There are some experiences that you don't get to experience in your day to day routine. Today, I got to watch the clouds zip by at eye level. We passsed through a turbulent pocket, livening up the ride in an amusement park sort of way. The adorable child who had been babbling contentedly behind me, got quiet... Another quick drop and pow, her infantile digestive system had had enough. The inflight cookies quickly rejoined us in the cabin along with the smell and sound we associate with the most disgusting of body misfires. Fortunately, the flight attendant was quickly on the scene, spraying a scent neutralizer and mopping up breakfast.
I have to say, the kid had the right idea going for the cookies instead of the pretzals. I followed suit and man oh man! The vanilla wafers were sublime!
I have a window seat by the wing. I watched the wing buckle and release with each new pressure pocket, so I had fair warning before the cabin actually dropped or pressed us onto the seat. :)
As we climbed, we quickly entered the clouds where everything faded between different shades of white and grey. Breaking slowly through the top, I was greeted by a beautiful sunny cloudscape with a new, beautiful, and foreign coastline, the most beautiful of the grey and white terrain resembling the Rockies.
I fell asleep shortly after that. :)
I woke to a quick Yelp! As the flight attendant accidentally emptied a can of juice into a passengers lap. Hahahaha!
Oh wow! Looking out the window, I see that we're past the clouds and I can see a long strip of beach bordered by farmland. Chching! add that to the list of amazing things I would never see without technology. (My favorite on that list is the deep blue of the deep, deep ocean.)
Speaking of tech, our plane was delayed slightly due to a flat tire. I don't know about you, but that tickled the ironic side of my funny bone.
The captain just announced that we're plowing through a strong headwind, so we're only doing... 490 MPH!!! Geez that's fast! I'll be touching down in no time. :)
Sent from my iPod, inflight
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
9am and the Day is Golden!!
It's 9am, and I'm already exuberant!
Last night, I hit up the hardware store and radio shack, assembling tools, then replaced my wife's cell phone screen... SUCCESS!!
It was another quick sprint for the bus today, but I caught it in the nick of time. My heart racing, I settled in for the ride. Hysteria by Muse was the leading song on my iPod's Genius mix. The song's frantic bass matched the tempo of my body. It was a zen moment. At peace with the work I'd done the night before (and the excellent, if short, gaming session with Brion, Ray & crew), I got off the bus. I LOVE stepping off the bus. The bus windows (like any car) are visibility tinted (around 15%). When you get off the bus, it feels like the day greets you fresh (a brighter, more ambiently noisy day than the one that you struggled out of bed to only 30 minutes prior).
Today was special though...
Today, the light cloud cover disperses the light. No sun glasses are required and with the 60 degree weather your view is crisp. The typical wind noises, rustling tree leaves, a piece of paper scrapping down the street, and our constant *shhhwwoshshehshshh* were absent. The day was still. It's like in the movies when someone is in a memory and time is frozen. I could hear EVERYTHING! My ninja-like footsteps on the concrete sounded like a runner's *trat trat trat*. Swiftly, and stealthily, a chipmunk darted out for a bread crumb, well, normally it would have been stealthy; today, however, the *skitter skitter* was plain as day, drawing the attention of the other folks walking down the street with me.
A quick conversation with our lovely security guard, Stefanie, and a chance encounter with Murthy (the new me in my old job) then up to my terminal. The Westlaw setup routines are running, so I've got time to *ticka tap calick* out this post, excitedly anticipating the feats I can accomplish today... *AIAIAIAIAI*!!!! (P.S. You can ask Mike, I actually made that sound :)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Ups and Downs
My life is incredibly interesting to live! I love it!!
Some major ups this week:
Some major ups this week:
- Super-hacky-sack company picnic with some guys that are just impossible to over-appreciate! (wow, some people rock...)
- Watching movies on my iPod on the bus! (Catching up on non-family-friendly kung-fu action flicks)
- New team potential! (Oh, my, word... there is so much I can learn on this new team!!)
- Ultimate-frisbee-disco-funk-super-sushi bash! (EXCITING individuals that I really feel at home with)
- Grad school!
Some major downs:
I am REALLY far outside my comfort zone right now at work. Being the new guy on the team, I have a LOT of questions and suggestions regarding well-established processes. I haven no street credibility on this team so far. I could easily find myself where I was with my old team just two years ago... suggesting changes that later get implemented, but looking like an idiot in the meantime. (Not to mention suggesting changes that are indeed, idiotic.)
I updated my resume last month, then sent it out to be critiqued by some highly qualified individuals. They ALL suggested changes. None of the changes conflict (miraculous), but I am struggling to find the words... the eloquence to implement them. It's a harrowing experience and has left me banging my head on the keyboard (hence this blog entry as an escape from the writer's block).
I'm writing a "Personal Statement" for my graduate school application. It's one of those "Who are you? What do you bring to the table? Why should we teach you?" sort of things...
I graduated with a VERY poor GPA. It's below the minimum required for RIT's graduate programs, yet I'm still applying because I WANT TO IMPROVE. I feel this personal statement may be the gentle whisper that tips the scales towards acceptance, or denial.
In all three areas, I have extended myself beyond the realm of safety...
There is the potential for moderate acceptance and gratification but I feel it's overshadowed by the possibility of meaningful, bitter rejection both socially and professionaly. I never play the safe game, but at the moment, I'm tense... nervous. My ethos and pathos are in the pot and I'm not holding a single ace.
I have butterflies in my stomach! It's the same stage-fright feeling that used to overwhelm me before putting on a show, starting a juggling contract, or facing the Eagle Scout board of review...
The curtain came up and the house.. is.. FULL..
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Back to the Bus Again?
Has anyone noticed how frequently I change transportation methods? I'm all about change. Sometimes I'll waffle back and forth between things, each time appreciating a new aspect of the activity, driving me to a new conclusion.
Speaking of driving (nice segway... no I didn't buy a segway, I'm talking about... gah, never mind), I've decided to go back to the Bus.
Bus Pros:
- Daily commute time is hands-free... I can watch a movie, read a book, study my bible... it provides some good think time
- Weather doesn't matter... (It's nice to relax on bad winter days)
- There are people to talk to (I have a lonely, solo commute in the car)
- The schedule keeps me consistent (leaving work at the same time, getting up at the same time)
Bus Cons:
- The seats can hurt (especially if you're wearing a coat and carrying a bag)
- There aren't a lot of routes out to Webster (though I'm now up to 4 morning options!! woo!!)
- You have to wait at the bus stop... A LOT (the bus can be 5 mins early or 30 mins late... that can be a lot of standing around.)
- Start & stop (50 minutes of start & stop jiggling right after I eat breakfast usually leaves me sprinting for a pee by the time I've made it downtown)
But the biggest concern of all is cash. It's not just a matter of how much I spend, but where my cash is going. Can I really feel right about sending $50 a month oversees for oil?
The bottom line is, I can easily save $40-70 per month by only commuting a few days a month by car. At some point when I'm doing more than just keeping afloat financially (currently most cash is going to savings, retriement accounts... future goals), I may consider going back to driving daily.
For now, I'd preffer an extra $50 a month in my pocket that I can use for wonderful travel events like our trip to the lake:
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Bliss!!
Ever have a period of time where you question if life can possibly get any better than the dizzying peak you're at right now? My head is SPINNING with exuberant satisfaction, exciting opportunity, and blissful joy from the events of this last quarter!!
I'm getting closer with some exciting new friends. We took a camping trip, 5 kids, 4 couples, 3 days in Adirondack paradise. We had such a great time with the kids, hiking, exploring, examining the tensile properties of frog legs (oops!) that I'm still warm & fuzzy from the experience a month later! I really missed campfire songs. When was the last time you were out with folks who spontaneously burst into song? (Ok, ok, I live with someone who does that on a daily basis, but it's so much better when you're with 13 people who do it!!!)
Cheryl and I have been streamlining our daily home-time process so cooking and cleaning get done without getting in the way of the massive quantity of playtime we can afford as people with no regular commitments and no housework. A day rarely passes without an exciting new outdoor activity or trip to a fantastic natural playground! (...webster beach for example... there are a lot of rocks out there that need skipping!!!)
Things are going well at work too! I've got the most ridiculously fitting job lined up for next quarter! I'll be doing co-located programming on a massive system using several programming languages. This will fill that void on my resume, giving me enterprise programming experience in not only Java & related techs, but the dark side of Microsoft Visual languages (like C#) and C++!
When I make a life transition, it's usually spontaneous with decisive and swift action following the decision. In this case, the team transition at work was made for me, so I have 2 months of knowing where I'm headed as the business makes preparations for me move. The looming change doesn't feel like impending doom, or even an event to cause mild anxiety... I'm ecstatic about the new team and the work I'll be accomplishing with them! As for the old team... since I know I'm leaving, I'm starting to notice all of the things I love so much about them. It's seriously a 2 month period where I get to savor all of the tidbits, quirks, and synergies that make us so productive, happy, and skillful as a unit!! I really hope this euphoric mindset sticks with me as I move to my new team, so I can revel in the benefits of my comradery even as I'm still in the thick of it.
Ah! I'm living such a great life! I love what I'm doing and love what's coming next.
I go to sleep looking forward to waking up,
I wake up looking forward to the day
I love to work, then love playing at home.
I love the work week then love the weekend.
There's a lot of time to enjoy, and I'm not wasting a moment!
Friday, May 15, 2009
My Bosses
Dave
Details, details, details! Coming out of school, I was a decent programmer, but I made a lot of small errors that the compiler would usually catch. In the testing department, a lot of these small errors in artifacts that didn't have such a robust syntax checker (word docs, XML artifacts, test data), these small errors were catastrophic. Dave drew me in to an appreciation for detail that has caused me to be a very uniquely talented developer. Frank calls me the human parser for my ability to glance at a page and immediately state what will fail where, why it will fail, and how the machine interprets the code. This principle is also manifest in my attention to detail in design. Because of Dave's gift, I'm able to quickly learn and understand design, process, and social patterns because I notice and take the details to heart.
Judy
With a quiet strength and easy guiding hand, she quickly brought me from co-op to fully functional developer in a very passive, laid back manner. She set me in the right direction, then let me take any path to get there. Her guidance set my expectations and opened up my creative potential at Thomson, right from the get-go so brilliant minds like Tod, Mark and Christina could easily and freely add to my potential.
Allison
To this day I miss my one on one's with Allison. She was bold and direct, leaving me free to discuss my musings and emotions regarding the job and positively shaping my motivation to fully unleash the passion I have for the work I do. She got me rolling in the soft-skills arena. This has been improving my marriage (which was already doing well), as well as helping me reach a level of understanding for the emotions that are such a tight part of influencing a project's outcome.
Rich
Research and intrigue. He renewed my passion for development and design half way through my current career, tweaking my interest and opening doors I didn't even see before. I appreciate the projects he had me work on and the constant advice he continues to provide whenever I run into him.
Nik
As my team's 'Fearless Leader', Nik has always kept our deadlines as reasonable as possible. He argues strongly with the intent of finding the best possible solution. The first solution, or the solution he immediately presents isn't the only solution and he is always willing to talk about an alternate solution, and welcomes improvement from any direction. He shines in making sure we have the resources we need and holds high standards for quality in all areas (not just the code).
Matt
Diffuser of all situations, Matt is adept at reading people, understanding workplace politics and finding the best route for everyone. His tips have greatly influenced my career path and his leadership as provided opportunities that have improved my effectiveness as a developer beyond anything I could have imagined even two years ago. His parting gift was a roadmap that will probably affect my career greatly within the next 5 years.
All told, I've never had a boss at Thomson Reuters that I thought I could do without. At every transition point, I've felt like I could never get someone to top my last boss. As it turns out, there are a LOT of really amazing higher-ups here and each one has a unique skill set I admire and from which I can benefit.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
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