Posted by Joel
Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:15:00 GMT
Thus far I have found the long hours and long commute kind of pleasant. I get home, eat, relax, maybe do some errands, and go to bed pretty early. At work, the hours pass surprisingly quickly because I'm busy with things. In the car, I get absorbed with the radio or my own thoughts, and the complete lack of traffic just makes driving zen-like.
Perhaps it's because it's still early and fresh. Maybe it will wear on me with time. I don't know. Things in my life are always constantly changing, it seems. I think some stability could be nice for once.
I bought my plane ticket for Craig's wedding yesterday. I'm going to be spending a long weekend in Seattle, and come back and move in immediately. The present idea is to either pay for an expensive parking spot near downtown, or actually just park my car in San Jose. I could take the Muni to the Caltrain station, take Caltrain to San Jose, and then drive from San Jose to Campbell daily. While on the train, I could read, listen to music or even work. If I do that I'll have to start it soon because it sounds like parking in Nob Hill is just about impossible.
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Posted by Joel
Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:26:00 GMT
This weekend was all about apartments. I contacted a lot of people on Craigslist and also a friend of mine from RH who wanted to live with me in Mountain View. Ultimately though I am still somewhat determined to stay in the city.
I met with a guy named Eric at his place in Nob Hill. The place is great. It has an amazing view and is walking distance to downtown. It is on Powell. He is a pretty cool guy too.
After meeting with him I went and checked out the Gay Pride celebration going on downtown. It was like a street party but with lots of gay people. Still interesting to walk through.
Eric called me and asked me if i wanted to see Counting Crows with him because he had an extra ticket. And I said ok, so we went to the show, which was all the way out in Condor. I can't say I love the Counting Crows but I had a good time. The venue was up on a hill and the best part of the night was the view from up there. We talked about our backgrounds and travel experiences and he said that if I wanted the room I could have it. So that's looking to be what will happen. I do still want to see another place or two which have replied to me but I already told him I'd move in so I'd feel like a jerk if I went back on that.
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Posted by Joel
Fri, 23 Jun 2006 20:33:00 GMT
What can I say besides this job is great. I have lots of control and my coworkers couldn't be better if they were made of chocolate pudding.
I feel very capable at my job and that is a good feeling. I think they have a thing or two to teach me about Halo, though.
I'm leaning towards commuting right now, for a couple reasons:
- The drive down the 280 has zero traffic during rush hours and is beautiful
- I haven't driven down the 101 yet but it would be even faster, I'm going to give it a shot next time and see how the traffic is
- It takes just under an hour, so it's not that big of a deal
- It gives me an excuse to buy a new iPod
- I get to stay in San Francisco. Every time I come back into the city it is revitalizing.
So I think I'm going to look for an apartment up here instead (since I have to get out of the one I'm in now).
Anyway I want to make this site great and get rich.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:58:41 GMT
Yesterday we went to North Beach with Katie's sister and cousin. We went to a nice Italian place and I had a shrimp and calamari on fettucini special and wine. North Beach is one of my favorite parts of the city.
I put up an ad in Craigslist. Today I bought some clothes, mainly just thrift shopping in the Haight.
First day of work is tomorrow.
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Posted by Joel
Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:51:37 GMT
Ok, FastCGI is mysteriously working again. Yay.
I have gotten over my original apprehension to a degree and am now more willing to go with a place in the South Bay. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic.
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Posted by Joel
Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:14:00 GMT
First of all, a site notice. For some reason, FastCGI just completely choked on this blog for no apparant reason. I submitted a ticket and Dreamhost thus far has not gotten back to me. Therefore, for the time being, this site will operate without FastCGI, and therefore quite slowly, and because Dreamhost is stupid sometimes it will give application errors and you will have to refresh. It's quite annoying.
Second I went down to South Bay to investigate various areas to live. Mountain View seemed too new and yuppie and sanitized for my liking. Lots of strollers and new age stores and sidewalk cafes with cleverly marketed names. They even have a Scientology store! Besides that, kind of a typical suburban layout, with chain stores galore. Feels like it was created within the last 10 years. Seems like a place to raise a kid or something, not for a guy in his 20s.
San Jose isn't really a nice city. It is spread out and just seems lacking in class. It is also too hot for my liking.
Campbell is pretty dull. It's like Mountain View but without the same "niceness". All three of these areas are completely lacking in hills or mountains. They feel like the midwestern suburbs but with nice weather. I'm still open to advice but all I can say is what I saw is not where I want to live.
In short I think I might stay up here and commute down. The 280 is a really beautiful drive along a scenic river and hill and doesn't have much traffic in the direction I'd go.
David doesn't understand why I care so much about where I live. The fact is my heart isn't in it and I think I'd regret moving out of the city a lot.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 18:40:00 GMT
Yesterday we got up late. Ben and Anne made a delicious plate of "natural" cheetos and chocolate cake. I made my final decision about the job and told everyone, and accepted the offer.
We went for a walk through the woods and then desert plants behind my mom's house, somehow scaled the incredibly steep dunes and made our way to her nearly private beach. We often come here when I visit.
We walked a long way and then sat down and I played fetch with my mom's dogs, Angel and Arbuckle of Lancashire. The latter is a fancy purebred with show papers she acquired. He is in the habit of picking up long sticks and then running into your legs repeatedly.
That night we went out to a Western-themed restaurant which I'd been to a couple times in the past while here.
After coming back home, we parked our cars and on the way back into the house were caught distracted by the brilliant view of the stars from this area. We stood outside and looked at them. Ben was talking about how insignificant it made us so I referenced Contact, when Ellie says, "how tiny, and insignificant, and... rare, and precious we all are." And then, by stunning coincidence, we went back in and Contact was on HBO so those of us who were staying up watched it.
I worked on my blog here, added Flickr to the right (though my camera was destroyed during last year's Burning Man) but it's about time I start adding things to it, since I do ancticipate having some new photos soon. I'm going to look through iPhoto and start adding old stuff. Flickr is not in any way in competition, presently, with LuckyOliver. Flickr is more for personal things you want to share at no cost, and has little in terms of quality control, while LO is completely based on stock photography useful to visual designers and is a marketplace.
This entire family gathering has been completely unmarred by any argument or resentment of any kind. Everyone is completely comfortable and candid. It's as though we've transcended.
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Posted by Joel
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 03:02:00 GMT
So I took a few seconds and created a variation of the default theme for my blog. I actually like how it came out a lot. I got the top image as a test from my new job.
The site I'm working for now is Lucky Oliver. I grabbed that image from it. It's basically going to be a resource for stock photography and other visual design-related images and I think it will do well. The site isn't perfect yet but it just went live recently and lots of people have been submitting photos. I'm looking forward to improving it.
My Dad is around, which means there are lots of photos. Now that I have a job, I'm going to buy a new camera soon. And then hopefully I can start using Flickr and incorporating photos into my life again, as well as my blog.
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Posted by Joel
Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:01:00 GMT
Yesterday was my sister's graduation. She looked really nice and we all cheered for her. It is really wild that she has graduated from high school. I can have a weakness of sentimentalism and sometimes the speeches made me think about my own life and my own time at high school. I have been having a really good time hanging out with my family, and I am really glad we can all be together again. Dad and Ben and old family friend Anne came into town for the occasion and we're all staying in SLO for a few days.
Well my family and I have talked about the jobs and I have made my decision. I still haven't told any of them yet so I won't announce it here but it was one of the most difficult choices I have had to make in my entire life. I think I've made the right one and my life is going to change a lot as a result. Tomorrow I'll let you know how things go and I'll give some more details on the positions I had to choose between.
The next month is going to be a very interesting time. There is a lot of uncertainty and I'm kind of afraid, but this has been a common theme of my life over the last year. At least I know I'm not going to go broke. I can only say I am excited about this.
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Posted by Joel
Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:10:00 GMT
After a lot of thinking and conversations I am only a little bit closer to making my decision.
Mom called me this morning and told me Julia's graduation is today. This came as a bit of a surprise, as I thought it was this weekend. I was intending to do some contract work today but I guess I'll just have to risk it.
I am looking forward to the chance to talk with my family members about which job they think I should take, but now I need to pack and get driving, as SLO is four hours away.
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