Posted by Joel Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:43:00 GMT
I don't want to talk about them much publically but I have gotten two job offers. Due to the sensitivity of the matter I'm not going to discuss it until it's settled, but I'm feeling optimistic.
(also i watched king kong it was neat)
Posted by Joel Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:43:00 GMT
Well, I've finished the Rails book. And David cooked a dinner of steak, potatoes and corn, and I added some steamed broccoli since that's about all I can cook. Today involves a lot of interviewing
Posted by Joel Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:24:00 GMT
Went to Fly. Drank a lot. Radio. Attempted to do the laundry but the dryer didn't work and ate my money.
Got up and can't find my wallet. Still have no idea where it is. Went to an interview in the South Bay. We had lunch; I had gyros. Everything about the job is great except its location.
EDIT: wallet was in my jeans
Posted by Joel Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:31:00 GMT
Saturday was dull. I had a terrible head cold and felt miserable all day. I sat on the Internet and accomplished little and it would be wrong to say I was relaxed. I had a couple slices of Stelladoro pizza for lunch, some steamed broccoli, some Trippel beer and some wine.
I watched the Elephant Man. It was a very good film, and stirring. I had no idea it was based on a real story until after I watched it. I have a habit of reading about movies in Wikipedia and on the web after watching them so that I can read insights or criticisms I might have missed.
Posted by Joel Sat, 10 Jun 2006 21:09:00 GMT
I appreciate you all showing interest in my little personal drama. I feel better. Nothing is over yet.
Yesterday I went and looked through David Heinemeier Hansson's blog. He is the guy who invented Rails, and he is 26. His blog goes back to 2001, when he was 21. And you can see that while he does talk about other things he is still very focused on writing technology articles even then.
He's been involved with many successful projects and in many ways I am jealous of his talent and success, but he serves as an inspiration. When I was 21 I was just being a whiny emo jerk like always, and I can't say I've progressed greatly in terms of blog insights since then. The comparison is clear and reinforces the idea I'm not the genius I sometimes think I am. Anyway, I sent him an email, calling him an inspiration and thanking him for giving us Rails, and he was classy enough to reply and wish me well.
The heavyweight company he works for and has largely shaped, 37signals, is based out of Chicago. And that makes me wonder if I should go back? Maybe there is a tech scene starting in my home town where things are actually based on, you know, merit.
Yesterday I lined up some more interviews in the South Bay next week for real gigs. Companies that seem to really like me, but then, South Bay? LA sounds the most appealing, or yes, even Chicago again. Or maybe stay here. Get a place in the Mission. With who? I just don't know that many people here, and for whatever reason intentionally ostracized myself from the Web 2.0 companies, feeling disgusted by them and their ilk, despite that being where my technological interests lie.
The big company recruiter, evidently impressed by my persistence, said that he thought I was a strong engineer but lacked power over the company's decision. He actually emailed me and tried to sell me on another startup opportunity he thought I'd be interested in outside of the company. I thought this behavior was kind of strange, but I see no harm in entertaining the idea.
I also watched Vertigo, which was just a great film. I really, really liked it.
Posted by Joel Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:06:00 GMT
If there ever was an entry I had to delicately word, it's probably this one. So here's hoping it works out ok.
The first thing is that the big company finally emailed me back and told me I did not have the best fit for the job. This really hit me. Here they'd recruited me, told me I did perfectly on their worksheet, and told me I'd be going in to meet with them, and to have it just get truncated like this smacks of a flakiness unbefitting representatives of a company so capable of making or breaking people. There was no interview. There was no reviewing my past work. There was just a worksheet, which I excelled at, and then silence. I know every single requirement in the job posting and then some, so it's not an experience issue. I'm left never knowing why this failed despite the fact the recruiter was "really hoping" for me. I'm growing increasingly used to the cold shoulder and what it means.
I went into the living room to have a beer and talk to David, distressed. He compounded this with an ultimatum that I leave the apartment within a month because he and Katie want more space. It will be the fourth time I've moved in the last year.
Distraught, I called my brother. I attempted to pull together some semblance of a plan, but it's so hard when you are building it entirely on speculation.
Afterwards, for whatever reason, we went to La Rondalla again. It's a good place, but I don't know we go there so often when there are so many options in this city. Then we went to Zeitgeist again. I got drunk. I did RH radio when I got home and ended it with the song Life Goes Off by Jim O'Rourke.
Posted by Joel Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:34:00 GMT
Yesterday was more thra.symach.us. I had lunch at a restaurant nearby which I hadn't been to before. It's pretty good. I was enjoying being out and reading my Rails book when I got summoned back to my computer by a client.
An acquaintance of mine in LA is recommending me for a Rails gig with his company and I really hope it works out. We had a phone interview yesterday. No update regarding the big company, it's hard to get ahold of them.
Posted by Joel Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:17:00 GMT
Yesterday I did more thra.symach.us work.
I went down to the Lower Haight for the first time yesterday. We went to an Indian restaurant and just stuffed ourselves like pigs.
Posted by Joel Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:15:00 GMT
Yesterday I watched the Anthony Bourdain part 2 on India. And after that I watched the season finale of the Sopranos. I dug this season, and now I have to wait until January to find out how this series ends. I do want it to end already.
Not much else yesterday except I worked on thra.symach.us more. I added AJAX editing and cleaned up its appearance.
Posted by Joel Mon, 05 Jun 2006 18:11:00 GMT
Yesterday I watched Titus. It was an odd and violent film, but I did enjoy it.
I began to overcomplicate my forum project, but I think I have successfully quelled the urge. I need to keep it simple; it is intended to be normal forum software with a few updated features. It is not intended to be revolutionary or a system which meets every need. I must remember this.
My favorite part about the forum project thus far has been that it has gotten me to be a practitioner of caching within the SQL tables. Rails has a built-in caching system, but it's based on final view output; it seems it would be nice if there was a caching system the likes of which I've devised, which copied relevant data to other tables upon write so that reads are faster. So I've thought it would be neat to add such a system to Rails.
My other project, Cred, which I've thought of renaming Meta given its later purpose, still remains incapable of getting past the grandiose vision I have set for it. Similarly, the original concept from which it takes its name is a poor one when compared to services like last.fm. There is one saving grace to the project, and that is the idea of a tagging hierarchy. I may redevelop it for little more purpose than to make example of this hierarchy for other developers, as I've written a much simpler and more pragmatic version which does not attempt to make a formal relationship between all concepts. Of course, this version doesn't live up to what I wanted the project to be, at all, but it at least serves to show I have some innovative thought.
I have learned that it can be hard and frustrating for a skilled Rails developer to get a job in the Bay Area.
