Went to a “Japanese” restaurant with some co-workers. If I were in the states and with my friends or family I would probably call it a “Sushi” place, but that didn’t seem to be the term used here^[1]. This place had a conveyor belt and you just picked up the stuff that you wanted as it went by. This concept has always seemed cool in theory, but also a little bit sketchy in terms of health, but the fish turned out to be quite fresh, and I would probably go back again.

The good news is that my co-workers are actually pretty cool. I keep telling people that there are no Jeffs where I work now (my adventures with jeff were chronicled here, here and here.

Jeff

There are many things that I miss about working at The Company, but Jeff is not one of them. I do miss my collaborations with Adil, Tiffany, Ed and Ed a lot.

I was excited yesterday because my iPod finally came back to me. I wasn’t sure they would actually do it, but they replaced it, so this is actually my third iPod (I checked and it has a different serial number), my second replacement by the same warranty, so that extended warranty was actually worth it for once. Would I get another iPod? I’m not sure, I mean I love having the thing and it is super simple to use, but as far as reliability it doesn’t score well. My friend e and her husband both have iPods and both are giving them trouble at the moment (one sounds like it has died, the other is having the same sort of problems that mine did before it finally died). Theresa’s died recently too. In my own experience their ability to fix things appear to operating at only about 66%, and you only get a good result if you call up and yell at them. I was actually super courteous both times because Theresa used to work in a call centre and people who work in places like that don’t deserve to have abuse hurled in their general direction, you do (however) have to be insistent when block your path with red tape. On the other hand when I actually have a working iPod it is hard to imagine life without it! I think I would actually get another iPod, but I’d get the AppleCare Extortion Plan up front this time, because although there was more hassles than there should have been, they did fix things in the end. That does count for a lot.

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1. I think traditionally Sushi refers to the rice or something, but Americans at least usually use it to refer to the whole thing

As a rule, I hate job interviews. I often feel flustered and end up leaving thinking that I have given a pretty poor impression of my ability to communicate. My job interview with Sydney Uni's Faculty of Dentistry was a complete disaster, and it is still fresh in my mind, unfortunately. So it wasn't with relish that I woke up this morning with the prospect of an interview with my current indirect employer: Company 2. Right now I am a contractor, the primary disadvantage to this is no paid vacation or sick leave; there aren't any advantages that I can think of.

(possibly more detail than what you care about)

Yesterday I got one of those e-mail invites to a luncheon for "Rory" who is taking a year off to have a child. I knew of this person, but I didn't know her. Her year off was in fact part of the reason there is even a job for my to apply for. Since I didn't know her and I haven't been feeling especially social lately I let it sit in my inbox.

But back to this morning: For a lot of reasons I have been feeling like I didn't want this job. e.g.

1. I let someone talk me into applying for the "senior" permanent position which has opened up as apposed to the more technical one year appointment. I think this may have been a mistake because the last thing I feel like is anything resembling responsibility.
2. Some days I like it at Company 2, the people seem pretty good-natured and the pace of work is reasonable. But there are irritants that continue to get to me. I hate the equipment that I've been given to work with and the way IT is handled at Company 2 (I'm not used to not having administrator privileges on computers that I work on). I realize that I was somewhat spoiled at IBM, and especially so at home, where I have spent more money than I care to admit on my computers, but I am comfortable with the way I've set them up and I am a hell of a lot more productive at home as a result.

On the other hand, one of the positions up for grabs is a permanent one, and that means a fair amount of stability (somebody told me "that means they can't fire you" but I know that isn't true - I remember what happened to Art).

So who knows what I was feeling when I walked into that room for the interview, but I am pretty sure I was past caring if I got the job or not.

To my surprise Rory was there (pregnant lady who is taking off for a year shortly), and she introduced herself and we started to chatting friendly like about things going on at Company 2. It was going pretty well when the department head came in and the interview started in earnest. Experience tells me that everything should have fallen apart here, given how I usually perform in interview situations, but hope won out this round because I feel I not only addressed all of their questions well, but I also addressed some of their unasked questions. They talked about the position and made sure that I understood that it isn't just a programming job, but also involved people skills. I don't have any people skills, but sometimes I can fake it.

I also went into detail about a highly positive experience I had at IBM doing technical legwork for lawyers between when I was on the GUI team and when I was on the Timing team. About how I enjoyed the change of assignment, where some programmers had grumbled, and that I had a good working relationship Tiffany (who is a great person, and I have to believe a great lawyer as well). I think part of what made it a powerful story is the fact that it is so true. In some ways that episode is no more than a footnote on my career, but I think I grew a lot in the way that I interact with people because of it.

After the interview I was looking through my e-mail again and I re-discovered the e-mail invitation to Rory's farewell luncheon. I clicked on "accept" because now I can't say that I only know of her. I guess I haven't completely killed off my aversion to being social. Damn it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the interview went extraordinarily well to the point that I felt like for the first time ever I hadn't shot myself in the foot in a job interview, and that my poor interview skills for the first time wouldn't be the weak link in my overall application. For the first time, I felt if I don't get the job it is because there is someone out there who applied who is technically more qualified than myself, and I am pretty comfortable with that possibility.

Tiffany: you did it again
Tiffany: you pre-empted me
Gr8ham: i'm just creepy that way :)
Tiffany: I had noticed
Gr8ham: although only faux creepy.
Gr8ham: what's up?

Highlight of the day was definitely when Tiffany called. Somehow our conversations always end up sounding like the minutes of a mutual admiration society. She started out by saying, "you seem to be the most approachable over there [in EDA] or maybe it's just that you have the right level for sarcasm" and proceeded to ask me a few technical questions that I was happy to answer.

Tiffany is a patent lawyer, and we crossed paths last year when I was assigned to help make unencumbered one of our software tools, which had at one point been jointly developed with a competitor (an episode that has left most developers in EDA distrustful of management). Some of the people in EDA that I worked with on the project were very disparaging of lawyers, and the sort of work that they had to do to keep the layers happy, but for me the whole thing was a wonderful experience. I actually like working on different things from time to time and the opportunity to interact with professionals of another vocation is a great way to expand one's horizons.

I think lawyers have a bad rap, and I think it comes from the unproductive and not terribly uncommon tendency to shoot the messenger. Sure there are bad lawyers, but there are also good lawyers, and there are also bad programmers and bad doctors and sometimes even bad politicians. Working with Tiffany was a real pleasure, and I have to say that my experience with lawyers has been overwhelmingly positive. I told her all of this on the phone.

I also thanked her for talking to Sherry before she went off to law school. From what I gather, they really hit it off, and I think it helped Sherry decide that she really did want to go study patent law.

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

(Read more...)

In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.