Certificate of Appreciation for For successfully completing ACP’s Veteran & Spouse Mentoring Program in 2020.
Awarded to Matthew Comer & Daniel Dizon
Thank you for your dedication and enthusiasm for our program!
ACP
Sidney E. Goodfriend
American Corporate PartnersACP Chairman and Founder
I passed the Scrum Fundamental SFC™ Certification exam!
SCRUMstudy or rather, 6sigma, per the Six Sigma Yellow Belt course is tailored to help anyone interested to know what Six Sigma is; learn key concepts in Six Sigma; and to get a basic understanding of how Six Sigma framework works in delivering successful projects. This course is included as a part of Free Lifetime Primary Membership. Once the course is completed, the student need to take an assessment to get the certificate. The purpose of the exam is to confirm you have basic understanding of Six Sigma.
Congratulations! You have passed the Scrum Fundamentals Certified Exam.
Certification Name: Scrum Fundamentals Certified
Certification authority: 6sigmastudy
License Number:
Valid From: Aug 6, 2020
Valid Till: –
I passed the Scrum Fundamental SFC™ Certification exam!
SCRUMstudy widely accepted certifications help individuals and organizations complete projects faster and more successfully. Growing popularity and acceptability of Scrum has created a great demand for Scrum-certified professionals in the job market. Grab the opportunity and join this growing community!
Congratulations! You have passed the Scrum Fundamentals Certified Exam.
Certification Name: Scrum Fundamentals Certified
Certification authority: SCRUMstudy
License Number: 801113
Valid From: Aug 04, 2020
Valid Till: –
Happy Fathers Day, what a weekend.
Now is my last day at IBM. As an IBMer, a short tenure.
Although, really I do not have anything bad to say about IBM and my time there. As after 16 years at IBM, June 22 was my last day, due to a large resource action with 22k US Employees only. IBM has provided so very much for myself and my family. While on my time there I did many things. A future patent inventor and all. But many Master Inventors much smarter than me were let go, too.
Today is me and my wife, Jenny’s 15th Wedding Anniversary. It is also the day that IBM told me that I had 1 month until I would no longer be employed with IBM. That after 16 and a holf years at IBM, June 22 was my last day, due to a large resource action with 22k US Employees.
It is challenging to not get caught up in the decision that was made by my manager, as my yearly checkpoints had glowing reviews. However, I have been through as many managers in these last 4 years as an IBMer. IBM and the Marketing Services Center (MSC) in which I was a part of, due to the content work around in WordPress. Just this past August, my former Manager gave me the largest bonus on the team and also gave me a raise to improve my PMR.
The IBM Blogs team is a great team, made up of me the
Looking for a role as a Scrum Master Agile Project Manager , you can see my http://www.matthewcomer.com/about/resume on https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcomer and my website, too:
http://www.matthewcomer.com/about/resume
thanks!
Matt Comer CSM® CSPO®
10709 Valley Vista Road
Austin, TX 78737
512.444.6465
matthewcomer.com
matt.comer@ibm.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcomer
How many of you like to travel?
How many of you like staying in a Hotel, a fancy hotel, an all-inclusive hotel?
Yeah me too.
Now, imagine a mile-long stretch of 25 story buildings in New York City. If you can picture that, then you get the idea of the size and scale of a modern-day cruise ship.
It dwarfs the Titanic.
Just to put that into perspective, here is a behemoth cruise ship as compared to the notorious Titanic!
It is like staying in a luxury all-inclusive hotel…. Not waterfront, water-on. A hotel that travels and shows up at a new town every few days for you to explore.
Late last year, I took my family on our first cruise together. Today, I want to tell you all about the cruise ship that we went on, then our experience on a cruise ship vacation, and finally some pro tips that we learned that might help you, if you decide to book a cruise yourself.
Our ship was one of Royal Caribbean’s newer and larger ones, the “Liberty of the Seas”.
Upon boarding we were amazed as we stood upon the top deck, level 14. And saw the enormity of the ship that we were on. You see nothing but the crystal-clear blue water of the many pools and hot tubs. And theater size screens showing the football game, and a running track around the whole thing.
But that’s not it, beyond that area, there is a basketball court, a rock-climbing wall, 2 water slides that out off the side of the ship and back, and another water slide for tubes. And the best feature, the FlowRider. A surf simulator where you can either boogie board on your knees or standup and surf!
Our destination was the Caribbean, with excursions for each port of call. In Cozumel, Mexico, we basked in the sun on a secluded beach lined with palm trees at a Beach Club. On the island of Grand Cayman, we went to Stingray City where we swam with stingrays (that had their stingers removed). As you can see here, my daughter absolutely loved it! And in Jamaica we climbed the famous Dunn’s River Falls without falling down! Which was quite a feat! Trust me!
But the one thing that all cruisers can agree on, is the food! And there is a lot of it!
The main dinning hall was set up as a buffet, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with literally everything imaginable.
And there are many other restaurants around the ship, but the formal dining hall is where you can enjoy a 3 course dinner with excellent service. One night, my wife and I were given 3 lobster tails each. And once waiters they found out that I liked Indian food, they would then bring me a 4th course of a different curry dish each night. We would be so full that we would go back to the room, take a nap, then go out to the evening or late night shows.
The Main Theatre that held over 1,400 people. There, the Cruise Director hosted a late night show with a full band and orchestra, similar to the “Tonight Show”.
Also, there were some funny Comedians, they would do an early family friendly act and then a late adult only show.
But there were more shows;
Although we are far from pros, I got some pro tips for you, about what we learned.
For less roll and sway, it is best to have a centrally located stateroom on a lower deck.
But that’s the only reason to have a room located in the center. It gives you much more flexibility to amenities, remember how big the ship is…? We found out the hard way, as our room was located at the front of the ship, but almost everything was at the back of the ship. We were constantly crisscrossing the ship every time we left our room. But this may not be a bad thing, considering how much we ate!
The internet package is around $15 a day, but it only includes 1 device. We didn’t opt for it. And it was really nice not having a phone to check or a computer to do work on… I think a lot of other passengers declined as well. As it was so refreshing not to see everybody staring down at their phones.
Also, we didn’t opt to get the alcohol package, I know, Cardinal sin, I get it! But my wife doesn’t drink. And that is the way they get you, is that you cannot buy just 1 drink package, if you get a drink package, then your partner is required to also get a drink package. However, you can bring on 2 bottles of wine. But I did notice upon boarding the ship, they give you one last chance to purchase an alcohol package, but at Buy One, get one for ½ off…
Well, there you have it, I hope that you learned about cruise ships, an cruise vacation, and with some additional pro tips.
Cruising is a relaxing way to travel and explore destinations comfortably, and affordable, especially for what you are getting. They run around $69 a night, per person. And back in the day you would incur additional costs to fly to Miami to depart. Nowadays, being able to depart from Galveston makes cruising much more affordable for us Texans.
Now if you want to book your own trip, I am now I am a registered cruise line agent and happy to sign up anybody after the meeting. Ha-ha, just kidding, Thank you very much!
I volunteered this year at Other Worlds Austin one and only Science Fiction Film Festival held on December 5-8, 2019. It is one of the premier SciFi Film Festivals in the US, championing filmmakers and writers and bringing the best films to the Geek Capital of the World. With a diverse and approachable team of programmers, we are building a network of SciFi fans and filmmakers, leading a loyal community, and launching SciFi films into the wider world.
As OWA Hospitality Assistants, we had a great time meeting with people and helping out and ensuring that all had a great time! We too had a great time viewing many SciFi and Horror movies and premiers! Looking forward to doing it again next year.
Here at IBM and elsewhere. We consider ourselves grown-ups and what grown-ups tend to do when meeting new people, once they’ve exhausted discussions about the weather. Is ask, “what do you do”? And they say, ‘I’m a “fill in the blank with job title”‘, “I work for ‘blank'”, and if they work for IBM, they also say ‘I work for “whatever Business Unit”‘.
Well, this being my ice breaker speech, I want to introduce myself…
by telling you a little bit about myself,
then what I do,
and end with what I want to do.
Ready? Alright, here goes.
Hello, my name is Matt Comer.
I have worked at IBM for 15 years.
The large majority of that time as a Contractor. I thought that I would get my foot in the door, but it ended up taking 12.35 years to do so. But who’s counting?
This past Summer, I celebrated my 3rd year as an IBMer.
Due to co-location and my proximity to Austin (albeit we had just recently built a house on land, outside of the city, deep past South Austin in Dripping Springs)…
it was my proximity to the Austin offices, that had finally won IBM… over… on my talents and skills. But my Manager had a lot to do with it. He is one of only 2 Managers in my professional career that really went to bat for me and believed in me. He was a true advocate for me. And… he’s leaving at the end of the year, retiring after over 40 years with IBM. (Co-location’s what finally got him…)
But it’s not like I didn’t get anything out of it.
I got paid all those years as a Contractor, not as much, but I got paid. Which we all like. Let’s not kid ourselves, were doing it for the money… Or… I’m doing it for the money. I got kids to feed. And to put through college!
No really, I do like what I do.
But my trade-off was a good 10 years working remotely. That time was wonderful! Working from home.
As my wife, Jenny, and I had small children; Garrett who just turned 1.
And my daughter Grace who is 14 months behind him, she’ll be 10 on the Winter Solstice.
Getting to spend that extra time each day with my family, that was a true blessing.
And per that trade-off, my career growth has lagged, now I’m playing catch up.
I used to be a Web Developer for PartnerWorld. But now I’m in the MSC, it’s our internal type of agency; The Marketing Services Center. There I’m a Project Manager for IBM Blogs.
Our tiny team creates and maintains our own custom WordPress themes and hosts 150 blogs with over 10,000 active Contributors, Authors, and Users and our metrics average 1.5 million Page Views, per month.
Now, that I am in the office and co-located, I am actively seeking to take advantage of all f the opportunities that are presented to me. I have joined many groups, Toastmasters, Mentoring mentees, volunteering, taking on stretch projects, patent groups, I listen in on many random calls, and attend all sorts of presentations and parties, as I search for free food.
I want to expand my skills and prove myself and move around in IBM and acquire new skills. I got 2 Agile certifications this year and I’m working on my PMP.
But I plan on obtaining more certifications. And, I want to invent.
I’m on several patent groups. And I have defended 1 patent.
And this afternoon will be going before a board to defend another patent, wish me luck!
I would like a Mentor.
Now, I do have the very best, Ricardo, as my Toastmasters Mentor, and I am very excited about that.
However, I mentioned earlier that I Mentor others in IBM; interns, and hires, transitioning military… But I myself don’t have a Mentor. Please let me know If anybody wants to take me on…
Anyhow, that is who I am and what I do. And what I want to do.
I want to thank you all for bearing with me today and now I am nervous, but excited to hear your feedback.
Thank you very much.
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