October 3rd, 2011 Rockstar
Going forward – will try to spice up my blog posts with some pictures.
Me and Aubry finally got all moved in to our new house. We’re pretty happy with it. We’re still unpacking and getting things sorted, but it feels good to have some normalcy/stability. For those interested you can see some pictures of the house here. (I sorted cheated, this is the real estate listing for the house while it was for sale).
Last weekend me and Aubry drove up to Canada, and stayed in Vancouver. This is a picture of the ‘peace arch’ monument at the border, I snapped as we were driving by. I bought Aubry some tickets to see Pearl Jam while we were there, she’s a long time PJ fan. I like them too, but this was decidedly for her. : )
We went out and visited with some of the old eBay/eWatch Vancouver folks (Richard, Curtis, Jesse, thanks for hanging out with us!). And one day we went to this beautiful park called ‘Capilano Park’ in north Vancouver. It was raining, but we didn’t mind. It has long bridge over a really deep ravine and this incredible view. (Who’s that dorky looking guy in the poncho?). It also had a whole bunch of pathways that were strung with rope from tree to tree and also some walkways that went out on the ledge of the some really deep cliffs. It was just totally beautiful and the highlight of the trip for me.
The Peal Jam concert was fun too. A good weekend getaway, and well worth the trip.
Will continue to try to post once ever couple weeks.
-J
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September 11th, 2011 Rockstar
A short list of things I’m into at the moment:
- George R.R. Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ novels. These books are so incredibly readable. I’m on the third book: A Storm of Swords. It’s fantasy, in a medieval setting, but the magic/supernatural stuff is a very small part of the story so far. I can’t recommend it enough. Note that it’s a bit adult themed at times, so if that kind of thing offends you, don’t read it.
- Music. I’m always a fan of hearing new music that I like… I’ve been listening to a lot of Steven Wilson bands (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, No Man) and Radiohead lately. But I’m also trying to pick up the guitar more often and start playing again. I used to be big into playing guitar and jamming with others, but have done very little of that in the last few years.
- TV shows. I have no shame in admitting my love for certain TV shows. If you haven’t been seen Breaking Bad, you’ve been missing out. I believe it’s one of the best TV shows ever created. I’m also watching Stephen Fry’s ‘QI’ show (’Quite Interesting’). Americans generally would not be familiar with it, but it’s a British comedy/trivia show hosted by Stephen Fry that I find delightful. I’m also a big fan of ‘The IT Crowd.’ It’s a British sit com about an IT department. Super funny stuff. Other shows I dig: 30 Rock, Dr Who, Infomania (recently cancelled), documentaries of all sorts, and selected reality TV.
Nature. Get out and hike. It’s good for you.
J
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September 11th, 2011 Rockstar
Yesterday me an Aubry went to Pikes place market on the coast of the Puget Sound in Seattle. It’s a very touristy sort of fish market and genral market for all kinds of things, particularly local food and produce. I thought it was pretty cool. We also ate at a place called the ‘Carb Pot’ where they gave us a clamblake style bucket full of crab, clams, fish, oysters, shrimp, mussels, etc. It was highly tasty. It’s probably worth stopping by if you’re sight seeing in seattle.
All of the things from my house in Denver were packed up last week, and should be delivered to my new house in the next few days. I look forward to getting out of this Microsoft corporate housing / apartment, and into a proper house. I’m getting a little claustrophobic. I’m really happy with my new house, it’s beautiful, and is in a really beautiful area in Bellevue. It’s great.
It’s great to be a part of a company like Microsoft. I have a lot of respect for the talent there, as well as the work ethics that people have. Microsoft is a great company to work for, although I am clearly still suffering from being the first ‘new guy’ hired since my department started a couple years ago.
I go on call for the first time tomorrow, which is a natural part of the job that I knew was part of the package, but it still sorta sucks. : )
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September 11th, 2011 Rockstar
Last weekend I flew back to Denver and met up with my old friends Landon and Ryan. It was good to see them. We went and saw a Phish concert in Colorado, and I showed them around Denver a bit: Red Rocks, Domo Japanese restaraunt, Denver museam of science, etc. It was a good time, with a couple of good folks.
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August 28th, 2011 Rockstar
Hey all,
I closed on the house in Bellevue two days ago! I am definitely looking forward to getting settled, there’s been a lot of change and a lot of moving variables recently. The house really does seem just perfect for me and Aubry, I’m really happy about it. It’s in a really beautiful area too, surrounded by trees and forest that will never be developed.
On that subject: Washington state is freaking beautiful. I am frequently just amazed at how scenic things are just driving from one area to another. It’s just so lush and green. Today Aubry and I went on a hike to a place called Twin falls … and just the drive there was breathtaking. The hike was great too. This was my first venture out into nature here in Washington, and me thinks I’ll be doing a lot more of it. Strangely, it’s probably rained on four or five days in the month we’ve been here. And I thought Seattle was supposed to be rainy. (I’ve heard this can happen in August, but that it never lasts : ).
I’ve had my house back in Parker, CO on the market since I left Colorado, and although a lot of people have looked at it, I never got an offer. But I reduced the price by $20k — and almost immediately got an offer. That should close in a few weeks. This is a terrible time to sell a house, fortunately Microsoft is helping me out significantly with that stuff.
More on the job: it’s not what I thought it would be. Some aspects are in line with what I anticipated, but I find myself doing fewer technical activities than I would prefer. And it turns out that the large degree of organization at Microsoft I mentioned in my previous post is really only true with things that apply on the company level: transportation, expensing things, benefits questions, and other misc. corporate functions. But onboarding in my department has felt a bit improvisational. I feel like I have just been going in a lot of directions at once, but totally unable to focus on anything specific. But at least I think I understand what folks want from me in a high level way, and I do think I can satiate those expectations in a satisfactory way. I continue to be worried about work/life balance. Clearly it’s not a priority at Microsoft, and clearly it will be far less than what I had at eBay, and I’m a bit disappointed by this fact. But I am hopeful that it will improve. My manager is smart, engaged, knowledgeable, personable, and generally good to work with. And even though he has a lot on his plate, he’s put a lot of time and effort into helping me get ramped up, and I’m enormously grateful for his help. I’m putting a ton of effort into this job, and it’s making more and more sense to me each week. I believe that I have a lot to offer, and look forward to being productive and proving myself to others. Enough about work.
I miss all my friends back in CO. I look forward to seeing you guys again sometime soon. : )
- Rockstar
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July 31st, 2011 Rockstar
So I’ve now worked for Microsoft for a solid week and am getting a feel for how working there will be.
For starters: Microsoft is large. It’s really large. Microsoft has about 90,000 employees worldwide, with around 30,000 in the Seattle area. Walking around in the Redmond main campus it would sort of feel like a big university, except that the average age of Microsoft employees is about 39. However, the folks that work in my department (and especially my team) are all about my age or younger, and so far generally seem both capable and likeable on a personal level. There are Microsoft campuses scattered throughout the Seattle area, the biggest concentration of them being in Redmond, where my office was supposed to theoretically be. However, I promptly traded that for an office on the 20th floor of the big Microsoft building in downtown Bellevue, which is where I will likely be spending the majority of my time.
It’s at the same time easy to feel like being a drop of rain in the ocean at Microsoft, but also easy to feel good about being a part of something bigger than yourself. But the work is interesting, and right up my alley. And so far the folks I’ve met have been engaged, interested, professional and friendly. Also, Microsoft is very organized and structured … which is important considering their size. I don’t mean to say that everything is perfect, but I’d say it’s better than average, and in general fairly clear where one needs to go to accomplish something.
I do have some serious fears about work/life balance at Microsoft. I’ll have to see how that develops, but for the short term I’m only interested in doing whatever is necessary to get ramped up. As I mentioned previously, I work on the Bing! website, which is Microsoft’s search engine competing with Google. I would urge folks to give Bing a try … check out the daily image on the Bing homepage, which is always beautiful and awesome.
Some other thoughts about Microsoft:
- They have handed out an inordinate amount of swag in the five days I’ve worked there. Coffee mugs, water bottles, beach balls, bags, shirts, toys, stickers, etc, etc. It’s kind of cool in a way, but also feels kind of wasteful.
- ACRONYMS! Aaaaarrrgggh. So … many ….. so ….. frequent … so ….. difficult for a new hire to parse.
- Meetings. Lots of meetings. If you like meetings, come work for Microsoft. I literally had meetings this week to discuss what we’d like to discuss in another meeting later in the week.
Anyway, enough about Microsoft for now. Aubry and I found a house we really like! The seller had just reduced the price, and we made an offer even lower than that, which they accepted. It feels like a great deal, and we just love the house. It’s in Bellevue and it’s backed up against a forest/park, which will never be developed on. It’s beautiful. : ) We loved the house but were not going to make an offer because were initially told that in order to live there we were required to become members of that community’s country club which was like $250 a month (?!??!). But our real estate agent did some digging and confirmed that it would not be required. $250 a month is pretty steep, especially for a guy that wouldn’t really use it too often ….. to clarify: I own golf clubs and will golf on occasion, but I’m not that good at it, and it’s not something I do very often.
I look forward to getting into a more permanent living situation, I look forward to getting settled at work, and I look forward to getting the house in Denver sold and settled. Too much tumult right now. I’m also considering getting a new car … I’m just not certain that I am satisfied with my 2003 Hyundai. : )
That’s all for now. I’m going to try to post at least every week or two.
-Rockstar
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July 22nd, 2011 Rockstar
I’ve decided that I’ll try to start updating my blog again, especially considering some recent changes in my life, I thought it might be interesting to chronicle some of my new adventures.
A little update on myself:
After 8+ years with eBay I’ve moved on. My last day as an eBay employee was yesterday. I’ve accepted a job with Microsoft in their Bing department. Me and Aubry (and our cat Jabba) left our home for sale in Colorado and have moved into temporary housing provided by Microsoft in Redmond, WA. Yesterday was our first full day in the Seattle area. Some observations:
1) It’s really really green. There are large trees (especially pine trees) everywhere, it’s freaking beautiful.
2) It does, in fact, rain all the time here.
3) You can buy wine and beer in grocery stores
4) Traffic can really suck, especially over the bridges, especially at rush hour.
5) It’s a really large metro area with a lot to see.
Me and Aubry went and looked at houses in the North/Seattle area, and I was not impressed. We’re going to check out some houses on the Eastside tomorrow. Monday, 7/25/11 will be my first day at Microsoft. I’ll post again once I’ve actually worked and have seen the inside of Microsoft. : )
Friends / family: please register an account if you want to comment and I’ll approve you.
Johnny
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June 14th, 2010 Rockstar
I find that as I get older, days get shorter, priorities get re-adjusted, and blogging gets tougher to maintain.
Perhaps going forward I’ll simply post the few pinochles of my existence, pics from vacations and the like.
I’ll make an effort in the next few days to update things a bit.
Johnny
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November 10th, 2009 Rockstar
I am am spending the week at the Sun campus in CO with Jason. It’s been a good change of pace. : ‘ )
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September 29th, 2009 Rockstar
At the root of the issue it isn’t Obama’s plan or the Republican’s ideas that need ‘fixing’ – the problem is the way Americans view healthcare:
Let me ask this: should healthcare be considered ‘infrastructure’ in the sense that it is a necessary part of a successful society (think: roads, schools, etc)? If the answer is ‘yes’ (as I believe), then it should be regulated like other parts of our societal infrastructure, to take the emphasis off of private institutions making a financial profit at the expense of the public. This is not to say we would take away the free market. The public sector still develops (and competes) in creating technologies and systems used in our infrastructure.
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