So, turns out that the web based VPN software we're moving to at work doesn't work with Windows ME (which I've sadly been running at home for my desktop for quite a while because it has usually worked with whatever VPN I've been trying to use for wherever I've been working at the moment).

So on top of SBC DSL being crap where we are now, I'm upgrading to XP. It's actually gone OK, except for having problems removing some VPN software that's incompatible with XP, but the uninstall doesn't remove everything, so you have to go searching. But that's another story.

Seems like tech issues are getting slowly resolved, though. Between lousy reception from the linksys WAP/router and SBC's nonsense and non-responsiveness, it's going a little better.

Going to put up a christmas tree this year, since the Bay Area bits of the family-in-law are coming here instead of us all trooping down to Santa Cruz. That should be an adventure.

Otherwise, work is work (which is somewhat interesting, as we're piloting a semi-xp method for developing some stuff this push... turning out ok, but there's negative time savings because of learning curve -- mine on java). Family is ok, except for my paternal grandmother passing away on Monday. 98 years old and she was worried on Sunday about making sure her great-grandson would get the cake she was supposed to baking for his birthday. She is missed, and one of my few regrets is not being able to have visited more often.

So, I did get the job at Netflix, and I'm really enjoying it a lot. There's a lot to do, but there is a deeply rooted common interest in making sure that we focus on the important stuff, not the busywork. Can't really avoid it, since there's no time to do busywork with all of the projects that directly affect the bottom line.

On top of the new job and baby, we've also moved from San Francisco to the south bay. Instead of our commutes being 45-50 minutes with a big variance for traffic and weather, we each now have 15-20 minutes of low variance commuting. Over the course of a year, it's like having an extra two weeks. It's already come in handy in trying to settle in to the new place. We moved in at the end of September, and still have a few boxes here and there that need to be unloaded and broken down.

While a lot of what is going on is tiring, it's tiring in a good way. I feel very fortunate in the opportunities I've been able to pursue and the breaks that I've gotten.

Well, hopefully I'll remember to check in more often. Then again, why should I be any better with /. than with my own family?

At 4:30pm on June 12, 2003, Lucinda Rose Gilbert-Fagen emerged into the world,
officially making Eloise a big sister, and making Jen & I happy parents of
another beautiful and healthy newborn.

Lucinda was 20.25 inches long and weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces. It seemed to
be a relatively quick birth, in that there was only about 15 minutes of actual
pushing. We checked in to the hospital at 9am for the induction, so it was
about 8 hours from start to finish.

...maybe this will be a monthly journal? Who knows. So, stuff that has changed in the last month:

1. Still wrapping up the remodel, but we're down to two items on the punchlist. Maybe before the baby, maybe before the baby.
2. The due date for the baby was yesterday, and we saw the OB today. We're going to go a week, then if we're not done, we talk about inducing
3. I think I may have a new job. Through a FOAF, I got a contact at Netflix. Went through interviews this week for a SQA position, and my prospects appear good. I'm really excited about the opportunity, since I'll be able to learn a lot while still being able to do some teaching myself. In addition, the people have excellent camraderie.

Otherwise, just trundling through life a day at a time and seeing what presents itself.

Hmm. Over a year since I wrote anything. What's changed since I plunked down that previous non-entry?

1. I left my job as a database administrator/unix admin/manager in March of 2002 because I became excessively frustrated with management's attitude of "do everything with nothing."
2. I rode in the 5 Borough Bike Ride in New York in May of 2002.
3. I consulted for my previous employer after the guy they hired to backfill me had some serious issues with maintaining the stability and performanec of the database. Perhaps partly my fault for not building it out as close to the Oracle vanilla baseline as possible, but I had to tweak to try and make the performance numbers work.
4. Conceived a second child with my wife, who is due in just about a month.
5. Started a remodel which is just finishing up, only 9 months behind on a 6 month schedule. We lost two months looking for a contractor with a boiler license to do the radiator heat.
6. Continuing to look for a job in the SF Bay Area. Check out Montcalm Software for my qualifications (such as they are).
7. Started writing a book about a journey from obscurity to the World Series of Poker.
8. Started learning Perl,Java,Postgres and PHP.

That's all off the top of my head. Maybe I'll discuss those topics more in other journal entries.

Cool. I didn't know that this feature was offered on /.

Ok. I'll stop screwing off now.