Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho

I read an interesting commentary on why DRM is bad today. It's certainly something to think about.

Well the interview went well yesterday -- so well in fact that it looks like I'm starting on Monday. I'm a little bit leery of what I've gotten myself into. On top of that, I'm supposed to scope out some estimates for work for eAssist. And the song for Sunday still isn't done. Aye. How do I get myself into this? Last night the Changes That Heal chapters we went over were on boundaries. Maybe I still need to work on that.

Anyway, Devlin is taking me out to lunch today, since I landed the contract. I'm sure he's getting a nice fat check so it's the least he can do. I don't even really know exactly what I'm getting paid. I don't think it's really comparable to what eAssist is paying me for the contract work there, but then again it's probably after taxes, rather than before. I guess we'll see.

At any rate, this interview experience was quite different than the one I had when I first got laid off. That time, I felt seriously reamed. Some really tough questions made me feel downright stupid. I think I was still kind of shaky after just getting laid off. And it had been four years since I had done an interview.

This time was a lot more encouraging. The guy liked me right away and I felt really familiar with the environment, since it seemed very similar to eAssist. They went through the whole dot boom and bust too, so there was a lot to relate to. I went from going in feeling like, "I hope I don't look too stupid" to, "I wonder if I should ask for more?" At any rate this contract should be a good learning experience.

Red Robin

Carlos, Michelle

Vic, Russ

Jason, Monica

Monica, Estella

Susan, Pam. Whatcha thinkin' 'bout, Pam?

Thanks everyone who came! I had a great time. Good food, good company. Aside of course from the "$6 burger" commercial bit.

Afterwards we went home and watched the movie Hero. At least those of us who lasted that long. Great movie.

Today I think I'd better get with Zack again to finish the song we're writing for Sunday. Deadlines, deadlines. Maybe after some reading. Also I have an interview today with Silicon Space for some contract work. We'll see how that goes.

Craziest dream last night; I was getting married to my first girlfriend Joanna. But I couldn't understand why. Like I knew it was this huge mistake. In fact it was the day of the wedding and everyone was there a little early and I was telling my parents why this was a huge mistake and asking them the best way to tell everyone. Somehow we had decided to get married the day after my birthday, and so that was how we got into this situation. Weird weird weird.

The Big 3-0. Woohoo.

This from Yahoo! Happy Birthday!:

On June 16, 1858, in a speech in Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Neat. All the other events on that site were kind of morose -- excommunications, fourth marriages, people sent to jail and stuff. Thanks, Yahoo.

Well I'm 30 today. Crazy. I guess it would be a little more significant if it wasn't for the fact that I've felt like I was in my mid-thirties for the past three years. Anyway, thanks everyone for the kind words and well wishes. It's an encouraging reminder to me of how much people care...

Abram's Joshua Tree Pics

Yahoo! Photos - smartguy_56's Photos - Joshua Tree

Cool stuff.

YWCA?

One thing I did last week that I forgot to mention was I tagged along with Roderick to his tutoring project with the YWCA shelter on Thursday. It was a lot of fun. Well, we didn't do tutoring though. That Friday was the kids' last day of school so there wasn't really any homework to help out with, so we just played games instead. It was a cool, we played the kid's version of Cranium. So funny. Except that the kids really tried to cheat a lot. An hour went so fast but I was also kind of wiped out afterwards. Roderick mentioned to me that the kids are there for only about three months or so at a time, since that's the limit for the shelter that people can stay there. So it's pretty tough. I had to agree. I think it would be hard to give your heart to these kids and then have them just sort of disappear. Anyway, Roderick has a cool idea to do a robotics lab with them, so I might still help out with that for now.

Seaside Lagoon

Dave, on the way there

Dave, serving it up

Nia

Bosco & Tanya

Nobody does it like Sara Lee.

Mm, nice weekend. Crazy week though. See previous post for that whole issue. I guess I neglected to mention that we got everything resolved, in the end. So, at least it's a happy ending. This week's meeting though ... man. I said something and this time Bergie got all worked up. We managed to talk that through too though, at least for now. Man.

Today I was pretty nervous about speaking though, as usual. I guess some things will probably never change. Anyway many people said they were encouraged and felt like it was very heart-felt, so I was really glad.

Yesterday was nice too. Ultimate frisbee was like three-on-four -- tiring but always a good workout. Then I spent about 2.5 hours working out said situation. After that Dave and I headed up to this event in LA that Sara invited me to ... I can never remember what it was called but it wasn't Singles Ignition, which was going on at the same time and was basically a dance; kind of a club scene. Actually Nicole told me today that it was a lot like a club, notably the unfavorable parts, and that she wished she had come to this event instead, had she heard about it. Oh well.

Anyway Dave and I drove up about two hours to Redondo Beach where this thing was held. Actually I drove maybe 45 minutes and then Dave took over because I was zonked out. Yah, yah, some things never change. Anyway it was volleyball and food and games and dancing; Dave and I were mainly there for the volleyball and friends. Lots of fun stuff. Nia was there too, which was great. We caught up a bit and it was cool to see she's doing well despite some challenges and stuff. I also saw Sherry, Sam, Bosco, Anna, Andrew ... it was cool. April, Rey, where were ya'll? Travis was there too, whom I had met before; he was MC actually. Loudly. Like, very loudly. Ouch.

So, I think the best thing was some good conversations with folks. Both Nia and Sara shared some tough things they were going through, which I thought was cool. Sam apparently was to sing in the choir for LA's congregational service today. *chuckle* Hope it went well. It was neat to know so many people.

When it was time to go Dave and I drove Sara home and got to meet her supposedly- effeminate cat George. I also saw Nikole and took a shot at fixing her computer. Dave had to drive most of the way home too, interestingly enough.

As far as today, we had a leaders' meeting in the morning since church was in the afternoon. As the meeting went on and on (and on) I kept thinking about the fact that I hadn't really nailed down what I was going to talk about at communion. I mean I had an idea somewhat but it was still a bit hazy. Then I had it out with Bergie and we were good to go and it was like 12:30pm. I managed to pull things together in about half an hour and I was on the road.

Finally church was over and all of my responsibilities were done. Jason, Carly, Russ and I had already planned to see Chronicles of Riddick as a matinee after church (with Nicole), but we didn't anticipate church taking so long (we watched Pitch Black on Friday night to get psyched up). We decided to go for it anyway and did the ol' "go team!" cheer and jammed out of there. Sara (Burdette) was going to join us but as soon as she found out it was a sci-fi flick she reneged (lame!). We had a really good time ... we went to Island's and Starbucks afterwards and had lots of good laughs.

All that, and I'm still home in time to do my blog. More deep thoughts later.