Friday, March 30, 2007

Uneasy Rider

My new job comes with a new manager; that happens a lot with new jobs. What doesn't happen a lot is that I didn't meet him during the interview process, nor did I interview in the same city (or even state) as where my permanent assignment is.

This combined with a change to my training schedule resulted in his first direct communication me being that I'm not going to Galactic HQ in the San Francisco Bay area for two months before reporting to my permanent home, but rather only two weeks.

This actually a good thing, but means the MINI is now in the wrong state. We're working to correct this, in a way which means we'll be able to use it for house hunting in Washington. That will also be cool.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Plugga, plugga

I'm down 17.5 pounds since January first. My first goal, 25 pounds off, is projected to be reached anywhere from April 4 (30 day tracking projection) to April 26 (year to date projection).

None of this takes moving into account, but I have lost 1.3 pounds a week since interviewing for the new job (and accepting it).

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A Moment of Silence ...

As part of getting ready to leave town for a new job, I cleaned the basement yesterday.

This was not the usual sweep and toss old lumber. Rather, I went through my old computer gear and cleaned out the collection. Two full systems and a variety of items from hard drives to KVM switches went to the Home for Geriatric Computers, run by my friend Ed. The age of his hardware starts where mine ends ... in part because he already has most of my ancient hardware.

More stuff, like serial cables for connecting to two computers together without a network, went in the trash; I probably haven't used those cables in ten years. Now, even with a virgin machine with no network, I would get a USB network adapter or some such.

However, we will have a moment of silence for the departed hardware. I used to have four systems in the network pantry end of the kitchen for both production and test work. Now production (including this web server) is hosted remotely at a commercial data center. We have only one under used server in the basement, which we may power off after we move.

All things must pass.







Tuesday, March 20, 2007

On The Road Again

Yesterday the MINI left our little kitten farm for the longest road trip of its life, and to assist in a fairly big adventure for me. It is a little annoyed, however, because rather than leaving under its own power, it was taken away on a flat bed tow truck.

The MINI is being transported via carrier to California, where I'll take delivery of it on or about the second day of a new job for me. I'll use in it California for a couple months during training, and then drive it up the cost to a new home in Washington state.

Exactly what town in Washington state, I have no idea yet.

As a side note ... before we bought the MINI, we rented one from Zip Car, to a get feel for them. We then proceeded to accidentally put washer fluid into the radiator fill. This freaked out the duty desk at Zip Car, so that car left on a on a flat bed tow truck as well.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Now THAT is Random


Heard in sequence on the local "random radio" station:


  • "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
  • "Get Down" by Gilbert O'Sullivan
  • "Hocus Pocus" by Focus


True grudge through the edge of bubblegum music to one of the hardest rock guitar solos one could hear in 1974, all in under ten minutes.


Yea, that was random all right.