So the big things of 2007 were that I ran for school committee and lost.  I was elected chair of my town Democratic Party committee.  I got let go from a job.  Found a new job with in two months, contract-to-perm, then became permanent. Got appointed to the School Committee to fill out the remaining term of someone who resigned.

So far in 2008 it's looking to be a busy year. 

I've bought a new car, well slightly used, but 2007 model with 7500 miles is pretty much new.  The old car should be on it's way to China to be made into a submarine for the next Cold War. Maybe that's a bit negative, it could just be turned into a missile casing to be fired at Taiwan.

At work the old vice-president of IT has retireed to be replaced by a new CIO.  It's nice to see a company where someone retires in IT.

I'm planning my 2008 bid for school committee.  I have to pick up nomination papers and then do canvassing to collect sufficient signature to appear on the ballot.  Coming up the first Saturday of February is a Caucus to elect delegates to the state party convention.  Then the first week of March we have to have a meeting to elect officers for the next two years.  Then we have the town election the first week of April.  After that it's pretty clear for politics going into November. 

Here's my final commentary on my previous employer.  In December of 2006 there were seven US based employees for my team.  Now in January of 2008 I was told by a former employee that she is moving to Dallas and is leaving that group.  So in this timespan six of seven US employees have left.  The remaining group is in India.  The open secret about India Offshoring that everyone knows but upper managers never want to admit is that it doesn't work with out a heavy on-site presence.  In particular it doesn't work unless that on-site presence is heavy with expertise on the systems in question.  What you end up with is functional code that  is a bear to maintain, and that typically breaks functionality in areas  other than that in which it was developed.  Typcial solutions to invalid data being received by a routine are to validate the data in the routine, but never to trace where the bad data is coming from to repair the root-cause.  This stuff compiles over time, and you end up with systems that need to be replaced because they're so messed up that the cost of repairs is monumental.  Now if you're a big insurance company that has had the same mainframe systems in place for twenty-five years you've spent about a billion US dollars in installation and enhancements.  Now you'll have to replace that, and regardless of what anyone wants to say you'll never get a replacement that can do what the old one did.  So to save a million dollars a year you're willing to throw away a billion dollar computer system.  All because you either believe the lies of your contractors or are unwilling to accept the long-term consequences of your short-term decisions.  I've seen the replacement systems that come in, and they're developed by Indians who don't know the business processes,  and they work more or less the way one would  expect.  It's really too bad, a lot of people really cared for the client, and now they've all left or are seriously considering leaving.  Once upon a time the client  was a company that cared more about it's employees than it's management, but that's no more.  Short-term decisions are the rule of the day since those produce bonuses.  This is my last commentary, truly, because  almost everyone I cared  about there is gone or will be gone very shortly.  I wish them all well, but I expect that someone will buy their company in the upcoming year.  Massachusetts is deregulating it's property and casualty insurance and that means some insurance players out there will be interested in coming into the state and the easiest way to do that is to buy a company that already has a book of business. 

Moving back to my personal life, I've become very over extended.  I have school committee meetings, and sub-committee meetings and liason committee meetings.  Plus I'm a Mason and that entails a certain number of meetings and volunteerism.  Also as Chair of the Democratic Town Committee, I have meeting to attend.  I'm also a geek at heart, so I still play D&D on a bi-weekly basis.  I work forty-five hours a week plus a commute about an hour each way.  So I'm out of the house for work about eleven to twelve hours a day.  Doesn't leave much time for family.  So I need to start uncomplicating things a bit.  I already gave my word to run for School Committee again, and if you can't keep your word, then what type of person are you?  So I'll be looking for other ways to simplify. 

Speaking  of the campaign, I still have to update my website for it.  The URL for it is still www.jimgon.com. But I did pick up my formal name for a URL too.  I'll be trying to get  my nickname, but someone already has that, so I have to wait and pounce.  I still have money in my campaign account from last year to spend, but I'll be trolling for donations too.  I don't know what the  competitive field is this year, but I do know what I did wrong last year, and how to correct it. 

Also, if you're in the US and a Democrat or an independent allowed to vote in the Democratic Primary, I urge you to consider John Edwards.  I won't give you a big appeal, just check him out a bit.  The one thing that  I find appealing about him is that he's willing to fight corporate power in government.  Everyone else I see in the contest is a corporate whore, and yes that goes for Democrats and Republicans alike.  I'm tired of corporate whores in the Oval Office.  Calvin Coolidge once said, "the business of America is business."  You know what?  That's rubbish.  The business of America should be America.  US businesses and the US consumer is still marvelously propping up Communist China.  The Chinese Government still owns a safe controlling interest in every corporation on the Chinese stock market.  Time to get off the soapbox.  Have a good week or month depending on how long it takes me to write another one of these.