Got the garage cleaned out today. A horribly hot day for such an endeavor. I can actually fit two vehicles in it for the first time since spring. While my initial reason for wanting to achieve such a feat was so that PitCon ‘09 could take place out there if the weather wasn’t too hot, but the reason changed to something more selfish. Hopefully we’ll pick up that reason Monday night. If not then, it will be Thursday.
No other posts on this day.
This post and the eventual resolutions post are very boringly the normal posts that most blogs do. But it does give me something to write about. While 2008 was the year I finally got a decent job working on software, the year as a whole was a stressful pain in the butt.
I finally got fed up with crappy non rewarding jobs in mid-January and started taking steps to rectify that. I started relearning useful Java technologies. The end result was supposed to put me somewhere around Columbus, but in the end that never quite panned out. I’d resolved that I wasn’t going to find a rewarding programming position anywhere near L-town and the family and I finally accepted the need to possibly move. Also, attending my first real software developer conference showed me a lot of cool technologies and things you could do with them. (Sadly, I won’t be able to attend that in 2009. CodeMash is definitely worth paying for yourself, but I’m not ready to lose 3 vacation days so early in the year. Maybe next year.)
The wif-al unit’s grandmother passed away in February. We also played tag with strept for quite a while. Eventually, the wif-al unit needed to have her tonsils removed. A few weeks of shear hell for her from that, mixed in with a couple job interviews for me, got us through March and April.
End of April/early May, I got offers from two companies. Neither of these related to the possible position that started me down my path. Thank goodness it did though or I wouldn’t have been ready skill wise. One position was nearby at a tire manufacturer doing very narrow focused programming in C for a specialized tool used in that industry. Not really a growth path there, and I’d already left one job because of narrow focused dinosaurian technology. The other position was working on an ERP system under development that would require a move. You already know which one I took.
May and June saw us working feverishly to get the house ready to sell. If I can give any advice for people looking to sell, do all this prep work before putting it on the market. Yeah, you’ll tell yourself that people will see the potential. But trust me, people looking for a home to live in aren’t wanting to have to do work right away. We corrected all the problems that had been hanging there for years and in the end it paid off. The first (and only) people to look at it bought it. It was a stressful 5-6 weeks getting it ready but I know it made a difference.
Something for me to remember. If people can’t make it to something I’m putting on, don’t make a big deal out of it. They may have a lot going on in their lives and don’t need extra stress from me acting real dissappointed.
I started the new job June 2nd, and drove 66 miles morning and evening for two months. My back and butt are both glad that’s over. As usual with my timing on most things, I picked the best time gas price-wise to be driving those long trips. I’m being sarcastic. Upper $4/gallon, keeps that tank hungry.
We sold the house and closed on our new house mid July and started the move late July. A couple U-Hauls and multiple full vans later, all the junk had been moved.
Fall and winter came much too quickly for our tastes. I coached the eldest girlywog’s 4th/5th grade soccer team for the first time and the youngest tried out karate. We’ve tried to take advantage of our access to all the new things that are now close to us, minor league baseball, art museum, zoo, etc. It’s been fun. It still feels like it’s not real yet and we all miss the old stomping grounds and friends quite often. But I’ve been told by people that they notice a change in me for the good. And unlike the last job change, this one has stuck around. I’ve been on the new job for over 6 months now and I’ve not woken up once complaining about the work I’m doing. I think I may have mentioned that here before but it’s true and important for me. Being miserable in your job, no matter how much you’re being paid, doesn’t do your family any good. It takes too much of the good, fun you away from them.
The last month and half saw age old problems in my family resurface again. I tried to make some people see things from a different point of view, but probably should have stayed out of it. But then I’m enabling. You can’t win either way. It’s a shame when non-blood family’s stubborness and tunnel vision can ruin a whole family.
I did finally get to do some gaming and the family unit didn’t have to go anywhere on Christmas, which is a big plus. We got a Wii for Christmas which is a very interesting system. Yesterday we had another Christmas get together and in a couple weeks, we’ll get the last one out of the way. Tomorrow the kidlings head back to school. At work, we go into code freeze and begin the first of many testing and bug fixing cycles until a pilot install in May.
Should be an interesting and busy time, but I’ll give one of those outlook and resolution posts in the near future. For now, I need to have that last Hell Hath No Fury…Ale. Laters!
Just on the spurs of a comment about teaching my oldest to program in my post on programming games, a couple blogs I read noted that Sun has put up a resource for young programmers. This would probably be a good resource for any non-programmers wanting to give it go. I know at least one of you Bud Light swilling heathens has made a comment to that effect to me before. 
Wings had a great weekend. Hopefully they can avoid duplicating what happened in the Nashville series in games 3 and 4. I’m gonna be a tired puppy this week with these late start times. Nephew #2 has bad mouthed Chelios probably since the Wings got him. I usually defend him, more to annoy my nephew than anything, though I did see value in his skills. My opinion may be changing. I’m starting to really cringe whenever Chelios is on the ice. I’m starting to see a lot of mistakes and problems that weren’t occurring in the past. It’s a little worrisome.
How many pictures does a 2GB SD card give my 4 mega pixel Kodak LS443? 1,650 pictures. Want to know what’s even scarier? I’ve got two cards. I can record 80 minutes of video on each card. Someday I’d like to get smaller camera that fits in my pocket easier. One of those digital video cameras would be cool too. Someday…
The wif-al unit has taken a very nice upswing from her surgery. She’s acting more like herself now. I’m very glad. She still needs to avoid any sickies, as that wouldn’t be good at this stage.
I went with my youngest on a zoo field trip last week. It turned out, she was the only child in my group. We had a blast. Wish I could do that more with the girlywogs.
For those worried about my programming studies, fear not. Over the last 2-3 weeks I studied myself silly. I worked on a nice little project for someone and have very nearly burnt myself out. I need to get back into things after a little break. I probably should continue to work on my Hibernate/Spring project, but I’m very tempted to start learning Groovy.
I picked up some Sapporo from the IGA last week to enjoy during the Wings’ games. This is my Japanese beer of choice when eating at a hibachi restaurant. This batch wasn’t so good. I’m wondering how long it’s been sitting there, because it tastes a bit skunky.
Looks like a big decision will need to be made this week. Hopefully two. One cool, one not so cool. But a stressful decision nonetheless.
I can’t believe it’s already Friday. I meant to do some posty-posty of material before now but have had no chance to even think about doing it this week. The wif-al unit had her tonsils and adenoids removed on Monday and she has been totally destroyed from it. I always heard that that surgery was hell on adults, but that is an understatement. I sincerely hope that you and me never have to go through that. I’ve been off this week taking care of her, and trying to do a small portion of what she usually does around the castle here. Small portion is probably an overstatement. I feel like I’ve gotten nothing accomplished around here this week. Partly from taking care of her, partly from other things that I’ll have to talk about sometime, partly because I’ve neglected listening to podcasts at home (so I can hear her better if she needs me). Podcasts always make the house chores more enjoyable, at least to me. A really interesting podcast makes it easy to get boring things done.
I’m starting to lose track of my internal Pit scheduling ability also. I normally always know what night the end of round deadlines are but this week I’ve really lost track. Last deadline I ended up running the off round a day early. Luckily I got no more orders after that so I didn’t need to reset and then rerun everything. I am currently conscious that tomorrow is the deadline for the first game of the Pit Finals. Hopefully I remember.
So this week has been totally crazy. I had hoped to get the lawn mower ready this week but that’s been pushed to at least the weekend. Hopefully I can get the damn thing started again.
The Wings continue to find new and interesting ways to lose playoff games. Hasek has been so inconsistent since coming back from injury. He was amazing at points in the first two games but has turned porous. You never know whether he’s going to give up 6 goals in the first or provide a shutout. Osgood is in now and I really wish the best for him. He has looked pretty dominating this season and he deserves his chance to shine. I’ve always thought most people don’t give him much credit for backstopping the Wings Stanley Cup team of ‘98. It would be nice to see him be a big reason the Wings advance far in the playoffs. These strings of the Preds scoring two goals in unheard of time (11 seconds, 9 seconds, WTF!) has got to stop. After the Preds score (and now it seems like after we score) the Wings seem to be suffering from “head in ass syndrome”. How can someone be so wide open in that short of time from the center ice face off. Unacceptable! Tonight’s game will really dictate my mood for the weekend.
I broke down and picked up some craft beer from the local IGA. At least I think it is, I haven’t done any research yet. So look for my review soon. I tried one last night and plan to have one tonight also. I’m saving my final Flying Dog brew for a special occasion.