Saturday and solitude

I went down to South Jersey again this weekend. Primarily because Mom wanted me to help her with housework for the upcoming Thanksgiving festivities. Got that pretty much done by the afternoon. Also went to Costco and Target. Had the evening to myself. Watched some TV. Went to Sea Girt for the first time in a long time.

A couple of things:

One, I went to the boardwalk and there was absolutely nobody around. Not a single car. As I got out and started to walk along the boardwalk, I thought to myself, "perhaps this isn't a very safe thing to do". Then I realized that I'm in Sea Girt and I've been there a million times and there isn't anything to be concerned about. It's funny though has the New York mentality has set it, where I'm always assessing my surroundings.

I couldn't find anyone to play with Saturday night. Lauren was busy with Kevin, and Marc was out of town. I guess that's why I found myself back at the boardwalk in the first place. It's funny because I have changed so much of my life since I started going there ten years ago. I've gone to college, made a successful career, taken a job in the heart of Manhattan. And yet, some things haven't really changed at all. I still feel isolated and lonely. I still have so very few friends. I still feel like I don't fit in.

The third thing that being at the boardwalk made me think about was Kyle. She was the one who introduced me to Sea Girt and I was thinking back to that first summer. How happy I felt to spend that time with her, and in a completely platonic way. I sometimes wonder if I can get back to that place. It also got me thinking again about what she said to me a few weeks ago, where she said that "I still don't understand her". It's strange because I would consider her to be my best friend, and at this point my oldest friend. If I've known her longer than anybody, what is wrong with my communication skills where I still don't understand her after twelve years?

In other news, Suzy and Sam broke up. Or more appropriately, Sam broke up with Suzy. He's going off to Germany for a year next fall and whatever. This normally wouldn't affect me much except Suzy and Naomi have formed a newfound camaraderie over IM, and Naomi called me on Sunday afternoon to find out what is wrong with the male species. Ick.

Ok, enough for now.

Fast Times in Long Island City

So it's been a while since I have written anything. To quickly recap since the last entry:

I started working at GridApp. They like me. I'm growing pointy hair (ala Dilbert's boss)

Naomi and I broke up. I feel pretty crappy about it, but what choice did I have?

I dumped my apartment in Bridgewater and moved to Long Island City (Queens, NYC). My commute went from 1:45 with a change in Newark and a 20 minute walk down to 35 minutes (1 subway ride that drops me off a block from work). Wohoo. It also means my $280.00 train fare went down to a $75.00 monthly subway pass.

Something else happened. Generally speaking it was a good thing.

My car got towed the second day I was living in NYC. It's now parked at Mom's house where Lauren is making use of it. I miss my car, but I think I'm going to sell it.

Jen is still pregnant.

Lauren moved in with Kevin, and Kevin's mommy and daddy.

I evidently have Internet access from my kitchen. Perhaps Time Warner won't get my money after all.

Does that cover everything? I think so. Will post some pictures of my apartment when I get the digital camera working again (and the place is a bit more organized from the move).

I am devinjh, not devinh

Oh, and I wanted to view my own Livejournal and discovered there is apparently someone named "devinh". I am not "devinh". I know this because the one post there is about how I've never had sex and like Power Rangers. No kidding.

So, for the record, I am devinjh.

Life's little changes

So, it's been a few weeks since I updated the journal. Here's a brief synopsis in of recent events, in no particular order:

I got an iPod Shuffle for my anniversary with Naomi.
Jen is pregnant.
Lauren's place of employment is being shutdown (Fort Monmouth)
I had my last day at Netilla last Wednesday.
I start my new job at GridApp in Manhattan tomorrow.
Naomi starts teaching tomorrow.
I'm thinking about buying an apartment in Manhattan. Only $530,000 for 600 square feet!

Again, these are not ranked or anything (or else I'm a disturbed person).

Will write more later.

Upcoming Interviews

Ok, so I've got a technical call with Google on Thursday night and a second interview with GridApp on Friday.

First the Google interview. It's a phone interview, estimated to last between 45 minutes and an hour:

I was told to expect three parts
* An algorithms portion (presumably this is to see if I know how an AVL balanced tree works)
* A "brain teaser". I don't know what to expect here other than it being something along the lines of what they had in their "G-CAT" employment test.
* A "coding question". I'm not sure how this will work unless he plans to email me the problem. It's kind of hard to answer stuff relating to code during a phone interview.

If I pass the technical interview, my application goes to a hiring committee. If they decide to proceed then I will go to the New York office for a second interview. There will be between three and six interviewers, and alot of diagramming stuff out on a white board.

If I pass the second interview, my application goes to a second hiring committee. If they like me than supposedly they would make me an offer.

I got the email today with the name of the interviewer for the phone call. Ran him through Google (yes, I see the irony), and I'm really hoping he isn't the guy who helped author the C++ standard. I'm going to get steam rolled.

Now the for the GridApp interview. It's much less formal.

I show up at 1:00. I'm going to meet with the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and do a couple of other interviews. If that goes well then I will take a "test", which will demonstrate that I can do network programming in C++. Of course I don't really C++, so let's just say this is going to be interesting. I've been studying for about a week. I guess they will make me an offer if they like me.

I should have just taken the job at Motorola developing Voice-Over-IP for cable modems. At least then I would feel like I have some idea what the hell I am doing....

It's funny because I'm usually pretty confident about my abilities. I guess perhaps it's just that I'm applying for jobs where I am clearly not qualified.

The hunt is on....

Ok, so a few things have happened in the last couple of weeks.

I'm tired of working at Netilla. This isn't new, but Dan finally talked me into putting my resume on monster.com. Kyle hooked me up with a friend from Google who I sent my resume.

I have been emailing Bill for the last few months since he left Netilla and I mentioned to him last week that I had started the search and if he knew anybody. Turns up the company he now works for (Gridapp) is looking for engineers and that "I would fit right in". So now I have my first interview tomorrow afternoon.

It's another startup and it's in midtown Manhattan. It's a Linux based platform, so I think it could be right up my alley. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if the skillset is a match. www.gridapp.com

On the Memvidia front, the project is starting to actually take shape. We bypassed the acquisition problems (interlacing issues, etc) by using a COTS DVD recorder, so I think this will be good enough for the proof of concept phase. I don't know how this whole thing will work out if I take the new job. I guess it's good to have options.

Don't know what I will do about the living situation if I take a job in Manhattan. Guess I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself.

Kyle and Pete have been in Hawaii for the last week. Would have like to have gotten her advice before tomorrow's interview. Such is life.

Fourth of July went well. On Sunday Naomi and I met up at Rick's house for a barbeque with the rest of the family. Was lots of fun. Later that night, we went with Lauren and Kevin to the fireworks in Bradley Beach.

On Monday we went and did a barbeque at her family's house. Again lots of fun. I really need to work on my strategy for Rook, since I keep getting crushed. Better yet, I should find a group that I can play card games with regularly so I can get better in general.

Ok, off to read this week's book, "The Art of Unix Programming" by Eric S. Raymond.

Aloha from Hawaii

Spent the last week in Hawaii with Naomi. Here's a brief synopsis:

Fresh brewed Hawaiian coffee every morning
Chinatown in Honolulu
Walking on the beach in Waikiki
Snorkeling in Hamauna Bay
Mai Tais at the Pink Hawaiian
Visited the Arizona Memorial, Missouri Memorial, and Bowfin submarine museum
Iolani Palace, State Capitol building
The Bishop Museum
Lounging by the pool and working on my tan
Shaved ice at the North Shore
The view from the top of Diamond Head
Oceanfront Luau
A headache one night, a back covered in sunburn the next, sunscreen in my left eye that blinded me for hours on the third day.

Lots of fun. It is good to be home though and back in my own bed. Back to work tomorrow.

Pictures should be up on the website in a few days.