I Gots Me a Job!

So, I haven't been really good at writing in my blog lately. I think that's always a sign of me being depressed. But, I now have one less thing to be depressed about. I have a job offer! I actually haven't received the paperwork yet, but it seems to be a done deal.

The job is with a company called Qortex. They are a consulting firm. They were the very first place with which I interviewed when I started this search. I had a great feeling about them after the interview and I'm glad that something is working out with them. They are starting me at a set base salary with the chance to increase it by $5000 contingent upon me receiving two Microsoft certifications. I want to get the certifications anyways so this will hopefully be just the nudge I need. Certifications are a great thing to have on the resume and will definitely help me in my next job search. They also will help with the training and cost of the test. So it's not like I will be out a ton of money to make it happen. I like the concept of working with a company that is interested in seeing me get training. It's really a win-win because it makes me more marketable to their clients and helps my career.

I'm kind of sad on some levels that things are winding down with MoFo, however. The reality is, I'm realizing my feelings toward MoFo are rather complex. On some levels I would like things to just continue how they were because it's easy and a known entity. On other levels I realize that MoFo hasn't really helped my career much. I've done a fair bit of development with them, but they run such a sloppy development operation that my experience has a lot of holes in it. They aren't using any development methodologies or frameworks and that is what a lot of hiring managers are looking for. Also, they don't really examine new programming technologies to see what they can make use of. It's a very lazy environment and that has caused me a lot of problems in my job search. So, I'm happy to be moving on to a new environment that will hopefully help me learn more.

I'm also realizing that my working from home may be causing me distress. I'm a fairly social guy and working from home really puts me out of the loop. For two years I've felt really disconnected and alone and that really gets to me. I'm glad that I will still have work going on with MoFo purely for the money but I'm also glad to be moving on. I guess I'm still a little melancholy while things work themselves out.

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Krav Maga Winter Camp

I spent all day Friday and Saturday at a Krav Maga seminar this weekend. It was very tiring, exciting, interesting, terrifying and exhausting. Did I add enough modifiers? Hmmm.... maybe not...

I was quite scared going into the event because they kept playing up the training tools they were going to be using. One of them was called a "shock knife". It looked like the regular knives that they train with except that, when you pushed a button, it delivered a 7500 volt shock. It basically gave you the sensation of being cut without actually getting cut. The other training tool was called a "ram pistol". It was basically a gun that shot little rubber balls similar to paint balls. It shot the balls hard enough to leave welts if it hit you. Now, I fully admit that I'm a big chicken. I'm a wimp. I don't like pain. I avoid pain whenever I can. So, the concept of going to a two-day training class that utilized tools that caused pain was not sounding like fun to me. In the end I decided to swallow my fears and see how things went. It turned out that I really didn't have much to worry about. I got shocked with the knife only twice (not a terribly big deal) and grazed once by the rubber pellet. All of my stressing turned out to be for nothing.

The training was good because it was a lot of stuff that I had never done. I don't think I can recall one exercise we did that was something that I had done before. This was obviously quite subjective. My buddy Hank was really excited for the training but disappointed at the end because it was all stuff he had done before (he's in all the advanced classes.) There is no doubt that the training was all advanced techniques, but they were primarily techniques that are taught as part of the regular program. One of the things I loved was that I finally got to do gun defense. I've been wanting to do that for a while but it isn't offered in the basic classes. I've watched the advanced class that trains before mine do lots of gun work and I've really wanted to try my hand. Well, I finally got a chance this weekend. While I'm certainly no expert I think I did quite well for my first time and I had a lot of fun with it.

I didn't escape the weekend without malady, however. On Friday morning I hurt my wrist a little while doing punching drills. I think that's my number one indicator that my punching needs some work. I think I torque my wrist a little as I punch and that was all it took to cause some pain. So I spent the rest of the weekend with my wrist taped. Also, we had a massive temperature shift on Friday. It was really warm in the morning and afternoon but snowing by the time we left at 8:30. I woke up the next morning feeling like I was coming down with a cold. That has persisted throughout the weekend and I really hope it goes away before turning into a full-blown cold. I stayed late on Saturday and helped them clean up but I really just wanted to go home because I was pretty wiped out. I wound up sleeping most of the day Sunday.

The final thing they did on Saturday evening definitely has a bit of "the crazy" about it. They had three areas set up. One area was a fairly basic Krav Maga defense scenario. You worked with a partner and the partner attacked you in whatever ways you were comfortable defending. The interesting part came in that the attacker had a knife on them and at some point they would start to attack you with a knife. At that point you were to draw the ram pistol you had on you and start shooting at them. The second area was like a real-life video game. They had a room filled with all sort of defensive positions. Two people were defenders waiting inside the room. Three people were attackers coming in through the door. The goal was to take the other team out. Everybody had ram pistols and the rubber pellets were flying. The last room was the one that got the adrenaline rushing. There was a hallway setup with a curtain at the end of it. You were positioned 21 feet away from the curtain with a ram pistol in the holster. Behind the curtain at the end of the hallway was an attacker wielding a shock knife. At an unknown moment the attacker would burst from behind the curtain and run at you with the knife. If they reached you they would attack you with the knife, thereby shocking the bejibbers out of you. Your job was, once they started toward you, to pull your gun and kill them before they could reach you and start attacking. That one was pretty nerve-wracking. Also, the attackers wound up with welts all over them from getting shot so many times. I didn't volunteer to be an attacker. See my feelings about pain above for an explanation.

So, it was a very interesting weekend and, all things considered, I'm glad it's over. I don't think I could have taken one more day.

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Recruiter Interview Yesterday

I had a recruiter interview yesterday in downtown. I had to go there during rush hour and I slightly underestimated how long that delay would be. The trip was only supposed to take 30 minutes but wound up taking a full hour. The funny thing is that it was the last five miles that took the most time. It wasn't too bad, though. I only showed up five minutes late. As it was they used the first half hour with me filling out paperwork so my tardiness wasn't even noticed.

The actual interview portion went fine. The guy just had standard questions and things like that. On one level it would actually be nice to do a contract with them because they offer all sorts of online training once you go on contract. It may wind up being lackluster but I wouldn't mind checking it out. Free training is free training.

The guy offered me the chance to take a skills assessment after my interview. Basically a technology quiz. They had them for all different topics. He said that taking the assessment can sometimes help land a job because they use it as a marketing tool. Also hiring managers use it as a quantitative measure of a candidate's knowledge level. So I took the ones for ASP.NET and C#. It was multiple choice so that made it a little easier. There were some questions that I narrowed down to two options but couldn't decide between the remaining answers. Some of them were in areas that I wasn't familiar with and so had to guess. Frequently I guessed correctly because I chose the answer that LOOKED like valid .NET syntax. The more you work with .NET the more you get a feeling for the way methods are named and used. That came in handy a few times. After the test they showed me my results and how I ranked compared to others who had taken the same tests. I came out above average on both tests. 20+ points above on the ASP.NET and 10+ points above on C#. So, that was a good thing. Hopefully that will help them find me something.

The recruiter says they have two potential openings which look good for me. He's going to submit me this week and I'll see where it goes. Hopefully things go well.

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Hooray for random movie quotes

My krav maga instructor and I started tossing quotes from the movie "The Last Dragon" back and forth last night. I had just seen the movie last week so I was up on the dialogue. It made me laugh really hard. I'm certain no one else got the references but I didn't care.

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15 Random Things About Me

1. I'm a terrible procrastinator. Actually, that's not correct. I'm a GREAT procrastinator. Sometimes I'm totally on top of stuff but I'm much more prone to putting stuff off. That's why it's taken me weeks to get around to writing this note.

2. I love teen romance movies. I'm a total sucker for those “Hughes-esque” movies set in high school about the nerd and the cool person hooking up or whatever. It's not very manly, but there it is.


3. I have tremendous respect for people in the armed forces. I can't stand a lot of our government's policies but I honor the men and women who dedicate their lives to defend people they haven't even met even if it means doing the bidding of an evil corporation.

4. I enjoy doing small craft projects with my hands. I knit, crochet, make chain mail and make Indian accessories. It only just recently occurred to me that I've been like this most of my life. When I was a teenager I made several of the pieces that I wore with my Indian outfit in the Scouts. I taught myself to knit and crochet and am actually better at it than my mom. I taught myself to make chain mail jewelry recently and have had a knack for it. I can look at a picture of a piece and replicate the weave.

5. I love improv acting and really miss it. Before we left California I had just finished up taking improv classes with a place called ComedySportz and was eligible to participate in their “minor league” shows. I liked improv a lot. For those who don’t know, improv is not stand-up comedy. It’s more like “Who’s Line is it Anyway.” I want to take some more classes out here but haven’t gotten the chance yet. I’ve been doing other things instead.

6. I’m terrible at learning languages. I tend to be a really quick study on most things, but I stink at languages. I have tried to learn French, German, Russian, Spanish and Sign Language all unsuccessfully. The best I can give you is a few words in a variety of languages. I just don’t seem to have a head for it.

7. I may be deluding myself, but I think I’m a pretty good teacher. I’m typically terrible at lesson planning (see item #1) but really good at teaching the lesson. I have to teach my Scouts every week and used to have to teach the young men at church every week. I think I have a style that is enjoyable and engaging. Again, I could be enjoying delusions of adequacy.

8. You remember that song from “Mary Poppins” called “I love to laugh”? That’s me. I love to laugh and my laugh is of the “loud and long and clear” variety, to quote the song. My laugh has garnered me lots of attention, both negative and positive, when we’re out in public. I have received many dirty looks from people around us at plays. I’ve actually gotten a little sensitive about it. I cringe even when people compliment my laugh. I just want to experience joy and laughter without feeling self-conscious. Is that so wrong?

9. I can be terribly shy at times. This totally befuddles most people who know me but it’s true. My wife and I hate going to church dinners for this reason. We hate the whole picking-a-place-to-sit thing. If we sit at a table that is already partially occupied then we may be imposing on those people. If we sit at an empty table then we fear that no one will want to sit with us and we’ll spend the evening alone. Plus, if we get thrust at a table with people we don’t know very well we wind up having to make pleasant chit chat. I know this sounds totally neurotic, but there it is.

10. I play a variety of musical instruments, at least ten. I don’t necessarily play all of them well, but I claim at least a small amount of proficiency. I’m currently teaching myself to play four instruments, guitar, bass, drums and piano. It’s pretty slow going, though, because of item #1. My life frequently comes back to that….

11. I’m terribly retentive at times. Looking around my cluttered office you wouldn’t think it, but it’s true. When I do things I tend to monkey with the little things until everything is “just so.” When I’m doing graphic design stuff something even one pixel off drives me crazy. It bugs the heck out of my wife sometimes.

12. I like to dance. I’m not necessarily very good at it and my self-consciousness frequently rears its ugly head but I still like to dance. I don’t really get the opportunity much, though, and tend to refrain from it even when the opportunity is there. My wife physically can’t dance and is too self-conscious even if she could. So, due to the lack of a partner, I tend to be a wall flower whenever there is dancing. My heart still yearns to be out on the floor looking a great big goofball, however.

13. I frequently throw out movie and song references. Generally all it takes is a couple of words and my mind immediately goes to some movie or musical quote. Frequently these quotes will be from a musical and cause me to then break out into said song. This is fine at home or with friends but gets me funny looks at work.

14. A big part of the fun of live theatre (and sometimes movies) for me is the conversation on the way home. Typically this involves ripping the thing to shreds. Both my wife and I are theatre snobs and have a good enough eye to pick out problems with acting, lighting, sound, etc. Our drive home is always occupied with a long critique of the thing we just got done seeing. Once in a while we spend the drive home raving about how good something was. We had that happen recently and it’s good to know that we can go both ways.

15. I don’t have a lot of photos of myself. If you look through our family photos you won’t find very many pictures of me. Even the large group photos don’t have me in them even though I was at the event. This is because I’m always the one taking the photos. I’m the unofficial family photographer and I like that role. I have even been the official photographer at some of the events. It always makes me smile to see family photos up on people’s wall and know that I took that picture. It makes me smile even more if it’s one that I, theoretically, should have been in. It’s like I’m the undocumented family specter. It’s kind of cool.

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The Power of Blessings

I had an experience this week that really reinforced the power of blessings for me. We had our home teacher come over on Monday night to help me give Karen a blessing.

It's a funny story, actually. I had called him earlier to ask him to come over some time that night and he said he would be over around 9:00. We waited patiently until after 10:00 figuring that he just got held up with what he was doing. We finally called over to his house to see if he was still coming over. He had totally forgotten and was already in bed. We tried to tell him he could come the next day, but he insisted on coming over anyways. He lives just a few doors down so it wasn't that much of a chore to run over here.

Anyways, he showed up and we gave Karen a blessing. While he was here I asked him to give me a blessing to help with my job search. He did and all was well.

The next morning I started thinking about the interviews I had had to date. They frequently involve a technical quiz and that is something that I really hate. I always feel like I'm unprepared and that I don't present myself the best during them. I decided to put together a study sheet of all of the questions I had been asked in my recent interviews for which I didn't have a good answer. So I started researching and putting stuff together. Beyond putting stuff down on the study sheet I did a fair amount of reading in general and educated myself on a variety of topics.

I had an interview later that day and one on Thursday. Both involved technical quizzes and both had questions directly answered off of my study sheet. While there were still questions to which I didn't the answer, I came off seeming to know far more than I would have if I hadn't done the studying.

I know that I was inspired to do that studying and that I would have been much worse off without it. Even if I don't get the jobs I was interviewing for I know that it will help me in the long run and it has definitely become part of my testimony of the power of blessings.

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Phone Interview Yesterday

Yesterday's phone interview went pretty well. It accomplished its purpose at least. They are going to bring me in for an in-person interview.

The interview was actually very short. I think it was over in 15 minutes. The main point of it seemed to be a technology quiz. See my comments yesterday for my opinions on these type of quizzes. I actually wound up not doing too poorly. He started off asking me a bunch of questions relating to C# object-oriented design which I don't ever use. So I was in unfamiliar waters with those questions. Then he switched over to ASP.NET questions. I rocked all of those. That is, of course, because I use ASP.NET all of the time. I found his questions to be fairly trivial. Which is probably how I would have found the others if I had known the answers.

In the end he must have been pleased enough because he said he was going to recommend that they bring me in for the in-person interview. So, we shall see how it goes. So far it looks like a pretty decent opportunity.

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