My name is
David Robins:
Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner,
libertarian (voluntaryist),
and student.
This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.
New Arduino, project progress
News, Technical ·Saturday December 17, 2011 @ 21:56 EST (link)
I have an idea for a project, and I remembered an IEEE Spectrum article about a guy that set up a microcontroller called an Arduino to respond to tweets and update his office door ("Send a Tweet to your Office Door", June 2011). I looked into it; it seemed right for the project, based on what others had done with it, and the price was right: the board sells for under $30 (an explicit goal of the creators, a group in Italy). So I ordered a bundle with the Arduino Uno (1.0) and a breadboard and pack of jumper wires, which arrived last week. I ran the Blink example, worked fine; then I looked for something bigger and better. First I had to brush up a little on current, voltage, and resistance—I never took any formal electronics courses, but the Internet has plenty of information, although it requires sifting as always. (The Lounge was also very helpful.)
I wanted remote control, and this post had some great information, so I picked up the Radio Shack 38kHz IR module and connected it to the 3.3V Arduino power via the breadboard and the other side to ground. (I later added a 220Ω resistor, although it was working fine without it, but I didn't want to burn anything out.) In that first trip to the Shack I also grabbed a 9V snap connector (actually I had to buy a pack of them) and a size "M" DC power plug (5.5mm outer diameter, 2.1mm inner diameter) to connect it to the Arduino. It is normally powered via the USB connection, but of course that won't be possible at a remote site. I wired the signal pin of the IR receiver to a digital input pin of the Arduino, and built a basic program around the IR library from this page to decode and dump received input, and then write a basic program to turn the on-board LED on and off when the power button of an old Sony remote was pressed.
The project requires moving a motor, however (or an actuator perhaps, such as one of Firgelli's line of micro linear actuators), but since a motor is so much cheaper I started there. The Radio Shack 1.5-3.0V DC motor I had picked up drew 0.98A of current, or 980mA, and the Arduino is only rated for 40-50mA. I definitely needed another power source.
Back to Radio Shack (and I'd buy somewhere else if I knew somewhere cheaper with good selection, but I haven't found anything, although I've joined a local microcontroller meetup group and will ask there). This time, I picked up some resistors (a few to have around: pack of 5 each of 100Ω, 220Ω, and 1kΩ), an SPST reed relay, and a 2-AA battery holder. The relay allows for opening and closing a switch in another circuit (which might be passing more current) by energizing its coil. Since the relay itself is a 250Ω resistor, I didn't add a resistor there; I just added it in parallel to the existing 3.3V connection, put batteries into the holder (1.5 x 2 = 3.0V) and connected it to the second power strip on the breadboard, and made a circuit with the motor, battery, and the switched pins of the relay. I connected an Arduino digital output pin to the coil (other side to ground) and (once I remember I had to configure the pin to OUTPUT), was soon toggling the motor on and off with the remote, although I don't have a good setting or connector for the motor: I need to pick up some alligator clips and something to hold the motor. I may eventually want to slow it down (first by just using one battery, perhaps, and then with something more complex such as an H-bridge), but I'll see how it does with a moderate load first.
Nonetheless, I was glad to have it working thus far. The next steps are going to be more on the mechanical side of things: picking up bits and pieces from Home Depot to build the frame of the device, a gear to attach to the motor, etc. Eventually I'll want a soldering iron and PCB, project box (a tidy-looking box to put all the non-exposed parts in, with a hole for the IR receiver and motor control leads), and other finishing touches, but it's still very much in the design stage so I don't have to learn to solder just yet. (Keeping this equipment kit link here for reference.)
Text::DHCPLeases bug
News, Technical ·Friday December 16, 2011 @ 00:01 EST (link)
I got Honey a laptop (a Hannspree) for her birthday yesterday; and I went to add it to my local auto-DNS updater (an old Perl program I wrote that monitors the DHCP leases file and updates the local TinyDNS source file for certain hosts). Even after adding the new machine, Riva, it wasn't appearing in the DNS. Turns out that the Text::DHCPLeases module that I was using didn't understand the rewind binding state entry and it was matching binding state and clobbering that value; and my program skipped over items without a binding state of active. I made a local patch, and would like to submit a more general patch but really, the whole parse approach needs reworking using something like Parse::RecDescent or at least more systematic tokenizing and translation.
New range, old range
News, Guns ·Saturday December 3, 2011 @ 20:16 EST (link)
On Wednesday we went to the Wyoming Antelope Club Florida Chapter (only chapter!) monthly general meeting, where we became members of the range ($200, family membership) and ate in the log house there with (mostly older) range members. The general meeting was a fairly informal affair, with updates given by the various disciplines and some general notes from the treasurer. We talked to him afterward about becoming Range Officers; not merely from a desire to volunteer, but also because ROs get to shoot when the range is closed to members and public, and have the $3 daily fee (per person, not family) waived. But more about that in a moment.
I went to shoot for the first time today (first pistols, then, since it's so convenient to our apartment—literally just five minutes drive—again to shoot the SCAR), and wanted to get down some observations, especially compared to our old (outdoor) range, Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club (SVRC) in Washington.
First, Range Officers, as I have already mentioned. WAC (not to be confused with this WAC) has them; there were three on the line and one in the gatehouse admitting people; at SVRC you're your own range master (works out fine except for when uppity liberals flip switches). Their reason for it is because they're in a built up area, with lots of people around. Fair enough. The ROs wear orange caps and T-shirts, with their name clipped to the cap. When a cease-fire is called (via the microphone in the gatehouse), first a two-minute warning is given (empty your magazines; don't reload), then people are asked to make safe and stand behind a yellow line about two feet back from the shooting benches, and the ROs check that all weapons are indeed safe before declaring the range cold. To end the cease fire they similarly verify that nobody is downrange and declare a hot range. There are no mechanical alerts like the buzzer and lights at SVRC but it's quite clear (and easier on the ears).
SVRC does not concern itself with open or concealed carry of firearms in holsters; holstered firearms are forbidden at WAC (unfortunate, because at a range is one of the places one may, if the property owners permitted, open carry a firearm). Also, even cased firearms may not be carried at WAC when the range is cold. And they say only one shot every two seconds (but you can load full magazines "now"; apparently you couldn't at one time), although they don't seem too picky on that and would probably only go after someone whose shots were off-target or was doing double-taps.
At SVRC you put up your own target stands (wherever you like at the pistol range; in iron stands in preset sockets on the rifle range); at WAC, each set of lanes are fixed length with berms at the end (IIRC, 5, 7, 10, 25, 50, and 100 yards), and you hang your target at the end on hooks through two holes at the top of the cardboard (which they provide; at SVRC you must bring your own, although there's usually extra around). Paper targets may not extend beyond the edges of the cardboard, and are usually stapled (or stuck via adhesive backing). Some of this certainly is influenced by them being busier and having less space than SVRC.
While SVRC has benches and lanes in both rifle and pistol areas, the target area is not so divided (except for the iron sockets); WAC has color matched targets and lanes. It's also mostly covered over (slatted wood with gaps over the lanes; not sure why), whereas only the shooting bench area is covered at SVRC. Like SVRC, if it's not too busy they don't get too worried about people using multiple lanes (based on my limited experience they don't seem to be sticklers for any rules except safety, which is how it should be) to have more targets to shoot.
There's fencing to ensure people only enter at the gatehouse, where one of the range officers takes payment, handles questions, etc; it's open at the back (range side) and has a payment ledge at the side.
The membership is also more: $200 first year, $130 subsequently vs. $115 and $75 I believe. Supply and demand, also the facility at WAC is a little nicer. They also seem to have more events at various times. But a downside is that WAC is only open certain hours; some days 1-5, some 12-5; closed completely Mondays and Tuesdays I believe.
So, different but not bad; looks like a good range, and it's great that it's so close. I literally hear gunshots from my office at work, too. Music to my ears.
Avalon at Bear Creek apartments: shady dealings
News ·Saturday November 5, 2011 @ 21:19 EDT (link)
Honey writes:
We moved in to Avalon at Bear Creek on August 14, 2009. Our lease was set to end on August 13, 2011, and we renewed (for a third year). We ended up moving out November 5, 2011 and gave our notice that we were moving out on October 10, 2011, paying to break the least as in the contract. As per the lease we knew we were supposed to give 30 days notice.
While we lived at Avalon at Bear Creek, I thought that I had a good relationship with the management. I always called maintenance right away when there was a problem, and had good conversations with the maintenance staff. We had lots of problems with our refrigerator after move-in. They came over to "fix" it 3 times before finally replacing it several months later. Just to give some insight into the "relationship" that I thought that I had with the staff there. I spoke openly with Glenn Mason (manager) and Melissa Maxwell (and even Christy, who worked in the office) there. They knew when we went on vacation (so they could get our mail for us and keep an eye on things while we were gone). I was very open with them when I had family problems (I lost 2 family members back to back) and they pretended to care. I'll leave Melissa out of the equation, because she moved on to greener pastures after we renewed our lease the first time. On our first renewal our rent increased significantly. When we first moved in to Avalon at Bear Creek we were paying $1062 per month. We also paid a security deposit of $250. Included in the $1062 was an $8 trash charge. Our pro-rated first months rent totaled $617, we paid an application fee of $42 and a non-refundable Amenity Rent/Common Area fee. We lived there for one year and everything was fine; we were invited to continue to live there and were informed that our rent would increase the second time around.
After our first renewal our rent increased to $1251 which included the trash fee and a $30 parking fee for the carport that we were renting. This is the year that my family problems came up and I spoke with the people there and they pretended to care about me and my feelings. Also during this year we went to the barbecue they had for the apartment community and won a $100 gift certificate for the month of September, which we took in the month of October because we had already paid our September rent. I should also note that sometime during this year I overpaid by at least $100 (I think it was $129 because that's the amount they kept over the security deposit upon move-out). At the end of our lease term we received another invitation to renew and while we were considering moving out east (somewhere) we weren't actively looking yet, so we decided to sign our lease for another year. We knew that there was a good chance that we would have to break the lease, but we knew the penalty for that and were prepared to do that when the time came. We also noticed that our rent was to increase yet again to $1434 per month including our carport.
I'll also note that when we renewed our lease the first time David read through the lease, but when we renewed the second time it was my turn to read through and know the terms. While I was reading through it caught my eye that we only owed the apartment complex a 20-day notice that we would move out early. But when we signed the lease for our second renewal I asked what the protocol was for early termination of the lease. I was informed by Glenn Mason that it was 30 days written notice and a month and a half rent to get out of the lease. David started looking actively for a new job around September and we thought it would take a while to find one that would make him happy and a place that we would want to move to, but it only took a couple of months. As soon as David had his interviews and we decided on a place to move I informed the apartment complex that we would be moving out in early November. I was unsure of an exact date because we had to give the moving company a 4-day window to pick up our stuff. I gave them 30 days notice on October 10, 2011 and we moved out on November 4th (lease termination was November 5th). I should note that I paid through November 9, 2011 in full all at once.
We set the pre-move-out inspection and I discussed things with the maintenance manager. I informed him that we would not be cleaning the apartment or the carpet in the apartment (since they would charge for it anyway). I was informed that the prices for these items would be approximately $125 for cleaning the apartment and the carpet cleaning would be approximately $80 (they were actually $135 for cleaning the apartment and $82.12 for cleaning the carpet). I was told the final water bill would also be included in the move-out charges (this bill was $49.21). I was also told that if there was any paint damage that that would cost us as well, but he wasn't sure of the numbers for that. The maintenance manager informed me that as of that day everything looked fine and that painting shouldn't be a concern, at least as things looked to him at that time. I asked if I needed to touch-up any scuff marks on the walls and he told me "No, they are considered normal wear and tear." I asked this question twice and got the same answer both times. (Note: we filled out a paper when we moved in and a paper was filled out for us when we moved out that list all damage to the apartment). Now when we were moving out of the apartment the movers were very careful to not hit the walls or doorways. As they were finishing up the maintenance man came for our move-out inspection. He informed me that he could not do it (or any of it at all) because there was still furniture in the apartment. All the furniture was moved away from the walls in anticipation of the move-out inspection, but the man would not even do a preliminary walk-through with me because it was nearing closing time and he didn't want to "waste" his time. He informed me that he would do the walk-through on his own the next morning (he asked if I would be there to supervise, but I informed him that we had a long drive and would not be present). He told me that he would take pictures and let us know anything he found. I did my own walk-through before we left and saw no damage in the apartment (other than dirt and scuff marks that I had already been told not to worry about twice).
We did not hear anything from them for a while; then one day we received a phone call telling us that we owed the apartment complex an amount of $183.33 more on top of the $250 security deposit and the $129 I had overpaid sometime during the last year because they had found "damage" and had to charge us for four hours worth of painting. They sent us an itemized receipt that had a charge of $160 worth of painting, but there were no attached pictures as the receipt claimed. We called them back after receiving this statement and were sent the pictures via e-mail. We looked at the pictures and could not see any damage except for the dirt we knew we were going to have to pay for anyway, but on further examination of the itemized receipt we saw a charge for accelerated rent in the amount of $186. I called the office in Redmond, WA and was told that that charge was in error and they would inform corporate of this (I spoke to Christy). They did not "take care of it" as they said they would and so I made several phone calls to the corporate office and was told the same thing every time. This charge was not really on the receipt; it was just a separate way they inputted the rent that we had already paid. I knew this was bullshit. I went round and round with them and told them that we were disputing these charges (the accelerated rent as well as the so called damage they were claiming). I waited for weeks before I finally got a phone call saying that the dispute was overruled and they were not going to give us any of our money back. They also told me that they were sending this to a claims company and all our disputes had to go through them.
Out of the blue the next day I received a call from a woman named Jessica in the corporate office and she dealt with post disputes from customers and was the one to explain exactly what happened and try to reconcile with me. I told her the same thing I had told everyone else: I was told that David and I "left on good terms" and that we "should not be charged accelerated rent because we had already paid everything we owed them." She told me that "no, the accelerated rent was a different charge and that it was charged to us because we left earlier than we said and didn't really give a 30 days notice". I said "No, that is incorrect" (I got very angry), and I told her again "no, we left on good terms, I asked Glenn Mason and he was the one who informed me that we left on good terms". She said "the people in Washington are the ones who filed this additional claim against you". I said (in passing) "well, I read my lease and if I recall correctly we were only required to give a 20 days notice, but I gave 30 days to be nice and to make sure I had it covered". She said "You are exactly right, I don't know why no one caught this before, but in the state of Washington you are required to only give 20 days notice". She then said, "let me call the office in Redmond and find out why they are charging you for this and if there is any reason they have a right to, but if it's in your lease then I will personally take the accelerated rent payment off". She also was going to look into the so-called damage they were claiming. I had made the case to her that I could see one or two hours of painting but not four. I said "they could paint the entire apartment in 4 hours".
I received a phone call from her the next day and she told me that she was taking the accelerated rent payment off and that she was personally going to check into the "damage" to see if the apartment complex in Washington was just being petty (she told me that she wasn't able to get in touch with anyone at the Redmond office so she would look into the damage that evening and get back to me the next day). She promised me that she would do what she could, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to help me so that we wouldn't have to pay for the "damage". She called me back the next day and told me that with the picture number #299 showed wall damage and the other pictures showed scuff marks. She said that since that picture was in there there was no way she could take the damage off. She also said "we normally don't charge for scuff marks, but since there was 'proof' of them as well as the wall damage, [she] couldn't take that off".
I informed her that I suspected foul play on the part of the apartment complex and that "I can't prove it, but I think they took a sledge hammer and did the damage themselves". I also told her that I had nothing against her personally and that I appreciated the effort that she put into helping me when no one else would. I told her that when I told my story that I would not say anything bad about her, and I haven't. I also told her that she should have the corporate office look into the dealings of the Redmond office's business practices, because they are less than noble and I didn't want others to be treated the way that we were treated. She apologized and said "I'm sorry you feel that way, I hope this doesn't make you think less of our company." I told her I understand what you are saying, but I would not recommend anyone staying at any of their complexes around the country and that there was no way that I was keeping my story to myself. I told her that no one there could stop me from telling my version of what happened and also what I thought happened after we moved out. I made sure she knew that I wasn't threatening her or her company, but also made sure that she knew that our story would be made public. She told me that I was welcome to call her to chat anytime about anything and that she wanted to be my friend. I appreciated that because I opened up to her and told her what I felt had happened and how I had been treated after my family problems and that the office out there had treated me like I was some sort of criminal (at least in my eyes), and they were threatening our good names and our good credit when we did nothing wrong.
A few weeks later we received a check in the mail in the amount of $2.67! This just feels like another slap in the face after all we've been through because of them.
Books finished: The Golden Age.
Minor mechanical work
News ·Saturday October 22, 2011 @ 16:47 EDT (link)
Finally got the ABS sensor fixed on the Solara (brakes itself are fine, light has been on for a while); took it to Autosys as usual. Also needed one new tire, and got their oil change special. Autosys remains a quality place, with fair pricing (when the Microsoft discount is figured in), and I'd recommend it.
Books finished: The Moral Underground.
Lounge shoot the third
News, Guns ·Sunday October 9, 2011 @ 23:06 EDT (link)
We (Garrett and I, since everyone was technically our guest) took the lounge folk out to SVRC again; perhaps it will become a monthly thing, so long as codgers and sand and boards stay separate. I was there 1030 to a little past 1500; Garrett had to go a bit earlier. There were some other shooters there—didn't have the range to ourselves like before—but as seems typical with "gun people" everyone was for the most part polite and civil. Dmitry, who came to shoot my SCAR-17S (yes, I gotta talk about the SCAR always), asked about people leaving (expensive) gear and guns on the benches while we were at the far end eating, but I wasn't worried. Speaking of the SCAR, this was the first time I had stood next to it being shot, and it packs quite a wallop—but not to the shooter! There was much enjoyment of shooting it by Dmitry, Vu, Tim, and Max.
There was a good sized group, and several plan to apply for membership now, which will be nice; we need a better member-to-guest ratio. The food as usual was excellent—Max and Tim's sous-vide pork and various additions (Christine's brownies were also excellent). Jim's Mini-14 was much better to shoot; last time with different hardware the trigger was horrible; maybe it was cleaned this time (his theory). Tim's Remington 700 in 7mm, wood hardware, trigger job was a delight to shoot (I'm sure the meese will feel the same way), as was his SIG P226; I shot some clays at the end of the pistol range (thanks to whoever let me shoot their clays!); 5 shots, 5 hits, then I chased them around with the rest of the mag. I had been looking at the Elite Dark with the SRT, so may pick one up.
It was good to meet a bunch of people FTF for the first time: Christine's husband Kent; Haidle; I think I'd met Fritz's wife before but it had been a while; Dmitry of course, although he's not lounge; Ron and family; Ben again (new lounger, old shooter), and to see various others again. Although it was damp and drizzly a good time was had… as planned I shot some holes through my map of Manhattan and got some closure for that possibility. Had some feed trouble with my metal AR-15 mag (the one it came with, not a PMAG), but I suspect the AR just needs cleaning. As does everything else. Oh well.
Books finished: Robinson Crusoe, How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes, The Jehovah Contract.
Interviews north and south
News ·Sunday October 2, 2011 @ 17:52 EDT (link)
This is just a brief note to file away dates, written 2012-11-27.
Monday: working on the "RT" (Render Target) abstraction for Word; checked in a fix for region performance improvements: regions should still use GDI for calculations even in D2D (v1), because they're massively faster.
Tuesday: Flying out to New York, NY for Bloomberg interview. Airports are as much fun as ever and I don't miss it. At least someone else is paying! Took a cab to the hotel, a small but clean place called the Da Vinci; it took the cabbie (from JFK) a little while to find it.
Wednesday: Bloomberg interviews. Actually headed over (by cab from my hotel) to Solomon-Page (technical recruiter) first to meet with Darren Ogoff, and then their tech director, Steven Wolff. The morning interviews at Bloomberg had fallen through—a principal had called in sick and they couldn't find a replacement—so I cooled my heels in a conference room for a few hours. Fortunately I had brought a book. Then I had a technical interview with Steven, which went well, although he noted I was almost a "low talker".
I had interviewed with Steven earlier via Skype (I had to create an account). I've still got my solutions to the longer exercises: there was a skills assessment (Excel worksheet), then a question to reverse the last five items in a linked list, implementing a stack then using it to implement an RPN calculator, and some shorter items, most of which were pasted to him over Skype: reverse a string, implement strcmp, reference-counted string, and binary search a string array allowing for empty entries.
For lunch, I went with Darren to a nearby deli and got a pita sandwich, which I brought back to "my" conference room to eat. I really didn't get to see much of the city, although I doubt it would have helped.
I took another cab to Bloomberg, went in, had my photo taken and a temporary ID made in the lobby, then passed a guarded turnstile (using the ID) to get to elevators. I was met on I think the 5th floor by someone from Bloomberg, allowed to stash my bags, and waited to be met and taken the rest of the way up to I think the 30th? floor. It's been almost a year, but I believe I was then taken to an interview room (small room, table, metal chairs, Bloomberg terminal, glass walls, very modern) and interviewed by two pairs of developers.
I don't recall all the questions, although I do recall one that took me longer than it should have: the old "use an array to count frequencies" trick (array[ch]++ rather than, say, using a hash or tree map). They were decently in-depth that I could tell they knew their stuff, but not difficult. Eventually a manager of the department (trading solutions?) asked me some questions then showed me around where I would be working if I got an offer. To be honest, I was unimpressed: I would have part of one long table in a room of such tables; little privacy and noisy. He took me past a display with old Bloomberg terminals, which was interesting, and past a "free food" area which rather put Microsoft's kitchens to shame, where I picked up some chips. I asked if there were any prohibitions on employees trading (outside work), and he said no.
Afterward, I took a cab back to Solomon-Page, since Darren was anxious to talk about the interviews; he was glad they went well (that I was there so long, past, I think, the scheduled time, was a good sign) but I couldn't stay: had to get a cab to the airport to catch my flight. (I was, of course, later reimbursed for all costs, except cap tips; there was a bit of a misunderstanding where someone in their accounting department dropped the tax on the flights, but it was eventually cleared up.)
Thursday: Wheels down, wheels up… I flew out to St. Peterburg (TPA), and was greeted by warmth and palm trees. Freedom Scientific put me up in a La Quinta (Ulmerton and 34th—with a Chick-fil-A right next door, which we couldn't get in Washington). It was a "regular" hotel, i.e., a room with two queens or a king and space to walk around in, not like the rather cramped room in NYC, and probably cheaper to boot. I was also given a rental car (Chevy Aveo). I settled in and ordered a wake-up call to be up in plenty of time for interviews the next day.
Friday: Someone let me in the door (swipe-card access, like most places), and I sat in a small lobby with only an "Authorized Personnel Only" sign keeping me from the offices. I think I met with Miguel first; he was my main phone contact. I was put in a conference room, offered coffee, water, etc., and then questioned by various interviewers. I remember I definitely talked to Sriram and Nataliya, and Glenn (CTO) over the phone (he works remotely, and is blind), then went to lunch with Rob (a director—manager/team lead anywhere else) and talked to Carl (the other director, both reporting to Miguel, VP of Software Engineering) after lunch. Sriram and Nataliya asked some coding questions, where I wrote up solutions on the whiteboard or paper (tree traversal, that sort of thing); the interviews were not quite as rigorous as Bloomberg, but certainly sufficient for screening (if the interviewers are listened to!; the area is a bit of a seller's market).
I recall Rob asked about getting things done, dealing with resistance to ideas, that sort of thing, and I talked about making a business case to build things a certain way to persuade that what I wanted to do was the right thing—which I've done a few times (yes, I accepted their offer; Bloomberg's was higher, but factoring in cost of living and having to live in NYC, not enough to persuade me to work there).
Saturday: They were kind enough to pay for me to stay another day to look around the area; so I went to downtown St. Pete's, talked to a realtor and learned a bit about homes and pricing, and generally explored the area. I was rather expecting to get an offer, and the warm and sun was pleasant contrasted with Washington's rain and perpetual cloudy gloom; and prices for houses and apartments were reasonable, and they were decent-sized, not cramped (or hours of commute away) like NYC.
Sunday: Flew back to Redmond, and made plans for breaking the news to my boss….
Books finished: The Myth of the Robber Barons.
Another lounge shoot, with food
News, Work, Guns ·Friday September 9, 2011 @ 23:31 EDT (link)
1030 - 1500. Ate around 1300. Shot the SCAR-H and AR-15 and Glock 34. Bipod is great. Need to get another one so both AR-15 and SCAR can keep one attached.
Books finished: The Bishop.
8th anniversary - Russell's, Olive Garden
News ·Sunday August 28, 2011 @ 19:06 EDT (link)
We went to Russell's in Bothell (1900) for our anniversary dinner; nice place, good food, then for dessert at Olive Garden in Kirkland the next day.
And so it goes: leaving the west coast
News, Work ·Tuesday August 23, 2011 @ 01:37 EDT (link)
We have been planning to leave here, to go back east to be closer to our parents, to find a place (hopefully in Tennessee or another friendly Southern state) with some space to settle in (and for a range, perhaps, even), and have a family, and reconnect a little perhaps. It has been isolating out here, especially for Honey since she doesn't work and have the connections I get from that (although some CLAMS folk wrought great evil; although I have forgiven, it remains, but I think the positives outweighed). We have been planning to leave here for over a year, but I wanted to finish my Master's degree; and it was finished in July, so now things are beginning.
Speaking of mailing lists ("DLs" or Discussion Lists, in MS-speak), I have been unsubscribing (and deleting folders) of ones I don't really read (e.g., Canucks, Investment, Litebulb); CLAMS has been archived, and others will be closer to the date so I don't miss much (especially msgun and prepare). This is the beginning.
There's a lot to do before actually packing and moving. Of course, first is finding a job, likely via Dice (since I don't want to let contacts on, e.g., LinkedIn know, so I can't leverage them, which may have been helpful); so I'm dusting off my resume (luckily I have a fairly recent one since my Master's program required it, so I'm just cutting and trimming and doing a little reformatting).
We need to get rid of whatever we don't need, either selling if we can get some money (like the DVD cabinet, since they've all been ripped to an external HD), any books we don't need, files and papers and (ancient) journals that aren't needed or can be recorded electronically (with backups), and so forth. There will be more to move than when we arrived in the state (treadmill, set of living room couches, maybe a bookcase, a bed after a tree fell on the first one, although it's still usable; we just got rid of the side cabinets, piano, and smaller items), and this time I expect we'll be loading a truck again rather than having commercial movers do everything (help appreciated!)
It's been an interesting time; worked with and interacted socially with a lot of good people; came into libertarianism, fully—anarcho-capitalism, principled respect for self-ownership, reading the great authors like Rothbard and Bastiat and newer ones like Molyneux and Kinsella. I learned about shipping (shrink-wrap) software: shipping is a feature, and we deliver. I learned that "Micro$oft" isn't the big bad, nor incompetent; it's a great group of smart people that accomplish diverse goals (which may not make everyone happy), although I remain a Linux and open source software user, contributor, and fan. I got to do a lot of fun, interesting, and globally useful development in Word, from the object model to OfficeArt to co-authoring, the drawing abstraction layer, D2D printing, and immersive commenting.
I learned some of the things I want in life and how I want to obtain them and what I will and will not do; I gained confidence and skills, and perhaps learned a little about people, too. Facebook arrived, and we finally hopped on board, and I got to know some people that I'd never met. We want a quiet place to live and grow in a quiet part of the country with friendly but not nosy neighbors, not too close, with fast Internet and not too far from both sets of parents—or from work, if I can't telecommute (which is down). I want to continue to develop the 7 habits.
This stage is done; the next beckons.
Books finished: Liberty Defined.
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