Author: SK

After my vacation in Poland, all I can think about is Poland. Oh, man. I fell in love with Poland again. Here’s what I’m thinking.
My goal is to move to Poland by 2015. I think it is possible to do that within the time frame. Things should improve a great deal by then. I should also prepare myself mentally and come up with a strategy of what I want to do there.
Yes, what do I want to do? I think the best chance for me is to do offshore consulting or on-site consulting in Poland (hey, that’s a thought). I can make a lot of money doing that in Poland. Plus, I can lead a more interesting life. I believe I can accomplish a lot while I’m in Poland. I have to think it through many times and things will probably change, but really do think so that I will be there by that time.
I should also start thinking about my vacation house in Poland. Things will clear up more and move as months and a year or two pass by, by I do want to build something for myself. Just so I can relax a great deal and have a great time in Poland.
Oh, man, one trip can change a lot. 🙂

There is good in bad things as well. I finally feel that I can really contribute at work. This is probably the first time where I feel comfortable. This is also the first time where I can fully open up and not be afraid. This is a good feeling and I hope it will last for some time…
What happened? My manager decided to give ownership of a major piece of our software to each one of us on the team. It’s 3 of us now. What this does is basically make me the Tech Lead on the piece. It allows me to make major decisions on the piece I’m the owner of. It feels good. I have plenty of ideas I want to do.
Most of the things on my plate first is to make this software maintainable and easy to modify. I don’t want to overengineer it not waste too much time doing it, but I do want to get it to a good shape. I think I will. I am already excited about it.
Tomorrow I will be working from home. Not from home per se, as I will go to a local Panera Bread and work from there. I will buy myself a cup of coffee and a bagel and I’ll take it from there. It should be interesting. I want to do that because I would not be able to work from home, too much distraction.

I have 2 days till we leave for Poland! Oh yeah! I can’t wait till we finally leave and I get to relax a bit. Things will settle down a bit while I’m in Poland and I will get some time to relax!
We have a new guy that started today. He is one I interviewed for and one I recommended. I like him. His name is Samir. It took me some time to push for hiring him, but he’s here and I think he’s going to do a good job over here. It’s nice to have somebody else to interact with.
Right after vacation, I am going to start working from 10 to 7. I just have to. It’s not that I really want it, since it is going to be somewhat awkward, but I have to. I cannot take the traffic any more. I just cannot.
What am I going to do in Poland? Not sure. I want to visit Kacwin for a few days. We’re scheduled to go there on July 6th. After that, my wife already booked an event in Krynica. She wants to get some face lift or something. I’ll get a massage. It should be fun.

My trip to Poland is this upcoming Friday! I’m excited. I will be in Poland for 2 ½ weeks. That’s plenty of time. Plenty of time to relax and recharge completely.
I’m excited. I like going back to Poland. Every time I go, I see positive change. It’s great to see many changes in my home village, in my home country.
But Poland has ways to go. Sure, I could probably go there now with my whole family to live and somehow survive. But the question is, would I have a better life than in the US? Probably not. I am starting to think that America is full of opportunities. They’re just sitting and waiting for grabs. There is plenty of money to be had that way.
Poland is growing. Opportunities are growing. But the bearocracy is still there. I would not feel too secure as well. Things have to improve for the better.
I am thinking about Poland in the future, though. Maybe I could open a business there. I could do well.
It’s more that I want to help, though. Thus, I should have money stashed away and maybe move to Poland for retirement. It could be possible. But that’s years away.
A business in Kacwin? There is nothing to do there. It’s a mountain area, maybe I could open up a scooter and a crossover rental. That could be very popular. The capital needed is not that big. I should think about this.
I am also trying to build a summer house in Kacwin. A high-quality wooden house that I would be able to go to in the summer. I could even rent it. We’ll see. It is nice, though, to go back and observe all of the changes.

Fabian is an unbelievable boy. High maintenance for sure, but his development has just been fantastic. Not only I say that. Anybody that sees him and sees what he’s doing is. Today, Marta went to the pediatricians. Guess what? They said he’s doing things that a 15-month old is doing regularly. Fabian is just doing great. I believe that I’m helping with his development. I am reading books to him. I am playing fairly aggressively with him and sort of pushing him to do more. I am talking to him and explaining things and he actually understands what I’m saying to him.
The interesting thing is that he wants to be with Daddy. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning, he just wants to talk to me. He does not want to go back to mommy. It’s funny, and sad because I have to go to work.
One thing we should do is leave books laying around more. Maybe he will play with them, which is actually a good thing. He needs to see books around him. That’s how kids develop their love of books.
I am a little bit afraid that he might miss me and I will miss him when he’s in Poland for 6 weeks without me. I think he might take a step back in his development. Is this a real threat? Probably not, I’m just overestimating my influence, I guess.
I had a very good speech on Saturday. It was from the Speeches By Mgmt and I talk about how a Toastmasters club works. I said what we do well and what we can improve. I think people were impressed. I got mostly positive responses. I am improving! My eye contact was good. I have to vary my vocal variety (lower my voice a bit), but I think I am generally doing a very good job. Sylvia said it best, “Bravo – good job. You are a great president.”

Fabian will be 10 months on Sunday and he already started walking! He started on Thursday where he just let go. He made few steps then. Then yesterday, he was with ease and he could actually walk quite a distance by himself. He kept good balance and actually could turn around! Wow! He’s quick.
He is just full of energy. He is something else. I am having a really hard time bathing him and then moisturizing him. He just will not sit still. He wants to keep moving.
With him walking, we will just need to watch him more and more. He requires more and more energy for that.
As far as Toastmasters, I am speaking tomorrow. I will attack it and have great energy. I am going to have a great vocal variety and move it up and down. I am going to have a great eye contact. I am going to look around the room and maintain contact for several seconds on each person. This is key. I will do great!

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, I had hardly accomplished anything because I hardly worked. Today, with my manager present, I worked for the whole day. Oh, yeah…
Over the summer, after I come in from Poland, I think I will be focusing somewhat on my project that I would like to create. I am thinking of creating an Amazon affiliate store. It will only contain only the best items as rated by users. It will allow users to make their search more specific and to increase the number of reviews and the review rating. It will be a truly unique experience and one that I would to use for myself. Nothing exists of this sort out there yet.
This conflicts somewhat with my other tasks, for instance Henry and Bernie. But I think this is more important for me and it will take priority. I just have to dodge the others off.
I am scheduled to speak this upcoming Saturday. I don’t have a manual anymore. Actually, I have two manuals, one for Story Telling and the other for speeches by management. I don’t have it ready and it’s not going to be so easy. But I’m probably going to do one from the management series, as I don’t know much about the story telling project. Not sure if I will be able to complete even one of those. 🙁

On days like today, I should not even come to work! Yes, that’s right. I hardly did anything today and that’s not good. But it’s not totally my fault.
My manager is here, I don’t have a lot of work, and I don’t really have any exciting work to do. With that, it’s really hard to get started. I did get some work done, but it’s not a lot. It’s not a good situation, really.
So what should I do? How do I get motivated? I have to look ahead. I have a lot of stuff to learn. I still don’t know a lot and I would not be able to take over from Tom and do the work. I want to get ahead and I think an opportunity to become a manager might present itself here at Markit. I just have to be prepared. I am not going to prepare by not learning more.
I read a really good article on parenting. The author strongly suggests talking to your kid continuously. A boy has to hear a word 500 times before it settles in his vocabulary. The author also suggested reading the same book over and over to a kid. He will remember it and then his vocabulary will increase. The author explained how his son was raised only on Pinocchio till he was 2. He started reading it to him from 2-3 months all the way till he was 2. Nothing more.
I just ordered Pinocchio.  I am going to read it to Fabian. One problem I still have is whether I should read it to him in English or in Polish, or both.

I received some very good feedback from my wife on my performance at the breakfast meeting this past Saturday. She liked how I opened the meeting, and how I held the hold meeting.
Whoa, that’s like the first time she said something positive about toastmasters in a long time!
I feel that I did a very good job. I put some effort into opening it on a strong note. People were listening to me. At the end, when I said that I almost left, it was so silent. Oh, man. It was scary. But in a positive way. People were listening and that’s a great thing. In general, I think I responded to people’s emotions.
At times, I think I still could have improved my eye contact. I need to develop a habit where I look directly to someone’s eyes and stay with the person for several seconds, I look at the color of the eyes or I check to see the white of the eye. Only then I should go to another person. I am still not doing that and I am not satisfied.
My wife and I had a very good time at Matthew’s christening. It was upstairs in Excelsior at a nicest hall they have. It was really nice, actually. The hall was beautiful, so spacious. If we do anything there, it would have to up there. I am not taking anything else in there.