I got a job. Finally. With Micro Encoder, Inc (MEI). I’ll be a Test Engineer starting on Monday the 30th. I’ll be moving next week. KrisDi is coming down to help me on Monday. My boss, desperately trying to avoid the results of managerial stupidity, wants me to hold off announcing my departure for as long as possible. Consequently, a lot of people will have about three days notice that I’m leaving. Which is kinda funny to me. But it means I probably won’t have a big fancy going away party like KrisDi did, and Dad probably won’t be making a plaque for me. Oh, and there’s no damn way my work’s going to be finished up before I leave. But what can I do? Bossman probably shouldn’t have continued assigning me new work after I told him I was leaving and needed to clean up my projects. It doesn’t help that my hard drive crashed this morning, and I spent the entire day trying to recover data and get a new hard drive. I accomplished two things: Called a vendor, and emailed Japan. Oh, and the resurrection of all my data, which is an unbelievable relief.
It’s been a crazy couple weeks. Tuesday, 3 April, phone interview for Kimberly-Clark. Wednesday, 4 April, phone interview for Test Engineer with Fluke‘s HR. Thursday, 5 April, K-C calls me to set up an on-site interview for later; I have a phone interview with MEI; three hours after the interview they called me back to ask if I could fly the next day. Friday, 6 April, NOAA emails me saying they want me to fly up for an on-site; I fly that evening for MEI. Monday, 9 April, on-site with MEI, and they give me an offer about five minutes after the interview. I ask for some time to think about it and fly home. They want an answer by Thursday, 12 April. I ask for an extra day to think about it because I still want to fly up for NOAA. Fluke calls me back to set up another phone interview with an actual engineer on Thursday morning (12 April), and they call me back while I’m flying for NOAA to set up their own on-site. Early that Friday (13 April) morning, I leave them a message to let them know I can see them that afternoon if they can get it together fast enough. They call me back and say they can’t, and I say that’s too bad, because I have to give an answer to another company (MEI) that day, so they can probably forget about an onsite. As I’m walking in the door at MEI to go accept the job, Fluke calls me back and asks if there’s any way I can put off MEI for a week, because the engineer was so excited after our phone interview he ran over to HR to tell them about it. So that’s neat.
So, here I sit, staring at all the crap that hasn’t magically crammed itself into a box yet, with only about six days of work or so left before I finally move my ass to Washington. I’ll be out of here next weekend. I’m indescribably excited.
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I read a lot:
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle, by CS Lewis. I liked all of them, but The Last Battle was better than the others. Darkness had a greater foothold, and thus hope was a light shining more brightly. Even if the hope isn’t in the real imaginary world, but instead within imaginary worlds within the real imaginary world. Wait…what? I’m confused. And what happened to the real world, anyway?
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer. Good and bad, centers around the main character Sir Richard Burton, who is trying to figure out why every human in the history of Earth has been resurrected in a weird riverworld. It’s the first in a series, which I may pursue when my unread bookshelf becomes somewhat less crowded.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling. Contrary to most series I’ve read, I thought this book was actually better than the previous three. I was left wanting to read the fifth, but I don’t have a copy of it right now, so I couldn’t. Plus it’s so insufferably popular that it’s basically unavailable at used bookstores. Curse the mainstreamization of fantasy! I bet there’s a real word for mainstreamization. If not, I vote for the mainstreamization of my newly coined word, “mainstreamization.” I’d like royalties every time it’s used. How do I set that up?
Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. [Sci Fi, or Cyberpunk if you’re into Sci Fi enough to know the sub-genres] This was a highly recommended book: The Pope and the internet both told me to read it. The Pope reads like no other, and I respect his opinion greatly. He was almost completely right in recommending this book so highly. While reading it, Monocular Ben (the Plaid Amoeba) told me that the first part was good, and the rest was okay. I thought almost the opposite. The first section reveals NS as an author totally in love with his ability to make awkward, quirky, offbeat comparisons and descriptions not just work well, but completely sensible and comfortable. Which annoys me, but he’s right, he’s damn good at it. So, Ben loved the first section. Which is awesome. The rest of the book, it seems like NS started thinking, “You know, maybe I should have some plot in here, too.” And so he did. And it was pretty good. I can’t say it was stellar (The main character’s name is Hiro Protagonist, for gosh sake, that’s even worse than Owen Deathstalker). Anyway, I think NS tried to converge storylines a bit too much at the end, but overall, that was a really good book. I often stopped noticing what was going on around me.