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After the declaration of Team Champions, a few days ago, was suprised to find a mail from a client side bigshot in my (very overcrowded) mailbox. The mail was him explaining the IT Team's structure under him to his superiors.
To my utter and total surprise, yours truly has been declared by them as a "Champion" !!

I am now officially known as, and I quote here, "THE NOT IN SYNC CHAMPION".

While other champs get dedicated resources under them in their respective teams, my 'team' constitutes of .. err.. me.
Great..now that I finally got some authority, I am going to enjoy bossing myself around.

--
Fines have been declared for those who leave the electrical fitments on in their cubicles overnight. That might sound like a good move, but I have got this strange but overwhelming fear that the socket into which I plug my docking station into is going to crackle and burst into flames anytime. I have been leaving it on for 3 straight days now. Going by the multitude of slightly blackened switches around, I guess this aint a too unfounded a fear.

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I just got one more boss!!
I dont know what sort of stuff they were having for lunch when they thought of this, but they did think that "Ohh yeah...the team is really overburdened with work and processes. We know JUST the solution...lets get them another boss!" was a rather good idea.

Its a bit like having a cricket team with 5 captains. Who make up the numbers,but sit out on wooden benches and shout out instructions.
The manager calls them.. wait for this... "The Champions". I kid you not!

Add to that the twisted team dynamics that exist in the upper layers, I dont see how we are going to accomplish anything productive out of this.

The year that was..

So 2009 has already begun. Time to reflect I guess (because everyone does that!) on the past year.

So lets see.... My journey through last year has taken me...umm...errr....absolutely nowhere.
2008 will be remembered as one big splotch of boredom. I dont think there is anything I will miss if someone erases my memory block for the year 2008 and uses it to store something else which is comparatively more exciting , like a ticking clock .
Honestly, staring at a wall waiting for the paint to fade would have been more exciting than my life in 2008.

Some of the things I had promised myself I would be doing at the beginning of 2k8 :
- Losing weight (ofcourse!)
- Use my bike more often.
- Behave more responsibly (dont laugh).
- Do something worthwhile with my life (again, do not laugh).

Heres how things stand now:
- I have gained (quite a lot of) weight.
- The bike still has done < 800 kms in a year and half.
- D'uh.
- I am still an ITDonkey, aint I ?

The way things are going, I don't think this year is going to be any different. If anything, it could possibly get worse. Much much worse.

On another note, managed to catch up on the this season's finale of Topgear. And was completely blown off!! Its absolutely AMAZING..!!
Its not just about cars or vehicles, its one of the most incredible Television content creation of the year. Its a Vietnam special, and well..true to its title, it is indeed special.
It is quite difficult not to associate the word War with Vietnam. But this was a revelation.
It is seriously worth a watch, even if you are not into cars or vehicles. For a change, this episode isnt about automobiles, they arent the main focus.
Its the country.

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As the year draws to a close, I have realised that my leave balance for the year is intact. The compensatory offs (in return for working on holidays) and the balance carried over from last year was enough for me this year.
I even wasted a couple of leaves by applying for them and then going on those days anyway. (Because I have been accused of "taking liberty" with my leaves by the powers that be).
As has been oft said by people around me, this ITDonkey is a chicken of the species. :(

CC

My bank has reduced my credit card limit to 5000 rupees, stating "security reasons". I wonder if its for theirs or mine. Not that I had gotten around to exploring what the "earlier" limit was anyway.
They are just playing it safe with IT guys, I believe.

On another note, the manager is considering exempting "married" people from the miserable night shifts. So, Anushka and Anushka, if you are reading this...
And does he mean that "single" people dont have a family??

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If the grapevine is to believed, banks will now begin classifying IT guys as subprime.
Righttt....After being knocked off the marriage aspirations list of Indian girls, yet another one for the ITDonkey.

Which reminds me.... I have got an alarming propensity of doing the absolute wrong thing when being observed. I was watching the marriage video of a close cousin today, in which yours truly makes 3 appearances of about 2 seconds each. I am yawning rather loudly in 2 of them, and have my mouth full of food in the third, which I had stopped chewing from the shock of finding the camera directly in front of me.
Old ladies watching the video will come to logical conclusion about how I got to my present shape by only sleeping and eating.
Well old ladies, you are wrong.... endlessly sitting motionless and tapping away at a keyboard has got as much to do with it as is anything else.
Anyway, in their eyes, I would already be subprime, and not someone worth recommending to their grandnieces. Not that I expect or even want to find a partner in this manner, but feels bad anyway. In the same manner when the bank says I wont be eligible for that car loan I didnt ask for.

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A quick update...
I have officially now got 4 bosses.
Thats right....4 people for 4 underlings.
Infact, a post named "Associate Project Lead" was just created to accomodate the new guy, which has already started creating friction between the three earlier bosses.

As of now, I plan to put up an unofficial hassle index for each of them, depending on how much each one of them hassles me.

Current standing in descending order :
Top Boss - > The leader.
Old lead - > Tolerable, to some extent.
Newer tech lead - > Doesnt interact much.
Newest process expert - > The middle order doesnt let him interact much.

For updates, watch this space.

And this is before the Z.O.P. brings back another team lead from the US by the end of December.

Which reminds me, Z.O.P. is not a client move, but our own initiative, as we move from an hourly billed project to a fixed price project.
I have absolutely no words to express my immense anger at the moment.