 |
|
|
|
An update!
Hello all you beautiful, intelligent, and oh so perspicacious followers of all things 'frennzy'. (real or imagined)
Where to begin? How about some observations from the very recent past.
1.
I find it surreal that, when travelling via airports in or near Silicon Valley, that there is an almost palpable sense of 'technofashionista' superiority. In any normal airport bar, you are surrounded by people who are usually waiting patiently for their next flight, nursing a cocktail, and trying not to become so devastatingly drunk that they either miss their flight, get refused permission to board their flight, or decide at the last minute to change their flight to Vegas because hey dammit, they've had enough of shis thit! These are your regular travellers. Some may be families trying to get to DisnoPlanet or some other 'family fun' attraction. Some may be college kids on their way to or from home. Others are business travellers so deep in their own little world that they are just trying to make a small escape from the everyday blur of jet based commuting. They are, however, just plain people not trying to impress anyone.
However, in Silicon Valley, it's all about the tech, baby. Bigger, brighter, heavier cell phones. Cell phones with wireless internet, cameras (video and still), GPS locators, two way radios, and (explain this one) even some with printers. These cell phones have enough computing power to run the entire nuclear preparedness program in any small to medium sized country with appropriate weaponry. At the same time, these same technovictims are sporting (and flaunting) ever smaller and, ironically, less-powerful laptop computers.
Some call it convergence. I call it the geekest common denominator.
Anyway...these are the guys you will see stumbling all over themselves to have some other geek notice them. It's like a wild pack of nerds, roaming the savannah, vying for dominance. They talk loudly on their phone, extolling the virtues of the phone to their 'friends.' Funny, that. You'd think they wouldn't have to yell in order to make themselves heard...isn't this the latest and greatest uber-tech?
These are also the same guys that will finish their 'business' call, and then call some 'friends', and explain loudly how drunk they are getting because they have a layover and you know how awful that can be for the world-weary, travel-seasoned vet...and because they just may have landed that Angel financier so ***** the VC, goddammit.
Anyway...yeah...silicon Valley is full of 'em. Then you'll see the guy wearing his corporate emblazoned golf shirt, hunched down over a whiskey on the rocks, reading a fiction book and trying desperately to avoid eye contact with any of these losers...because he's an engineer with a job to do and he just wants to get it done and go home.
So...can you guess I just went on a trip to California? Yep. And yep, I was the guy hunched over the whiskey.
2.
I still love whiskey.
3.
On the flight from San Jose to LA (which is where my layover was, and god you know how awful that can be for the world-weary, travel-seasoned vet...) I noticed something really odd. I was on the port side of the plane. It was about 4:30 local time. Since there was only one seat on my side of the plane, I was a bit cramped, but thankfully they gave me the emergency exit so I could at least stretch my legs. Anyway, I was looking down at an amazing view of the San Andreas fault, and marvelling at the geology of the region. It was then I noticed a bright 'spot' that very obviously was following the plane...indeed caused by it. This ran very counter to my intuition. Those who have been paying attention will immediately grasp why. Yes, being late afternoon, the sun was setting in the West. I, however, was seated on the Eastern side of the plane, and the bright spot was probably 3-5 miles east of where we were. It should have been a *shadow*. It wasn't. It was quite clearly some form of focused light, being caused by the plane I was in.
It was very pronounced when it moved across something with a vertical, shiny surface...like a building, trailer, or anything like that. When it went across a body of water (flat, reflective) it almost disappeared entirely. (angle of incidence vs. angle of reflection and all that).
I watched it for probably 20 minutes cogitating on it, before it finally disappeared as the plane changed course to make a better run into LA. My best guess is that it was some sort of cumulative effect of the windows in the plane, making it act much like a lens (two convex surfaces for the light to go through) and focusing the incident light from the West side into a point far out on the east side. This explanation satisfies me, and makes me happy somehow.
4.
I was offered a bump to first class for my leg of the trip from LA to DEN. I took it. It was $100, but by that point I was so tired and weary, I wanted a good meal and a comfortable seat. Good move on my part.
While the chicken with BBQ sauce, sauteed veggies, and parmesan mashers was decent, it was nothing to write home about. (in a journal, however...?) The salad, on the other hand...was *awesome*. Go ahead...read that again. I'll wait.
Yep...that's right...I said the salad. It had never occured to me that you could dice capers into a vinagrette. That alone made the rest of it worth eating. It was outstanding, and really the highlight of my day. I don't know...maybe my body was craving vitamins or vinegar or something. I don't care what caused it...I'm going to try and replicate that dressing.
5.
Once you have your own very nice mattress...hotel mattresses (Even when nice) no longer seem that special, and are indeed quite a let down.
6.
Dogs miss you when you're gone.
7.
Overall, I really have missed travelling for work. Which is good, because I have applied for a new position within my company, which would move me out of IT engineering,, and into a Field Sales Engineer role. A great opportunity to become a 'superstar' at work, get some exposure, actually bring in some revenue instead of being a cost center, and in general take a new path in my career. It has vastly more earning potential (not that I've been doing bad so far), and comes with the opportunity for all the free training I can shake a stick at. I would be travelling around 50% of the time. Which would be a bonus, actually...because I could build up enough miles to start taking free plane trips again.
My old director (who just took over the professional services operation) asked me to apply. The other two FSEs are going to interview me. The interview was supposed to happen on Wednesday, but I just found out that my old director asked them to move it up to Monday, because he is in a hurry to fill the position. All signs point to them wanting to offer me the job, barring any unforseen outrageous fuckups on my part.
So, wish me luck. I am pretty excited about the whole gig. Even if I do have to join the technofashionista revolution.
|
|
|
| |
|