Today during my lunch break the Google Street View vehicle caught me at least three times while mapping the streets near my office. The first time I was on the way to get a haircut. It caught me again after my haircut on my way to the French bakery for lunch. And as I left the bakery on my way back to the office, you guessed it, it caught me again. This of course means I’ll be checking Google Street View constantly for my mug =)
A co-worker just introduced me to http://xkcd.com. Geek humor, what’s not to love?
Today I received an email from a coworker in Spokane asking if everything was business as usual, here is my reply:
“Business as usual?” True, if “business as usual” means going home with head aches because you are learning more stuff each day than you can stand. All in all I’m doing fine. Don’t be alarmed by my ranting. “New experiences?” Last week I ate at not only a Vietnamese place but also a Mediterranean place for lunch. Did I mention this is a neat little city?
Glad to hear that everyone is still operating within normal parameters. Wow, I had no idea I would miss everyone’s little distinguishing quirks. I can just see it now, Mark is ranting about some new or old intolerable situation, Jarom is teasing you and Debbie, Kirk and Brent are looking at the latest interesting video, and making funny sarcastic remarks about Mark’s ranting. All that you need is a dweeb sitting in the cube next to Mark banging away at some script with a few spare coins sitting on the cubicle divider and the picture is complete :-)
As you can tell I’m loving it here. I find myself sitting in a coffee shop on Sunday evenings, sipping some great brew and reading a novel or some technical book for work. All that I need now is an eco friendly vehicle and a neat looking townhouse and I’ll be an official Seattleite.
Well after a year in Spokane we are finally in Seattle. We are all moved into our new apartment, well at least we only have a handful of boxes left to unpack. I’m getting settled into my new job and I’m pretty fortunate that I’m working with some really good people. I’m learning lots of kool new stuff. And, actually I’m surprised that no one has yelled at me: “No, no, no, that’s all wrong”… yet. You know this is really a neat little city. There is so much to see and so much to do, I’m trying not to walk around gawking like a country bumpkin, bein’ I done moved to the big city from Texas and all. So far, we have found Indian restaurants, a Caribbean restaurant, and Mexican restaurants. There are so many choices here that I don’t know what to do with myself. I guess at heart I really am a city boy. the weather here isn’t so bad. I’ll tell you it sure is a lot warmer than Spokane. Anyway got to run now, I’m about to check out the movie Breach, hope that it’s good.
Music: Nina Simone (Verve Remix), “Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair”
So it’s almost been forever since I went to a decent mall. The mall out here isn’t that great. Not that it’s bad or anything it’s just not great. I found the one Express store in town but couldn’t find an H&M. Then I found out through a quick web search that H&M seems to be more of an east coast store. The closest store is in San Francisco. Bummer. Not that I wouldn’t want to go to SF, it’s just that it’s such a long drive for one store. The only solution, of course, is for me to find more things to do in SF to justify a trip.
Speaking of SF, I got a chance to talk to Aaron yesterday. It was good hearing from him again. As a matter of fact, this past week I also spoke to Tal, Matt, and E-Man. Good to hear from them all. It’s funny how you can take your friends for granted when they are close by. And it usually takes something like moving to the opposite side of the country for you to realize how good you had it when they were right there. This leaves me with the enormous task of trying to convince them to come visit. I mean, I could play the guilt angle, but if I got them out here I’d want them to come back again. I’d even play the excitement angle, but there isn’t anything that exciting happening out here at the beginning of February. So I guess I’m stuck here with out any of my old buds at least until spring. God I hope this place comes to life in the spring.
I just got through watching the Super-Bowl over at a friends house. It’s been about two years since I’ve watched the Super-Bowl, not that it’s my thing. The last time I did, I think Tal came over for the game. He reminded me of it just recently. The main reason I went was to hang out and get to know a few more people out here. It was funny listening to the P.O. talking smack. But I have to agree with him, the officials were clearly on the side of the Pittsburgh team. Wow what a rip-off.
Work has been giving my brain a work out, which is totally cool as long as I’m still finding solutions. It’s when I start getting stumped or start feeling like I’m way out of my league that it starts getting bad. And I haven’t been getting that lately so I’m still stoked. I just hope that they’re still stoked with me.
Music: Underworld, “Two Months Off”
Wow, it’s been a while since I last blogged. All in all everything has been going pretty good. We’ve settled into our new place. It’s really nice. It has three bedrooms and two baths. It’s in a brand new apartment complex on the ground floor. Oh at last on the ground floor again. I hate lugging furniture up stairs. We’re just about through unpacking and things are shaping up pretty good.
Work this past week has been really exciting. Well exciting if you’re into geeky tech stuff. You know, I think I’m pretty close to doing the type of electronics work I’ve wanted to do since getting out of tech school. It seems like all that time I spent preparing to be the test engineers right hand man is finally paying off.
The area that we live in is quite picturesque with mountains in the distance, pine trees and smooth river stones. As beautiful as it is, it’s not very ethnically diverse. I look around and find that I’m the only black guy in the area. But that’s ok, I walk around like I don’t see the difference. So there I go around wearing my all black trendy New York garb. You know, the black slim cut Zara jeans, black turtle neck sweater and black Kenneth Cole’s acting like it’s perfectly natural out here in the boon docks. It’s funny sometimes it seems like the difference between fitting in and not is just your attitude. Not that I’ve fit in or anything. I guess I’ve just found a way to feel comfortable while doing it.
Music: Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Windmills”
So we’re almost finished packing up the apartment getting ready to leave tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to the long drive. It’s funny, I’ve always looked forward, with eager anticipation, to moving to a new area, often with less “emotional detachment difficulties” than the friends and family I left behind. I’ve always had the luxury of being able to look forward to the next big new thing I was moving to, weather it was a new job or new surroundings. I’ve always had the next new thing securely in hand. This time, however, will be the first time I’ll be moving to a cold start, that is without having a job in hand or having secured a place to stay. Both of which I’ll be working vigorously to secure before too long.
I wonder if this is how the old pioneers felt when leaving in their wagon trains to settle the untamed west. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not worried, I’m just concerned =) Moving to the west coast has been a goal of mine for the past six or seven years. Ever since the first time I went to California I’ve been in love with the west coast. That love affair was rekindled after my first trip to Seattle and its still simmers in the back of my mind like the long awaited unrealized desires of childhood fantasies. Yet, at the same time I’m starting to suffer from those same “emotional detachment difficulties” that my friends and families have suffered so oft as I satisfied my wanderlust. Could it be that I’m beginning to (ugh!) “settle down” in my old age?
Music: Underworld, “Two Months Off”
