Suzy version 2.0

 I’ve decided I’m retiring from IBM. Yes, it was my choice to do it, no one shoved me out the door.  I put in my notice, I’m outta here! There. I said it out loud. Exciting, but also scary. Big Life Transition. 

Time to reflect on it all…. And also look forward. My plans for retirement include travel, pottery, swimming at the lake, photography, hiking, cooking and grilling up a storm, and even dusting off my raspberry pi and my python skillz, and geeking around a bit. 

31 years at IBM packs a lotta memories, from getting seasick when working on 3D stereoscopic Quake2 game support to at least one clear IBM Business Conduct Guideline violation!

I cherish the excellent teams I’ve been lucky enough to work on, the intersection of great people and a fun project is a very sweet spot. Find it whenever you can.

I loved working with so many different bleeding edge technologies as they evolved. Seriously, name one other company where I could have worked on all these things in the same company: desktop software, 3D graphics device drivers, immersive 3D gaming, airplane design software, virtual worlds collaboration, mobile augmented reality, security analytics, and AI machine learning. 

For me, the unusual and excessively memorable experiences at IBM aren’t about product launches or crazy release schedules, but about going out drinking in Tokyo with work colleagues, and celebrating IBM adding domestic partner benefits (over 20 years ago!). Here are a few:

1. I probably shouldn't mention the time I had to break into my locked office late at night by crawling thru the ceiling tiles from the office next to mine. Q: does breaking into an office violate IBM business conduct guidelines if your manager gives you a boost into the ceiling to help?

2. Having our division CTO invite the QRadar architect group over to his house for dinner, and watching him almost scorch his eyebrows off as huge flames shot out when he was flipping a huge slab of beefy meat on the grill.

3. Wandering thru the old IBM Somers site (glass pyramid buildings actually designed by I.M. Pei!) and coming across a display of early IBM devices….. Including an actual International Business Machines Meat Slicer from the 1920-30s. Only IBM could go from Meat slicers to mainframes to AI and Cloud. 

4. Spending two years on international assignment living in the Marais in Paris. Memories from that amazing time are captured in this blog on my Living in Paris page.

5. I loved IBM’s Second Life Virtual World for my non-human avatars. I thrived/enjoyed not being bound in a lumpy mound of imitated human avatar form. I attended virtual work meetings (even with IBM executives!) as a fish, a steampunk robot, a motorcycle and even as an eggplant. It sure made meetings more interesting.

6. Having a work colleague take a group of us out for a drink after a long day to a bar in Tokyo where the main attraction was a really good Beatle’s impersonators band.

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After 31 years here, it’s definitely time to get to the next phase of life, and focus on creative bits, and thankfully leave Powerpoint behind once and for all. But it’s also a sweet box-o-ibm-memories I’ve saved up. 

No regrets. Onward to Suzy version 2.0!