Air Travel

How much can people be convinced to tolerate for the sake of traveling? I’m thinking of the frothy mixture of security theatre and customer service atrocity that comprises the experience of getting from point A to point B now… And more interesting, what will happen when we as a species (or as a culture — the distinction is fast becoming moot in my judgement) grow so dependent on our devices and connectivity that to enclose ourselves in the near faraday-cage of a plane will be like being struck blind?

What will happen, of course, is that the appeal of “over there” will be hyped; wherever you are, there you aren’t. Live in Seattle? Well, then, why not go to New York or LA; see the cultural engine of cinema, otherwise you’re missing out! Live in Manhattan? Try the central states for a calm getaway from the rat race, otherwise you’re missing out! How about Wisconsin? The coasts are where it’s at… otherwise you’re missing out!

To have is to want. Something.

It’s not deep thought, but it’s funny.

O hai been scratchin ur records like a dj

I can’t say that this involved any real insight into the human condition. But it made me chuckle on a muggy day.

July and August (And Beyond)

New house, huh.

By now more than a few people who will be seeing this post have seen the house. It’s nice. Really! Please, come and visit! We’ve more or less settled in, and have been getting out into the neighborhood. There are some fantastic little shops and eateries in the area, which is not really surprising given that we’re straddling the line between two of Seattle’s funky neighborhoods.

We’ve been back and forth to Vancouver twice in the last three weeks, once with dad to visit Simon in a planned visit, and once just this past weekend to visit Simon in a planned visit again, just one that he wasn’t really aware of. We sure surprised him! Having a car has turned out to be the right decision, in the end; Char and I had considered the possibility of living without one, but in the end it was not plausible; the sense of isolation, given how stroller-hostile Seattle Metro is, was too much.

Isolation is a big thing in my mind these days, actually; I’m cut off from a lot of what used to sustain me. I’ve been finding myself paranoiacally parsing every tiny communiqué from friends, wondering if they’re writing me off. It’s not helping that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I want to write to all of the awesome people I’ve left behind. I’ve always been an in-person sort of person, and that’s really biting me in the ass right now. I have drafts of emails to four people in flight right now, and I feel awful that I have not written them. I’ve talked on the phone with a few people, but not often enough. I just worry about interrupting or being overbearing or… Well, let’s just say that I am not immune to neurosis, despite having a couple fewer than most of the people I know.

In other news, Char and I are going to New York in October, to see a taping of The Daily Show!

Urgh. Boxes Heavy. House full.

*Takes a breath*

Okay, well, that was fun.

It turns out that we had a lot of stuff. Who knew? I mean, we knew we were going to have to pare down a bit, but the degree to which it happened surprised me some. In the last week we’ve shipped out 2 dressers, a stereo, an end table, some old baby toys, and six bookcases.

Yep, six bookcases. In a case of amazing coincidence, just as mayttvw was tweeting about this, I was cataloguing and boxing 2/3 of our book collection for eventual resale. Char and I are converting to digital, slowly but surely, and this was a necessary step. I’ve kept the best parts, in my opinion, and packed up for sale a lot of chaff. However, it’s still hard; I’ve loved the written word for as long as I can remember, and the physical fact of The Book is a difficult one to let go of.

Honestly, I’m going to miss most the times that Amy and I wandered each others’ bookcases getting ideas; I’m missing that anyway because of where I am, but it’s all the more poignant to know that even if she was here it’d be harder, if not outright impossible.

The Factory is In

C and I have landed in our new place. It’s an older place in an older neighborhood, and holy shit do we have lots of stuff. It’s especially obvious when it’s all packed into a house that’s a bit smaller than we started with.

So, the layout is sweet, in my opinion. It’s got a tiny kitchen, though, which is likely not to thrill @DarwinsMom. For now, though, it’s home. Darwin’s room is just bloody adorable. I’d take pictures, but he’s sleeping like, well, a baby. Another time, perhaps.

Right now, Char and I are chilling out with some local beer (Red Hook IPA — Char considers it a pale shadow of a good Lagunitas) and Netflix.

Tick, Tock

So, what’s new?

Wow… where to start…

Okay, so first up: We sold the house! Char and Matthew went up to Edmonton over the last week, and handled the final sale of our house to, well, honestly I have no idea! Some folks from out east, anyway. It cost us more than I wanted, but less that I was braced for. So, that’s … okay. It means that we’re out from under the threat of mortgage + rent payments, and leaves us in a good position to truly live in Seattle.

Second up: Char and I went out for our first night on the town last night; we left Matthew with a babysitter and took off with a co-worker of mine and his newly-MD-bearing fiancée to have some Thai food (Thanks, Jeannie, Ian, Johanna, and Colin!) and some beers in a very hip bar in Capital Hill (a neighbourhood west of downtown Seattle). A good time was had by all, or so I assume. A good time was had by us, anyway

Next Friday we are having all of our possessions dumped unceremoniously in our new home. I’ve written a bit about it but maybe it’s easier if I provide some locational context:

View Larger Map

It’s a lovely place; smaller than we’re coming from, but we’ve learned to purge already, and I can’t see any reason for us to stop doing so now that we’ve moved. The big concession — and I hate to do it — is that I’ll probably do a book purge. Some Seattle second-hand bookstores are going to get a bolus of nerdy literature in the near future, I think. I’ll probably filter for books that I can replace digitally.

A later post may talk about work. Or maybe not.

Picking up the reins

I’m increasing feeling comfortable with the nature of my job here, which is fantastic. We have such a complex problem domain, with so many teams in play, that it’s a full time job (and more!) just to manage that organizational problem.

All of which means that the tools I get to use are light years beyond the tinkertoy deployment and version management tools I’ve worked with in my own professional history as well as in my personal work. The learning curve for these has been … steep. I’ve been doing nothing but try to figure out how all of the pieces — or, at least, all of the pieces I need to work with — fit together. Nothing I can talk about on this public site, of course; it’s all internal information.

But, I’m getting to the point where a decent fraction of my time is now spent doing my job, which is developing my team’s product and designing the next iteration. It’s a lot more satisfying than figuring out how to do the plumbing work that underlies it.

I’m getting there. It’s a hell of a trip.

Taking my finger off the pulse

I’m an inveterate blog reader, which must come as a surprise to precisely nobody. I read blogs by authors, programmers, and random joes who seem to have something interesting to day. To augment that, I also read community weblogs (Metafilter being the most prominent of that lot).

I read these blogs… too much. I’ve traced this down to a desire to always be abreast of the latest developments in the part of the world that interests me. I don’t want to miss anything. And, what ends up happening is that I miss a lot… just nothing online. What I miss most is being a reader of books. I rarely read books any more because, well, where would I find the time?

To that end, I’m going to try scale back my consumption of blog content. Specifically, MetaFilter and Slashdot — which I don’t follow much any more. I’m not going to stop reading them, but I’m going to avoid discussion threads, and stick to reading the articles. I’m going to pick up more books. And hopefully I’ll find the version of myself that loves reading again. We have a nice back yard coming to us… It’d be a shame to waste it.

Wallingford

I think — and I’ll know by the time many of you read this — that we may have found a home, at least for now. It’s a compromise (we’ll have to store the dining room set, which makes me … sad) but I think it’s a good one.

The neighbourhood is awesome. We’re a 10-minute walk from shopping; farmer’s markets, groceries, and bookstores. Plus, BottleWorks… which is not necessarily a good thing, per se; that is one hell of a beer store.

It suffers from not being perfect; no houses really are. But, my heavens, the location is so good. It’s even right beside an urban garden.

An Expedition up the Amazon

About three months ago, I was contacted by a recruiter for Amazon. Yes, that Amazon. The big kahuna. One of the titans of the tech industry. Some emails flew back and forth, some phone interviews occurred, and one in-person interview as well, and shortly after PyCon US 2011 (which was awesome, by the way!) I was made an offer that I couldn’t refuse.

So, here I am. In Seattle, a resident of the USA, joined by Char & Matthew in what could be at least described as the most disruptive job change I’ve ever had.

I’ve been on the ground here for three weeks, now; today was work day 22 as an Amazonian. In that time, I’ve come to realize how little I know about certain aspects of the profession I’ve chosen; the kinds of technical decisions that drive what I do now are so far beyond what I’d done in the past as to feel like a different job. At the same time, I’m coping with leaving behind all of the friends I’ve painstakingly met and grown to love. It’s a challenge.

It’s a good thing, I think, and once the major problems that face us due to the move — selling our house without losing our shirts, finding a nice place to live here — get out of the way, I think we’ll have no trouble finding new friends and common interests. That said, it’s not going to be the same. I may, if I’m truly, truly fortunate, find friends that will come to be as important as those I’ve left behind, but I will never replace them.

I’m hoping that, like the period I spent in school (that spurred the creation of this mode of expression in the first place) I will write more often in this space. I suspect that I’ve got no readers left, but I’ll be trying to remedy that the old-fashioned way. Please, comment often; knowing that people read these — and having a conversation with them — will force me to keep writing. And to keep in touch. I need both of these things.