A prime example is a new airline that launched towards the end of 2007 called Virgin America. Not only are their prices competitive ($61 one way to SF for MacWorld next week and you arrive at the International Terminal as opposed to one of SFO’s “older” terminals), but their customer service both at the airport and over the phone have been rock solid. If my job takes me to SFO or LAX, I fly with Virgin America. It is the same reason why I will do anything to avoid American Airlines. I fly AA from SEA to JFK a few months ago and the flight attendant spilled a drink all over my lap. Thankfully I was in a window seat and the flight was long to where my pants were damp / dry by the time I got off the plane. However the flight attendant didn’t even apologize. She didn’t say sorry or offer anything (not that I was expecting much) other then an angry look that I made her job more difficult.

Lets not forget post sales support either. Companies like Costco and Nordstrom have great post sales support. Have a rip in your pants, bring it back to Nordstrom. The vacuum cleaner hose has a rip in it the size of a small orange 18 months after you bought it at Costco, bring it back to Costco. These are companies that are still doing very well through this economic downturn. You’d think that Nordstrom would be losing business as if it were todays rage but they aren’t.

So that’s my New Year’s wish, I hope that 2009 will mark the return of good customer support/service into the world of buying consumer goods.

Imagine the following situation:
- Gigantic crowd, closed subway station at 47-50th because of the chaos at Rockefeller center and streets closed off
- Hotel is 9 street blocks north of you with your luggage (gigantic suitcase)
- The plane at JFK will leave with or without you.

That is the situation I found myself in yesterday. I literally had to push my way through a crowd of thousands of people to get to the hotel to pickup my crud. Finally got there at 5:25. Rushed upstairs got my stuff and thought about options on how to get to JFK.

* Taxi cab – $45, takes about 80 minutes.
* Subway Line A to Howard Beach station – $2 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 70 minutes
* Subway Line E to Jamaica Station – $2 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 60 minutes + time to get to Line E
* LIRR to Jamaic Station – ~$8 + $5 for Airtrain, takes about 35 minutes + time to get to Penn Station

Cab was out of the question. Battle came down to Line A (since it was right next to the hotel) or a trek to Penn Station. With the fact that having a giant suitcase on a subway at rush hour is *no* fun at all, I decided on the railroad. Made it to Penn Station at 5:40pm, train left at 5:45pm and I was pulling into Jamaica station at 6:15pm.

I thought to myself the entire way that I can’t even make it in 35 minutes by car or any form of public transportation to Seatac when stuck in Bellevue at 5pm… whereas in a city just barely under 10 million people and about the same distance to the airport I have options and the ability to do exactly that.

Soon, very soon, options wil become available in Seattle….

After my relationship ended in May I thought to myself “If a company offered me a job to travel 50% or more of my time, I’ll take.”. It would be the only reason I’d leave Classmates. Such an event happened in August. An usability study in June turned into a job offer by August after various delays on my side. So this Monday I start. First I need to get acclimated with the product (which is called Likewise) and hopefully I’ll be soon traveling all over. This is a big change career wise for me. Going from system administration to deploying software is a pretty big change but it’s a huge challenge for me. My fear is that I’ll get rusty when it comes to system administration but I’m going to do my best to keep my “A” game.

One thing I hate from all of this is way my resume is starting to look. Sure my last two gigs were over a year but not anywhere near 2 years and that makes me fairly unhappy with myself. That will be my next thing to improve…..

Some of the things that have changed, in no specific order:
- In May, after almost 4 years, Cam and I broke up. While she may have written extensively about this in her blog, I feel that there is nothing left to say on it. She cheated on me and that is just simply a deal breaker. Attempts to justify this is simply wrong as there is no excuse for that type of behavior.
- The colors of my condo have finally changed. The living and dining room was this nasty mustardy dark dark yellow, bordering light brown, now its bright yellow with a tint of orange. The bedroom went from a dark brown (with green) to a ice blue. Yum. Pics will be made soon.
- As of today a new couch. This thing kicks ass; fantastic to lay on.

My focus at work has also changed. Previously I was doing just system administration stuff but over the course of the last few months I’ve taken on more responsibility in the area of storage. So now I work with HDS, Netapp and a few Sun X4500s. Each have their own specific uses and it truly is exciting stuff, especially since who used to administer it left room for some major improvements to be made.

I have realized that I’d like to travel more. I am definitely not looking for a new job as I’m actually having a good time at Classmates with the one exception that if a job landed on my doorstep that would require me to travel a good amount (like 50%+) then I’d go for it.

Welp thats all for now.