For the uninitiated, the Church of the SubGenius is a disorganized parody religion that makes fun of serious organized religions while at the same time combines elements from them with whacko conspiracy theories, UFOs, cryptozoology, and many other popular paranoid beliefs. Their members are made up of perverts, weirdos, nerds, geeks, and all other sorts of outsiders who don't identify with the normals.
I recently paid my thirty-bucks to become an ordained minister in the Church of the SubGenius (via the Church of Universal Life). I haven't picked my SubGenius yet name and I'm asking for feedback on that so please leave a comment with suggestions for my SubGenius name. So far I've been considering Reverend Loki Eris Puck.
SubGenii believe in a primal force called Slack which is the true pursuit of life. Is it a coincidence that I call myself a professional slacker, or that one of my favorite card games is "Chez Geek" in which the goal is to obtain the most Slack? SubGenii believe we are the offspring of Yeti and early man, and that Yeti once ruled the city of Atlantis. They believe one day the UFOs will bring about the final Rupture and only card carrying SubGenii will be allowed on the escape pods piloted by sex goddesses.
Let's look at what has led me to the decision to throw my lot in with this fringe-element pseudo-cult of paranoid freaks.
Of course my family and upbringing has something to do with it. I grew up with only an older brother for a sibling, which taught me the harsh lessons of living in an authoritarian society. I love my brother, but I can't deny the impact he had on my burgeoning psyche. I also learned to rebel against authority in subtle and indirect ways since he was bigger and stronger than me it was unwise to rebel overtly. I identified with being the "anti-Chris" and did things differently than my older brother did. If I couldn't make my mark on the world by doing things first or better than my brother then I would do it differently. I rebelled against anything I felt was "normal".
My mother always encouraged my imagination and radical thinking while at the same time expressing her own brand of non-denominational spiritual thought. She fed me a steady diet of science-fiction and fantasy books and movies. For as long as I've had an imagination I've been entertained by the bizarre, the strange, the dark, the unknown, the horrifying, and the supernatural. I also learned from her that you can be a moral, spiritual, and just person without being specifically religious.
My love of horror and dark literature led me to the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, essential to familiarizing myself with the original American masters of horror. Lovecraft's particularly skewed and paranoid view of the cosmos in particular has had a lasting effect on me and he has inspired countless more. He exposed the world to the mythos of Cthulhu and the fabled Necronomicon which make their appearance in so many derivative films and novels.
I love bad films, b-movies, and MST3K style entertainment. I have a soft spot in my heart for the legend of the Loch Ness monster (is it a coincidence that my friends decided to call their band Rockness Monster?), UFOs (I want to believe!), and bigfoot-yeti-abominable-snowman-sasquatch-skunk-ape-missing-link. I've always wanted to believe in the legend of Atlantis, the Greek, Celtic, Egyptian and Norse gods (is it coincidence that my mom named our first family dog Loki?), and the Illuminati super-conspiracy.
I was destined for a life of geekiness. I played Dungeons & Dragons, I played video games, I memorized Monty Python movie quotes, and eventually I chose a career in computer programming, rounding out my geek quotient (or G.Q.).
Attending college and ultimately living in Eugene has exposed me to many different view-points and beliefs: some radical, some conservative, many somewhere in the middle. I recall taking a very mind-opening psychology class called "Critical Thinking" in which I learned to never take anything at face value and always analyze the motives of the messenger.
I listened to NPR, read internet news blogs, and developed a view of the world as being run by inane megalomaniacs that rule over the clueless masses who let themselves be easily subjugated. People lie to themselves on a daily basis, believing that the governments are here to help and protect us. Once you realize that you are lying to yourself and that you are pulling the wool over your own eyes, that's the first step to becoming a SubGenius.
Recently I've begun attributing significance and meaning to the insignificant and coincidental. Of course all metaphysics and spirituality derive from the aforementioned mental gymnastics.
I just finished reading the Illuminatus trilogy (which someone coincidentally left at my house after a garage sale some years ago and I only now finally got around to reading), which manages to interweave all my favorite themes into a convincing if somewhat schizophrenic narrative whole. Suddenly I became aware of other elements in my environment which supported its subversive and skewed view of the world. My daily internet news blog, Fark.com, mentioned The Church of the SubGenius. I'd heard about it before and seen the iconic 50s style clip-art images of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, so I decided to read up on it. I was amazed to see the same symbology and core tenants of the Discordians, a supposed semi-heroic anarchistic branch of the Illuminati. I already owned a card game called "The Illuminati" which coincidentally was largely based on these books. Recently the card game released a supplement called "INWO SubGenius". I want it now.
I've developed a habit of listening to Podcasts while at work. Some of my favorite include: Air out my shorts, EscapePod (coincidence?), PseudoPod (sister podcast of escapePod but focused on horror including many lovecraftian-style submissions), The Drabblecast, and now the SubGenius Hour of Slack radio show.
It was after listening to an hour of hilarious and insightful ramblings from Reverend Ivan Stang and pals that I decided "what-the-hell" and sent in my $30. I'd taken the hint, all the synchronicity was more than I could stand, and I surrendered to the self-hypnosis.
The paradoxical and oxymoronic irony of joining an "anarchistic group" is not lost on me. I think it's part of the charm: belonging to a religion that is decidedly anti-religious, proclaiming my "individuality" just like everyone else in the group, and claiming to be part of a secret society that is blatantly out in the open.
So, please leave your suggestions for a really cool SubGenius name or any other comments relating to my transformation into a self-hypnotized anarchistic paranoid geek-freak.
Links to stuff:
http://www.subgenius.com/
http://www.subgenius.com/ts/hos.html
http://web.mac.com/normsherman/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html
http://pseudopod.org/
http://escapepod.org/
http://theitspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati
http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/index.html
http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/
http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/SubGenius/
http://www.sjgames.com/chezgeek/
http://www.fark.com/
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Memoirs of my time at The Company
I finally got fed up with The Company and told them to frak-off. My last day will be May 31st and I'll start my new job some time in June.
Things have been going downhill at The Company for quite some time. Actually, I don't think they were ever going uphill. When I left Lunar Logic, I thought working for a big company would be great, that they'd have everything figured out, decent processes in place, and that I'd find a bigger pool of brains to pick and find more mentors in a larger community. Turns out that I was wrong. Bigger doesn't mean better, and I was not very impressed with the quality of the people. For awhile I liked the money, but I've come to learn that making lots of money doesn't make up for all the stress I've endured or the personal time I've been missing.
My first three months at The Company were spent in crisis mode. I was shuffled from conference room to conference room and put on projects that were already behind schedule and needed help. AccountLogin was Jen's creation and involved a major rewrite of the entire front-end controller along with changes to the main path through the site which was predicted to increase order completions and revenue. We worked long hours in close quarters and then proudly rolled it out to production. Part of the project required that the Business have built in switches to control how many customers used the new path versus the old path and that they would be able to closely monitor customer behavior and make changes to the traffic split as necessary. Within a week of going live the Business determined that their predictions had been wrong since less order completions were happening on the new path. They panicked and turned off the new path completely, in effect moth-balling AccountLogin. The project was viewed as a failure despite the effort it took to get there.
Next I was put on Cashbox-BP. This was an ambitious project which was already falling apart due to lack of competent leadership. The previous dev lead had left on extended medical leave of absence three weeks into the project. The backup lead was in over his head. I came in and took over a large chunk of the complicated work that no one else wanted to deal with. I didn't know any better at the time. Basically the project involved moving customer billing and account information over to a remote system called EBE. It also added a new feature of allowing customers to auto-renew their subscriptions every year unless they opted-out. The Business expected to make millions off of that one change alone. I ended up re-coding most of the services that communicated with EBE and debugging all those issues. Working with outside consultants on this project proved to be a painful experience. Cashbox-BP finally rolled out and The Business threw us a little party because they started seeing the numbers go up as expected.
Once those projects were done I was only able to take a short breather and get barely acquainted with my office which had been sitting empty during that time before the whole development team was chased out of their offices and herded into acres of identical gray cubicles.
My next project was a follow-up to the last one, Cashbox-Maintenance. This was were we cleaned up all the things that weren't quite right the first time around, and implemented a few new features that got left off the last release. This time around we had a team that was experienced with the last round of the project, but we still had to coordinate with developers from EBE and Vindicia, which was as painful as ever. Finger pointing was rampant whenever something went wrong and usually it turned out the be Vindicia's fault, but you had to prove it to them first. Once again I was given the largest chunk of work and the most complicated tasks, the price I paid for proving myself competent. Since I made the most changes I began running code review sessions as well. As the holidays rolled around I started to act more like a lead than the actual lead since he was on vacation most of the time. By the time Cashbox-Maintenance went live I was effectively the lead on the project. My manager was grooming me for being a lead on the next project as well because he we getting positive feedback from the project managers about me. He promised me a promotion at my next review, in six months, if I kept doing the extra work.
Before we got a chance to release Cashbox-Maintenance the live site started having problems. A major bug was missed in the last release and starting to show up on production. We had two weeks of frantic emergency releases to fix the issue and push out another high priority feature. Cashbox-maintenace got delayed but eventually went live.
Almost immediately I was made lead of Short-term AccountLogin Forgot Password (STAL-FP), a follow-up project to the "failed" AccountLogin project. The idea was to fix some of the easy things that were determined to be wrong with the current storefront site which could positively effect revenue. Research showed that customers who came to the site and had forgotten their password got frustrated with our stupid process for resetting it and eventually dropped off completely. Jen designed a solution, I led the development, and India did most of the work. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, although the project scope got larger the longer the development went on and we had to include more and more unrelated maintenance tickets in our release. The business had recently decided that we needed to be able to release maintenance tickets every two weeks. That made it difficult when the development time was scheduled over six weeks to test my changes in isolation.
Halfway through the successful development of STAL-FP I was handed another high priority project to lead, PacificPlatform. Leading them both at the same time proved to be very difficult and both projects suffered from my lack of attention. When I complained about the workload I was reassured that if I kept up the good work I'd have a promotion waiting for me at my review date, which was still five months away. PacificPlatform was another ambitious project, a complete redesign and rewrite of the catalog system which would support two reseller store platforms at once (code named Atlantic & Pacific). Eventually the project got renamed to GlobalCommerce. As that project was ramping up STAL-FP was getting ready to be released. Unfortunately we had to merge with two other projects at the last minute, one of which was a complete rewrite of service metrics. We crossed our fingers and hit the deploy button.
When STAL-FP hit production suddenly servers started to crash. Everyone panicked. All other work stopped as the entire development team tried to figure out what went wrong. The decision was made to rollback, which doesn't happen very often. Hundreds of hours were spent researching the server crashes and trying to reproduce the issue in development. Eventually we found it, but not before we had royally screwed up the code base by trying to rollback merges and remove service metrics while cross-merging STAL-FP code into trunk. Basically it got all frakked up. We spent extra hours trying to untangle the mess that was made. Everyone suffered. STAL-FP was considered a failure.
Once STAL-FP was abandoned I was at least able to focus on GlobalCommerce, which had already gotten started without me. I did my best to catch up and implement weekly code reviews to keep everyone on task. Things seemed to be going well for awhile as I got a handle on everything. I wasn't too happy with the team of developers I was given, but I did my best to delegate the work in such a way that the weakest members had the least impact on the project. One of them was the lead that had just returned from his extended medical absence and there were some doubts about his ability to contribute. I gave him what I thought would be the simplest and most isolated tasks. As the work progressed it became apparent that our biggest challenges would be changes necessary to the configuration of the various environments our new code would be running on. I had to rely heavily on others to advise on the necessary changes since I'd had no experience with that portion of the application.
Code reviews went well and all developer testing results showed we were ready for QA, but QA wasn't ready since they were all busy testing the three releases going out before us. QA found no bugs in our project so we hit code freeze and entered the release-to-production pipeline where it is much more problematic to fix bugs and push out new builds. I spent a grueling week in external code review and then immediately left on a much needed week vacation with Kat to New Orleans.
Once I got back we were in RTP and QA started finding bugs. Unsurprisingly the majority of them were configuration and environmental issues, but a good number of them were code issues in the areas I had given to my weakest developers. We spent twice as long as we should have in RTP, fixing an endless sequence of errors. Then load test results were coming back as showing a sudden drop in performance. Countless hours were lost investigating the performance issues and rerunning load tests late at night. It turned out to be an issue with EBE (big surprise), which I had suggested at the very beginning, but my theory had been discounted since EBE said they hadn't made any changes on their side. By this point almost everyone involved in this project was not happy about it, especially me.
Oddly enough, during the worst part of the GlobalCommerce project two new job opportunities opened up to me. Language Learning Solutions had courted me a year ago when I was planning to leave Lunar Logic. They contacted me just before I left for New Orleans and we set up a meeting for when I got back. At the same time some guys from Lunar Logic had started a new business, Emberex, and really wanted to bring me on. I had lunch with them as well and we talked about the possibilities. I was dubious at first because it seemed like a risk, but I knew I wanted to work with my friends again and escape the insanity that was going on at The Company. As I became more exhausted with work, the idea of changing jobs got more appealing. I started to update my LinkedIn profile and solicited recommendations from current and former co-workers. To my pleasant surprise I received a flood of glowing recommendations. That really bolstered my confidence at a time when I really needed it.
Around this time I learned my year review and potential promotion was going to be delayed an additional three months. The only compensation I had received for all my extra effort during the last year was an A++ award that came with a $1000 bonus, which was about a 1% bump in my pay for the year. The promises of raises and promotions were losing their power over me, and the money ceased to be the main deciding factor in my choice of jobs. LLS offered a higher salary, but wanted me to come in as an executive and build their IT department. I felt like I would be just as stressed in that position, if not more, than I already was at The Company. The guys at Emberex offered a reasonable hourly wage, which would be a welcome respite from the abuse of the salary system I was currently experiencing, and a narrowed set of roles and responsibilities. Plus they had some things to offer that LLS and The Company couldn't, a sweet downtown location, a small group of competent co-workers that I already knew and liked working with, and the opportunity of working on diverse projects and new technologies. It became clear that I wanted to join them, even if it meant losing some of the valuable benefits that I was used to at The Company.
I could see myself missing some of my co-workers that I'd grown to like and respect: Charles, Peter, Tara, Michael, Jen (of course), Steve, Imran, Martin, Ross, and David. I'd learned a lot from Charles and Steve at the foosball table. I'd miss the cheap and fast food at the cafeteria, I was getting very used to hot breakfast sandwiches and fresh Starbucks coffee every morning, but that was contributing to my increasing waist size and the general degradation of my health. I wouldn't miss much else.
I let my manager know I was considering leaving, then when he couldn't convince me to stay I called Emberex and accepted their offer. I sent my resignation letter to my manager, then I turned down the offer LLS had given me as graciously as I could. I knew I would probably be working with them at some capacity through Emberex very soon. Suddenly things seemed to be moving very quickly. Everyone was shocked to hear I was leaving in two weeks and I had people stopping by, emailing and instant messaging me wondering why I was leaving and where I was going. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible and talk about how I couldn't pass up the opportunity to join a start-up with my friends rather than focus on how frustrated I was with the work and culture at The Company. I assured everyone on the GlobalCommerce project that I was going to make sure we finished the project in a good way before leaving and that my leaving was nothing personal, which wasn't entirely true since some of the people on the project contributed greatly to my desire to leave.
Immediately after putting in my notice I started to feel better. My anxiety about making a decision about my career melted away. My stress level over work related issues lessened since I knew I wouldn't have to deal with it for much longer. I stopped taking my laptop home and stopped caring about emails sent after-hours or missing lately scheduled meetings. It's amazing what not caring can accomplish.
So now I've only got 3 days of work left and I'm feeling really good about the future. I get to take about two weeks off from work between jobs. Hopefully I can get some things done around the house that I've been meaning to, like painting. That was my plan the last time I changed jobs at least. I've got a nice long 3 day weekend and I might get a chance to play my Game of Thrones Kat got me for my birthday. Maybe I'll even do some yard work. Whatever I do I'll be happier than I've been in the last six months because I made decision that has my health and well being my priority.
Things have been going downhill at The Company for quite some time. Actually, I don't think they were ever going uphill. When I left Lunar Logic, I thought working for a big company would be great, that they'd have everything figured out, decent processes in place, and that I'd find a bigger pool of brains to pick and find more mentors in a larger community. Turns out that I was wrong. Bigger doesn't mean better, and I was not very impressed with the quality of the people. For awhile I liked the money, but I've come to learn that making lots of money doesn't make up for all the stress I've endured or the personal time I've been missing.
My first three months at The Company were spent in crisis mode. I was shuffled from conference room to conference room and put on projects that were already behind schedule and needed help. AccountLogin was Jen's creation and involved a major rewrite of the entire front-end controller along with changes to the main path through the site which was predicted to increase order completions and revenue. We worked long hours in close quarters and then proudly rolled it out to production. Part of the project required that the Business have built in switches to control how many customers used the new path versus the old path and that they would be able to closely monitor customer behavior and make changes to the traffic split as necessary. Within a week of going live the Business determined that their predictions had been wrong since less order completions were happening on the new path. They panicked and turned off the new path completely, in effect moth-balling AccountLogin. The project was viewed as a failure despite the effort it took to get there.
Next I was put on Cashbox-BP. This was an ambitious project which was already falling apart due to lack of competent leadership. The previous dev lead had left on extended medical leave of absence three weeks into the project. The backup lead was in over his head. I came in and took over a large chunk of the complicated work that no one else wanted to deal with. I didn't know any better at the time. Basically the project involved moving customer billing and account information over to a remote system called EBE. It also added a new feature of allowing customers to auto-renew their subscriptions every year unless they opted-out. The Business expected to make millions off of that one change alone. I ended up re-coding most of the services that communicated with EBE and debugging all those issues. Working with outside consultants on this project proved to be a painful experience. Cashbox-BP finally rolled out and The Business threw us a little party because they started seeing the numbers go up as expected.
Once those projects were done I was only able to take a short breather and get barely acquainted with my office which had been sitting empty during that time before the whole development team was chased out of their offices and herded into acres of identical gray cubicles.
My next project was a follow-up to the last one, Cashbox-Maintenance. This was were we cleaned up all the things that weren't quite right the first time around, and implemented a few new features that got left off the last release. This time around we had a team that was experienced with the last round of the project, but we still had to coordinate with developers from EBE and Vindicia, which was as painful as ever. Finger pointing was rampant whenever something went wrong and usually it turned out the be Vindicia's fault, but you had to prove it to them first. Once again I was given the largest chunk of work and the most complicated tasks, the price I paid for proving myself competent. Since I made the most changes I began running code review sessions as well. As the holidays rolled around I started to act more like a lead than the actual lead since he was on vacation most of the time. By the time Cashbox-Maintenance went live I was effectively the lead on the project. My manager was grooming me for being a lead on the next project as well because he we getting positive feedback from the project managers about me. He promised me a promotion at my next review, in six months, if I kept doing the extra work.
Before we got a chance to release Cashbox-Maintenance the live site started having problems. A major bug was missed in the last release and starting to show up on production. We had two weeks of frantic emergency releases to fix the issue and push out another high priority feature. Cashbox-maintenace got delayed but eventually went live.
Almost immediately I was made lead of Short-term AccountLogin Forgot Password (STAL-FP), a follow-up project to the "failed" AccountLogin project. The idea was to fix some of the easy things that were determined to be wrong with the current storefront site which could positively effect revenue. Research showed that customers who came to the site and had forgotten their password got frustrated with our stupid process for resetting it and eventually dropped off completely. Jen designed a solution, I led the development, and India did most of the work. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, although the project scope got larger the longer the development went on and we had to include more and more unrelated maintenance tickets in our release. The business had recently decided that we needed to be able to release maintenance tickets every two weeks. That made it difficult when the development time was scheduled over six weeks to test my changes in isolation.
Halfway through the successful development of STAL-FP I was handed another high priority project to lead, PacificPlatform. Leading them both at the same time proved to be very difficult and both projects suffered from my lack of attention. When I complained about the workload I was reassured that if I kept up the good work I'd have a promotion waiting for me at my review date, which was still five months away. PacificPlatform was another ambitious project, a complete redesign and rewrite of the catalog system which would support two reseller store platforms at once (code named Atlantic & Pacific). Eventually the project got renamed to GlobalCommerce. As that project was ramping up STAL-FP was getting ready to be released. Unfortunately we had to merge with two other projects at the last minute, one of which was a complete rewrite of service metrics. We crossed our fingers and hit the deploy button.
When STAL-FP hit production suddenly servers started to crash. Everyone panicked. All other work stopped as the entire development team tried to figure out what went wrong. The decision was made to rollback, which doesn't happen very often. Hundreds of hours were spent researching the server crashes and trying to reproduce the issue in development. Eventually we found it, but not before we had royally screwed up the code base by trying to rollback merges and remove service metrics while cross-merging STAL-FP code into trunk. Basically it got all frakked up. We spent extra hours trying to untangle the mess that was made. Everyone suffered. STAL-FP was considered a failure.
Once STAL-FP was abandoned I was at least able to focus on GlobalCommerce, which had already gotten started without me. I did my best to catch up and implement weekly code reviews to keep everyone on task. Things seemed to be going well for awhile as I got a handle on everything. I wasn't too happy with the team of developers I was given, but I did my best to delegate the work in such a way that the weakest members had the least impact on the project. One of them was the lead that had just returned from his extended medical absence and there were some doubts about his ability to contribute. I gave him what I thought would be the simplest and most isolated tasks. As the work progressed it became apparent that our biggest challenges would be changes necessary to the configuration of the various environments our new code would be running on. I had to rely heavily on others to advise on the necessary changes since I'd had no experience with that portion of the application.
Code reviews went well and all developer testing results showed we were ready for QA, but QA wasn't ready since they were all busy testing the three releases going out before us. QA found no bugs in our project so we hit code freeze and entered the release-to-production pipeline where it is much more problematic to fix bugs and push out new builds. I spent a grueling week in external code review and then immediately left on a much needed week vacation with Kat to New Orleans.
Once I got back we were in RTP and QA started finding bugs. Unsurprisingly the majority of them were configuration and environmental issues, but a good number of them were code issues in the areas I had given to my weakest developers. We spent twice as long as we should have in RTP, fixing an endless sequence of errors. Then load test results were coming back as showing a sudden drop in performance. Countless hours were lost investigating the performance issues and rerunning load tests late at night. It turned out to be an issue with EBE (big surprise), which I had suggested at the very beginning, but my theory had been discounted since EBE said they hadn't made any changes on their side. By this point almost everyone involved in this project was not happy about it, especially me.
Oddly enough, during the worst part of the GlobalCommerce project two new job opportunities opened up to me. Language Learning Solutions had courted me a year ago when I was planning to leave Lunar Logic. They contacted me just before I left for New Orleans and we set up a meeting for when I got back. At the same time some guys from Lunar Logic had started a new business, Emberex, and really wanted to bring me on. I had lunch with them as well and we talked about the possibilities. I was dubious at first because it seemed like a risk, but I knew I wanted to work with my friends again and escape the insanity that was going on at The Company. As I became more exhausted with work, the idea of changing jobs got more appealing. I started to update my LinkedIn profile and solicited recommendations from current and former co-workers. To my pleasant surprise I received a flood of glowing recommendations. That really bolstered my confidence at a time when I really needed it.
Around this time I learned my year review and potential promotion was going to be delayed an additional three months. The only compensation I had received for all my extra effort during the last year was an A++ award that came with a $1000 bonus, which was about a 1% bump in my pay for the year. The promises of raises and promotions were losing their power over me, and the money ceased to be the main deciding factor in my choice of jobs. LLS offered a higher salary, but wanted me to come in as an executive and build their IT department. I felt like I would be just as stressed in that position, if not more, than I already was at The Company. The guys at Emberex offered a reasonable hourly wage, which would be a welcome respite from the abuse of the salary system I was currently experiencing, and a narrowed set of roles and responsibilities. Plus they had some things to offer that LLS and The Company couldn't, a sweet downtown location, a small group of competent co-workers that I already knew and liked working with, and the opportunity of working on diverse projects and new technologies. It became clear that I wanted to join them, even if it meant losing some of the valuable benefits that I was used to at The Company.
I could see myself missing some of my co-workers that I'd grown to like and respect: Charles, Peter, Tara, Michael, Jen (of course), Steve, Imran, Martin, Ross, and David. I'd learned a lot from Charles and Steve at the foosball table. I'd miss the cheap and fast food at the cafeteria, I was getting very used to hot breakfast sandwiches and fresh Starbucks coffee every morning, but that was contributing to my increasing waist size and the general degradation of my health. I wouldn't miss much else.
I let my manager know I was considering leaving, then when he couldn't convince me to stay I called Emberex and accepted their offer. I sent my resignation letter to my manager, then I turned down the offer LLS had given me as graciously as I could. I knew I would probably be working with them at some capacity through Emberex very soon. Suddenly things seemed to be moving very quickly. Everyone was shocked to hear I was leaving in two weeks and I had people stopping by, emailing and instant messaging me wondering why I was leaving and where I was going. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible and talk about how I couldn't pass up the opportunity to join a start-up with my friends rather than focus on how frustrated I was with the work and culture at The Company. I assured everyone on the GlobalCommerce project that I was going to make sure we finished the project in a good way before leaving and that my leaving was nothing personal, which wasn't entirely true since some of the people on the project contributed greatly to my desire to leave.
Immediately after putting in my notice I started to feel better. My anxiety about making a decision about my career melted away. My stress level over work related issues lessened since I knew I wouldn't have to deal with it for much longer. I stopped taking my laptop home and stopped caring about emails sent after-hours or missing lately scheduled meetings. It's amazing what not caring can accomplish.
So now I've only got 3 days of work left and I'm feeling really good about the future. I get to take about two weeks off from work between jobs. Hopefully I can get some things done around the house that I've been meaning to, like painting. That was my plan the last time I changed jobs at least. I've got a nice long 3 day weekend and I might get a chance to play my Game of Thrones Kat got me for my birthday. Maybe I'll even do some yard work. Whatever I do I'll be happier than I've been in the last six months because I made decision that has my health and well being my priority.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Leave my groin alone!
I hadn't played soccer in nigh on ten years, since being a sophomore in college, until yesterday morning. I signed up for the Winter coed hat-draw soccer season put on by the parks & rec crew. Michael, a guy I work with, told me about it and I got on his team. Kelly, someone Kat works with, and her husband are also on my team, the Morning Fog. The game was early Saturday morning at South Eugene Highschool on their outdoor artificial turf field. When I got there another game was finishing up, but the field was still littered with ice chunks. The ball was skipping and bouncing irregularly across the surface. It was very cold. I started stretching out and jogging a bit to get warmed up and was joking with Michael about I'd probably pull something and be out of the game right away...
Once the first game was over we took to the field and figured out our positions. I'd opted to play the first half in the field and spend the second half in goal. I was surprised to learn that we'd be playing a full two 45 minute halves. I figured we'd be playing short sides and shortened game but we fielded two full teams with one on-the-fly sub standing ready. I was in for a long and tiring game. I thought I was prepared though, since I'd been going to the gym more frequently, running on the treadmill, and I spent the previous Saturday in the park with Elliot kicking a ball around and going for a long jog. I took my place on the mid-line for kick-off. The whistle blew and the game was on. I took off down the left side of the pitch trying to break open for a pass. Someone spotted me and send a low fast one my way. It took off on the ice an skidded ahead of me. I broke into my best version of a sprint and stretched for the ball to send it back into play and that's when I felt a tearing in my groin.
My premonition was dead-on. Less than five minutes into the game and I was hobbling in pain from a pulled groin muscle. Every step was agonizing and I was embarrassed to be so out of shape and obviously no longer spry and limber. I briefly considered sitting out the rest of the game, the pain was excruciating, but the shame of not toughing it out outweighed my physical well-being. I played the next 40 minutes on the field, awkwardly jogging after the ball when it came my way. I got my foot on it a few times, but every time I started to forget about my groin I'd invariably make some graceless move to trap or kick a ball and pain would shoot through my crotch and down my leg once again.
I was thankful when the halftime whistle blew. We had a short break and I got to say hi to Kat who was watching from the stands bundled up with her furry purple cat hat and holding a colorful sign that said "Go Jefe". I donned my goalie gear and took my place in the box. Standing was only marginally less painful than running, but as I stood there surveying the field, memories of highschool games started coming back and with it all the stress of being the last line of defense. We'd given up three goals in the first half, one of them an own-goal, and only scored one. If we were going to win this I needed to shut the other team down. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that in my current condition, injured, out of practice, and with the weather being as it was the goal box was littered with ice cubes. A goalie dive in this environment was liable to be extra specially painful.
The second half started off in our favor. Our best players gravitated towards the front line, and positions being informal as they were, the team adapted. Most of the second half was played in our opponents side of the field. We scored two more goals and tied it up, but there was plenty of time left for retaliation. I'd only seen a little action, deflected a few weak shots, scooped up a couple loose balls, and booted them back into the other side. One of my punts ended up getting converted to a goal, which I counted as an assist, even if there were a couple passes between me and the final shot. My knees were bloody from scraping against the layer of ice left on the field and my hands were numb from the cold sting of the ball when it struck my hands.
When the retaliation came it was fast and decisive. They drove deep into our side catching our defense off-guard. As our best players were focusing on scoring, our weakest team members had dropped back into defense which left us very vulnerable. Suddenly it was a break away and I knew it'd come down to a shot on goal. When it came I was in position, cutting off the angles as my old goal-tending habits came back to me, and I was coiled for a dive. The shot cut across to my right side going for the far corner of the goal and I sprang after it, redirecting it with one gloved hand. Unfortunately it now was passing in front of the open goal and I was laid out on the icy ground recovering from my dive. There were two more opponents quickly descending on the ball, with no defensive help in sight. I only had enough time to get one leg under me and propel myself along the ground to try and get in front of it, but I was too late as one of their strikers drove the ball into the back of the net. That was the final goal of the game and we ended up losing 4 to 3. Next time I'll start in goal and finish on the field, so at least I'll get my injury closer to the end of the game.
I nursed my wounds as best I could that afternoon. I had a long drive to Salem and back for Dad's retirement party. I was happy to see so many friends and family come out for him. It was really very touching. My nephew, Taylor, and a basketball game that night at Gubser elementary, where I'd gone for sixth grade. All I could think was "Why didn't I sign up for basketball this winter?". It's a lot less hard on your body and at least I'd be warm.
I was happy to get Jester back and take him home with me. When I got home Kat tried to help tend to my sore muscles and offered to put some icyhot on my leg. I'd never had icyhot before so I thought I'd give it a try. I took of my pants and we set to work slathering up my inner thigh, but I must have been careless because some of it got on the left side of my scrotum. I didn't think much of it at first, it was sort of tingly, until the heat set in. Now I think I've discovered a new form of torture. All of a sudden an intense heat was searing my left testicle. At first I was sort of laughing about the situation until the heat continued to intensify and I was left rolling on my back cupping my jewels and screaming "Oh God! My nuts are on fire! Why does it burn so?!". Kat's expression changed from mild amusement to real concern as she ran to get a wet cloth at my behest. Wiping away as much of the icyhot as I could helped to some degree, but the chemical burn sensation gradually subsided over the next ten minutes or so. The icyhot treatment definitely made me forget about the pain in my leg.
Later that night I sat on the couch in my boxers recovering with Kat's herb bag fresh from the freezer laying across my lap. Gryphon decided to climb over and check me out. He was standing on my right thigh and I didn't think anything of it while we were watching "Hoodwinked". Just then Jester burst in through the dogdoor from outside, as is his habit. Gryphon, surprised and alarmed by the sudden activity, instinctively extended his claws into my leg scratching me and sprang down from my lap, in the process managing to use my strained groin muscle for leverage. As the cat ran down the hall, Jester noticed him and it must have looked like fun because he decided to pursue. I was cursing at the cat by this point so Jester quickly changed directions and came running up to me thinking I was in a playful mood. As is his gregarious manner he leapt bodily into my lap, adding the a nice exclamation point to an already painful evening.
Once the first game was over we took to the field and figured out our positions. I'd opted to play the first half in the field and spend the second half in goal. I was surprised to learn that we'd be playing a full two 45 minute halves. I figured we'd be playing short sides and shortened game but we fielded two full teams with one on-the-fly sub standing ready. I was in for a long and tiring game. I thought I was prepared though, since I'd been going to the gym more frequently, running on the treadmill, and I spent the previous Saturday in the park with Elliot kicking a ball around and going for a long jog. I took my place on the mid-line for kick-off. The whistle blew and the game was on. I took off down the left side of the pitch trying to break open for a pass. Someone spotted me and send a low fast one my way. It took off on the ice an skidded ahead of me. I broke into my best version of a sprint and stretched for the ball to send it back into play and that's when I felt a tearing in my groin.
My premonition was dead-on. Less than five minutes into the game and I was hobbling in pain from a pulled groin muscle. Every step was agonizing and I was embarrassed to be so out of shape and obviously no longer spry and limber. I briefly considered sitting out the rest of the game, the pain was excruciating, but the shame of not toughing it out outweighed my physical well-being. I played the next 40 minutes on the field, awkwardly jogging after the ball when it came my way. I got my foot on it a few times, but every time I started to forget about my groin I'd invariably make some graceless move to trap or kick a ball and pain would shoot through my crotch and down my leg once again.
I was thankful when the halftime whistle blew. We had a short break and I got to say hi to Kat who was watching from the stands bundled up with her furry purple cat hat and holding a colorful sign that said "Go Jefe". I donned my goalie gear and took my place in the box. Standing was only marginally less painful than running, but as I stood there surveying the field, memories of highschool games started coming back and with it all the stress of being the last line of defense. We'd given up three goals in the first half, one of them an own-goal, and only scored one. If we were going to win this I needed to shut the other team down. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that in my current condition, injured, out of practice, and with the weather being as it was the goal box was littered with ice cubes. A goalie dive in this environment was liable to be extra specially painful.
The second half started off in our favor. Our best players gravitated towards the front line, and positions being informal as they were, the team adapted. Most of the second half was played in our opponents side of the field. We scored two more goals and tied it up, but there was plenty of time left for retaliation. I'd only seen a little action, deflected a few weak shots, scooped up a couple loose balls, and booted them back into the other side. One of my punts ended up getting converted to a goal, which I counted as an assist, even if there were a couple passes between me and the final shot. My knees were bloody from scraping against the layer of ice left on the field and my hands were numb from the cold sting of the ball when it struck my hands.
When the retaliation came it was fast and decisive. They drove deep into our side catching our defense off-guard. As our best players were focusing on scoring, our weakest team members had dropped back into defense which left us very vulnerable. Suddenly it was a break away and I knew it'd come down to a shot on goal. When it came I was in position, cutting off the angles as my old goal-tending habits came back to me, and I was coiled for a dive. The shot cut across to my right side going for the far corner of the goal and I sprang after it, redirecting it with one gloved hand. Unfortunately it now was passing in front of the open goal and I was laid out on the icy ground recovering from my dive. There were two more opponents quickly descending on the ball, with no defensive help in sight. I only had enough time to get one leg under me and propel myself along the ground to try and get in front of it, but I was too late as one of their strikers drove the ball into the back of the net. That was the final goal of the game and we ended up losing 4 to 3. Next time I'll start in goal and finish on the field, so at least I'll get my injury closer to the end of the game.
I nursed my wounds as best I could that afternoon. I had a long drive to Salem and back for Dad's retirement party. I was happy to see so many friends and family come out for him. It was really very touching. My nephew, Taylor, and a basketball game that night at Gubser elementary, where I'd gone for sixth grade. All I could think was "Why didn't I sign up for basketball this winter?". It's a lot less hard on your body and at least I'd be warm.
I was happy to get Jester back and take him home with me. When I got home Kat tried to help tend to my sore muscles and offered to put some icyhot on my leg. I'd never had icyhot before so I thought I'd give it a try. I took of my pants and we set to work slathering up my inner thigh, but I must have been careless because some of it got on the left side of my scrotum. I didn't think much of it at first, it was sort of tingly, until the heat set in. Now I think I've discovered a new form of torture. All of a sudden an intense heat was searing my left testicle. At first I was sort of laughing about the situation until the heat continued to intensify and I was left rolling on my back cupping my jewels and screaming "Oh God! My nuts are on fire! Why does it burn so?!". Kat's expression changed from mild amusement to real concern as she ran to get a wet cloth at my behest. Wiping away as much of the icyhot as I could helped to some degree, but the chemical burn sensation gradually subsided over the next ten minutes or so. The icyhot treatment definitely made me forget about the pain in my leg.
Later that night I sat on the couch in my boxers recovering with Kat's herb bag fresh from the freezer laying across my lap. Gryphon decided to climb over and check me out. He was standing on my right thigh and I didn't think anything of it while we were watching "Hoodwinked". Just then Jester burst in through the dogdoor from outside, as is his habit. Gryphon, surprised and alarmed by the sudden activity, instinctively extended his claws into my leg scratching me and sprang down from my lap, in the process managing to use my strained groin muscle for leverage. As the cat ran down the hall, Jester noticed him and it must have looked like fun because he decided to pursue. I was cursing at the cat by this point so Jester quickly changed directions and came running up to me thinking I was in a playful mood. As is his gregarious manner he leapt bodily into my lap, adding the a nice exclamation point to an already painful evening.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Fast Forward Three Weeks
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been very very distracted as of late.
I made it back to Eugene just fine, along with all my luggage. I was exhausted when I arrived at the Eugene airport around 23:00 on Friday the 25th, I'd had over 25 hours of travel time with no sleep from the previous night and only fitful rest on the plane rides. I had stayed up all night out at the clubs with the whole crew from LLP, saying our good-byes and such. It was a great time, but my chest and hip were hurting bad from my fall earlier that morning. Every time I laughed my ribs hurt. I was starting to suspect I had cracked a rib. As I made my way home I was very uncomfortable and wasn't looking forward to carrying my bags very far. Around 3 am I took a shower, gingerly got dressed, finished packing, and dragged my stuff to the curb. The taxi had a hard time getting to me since most of the roads had been blocked off the night before in preparation for the pope's visit to Krakow.
At the airport I got checked in by Szymon's friend, Kris, who works for LOT. He marked my luggage priority and took good care of me. It was a much more pleasant experience than my last attempt at leaving Krakow. I was thankful.
Despite being so sore and tired, I was very happy when I touched down in Eugene. A large part of that feeling was due to having Kat there waiting for me when I arrived. I missed her while I was away and she looked so good to me. She took me home and had to help me break into the house since I couldn't fish the house key out of my bags in the dark. Luckily she fit nicely through the dog door.
I guess I should mention that Marcin did not end up coming home with me as planned. His trip got rescheduled so that he wouldn't be arriving in Eugene until Sunday. Now I had extra tickets for the Beck concert in Bend. I ended up going down with Vanessa & Chris, a new friend from MySpace. We stayed at Mt. Bachelor Village, which was a nice place to spend the night. I really enjoyed the hot tub on the deck. The evening was cold in the high desert, and I wasn't well prepared for it, so I stayed close to the crowd and tried to keep warm by dancing. Beck was pretty fun, especially because he brought a team of puppeteers with him that performed right along side of the band, with each band member represented in puppet form. The concert seemed a bit short, but it was so cold that I wasn't really that upset about it. We had a great breakfast at the local greasy spoon before heading back to Eugene on Sunday.
The next couple weeks are a blur. Marcin was here, and I really enjoyed getting a chance to pay him back for some of the hospitality he showed me while I was in Krakow. I think he enjoyed his stay. Between Andrea and I we kept him pretty busy. I went to a brew festival on that next Saturday and then watched the University's production of Midsummer Night's Dream with Lindsey, Marcin, and Kat on Sunday. Work and Kat kept me pretty preoccupied. Plus I was going through the process of interviewing with a couple of different companies. I was so fed up with Lunar Logic at this point that it seemed like the best thing to do was leave. I got lucky and Symantec was hiring and wanted me. They made an offer last week and I accepted. I gave my two weeks notice and will be starting my new job in July.
Kat and I took a short vacation this last weekend and drove down to San Francisco with a couple of her friends. It was a long drive down and back, but we had so much fun together it was worth it. Along the way I got to meet her parents in Ashland, and they took us all out to lunch. They seem like a great couple. Kat tells me that they approved. We had drinks with her friends after we arrived Friday night, spent all Saturday exploring the city together, and then drove back on Sunday. It was a very romantic weekend together. Some of the highlights include: riding the BART late at night, lunch at the Irish Bank, riding the cable car, climbing Coit Tower, walking up and down Lombard street, truffles at XOX, walking along the Marina, waiting for a table at Antica, snogging on the way to the bar, and singing Karaoke. It was a very memorable trip.
I'm looking forward to many more adventuresome trips. I'm going camping again this weekend which should be fun.
My ribs seem to be healing up, I can actually lay on my side again and I've started lifting weights again. I saw the doctor and he gave me some pain meds and some stuff for my nose. The combination of allergies and a bruised/cracked rib was agonizing. Both seem to be working.
Until next time, check out my recently posted pics and El's PCT blog. Ciao.
I made it back to Eugene just fine, along with all my luggage. I was exhausted when I arrived at the Eugene airport around 23:00 on Friday the 25th, I'd had over 25 hours of travel time with no sleep from the previous night and only fitful rest on the plane rides. I had stayed up all night out at the clubs with the whole crew from LLP, saying our good-byes and such. It was a great time, but my chest and hip were hurting bad from my fall earlier that morning. Every time I laughed my ribs hurt. I was starting to suspect I had cracked a rib. As I made my way home I was very uncomfortable and wasn't looking forward to carrying my bags very far. Around 3 am I took a shower, gingerly got dressed, finished packing, and dragged my stuff to the curb. The taxi had a hard time getting to me since most of the roads had been blocked off the night before in preparation for the pope's visit to Krakow.
At the airport I got checked in by Szymon's friend, Kris, who works for LOT. He marked my luggage priority and took good care of me. It was a much more pleasant experience than my last attempt at leaving Krakow. I was thankful.
Despite being so sore and tired, I was very happy when I touched down in Eugene. A large part of that feeling was due to having Kat there waiting for me when I arrived. I missed her while I was away and she looked so good to me. She took me home and had to help me break into the house since I couldn't fish the house key out of my bags in the dark. Luckily she fit nicely through the dog door.
I guess I should mention that Marcin did not end up coming home with me as planned. His trip got rescheduled so that he wouldn't be arriving in Eugene until Sunday. Now I had extra tickets for the Beck concert in Bend. I ended up going down with Vanessa & Chris, a new friend from MySpace. We stayed at Mt. Bachelor Village, which was a nice place to spend the night. I really enjoyed the hot tub on the deck. The evening was cold in the high desert, and I wasn't well prepared for it, so I stayed close to the crowd and tried to keep warm by dancing. Beck was pretty fun, especially because he brought a team of puppeteers with him that performed right along side of the band, with each band member represented in puppet form. The concert seemed a bit short, but it was so cold that I wasn't really that upset about it. We had a great breakfast at the local greasy spoon before heading back to Eugene on Sunday.
The next couple weeks are a blur. Marcin was here, and I really enjoyed getting a chance to pay him back for some of the hospitality he showed me while I was in Krakow. I think he enjoyed his stay. Between Andrea and I we kept him pretty busy. I went to a brew festival on that next Saturday and then watched the University's production of Midsummer Night's Dream with Lindsey, Marcin, and Kat on Sunday. Work and Kat kept me pretty preoccupied. Plus I was going through the process of interviewing with a couple of different companies. I was so fed up with Lunar Logic at this point that it seemed like the best thing to do was leave. I got lucky and Symantec was hiring and wanted me. They made an offer last week and I accepted. I gave my two weeks notice and will be starting my new job in July.
Kat and I took a short vacation this last weekend and drove down to San Francisco with a couple of her friends. It was a long drive down and back, but we had so much fun together it was worth it. Along the way I got to meet her parents in Ashland, and they took us all out to lunch. They seem like a great couple. Kat tells me that they approved. We had drinks with her friends after we arrived Friday night, spent all Saturday exploring the city together, and then drove back on Sunday. It was a very romantic weekend together. Some of the highlights include: riding the BART late at night, lunch at the Irish Bank, riding the cable car, climbing Coit Tower, walking up and down Lombard street, truffles at XOX, walking along the Marina, waiting for a table at Antica, snogging on the way to the bar, and singing Karaoke. It was a very memorable trip.
I'm looking forward to many more adventuresome trips. I'm going camping again this weekend which should be fun.
My ribs seem to be healing up, I can actually lay on my side again and I've started lifting weights again. I saw the doctor and he gave me some pain meds and some stuff for my nose. The combination of allergies and a bruised/cracked rib was agonizing. Both seem to be working.
Until next time, check out my recently posted pics and El's PCT blog. Ciao.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Faceplant on the cobblestones
For my last few hours in Budapest I wandered the very modern pedestrian mall along Vaci Utca which ends at the Great Market Hall. I took a quick tour of the market and then grabbed a bite to eat and a beer at the Red Cafe on Raday Utca. I got lots of practice in riding the Metro around, since I had to get the most value out of my time. Several Metro rides later I had my pack and was back at Budapest Keleti Station. I got there just as they were announcing which platform the over-night train to Krakow was leaving from. I was a bit too early because I climbed on what I thought was my car and was surprised to see that I had reserved a sleeper and there was only benches. I sat there for awhile grumbling to myself until I felt the jolt of additional cars being added to the end of the train. It occurred to me then that it wouldn't make sense to have been dragging around sleeper cars during the day, so I jumped off and found the right car which had just been attached. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I had a very nice room all to myself. It would normally fit three, but it was just me this time. There was even a sink, mirror, drinking water, and even a little chocolate filled crossaint in the room. I took a moment to brush my teeth and get comfy for sleep. I tried each of the bunks out, the middle one was the coziest but I couldn't figure out how to raise the guardrails and since I was paranoid about falling out in the middle of the trip I took the lumpier, but safer bottom bunk. I'm definitely a fan of train travel, if it's an option, versus airplanes.
My adventure is almost at its end. I have to say it was much less trying than I presumed. I'm not home yet, but I feel like the hardest part is over. Time to try to get some sleep now before we hit the passport control. I will cross two borders tonight as we travel across Slovakia. I will have to wake up for each stop just long enough to get stamped out of one country and into the next.
...
I'm feeling well traveled now. I'm sore and not just from the long journey and the lumpy beds, but also because I took a nasty spill on the cobblestones while walking in Krakow this morning. After I arrived at 6:20 I put on my heavy backpack and hiked towards old town in search of a place to stay for the night. I hadn't bothered to reserve anything this time and was relying on pure luck. I had waved off all the tourist vultures that had swarmed me with their promises of cheap rooms for rent at the train station as I disembarked. As I was crossing into old town I stepped onto a ragged patch of sidewalk and started to turn my ankle. Now normally I would have recovered gracefully, since I've walked on much rougher terrain during this trip, but with my fully loaded backpack on I was over-balanced and could not correct in time. It seemed like it took for ever for me to go down and eventually hit the ground as I made a valiant attempt to stay upright. The momentum carried me a good ten feet from my original misstep. I connected with the cobblestones hard on my right side and then did a half roll to my back, but the pack stopped me from turning over completely. At least this time I did not break my fall with my elbow. The wind was knocked out of me, but everything seemed to be intact. After an awkward moment of trying to stand up with my bag weighing me down I did a quick damage report and continued, albeit slightly less energetically, on my search for a room.
It only took me three tries to find a place with vacancy for the night. It was at the aptly named "Bed & Breakfast" just a couple blocks from the main square in old town. The room is funky with low ceilings and furnished like a college dorm room, but it is cheap and convenient and most importantly available. After checking in I took a shower, patched up a scrape on my leg from the fall, changed clothes, and grabbed breakfast in the dining room. By this time it was 8:00 and time to get reunited with my abandoned luggage waiting for me at Biprostal. I hopped the tram and was whisked off to the office. Luckily I wasn't the first one there in the morning so I could be let in and get repacked. It was good to see everyone again.
I was excited to get my laptop back and start doing some serious publishing, emailing, and such, but just as I was diving in I started experiencing technical difficulties. I was draining power from the battery despite being plugged into the wall, and fiddling with the adapter would give me short bursts of power but nothing else. Soon I started to smell melting and burning plastic. I reached down to look at the adapter again and burned my hand on the cable. On closer inspection the cable leading from the adapter to the laptop had become frayed and started to fail, copper wires were exposed and melting the plastic covering. I shut everything down immediately. Unfortunately I cannot get a replacement here and not having power will severely limit the laptop's usefulness. Once again, Paul came through and lent me his spare laptop for all my internet needs while I'm here at the office. I really hope I get to continue working with him and his team in the near future.
Tonight there is a going away party for Szymon, who is leaving for another job, and marginally for me as well since I am leaving for home in the morning. It isn't clear yet whether Marcin will be leaving on the same flight or coming later. There have been some major hiccups at Lunar Logic while I was away. All liaison positions have been dissolved, so this may be my last official business trip to Poland. I am very frustrated with LL right now and the position I have been put in, being sent on a fool's errand. At least Marcin feels that having me here for a little over a week was beneficial to his team.
See you all very soon.
My adventure is almost at its end. I have to say it was much less trying than I presumed. I'm not home yet, but I feel like the hardest part is over. Time to try to get some sleep now before we hit the passport control. I will cross two borders tonight as we travel across Slovakia. I will have to wake up for each stop just long enough to get stamped out of one country and into the next.
...
I'm feeling well traveled now. I'm sore and not just from the long journey and the lumpy beds, but also because I took a nasty spill on the cobblestones while walking in Krakow this morning. After I arrived at 6:20 I put on my heavy backpack and hiked towards old town in search of a place to stay for the night. I hadn't bothered to reserve anything this time and was relying on pure luck. I had waved off all the tourist vultures that had swarmed me with their promises of cheap rooms for rent at the train station as I disembarked. As I was crossing into old town I stepped onto a ragged patch of sidewalk and started to turn my ankle. Now normally I would have recovered gracefully, since I've walked on much rougher terrain during this trip, but with my fully loaded backpack on I was over-balanced and could not correct in time. It seemed like it took for ever for me to go down and eventually hit the ground as I made a valiant attempt to stay upright. The momentum carried me a good ten feet from my original misstep. I connected with the cobblestones hard on my right side and then did a half roll to my back, but the pack stopped me from turning over completely. At least this time I did not break my fall with my elbow. The wind was knocked out of me, but everything seemed to be intact. After an awkward moment of trying to stand up with my bag weighing me down I did a quick damage report and continued, albeit slightly less energetically, on my search for a room.
It only took me three tries to find a place with vacancy for the night. It was at the aptly named "Bed & Breakfast" just a couple blocks from the main square in old town. The room is funky with low ceilings and furnished like a college dorm room, but it is cheap and convenient and most importantly available. After checking in I took a shower, patched up a scrape on my leg from the fall, changed clothes, and grabbed breakfast in the dining room. By this time it was 8:00 and time to get reunited with my abandoned luggage waiting for me at Biprostal. I hopped the tram and was whisked off to the office. Luckily I wasn't the first one there in the morning so I could be let in and get repacked. It was good to see everyone again.
I was excited to get my laptop back and start doing some serious publishing, emailing, and such, but just as I was diving in I started experiencing technical difficulties. I was draining power from the battery despite being plugged into the wall, and fiddling with the adapter would give me short bursts of power but nothing else. Soon I started to smell melting and burning plastic. I reached down to look at the adapter again and burned my hand on the cable. On closer inspection the cable leading from the adapter to the laptop had become frayed and started to fail, copper wires were exposed and melting the plastic covering. I shut everything down immediately. Unfortunately I cannot get a replacement here and not having power will severely limit the laptop's usefulness. Once again, Paul came through and lent me his spare laptop for all my internet needs while I'm here at the office. I really hope I get to continue working with him and his team in the near future.
Tonight there is a going away party for Szymon, who is leaving for another job, and marginally for me as well since I am leaving for home in the morning. It isn't clear yet whether Marcin will be leaving on the same flight or coming later. There have been some major hiccups at Lunar Logic while I was away. All liaison positions have been dissolved, so this may be my last official business trip to Poland. I am very frustrated with LL right now and the position I have been put in, being sent on a fool's errand. At least Marcin feels that having me here for a little over a week was beneficial to his team.
See you all very soon.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Bathing with the locals
I spent all day wandering Andrassy Utca, one of the main drags that goes from the center of Pest out the the city park. It had been raining lightly all day, but not so heavy that I've felt the need to hide indoors. Along the way I visited the Terror Museum, which documents Hungaries occupation first by the Nazis and then by the Soviet Union. It was a very modern museum with very dramatic displays and impressive use of technology. The main atrium is very memorable, with a massive Soviet tank filling the space and a wall stretching up three floors with pictures of victims. The exhibit starts at the top and you work your way down to the first floor (that's the 2nd story to you American types). From there you take a very slow elevator ride down to the basement while a short DVD plays on a flatscreen in the elevator describing the execution procedure. At first I was confused why they wanted to shuffle me into the elevator, I was fine using the stairs I told them and went looking for some, but the museum staff persisted and eventually ushered me into the elevator with the rest of the waiting tourists.
At the end of Andrassy Utca is Heroes Square with a massive group of monuments and statues dedicated to the greatest Hungarians in history. Behind Heroes Square a bridge led to the City Park, built in 1896 to celebrate Hungary's 1000th birthday. There was a replica of a Transylvanian castle, during the time Hungary ruled that part of the continent, lots of paths to wander, a zoo, and the Szechenyi Baths. By far the greatest attraction is the Baths, and so far my most favorite experience here in Budapest. Built in Roman and Turkish style, the outside baths are massive and opulent. I borrowed a suit and towel and strutted my stuff around the hot baths along with the hairy, pot-bellied, and speedo-clad men playing chess in the baths. The water was so warm and rejuvinating, it felt so good to just float around and stand under the spouts of water. The light rain ceased to matter. Unfortunately I wasn't aloud to take pictures while in the baths, besides there was nowhere to put my camera once I got stripped down. I spent about two hours lounging around in the baths before continuing on with my day.
After getting dried off, dressed, and back on the street it was time for a late lunch. I found a nice cafe around the corner from the zoo and had a delightful meal, complete with a couple of glasses of Hungarian sweet wine, Tokaji. Next I strolled through the zoo, which wasn't anything special, but since I was there it was a nice way to spend half an hour.
I rode the Metro back towards the center of town. The orange line plays these cute little musical ditties when you pull into and leave a station. I was whistling along with them in no time. I got off at the Opera station because I'd read there was a decent internet cafe nearby. Lo and behold, I have found it and it is good. I will save posting my last pictures for when I get back to Krakow. I can use my laptop and the internet at the office which will be much more enjoyable and less expensive.
I leave for Krakow on the night train at 19:10, just three hours from now. I'm not sure what I'm going to fill the remaining time with. Talk to you all again soon.
At the end of Andrassy Utca is Heroes Square with a massive group of monuments and statues dedicated to the greatest Hungarians in history. Behind Heroes Square a bridge led to the City Park, built in 1896 to celebrate Hungary's 1000th birthday. There was a replica of a Transylvanian castle, during the time Hungary ruled that part of the continent, lots of paths to wander, a zoo, and the Szechenyi Baths. By far the greatest attraction is the Baths, and so far my most favorite experience here in Budapest. Built in Roman and Turkish style, the outside baths are massive and opulent. I borrowed a suit and towel and strutted my stuff around the hot baths along with the hairy, pot-bellied, and speedo-clad men playing chess in the baths. The water was so warm and rejuvinating, it felt so good to just float around and stand under the spouts of water. The light rain ceased to matter. Unfortunately I wasn't aloud to take pictures while in the baths, besides there was nowhere to put my camera once I got stripped down. I spent about two hours lounging around in the baths before continuing on with my day.
After getting dried off, dressed, and back on the street it was time for a late lunch. I found a nice cafe around the corner from the zoo and had a delightful meal, complete with a couple of glasses of Hungarian sweet wine, Tokaji. Next I strolled through the zoo, which wasn't anything special, but since I was there it was a nice way to spend half an hour.
I rode the Metro back towards the center of town. The orange line plays these cute little musical ditties when you pull into and leave a station. I was whistling along with them in no time. I got off at the Opera station because I'd read there was a decent internet cafe nearby. Lo and behold, I have found it and it is good. I will save posting my last pictures for when I get back to Krakow. I can use my laptop and the internet at the office which will be much more enjoyable and less expensive.
I leave for Krakow on the night train at 19:10, just three hours from now. I'm not sure what I'm going to fill the remaining time with. Talk to you all again soon.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
A hole in my shoe and a chip in my tooth
I've definitely put on the miles since the beginning of the month. My shoes are wearing very thin in parts, my calves are rock hard, and my legs haven't been in this good of shape since my soccer days. Maybe I should find a team to scrimmage with when I get home, and keep up the hiking routine. I'll need to buy some new shoes first.
I noticed something in the air in Vienna was bugging my nose, it started running soon after arriving and didn't stop until I left, and it wasn't due to cigarette smoke this time around.
My train to Budapest didn't leave until almost 14:00 so I found time in the morning to squeeze in one more museum. I saw a great collection of paintings, and Greek and Eqyptian artifacts. I would definitely recommend buying one of the package tickets, which are good for all the sights I went to see. They pay for themselves after only three visits.
Final thoughts on Vienna: too large to see in two days, I never got out of the center ring. Lots of delicious pastries and treats to be had there. Bikes, skates, and scooters are very popular and useful, but you have to watch where you walk or get run over. It's a very tourist friendly town, but a bit expensive. You can find deals if you look hard enough though. Someone could easily spend a week in Vienna and not be bored.
I made it to my train with plenty of time to spare. I left at 13:52 and arrived in Budapest at 16:35. I ate a simple lunch on the train from my supplies. I managed to take a small chip out of one of my bottom teeth while biting through a stale roll though.
I'm staying at a cute little place here, very near the Parliment building, called Hotel Hold, on Hold street of course. They put me in a small room with the bed up in a loft. They knocked a bit off the price for not having the room I wanted ready for me when I got here. Still, I'm not complaining, I'm just glad they had anything on short notice. I'm getting used to the Metro. Budapest is more confusing than Prague and more spread out than Vienna. I rode down to Raday street, which is the locals' favorite restaurant row, and found a place to sit at the Berliner. I dined on goulash and pasta while big fat Hungarian mosquitos dined on me.
After dinner I took a long walk up the Danube River. I'm staying on the Pest side of the river and I don't think I'll have time to get to the Buda side, so I had to content myself with just taking pictures of it at night. Time for bed now. Good night.
I noticed something in the air in Vienna was bugging my nose, it started running soon after arriving and didn't stop until I left, and it wasn't due to cigarette smoke this time around.
My train to Budapest didn't leave until almost 14:00 so I found time in the morning to squeeze in one more museum. I saw a great collection of paintings, and Greek and Eqyptian artifacts. I would definitely recommend buying one of the package tickets, which are good for all the sights I went to see. They pay for themselves after only three visits.
Final thoughts on Vienna: too large to see in two days, I never got out of the center ring. Lots of delicious pastries and treats to be had there. Bikes, skates, and scooters are very popular and useful, but you have to watch where you walk or get run over. It's a very tourist friendly town, but a bit expensive. You can find deals if you look hard enough though. Someone could easily spend a week in Vienna and not be bored.
I made it to my train with plenty of time to spare. I left at 13:52 and arrived in Budapest at 16:35. I ate a simple lunch on the train from my supplies. I managed to take a small chip out of one of my bottom teeth while biting through a stale roll though.
I'm staying at a cute little place here, very near the Parliment building, called Hotel Hold, on Hold street of course. They put me in a small room with the bed up in a loft. They knocked a bit off the price for not having the room I wanted ready for me when I got here. Still, I'm not complaining, I'm just glad they had anything on short notice. I'm getting used to the Metro. Budapest is more confusing than Prague and more spread out than Vienna. I rode down to Raday street, which is the locals' favorite restaurant row, and found a place to sit at the Berliner. I dined on goulash and pasta while big fat Hungarian mosquitos dined on me.
After dinner I took a long walk up the Danube River. I'm staying on the Pest side of the river and I don't think I'll have time to get to the Buda side, so I had to content myself with just taking pictures of it at night. Time for bed now. Good night.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Tiny little sandwiches
Guten Tag.
Since I went to bed so early I woke up at 5:00. Amazingly enough nothing is open that early. I spent the time reading through my guidebook, planning my day, and eventually wandered down to Naschmarkt, which starts to perk up around 7:00. It was full of fresh fruit, dried fruit, olives, meat, pastries, all kinds of vinegar, wine, spices, T-shirts, sunglasses, and other junk. I had fun wandering up and down the market for awhile since it was near my hotel. When the internet shop opened I was all over it. I'm addicted to email, I admit it. If I kept track, I think internet expenses would be second on my list next to food.
After I had my fill of posting pics, updating blogs, and sending emails I went back to the Hapsburg Palace and toured the treasury. I've never seen so many bejeweled scepters, robes, and crowns before. They also have enough reliquaries filled with pieces of the original cross, the blood of Christ, and fragments of bones of saints to reconstruct the entire Catholic pantheon two times over. Overall it was pretty neat, even with the constant clicking of the motion trackers in each room reminding you that you're being watched all the time.
I stopped for finger sandwiches at Trzesniewski Buffet and a tiny beer. It was fun to just point at random sandwiches that looked tasty and try them out. Fast, cheap, efficient, I would do it again.
Next I took a tour of the Opera house. They only have two tours a day this time of year so it was pretty busy at the first tour of the day. I watched a tiny French woman worm her way in front of me in line, she even glared at me at one point when I asserted my position. Of course there wasn't a shortage of tickets so I'm not quite sure what her problem was. I overheard many visitors proclaiming loudly in line that they "sure hope they speak English in there". Gotta love American tourists. Our tour guide was Austrian with a very thick accent. It reminded me of Harrison Ford's feigned German accent in the Last Crusade when he claimed to be at the castle to "inzpect ze tapeztries!" especially when our guide kept pointing out all the tapestries. Not many of my pictures turned out well inside, mostly because I was gun-shy about using the flash inside what I considered museums after being barked at in the last cathedral. That didn't stop most of the other tourists, they were all happily flashing away. Oh well. The tour seemed rather short to me, but I had busy day planned so I didn't mind so much. We were warned that all operas and ballets are sold out months in advance and that a very few standing room tickets are available an hour before the show, but that people line up early in the morning just for a chance to get them during the popular operas. Tonights opera was going to be Swan Lake. I decided not to wait in line for standing room tickets. It would have been great to see a show there, but I had too much else I wanted to accomplish. Maybe next time, I can book long in advance.
After the tour, I sat down outside and savoured a cup of coffee as I wrote in my journal and flipped through the sights in my guidebook. Next stop was the New Palace Museum back at the Hapsburg Palace. They have a great military, musical instrument, and Greek artifact collection. Plus I was able to wander the beautiful marble halls of the palace.
I decided to walk the entire old town ring and take pictures next. I had taken the tram around the ring the day before, but we zipped past all the sights too quickly to get decent pictures. I made it about a quarter of the way, near City Hall before I was hungry so I stopped at the park and ate more food from my magic backpack. I had taken some time earlier in the morning to restock on cheese, rolls, trail mix, apples, and water.
By the time I got all the way around the ring it was time for more internet and then dinner. I wandered back toward Bermuda Triangle and found the closest cafe to St. Ruprechts monastery, Zum Kuchldragoner. I had a tasty burger, potato wedges and a beer. After that I started a self guided pub crawl. It was short but fun.
The internet cafe closes in 5 minutes so I have to wrap this up. Good night all!
Early train to Vienna
Somehow I was still able to wake up in time and catch my train to Vienna the next morning. We left Prague main station and 6:23 in the morning. My breakfast consisted of things I found in my backpack. Most of it was still good, but the cheese was a bit sweaty, probably from being in my bag so long, so I avoided that. I took a nap on the train, but when I woke up we were in Marchegg, which didn't seem right to me at all, it was on the wrong side of Vienna. I checked my watch and it was later than we were supposed to arrive. I panicked for a moment thinking I missed my stop, but it just turned out we had taken a long detour due to some flooding on normal track. We arrived about two hours later than planned. As a side note I noticed my watch it broken. The knob came off, so it still tells time, but I won't be able to change it back when I fly home. Something is trying to tell me to stay in this time zone.
I got some Euros, grabbed a map, bought my ticket to Budapest for Tuesday, and then wandered off in the direction of my hotel. The Hotel Admiral is nice enough, although the room is tiny. At least there are no ants in the bed and I have a private bathroom and shower. I really needed that shower by the time I got to the hotel. After refreshing a bit I starting wandering around town.
So far my impression of Vienna is that it is bigger, more modern, the sights are farther apart and generally larger sites, the city is cleaner, and classier, but it's a bit more boring. Prague is definitely seedier. While I was there I was approached many times by drug dealers, sex workers, and varies scam artists. I even saw some racy nude pictures being taken on Charles Bridge in broad daylight amongst the tourist crowds. You have to stay on your toes and keep your eyes open in Prague, but it's a fun and lively place to be. I'll give Vienna more time though to charm me.
I did a quick tour of the major sites near old town, swinging by the Opera House, St. Stephen's, the Hapsburg Palace, and various other sites. Later I wandered up to the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, where most of the trendy pubs & clubs are, right near an old monastery. It always seems like the good places are near monasteries. I wonder why that is.
I went to bed early last night and caught up on my sleep. I really needed it, and once again my feet were tired.
I got some Euros, grabbed a map, bought my ticket to Budapest for Tuesday, and then wandered off in the direction of my hotel. The Hotel Admiral is nice enough, although the room is tiny. At least there are no ants in the bed and I have a private bathroom and shower. I really needed that shower by the time I got to the hotel. After refreshing a bit I starting wandering around town.
So far my impression of Vienna is that it is bigger, more modern, the sights are farther apart and generally larger sites, the city is cleaner, and classier, but it's a bit more boring. Prague is definitely seedier. While I was there I was approached many times by drug dealers, sex workers, and varies scam artists. I even saw some racy nude pictures being taken on Charles Bridge in broad daylight amongst the tourist crowds. You have to stay on your toes and keep your eyes open in Prague, but it's a fun and lively place to be. I'll give Vienna more time though to charm me.
I did a quick tour of the major sites near old town, swinging by the Opera House, St. Stephen's, the Hapsburg Palace, and various other sites. Later I wandered up to the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, where most of the trendy pubs & clubs are, right near an old monastery. It always seems like the good places are near monasteries. I wonder why that is.
I went to bed early last night and caught up on my sleep. I really needed it, and once again my feet were tired.
Towers & Pubs
For my last day in Prague I went back to a few sights to explore them more. First I climbed the old town clock tower to take a few pics of the square. Then I took a quick tour of the Monastery library, which was quite impressive, but I somehow managed to buy the ticket that made you stand on the other side of the rope from the best parts of the library while you watched more important people get a guided tour in those areas. Still very impressive collection and the library itself was beautiful. Worked my way back to the castle and braved the crowds outside the gates and cathedral. I ended up spending more time waiting to buy a ticket than to get inside the cathedral. It was amaying inside. I walked around the nave and apse, down into the crypt and up into the tallest tower. The narrow spiral stone staircase was jam packed with people going up and also trying to squeeze past on their way down. There were 287 steps in the tower, but I lost count after 190. Once at the top I took my time and lots of pictures to make it seem worth the hassle. Then I pushed and shoved my way back down the stairs. I think I may have crushed a few children and grandmothers along the way. It was every man for himself in there... horrible. I managed to lose my ticket in the crush somewhere, so I couldn't get into any of the other sights in the castle, but I think I saw what I wanted to anyways.
That evening I went on a guided pub crawl. They promised one beer at each place and dinner at some point along the way. We gathered under the astronomical clock and was surprised to see a rather attractive young gal gathering the money and handing out tickets for the tour under her bright yellow umbrella. All the tour guides use some sort of device like this to herd their tourists around. You see many umbrellas, sometimes a flower on a stick, and other times more interesting choices of icons. Anyways after everyone was gathered and paid up they did the old bait and switch move as the umbrella was taken by a balding guy in his late 30s, named Radk, who would be taking us on our tour. It seemed more appropriate at least, I would expect our pub tour guide to look like he spent most of his time in the pubs, not a fresh faced girl with hopes and dreams. Our crew was made up mostly of Brits, Aussies, a couple of Germans, and three Americans, including myself, and of course Radk, our Czech guide. I struck up a conversation with him about the tour. He doesn't actually get to pick the pubs at all, they are chosen by the tour company and change only infrequently. I was disappointed to hear that, but it lined up with what I suspected. Radk was a decent guide and personable enough, but it did feel like we were being hustled through our tour as efficiently as possible. We ended up at three different spots, none of which had much character or would have been a place I would have chosen on my own. Dinner was a non-event, your choice of chicken, goulash, or fried cheese and french fries. I went with fried cheese, and I think I got the best out of the bunch from what I overheard. After the last pub Radk walked us back to the clock tower and said good night. I thought about heading back to bed, since my train was leaving at 6:23 the next morning, but it was my last night and I didn't want to end it with a disappointment.
I ended up finding the discoteque that the guys in Krakow told me about, right near the Charles Bridge, which has five floors of bars, djs, and dance floors. It was fun to wander between floors and check the scenes, but only two floors had much going on at all. I had a Red Bull & vodka and watched the people dance, not feeling too dancy myself. I was glad to see they had free internet (well cover was stiff enough so it had better be free) so I plopped down for a bit and did some emailing until my terminal crashed. I finished my drink and wandered home.
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