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2014.12.29

Brace yourself: I'mma talk about boobs a little bit.

I'd always planned on breastfeeding my kid, and thankfully that was the one motherly thing that came utterly naturally. Lots of women don't have it so easy, but other than having a wee one who was a lazy nurser the first week or so, we've had essentially an effortless time. I started pumping from the beginning as well, initially due to the lazy nursing issue (we pumped and syringed him milk after every nursing session for a bit there), and then later on so that Jeff could take the first night feeding and give me a block of uninterrupted sleep. When I returned to work at 5 months, pumping was no big thang (a supportive workplace and tech work being helpful).

I'd always assumed my kid would wean himself around a year, as my brother and I both did, but here we are at 15.5 months and still going. He's not a crazy nursing beggar, but nursing is a nice part of our routine that I'm not in a huge hurry to eliminate.

Pumping, on the other hand... it's not that it's bad times at all, but it is an inconvenience with little of the pros of nursing (cuddles etc.). When I was laid off I was pumping 3x/day, but my supply had really dropped and we were already supplementing with cow's milk at daycare; it was a no-brainer to drop some pumping sessions. Early on, I decided that whenever I started a new job, I'd quit pumping altogether.

So here we are: I start a new job on Monday, but the next 3 days are daycare off days and so this is my last time playing hooked-up dairy cow for Dominic. It's a very strange feeling, after well over a year, to know that I'm not going to be generating milk in off-hours anymore, and of course I wonder if this will be the final death knell for my supply overall; I thought I was going to go out with a bang, having pumped a great deal yesterday, but it looks like I'm going out on a sigh instead.

A pretty relieved sigh, I must say.

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2014.12.29

The wee one's daycare was closed Weds-Fri last week and the same again this week, and of those 6 days, Jeff only has 3 off, so it's been and will be "quite a week." I'm trying to enjoy my day off today and tomorrow to their fullest before having my hands full the rest of the week and going! back! to! work! next Monday!

It was pretty nice hititng "NOPE" on the unemployment claim question "did you job search and keep a written log of your search?" having taken the time last week to ensure that I have a waiver on file for the two weeks between job acceptance and start.

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2014.12.20

Raymond Chen does impressive things with HTML/CSS, although not of the flashy type that most people think of when they think of HTML/CSS tricks. One of the things I'm looking forward to in my new job is getting back into my deep CSS happy place. So let's show off a bit of Raymond-style offbeat practice, in the name of bidding farewell to my Windows-team career. Does make use of some CSS3, so... screw you, older browsers!

Close Program
×
  • Goodbye Windows - WordPad
  • Explorer [not responding]
  • Systray
WARNING: Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL again will restart your computer. You will lose unsaved information in all programs that are running.
End Task
Shut Down
Cancel

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2014.12.20

After some wrangling back and forth on details, I accepted an offer on Friday with ExtraHop Networks, starting on the first Monday in 2015, woohoo! It's a production engineering role, which is funny given that I'd decided to move in a different direction, career-wise. But when an old buddy comes to you with a "we have a job that you'd be perfect for," it's the universe sending a message. I'll get to flex to some PM tasks as well, and am looking forward to learning a lot more about network analytics than I do today!

I'm particularly pleased to have solidified an offer right in time to take 2 weeks of proper vacation at the holidays. Many people have uttered some variation on "it must be nice to have the time off" over the last 3 months, to which I've politely nodded and changed the subject. There has been very little time off these past months. But now... there shall be some video games, and reading, and lunches out, and massive sleeping in...

And lo, it shall be glorious.

Job search stats for the day

DONE!

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2014.12.16

C'mon c'mon...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched Hadoop, cloud computing options (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
  • Interviews 1 scheduled for Thursday
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 5
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow crossing fingers

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2014.12.15

Having many irons in the fire is delightful but stressful.

The wee one got to go in for a research study this morning (after an awful night and a crazy early wake-up: SUBOPTIMAL, CHILD, GET IT TOGETHER). There was a most excellent farm-themed maze puzzle in the waiting area, which both the wee one and I were quite enamored with. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be findable on the internet. Drat. There's many maze puzzles out there, but they all seem to be targeted for 3+ years, with comments about the pieces being difficult to move for younger kids. The one we played with this morning definitely didn't have that problem... but it was also very well worn and possibly discontinued a long time ago. It's tempting to go back and steal it (joking ...mostly).

Cookie season is well underway! Between Thanksgiving and New Years, we make cookies, oh so many cookies. I'm not much of a baker normally what with being phobic about the sensation of flour on my hands, but a few weeks doesn't kill me... particularly given that the last few years we've owned a stand mixer (and I have a lovely husband who's willing to do most of the flour handling). It's a little harder this year to wrangle things; a three month old wasn't very disruptive in the kitchen whereas a mobile toddler who wants to be up! up! up! constantly to "supervise" is a whole different story.

I'm definitely considering some sort of toddler tower type thing, but we really don't have the space. Some day, when we remodel the kitchen... the wee one will no longer be a toddler. Heh.

Cookie schedule 2014

All can be found in the recipe index o' enormity

  • Thanksgiving: orange cranberry vanilla cookies (test batch)*
  • Nov 29 weekend (book club): repeat of the above

    The orange cranberry cookies have definitely earned their way into full rotation, even if they took 2 tries to get right. I just couldn't quite believe that they should only bake for about 5 minutes. But sure enough, while the first batch was delicious, they definitely crisped up overnight. The second batch stayed chewy for a day or two, and then the experiment was discontinued due to the abrupt disappearance of the cookies under experimentation.

  • Dec 06 weekend: Mexican wedding cookies

    I was more enamored of these last year than I was this year, so I think they'll get benched a year or two. It was quite a nice coincidence that these got made for a roleplaying weekend, though: a buddy arrived and went "ARE THOSE MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES OMG YOU JUST MADE MY NIGHT," which was pleasing. Also, one of these crumbled up is being doled out to the wee one slowly, and he's definitely a fan.

  • Dec 13 weekend: chai snickerdoodles (MY FAVORITE OM NOM NOM)

    Let's not discuss how many of these got made. Let's also not discuss how many of them have already been eaten. Jeff's always been a snickerdoodle fan, but I wasn't sold for a long time. Turns out that once I added some spices and pepper, though, I became a total convert.

  • Dec 20 weekend: spicy jam linzers* + [redacted for surprise purposes]*
  • Christmas: fruitcake bars
  • Dec 27 weekend: gingerbread
  • New Years (extended family Christmas): [redacted for surprise purposes]*
  • Jan 03 weekend (book club): sprinkle sugar cookies

* new recipe this year

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched HTTP+TCP fundamentals, OSI model, Hadoop
  • Interviews 1, and 1 getting scheduled soon
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 0
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow hiring manager informational, Google cloud tech

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2014.12.12

Nothing like a talk with a marketing VP to kickstart a day with high energy. I'm pumped! Now just to see if we can close a mutally acceptable deal...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched various Javascript bidnesses
  • Interviews 1 was scheduled, but is getting rescheduled, and another scheduled for next week
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1
  • Administrative hours 1
  • Jobs reviewed 3
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow (Monday) phone screen but mostly taking day off to subject the wee one to SCIENCE

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2014.12.10

Plans for the day got a bit derailed by errands and needing to coordinate a phone call. Got a lot of good reading done, but didn't get in the programming practice I'd intended. Best laid plans (if I'm not a man, am I implicitly a mouse?) and all that, and I did find a sweet post relating PM'ing to RPGs, so my day was kind of made there.

(I'd class as a battle cleric, of course)

Phone call over, conundrum begins.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched product management theory, URL canonicalization
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 2
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow official day off for important Christmas shopping reasons

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2014.12.09

7 people is a lot to talk to in 3.75 hours. @_@

Serves me right for not brushing up on whiteboard skills, but ergh, I felt like a total dork and froze on some super basic things. Not my best moments, but hey, they got to see how I act under stress, I guess? It's tempting to send some code samples over and say "I promise, I really can code slightly better than a poleaxed cow," but what's done is done, and we'll see what comes out in the wash!

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched soooo much talkin's
  • Interviews 1
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 1
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow Python and *nix automation

Think

2014.12.08

Short and sweet phone screen today; good chat with the recruiter and now just to see if the hiring manager likes the sound of me. Vacations are starting to hit in employed-person land, so we'll see if anything comes of, well, anything, over the next few weeks.

While I learned a long time ago, the hard way, that a book should not be judged by its cover (so many bad sci-fi/fantasy books punished me in my used-bookstore youth), I seem to have not quite generalized the rule. Because when choosing a beer, I'm a sucker for a good name. I figure witty brewers must be good brewers? At least it doesn't seem to bite me very often. And I've never once regretted that night I chose a Ninkasi Total Domination purely based on the name, not least because that led me to my true favorite combination of tasty beer + most excellent name: the Ninkasi Tricerahops.

I'm glad that Washington and Colorado are high up there in the best states for beer category, but Oregon does really beat us. Including in names.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched SEO and search analytics, rich snippets, Apache mod_rewrite
  • Interviews 1
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 1
  • Jobs reviewed 0
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow onsite interview and associated prep

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2014.12.05

Excited about the company I talked to today, and am formally interviewing with early next week! For many reasons, but working with old friends and being in downtown are definitely high up there on the intangible benefits list. Bit weird to think about actually angling in on multiple opportunities at once, though.

The one downside to busing downtown every day would be the omnipresent pot stank on public transit. Sheesh, people. I was and continue to be in favor of legalization, but I don't appreciate having to smell it constantly, any more than I liked swimming through cigarette smoke on the way to work in Japan, or having to sit near someone with too much perfume. My poor sinuses. Jeff's proposed getting me a sweet gas mask to wear on my commute, which is awful tempting... a steampunk option, perhaps?

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched OSI, company research
  • Interviews 1 confirmed for next Tuesday
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 0
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow (Monday) SEO, analytics, phone screen

Think

Think for yourself...

Allowed HTML: <br>, <em>, <strong>
Posts with 'http' in them will be blocked, as will thinker identifications including numbers or URLs
Irritation may be directed at bots... cut it out, asshats

Thought

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2014.12.04

Man, nothing heart-pounding like getting a call from a recruiter in the afternoon asking "Could we turn your informational tomorrow into a loop?" Perhaps not the best reflection on my ability to handle surprises, but I redirected to look at looping next week. Small companies are truly a wild (and wonderful) trip to deal with.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched OSI, data analytics
  • Interviews none scheduled today, 1 getting scheduled for next week
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 4
  • Jobs reviewed 8
  • Jobs applied 2
  • Goals for tomorrow informational with Jenn

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2014.12.03

Someone reminded me today about The Awful German Language (full text is available at the German Language About.com, of all places).

When I went to visit Mark in Boston, one night was storming and we didn't want to go out. "Let me read you something," he proposed, which was a grand idea. We curled up in big chairs, with the lamps in the room casting dim pools of light around us. (Perhaps there was a fire? My memory is fuzzy on that.) He pulled a book off his shelf and launched into The Awful German Language. I was utterly enthralled.

Really, one of the top ten most romanic nights I've ever experienced.

I meant to look into analytics today, but got derailed on localization reading. I wasn't intending to spend time studying that in this downtime, given how much domain knowledge I already have, but I couldn't resist nerding out in international for a while. Just a language-feeling sort of day.

(cough) And OK, maybe I got a bit distracted in linguistics Wikipedia reading. How cool a word is this: അങ്ങനെയല്ലാതായിരിക്കുമ്പോളൊക്കെത്തന്നെ (romanizes into angnganeyallaathaayirikkumpOLokkeththanne)

Finished Fledgling over lunch today: it blew me away. I've been feeling guilty for years that I'd not read any Octavia Butler, and it turns out my guilt is well justified. What a fantastic exploration of the reaction of a group of people to diversity, the power of building community, and the responsibility people have to that community! In many ways, the things I loved about this book are the same things I loved in Eifelhem... I seem primed these days to particularly enjoy stories about how people build relationships and tribes. Apparently a lot of people freak out about Fledgling due to the main character appearing physically quite young and being just barely a child by the standards of her people, but for whatever reason it didn't bug me at all (I was also unbugged by the young vampire in Let the Right One In, and am now reminded that I have been meaning to read the original novel).

Off to go pick some more Octavia Butler to read.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched localization theory
  • Interviews 1 scheduled for next Monday
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1 scheduled for Friday
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 6
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow OSI refresher, analytics

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2014.12.02

Just me and the munchkin today, so uber non-productive. Ah well. Easing back in from vacation, I guess! We went over to visit the cousin, who has a trampoline that blew the wee one's tiny mind. Seriously considering getting one, given the sheer delight on his face as he bounce-bounce-bounced. It was the sort of delight usually reserved solely for when we all drum loudly on the table after dinner, which for whatever reason nearly sends him over the moon each time. For sure, cliché though it may be, one of the highlights of having a child is getting to witness his joy in the simple fun of just being alive.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched nada
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 15
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow analytics and apply to 1+ jobs

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2014.12.01

Back from a week in Colorado, which was delightful, but the wee one came down with a cold our last day, so the flight home was a bit fraught and he's sniffly/clingy as all get out. Jeff's sick too, so we're all home today while I play nurse to the male 2/3rds of the family. Good day for reading while the baby snuggles sleeping in my arms, not so good for getting back on the job searching / studying train. At least I got him down for afternoon nap in his crib instead of my arms, so did get some time to run down company listings.

Book club tonight was fantastic. Such a shame two of the guys who would have most enjoyed the discussion weren't able to make it, but the rest of us had an absolute blast. Eifelheim got a thumbs up from everyone, but with just enough minor quibbles (that largely didn't overlap) to have some good debates. We spent a while talking about what single technology we would choose to learn and take back to the 1300s. I stand by my original vote for steam engines (and the knowledge of to what use they can be put, other than powring minor curiosities and toys), and still have a soft spot for antiseptics, but in the end, we agreed on the radio. The lure of information at a distance is just too much for our modern sensibilities to give up!

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched nada
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings none scheduled today
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 10
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow company research during sick kid naps

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