Florida Cold

So I came down to Florida to spend some time with my parents and destress (being unemployed has been rough on my psyche).  Unfortunately, I came down with a cold just before my trip started.  I believe I caught it at the NYC ComicCon (a sad event compared to the one in SD) primarily from not wearing appropriate covering for the walk from the train station to the show and back.

It’s taken me 4 days just to get back to half-speed but despite this, I do feel better emotionally.  Perhaps it’s just the comfort of having mom and dad around, perhaps it’s that the stimulus package was (finally) passed or perhaps it’s that I have an in-person interview with Google and a phone screen for A9 (who seems quite interested in me).  Whatever the reason, I feel like the end of my unemployment is within site.  If not Google or A9, I just feel like something good will turn up.

I think it’s because it turns out that, despite my lack of social savue-faire (however that’s spelled), I seem to have impressed a number of my former co-workers and, through their connections, I have some good opportunities available.  This does make me feel guilty though: a number of these people were let go from the company before me and I wasn’t much help to them.

Whatever happens in the future, I’m going to make sure I pay these people back: through recommendations (of them or of good people to them) or helping friends of theirs or just helping other people who’ve been good to me in the past.  To me, it feels like, if anything good has come of this recession, it’s a sense of community: we’ve all got to help each other if we want to help ourselves.

Bloomberg Interview

I had an interview at Bloomberg on Friday.  I had been dreading it because I feared I might get an offer but not want to take the job.  It was also a highly technical interview and my first one in 9 years.  All this was very stress inducing.  However, after visiting the Bloomberg offices, a lot of my fears about the workplace were unfounded.  It was not a big cattle field of open desks (they are open but not vastly so); there was no screaming and yelling at employees (at least not openly ); there were people in all styles of dress (from suits-and-ties to business casual to one guy in a zippered sweat shirt). And the facility is beautiful.  So instead of not wanting to work there, suddenly I do.  It’s no exaggeration to call them the Google of the financial world.

My interview was with 2 technical employees, William (a nice guy I think I would get along well with) and Satish (I think; I could never see his badge and he rarely looked at me).  I did really well with William and much less well with Satish.  Still waiting for word about the results.  I suspect strongly that they won’t be offering me a position (consult-to-hire) which is ok because I have other Bloomberg options available yet, but I’d really like feedback on how I did personally (I know how I did technically).  I feel good about how I was positive, upbeat, forceful but not agressive and confident, even when I was floundering.  Even if I don’t get this position, I feel much more confident that, if I can get an interview, eventually I’ll find something good.  That alone made the interview worthwhile.

‘Anti’ Superbowl Weekend

Got together with my old friends again this past weekend for our annual gamefest gathering.  Played a few new games: Race for the Universe (a Puerto Rico-style card game with some complicated iconography), Vegas Showdown (build a more famous casino than your opponents), Steve Jackson’s ‘Illuminati’ and Power Grid (the Eastern European board).  This was my second attempt at Power Grid (the first one ended early) and I did ok, but I’m still getting a feel for the interactions of the various parts of the game.  I did manage to win Vegas Showdown through a combination of beginner’s luck and flat-out luck.

Also did some interacting with my fellow unemployed friends.  It turned into a bit of a bitchfest about the state of imbalance (because employers hold all the power now) but it felt good to vent.

Weds fun

Had another great night with my friends.  This time, we tried to play another game that is new to me, Powergrid.  The name is exactly what the game is: you buy power plants and presences in various cities and power the grid.  We were moving rather slowly though and couldn’t even get throught the first (of three) phases.  Not sure what to think about the game with such a short introduction to it.  We’ll probably play this again at our yearly ‘Anti-Superbowl’ party.

We stopped that game early to play a few hands of  ‘The Great Dalmuti’. I got a little lucky in drawing for positions and started off as the Great Dalmuti.  I got a number of very good hands but had 2 rough ones yet I still managed to hold onto my position throughout 6 rounds.  I know a couple of my friends were ticked but that’s the way the cards fell.

Giving Back

In the past, I’ve contibuted to both ‘This American Life’ and ‘WNYC’ because I consume a tremendous amount of their content.  But I held back last year over concerns about money which was ridiculous considering my salary.  After listening to the hard times they are going through, I felt very guilty.  So I renewed my pledges and hope that good kharma will come back to me in the continuation of the many podcasts that I enjoy each week.

If you are a regular listener of any of these shows, please try to send in some money; these are great shows and they need help.  If they die out, it would be very sad… I’d have to spend my days watching CNN (talk about depressing).

Wild Dreams

This morning, I had two very unusual dreams.  The first had me in a sort of play-within-a-play episode of Doctor Who; the other had me running into one of my old bosses at the grocery store.

In the Doctor Who dream, I was (oddly enough) at a large catered event of some sort.  The Doctor (David Tennet) came bursting into the room with a female companion (Donna?).  For some reason, he needed to marry her.  For some even more bizarre reason, he felt he had to practice putting the ring on her finger with me?!  Afterwords, I was like ‘Wow, I hope someone got a picture of David putting a ring on my finger’ and when I went up to ask him for a copy of any video the had of it, he said sure and waved over the camera crew.  But then I realized “Why would they film that?  If it was supposed to be part of the show, why wouldn’t they pick a real actor?  And if it wasn’t the show but was really the Doctor, why would their be a camera crew?”  I think my brain realized it was in a conundrum and switched dreams.

My next (remembered) dream was me at the grocery store running into one of my old bosses, a more straight-laced, Christian family man I don’t think I’ve met.   He seemed rather dazed when I said Hi to him; as the dream went on, he got more and more raggedy looking and his speech was very slurred.  He admitted to me that he was stoned and was looking for munchies.  As I learned in my little pop-sci course way back Freshman year in college, everyone in your dreams (even David Tennet) is really you.  I think this was my fear of what may become of me if I remain unemploed too long.  Although I’ve definitely drank plenty,  I’ve never used drugs.  I think this is just an exaggerated view of ‘giving up’, a concern I hope things like this blog and other activities will help me avoid.

Board Gaming with Friends

Last Wednesday, I reunited with my old friends from my A&T days.  Back then, I’d get together with them almost every Weds night for roleplaying or board gaming but since going to CNET 9 years ago, I’d only see them once or twice a year.  With all my free time, I will probably be spending more Weds nights there again.

It was really great seeing them all.  A combination of familiarity with the many things that never change (like Rob’s place, a Ken’s game skills) while others things are so different (like Jonathan’s weight loss and everyone creaking and cracking with age).

We played a game called ‘Agriculla’ (I believe), a model of ancient agriculture.  Built on a model like “Puerto Rico’, you have certain activities you can perform each round (such as plowing a field, sowing a field, building fences, getting farm animals, even growing your family) and a number of rounds based on your family size.  But the bigger the family the more food you need to gather.  The limited activities and resources make it impossible to do everything, especially when someone before you chooses the activity you need.  At the start of the game, I was the last to go.  I feel that was an extreme disadvantage that should be offset better especially in a four player game.  Even so, I came in second (pure beginners luck) and Ken, of course, won handily.

I’m looking forward to getting together with them again.

Hello world!

This is my first attempt at entering the world of blogging.  I’ve been an outsider looking in for the past 4 or so years and am finally taking the plunge.  Or rather, recoverying from the push over the ledge as I lost my job and need something to help maintain my sanity while I work towards getting a new job.  As a nerdy guy just ever-so-slightly beyond middle-aged, I’m both nervous and excited about the opportunities available to me.

For the past 9 years, I worked at CNET Networks and thus had a ringside seat to the rise of the social online world.  Unfortunately, I was too busy working there to participate in it.  I’ve been a heavy consumer of the content out there and now’s my time to add some of my own.

My main area of expertise is internet technology, especially open source software like the Apache webserver, MySql databases, Squid and more.  Over the past (nearly) 20 years, I’ve written more than my share of complex (yet really good) code,  but I believe strongly that the best code is open code.

My hobbies are pretty varied and I plan on writing about a number of them.  I’m an avid fan of theme parks and roller coasters and have often travelled to places just to ride the biggest, fastest and scariest rides out there.  I also love to travel.  Going back to just 2 weeks of vacation again will be tough.  I had been an advid comic book reader for … well, forever but I had given up on them in recent years.  This past summer however, I went to ComicCon in San Diego and it’s reawakened the comic-nerd within.  And, I couldn’t go this whole post without mentioning my biggest obsession: Lost.  I am more than a little fanatical about this show.

So here I go, starting the next phase of my life.  My life so far has been pretty complex (yet really good) , but by sharing it with the world, it will be even better.