Bryan Coe

I guess there has been a bit of a panic about when I am coming back to the states. First let me say that becoming a software consultant for an ERP software company is not simple task. Most of the people that train here are here for something like a year so the amount of time they want me to be here is pretty short. The software is made up of some 2,000 different programs. So it is not something you just learn over night.
With that said. There is a good chance that I will be coming back on the 24th of July. No flight has been book yet, but my boss said that he needs me to come back then because there is so much work in the US. But as I said there has been no flight booked yet so it could still change. Before they were saying they wanted me to stay until the end of August/September. Either way, I’m not going to miss Gen’s wedding. People just need to relax about that. I thought I already made it clear that I would not miss that. So, just relax.

It seems that everyday there is a case of someone breaking into a bank database or some other organization, and identity theft seems to be running rampant. The goverment has been discussing different ways to stop identity theft, but the credit card companies have a strong lobby which makes it possible for them to be very sloppy when issuing credit. So even you grandmother that has been dead for 20 years still getts credit card offers.
Today I found a good article with some tips on how to protect yourself from identity theft. Check out the link below:

How to Foil Identity Thieves

The moment we have all been waiting for has finally come!!! Mel’s Green Card was approved!!!!

From USCIS-CSSO

Application Type: I130 , IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE,
FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN

Current Status:  

This case has been approved. On June 14, 2006, an approval
notice was mailed.  If 30 days have passed and you have
not received this notice, you may wish to verify or update
your address. To update your address, please speak to an
Immigration Information Officer during business hours.

Finally!!!

Everyone has been waiting for an update. No, the Germans haven’t put me in some high security prison where I can’t communicate with the outside world. I haven’t run off to be a groupie with the US Soccer team. (Although that is a good idea 😉 )…

I am living in a small town in north west Germany called Geilenkirchen (http://www.geilenkirchen.de/). It has been a bit of a hassle with getting on line because the company is ultra paranoid about viruses and doesn’t allow everyone to have an internet login. I don’t quite understand how they can justify not allowing the international people to have a login, but it seems there is not a lot I can do about it. They have two old PCs set up as kiosks to use but the filters are so high that I’m not able to get to most sites. There is however a neighbor with a WLAN that we.. uh borrow. So, I will be able to be online more often this way in the evening or on Saturday.

So, what have I been doing all this time? I have been training with the software for which I will later be consulting. It is a lot to learn. Even people that have been with the company for years don’t know everything about the software. So the company sees it as the longer I stay the more I will learn and the better I will be for consulting when I return. I was originally supposed to return at the end of June. I had expected that it would be extended until the end of July, but they have now asked me to stay until the end of August because the big boss of the US is going to be in Germany in August and if I go back to the US I won’t get a chance to meet him until much later. So, it could be that I will stay until the end of September as I wanted to come back for that little event called the Oktoberfest anyway, and why not let the company pay for the flight. 😉 Right now my boss is looking into how that would work, because as far as I understand unless I get an official work visa, I can only stay for 3 months. So, I would have to leave the EU at some point since if I stay till the end of September it would be 5 months. I’d prefer to go back to the US for a week or something and spend some time there. We’ll see though…

It has been pretty exciting around here though with the world cup and everything. The opener with Germany was exciting, and Australia won for the first time in the World Cup. Unfortunately the USA lost though. I’m pretty sure we can play better then we did though. No one here believes that we will get anywhere, but I still have hope. After all we aren’t ranked number 5 in the world for nothing. 😉 All I can say to the people here is wait and see…