1:33 p.m., EST
Waiting at the gate in the Pittsburg airport. My flight doesn’t leave until 2:55, so I’ve got some time to kill… no problem there. Plenty of AppleScript Studio docs to read, plus I recently started over on Snow Crash, a most excellent novel by Neal Stephenson. I almost finished it about a year and a half ago, but instead of just finishing it now I decided to start over… picking up a lot of detail I missed the first time around :)
Words can’t adequately express how glad I am to be getting back to Seattle…. To date in this lifetime, Seattle represents the most ideal mix of technology, culture, attractions, and friends… I can say without a doubt that in general I’ve enjoyed my time living there more than any other single geographical location (not that it has all that much to do with geography ;) It seems only fitting to return now after the Islandless stint.
In truth, this whole thing feels like it’s just been an extended vacation from Seattle. I figured that after Islandless that I’d probably end up back in Seattle (… or elsewhere with Amy, but oh well…); it was just a question of how long I’d be with Islandless. My commitment was to do it as long as was necessary. That doesn’t sound right though… it’s not as if I felt chained in, even though it turned out that life in the BVI wasn’t all I thought it would be.
Of course, I greatly wanted Islandless to succeed – not only for financial purposes, but because I wanted the experience of having built an ISP. In the end, I got about as much experience and knowledge out of it as I could, without us actually deploying our network. The bulk of the wireless links that were set up were for testing or demonstration purposes; although we had everything else planned down to the last detail. Perhaps more importantly, I got to work closely with one Dan Carleton, whose fu is very strong… I tried to pick up as many habits / take as much advice as I could… it definitely made a positive contribution on me personally (and certainly we couldn’t have pulled off the whole Filemaker <--> LDAP thing at all without him ;) The fact that I could keep up with him (or even understand what he was doing) with some things made me happy :)
Looking forward, I must say that I’m very pleased at what’s ahead :) Hangin’ with Damon again will be both relieving and loads of fun. Never underestimate the importance of having somebody close by that you can really connect with on a variety of levels :) Also, there is something about the Damon geek lair that exudes moxy and general badassness…. I always enjoyed being a something of a fixture in said lair, and am pleased and honored to be able to do so again for a while :)
The word is that housing is fairly easy to come by in Seattle these days… I will most likely look for a place that that is centrally located and cheap. I’m not much of the home entertainer, so as long as there’s room for a desk or two and my bedroll, I think I’ll be in fine shape. Frankly, spkz sdsl availability is more important than square footage or just about any other factor.
As far as the job scene goes… I could go in a variety of directions. I’ve got a desire to do quite a few different things, really… I’d love to get back into a nice tech. training role, as I’ve got many years of experience in that department and enjoy doing it. I also wouldn’t mind sticking to network administration for a while longer, as I’m also good at that and enjoy it. One thing I’ve never gone for is any kind of writing position… I think I’d make a pretty damn fine technical writer… I’ve got a lot of practice, but it’s mostly been personal project related, not for money (though I did write a shit load of courseware for the sessions I taught while working for the school board in FL). Also on my mind is …. RETAIL! *ghasp*. Well, not any kind of retail. In fact, there’s only one place in all of Seattle that I think I would like to work in retail – The Computer Store, for obvious reasons… mac evangelism and my generally amiable nature ;) I also want to be first in line whenever Apple starts accepting applications for their Seattle store, whenever they decide to build it… I also wouldn’t mind a general *nix administration position… I may not be a hardcore developer, but I’m confident enough in my current knowledge (and more importantly, my learning abilities) to feel perfectly comfy going for such a job… Then there’s the whole music thing, which has been largely untapped in my life except for personal entertainment. I would probably really enjoy getting in on the ground floor at some studio or something and working my way up. I think I’ve got a fair amount to offer in that area, what with my knowledge of music theory, intermediate playing ability, and nearly perfect pitch (I bet it could be perfect if I ever actually focused on training my ears better). And of course, there’s a whole slew of other stuff that I’m sure I could do, but haven’t thought of yet… I’ve been reading postings for about a week now, and will continue to do so until I find something that catches my interest and is still available… (I’ve applied for a few positions that had already been filled). The bottom line is, I’m multi-talented enough that the myriad of commerce / industry in Seattle should be more than sufficient to provide me with an opportunity for a job that I like. I hate to gush with confidence, cause I feel like it might make me look sorta conceited… really, though, I just enjoy all of these things a great deal :) Incidentally, keep your ears open for your good buddy dre for any positions related to the above criteria ;)
4:30 p.m., EST
At JFK, again :) The flight here was pretty nondescript… seems to be the norm these days. I don’t know how many times I’ve flown, but it’s a lot… enough that it all seems to run together. Got my first glimpse of the NYC skyline in a couple years…. when I was here a week and a half ago, it was pretty overcast / hazy, so I couldn’t see much…
The flight to Tacoma should take about 6:15… I just wish I had Escape Velocity: Nova to play on the way… alas, it won’t get released until tomorrow… oh well :) Actually I had nabbed a whole crap load of really old / small games, but I recently realized that I never actually got them to my workstation… they’re still sitting on a shell. No worries :)
Mom gave me some McDonald’s bucks (or whatever) that I used in Pittsburg to purchase some nugs, fries and a coke. I’m not getting anything to eat here in hopes that we’ll get some fine airplane food during the trek westward.
We’ve got some festivities planned for tonight, sponsored in part by the small plastic terrarium that belongs to nico and steph … wee :) Damon went ahead and got Monday off work, so we’ll have a nice long weekend in which to freak out / chill / geek / chill / geek… etc, etc ;)
Also, while I was staying at my grandparent’s place in Slippery Rock, granddad offered to put me through a certification crash course of my choosing. After asking me about certifications in general, I mentioned that I’ve been looking at Cisco certs for a couple years now, but never had the ability to pony up the ~$1000 it costs for an accelerated course that touches all the bases required to pass an exam. Sure, I could just buy books and study ’em myself… and really, I probably already know the majority of what’s required to pass a CCNA exam… but, my study habits are simply atrocious, so an accelerated course is by far the best way to go, for me. I found a few decent offerings; my favorite so far is one that starts in Seattle on March 23 and runs for 7 full days. The cost includes lodging and meals, plus the price of not one, but *two* exams… CCNA and CCDA. They even say that if you fail them, you can come back and take the whole course again for free… So, I sent email to them early this week, but have yet to hear anything back from them… my internal scam detector senses are tingling, so I’m most certainly proceeding with caution – especially considering that it’s $2350 of somebody else’s money. Cisco certification(s) would be sweet though… it’s stuff I’m into, and easily applicable in the ‘real world’.
8:00, EST (though I’m not sure what time zone I’m actually in…)
The in flight movie was Behind Enemy Lines… High production value, whiz-bang, a few pretty sweet action sequences. Excessive use of the overcrank / undercrank (but then, isn’t it almost always excessive?). I went ahead an opted to not pay the $5 “entertainment charge” and just use my own headphones instead… (I hate those cheap-o ones anyway).
The food served was quite decent. This bigass 767 is only about 60% full, which means I’ve got an entire center row to myself… woot :) I’ve also noticed a large number of laptops on board… one in almost every row (some lady behind me has a TiBook…). One of these days I’ll travel with a fellow geek that also has a laptop + airport card, so we can do some wlan gaming at 35,000 ft ;)
I think there’s somewhere around three hours left in this flight, so I think I’ll read some ASS documentation now :)
(I’m half way through building the interface for the Watson tutorial app – this shit rocks!!)
11:45: PST
Got here a while ago. Chillin :) oh yeah :)
