I don't ask for it to make sense RSS feed

2014.10.31

We weren't together enough last year to put the tiny one in a costume, but this year we've rectified things, albeit via a hand-me-down outfit: baby giraffe for the win! And man has it ever gotten impossible to take a non-blurry picture of him... he's movin' and groovin' constantly. Most attempts to take a picture involve an immediate incoming baby bum-rush, but even when he's too distracted to lunge for the photographer, he tends to be too much in motion to get a clear shot. We're definitely in an epic phase of baby-induced exhaustion these days. >_< In other my-kid-is-cute news, I was singing him Old MacDonald this morning and he chipped in on every e-i-e-i-o, remarkably accurately. And, really, what's an occasional extra vowel or two between family?

I've (politely) hung up on at least 3 phone calls this week alone for various timeshare plugs. One of the things I'm looking forward to the very most about someday being done with the job hunt is that I will be able to go back to not answering my phone unless I recognize the caller. Ugh.

It's such a process to go through one's old code. So very tempting to get totally derailed modernizing to your current coding standards, but that's a rabbit hole that can extend so very deep that it's not necessarily worth it. I'm having to do some delicate balancing, and in some cases, just trust that hey, I coded it, I knew what I was doing, and it's been working for years without significant problems! Don't need to fix that which ain't broke.

Other than moving where I put my { because my old style drives me absolutely and totally nuts. That's totally important to do.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched estimation questions, form design, database management
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 4
  • Jobs reviewed 2
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow (Monday) phone screen and estimation practice

Think

2014.10.30

Rain, rain, rain, why you gotta be so grim? I know, I know, I was born here and never plan to move elsewhere, so I shouldn't complain, but it's always a bit tiresome the first week or two the grey blanket really descends. We may have dodged a bullet with daycare crunk this time (no jinxing, hopefully), but everything today is like moving through molasses even without plague in the house.

Studying formal user story generation and management today. My informal habit seems to be pretty close to "as a <who>, I want <what> <why>," but I'm liking the idea of at least internally pushing it to a full "as <who> <when> <where>, I <what> because <why>" expansion, because I'm obsessed with the Five Ws (see: nerd).

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched writing and managing user stories, formal agile methodology, database management, progressive enhancement
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 3
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow more database work and authentication configuration

Think

2014.10.29

Was a little too bummed-out-by-empathetic-proxy to concentrate on my own job hunt today. Did a lot of company research, and posted into some more passive fishing line opportunities, but not a lot else useful. Ah well, everyone has to have a slow day now and then... although the munchkin is also sicky enough that I might "take the day off" tomorrow as well to keep him home and enforce nappage, so this might be a bit of a slow week in general.

Except that bullet-train of a company is charging ahead on progress and blowing my mind. Wow. Stage 2 coming up!

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched nada
  • Interviews none scheduled today, 1 scheduled for next Monday
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 4
  • Jobs reviewed 8
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow database work, user stories

Think

2014.10.28

Good phone screen today: got over my nervousness at having to actually "speak PM" for the first time (it helped that the person on the other end of the line had some shared background) and feel as if I represented myself well. Shall see if anything comes of it! In the meantime, I'm relaxing my "only one application to a particular company at a particular time" regulation for Amazon only. Wow, do they ever have a lot of jobs posted. Maybe one of them will eventually be for me!

Played around with Tableau a bit for data visualization today. I'm really surprised that there's not support out of box for visualizing simple IIS or Apache web server log data. Maybe it's just that other tools have that base so covered that they don't even try? It seems most of my friends talk about using Splunk and Chainsaw, I guess (analytics aren't my strong suit, sad to say; I've gotten so far from my graduate data analysis past it's embarrassing).

In other news, Aggie wishes to inform us all that it is BS that usually there's a cushion sitting on what is obviously meant to be her throne. And Micah thinks my shoe is comfy.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced/researched project management methodologies, data visualization, CSS refactoring
  • Interviews 1
  • Classes coaching sync
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 15 (only 3 non-Amazon through)
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow database work, user stories

Think

2014.10.27

Promising phone screen today, but the position turned out to not actually be located in the Seattle area, and I'm not willing to relocate. Serious attention-to-detail fail (I swore I had double-checked, given that I knew the company had both a Seattle and a Cali office, but from now on it will be triple-and-quadruple-check times).

Light day today because Jeff took a surprise day off! Hard to be too bummed about missed opportunities when it's sunny out and I got to go have a tasty beer for lunch with my honey. Plus, the job I applied for this morning wants to screen me tomorrow: whooooooosh!

Having spent more time looking at web sites than I have in a long time (which is saying a lot, given that I work in the web and am a giant geek who spends an incredible amount of time on the internet), I feel as if I'm going to lose my marbles at the number of sites that insist on either A) popping a new window when I didn't want one or B) don't allow a new window to be popped (various Taleo systems, I'm looking at you with an evil eye). I'm a grown person and can make my own decisions about whether I want a new window/tab or not, thank you very much! Grrrraaahhhh!

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced playing hooky from practicing
  • Interviews 1, and 1 scheduled for tomorrow
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 7
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow project management methodologies, database work, surprise phone screen

Think

2014.10.24

I expanded my job hunt into games producer roles this week, which is pretty exciting. I was inspired a bit by these quotes: "Consider the producer something like a knight and the creative vision is the crown. It must be protected and championed." and "A poorly run, unhappy team will probably deliver a poor, unhappy game. The producer must do everything to protect the team and allow them to do the great, creative work required." I've usually phrased my role more as the sergeant, but it's a similar idea: I'm not the general, but I am the one who's in charge of actually executing on the plan, reacting to the situation on the ground, getting things done and getting my people through to the other side intact. And it's no coincidence that my favorite characters to play in RPGs are often either paladins or battle clerics!

I suddenly realized today that I'd not read a Mark Rosewater column in ages... what happened to my RSS feed of awesome game design theory? Apparently back in June, Wizards updated their site significantly and cut feed functionality at the same time, shame (Jeff suggests that I try to get a job with them to improve their site, which would be tempting if not for their location down in Renton). But! But! Where there is a will, there is a way, and a Stack Overflow answer leading the way to ultimate victory:

Rosewater has an extremely busy Blogatog Tumblr site that among approximately one bazillion other things daily, links over to his Making Magic articles every week. There's a tag for Making Magic, but how was that going to help, given that the Tumblr RSS itself is all of the posts? Hooray for someone asking (and answering their own question) about this over on Stack Overflow! I love you, isolated RSS feed of the Making Magic tag, you're my bestest nerd friend.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced accessibility (if only there was an orange/yellow that worked on a white background, but noooo; there go several site colors), viewport fixes for mobile layout
  • Interviews none scheduled today, 1 scheduled for Monday
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 5
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow (Monday) phone screen, project management methodologies

Think

2014.10.23

Operation "take a day's vacation over the course of two days" kicked off nicely today with a morning spent gloriously sleeping, and an afternoon spent applying to several jobs. Plan for tomorrow is to do the reverse (well, not sleeping in the afternoon, and probably study/research instead of job applications in the morning, so, um, not really today reversed at all, BUT THE IDEA STILL HOLDS, OK). The Forever War has my name on it tomorrow; must get ready to argue about some sci-fi with some buddies in a week or so! These are the important things in life, folks: it takes detailed advance work to have an effective nerd argument, and one cannot go in ill-prepared and expect to emerge victorious.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced CSS transitions and media queries, bugfixing in gallery code
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 5
  • Jobs applied 3
  • Goals for tomorrow accessibility and mobile design research

Think

2014.10.22

Heh. Well, I don't think I'll look for a job at a place where this was part of an employee review: "Bars are close by so you can leave and have drinks to cope with the fact you work for one of the worst companies in all of Seattle. It's barely better than taking a hot poker in the eye but the long term effects are probably much worse." Eep. :|

Phone screen this AM was a good final confirmation to shift focus full time to TPM-style roles; looking forward to hopefully hearing back from their PM recruiter later! And it's fascinating to go back and look at companies anew with a changed search lens. However, I'm definitely needing a little break from the job hunt, I think. Without a commute to force time in for reading, and with evenings spent on job research / weekends spent with the wee one, I'm at a record low for relaxation time. I haven't even started reading for book club at all this month! With the rain pouring, it might be time to take a day or two (or at least an afternoon or two) to unspool, read, play some games, etc. by the fire...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced <crickets>
  • Interviews 1
  • Classes social media
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 4
  • Jobs reviewed 8
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow back to CSS media queries and transitions, accessibility research

Think

2014.10.21

Wrote myself out today...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced writing, writing, writing: so much writing today. Need moar tech...
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes social media
  • Networking/informational meetings 1
  • Administrative hours 2
  • Jobs reviewed 6
  • Jobs applied 3
  • Goals for tomorrow phone screen with recruiter, more class

Think

2014.10.20

Man, could I be Thomas Arend when I grow up? "International Product Lead" is right up there for my top aspirational job titles. Too bad Airbnb and so many other companies have their international hubs down in Cali rather than their Seattle offices.

Good chat with a hiring manager today; they have a fascinating problem space but not quite the right skill match at the moment. Definitely continuing to come around more and more to the idea that my hybrid background of the last few years would suit me, not to mention a prospective employer, best in a technical program manager role, particularly one where I could do a good amount of prototype / front-end coding. Brandon's known best all along... now if I can just find something with the international angle that drives my soul, I'll be a happy camper.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced stacks, and queues, and trees (oh my), lots of jQuery
  • Interviews 1
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 6
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow class, meet with Carolyn, apply to those several job with open tabs that are taunting me, CSS media queries

Think

2014.10.17

Came across a great infographic on the current food preferences of kids vs the food preferences when-they-were-kids of 50-60 year old adults in Japan. Green peppers have dropped to #3 most-disliked, so children seem to be coming to their senses (also, that curry rice is far and away the most beloved is just and correct), but telling Dominic how much he'd hate green pepper (which he loves) if he were a Japanese kid is now less accurate. Darn you, data! I had to go look up what ゴーヤ (current #1 dislike) was: bitter melon. That seems gross and sensible to dislike. That it's available in grumpy drink form is particularly hilarious... that can art just screams "you will not like me!"

Hooray for date night out with Brandon tonight!

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced CSS font-face/font streaming (finally happy with the site font), Java stacks and linked lists, JavaScript "lightbox"-style functionality
  • Interviews none scheduled today, 1 phone screen scheduled for next week
  • Classes resume lab
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 0
  • Jobs applied 1
  • Goals for tomorrow (Monday) phone screen, JavaScript practice

Think

2014.10.16

Well, I'd been hesitating to actually apply to TPM roles based on my observations of how the PM role at Microsoft was structured (just not quite sure that's what I really wanted to do), but after today's drill-down into how the role has the potential to play out at Amazon, I am super pumped about the thought! More pans into the fires of open applications, BAM.

Spent a lot of time today doing a full and proper organization of the overall job hunt system and current data. Once I got to 10 open applications in the field, my mental index of the various dates/documents/etc. started needing backup! An intensely cross-linked OneNote is now tracking the entire thing, and I'm a total dork for being so delighted by it, but a total organized dork. While today was a bit of an anomaly in terms of being particularly heavy on meta-job-hunt, it did convince me that grouping the various organizational / writing administrative tasks would be the most accurate way of representing that work, so I've adjusted the reporting accordingly. (See also: I'm a dork.)

My throat is still on the displeased side, but long sleep last night seems to have warded off the worst of the bug (don't jinx, don't jinx). As for my tiny disease vector, Dominic turned 13 months old today. My mind, she is blown at the passage of time! Still stuck on "no" being his only word, and any room he passes through is left as if a tornado had ripped past: yep, he's shaping up to be a pretty standard toddler.

Micah curled up the cat tree today for the first time in ages; I'm hoping he may have finally realized that it's a toddler safe zone...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced Java linked lists, recursion, ternary operators (which are super cool and where have they been all my life)
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1
  • Administrative hours 3
  • Jobs reviewed 8
  • Jobs applied 2
  • Goals for tomorrow heads-down resume lab, apply for the Google TPM position, JavaScript practice, Java practice

Think

2014.10.15

Nooooo coming down with a cold! Daycare crunk for the anti-win. That plus optometrist appointments this morning and today was not as productive as I'd planned; Shultzy's for lunch was the high point of an otherwise pretty grody-feeling day. I intend to hasten tomorrow's arrival (and hopefully this cold's departure) by going to bed nearly as early as the wee one. Bleah.

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced MySQL, htaccess/htpasswd config, tighter PHP/CSS integration, github post-recieve automation, linked lists in Java
  • Interviews none scheduled today, 1 getting scheduled
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 0
  • Hours spent resume/cover-letter editing .50
  • Jobs reviewed 1
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow meet with Paul, apply for the Amazon TPM position, JavaScript practice, Java practice

Think

2014.10.14

Oh heck, why not use this space to keep myself accountable on my job hunt? My working team was eliminated in the fall Microsoft layoff pass: time for something new! I'm looking at un-multiclassing myself and either formalizing my technical PM chops, or applying on my dev/web-dev/devops automation skillz. A girl can hope to find a "perfect" multi-class job again, but a girl knows it's pretty unlikely...

Job search stats for the day

  • Practiced git, apache/php config, CSS media queries, sibling selectors, opacity tricks
  • Interviews none scheduled today
  • Classes none scheduled today
  • Networking/informational meetings 1 had, 1 planned
  • Hours spent resume/cover-letter editing .25
  • Jobs reviewed 2
  • Jobs applied 0
  • Goals for tomorrow MySQL/PHPMyAdmin practice, github post-recieve hook setup, Java practice, apply for 1+ jobs

Think   1 Thought

Moi @ 2014-10-15 12:25:15pm

It was me, rhymin' while brushing my teeth (and checking databaseness)

Hide thought

2014.10.07

Thoughts went dark in January 2009 for some very good reasons, mostly around the angst of being a depressed person in their mid-20s. I don't like the idea of suppressing the content entirely, but consider this a warning: there's really not anything in there worth reading. It's all very old and there's many references to toast.

I don't expect to actually pick this back up, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

Think