Slow Start

It's been pretty slow these first couple days at work. Our lead is waiting for two more people to join the team before he really gets into training us. So I'm stuck reading ConOps and what not. It's not all bad I guess. It would be nice to have my own apartment ready to roll though. I've been living with a couple guys that came out here and we're basically in an empty apartment waiting for furniture to get here. I bought a blow up mattress for the time being.

The weather has been pretty nice. Highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's. I'm slowly learning the roads and what not and finding many places to go. This weekend I'm planning on finding some hiking trails in the mountains. Hopefully I don't need boots. I didn't bring my camera so I'll probably buy another one since Jen and I were thinking of getting one anyway. So hopefully in the coming blog entries I'll have some pics to show of the area.

Travel Mix Up

So I was supposed to leave today for Sunnyvale. My Administrative assistance booked a flight with a layover so I called the travel agency myself to see if I could get a direct flight. After some time looking for flights the lady said she had something that flew out a few hours later so I took it. I waited a few hours and then I went online to check in. When I tried checking in the site said I couldn't check in until 24 hours before my flight. I thought something was messed up so I looked at my new itinerary. It said my flight was for tomorrow at 5 not today at five. So I called back and all flights were sold out. Pretty crappy since I was supposed to start tomorrow. So I told them to rebook my hotel and car for Monday instead of today. Hopefully my new boss understands the mix up. I don't really mind that much since it's another day I get to spend with Hayley.

Sunnyvale...First Impressions

Busy Busy Busy. Did I mention it's busy out here? The view is nice because there are mountains on both sides of the city but it seems like every inch of real state is used and there's not a lot of parks and open area until you get to the Mountains. Live close to work that's my suggestion, unless you want to spend a lot of time in traffic. The roads around here have got to be the worst signed roads of anywhere I've ever been. Although the roads aren't as bad as New Jersey, the home of the jug handles, they come in a close second. Painted lines marking the lanes of traffic suddenly end and when you go around a curve you have no clue if you're in the same lane. If you can get around that part of it things will most likely be fine. So far I like Clearwater a lot better then this area. I think mainly cuz I liked being so close to the Gulf and roller blading on the causeways. Although I can't complain about the weather here, it's been in the 70's both days and seeing the sun is nice.

I spent most of Tuesday looking at apartments and I looked at one today. I think I'm going to take the one I saw today. It's a 720 unit complex which is huge, but it comes with a lot of conveniences like an onsite store that will deliver to your door, dry cleaning service, a fitness facility that would rival any major fitness center like Bally's and a spa with a massage parlor. It comes at a pretty stiff price tag though, $1840 a month. I budgeted $1800 so it's not too bad. It's also only 3 miles from work so not having to drive will help with the extra cost. I just may break out the roller blades again and roller blade to work everyday or buy a bike. Most of the roads around here have bike lanes.

The Lockheed campus here is huge. Lockheed in Eagan has just under a 1000 employees, there are well over 7000 here. I'd say the campus has more buildings and is definitely bigger then the St Cloud State campus. It's a city within itself. I saw my cube and I'll be over looking a huge atrium on the forth floor. It's by far the best cube I've had at Lockheed. So I'm looking forward to that. It's kind of weird cuz there are umbrellas on the ledges of the atrium over the place and nobody seems to know why. It adds the feel of being on the beach. I found out that the task I've been assigned to way behind. Nothing like finding out you're behind schedule before you even start. So my team is going to be challenged to get back on schedule.

The Yahoo campus is across the street from Lockheed, I counted 4 buildings that I think are part of Yahoo. We made a trek up to Google as well. Not that it’s anything special but it’s kind of cool to see the major tech company’s head quarters. There’s also a ton of empty office space left over from the dot com bust.

Well that's enough babble for one day.

Teaching

I now know how it feels to suck at teaching. I feel really bad for my students cuz I had no clue what I as doing today. (or last time out for that matter) I felt like I had a good idea what needed to cover before the class started. When the class started I decided it would be best to forget everything. It was brutal. I felt like I was in one of those "wanna get away" commercials.

Before I started I thought teaching would be a lot like being a sales person. A sales person basically teaches a customer about the product they're selling. I was pretty decent at selling so I thought I'd be good at teaching. My over confidence killed me. If students didn't know OOAD before I started they definitely don't know it now. I'm thinking it's pay back for all the teachers I ripped on in college. Although this is self inflicted cuz I should've spent a lot more time preparing for this class. We'll see if I can redeem myself next Monday. But I'm not that confident about it.

Bowling Blues

Our team is on a roll. We've dominated the competition for the last month or so. We went from 16th to 1st in that span. I've raised my average to 189 in that span also. Until the last game of last week I was on a 12 game win streak, which is pretty tough to do in bowling. Generally someone has a big game against you. But things have been going pretty good for me. Until last night. I got crushed by a low handi-cap, 50mph throwing bowler. This guy was getting strikes no matter where he hit the head pin. I swear he hit 10 right in the middle and he'd get a strike. It was unbelievable. I guess the speed of the ball was creating an unbelievable amount of pin action. It didn't help me that I didn't find my grove until the 3 frame of the third game. By that time it was way to late. I lost even though I had a 220. I shot in the 170's the first two games so my average is going to go down. Which sucks cuz I was hoping to end this year with an average about 190. With my rotation in Sunnyvale I only have a couple weeks left to get it above 190. I'm going to need a rocken series next time out.

Miller Bowl III

Every years since Bob bought a house a couple blocks from mine he throws a party. The party starts out with a big football game at the park a couple blocks away. Then it gets rowdy at Bob's afterward. Every year has it's unique events that we keep remembering from year to year. Like the first year it was the Setrum Streak which was basically throwing a hail mary to the receiver that was being covered by the slowest player on the other team. Last year I missed the event so I'm not sure what was the memorable moment. This years memorable moment came from a group of guys playing tippy cup and getting lit up before 7:30 and then breaking Bob's ping pong table. Not to mention one individual going down for the count around the same time. No puking and rallying here.

So it's been 4 days since Miller bowl and I'm still feeling sore. I need to get into shape. These once a year sporting events are killing me. I couldn't hardly walk I'm so sore. But in all it was a blast. Kudos to Bob and Jamie. They always throw a good party.

Next Stop... Sunnyvale, CA

A couple months I submitted my name for a possible rotation on a new program that Eagan was going to get. There were two efforts, one in Eagan and one in Sunnyvale. I didn't really want the Sunnyvale position but I mentioned if they really needed people there that I'd go. Well last week I got an email with an interview schedule for the effort in Sunnyvale and apparently I must have said the right things during the interview because I was offered the job there. I still wasn't that hip on going there until I saw the compensation package. Then I started thinking it over real hard. I inquired family and friends asking for advice. After getting the call that they wanted me in Sunnyvale I told them I'd get back to them the next morning. Well that night I didn't sleep at all. I don't know that I've ever tossed an turned that much over a decision. I still didn't know what to do the next day. I remember being so relieved to be back in MN after my rotation in FL. It was great to have family a couple hours away, I love being able to drive there for a day and being close enough to head back home to sleep in my own bed. We had a Q/A session that day and the manager in the meeting said this was one of the best career opportunities for a young engineer he's ever seen. The program I'll be working on is a highly visible program and the CEO is taking a huge interest in it. So that pushed me over the edge and I decided to take the rotation in Sunnyvale. They wanted me to start ASAP but I pushed the start date out to the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I'm relieved today to have the decision out of the way. I'm going to miss family and friends a lot but Jen and/or I will be coming home quite a bit unlike FL when I didn't have paid trips back. With the compensation package I'll get out there, Hayley won't have to be in day care. That actually was one of my biggest decision makers. Jen will be able to spend everyday with Hayley now.

So it's off to Sunnyvale.