Work smarter, not harder

It would have made alot more sense to write a post about getting a new job early on rather than explain to every person who asks about it individually. Oh well.

So the deal is that I was a part-time IT person and part-time Maintenance guy at Peoria Christian School for the year and a half after I lost my job as a contract IT analyst at Cat. God's gracious provision brought more than just income but alot of experience, character development and friends as well.

While the school continues to undergo financial challenges for the coming year, one of the remedies they have sought is cutting costs through the use of a contract cleaning company. I knew it was coming, but wasn't quite sure how deep the cuts would be. I had applied to at least 7 IT positions shortly before finding out for certain a month ago that I would not have a job at the school after June, but to this day, none of them have responded in any way. About an hour after finding out, however, a 4th grader's concerned parent had already started working on getting me in touch with the owner of a company who is now my boss. The interview and training process happened so fast that it was a week before some people found out what happened.

Here's my new office at CityBlue Technologies. It's just downtown off of Adams Street across from the City Link Bus station. It's the only building the company leases which hasn't been recently renovated. So we're basically living in a warehouse right now.

The view ain't bad. Just the fact that there is sunlight coming in behind my desk is awesome. On the left I can stalk Linsday, and to the right, Storm's old place.

CBT supplies architects (mainly) with printing and supplies as well as dealing in large printers and plotters. We have offices in Peoria, Moline, Champaign and St. Louis. And I'm the IT guy for all of them. Surprised? Me too.

With remote offices, I get to travel to them at least once a month to check on things and make sure everyone gets their local computer problems resolved. This is good because I like to travel. Sure, Slovenia, Ecuador. Those places are pretty cool. But as I told someone at lunch Sunday, you could entertain me by showing me a shopping center or restaurant design I've never seen before.

Moline's traffic is awful. After getting bounced around for half an hour by outdated google maps, I feel confident that I can judge the consistent driving and intersection design. But there was a redeeming feature. Check it out.

Thanks to the vast diversity of systems a small business this size utilizes, I have ALOT to learn. There's seven books I just bought sitting on my desk right now, with half a dozen still in the mail. It's gonna be a long time before I feel comfortable with this job. God never promised to make me comfortable though, just provided for and content if I'll have it.

Anyone feel like this is the LAST fortune cookie Kevin needed to get at lunch with Josh over the weekend?