Eriko sent me an email tonight and asked when it would be convient for me
to get married (i'm paraphrasing, not quoting). she and i are so similar in
that we are both goal-oriented, determined, hard-asses. her soft spot is for
boys, mine is for girls. which is why i'll never expect her to discipline our
boys and i'll make her aware that i cannot be expected to discpline our girls.
;P she suggested we be married sometime after spring 2005. i told her that
was fine with me, i could take the fall semester off at UW and maybe get
permission from work to take a month or two off. we could be married in
Nagoya. if this date hits, it will actually be ahead of my expectations. i
had thought that i would finish at UW and then move to Japan and convince
her to come back with me. i hav a very big day ahead of me tomorrow. two new employees start.
February 2004 Archives
i borrowed some of kaya's books on ipc mechanisms because last night i realized i am a complete coding newb. there are so many things i don't know and so many things i want to know. i was telling alex this morning that i have to step this up a notch otherwise i'm not going to get bored of developing in the unix environment and i need to, otherwise i will not want to move onto getting a phd in mathematics. i was checking out the homepage of richard stephens, the author of some fabulous books, and he got a PhD while working full-time. so now i'm wondering if it is indeed possible...
i had to fire my first employee yesterday. it wasn't an easy decision, nor
an easy process. as terminations go, however, he made it easy. his unwilligness
to put any effort towards addressing my concerns made the decision much easier
and informing me that he was interviewing made the process much easier (no
regrets). i'm rearranging my team and our working area in preparation for
the new hires on Monday. i'm nervous, but in a good way. orientation at
UW starts in two weeks and i'll see Eriko in less than two months. i had a nice time with Kellie, Alex, and Reyna last night. Reyna reminds me a lot of Katrislept a little better last night by cranking up the heat to 75 or 80 (my bed
on the floor never gets that warm, especially since the heater is only in
one small corner of the apartment). Bailey was very patient with me as I didn't
open the window at all. i think i'll put in a little extra time at work this
weekend, mainly so i'm prepared for my new hippies.
i've got what appears to be some kind of throat cold, i'm still not sleeping
well (usually too cold), i can't concentrate on work right now because
an event will transpire in 30 minutes, i'm not getting much stuff done after
work these days (although i read a couple more pages of 'The Book of Five Rings' by Miaymoto Musashii yesterday). right now i am extremely anxious...
Bailey went out for a short prowl tonight and brought me back her biggest
catch that i've seen yet. i find it amazing that she carried it all this
way, up the stairs, up and over the window sill, to deliver it next to her food dish -- for me. it definitely surprised the heck out of me. ;) less favorable news is that i may be coming down with something.
Kaya has given me two free books because they are 'Eastern Economy Editions' with thin paper. i don't mind though. isilon was going to throw away a lamp which is pretty abused but i took it home and fixed it up. i had to do a little soldering but it saved me $20. sweet!
it is very nerve-racking each time i do that. i'm getting my procedure more well-defined so as to alleviate some of the unknowns, but the idea that just the right failure would cause me to need to drive to bellingham is always on the back of my mind. all the big sites seem to be up, mail works, and my qa program says everything is OK -- i'm going to bed.
i was accepted into the PMP! words cannot describe the anxiety and excitement that i feel (notice i tried anyway ;)
i couldn't accept being forced to pay $12 because of an honest mistake. i contacted Chase again, coincidentally talked to the same rep, and managed to
convince him to waive the charge this one time. at work, I just found out that our second candidate accepted the offer. i will have two new personnel
starting on March 1st. this is very exciting. i need to do reviews of my current members ASAP.
i just blew 1/3 of my earned interest from last year, $12. i scheduled a payment
with chase bank and had the wrong checking account number (i was missing some
extra fancy digits) and since i wasn't notified until two days before the
payment was due, i don't have time to get it to them via regular mail. to do
their check-over-the-phone service, they charge me $12. to be late would cost
$35 dollars. i am not a happy camper.
i just came across the wayback machine. hopefully when i review this diary in a couple of years i can remember this moment. ;P
i just got angry and swore at my co-worker. i had to give him his second strike
out of three, which means he is one slip away from getting fired. i analyze and i analyze, trying to see if i'm being hasty or making mistakes. perhaps his personality is just so incompatible with me (and the rest of the organization) that
i treat him differently than i would anyone else. perhaps not. as a leader,
i have to follow my instincts.
i slept in, i had a good meal, and i didn't worry or fret about love. as dad told me: 'she loves me, and i love her.' life is much more simple with that view. i was surprised with a package about noon,
which was from Eriko. she made me a sweater. its beautiful and i really like it. its a tad big, i think it goes to my knees. hehe. her first sweater was a little too small, this one a little too big. just like the rings i made for her. maybe the third time is the charm for both of us. ;P i didn't do anything for valentine's day for Eriko except spend time working on the container for the cookies i'm going to send her. after spending way too long trying to get sticky material off of these two nut jars, i finally realized i could just cover the nut jar with construction paper and decorate it. that and if i left two cookies out then i didn't need to have two jars. this morning i bought three flavors of frosting and i will sample them and apply them to the three heart shaped cookies to go along with the jar. it will be two years since we met next week. time really flies. i've watched her grow and mature, becoming the woman in real life that my heart already sees. i'm so grateful.
I just bought my tickets for Japan, Aug 22-29. Now I have to figure out when
I'm going to Alaska... July 4th weekend?
i think i finally figured out what her cryptic email address stands for! my
guess is "look up at aurora in alaska." she received her tickets to seattle, she'll be visiting me the 20th - 23rd. she decided that she cannot visit anchorage during the summer (too expensive) so i'll go instead. she wants to come to anchorage during Christmas. i was hoping she'd take that route, because christmas is just so unique and exciting in our family. matthew will turn 1, we'll sit around playing games and making fun of Zack. it will be great.
i wanted to make a point of writing about the negative aspects of my day. i'll
start with sleeping -- i moved from the couch to the floor and it seems to
be much colder there. regardless of whether i leave the window open or not (for instance, Bailey is outside now and the window is open). i've been wearing long johns to keep warm but they aren't _that_ comfortable. this morning besides being a little cold i also had a bit of a tummy ache. my alarm went off at 6 am but i didn't get out of bed until close to 8 -- that is really lame. i am annoyed by my lack of discipline. i was a little dissapointed that my weight this morning didn't drop at all past what it was the morning before and that my exercise was lighter than i wanted due to my tummy ache. i got into work a little past 8:30 (which is late for me) and ended up being a tad late for a meeting (which kaya was supposed to attend). the meeting was a phone call with some guy in michigan and everyone had everything taken care of. i probably didn't need to go at all, but it wasn't so bad. i got a couple new bugs assigned against me. it seems like everytime i make a little prog!
ress i get assigned another trivial bug. they are trivial in their nature but can often be a pain to reproduce and figure out how to fix. ok, i can't bitch anymore. i've got other things to bitch about but i want to watch seinfeld and go to bed. ;P
sometimes i feel like i get in the habit of just writing the good things down.
there are definitely some good opportunities ahead of me and i feel very
good about who i am and where i'm going (at this particular moment in time). i miss my girl and i don't hear from her that much. its strange, it makes me wonder, it makes me reminisce. of course, i feel like this is a test: i need to leave her alone, let her figure herself out, etc. not only that, but i feel like this is just right for me -- i need to get myself on track. if she were here now i wouldn't have time to sit in my undies and hack away on some PHP in front of my
three monitors. i wouldn't be able to sleep on the floor in front of my oversized TV and watch seinfeld for an hour before i go to bed. if i were to script my life, i wouldn't change a thing. i know its hardest to remember how amazingly tailored and perfected life is when you need to remember it most. so i'm lucky i can "see" it now. my hands shake a little as a write this. its as if i reach a t where i am communicating directly from my soul.
Check out Matthew's or Zack's. In other news, I met with Art and Brandon and they want to have three more classes in the next two months. A little intimidating; I might buy a laptop (from Art or new) as part of my investment. I told Kaya he was moving to Pete's team; at first he acted hesitant but I know he was really excited and some strict words from me wore down his act. I'm sad to see the potential go but he wasn't applying himself for me anyway.
i was recently approached and told that a member of my team would be leaving
for another group. at first i was annoyed and later irritated. as time went
on, however, i upped the ante. not only would a member of my team lead, but
so would a whole area of responsbility. the bad with the good. i'm hoping i
look back on this decision as the time at which my team's objectives became
clearly defined and we started to ascend.
I just got asked to do another Linux class.. and in other news, Zack has
an interview at Microsoft! It would be awesome to have him in the area and I
know he could really succeed under Bill's expert guidance.
She has sent me some tenative dates -- 4/20 through 4/23. Awesome! She also
expressed interest in visiting with the fam again and it was completely unprompted this time. I'm making her super chocolatey cookies and a valentine's day
card (out of construction paper).
no food after 6 pm
no alcohol
15 minutes of exercise per day