willing to spoil her. But he's such a genuine guy that I liked him immediately.

So as I show up at the door, I don't know what to expect. Ski's recovering from quintuple bypass surgery just two weeks ago. I though I'd see a frail guy, moving slowly and gingerly from chair to chair. But he's not like that at all. He's up, and just as full of life as ever.

Francine, Dana's mom, is cheerful, smiling and good-hearted--a complete sweetheart. Their home is, to put it mildly, a visual rape--filled with framed pictures of their daughter at various stages of her life. Though this is somewhat fetishistic, these people are so kind and good-hearted that I can't hold it against them. For all the ills that plague Dana as an MBA, no one can say she doesn't mean well as a human being. She, like her parents, is a kind, good-natured uncomplicated person.

So they took me to a local diner, and we all had a great time. I'd love to see them again, if only so that I can get Ski to cook me up a nice steak and tell me more stories of his 5-star Jets tailgates.

Wherever you are, Ski and Francine, thanks for the great time.

Nic