Sun sets on Scott...am I next?

So it's Friday, my vacation is winding down, and I pick up the paper to read the Fry's ad and I see a headline about imminent job cuts at Sun. The analyst they talked to said Sun needed to cut about a third of the workforce.

With our Q3 results being announced Monday, you could see how I would be uneasy on my first day back at work.

Instead, the big news was the resignation of Scott McNealy as CEO and appointment of Jonathan Schwartz to that position. (They also reiterated no large-scale, across-the-board layoffs were planned. Yet.)

Scott's "retirement" (he's still the Chairman of SUNW, similar to Mr. Gates' role over at MSFT) wasn't too big of a shock. I've read about rumors that Scott was thinking about stepping down, but not until the ship is righted. Does this officially mean the ship is righted?

It could be that the layoffs are still coming, and that Scott is deflecting the role of "bad guy". However, I am optimistic that isn't the case. The fourth quarter, usually Sun's strongest, could be key. If Sun can build momentum, eek out a profit, and sustain it, Sun will rise again (pardon the corny cliche). It has been declared dead before.

There was criticism a couple weeks ago from John Shoemaker, who used to be a VP at Sun, that Scott's hesitance to lay off Sun employees is responsible for the company's poor performance. I would argue that's not the case, we probably blew it by not embracing x86 earlier. But that's beside the point.

Call me biased, but I don't think a guy should be criticized for not wanting to put his people out on the street. There are two things I love about working at Sun: they seem to be one of the few employers on the planet who actually give a damn about their employees, and although making money is good and necessary, the vision of the company has always been bigger than just making a buck.

Hopefully, worrying about my job will something I look back on and laugh about. Guess that prayer in church Sunday worked - at least for the time being.

Back to work, slave

So my vacation came and went and, on the surface, we did nothing.

Sure, there's a patch of dirt in my lawn where weeds and rose bush stumps used to be, and I had the sore muscles to prove it for a few days. We made the rounds and visited with friends and fam, and yes, I was asked to fix not one but two computers.

Still, I felt refreshed at work yesterday for the first time in who knows how long. Our other "vacations" have been so physically or psychologically demanding (I survey theme parks the same way military advisors look at satellite recon), it was nice to live at a more relaxed pace. And the alone time with my wife and sleeping in are also nice.

The only real downside is we did little to no cooking last week, which is alarming since it wasn't like we were too tired from working during the day to cook. We might've ate right through our mortgage payment, but hey, we were on vacation!

Proofread, people.

This car pulled up next to me at the Sonic drive-in in Tracy Sunday night.



Nope, I don't have sprit. Spirit, maybe, or even Sprite, but no sprit.

If you're going to write something on your car, try to spell it right before driving around town.

Davan Green

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that our good friends, Bob and Jamie Green, welcomed a new baby boy into their family on Easter Sunday. The tale of the tape on Davan is 6 lbs, 12. oz, and 19.25 inches. He didn't come into the world without a fight, since Jamie had to endure 14.5 hours of (grueling, I'm sure) labor.

No word if the Chico P.D. has been notified yet. :)

Still alive.

How about that, a new post from me! It's been over a month and a lot has happened.

- I had a hard drive crash. This has been the primary factor keeping me from cyberspace. It's pretty sad actually, I lost a good deal of our digital photos. Luckily, I (inexplicably) had copied our honeymoon photos to the laptop, and there were still all the pre-2005 pictures on my old computer. But it's like 2005 never happened. We lost a lot of pictures from fun stuff like the Cal football fan appreciation day, and the Giants season-ticketholder appreciation day. And I don't want to get started about my iTunes library...I'll be re-ripping CDs for months to come.

- Sara turned 18! My mom and dad threw a surprise party and, despite numerous slip-ups, Sara was actually surprised. I don't have any pictures though, since we were the distraction. ;)

- I came very close to winning my NCAA pool, although no one predicted the champion. I needed LSU to beat UCLA, and they got worked. So instead of $400, I got zero.

- Baseball season started, and that ends up sucking up three hours a day from all other activities. Luckily, the Giants are off to a good start despite all the distractions.

And I'm on vacation! I scheduled some time off to correspond with Rhonda's spring break. I spent Day 1 (Easter weekend doesn't count) pulling weeds (and three stumps from old rose bushes) from my yard while Rhonda cleaned up inside (safe from allergies). Today we drove up to Oakland and visited Erica and her daughter Daria, although I was too stiff and tired from yesterday to do much else.