Excuses

I started a new job at GiantMediaCo on the 9th, and that was sort of all-consuming.  I'm not used to going in to the office, and I'd also gotten acclimated to being unemployed, so my schedule seemed suddenly very full.

I turned 35 last Tuesday, and left the all-important 18-34 demographic group.  Egads.  Quit laughing.  Someday, you'll be old too.  On top of work, therefore, there were also birthday festivities that evening.  There was something else on Wednesday evening that I can't recall right now.  There was a party for an old cow-orker from InternetMCI who was finally leaving to go on to who-knows-what.  It was like old home week, and it was good to reconnect with some of those people.

Then on Friday, I had to work until 5pm and go out to Front Royal where we prepared somewhat for guests on Saturday.  We had a lot fewer guests than we invited, but it was still fairly laid back considering that Tino and my attitudes towards the whole thing had fallen into the crapper.

Today is Dad's birthday, and I still haven't even called back Mom from HER birthday greeting voice mail on Tuesday.  And I have no idea if Mom got her gift for *her* birthday on the 30th.  Now I've left a message and successfully passed the monkey.  Yay.

I was expecting my friends to give me hell about joining GiantMediaCo, but it's been quite the opposite.  People that aren't interested in working here were very congratulatory about landing something so stable.  People that *are* interested in working here...well, there were a few of them too.  No one has been negative or given me shit about it.

You see, GiantMediaCo used to be looked down upon by many network engineers.  They did everything differently than everyone else, and no one knew any ex-GiantMediaCo engineers.  That is because they never leave!  This also has to do with why they do some things differently, though I'm happy to report that their infrastructure is not at all inscrutable and that they use the same routing protocols and hardware that everyone else uses.

Not all things are sunny and bright here, however.  They, like everyone else, have severe space constraints.  Not only did I have to be crammed into an already shared office, they are out of reserve furniture.  As of today, I have a table that was stolen from a cow-orker, a chair stolen from my boss' boss, a donated file cabinet (which is really just another surface on which to put stuff), a rather nice Windows box[1], a functional phone, a wireless hook up, TWO MORE MAIL ADDRESSES[2], and a very average Sun workstation.

I actually have enough information to tinker around with some code.  I'm hesitant to get to comfortable though.  I know that someday soon an actual desk will arrive and require rearranging the whole room again.  Really, three people can only fit in here one way.

I'm on a waiting list for my own office, along with 20 of my cow-orkers.  It could be a while.  Since I have the wireless though, I'm not particularly concerned.  If I can't get anything done in here, I can use some of the public space available in the building, if it comes to that.