Wednesday, January 07, 2009

A compressed big update

"Let me esplain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." - Inigo Montoya

There are some things I haven't aired out on this blog because I don't like to use this as a forum for complaining. But now that there's a surprising amount of good news, I'm back with some updates.

After getting my Master's in December, I got laid off not once, but twice. When my contract-to-hire came up on six months at Digital Motorworks, I was told that there was a hiring freeze. They extended my contract hoping to pick me up in December, but then the economy crashed.

I spent a bit over two months unemployed, and it was somewhat scary. I started a new job Monday, though. It's an interesting company, privately owned by one of the few hundred richest men in America. He personally works in the office, (and manages the pro baseball team that he also owns) but I haven't met him yet.

The job has its ups and downs. I'm doing Java Enterprise development, which is something I've wanted to do a lot more of. So far I really like the people I work with directly, and I've already started solving a number of problems after just two days. The work promises to be fairly exciting in a nerdy kind of way, as I may get a lot of creative control over a large commercial web application. And the pay's better than what I was making before.

On the other hand, the office is a remarkably conservative environment. It's the first place I've ever worked as a programmer where there has been a dress code -- business casual, no jeans allowed any day of the week. There's a long commute, but I was issued a fairly awesome high end company laptop on the first day and allowed to take it home. It's said that after I've worked for about a month or so, I'll get to telecommute most days. The senior developer on my team of two also lives in Austin, so we might carpool or get together locally.

Many of the other techies are fairly affable, including my boss. The building is also populated by an awful lot of ex-military guys, as the bulk of the business is about managing military supply chains. (My division is much smaller, and our software app handles commercial retail).

Also, as I obliquely mentioned in my wedding speech, Ginny and I are divorcing. It's on good terms. We had some tension for a while, but I think that situation has eased up a lot since both Ginny and I got employed. Ginny even told me she got a promotion yesterday, which is great news. Ben is handling it well, he's doing excellently in school and is coping gracefully with being in day care for the first time. He's an incredible reader. I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds if I say I think both Ginny and I now see our change as a mutually agreeable one. We've both had dates, which is a fun hobby to be taking up again, but... well, a gentlemen doesn't tell.

Actually, he does, frequently, but not on this blog. If you're one of the select circle who gets to know my private life, you've probably already heard. If not, it's none of your business. ;)

Yesterday was probably the best day I've had in months -- I'm working, it's fulfilling, I'm social. I'm hosting the TV show once a month instead of cohosting. Also, as you might imagine, I enjoy most political news these days. Al Franken appears to have won his race, although there may still be some legal squabbles. Barack Obama will be president in under two weeks. Yay!

16 comments:

  1. Great news all around, K. Nice to hear things are working out for you in general. Good luck with the new position.

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  2. Glad to hear this good news!

    May I ask if the baseball team the dude owns is a professional or minor league team?

    And hooray for Franken! Looks like he has that thing wrapped up, just has to got through the legal challenges that will not get Coleman anywhere!

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  3. It's pro. I'm changing the post to make that clear.

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  4. Glad to hear that you've got a new flame, Kazim!

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  5. Don't forget to use some of that shiny new job money to buy left 4 dead. Blasting zombies for hours is very therapeutic.

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  6. I think I'm devoting a portion of my first paycheck to L4D. I know of two coworkers who are interested in hooking up in there.

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  7. I looked up left 4 dead. Is it a first person shooter? looks cool regardless. I like to kill zombies, and my girlfriend loves to test out possibilities of how to survive the coming zombie apocalypse

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  8. Robert: it's a first-person 4-player cooperative multiplayer zombie survival game. It's from Valve (HL2, TF2, Counter-Strike). It's very fun if you're into the whole "team work" thing (which I am). I'll stop here as I don't want to make Kazim's comment page into a big Left 4 Dead nerd-off.

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  9. yes, we should avoid making Kazim's blog a place for a "nerd off" :)

    Thanks for the info, totally going to pick one up...probably for PC...but maybe for 360

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  10. Yeah, you nerds get off my blog, with your talk of this newfangled video-screen-entertainment and whatnot. I will not tolerate such shenanigans in this very formal venue.

    But when I do get L4D, I'll be sure to ping you and we can blow up zombies and shit.

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  11. got the game for pc. I have a bit of motion sickness from playing it, but I can report that it is definitely fun, and I have definitely jumped in my seat from zombies startling me.

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  12. By the way, I saw a couple WoW talent builds linked on your del.icio.us profile. I'd be interested in what you've been doing in game lately. Do you play a priest main? Are you raiding? What are your opinions about how the game has changed since the expansion?

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  13. I fail at posting I guess, but I also meant to ask, is this company Perot Systems?

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  14. I drifted away from the server with my highest level characters, so I've got a bunch of lowbies trying to catch up. The girl I'm dating also took up the game under the recruit-a-friend program. I have a level 62 priest in a team with her rogue, and we also have a level 15 mage (me) and priest (her). Then I have a 72 paladin who is currently my highest. I mostly like the new expansion, but obviously I haven't seen it all yet. I like leveling up more than I like raiding anyway.

    No, I do not work for Ross Perot.

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  15. Ha ha. Does that mean you wouldn't work for Ross Perot?

    Recruit-a-friend is indeed awesome. I did it myself with dual-boxing. The leveling speed is amazing.

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  16. Anonymous10:44 PM

    Congrats on everything working out well! Tell your girlfriend that us obsessive fans are jealous ;)

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