« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 30, 2006
lake, first day tomorrow
Just got back from an amazing 27 hours in New Hampshire, relaxing at the lakeside cottage belonging to Karen and "Cricket" Thomason, friends of Kara's mum from back in the day. I did some snorkeling, Cricket took me out for a little sail on his very fast Laser sailboat, we had a couple cigars and something called "bourbon slush," and all was very well. It honestly felt like we were there for a long weekend instead of arriving Saturday afternoon and leaving Sunday.
So tomorrow is day one at the new job. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm hoping I don't screw this up. I think I have a pretty solid attitude going into it, and certainly, we are on the same page as far as corporate philosophy and the hows and whys of software development, so I don't anticipate any big problems. I have to be there in exactly 12 hours, at 10 a.m.
Wish me luck.
Posted by Mark at 09:58 PM | Comments (1)
July 26, 2006
work, cleaning, games, vague ending
I cannot overemphasize the importance of not losing your job. It is not a good time. So I am very relieved that I'm back in the saddle, as it were.
I'm using these few days here to start getting used to waking up at a normal time in the morning. I've had mixed success. I think that once I actually have to be somewhere, as opposed to making up reasons to get out of bed, it will be easier. It always is.
The car is in the shop right now. I had a problem with the fan switch that caused the radiator fan to stay on even after the car was shut off. It is normal for this to happen for a few minutes while the car cools down, but it was staying on until the battery died, which is not normal. I'm having that fixed and the serpentine belt replaced at the same time. Thanks to my car having a timing chain and not a timing belt, I don't need to replace that, which is happily saving me a couple of bucks.
I've spent a good amount of today cleaning up the wreckage of the last few months. Mail has been gone through and papers have been filed. I still have some grad school stuff to sign up for and take care of, and my room is in a semi-disaster state, but it's looking better.
Two other things. First, the Old El Paso burrito dinner kit is a fairly good deal, combining some tortillas, rice and beans, and spices into an easy package. Get it for $2.50 and it's hard to beat. Burritos are just so delicious I'm having trouble focusing my eyeballs after feasting on such spicy goodness.
Second, I've been playing Chrono Trigger for the PS1, and it's not bad. It's a typical Japanese RPG with all the typical Japanese RPG elements, but I'm enjoying it just the same. However, there is a point that I get to with essentially all games wherein I've made it beyond the early "explore all the neat stuff there is out there to see" and I'm getting close to the endgame, and I start to really lose interest. I think that part of what intrigues me about games is the possibility of exploration, and once I've seen what's over every hill, you know, meh.
The other thing that gives me problems is my tendency to not want to commit to things, such as making choices in the game that may preclude me from reaching alternate endings, etc. For that, GameFaqs is my solution. I mean, yeah, if I do sit down and replay the game again to get all twelve endings...well, I'm not going to do that, so no point even talking about it. I'm probably going to play through it once. Unless it's the second coming of the original Legend of Zelda and takes on an almost religious place in the pantheon of life's rich experiences, I'm playing it once and then I'm moving on. I don't want to beat Ultra Challenge Mode. I want to beat the game once, see most of the cool stuff, and then I'll go play one of the other literal stack of games I have sitting around. So yeah, once I get to a certain point where I've gotten through most of the exposition and I'm probably not going to discover that the hero is actually an animatronic copy of the bad guy's dead son who is being posessed by the demon crystal and trying to enslave the world, I'm looking for how to beat the game.
I should be doing more writing. I should be doing a lot of things.
I think I may...well, nevermind. We'll see how things go. How's that for vague endings?
Posted by Mark at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
gainful employment
I have officially accepted an offer from a company called Curaspan, to be their latest senior software engineer. I start on July 31st.
I'll write more details about it later, but for now, I'm just relieved and happy to have a job.
Posted by Mark at 06:43 PM | Comments (2)
July 19, 2006
negotiations
I'm in the negotiation phase...wish me luck.
Figuring out some things. Should have more news soon, at least by the end of the week.
I should get out of the house and go sailing. It's been too hot to move the last few days.
Posted by Mark at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
pretty good
Yeah, I'm sorry about this. If you're checking in now and then, you know that nothing is really happening. I mean, I'm fine. I'm healthy. Just nothing Earth-shattering, and I gotta be honest, the whole unemployment thing has me generally keeping a low profile. Like I tell people, it's not like I just decided to take off a month and relax. I'm here, generally in front of the computer, looking at jobs, waiting on callbacks, updating my technical portfolio, studying this and that. It's not really that much fun, so I haven't been writing about all the great exciting stuff that's going on.
That said, this was a pretty good last few days. I've been spending just about every weekend in Rockport, hanging out at the beach, and that's been nice. I finished reading Neil Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which was a little slow for me to get into, but I really enjoyed it by the end. I've now started George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. It's ok. Again, a little slow to get into it, for different reasons...it's nice pulp fantasy, but that means a bit of shifting gears after reading historical fiction from somebody who writes with such a particular voice as Neil Stephenson.
I finally got to see Dave Matthews Band in concert two nights ago at Fenway. Really great live show. If you don't hate his music--that is, if you can get over the "overplayed on the radio this is what fratboys listen to when they're getting stoned" stigma that comes with it--definitely a show to see. Very charismatic. In the vein of Tool, wherein they play extended jam versions of their songs that seem to average about 15 minutes.
Lots of sax, trumpet and violin solos, and that musical departure from the typical "two guitars, bass, drums and a singer" rock makes it worthwhile. It's a different kind of show and a different kind of music, and I think if you can get beyond that aforementioned "DMB sux 'cause it's popular" mentality and just enjoy the live act, it's worth the high praise. Just really shows you that musicianship does exist, that songwriting does exist, and yes, maybe it's a 20-minute extended version of "Say Goodbye," and maybe the occasional whiff of weed on the air and the hallucinogenic flickering of the stage lights helps, but it's not your average radio fare. And it's pretty fun to listen to.
Anyway, the next day, we went to see the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie. Also very fun. Very unabashed in what it was trying to do, as a movie, with great humor and adventure in equal measure. In fact, I think "adventure movie" is the best way to describe it. A few dramatic scenes, lots of antics, special effects, but fun dialogue, brilliant acting from the leads, just a really great fun script, very very well written and executed.
Actually I think I'll say a little more on this...it was the kind of movie that reminded me of seeing Star Wars or one of the Indiana Jones movies as a kid. It was exciting. It wasn't "kiddied up." George Lucas showed people getting shot within a few minutes of the start of Star Wars; Spielberg had Mola Ram ripping out people's hearts, etc. But you know, that was fine. Pirates has some violence, some scenes that I think could be scary for very young kids, but it also has a lot of really enjoyable whimsy and humor to it...I particularly liked the two pirates who occasionally make insights into the progress of the plot so far, or have a serious discussion about the pronunciation of "Kraken". I mean, that's just fun.
This is a FUN movie. Go see it, whatever your age. Remember what it's like to see a really good swashbuckling adventure movie. I don't see many movies, and I'm hyper-critical of the ones I do see. This is a GOOD movie.
The rest of the day, Kara and I spent walking through the Public Garden, and watching the ducks, and then eating dinner and peoplewatching. It was a very good day.
So, to summarize: job search continues. I am spending lots of time at the beach. I am working on fixing my motorcycle (which I didn't mention before but whatever). DMB live is good. New Pirates is good. Everything is pretty good.
Posted by Mark at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)