The Robot's Thoughts

I know, I said I'd have something special for all you loyal readers who undoubtedly kept clicking reload non-stop until this post showed up in front of you.

Well, its still in the works.

But I feel like posting anyway.

Slowing down like this was needed. And speeding up like this was just what I needed.

Allow me to explain:
I'm in small college town, not akin to the one I grew up in, but akin to the one I grew up next too. Anyone from my neck of the woods has probably spent time in Milton, PA. The collars are blue, and the trash is white, if you were to sum it up in a cliche.

And I'm really not miserable. Sure, seeing geo metros with racing mufflers makes me double over in laughter as much as the next guy. And the bars here that I've been two are like overpriced frat parties (not my scene anymore).

Like any small town I've lived in before, everything I need is in walking distance. I even found that the street I live on is a backroad to my workplace. Now I can bike to work, seeing as its only 3.8 miles one way. And unlike the small towns I've lived in PA, this one let's me buy beer on a Sunday, which this past Sunday I did, for the first time ever. (And last call is 3am, which allows me to get tanked at a reasonable pace.)

So I have that simple, uncomplicated, quiet life that few at Pitt could really see me living. Friends who've known me longer know that its just what comes natural.

And like all small towns, there's the network lock-in/lock-out. Everyone knows each other. Or knows a mutual friend. So if you're here, and you don't know anyone, its tough making new friends, because you're not in their network. And they're not going to introduce you to everyone in their network, seeing as they don't know you, and being associated with a weirdo (if you turn out to be one) hurts their reputation and contributes to mutual network lock out.

All you can really do is keep trying until you click with someone.

But meeting people really hasn't been my focus. We're close to a milestone at work, and outside of work, I've been programming in two different environments, and evaluating project management software. Oh, and when I have time, unpacking.

So what do I do? I read, I go for walks, I program, I work, I lift, and I think. And I find all of it, in the right degrees, fulfilling.

Sure, I've been getting hate txt messages such as "I hate you." and "You're gay." and "blah blah blah" and so on, but I mostly ignore them. I think I know who they're coming from. And all I can say is that I'm flattered that you saved my cell phone number. But I'm totally not interested in you that way you're interested in me. I prefer the ladies.

So this is doesn't seem to the outsider like the most exciting life. I didn't ask for their opinion. Its the beginning of a serious focus on developing quality software. Not just for my company, but for myself. Its a purpose driven life. It takes focus and discipline. And time. And right now, and for how long I don't know, I have all three on my side. So I'm going for it.

My 24th birthday is coming soon. Considering I decided to be an engineer when I was 16 (in the office of a great college professor) and I want to have something to show for it before 10 years slip by from that decision, and I find myself wondering if it was my calling, or just a job.

I remember two years ago or so, when I just wanted to be done with college, how I scorned someone I knew because all he wanted to do was get an office and code all day long. Not a team lead. Not a product architect. Just a developer, and a damn good one. My remarks were something like, "Coding gets boring after a while. Don't you want to be in a position where you're bringing YOUR ideas to life." His response was something like, "That's what I want to be doing all day long two years from now."
My response was, "In two years, I'm gonna want underlings."

Now _I_ understand what he meant. Now I know _WHY_ he said it. When you're passionate about what you're doing, you're just stoked to be doing it. When you're just in love with yourself and your ego, you're just a narcissit. And you're going to want trophies to show off to people just how big and important you are.

What's changed since then? (Other then graduation and two jobs) I met a narcissist. One bigger (or smaller, if you're talking build instead of ego) then me. And it was inspirational. I felt saved. After seeing someone behave like he's right, even when he's wrong, I knew I wanted to live a life as far from that as I could. And its become about doing a great job for the job's sake, not for getting noticed and getting an attaboy by a buddy buddy manager.

Work here feels like growth, study. The challenge here is the new hot co-worker.

I realize that its been about a week since I've posted, and many of you are probably content to just stare at a page, wondering when (if, dammit, if) it will ever update.

The truth is that this weekend was the final weekend in pittsburgh. I dropped off my apartment keys monday night. Everything I could haul back to my new apartment in Fairmont, I did haul. On top of that, I had a friend's wedding to go to, and even got sick.

So in light of all of that, I was operating a bit like a sub captain: Run Deep, Run Fast.

But now, the move is finally over, all that stress is over and done with. My home machines are online. Things are finally looking like they're going to be stable, and I'll have that feeling of control.

Keep reading this page -- there should be something worth noticing on it sometime soon.

In this article referenced on JoelOnSoftware.com he [Joel] goes on to reference Murphy's Law as just Murphy. Observe the following quote [emphasis added by me. To actually know what he's talking about, read the referenced article]:

Flexibility. If you want to keep your promises, you can't talk about upcoming features and release dates unless you're willing to lock into them. This may eliminate flexibility that you need later when Murphy strikes. And if you don't keep your promises, you've ruined something that's very hard to get back: your reputation.

I felt the need to post this because I did this in reference to a previous post back when I was working for a much smaller company, and some co-workers (at the time) who couldn't leave well enough alone, discovered and read the blog, and decided to latch on to the Murphy thing.

Man that was funny. So funny in fact, that not only did I laugh all the way to the bank, I laughed all the way back from the bank and then to disneyland. Then I bought one of those Mickey Mouse hats. Then I laughed all the way back home.

It was a veritable riot. Just dredging up memories of sharing "blog" time makes me want to whistfully whipe away the tears and listen to sappy emo folk like Elliot Smith.

I know, I know, who could possibly believe that an experienced, established, reknown software developer would possibly write the same way I do? Not me.

But that's the trouble with murphy -- he only shows up when you least expect him to, biach.

Jason and Lumi: Congrats, and I'll see you guys this saturday.

Open bar reception?

Here's some more good news for me:

• Recently discovered three more Massive Attack albums, thanks to Adam and Greg.


• My first paycheck, even after the relocation expenses incurred, was bigger then I expected.


• My cable internet is going to be 5.0Mbps, and is going to be cheaper then expected, due to promotional specials.


• My car can fit more stuff in it than I expected.
• 
  
• I get this friday off.


• My digital camera's quality is better than I expected. (Pics from it coming soon).


• My landlord allows pets, so its more then possible that I will end up taking care of a friend's kitten.


• I spent all saturday swimming and hanging out in a hot tub.


• My headcold is gone.

My favorite track by Mogwai is "Christmas Steps". I love the build up in the bassline.
Its reminds me of that scene in braveheart where each army starts out walking and then running and then running and screaming toward each other. It just has that same progression of aggression and foreboding.

I wish I had a 3rd gen iPod so I could rate it 5-stars right now.

I'm now syndicated by livejournal. I rule!

Rosetta is the emulation technology that Apple is touting to give 80% of native compiled performance for PowerPC apps. You can find an interview with the creator here.

I'll be back in pittsburgh this weekend for some more of my stuff. And to see some of my friends.

There are some things I've really wanted to blog about lately, but don't really feel the time is right to share the information. Be it on a side project, a relationship, or whatever, this blog's probably lost whatever Zazz it had because there's some things I'm keeping under the hood.

But on the other hand, something that's pretty cool in my world right now is the rumors of OS X on intel being cracked to run on non-apple hardware are true.

And for those on the intel side of the world that don't like overpaying for their CPUs -- the rumor is that there are VMware images floating around P2P networks for AMD users.

I, for one, will be following this closely, and as soon as my cable modem gets hooked up (5.0Mbps all to myself for $30/month) will be personally invesitgating whether or not this is legit.

Last night, per earlier discussions with my landlord, I got a queen bed. It basically came down to that the bed in the apartment I'm renting was beat to sh*t. So I've got a brand new queen bed, and egyptian cotton sheets with a decent thread count to cover them.

Oh yes, I went there.

And the mattress really does effect your quality of life. Today just feels like a great day. The shower water was the perfect temperature. My commute to work was brief, with little traffic. I even got here early.

So I've been here in West Viriginia for a week now. I've met people at the local coffee shop, the Book & Bean, who were holding a chess tournament. I ended up playing one of the eliminated contestants for two games, and won both. I've gone mountain biking by the railroad tracks in fairmont.

And tonight I hit up the bar across the street that has a college night. Drink, dance, and be merry.

Other than that, I don't have anything. Besides the expected "I should get back to work".

I got a sweet digital camera at sam's club [i know, they're evil. but evil has prices which cannot be beat for 4 megapixel digital cameras].

I will start including pictures into some of my posts once I get broadband set up at my new apartment. Like pictures of the trails I'm hoping to do before it gets too wintery. I brought a computer back with me this weekend, so I've got to start really getting all my thing settled at my new apartment. I got caught up working on my chogger side project. After some research, we did a fundamental evalution of the technology we were going to implement it with. I think we made the right choice.

Today's my first day of work with actual access to the CVS repository, and I've already knocked out about 5 bugs -- albeit minor ones -- before lunch.

Another cool thing about working here: AWS -- Alternative Work Schedule. All my employer cares about is me getting my 80 hours in during a two week period. So essentially, I can work (4) 9-hour days one week, an eight hour friday, and then (4) 9-hour days the next week, and have three days off. I think I'm totally going to take advantage of that. But that will give me more time to visit friends on the weekends.

My headcold sucks. A this particular moment in time, its really all I have to complain about. Oh, I guess I could complain about how I forgot to bring my iPod to work today, but that's not really a big deal, as I'm used to working in a 'professional environment' without music.

But my headcold is irritating. It feels like I've got a metric ton of mucus stuck in my sinuses. I feel like I'm playing a video game and its dropping frames. And worse, it doesn't seem to be responsive to my attempts to recover quickly by consuming all the orange juice in west Virginia.

I moved into my apartment last night. I'm not totally settled, or even close, but I put some things up there, and spent the night. The place has some character. I'm renting the 3rd floor apartment from a retired school administrator who's had the house in his family for 3 generations. The house is 104 years old. Three other tenets live there, and a Hemingway cat named Thumby or Thumber -- I can't remember which. But I think that's awesome as I've totally wanted a Hemingway cat, but I'm cheap and only got for the apartments that don't allow pets.

All in all, my first impression of this place is that there's a lot of potential for exploration and fun. There's a lot of things being done right here. And they sell six packs at Rite-Aid. Probably on Sundays, too.

Now if only I could lose this damn headcold...

I got a corner office with floor to ceiling windows! (And the view is decent, I don't see the parking lot)

And I'm allowed to listen to music.
And they weren't kidding when they said I was allowed to wear jeans!
It sounds so freakish, but I'm actually smiling because how great the vibe I'm getting is.

And after work, I move into my new place. Which is also pretty cool, especially when I consider I'm getting a furnished two bedroom apartment with all utilities except electric included for less than my unfurnished one bedroom in south side.

(And just like my place in south side, its across the street from a bar)

I read about Unit 731 on an article on somethingawful.com

You can also click the title to read about what Wikipedia has to say about the unit.
All of it is horrific.