A Tribute to My Manager

by Bobby Corpus

I have been under many managers in my IT career which spans over 11 years. They come in all shapes and sizes. But one manager stands out and this is a tribute to him.

My manager’s name is Jan Lategahn. He was my manager for one year in an IT project. But it was one of the most productive years of my life. He was different from all my previous managers because of the following qualities which I will enumerate below.

My manager inspires his subordinates. A manager who does not know how to do the work of his subordinates will find it hard to inspire. The metaphor that usually comes to my mind is that of a Shogun; the most skillful swordsman in his territory. Everybody treats him with respect. The same is true for a manager who is the best programmer in his team.

My manager is an expert programmer. He is an expert in SAP and UNIX. Being a programmer he knows that programming is a creative process and sometimes it is just difficult to predict when you can finish a piece of code. He doesn’t give unrealistic deadlines but if the deadline can’t be moved, he knows how to adjust the scope or to give you all the help you need to succeed.

Once my manager went on a vacation and I was so swamped with work. When he returned to work and found me working till 12 midnight that week he was so kind enough to offer his assistance. I was surprised when he approached my desk and asked me “what can I do to help you?” I asked him to install the server in the uat environment which he did in just two hours. After that he returned and asked for more tasks. I’ve never had any other manager ask me for tasks (which is not surprising; they don’t know how to do it).

When I went to Singapore for my vacation I brought my laptop just to make sure I can do support when extremely needed. I was expecting my manager to call me anytime and ruin my vacation. But instead I got a text message telling me about places I can go and enjoy in Singapore. After that he let me alone in my vacation until I returned to work. Later on he told me he had a rough time during those days and that he must have aged six years when I was as away. I really appreciate what he did and feel so lucky he can do without me.

My manager is not afraid to show his humanity. He is not afraid to show to his subordinates that he sometimes feels tired; that he dislikes unproductive meetings and chatterboxes. He would rather code something than waste his time in meetings. Other managers look like supermen who don’t seem to feel tired and never complain. My manager gives us an example that it’s okay to be human.

Once we had a visit wih the big bosses from onshore. And we had to behave the whole week because they were sitting near our cubicles. On the last day when the big bosses finally left, my manager was not ashamed to show a sigh of relief and say “it was very hard to breathe with them around” or so along those lines. We were laughing, but I really appreciated that reaction. It showed me that my boss is also human and whatever ordinary things we feel, he feels it too.

My manager has a great personality. He always greets people when he arrives in the morning and always finds time to do a quick chat about anything under the sun. I have learned so much from him about electronics, WI-FI hacking, etc.; things not directly related to work. In fact when he’s absent from work due to some illness, I find the team spirit not so happy. He brings life to the team. In my previous work we feel elated when our managers are not around, in my manager’s case the opposite is true. I even have to send a text message to him to ask how he is doing.

And most of all, my manager is a friend to his men. Other manager’s talk about open door policy but always maintain the distance from their subordinates. Not so with my manager. I can always speak my thoughts to him without reservation because he has become a friend.

To my manager, mentor and friend, I wish you only the best in life!

Javaero Goes to Baguio

by Bobby Corpus

Hello Javaeros!

We had lots of fun and learning in baguio last Dec 5-6. We were very
fortunate to have 2 photographers present( Hiram and Roli). The pictures
are already uploaded to the larawan.javaero.org site and to the multiply
sites of Hiram and Roli. You can see the link near the end of this email.

Only 9 people went to the congress. We departed for Baguio on the eve of
Dec 5 and arrived there at about 6:30 am. We stayed at Junie’s place in
which we occupied 4 rooms, 2 persons per room. Our sincere thanks to Junie
and their family for their hospitality.

On the first day, we toured baguio city. We first went to UP Baguio to
meet with Joel, a professor of mathematics, who facilitated the room we
used in MaryKnoll and provided the digital projector. Then we went to Fort
Del Pilar (or commonly known as PMA). There we got a picture of “Roli the
PMA dropout”. Then we took our lunch in Forest House, where we met with
Omar from Telus.

After that we went to Camp John Hay and played with the swings and
see-saw. We then went to the Mansion to visit the president’s summer
residence. Then we went to Good Sheperd to buy some of there products like
ube jam, peanuts and strawberry jam. With lots of stuff in hand, we went
back to Junie’s place to rid ourselves of the bags of groceries then we
went back to burnham park to do bi/tricyle riding and boat riding.

We had dinner in Gerry’s grill SM City. It was very cold there because it
was located at the top floor in the open air. After dinner we went back to
Junie’s place and had a bonfire.

The next day, we went to MaryKnoll and Joseph presented the Java Server
Faces for 2.5 hours. We had a lot of exploring done in JSF as we tried to
make a simple example work. Only Joseph was able to present since the
projector was only available from 9:30 to 12 noon (due to UP Baguio’s 40th
anniversary projectors were mostly booked). After the presentation, we
then toured the MaryKnoll Sanctuary, which is a garden dedicated to Mother
Earth. Then we had lunch again in SM City, this time in Dencio’s. Before
going back to Junie’s place we passed by Burnham park to take more
pictures. Finally, we headed back to Manila that night.

You can view some of the pictures from this site:

http://larawan.javaero.org/main.php?g2_itemId=1035

If you can access the multiply site, the rest of the pictures are here:

http://habanil.multiply.com/photos/album/125/Javaero_Goes_To_Baguio_Dec_4_-_6_2008

http://hoshiluna.multiply.com/photos/album/29/Javaero_Goes_To_Baguio

Father’s Day

by Bobby Corpus

My wife Jenny created this very beautiful video for her father ( and my father-in-law ) for Father’s Day. Happy Father’s day Dad!

I’m so impressed by this video, esp because I’m in it (with my eyes closed, unfortunately) that I decided to post it here. The little girl in this video is my wife when she was a kid.
It was only recently that I’ve heard of Father’s day. Back in the province, we don’t celebrate it. Not suprisingly, because we don’t know about it. But anyways, happy father’s day to my father too!