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June 30, 2005
the end of the tutorial
So I think things are more or less what would be considered "normal" now. I am going to join a gym. I'm playing Morrowind regularly, having temporarily swapped the power supply out of my Dell and into the gaming box. MJP is coming to town to hang out for the weekend, and Kara and I are going to spend some time together over the long holiday weekend as well. The car will (finally) pass inspection tomorrow (I hope). My online billpay account is set up through Citizen's Bank, and after July 1, I can pretty much shut down the old Wachovia account.
I'm getting used to my daily commute, and I'm making some contributions at work and slowly acclimating to what's expected of me. Kara and I meet up now and then, sometimes just to grab dinner at Subway and then go do our separate things. I haven't missed an episode of Lost since it started again. I've ordered some computer toys and bought some new fiction books, and one of these days I'm going to get around to replacing the rear tire of my motorcycle...maybe one of these weekends I'll ride to the nearest Honda dealership and have it done.
Pam is fine, the apartment is cooler with the AC unit in the living room, and if I carry some of the junk in the hallway down to the basement tonight, I can say that the apartment is reasonably organized. I still have to fix the dishwasher though.
I'm also very happy. Every day I look out from the T exit as I walk to work and see the Boston skyline, and every day I see it again as I take the T home, just before the Orange Line goes underground, and I realize how glad I am to finally be where I want to be. Things with Kara are great, and we're having a great time being in a normal, regular, real relationship...she buys me clothes sometimes, we go to weddings together, I'm letting her borrow my car for a few days...just normal couples stuff. I love it.
I'm very content in a way that I haven't been in a long time. That doesn't mean I'm 100% satisfied. I do need very much to lose weight, and there are household projects that aren't yet done, but I'm at a place now where I feel that what I'm doing, that what contributions I'm making to the world around me, are really part of the big picture, part of "real" life...I can't quite explain it. I guess it feels like being done with the tutorial levels and into the real game. Not that I've never felt that way before...this is definitely a bigger step, though.
Ramble ramble.
So like I said, MJP will be in town this weekend. He is, sadly, newly single. So we're going to hang out and drown his sorrows in copious amounts of beer for the weekend. I'd rather just sit and home doing needlepoint and drinking tap water, but a friend's gotta do what a friend's gotta do.
I ordered this case from Geeks.com.
Also, I'm thinking of switching to Cingular and buying this phone. Kara is looking for a phone that really combines PDA functions with a cell, without being too big or too expensive. Everything I have read so far suggests that the Audiovox fits the bill. It's about $250, which she can probably get a discount on from Cingular and which I can get for free with a new 2-year contract. Also, I want to get a new cell number with a 617 prefix. I'll be sure to note on here when my old number goes away. The T-Mobile contract is up in mid-July, so that is probably when the changeover will happen.
Posted by Mark at 04:16 PM | Comments (2)
June 27, 2005
no power
Sigh. I think another power supply is toast. And I was JUST starting to play the copy of Morrowind that I bought at Target for--get this--20 bucks! It's a neat game, but I'll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, I guess this is a good opportunity for me to a) replace my old case with something more modern and b) pick up a new power supply for the server, which is currently also non-functional.
I have had this case for awhile...if I'm not mistaken, it originally housed my PII-450. In fact, when I got a mobo with tres chic front USB connectors, I had to actually dremel out a chunk of the front so I'd have a place to mount them. It hails from the days of the beige box PC, when cases were just starting to come in colors, thanks largely to the iMac. I'm on geeks.com right now looking at cases, and there are some fairly nice ones with 450W power supplies and those cool windows on the side for around $30. Not that the windows really matter, as there will be another computer just to the left of it, but I guess it's the principle. Anyway, the other part is that you can get a case with a power supply for not a whole lot more than the power supply alone, so if I'm going to need one, I might as well get the other.
The wireless mouse I bought is awesome. The wireless headphones are not. Suffice it to say, if I wanted music to sound like I was listening to it over a cheap radio that kept going in and out of tune, I'd have saved some money and brought a walkman to work. They are getting shipped right back from whence they came.
So, Morrowind. Awesome. It's a 1st-person RPG that reminds me of Star Wars Galaxies, only with swords, and also, Morrowind is cool. SWG allowed you to walk around a huge world and basically interact with none of the neat things you would see. Morrowind allows you to actually do things like pick mushrooms and search in logs, and while it may seem silly, it really got annoying in SWG that you'd come across a spring or a waterfall or a tree or something and you wouldn't be able to do anything with it, or to it. It was just there to look pretty. The gameplay also seems very open-ended. It's driving me slightly nuts that I can't play it right now.
One other possibility is that we might have some old PCs around the office that are going in the trash, that I can scrounge a power supply or two from. Shiny new case aside, that is the preferred option.
Addendum: While proofreading this entry, I realized that in all likelyhood a significant portion of the population could read the following sentence and have no clue what it means: "In fact, when I got a mobo with tres chic front USB connectors, I had to actually dremel out a chunk of the front so I'd have a place to mount them."
Posted by Mark at 10:28 PM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2005
dungeon things
So I wasn't successful at getting The Elder Scrolls: Arena to work in DOS emulation. It's kind of a bummer, too, because the game looks so much like Ultima Underworld that I'm almost certain I would've enjoyed it. So I think I've given up on trying to play the older Elder Scrolls games, and I'm going to pick up a copy of Morrowind Game of the Year addition when I get a chance. It's supposed to entail hundreds of hours of gameplay, so that should give me something fun to do for awhile.
But in the meantime, I'm playing Dungeon Siege--Greg's copy, sorry Greg! I'll mail it to you when I'm done. :) It's actually proving to be fun, although I think I started playing it at some point in the past and ended up quitting shortly thereafter. It's Diablo-esque, and should keep me busy killing things and picking up magical broadswords +2.
No time to play this weekend, though, 'cause we're going to a wedding somewhere in western MA...Kara's relatives on her dad's side. And tonight we're meeting people for drinks and food after work.
Oh! Lunch today was something called Chacarero, which is a Chilean sandwich made from a freshly-baked sort of flattish bread, meat, tomatoes, guacamole and green beans. And hot sauce. It is surprisingly good. There is a place downtown that makes them, and they do a big order every few weeks...they fax it in and somebody drives downtown to pick it up. I've walked by the place before and wondered what was up with the line stretching around the block. Now I know.
Posted by Mark at 01:15 PM | Comments (1)
no more payments
Oh, I totally forgot to blog about this: I own my car!
The last payment was on Friday, June 17th. Man...finally. Now I can trade it in for an SUV.
Kidding. I'm going to run that car into the ground.
Posted by Mark at 11:35 AM | Comments (2)
June 23, 2005
challenging!
Argh! It gives me a headache! It drives me nuts!
Somehow I am loving it!
I forgot what it was like to be challenged...
Posted by Mark at 03:39 PM | Comments (1)
work, games, lost
I'm finding that this job to be a challenge, and that's a good thing. It's been awhile since I've had to use certain bits of my brain, so the going can be a little slower than I'd perhaps like. Nevertheless, I'm staying patient and working through one line of code at a time.
I'm about ready to join a gym, I think. I have to take a look at two different places: one is right across the street from the office, and the other has a location on the way home and a few blocks from my apartment. Cost will be a consideration, but either one might work in terms of convenience.
Also, Lost is pretty cool. I missed the episodes the first time, so I'm making sure to watch them in reruns now. I love the David-Lynchian Twin Peaks weird stuff that happens...the 16-year repeating message, the guy in the suit who just appears and vanishes. It's taking all my willpower to not read a bunch of spoiler sites somewhere and find out the secrets and stuff. I'm glad I decided to get into it.
Just talked to my new boss while walking to the soda cooler; I mentioned that it's a good thing that I'm having my brain really worked over. The more I'm challenged, the faster I'll learn, the easier my job will be and the more I can contribute to the company. And that's really a big thing.
So, video games. For some reason, I never caught The Elder Scrolls games, and with Elder Scrolls: Oblivion coming out, I decided that it might be good to revisit the games in the series. Side note: Bethesda Softworks, who makes the games, was located just up the street from my old office in Rockville. Never visited or anything, but it is kinda neat that they were right there...I wonder if I ever walked by one of their devs when I was buying a salad at Safeway?
Anyway, Elder Scrolls: Arena is a free download on their site, so I'm going to install it and give it a whirl. I hooked up the old surround-sound speakers (the front ones, anyway) last night and got ready for some gaming. That's something I'm looking forward to tonight.
Also, I am hearing good things about Guild Wars. Star Wars Galaxies put me off MMORPGs, but I've heard that Guild Wars has a lot of what is fun about traditional PVE RPGs without all the grinding and PVP that is a part of many MMOs. I think that I'm going to start with Arena and some of the other Elder Scrolls games--Morrowind is supposedly HUGE--and maybe if I get bored I'll give Guild Wars a whirl. The game is relatively new, after all. Also, Hellgate: London looks like it could be neat when it comes out. And of course there is Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, but I have to admit that I'm not really that excited about playing either one...they are good games, but I'm FPSed out.
I did see what looks like an interesting space sim linked from Penny Arcade today...it's called Sector 13. Could be interesting.
Posted by Mark at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2005
this is still fun
Had a great time in Rockport this weekend, and I'm still actually loving this job. It is quite unusual to show up to work and not only have lots of little things to work on, but also feel very happy about what I'm doing.
I ordered a sweet set of wireless headphones and a wireless mouse the other day, and I'm still waiting for them to arrive. I'd been meaning to do the headphones even when I was back at ISS, but never got around to it. And the cord of my mouse drags on the top of the keyboard tray in a weird way, so I figured I'd just get a kewl new wireless one...and the one I have here is just a standard Dell mouse, so that's another incentive to switch.
I have my good keyboard at home and I'm thinking of swapping that as well...um, I'm just babbling here now.
Ok, back to work.
Posted by Mark at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)
June 17, 2005
glad to be here
I met some of Kara's coworkers last night, which was fun, and continues my integration into her life. Mary and Jesse, both very awesome folks, and I definitely look forward to grabbing a few beers with them again soon. Then we were gonna go to the Cactus Club, but it was crowded, so we hit Sunset Cantina instead. Lots of fun...I really enjoyed being able to leave work and meet her downtown for drinks. Living in the same city is great. Too bad she has to work at a client in Foxboro most of the time right now.
I think this weekend I'm heading up to Rockport on Saturday afternoon/evening sometime. 4th of July is coming up, and MJP is going to be in Boston, so I have to figure out plans for that. Also, we are talking about going camping the weekend after the 4th, so I've been investigating local campgrounds. There are some surprisingly nice areas within literally a half-hour of downtown Boston.
I'm really enjoying this job. There are so many little things about it that I like that I don't think it's just a honeymoon period sort of thing. I mean, the CEO hand-delivers all the paychecks. They were nice enough to give me a cube near my actual coworkers instead of in a random group somewhere--yeah, I'm talking to you, ISS. My boss is available to answer questions, and people are helpful and pleasant. I can honestly see myself being here for a long time, and not just because I'm sick of jumping jobs.
I'm sure there will be some bad things as time goes on, too, but for now, the overall picture is very rosy. Man am I glad to be here.
Posted by Mark at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)
June 15, 2005
tidbits
Quieter day today. I am done with my introductory training and ready to take on my first small project, which has yet to be assigned.
Also, what is up with it going from 90 to 60 degrees yesterday? I was sweating on the way in to work and cold on the way out. That said, I think the cool weather is more tolerable.
Roommate Pam and I haven't seen each other much lately, so we're gonna go grab a few beers tonight. Also, I'm moving the fuse-breaker AC unit from my room to the living room and installing hers, since she would like to have someplace in the house be somewhat cool and my big AC would be better served cooling a larger space.
MJP is back from China. Got lots of catching up to do there.
Posted by Mark at 04:03 PM | Comments (1)
June 13, 2005
first day
My first day with Smarter Living is going great. It's been a lot to take in, but they people are nice and the job is going to be a lot of fun. So many of the things I learned back at ChangeWave are going to come into play here, so it's a lot like coming home after a long absence from the newsletter biz. I feel really good about it.
And an early positive sign: upon asking if I could bring in a spare vid card to run a second monitor, the response was, "Sure." I am going to really enjoy this place.
Posted by Mark at 03:34 PM | Comments (1)
June 12, 2005
blue hills
Blue Hills Reservation is teh rock!
It's a (state?) park about 20-30 minutes south of Boston with some great hiking trails and amazing views. I went down there earlier today and hiked maybe 3 miles or so through pine forests and up granite hills. Really great stuff.
However: bring mosquito repellent. I am pocked with bites. They were swarming every time I stood still.
I'll be back, though immediately after I buy some 100% deet at REI.
Posted by Mark at 02:12 PM | Comments (1)
June 11, 2005
hot
So. Hot.
In other news, my car has new brakes and tie rods. It still hasn't passed inspection, though, but I guess they adjusted whatever needed to be fixed in the emissions system and I'm supposed to drive it for 100 miles, then bring it back one more time to get the sticker. I do really like the garage though. They seem to do a good job.
Kara and I went out to see a couple of bands last night in Cambridge. The first one sounded like Clutch...they had two bassists instead of a guitar and a bass, and to tell the truth, it didn't sound all that different from the standard pairing. I guess because guitarists tend to use drop tunings and power chords these days with a lot of bass, the line between the two is less distinguishable. They actually weren't terrible. The second band was trying to be different with a lot of string instruments and a singer who occasionally sang in French, but they lacked something...they were about 60% of the way to writing good songs, but the musicianship wasn't tight enough, nor did the songs really build to any kind of hook. It was like they were trying to do Grandaddy-style alt-cool, but not quite getting there. It ended up being quirky but not listenable.
But I do enjoy going out to see live bands, and hopefully we'll do that again soon.
It is simply oppressively hot outside today. I really need to go see if I can get the chainguard off my motorcycle so I can machine away the bit that is rubbing against my tire, but I'm not sure I have the resolve to brave the sauna that is Boston right now. Thank you, Ms. DeMarco, for the gift of this industrial-sized air conditioner.
Wasn't I just saying something along the lines of "oh well, Boston is cold even in June, but I guess I'd rather be cold than hot"? Yeah. Funny joke there.
Two observations from recent life: today I saw ice cream on the pavement. I swear it was bubbling.
Another one: they have these tour guides downtown that give guided historical tours and dress up in costume. The other day I saw one talking on a cell phone. I wish I had brought my camera.
The swans are nesting in the public garden again. I was there yesterday; I still remember sitting in the rain on a Friday about a year ago, waiting for Kara to finish work. It was Father's Day weekend, the crazy weekend I ended up here by accident thanks to bad weather and Independence Airlines (not really their fault...blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah).
Also ended up watching the Sox-Cubs game at McFadden's yesterday. I was talking to a young guy, about my age...his childhood buddy just got killed in Afghanistan. It was really eating him up inside...it's the kind of thing you go to a bar to find a random stranger to talk to about. Poor guy is going through the classic stages. He just talked to him the other day, then, Monday, there's a rocket attack, and that's it.
There's nothing I can say about it that hasn't been said and ignored already, about the war in Iraq, about...about the state of affairs in that part of the world, about how different human beings can be. I stand firmly by my belief that religion ought to be abolished, except for private reflection and practice...at least for a few centuries, until we can get a handle on being nice to each other and wiping out poverty and all that hippie jazz. I think about how certain Islamic sects are so backwards, so Catholic Church circa the Inquisition, and then I remember that there are plenty of so-called Christian sects practicing the same kind of backwards thinking. So just to be safe, make it all illegal. Anybody who does anything criminal and says they're doing it in the name of God should be punished in the same way the people get punished for hate crimes. If God is watching, I can't imagine that he isn't seriously annoyed.
So sad. We live in a world with heart bypass surgery and electric cars and digital watches, and we still can't stop behaving like our animal ancestors. If you doubt that evolution is real, turn on the evening news, and tell me that we don't still act like monkeys.
That's a bit of a downer. Blame it on the heat.
Anyway, we're going to Noodle St. for dinner and then out to see Madagascar in Cleveland Circle, which should be fun.
Posted by Mark at 02:42 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2005
fun job
Had a really great time out last night with the Boston PHP user's group, which included two of my new Smarter Living colleagues. If last night was any indication, this is going to be a very fun job. I really can't wait to get started.
And it's none too soon...I need to get out and start doing things. I'm getting stir-crazy just sitting around the house all day. The sooner I settle into a routine, the better.
I'm going to head out downtown and try to spend some time walking around the Public Gardens and Boston Common this afternoon. Might as well get exercise and take advantage of the free time.
Addendum: Whatever happened to Spring? It is HOT!
Posted by Mark at 12:11 PM | Comments (1)
June 08, 2005
/phew
Just got off the phone with Tabor Wells, my new boss. It's official. I start at 9 a.m. on Monday morning.
/phew
Posted by Mark at 05:33 PM | Comments (2)
i'll take it
I'm going to take the job. I had a very...interesting interview with Inceptor's CEO yesterday, and I was frankly rather taken aback by his demeanor and many of his opinions. What it came down to was him not really giving me any solid reasons why I would want to work there. I asked him about career growth, and his reply was basically, "Nope, not here." So, uh, ok then.
For the record, they offered the job to somebody else, but I wasn't surprised. I wouldn't have taken it for any dollar figure.
So as soon as the manager at Smarter Living gets back to me, I'm going to set up a start date with them. They have been extremely pleasant and gracious through the whole hiring process, and talking to their CEO made me feel like they would really like me to come and work there. And that counts for a lot...it's the same reason I went to Syracuse rather than Northwestern. Syracuse made me feel welcome.
And of course I like the potential of filling the role left vacant by DMD's drummer when he left to go work for Zend. One of those little poetic things that makes you realize how small the world can be. We all know that I just love those.
I have my temporary MA driver's license, and the car is still off being repaired and inspected, so there's no other paperwork-type stuff that I need to get done. I think I desperately need some routine. I will probably try to start the new job this coming Monday, if at all possible.
And this time, I am staying put for a long time.
Posted by Mark at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2005
job!
I have a job offer!
I haven't taken it yet, because I want to give one other company a chance to make an offer, but after that, all bets are off. Every fiber of my being is screaming, "just take it!" But the prospect of having an actual choice between opportunities is urging me to caution.
Still, just between you and me, I'm 99% sure I'm gonna take it.
Also, I am ecstatic that I am done interviewing.
I think I will have a goodly number of beers tonight.
Posted by Mark at 05:15 PM | Comments (1)
snake wrangling
As faithful readers know, I go through long periods of little or no blogging, followed by multiple entries per day. This is one of the former.
I think that because I am interviewing almost constantly (I think I am on the phone with somebody or in person just about every day), I am doing a lot of talking about myself.
I like talking. I like talking about myself. But even I have my limits.
So I haven't been writing much.
But, I should recap a few important events. Kara and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Tuesday. I surprised her by taking her out to dinner at our Italian restaurant in the North End, which is 5 North Square. I even reserved prestigious table 30! We had a great time, and what made it all the more enjoyable is that she had no idea what our plans were until we got quite close to the North End. I spent the better part of an hour working out directions so I could drive us there without looking like an idiot.
On Wednesday, I used my awesome new tool set to fix some of Kara's mum's household problems. Dad got me a 5-piece Craftsman kit as a birthday present; it has a circular saw, drill, reciprocating saw, jigsaw and a light. I love it. So I fixed the pneumatic door closing thing that came out of the doorframe by adding a little shim to the frame, I changed some screws in the windows, and I cut back some tree branches.
Oh, and I relocated Gertie the Garter Snake from the rocks in the front of the house to some more distant rocks. I have honestly never been a snake wrangler before, and I have to say that I enjoyed it...notwithstanding that Gertie tried to bite me a few times. I don't think garter snakes have fangs and they certainly aren't poisonous, but it was interesting all the same.
I should put that on my resume.
I fully expect to have a couple of job offers by the end of next week. Good Lord interviewing is exhausting. Whereever I end up, I promise to remain for a very long time. I've had a variety of experiences, and while I want to continue to be diverse in what I do, I would prefer to do that within the context of a single company.
Oh, and I went out for a short jog/walk yesterday. I am starting slow. This area is truly beautiful for outdoor activities.
Posted by Mark at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)