Doug vs. the interweb

October 8th, 2009 3:11 PM

Bumblecats

Margot's cats are the most graceless cats in the history of domestication. They don't lithely slip onto a windowsill when they want a look at the outside -- they bump into lamps and boxes as they leap off of dressers and then jangle their heads against the blinds for the duration of their stay on the sill. They smash into things during their nightly prancing, and knock over both plants and watering cans. They will paw and pry at the closed and locked closet door, but when the utility room with their litter has its door even slightly almost closed, they meow and look sad as they stare at the three inch opening (I saw one of them finally raise a paw into the crack to try to open it, but he levered against the doorjam instead of the door. So close!)

They approach their food like horror villains approach their victims. Food everywhere. Food bits are found flung in all directions, usually including directly into their water bowl, so I taped a makeshift guard onto the water bowl's reservoir. Refilling it today I found one lone food bit perched on top of the reservoir, more than a foot off the ground. I do not understand these cats at all.

Anyway! I was talking about New Mexico last time. I've talked with so many people about it, it didn't really make sense to write more on here, as there wasn't anything left to say. But regardless, here's the abridged version, with New Developments as well.

Basically, my job was put on some kind of indefinite furlough around mid June, due to money issues. After flipping out a bit, I got onto unemployment, and though that would provide very little money, it would be just enough to survive on while I looked for something else. I threw a few resumes to the wind, and got pretty much no response. I found a company in the same town that was looking for a graphics programmer (woo!) and though I did get an interview of sorts, they were in a hiring freeze. I posted it to dice.com, and then suddenly I got a bunch of emails from recruiters -- not sure if that's really a good thing, because the more middlemen you have between you and the company you might be working for, the worse, I'd guess. Then I got an email from a dude that set of a whirlwind of craziness.

On a Monday in late August (I include days of the week for a reason, as you may notice), I got an email asking for a phone screening. That Wednesday, we talked for a while and I was told about a job off in New Mexico, working on refactoring a simulation product for the military. Essentially, they needed people to increase its usability, as well as add 3D graphics output. As the program dealt with things like terrain and ballistics, this seemed like it would be extremely fun to create graphics for. The guy seemed fine with me, and said some actual programming dudes would get in contact with me soon, perhaps even the next day. Since I am used to normal companies that take a few days between interactions, I was quite surprised when I did actually get a phone call the next day, Thursday. I ended up on a speaker phone with the two project leads, and they seemed positive about our discussions. Shorty after the call, I got a call from the original guy, who said they were impressed, and I was probably going to get an offer the next day. A little bit after that, I get another call, and they confirmed they will be making an offer, and sending me it the next day. So, Friday, I get the offer in my inbox, two days after my first phone call with them. They asked me if I can let them know if I accept or decline it by the next morning. So, not even a week from knowing about the company, I needed to decide if I was going to move to New Mexico for them. And on top of that, they said they might need me in as soon as two weeks. A million factors, but I ended up accepting it, mostly for the dang adventure of it. The offer was contingent on the government approving the contract, but they were extremely confident that it was just a formality.

SIX WEEKS LATER

They had no further information for me until last Friday, when I found out that the government had accepted their contract. Meanwhile, I had been calling them quite often, trying to get more information about what was going on. Everyone kept urging me to call them even more, to pester them, and to get pissed off at their delays, but since it was the government that was delaying things, getting mad at the company didn't make sense -- it'd be like someone getting mad at me for the delays. Honestly, I was kind of fine with the delays, because it meant more time here, but the uncertainty was hard to take. The first two weeks were a crazy whirlwind of visiting people because I didn't know how much time I had and wanted to make sure I got to see some folks. Slowly, it became more apparent that we were working with much more time than we thought. I was counting out days, figuring out how much time we'd have if they gave me notice on some day, knowing they'd give me two weeks notice. The cutoff to be able to make it to Ayse and Chris' wedding came and passed, and then the wedding itself came and went. I then started looking at the calendar to figure where the cutoff would be for Halloween. It became kind of a joke, Doug's Last Night in Town. Was it even gonna happen?

I then find out Syandus got a contract, and was starting to get back on its feet. Meanwhile, I had been working from home, trying to get the Hub done, or as done as I could get it before moving off to NM. I actually have gotten relatively few hours in during the past few uncertain weeks, mostly from this pervasive feeling of uncertainty, but also because I've been out of town quite a bit, or packing, or working on things that would need to get done before moving.

Considering the two options, of either going to New Mexico, or of having the contract cut, I saw positives to both sides. Adventure, new scenery, mountains, crazy project, vs. friends and family, rivers and green, not having to break the lease, and finishing this project I'm pretty proud of. Knowing I'd be happy with either outcome made things a little less unnerving.

I finally got notice yesterday, six weeks later, that although the government had accepted the contract, it had to be modified, and a few positions had been cut -- and after trying to decide how to allocate their resources, my position became one of the cut ones. So, looks like I'm staying here.

Luckily, we haven't really done anything too drastic in our preparations that couldn't be reversed. We took down various decorations and packed a bunch of non-essential stuff, but before taking down the nails, I luckily realized there was no need to do so until we knew a date for sure. However, I did end up releasing the prisoners in my aquarium, which was quite a difficult thing to do, but not only did it give me a chance to really clean everything out, but I think I enjoy the process of finding things to put in the aquarium as much as having them. Unfortunately, it's getting quite cold out, and I'm not really sure I'd be able to find anything this late in the season -- but if that ends up being the case, that just means I don't need to worry about all the maintenance that comes with it. Always a positive somewhere.

I'm actually not even angry or anything about the whole process. I feel glad that I gave it a shot and accepted it and was ready to go through with it. I didn't back down from the opportunity just because it would've been hard and strange.

If there's anything I can take away from all this, it's that the universe does not take kindly to know-it-alls. Sometime last year, I was commenting on how everyone was flipping out about the economy, and how I didn't notice a single change. I'd say the last few months have shown that it certainly has affected me, though it still feels like a cop-out to cite "The Economy" as a cause whenever referencing one's problems. It's definitely affected me, but it's not necessarily a negative effect. Yeah, it's pretty easy to see losing a job as a negative effect, but that's kind of the paradox of nature: seemingly negative stuff can have a positive net effect by just stirring things up. Evolution wouldn't be able to proceed without adversity, or at most it would be extremely stunted. I'm not any worse off than I was at the start of the year!