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.

Daycare Bugs

Hayley has been in daycare for just over a month now and she's been sick twice from it. She really never got sick until she was in daycare. Hopefully it's a good thing that she gets sick now and not so much later on in life. Although all the colds I caught when I was younger doesn't seem to help me fend these stupid bugs off as Hayley has spread it to me as well. Although my cold is not nearly as bad as Jens. She can hardly talk today.

Professor setty??

Well I signed my contract with St Thomas officially making me an adjunct professor. If you've known me for any amount of time while I was going to school you would've no doubt heard me bashing the teaching habits of the professors. Well we'll see how I do in this role. I have it easier then most professors though since I only have to teach for 1/3 of the semester. However, the topic I'm covering really takes a full semester to teach so it's going to be challenging.

The Biggest Loser

Yep I'm a fatty. Even though I haven't always been a fatty somehow these fat cells seem to absorb more and more fat making crap. I'm constantly playing the yo yo game... weight up .. weight down and every time it seems the weight gets a little higher. (Dam ice cream) Basically the cycle has been 2 months of dieting and 4 months of being a slob and eating. Now that grad school is done there's no more excuses.

Hanging out at guys weekend the last weekend Green-O and I decided to put a bet on who could lose the most weight (percentage wise) by guys weekend next summer. We'll see how it goes. If I lose 100lbs and still lose I'll still be happy I guess. It's only $50. Our starting weight is Green-O 213lbs Kyle 249lbs. (that's close to 100lbs heavier then I weighed at high school graduation)

Finally Walking

It's been 6 months since she crawled. We figured she'd be walking by 8-9 months. A couple times in the last month she's taken a few steps between me and Jen but with grandma here the last couple days she's off and walking a lot on her own. It's kind of cool to see. She still falls a lot and she's working on getting up on her own now. But she can get across the room pretty easy now. Now if we could get her to stop eating everything.

The Season

Tonight was pretty much our season in softball. We started out 2-4 so our chances at winning the division were not that good. We've turned the season around with a 6 game winning streak so our record is 8-4. This league has no playoffs so there is no chance at winning the league since the first place team was undefeated. The last two weeks we've been waiting on this game. If we can't win the division at least we can beat the undefeated team. It was close tonight, after 6 innings we were down one and up to bat in the top of the seventh. We eecked out three runs so all we needed to do was hold them in the bottom of the seventh. I walked the first batter (my first walk all game). The next batter hit a lazy fly that was caught. The next guy hit a shot back to me and I basically looked at my glove in disbelief that I caught it. Then got my wits and threw the guy out at first for a double play. Exciting stuff even though it's slow pitch softball. I think after this game we should have second wrapped up with two games to play.

Big Win's

This week has been a good week in Golf and Softball with both events coming down to the final hole/inning. During my golf match I was up 2 with 3 to go only to choke 2 away on 7 and 8. So now I'm tied on the 9th hole and he hits a good shot in the middle of the fairway staying well short of the 3 bunkers that surround the green. The hole is only 258 yds and we had a slight wind against us. This guy was a lot better then me around the green so I figured my only shot was to try and drive the green so I put my all into the shot and it landed in the front bunker. He hit his next shot just over the green and I hit mine on but I had a 20 foot putt. He chipped 4 feet to the hole. So I'm thinking just to tie I need to 2 putt and I hit my first putt 8 feet left of the hole and I'm thinking I'm a major choker. Then after a couple minutes of sizing and practice strokes I bang the ball so hard that had it not hit the hole it would've went 8 feet past. But luck was on my side. He barely missed so I won the hole and the match. Our team is in first now. With a good shot to win the first half.

Our softball team was playing the second place team and we blow a 6 run lead in the bottom of the 5th with a horrid error streak giving up 9 runs. We came back and scored 3 to tie and held them scoreless in the bottom of the 6th. The 7th and 8th inning were scoreless as well. So in the 9th, the second extra inning, we scored 2. There first batter hit a ball and our right fielder tried diving for it and missed giving up a homer. The next batter got a signal and things weren't looking good for us. But the next batter hit to SS and we got the force at 2nd. The next batter flew out to center. So they're down to their last out. Seebs moves in at LC and they totally hit it over his head but our RC cheated over and made a nice running catch to end the game. So we leap frogged them in the standings. We play the first place team next game but they're undefeated so there's no chance of catching them.

In all it was a good week of softball.

Truck Blues

The truck is still broke. Ford quoted $850 or so to fix it. So it ain't going to get fixed by Ford. That's total crazy talk. That's like me asking $100 for each line of code I write. Oh wait, I think my employer charges the government close to that for each line of code I write. Now if only I saw even a small percentage of that I could afford to pay Ford to fix my truck. Man I should have left it dead when we found it on the road. Good thing I got inlaws that go out of their way to fix stuff. At least I can repay them with some Hayley time.

Turn your back for 2 seconds

Hayley loves playing in the spice cabinet so while she was playing in it I made a sandwich for lunch. When I went to the fridge for milk I looked down and I had a green daughter. She'd got into the food coloring. I was in shock for a while afterward. I couldn't believe it. So I spent the next 1/2 trying to get her clean. Good thing the stuff comes off pretty easy. Although she ended up with a green mouth and tongue for a few hours. 

Graduation

Yep it's finally over. I went to the ceremony last Saturday and I thought it was actually kind of cool. All the professors lined up and gave an ovation as we walked into the gym. Our degree program was the last out of 450 students to walk across the stage so that took some time and I was 4th from the last overall to walk across. One thing I didn't know until graduation is that Master graduates get caped. Something a little different then undergrad. Now I can push for a promotion at work. We'll see how that goes. 

Minor Cross Roads

I made the decision yesterday to move to a new project. I was working on a legacy system, which basically means the software has been completed and I was working on minor enhancements. My new project will give me the opportunity to work on new development and I'll have the opportunity to refresh my design skills again. It's been a while since I've worked on a new development so it should be fun. The software I'll be working on is a UAV ground station platform. So it should also be interesting.

On another note, I've finished grad school and I'll be attending the ceremony on Saturday night. It's been mentioned in my blog about 10 times now so I'll leave it at that.

Sunday a Mike, Scott and I are heading off to Milwaukee to attend a Twins - Brewers game. It should be fun as long as the 5 hour drive doesn't wear us out. Monday we're going to try and get a tour of the Miller brewery. We'll see how that goes. We're pretty unorganized right now so we'll be playing things as they go.

The Short Bus

I joined a different crowd to lunch today and as we were walking to our vehicles I was shocked to see someone drove a bus to work. It was friggen hilarious. We all hoped on and headed out to lunch. I guess it's not as funny blogging it as it was in person but oh well, not everyone can say they get bus service to lunch.

One Final Left

After going down in a blaze of fire yesterday during our presentation I can take comfort in knowing that I have one final left and I'll have a masters. I figure if I look back on this five years from now I'll have no clue what happend during this presentation. From misspellings on the powerpoint slides to running over our time limit. But whatever, so now I need to get a 80 on the final instead of a 70 to get an A. I'll add another 20 minutes to my study time.

I really don't know what to think of it since I assumed getting a masters would be a lot harder than this was. But I don't feel to bad since taking classes at Stevens University wasn't anymore challenging. Maybe school comes a lot easier when you only take 1 or 2 courses at a time. All I know is that being done will free up another night so I can play more golf and spend my time with Hayley and Jen.

#1 Programmer on the Planet

When I graduated from college I used to think I was the best programmer on the planet. I was the tech lead on all my college teams and I had an actual programming job so I was heads ahead of the other BCIS students that I knew in experience. All this non-sense came crashing down after I met Ben. He made me realize I had to settle for the 2nd best programmer in the world. (I'm actually down to about 25th best now, Dam LM for hiring smart people) **sarcasm people**

Well Ben is leaving LM for a lesser known company called Microsoft. Ben made this announcement a long time ago but I just finally got a chance to blog so I'm writing about it know. I have no clue why he'd want to the leave the world leader in technical prowl for a MS. If you're interested in why he's leaving you can read about on his blog I'm kind of happy now cuz when my MS apps crash I can call someone to complain about and actually get results. Although with Ben on board, MS will produce the best quality software ever.

I am left with knowing that I gave Ben on good idea to use a Hashtable in his code. He only gave me about 300 ideas.

Well best of luck to ya Ben. Say hi to the last of my 7 prom dates for me while you're there. I think you know her since she's a regular commenter on your blog.