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Tomorrow is my last day at the Energy Resource Station in Ankeny. I’m actually going to miss working there; it was a great job and probably a vital stepping stone to my new job in KC.

I seriously think Curt’s reference was very important in my getting hired.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to put the finishing touches on the data analysis code I’ve been workin on for the past month. If all goes well it’ll work properly and I can pass the codebase off to Joe and Aaron without confusing the hell out of them.

Since I had such a limited time to do things I am not completely satisfied with the way I solved the various problems that came up. I think I used way too many lines of code to do some jobs, and didn’t have enough code reuse or flexibility. Unfortunately there just wasn’t enough time to do things the way I really wanted.

I mean if I had the time to do things right I would have started with the existing code as a template but rewritten everything for more flexibility and clarity. The original code had a lot of globals and redundancy and hard to decipher variable names (what is y15? what is y5e?).

Ah well, can’t have everything.

steve :: Aug.29.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 5 Comments »

We had movie night at Sam Miller’s house tonight since his wife is out of town. We watched Black Hawk Down, which is a hell of a film.

Now Sam and Sam are playing Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast. This will be fun, and will last until the TV deinterlacer fails and the image goes all to hell.

I predict that Sam will win =|

steve :: Aug.23.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 7 Comments »

I got a job offer yesterday, which I plan to accept. This is easily the most exciting thing that has happened in years.

I have a lot of things to square away before I leave Ames, but I’m looking forward to moving on to something new. My other option rather than taking this job is to stick around for a PhD, which is about the last thing I think I want right now. It will be nice to take a break from school and do something else for a while.

It doesn’t hurt that this will pay better than school does, and I won’t have to pay tuition every semester.

Sam keeps asking what I’m going to buy now, as if I already had the money. I’m actually going to wait a bit before buying anything big. My plans are to first pay off the university and my credit card, at which point I will have no debt whatsoever. At that point I can take stock and look for a car to replace the old Taurus, some decent furniture, and then I’ll take it from there.

I’m in no hurry to spend the money I don’t have yet.

steve :: Aug.18.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 5 Comments »

Go see Broken Flowers. It’s just fantastic.

Bill Murray can say everything by saying nothing, and convey strong emotion while expressing none.

And to think a few years ago I would have just figured him for a great comedy actor.

steve :: Aug.13.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 7 Comments »

It’s been a big day, but I’m done with my interview and can relax a bit. For some reason I _now_ feel nervous while I really didn’t feel that way during the day. Very weird.

I think I have everything in order, application in, talked with 6 or 7 people today. This is the second all-day interview I’ve had, and this was a lot more pleasant than the one at Sauer-Danfoss. Maybe it’s the culture or maybe I am just more experienced now, but either way things were very good this time.

steve :: Aug.11.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 2 Comments »

I’m driving down to Kansas City tomorrow night, and on Thursday morning I start an interview for a job that I am very excited about. Wish me luck with that.

After the interview stuff I’ll spend a couple days with Alex and Victoria doing whatever we happen to do. It should be a good way to relax.

steve :: Aug.10.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »

I’m posting from the Dashboard. It’s fun.

steve :: Aug.08.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »

My parents bought me a suit today. They also bought me a shirt, tie, socks, and a new pair of shoes for my upcoming interview. I really appreciate their doing this (a lot), but I sort of feel bad about it.

For years I’ve tried to be as independent as I can be. Not because I don’t like help or because I don’t like my family, but because it is important to me to do things on my own. I’ll accept help when offered, such as this suit or my car insurance, but I usually won’t go out asking for it. It’s a mixture of pride, stubbornness, and foolishness.

Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago a few of us got together at Erik’s to make food and hang out. It was in walking distance from my house, but I was with Andy already and my car was at his place all the way across town. When I left that night I planned to walk home, but accepted Andy’s offer of a ride. The next day I needed to get my car. I have roommates, friends, and family that would all have been happy to offer me a ride, but I decided to be a stubborn fool and walk.

The path I chose was 5 or 6 miles long, based on the ninety minutes it took me to get home. The temperature was in the mid nineties and there wasn’t a whole lot of wind that day. It was pretty much a disaster. I should have known this going in, but damned if I was going to ask for help. What’s more is that this is not an isolated incident.

When my car broke down and i couldn’t afford to fix it, I walked to work, and when I wanted to meet a friend in campustown I walked there, too. If I left a place with friends but wasn’t offered a ride, I didn’t ask for one. Eventually I started asking for a few rides when I was meeting friends somewhere and they were driving anyways, but I never liked doing it.

Coming back to the suit: I’m glad my parents offered to help me out, because I know I wouldn’t have asked. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

steve :: Aug.07.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 3 Comments »

I’m sitting outside tonight with my laptop and a bottle of Fat Tire. It has been a hot summer so far, and driving half an hour home from work in the hottest part of the day for most of the summer has been uncomfortable. Today was a nice break from that; I don’t think it got much over 80 degrees.

I took a run today. It was hard at first (very hard) but the farther I went the easier it got. At least until I reached that point where I just couldn’t run any more and had to walk home. I discovered some nice trails northwest of the house that I think I’ll run on again. The only problem I had with them was when I went off on a side trail that was little more than a deer track. After a while the vegetation really closed in and I ended up running right through a patch of poison ivy.

Signs pointed out to me that the land was owned by the local YMCA, and I found a neat outdoor stone fireplace with a Y set into the front. I’ll take a couple pictures sometime, hopefully when the light is pleasing.

I wish the weather could stay like this through the rest of August, but I know that won’t happen. This is Iowa, after all, and this short cool spell will be followed I’m sure by some days I won’t want to leave the house.

If all goes well in Kansas City next week I’ll get to deal with that weather instead for the next few years. I suppose that could be a good thing, but in my experience KC weather is pretty much like Iowa weather but a bit hotter in the summer. They do have a very nice set of biking/walking trails though, with plenty of shade in parts.

I do hope the upcoming interview goes well. I’d like to try something new. Something not school and not Ames, as good as it has been for the last 25 years.

steve :: Aug.05.2005 :: Uncategorized :: 3 Comments »