donutjay

So, currently, right outside my window is a Coke truck. It tried to exit the parking lot, and bottomed out. It's stuck on the exit ramp. Apparently, it's been there for an hour. There's a another big truck chained to it trying to pull it free. It's not having much success so far. This might take a while.

There's all these people walking around staring at the truck, trying to figure out what to do. Nobody looks particularly happy. There's even a guy taking pictures of the whole thing. I'm not sure why. For posterity, perhaps? Or for insurance purposes?

It's quite a sight. Glad I don't have to pay admission. :)

Meanwhile, have a Coke on me!

This weekend I'll be in a bowling tournament on our company team. I'm kind of excited but I'm not really expecting to win. I'm on the B team and only found out a couple of days before the event that I had qualified for it. This surprised me because I had a couple of 130's and a 75 for my qualifying games. I was definitely not one of the best ones there. I guess I must have impressed someone.
I wish I had had more time so that I could have spent some of it practicing. As it was, I went this afternoon. After a decent 141 and a horrible 118, I got some tips from one of the guys on the A team. He told me to slow down, keep my feet together, and shifted where I started from the right to the left. Trying that, I got a 177, with 4 or 5 strikes. Wheee! Let's hope I can keep it up on Saturday. My goal is to beat my average of 140ish every game. Wish me luck!

Slashdot Article

The company referenced is Divine Interventures. Divine purchased the company I was working for last year in August. They were buying up a lot of failing Internet and content related companies after the dot-com bust, and the plan was to build an integrated content management portal for enterprise customers. In September, they had their first(?) round of layoffs. Every division had to layoff a certain percentage of people. In our case, it was two people and I was one of them. And then September 11th happened, which made it more difficult to look for/find a new job. I wasn't sure how long I was going to unemployed. I felt lazy and useless staying at home while J. went off to work. Luckily, I used the network that I had made when my first company failed to find a new job and started in November. Yes, I have worked for five companies (three actual jobs) since graduating in 1999.

Now six months later, I am pretty happy at the company I'm working at. It's small and cozy, and I work with people I like and get along with, and I have no fears of paycuts or layoffs anytime soon. Things tend to work themselves out, even when you don't think so. I hope the people that I used to work with, who are probably still there, are okay. They have wives and children to support. I hope everything works out for them, too.

Today - Got to work late because I kind of overslept. I also was dragging this morning and didn't leave the apartment until after 10am. Luckily, I live 5 minutes from work and was there by 10:15. Nobody seemed to notice or mind, although today was a board meeting and there were a lot of VIP's hanging around. I hope I didn't completely embarrass myself. More likely, they never even noticed. I'm pretty low on the totem pole, just a poor simple tools developer and QA person. I really do need to get in earlier. I would get much more work done. I'm just not a morning person, I guess. When I do get out the door early, like yesterday when I had to meet my parents at 8am for breakfast before they headed to the airport, I'm tired for the entire day.

Big announcement at work today after the board meeting. I can't really go into it yet since it hasn't been made public yet. Suffice it to say it really shook me up. It's too early to tell if it's going to turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing. My job is still safe, as far as I know, so that's one less thing to worry about. I guess when I work at a startup, I have to be able to accept change on short notice. That's not one of the things I like about working at a small company, but usually the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones.

Went out furniture and appliance shopping tonight. Went to "Rooms to Go" looking for living room stuff. Didn't find anything that I really liked. I'm pretty happy with the couch that we currently have. It just only seats two, which makes having company over awkward. We always have to drag uncomfortable chairs into the living room. Will probably get a brand new couch that seats many and move the current couch into the office or something.I think we should wait until we get settled in, though.

What we can't wait for is a new fridge and washer/dryer set. Those we'll have to get before we move in. The big question on fridges is top/bottom or side by side. Opinions? I've always grown up with top/bottom. But, we might want to get a water dispenser, and most of those are side by side. They're just more expensive. It doesn't really matter to me. The exact type of my fridge is truly of little importance in the grand scheme of things. And washer/dryer seems to be coming down to how many buttons and doodads are on each one. I like playing with buttons, but in the end, as long as they get the clothes clean, I don't care. There are just too many choices for something that I don't really have an opinion on. It feels like the SAT's all over again.

Wired had a good story on Dr. Oliver Sacks, the guy who wrote Awakenings. Very interesting guy. "Sacks made patients the heroes of his case studies, rescuing the clinical anecdote from margins of medical practice." I've read Awakenings, and also a few of his other books.

Current honeymoon idea - Mediterranean cruise starting from France, Italy, or Greece. Might be too expensive though. We think we want to do a cruise, but October is in the middle of hurricane season for the Caribbean. Ideas?

My parents are coming in this weekend. I have mixed feeling about this.

On the upside, it'll be good to see them. It's been awhile. The next time I'll probably see them is the wedding in 6 1/2 months.

On the downside, they want to see where we're getting married, and that's a long drive from here, about an hour. So we're meeting them as they drive up from Houston. (That was the cheapest flight they could find). That's a pain. And they also want to see the place where we're moving to. That's not so far away, but since we don't live there yet, obviously, I have to call the owner and see what time is good for him for everyone to go traipsing through the house. Sigh. And, the apartment's a mess, because we're in box hell.

Today was blah. The weather was grey and almost raining, and the energy level in the office was really low. I spent most of the day staring at my computer pretending to be doing useful work. I don't think I was. Luckily, my two boss's seemed to feel the same way about the day and weren't too rah rah rah about getting much done today. They both left early, one was sick, and other was just ready to go home at 5pm exactly. I feel a bit of justification for my lack of motivation. Or at least I don't feel so bad about it.

I found out the CEO of my last failed company got a new CEO position somewhere else in Austin. Some of the people I used to work with at PcOrder.com/Trilogy work there. Actually, when I between jobs this last time, I called some of them to see if there were any openings, but no luck. I wonder if they're doing better. Getting a new CEO either means the company has progressed to the point of needing real leadership or it means that all else has failed, so let's hire someone to fix all our problems. My last company failed, true, but the CEO was really good. He wasn't hired until all the mistakes had already been made, and there was nothing left to do but damage control, which he did very well. He kept us going for another 7 months after the first mass layoffs, and found a buyer for the company. So, I'm really happy for him, and happy for my ex-coworkers who get to work with him now. I hope this new company does better for him and them. I sent him an email offering my congrats today, but I haven't received a response back.

Went out to dinner last night at a seafood/steak place J. and I have been trying to go to for awhile. Reservations are a must. I tried to make reservations for this place on Valentine's Day, but they were all booked up three weeks ahead of time. I called the day before, and surprise, surprise, no luck. But, I made reservations yesterday with plenty of time. It was really good. I had a big hunk of steak, which is not something I indulge in very often. Very good. J. had Tuna Steak, and seemed to like it. Then came desert. Oh my. It was a a chocolate cake shell filled with melted Godiva chocolate. So good. But I could only have like half of it, the richness of it all was just too much. But, I'll definitely have to try it again.