I am still in denial about the kick ass job offer I just took
An Unplanned Reunion
Last night I went meet up with Danny to grab a few drinks. We headed over to an old hang out No Idea! As odd luck would have it as we grabbed our second round we saw none other than Gus, and James! We all used to work together and it was an unplanned meeting. I had seen James a few weeks before when I visited the old office, and Gus back in May when I switched jobs. We talked and BS’ed for a while. It was really nice to catch up with everyone.
I was surprised that Danny got really drunk. He usually holds his alcohol and he was out of it really early. He is not a nice drunk. I got really buzzed but knew when to call it a night. I did have to get up and goto work in the morning.
Tactical Errors
I gave my notice at work today. It has been approximately 92 days but it became apparent that this wasn’t the job for me. In allot of ways I liked the job allot, but in others it was not a fit at all for me. In the end there was a ton of reasons why I took the job and why I am leaving, but it boiled down to the environment not being a fit for me, and what I was doing was a step backwards to what I had been doing. Of course when I took the job I didn’t know the environment would be so different, but hindsight is always 20/20.
I chalk up my decision to taking the job in the first place as a tactical error. As long as I learn from it the experience wasn’t a total loss. I also believe I am not where I am today without everything leading up to this point. That means the good and the bad, so if I hadn’t made the mistakes I made over the years who knows how things would have turned out. And so far things have turned out ok (knock on wood). I think the new job I am going to start will be a good step for me. It seems much more like a fit for me. It is similar to things I have done, but is also very different in many ways.
I didn’t think I was making the wrong decision to leave, but after hearing what my boss had too saw about it I knew I was making the right decision. As much as my decision was a huge setback for him, I relieved tons of praise and encouragement. I didn’t really expect that but it was fantastic to get. I think he knew this wasn’t the right fit for me
Now I need to work on handing off my projects to others, while I prepare myself for my new position. I am very nervous, and excited at the same time. I start the new gig on September 8th. I get a whole day off between leaving my old job and starting the new one!
eee PC
Today I got my eee PC 1000h. It is a tiny 3lbs or so mini laptop. My first impressions are mixed. It is small but feels heavier than i thought. The Vaio I have feels allot lighter but is only slightly lighter. The eee PC does feel a bit sturdier. The keyboard seems ok. The speed of the system seems pretty sluggish, but I don't plan on doing intense stuff on it. I bought it mainly tto take notes and blog like I am doing right now.
I want to plug the eee PC into a monitor and see how it performs on a big screen. From what I can tell this is a great little limited capacity computer, but by no way does it replace a full functioned laptop.
3 Month Anniversary
Today marks my 3 month anniversary at my current company. It is weird. In many ways it feels like I have been there for ages, and in other ways it feels like only yesterday that I left my last job. I want to write more about this milestone but due to my own restrictions on what I write about work on the blog I won't go into further detail.
Today and a large part of yesterday was taken up with meetings, and vendor meetings. I am knee deep in trying to figure out the final design for a data center project I am working on. Today was spent dealing with that, and other fun administrative items. It is funny how days like today fly by.
I meet up with Luke for drinks after work. I only had two before I headed off to home to try and relax before I have to get up and do it all again tomorrow.
Video Conversion Round 2
I finally put the order in to convert some VHS tapes I have over to DVD. I was so satisfied with the 8mm conversions that I am using the same place. I am also sending in about 400 photo's to be scanned as well. I am really upset at the condition my mom kept these photos. She is now finally keeping them in photo box's after years in baskets near the radiators and open windows in her apartment. Tons of photos have been ruined or damaged by getting wet or really hot. I hope the Home Movie Depot is able to scan everything I sent in. All I can say is thank goodness for Photoshop, or in my case Gimp since I am not paying for Photoshop.
I underestimated the number of photos that my parents actually have. I am at 400 photo's in the one box that I took from my mom. I didn't even get everything out of the box but I figured 400 was a nice round number to start with. There is about 4-5 other box's of photos to go, plus a box of slides. I think I might blow my budget on this project. In the end I think it will be worth it to have everything in digital format. I am also having trouble identifying what I might have already scanned over the past 10 years. I found a bunch of images that I already scanned a few years ago, and I bet a bunch more will be duplicated.
My annal attempt at cataloging everything is paying off to a certain degree. I was able to post a bunch of stuff to Facebook and it is hilarious to see the comments from friends.
On the video side of things I am doing only two VHS tapes in this run. That is because I want the original AVI's of these two tapes, and the HDD I am sending the processing place can only handle about two tapes. I am sending in my sisters sweet sixteen video and my Bar Mitzvah video. The next round of stuff I don't really want or need the original source material so I won't use a hard drive. I will wait until I get this first batch back before I send in the next one. That way I can also spread the expense into another month. This stuff isn't cheap, but this batch is about half the price of the 8mm batch.
I am having way too much fun uploading embarrassing photos from my past.
Memory Lane
I gave up on trying to sleep tonight so I decided to post some recent and not so recent photos to my Facebook site. I got a bunch form the Redcats holiday party last December, a few from being out Friday night, and a bunch from HS. I have a ton more from HS I need to sort through and get up online. It is actually kind of fun to see the comments from everyone. I am most productive late at night when I can't sleep!
Thankfully A Lazy Sunday
Thankfully this weekend has so far been uneventful. After the antics all week I wanted some nice time relaxing at home. I got a fresh direct delivery, watched some movies and did two loads of laundry today. It might sound boring, but being able to sit back for a while was nice.
I had so much time (well sort of) that I was able to organize all my DVD’s. I have been meaning to do that for months and I finally had some time, and my book shelf was getting really messy so I spent the hour sorting through everything. For the past several months I have been on a organization kick. I have new storage containers for my computer gear and nice cases for all my CD’s & DVD’s.