I guess it's official now

I am moving back to Montreal in September. Well, OK, not exactly in September because I really only plan to be in town for a few hours on September 10, before leaving for 17 days in Greece. However, when I return from Greece on the 27, my final destination will be Montreal.

After almost six years living in Vancouver (October 26 would have been my sixth year anniversary), I can honestly say that the decision to move back was not taken lightly. It represents a major change and I know that I am moving away from so many amazing friendships and incredible outdoors experiences. I will truly miss my friends from Vancouver, but I felt this was the right thing to do at this point in my life. It also helps that I have been offered a job that I'm extremely interested in. Nothing I have come across in Vancouver and in Montreal stirred my interest like this position. I'm excited.

I will continue working at my current job until Friday. The word has started going around the office that I'm leaving and it's heart-warming to see how people are genuinely sad to see me go. I have amazing colleagues, they've helped me keep sane while dealing with some of the crazy realities of work. After three years, we feel comfortable together and we work efficiently, because we know each other well. I hope I can build such meaningful work relationships in my next job.

Once I'm done with work, I have a few weeks to get things sorted out, pack my stuff and prepare for the move. Moving will be a lot easier this time. First, I'm not taking all my furniture back, as Annie is renting my place and keeping the essentials. When I find an apartment in Montreal, I'll use her furniture until she comes back from Vancouver. Also, I don't have to worry about where I'll be staying until I find my own place, as my parents have kindly offered me my old room back.

My challenge over the next few weeks will be to find the time to meet with friends, take in as much of the Vancouver sights as I can, work on my outdoors climbing skills (in preparation for Greece, where we hope to climb in Meteora), prepare the condo, and pack what I plan to bring back. I'm happy I decided to work only until the 15 because working until the end of the month would have meant a mad rush during the first 9 days of September.

Am I 100% sure that I am making the right decision by moving? No, there's obviously doubt. But I am trusting my gut instinct with this decision, as well as my heart, and both are pointing East.

Another milestone

Just before the weekend, I reached another important milestone: the end of two major projects I have been working on for the past 18 months. These were large, million-dollar projects involving, at times, between 30 and 40 team members in India and Vancouver. There were times when I doubted we would ever be able to ship, as these are software projects and you always find bugs to fix in software. That's simply the nature of the industry.

For the first time since I joined my current company, I have a fairly light workload. I have to admit that I'm enjoying the break, and the time to reflect, to clean up my PC and my desk. I also looked at the project slate, and until the end of 2008, we will mainly be working on small projects, service packs and add-ons, nothing ambitious like what we just delivered to market. I guess now it's our sales team's turn to work their magic and close new deals. We're received feedback from customers and partners who have attended a recent conference, and it's been overwhelmingly positive: they like the product.

I think I did a pretty good job on these projects. My boss also seems to think so, as I have received a stellar evaluation earlier this week: exceeded expectations. And today, this beautiful bouquet of flowers was delivered for me at work (from my boss and my boss' boss):

How wonderfully thoughtful. It's a gorgeous bouquet with lavender-coloured roses, lilies, and other flowers I can't identify that are white and dark purple. I love flowers. They brighten up a room, smell lovely and great conversation starters (even with perfect strangers!).

So, I promised a short recap of the past weekend, here it goes. My friend Scott, whom I've met through Tucker, regularly organizes these roadtrips to music festivals. Until now, roadtrips had been reserved for guys, no girls allowed because we apparently would spend too much time on girly stuff and drive the guys crazy. I, not being a girly girl, had been bugging Scott to let me tag along on one of the trips. Well, here was my chance now. Scott and Tucker had planned to spend the weekend at Sasquatch, but they were looking at options to keep the price of the trip down. Scott asked if I was interested, I asked if I could bring another not girly-girl along (Sarah) and next thing you know, the four of us are planning a roadtrip.

Scott had already reserved a hotel room a 30-minute drive from the Gorge, so we had a place to stay, but we didn't have tickets. We soon learned that Sunday was sold out (that's the day when The Cure was performing). "Sold out is a state of mind", said Scott. We had no choice but to believe him and left Vancouver at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Our destination was five hours away, quite a ways to drive when you're not sure you'll get in to the event.

We made it into Ephrata, Washington and checked in at Travelodge. We dropped by Safeway to buy some food and bottled water for the festival, then quickly visited the Subway for lunch. We then headed for the Gorge. The temperature was very warm and sunny, there was already a lineup of cars waiting to access the site when we arrived. Scott rolled down his window and started yelling: "Tickets, tickets, who's selling? We're looking for tickets if you're selling." Even in the traffic lineup, we got a few show of hands, or calls back. Unfortunately, we had to keep on moving and decided to focus on tickets once the car was parked.

Well, it took well over an hour to get our four tickets. At first, Sarah and I stayed at the car while the guys were scouting the parking lot. We didn't really know how to haggle for tickets, how much we should negotiate them for, hell, we didn't even know what to look for on the tickets themselves (how do you know if you're getting a real ticket?). But after only scoring two tickets, Scott came back, gave us a quick overview of his tricks and set us off to help.

We did pretty well for first timers and managed to buy two tickets (one for Saturday and one for Sunday) for $50 each. The face value was approximately $80, once you included taxes and surcharges. Not bad. With Scott's other tickets purchased at $20(!!), $45 and $50, we averaged $41 each for Saturday's show. I'll save you the details of our experience on Sunday, which was similar, but where we managed to average tickets at $35 each. We were apparently getting better at negotiating, and we bought one extra ticket that Scott managed to sell back to someone for $100. Unbelievable.

The two days of Sasquatch were incredible. If you've seen the pictures, you'll understand what I mean when I say that the site was incredible. Here are my highlights (and lowlights) of the weekend:

• Highlights: Discovering M.I.A.'s music and rushing down to the stage level to dance with the crowd, R.E.M. first hour, no sunburns, napping on the grass between shows, no lineup at the border (each way), people watching (the stories I could tell about how people dress), The New Pornographers and their amazing singer, Tegan & Sara who are two adorable sisters from Calgary, Sarah and I scoring our own tickets
• Lowlights: R.E.M. second hour (rain + wind = freezing), Modest Mouse (mainly screaming, not singing), waiting for The Kooks to start and giving up after 45 minutes of soundcheck, portable toilets in the evening (good thing for the night falling, you missed out on the gruesome details), not having a blanket and getting your ass wet from sitting directly on the grass

We drove back to Vancouver after The Cure (who gave a pretty good performance but played too many songs I didn't recognize), leaving the Gorge at 1 a.m. and making it back home around 5:30. I slept from 6:30 to 8, had a shower, and went to work for the day.

Would I do this again next year? You bet!

Return to work was better than expected

Five working days away from the project and only 75 e-mails waiting for me this morning. Not bad. Mind you, many coworkers waited until my return to send me stuff or chat about issues, knowing that I was away on vacation and wasn't going to respond. I have colleagues who will answer e-mails on their days off. I refuse to set this kind of expectation.

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns from Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote The Kite Runner. Another impressive book, much harder to read however. Afghanistan is not a country that has been kind to its citizens, especially when those citizens happened to be women. I found it sad to read about girls being pulled from schools when the Taliban came to power, about women not being allowed to work, about segregation in hospitals, about the loss of freedom and individuality. Fortunately, Laila and Mariam, the two main characters in the book, are touching in their resilience and power to continue dreaming.

Summer is coming to an end, you can tell by the changes in daylight and temperature as soon as the sun sets. I was playing volleyball last night and on my way home, was happy that I thought about bringing a sweater. We played our last few games without sunglasses, something we couldn't have done even just last week. We have four weeks of volleyball remaining, I'm wondering if they are going to have us start earlier so we don't finishing playing in the dark. I don't think we have any lights in the current location.

I should get in touch with Sarah and see if she wants to start climbing again. I've decided to try blocking two evenings per week for this activity, in addition to a Sunday now and then. Last time we spoke, both Sarah and I agreed that it would be easier to buy a year pass, not cheap but well worth it if we climb often.

Back from... where was I again?

I didn't realize it when I wrote the post, but the little one-liner you've been staring at for a week now was my 500th post! It's pretty crazy when you think about it, but not entirely surprising since the blog started in July 2004. Yes, A Frog in BC will be three-years old in a month!

I'm really enjoying this slow morning, it's raining outside, I'm having a coffee and catching up with e-mails... Hopefully the rain will stop before 5, I have a BBQ with the MBA crowd later today. Lucky me, it rained pretty much all week, but not yesterday, which is my beach volleyball day. I'm starting to get the hang of this game, even learning how to serve overhead. Not that the ball is making it over the net yet, but so close!

School's going well, but having all my group projects and presentations at the very beginning is tiring. Trying to meet with two different groups (one for each class) when people are working and we have evening classes means that weekends are spent in the vault. It's not a figure of speech, our meeting rooms at school are literally located in what used to be a bank vault. You can guess how many windows we have down there... By June 18, all my group work will be over and I can focus on my own assignments and exams.

I got good news from work: I'm getting a raise. I'm sure that the per-pay amount won't be extraordinary, but it's still nice to see that your work is appreciated. We haven't done any formal performance reviews since I started the new position and when you're caught in the day-to-day chaos, it's hard to tell if you're on the right track.

EEG stands for excellent excuse for an afternoon snooze

OK, I couldn't find anything clever for the "G".

If you've never had an EEG before, it's an interesting experience. First, the technician measures your head front-to-back, side-to-side, front-to-side, and marks spots with a special crayon. Then, you get to lie down and each spot is smudged with a compound that helps the sensors read the brain waves (and also keeps the sensors in place). I'd say I had about twelve of them stuck to my head, two to my ears (points of references for the computer, i.e. this is NOT part of the brain), and a few others to my upper chest and my face.

Then, you go through a few tests: opening and closing your eyes with regular light, with a strobe light that's blinking faster and faster, breathing quicker and deeper than your normal breathing, counting both forwards and backwards... Finally, you get to lie down and relax. I was so relaxed (or tired) that I fell asleep, even with the technician typing on the computer a few feet away. She seemed surprised by how quickly I fell asleep! I, on the other had, was not ;)

I asked to see some of the readings afterwards, and for her to show me where she could tell that I was sleeping. It's pretty cool stuff. When you're awake, the waves have short ups and downs while billion of brain cells work away. When you're sleeping, it's the opposite, waves are spread apart and ups and downs are far apart.

Some recent news that made me feel sad... My closest colleague has decided to leave work and spend a few months taking care of his kids. I think this is a very noble decision. Work was really impacting his family life. It's too bad that some positions in the company don't really allow for a good balance between work and personal life. I think one of the big challenges is that we've had a high rate of attrition in the past year and people who leave are not always replaced. This means that people left behind absorb the additional work. Another challenge is working with teams divided across continents, more than twelve hours away. We often need to coordinate efforts and share information effectively, for which e-mail is not always an appropriate medium. This means either early morning or late night calls.

I'll really miss this colleague, we worked well together, and he always had lots of respect for my ideas and sometimes crazy projects. Having someone around who is always supportive makes such a difference. We also shared common values and expectations. I could tell this person about good and bad things happening in my life. It felt like having an older (and wiser) brother at work ;)

:-(

Not much of a weekend... perfect!

Actually, I did quite a bit through the weekend, it just didn't feel like it. My paperwork is up to date, my laundry is done, I baked muffins, made soup, read a few texts for school, cleaned my Hotmail inbox, invited Raf over for dinner Saturday night, rented movies (Bon Cop / Bad Cop and V for Vendetta), made it to the gym, did a bit of personal reading... I feel ready to take on the week which, incidentally, is going to be brutal. I have a 7:30 a.m. start tomorrow, an 8 a.m. start Tuesday (and a class from 6-9:30 p.m.), a 7 a.m. conference call on Wednesday (and another class from 6-9:30 p.m.), should be ready for the weekend by Thursday but then will still have Friday left to work.

As another non-resolution resolution, I have written down three visits to the gym in my weekly schedule, just so I feel compelled to go. Last semester was a disaster and I have so much more energy when I go to the gym regularly. Monday after work, Thursday after work and Saturday morning should be reasonable to maintain. Hopefully ;)

How insane is this?

I just finished unpacking my small suitcase from Montreal. Normally, this takes a day, and that's with the large suitcase I bring for Christmas!

I have three main e-mail accounts and right now, all three are going through heavy traffic. My work account is, as usually, steadily spitting out questions, concerns, and requests for status reports. My school account is a collection of partial assignments (to be assembled), instructions, announcements, and sometimes great news (that's when we receive a past assignment that was recently graded). My Hotmail account, where I receive my personal e-mail, is filling quickly with Strata business and messages from friends to which I should eventually reply. Strata items are a little bit more heavy these days because our garage was broken into last Friday. They didn't break a door, they cut through the gate. $1,500 to fix. They didn't break locks on some of the storage lockers, they broke off handles and badly damaged some of the doors (probably around $500). They broke into one car. What did they ended up leaving with? As far as I know, someone's snowboarding equipment.

Theft is so frustrating, especially when damaged is caused to the property. Often, whatever we have to repair costs a lot more than whatever was stolen. And for what?

Stupid.

Perks

Today, I really appreciated having a laptop and a VPN connection to work. It was brutal outside! I had already planned to work from home, our building was being inspected suite-by-suite to check the smoke and heat detectors. Great timing, as Vancouver (and most of the LowerMainland) was hit by heavy rain. I went to the corner store to grab some supplies for lunch and my pants were soaked almost to the knees. I WAS carrying an umbrella ;)

Sitting at my desk at home, it was just the same (access/speed) as sitting at the office. And I got a lot of work done :-)

Bad idea

Partying like it is 1999 seemed like a great on Saturday. However, I'm paying the price this week. I started with my sleep patterns a bit confused (i.e. lack of), then hit the ground running as we are releasing tomorrow. No matter how prepared you think you are, every release I've ever worked on was always a mix of panic and long hours. There has to be a better way...

Added to the release frenzy are all the questions I am fielding from the documentation team as they are absorbing my former workload and from the product team as they are working on high-level design for our next release. Everyone pretty much knows I'm on vacation next week, so I'm booked solid until Friday 1 p.m., at which time I'm running out of the office, grabbing my suitcase at home and then heading out to the airport.

As soon as I possibly can, I personally plan to sit in one of the floating chairs we have at the cabin, a drink in hand, and pass out. Until I turn all pruny or the mosquitoes find me.

Yes, I'm off to Montreal to visit the family for a week. :-)

Monday report

I made it through day 1, didn't spontaneously burst into flames from all the new responsibilities and projects with a "red" status (i.e. late, high-risk, high-priority). Cool.

I had my appointment at the respiratory clinic, did the lung capacity test and was told that I had a pretty good lung capacity. And then breathing in Ventolin didn't change the results. Cool.

I received a CD with some pictures Fred took during his visit. I posted a few good ones on Flickr. Cool.

Some PR guy in Vancouver created a blog to denounce some of his peers who are paid to create confusion and doubt around climat changes and global warming. You can also read more about this guy on The Tyee. Cool.

I will stop writing "Cool" now.


View from the peak of Whistler

Who needs a man when you can BBQ your own lamb?

Another pretty nice weekend coming to an end. Another weekend spent with girlfriends.

On Friday, my promotion was officially announced and I'm starting the new position on Monday. I think the transfer of knowledge went well, although I expect to be fielding questions for the next few months. A few colleagues were stepping out for a drink after work, so I decided to join them and celebrate this big step in my professional life. I didn't stay for very long because I already had plans to meet Lara for a movie at 7:30.

We saw An Inconvenient Truth, the movie about Al Gore's crusade to inform people about the mess we are in (global warming). I wasn't originally really hot about seeing this movie, I thought it would be depressing. It's obviously not a happy subject, but the premise is not about negativity, but forcing people to realize how much of an impact we have on the planet. And when you see charts plotting temperatures and C02 levels for the past 650,000 years where the past 50 (and next 50) years are way off the chart, you know we've been up to no good. I have to admire Al Gore's energy and conviction. If only he had been elected president...

Saturday was spent walking, for most of the day. I did another training walk with Typhanie and Joanne, two other members of my team for The Weekend to End Breast Cancer. We walked for over five hours and probably covered over 20km. Those walks are also very good for getting to know your teammates :-) In the evening, I met up with Gerri and we went out for drinks with some of her colleagues from the train. The gang was heading out to a party after the drinks, but I was so tired from all the walking and the sun that I left them and went to bed early, around midnight.

Today, I did some grocery shopping in the morning and bought a few nice pieces of lamb. I was in the mood for a BBQ. I called Lara and asked if she had any dinner plans. We walked to Granville Island to have an ice-tea while watching the boats float by, and also to buy some veggies for dinner. I marinated the lamb with Dijon, fresh rosemary (from the balcony), oil, salt and pepper. Lara marinated the veggies with oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt. Everything came out perfectly (except for the onions, didn't cook enough), especially the lamb. Yum! I'm really starting to figure out the BBQ ordeal, it's not that complicated ;)

Not so fast...

It sounds like my transition into Program Management will take a bit longer than a few days. Maybe a few weeks. In a way, I expected this. I have a fair amount of work to hand-over to colleagues, three products, four releases, all at different stages, all with ongoing deliverables. Everyone wants to make sure that the transition is as painless as can be. Myself included, since I wouldn't want to have a job-and-a-half because I'm actively supporting doc activities.

I was a bit disappointed, I was so eager to start the new role immediately. Patience, patience...

Great things come to those who... insist?

By tomorrow, we should receive an e-mail letting the employees know that I was offered and have accepted the program manager position for one of our applications. I learned the good news this afternoon and this should be official by the end of the week. This promotion also comes with a raise, which wasn't really expected since I don't have much experience.

All things considered, this is the best possible outcome. I stay with my current employer and continue working with really fantastic colleagues. I'll get to learn a new product, new processes, and work against totally new expectations. This will be a great learning experience!

I have two days to wrap up ongoing business, as by Tuesday morning (Monday is a holiday), I'll already start the new position. No time wasted, that's for sure!

Work update

I haven't posted much about work lately, it's mostly because nothing had changed. But there were some interesting developments this week that I thought I'd share...

I applied for a program manager position internally after it became vacant. Program management is an interesting combination of responsibilities: project management (tracking progress, enabling communication between teams), design and usability (writing functional specifications for a release based on requirements), training (lunch & learn sessions, short papers on specific features)... This would be an amazing learning opportunity. I was told that I've been shortlisted in the top three, with two other candidates from outside the company. Since I don't know who these other candidates are, I cannot speculate on my chances. I can however say that I've had many supporters internally who told very good things to the hiring manager about my work so far. I should know more within the next few weeks.

I have also heard back from another company about a project coordinator position. From the description, the job sounded like it involved a lot of tracking, scheduling, budgeting, similar to project management I guess. The position is at a very large business software company with offices around the world. It could mean a lot of very interesting opportunities down the line. I received an e-mail from HR asking when would be a good time to call me, I gave them a few times, but haven't heard back. Again, I should know more shortly.

My feet hurt!

This was my first night dancing in my brand new salsa shoes. I guess it will take a few more hours before they are nicely broken into. And a few more hours before they become much less slippery, because right now, I can't say that I'm totally in control. The shoes are great for spins though and getting me used to dance on the ball of my foot, not on the entire foot (that's usually what happens when you dance on flat shoes).

It's really hot in Vancouver these days, it's like someone turned on the summer switch all of a sudden. No complaining though, it's so nice to finally see a bit of sun, pull out the sandals, and leave the jacket at home. And the umbrella :-)

No news on the work front, I think it will take a while before I hear a final decision concerning the job switch. In the mean time, this gives me lots of time to wrap up my current tasks, which is not a bad thing. I don't really want to do two jobs at once.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend. I'm starting early, as I'm moving to another area in the building and have to be all packed by noon on Friday. I guess this gives me the afternoon off, as I can't really do any work without my computer. And Monday is off for Victoria day. I'm staying in town, so far I only have plans for salsa on Friday and helping Lara with some shopping on Saturday, and I'm happy with the light schedule. Might actually spend some time relaxing ;)

Good things come in three

and sometimes, on the same day as well :-)

This morning, I had a meeting with one of the solution managers at work (product manager could also be the term used to refer to them) about a business analyst position that was vacant. Apparently, I am being seriously considered for the position, if I'm interested. We discussed responsibilities, so I could understand what the job involved, and whether or not the job would be a good fit for me. He told me he'd be waiting for my answer as to whether or not I'm interested. I think this could be a very interesting opportunity!

Then, I received an e-mail from Simon Fraser University to congratulate me on being awarded one of their Entrance Scholarships. $5000 towards the first semester's tuition! I didn't even apply for a scholarship, this came out of the blue and I HAD to do a little happy dance at my desk. $5000 will help a lot with the tuition!

And finally, my date wasn't a waste, he was funny, entertaining, and we had a lovely time together.

This was a really good day...

In a little box

I did mention in a previous post that work was going through some changes and I didn't know where I would fit after these changes. Well, today, I kinda found out. I was politely placed in a little box, the same box that many others are being placed in, and told that this was now my place. I don't fit in the box, it's square and restrictive, it has a defined volume and the top can be closed. I really don't fit in the box. I prefer shelves, or a little corner, sometimes I'll even take the entire table and other times, I would fit in a pencil case. Please... not the box.

I tried arguing against the box, saying I was claustrophobic and it would make me unhappy. Apparently, it doesn't really matter, everyone gets a box and has to live within it. That's the new rule. I asked if I could get a bigger box, to stretch my legs now and then. No, this is the box I get. It has very little legroom.

How unfortunate, but at the same time, how clear. How clear that the new directions fit so poorly with my direction. Now the goal will be to find an employer who lets me choose the box, or maybe at least cut a window in one of the sides so I can look out now and then.

Well-deserved long weekend

It's Thursday night and I feel like I've filled the past few days with many initiatives, concerns, and activities. I'm happy to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

The week at work has been busy. I'm trying to see if I can redefine my role to make it more interesting for me to remain with the company for a little longer. It's a real challenge, but in a strangely rewarding way. I think a few teams are interested in keeping me around, everyone of them with different ideas, goals, and offers. What I'm not sure at this point is who will decide. Will it be strongly hinted where I should focus my attention, or will I be presented with a choice. I expect the next few weeks to bring answers.

Then, in addition to the mysteries at work, I've been dealing with Strata business, pushing forward to replace our existing management company. I think we're getting close, but nothing is decided quickly when a Strata is involved. This weekend I have to prepare a letter to invite the owners to a Special General Meeting, where we will decide to go ahead with the change or not. Council does not have the authority to make this decision. I'm hoping to have this business addressed before I return to school in September, as I will not be able to devote any attention to much else besides work and studies.

I've also spent a few busy evenings. On Tuesday, I had a lovely dinner with Gerri and Lara. Gerri was telling us about her recent trip to Thailand and Lara saying how much she misses Charles. We had a tasty Indian meal, all vegetarian, with a wonderful home-made daal. On Wednesday, I went for another level 2 salsa class. With my Friday class, I have the option of also attending Wednesday classes for free. The opportunity of getting more practice in was more than welcome. The open session afterwards gave me the chance to dance with some very talented leads. I think I'm slowly getting the gist of following, at least when the signals are clear. It actually requires to completely let go of your thoughts, to only keep moving, 1,2,3... 5,6,7... I'm really enjoying these classes!

And tonight, a Council meeting with yet another property manager. After I phoned the general manager of our current company, I think he fired our existing property manager and then sent us a brand-new hire. Poor guy, we were discussing leaving the company and he was just starting his first day! We told him not to take it personally.

Now, I'm off to bed. I have lots of stuff to do this weekend, my taxes, more resume work, Strata letters... Lara and I are renting a car and driving to Whistler on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather looks pretty disappointing for the long weekend. Cold, rain, wind. Maybe a good idea to spend most of it on paperwork.

More little pleasures

There's nothing nicer than catching up with my mom, my dad, my sister AND my brother over the phone. Well, OK, catching up in person would also be pretty terrific, but this comes in close second. I speak to mom and dad every week, Annie, at least once a month, but Marc and I don't really phone each other, so we had lots to chat about last night.

I recently finished reading a great book: Tuesday's with Morrie: And Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lessons, from Mitch Albom. The lessons are simple yet so true. And the author tells a story and stays away from the self-help style that makes so many books completely unreadable. If you want to read a book that will remind you about the truly important things in life, I recommend Tuesday's with Morrie.

Tonight, I came back home and had worked out, then was showered and having dinner by 6:30. It's lovely to be home early and have an entire evening ahead of me. Mind you I had to be at work at 7 this morning for a video call with our office in Bangalore, India, so I guess leaving work at 4:30 was quite reasonable.

Extra mile

Today, I received an extra mile from my big boss (I have two bosses, the one to which I report directly and his boss, or the big boss, and I work with both regularly). An extra mile is an internal recognition for employees who have worked beyond their expected duties, who have "gone the extra mile." The big boss was recognizing my work as a project manager for the release we successfully shipped today (on target). I'm really happy about this, it means a lot to me. I hope to move to project management in the future, and getting some real-life experience is worth gold.

The extra mile also comes with a US$50 certificate that I am free to use as I wish. Cool.