And so it goes...

Soon after the last pictures were taken (that Saturday, as a matter of fact), I went on an outing to take a look at some local motor sport garages with the BMW Club. As luck is what it is, I didn't have any that day, and put a small wrinkle in the nose of my car. Very sad, very sad indeed. But, I shall have it fixed, and everything shall be hunky-dory. Enough about the car troubles, though.

Today, those of us in the Puget Sound woke up to a beautifully morning of 1 or more inches of snow on the ground. Isn't that great? All this white stuff just laying around, causing havoc for every one that needed to drive to work today. Thankfully, today I did not need to be in that mess.

In other news, Microsoft is cutting costs. Yes, I am taking a 10% pay cut effective March 1st. It really sucks, but there's not a whole lot one can do about it if one doesn't want to risk one's own tiny little arse. So, we will get by with yet a little less than before.

Here's hoping that you are doing well, aren't sick, and have work that keeps you busy.

Time is on my side, yes it is...

Just had that little bit of music running through my head for some reason, had to share.

So, I seem to be among the ranks of the unemployed at the moment, searching for a new position within the realm of Software Development again. I have a few prospects, an interview later today, and another interview expected to be scheduled any time now. Just waiting for the email to come through.

In the meantime, I've been doing a little more reading, updating my mobile device to the latest software (have a couple of things to test before I update Wendy's device...)

The new version has some nifty features, and a few changes from previous that would be even more usable if I had a job... but anyway...

To the point - I recently started using Mobipocket to be able to read digital books from the library. It's a little different than reading a paper copy of a book, the page is very small and doesn't contain a lot of text, so getting used to "turing" pages frequently was a little bit of a step. Now I kind of like it though, as I can leave the application running in the background, and access the book at a moments notice. And I have my phone with me at all times anyway, so it not like having to carry an extra book to have something to read when I want to, you know?

Right now I am reading Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon that I checked out from the Seattle Public Library. I haven't downloaded much of anything else yet, as I'm kind of a "one book at a time" type guy.

Anyway, since it had been a while since I'd posted anything, I thought I should start writing again, and see where it leads.

Now that it's Official...

As many of you may have heard from Wendy by now, I have been offered a new job.

A while back, there was a post to a local car club forum that I belong to about a tech job... It was exactly the type of position I have been hoping to find, so I immediately applied for it.

Over the last couple of weeks I've interviewed with the company a couple times, and on Thursday of last week the extended an offer of employment. It was some of the best news I'd heard in a long time...

So, now that I've given my 2 weeks notice at my current job, I'm feeling comfortable enough to actually write about it in the public sphere.

The new job is as a Junior Software Developer at Randy's Ring & Pinion. I expect that much of what I will be doing might be considered "maintenance programming" - but it's something that actually suits me. It will involve a lot of code review to discover where and how to make an adjustment or revision in order to accomplish minor changes in a user interface. The bulk of the work will be in a custom reporting environment that R'sR&P has built up over time for their sales force.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hand's dirty with real code again. The time in between graduating from South Seattle CC and now has kind of been filled with "need to be working" type jobs that were available when I needed them. Now that I'm moving on to something that is more in the vein of what I really want to do, it's fairly exciting.

:)

So, as of the 10th of August I will cease to be employed for a couple of weeks before starting at the new position, as I'm taking the break in between to finish painting, moving, and some unpacking in the new townhouse. Oh, and also to avoid commuting while I-5 is mostly closed for repairs between the West Seattle Bridge and I-90... Perfect timing, and I couldn't have planned it better.

Wish me luck!