Wednesday, July 25, 2007

It started Monday morning, when a new rack went up in the breakroom and a bunch of new food went in.
Then the announcement, we'd be getting Google lunch! Wahoo!
Then more food on the rack Tuesday morning.
And this morning? MORE!
It is a dizzying sight.
Our breakroom isn't all that large. But every time I go in there, there are like 4 people standing in there, just staring at the food, with their mouths hanging open.

I am trying to stick to the more healthful stuff.
Lunch is awesome, and yesterday there was a salad bar. The food is tasty, and mostly organinc, and with lots of vegetarian and healthy options. I am so totally stoked.

This is really convenient for all of us, and we will save money too. If we stick to the good stuff, it can even be more healthy, since a lot of take-out is crap anyway. I am so lazy about bringing lunch, so this is very cool to me.

I also met with the new director of my department yesterday, and I think maybe I could have been more prepared to talk about where I want to go. People ask that now and all I can say is that I want to master this job first. That seems like a steep hill first to me! But I think maybe I'm missing an opportunity there. Huh. Well, I am looking into if/where there might be classes that would bring me more up to speed on some of the technical knowledge I lack.

We may have some fun work coming in in the next week, and I'm very excited. Thus far, I haven't felt all that useful.

Besides useful? Last Friday we did some volunteer work, transplanting plants at the nursery at Fort Funston. This nursery grows all the plants needed for the parks in the area. It was fun (team-building exercise) and we had a nice lunch afterward. The week before that, I spent in Austin getting to know our Austin team and learning about their processes. In austin as here, the people are really nice and they are a wealth of knowledge. I am building my network of people to ask for help when a customer comes with a strange question. I'm thrilled to be working with such a neat group of people.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Koolaid! I totally drank it!

(I wrote this a week ago, and forgot I did not publish it, so here it is now)


So!

It has been one month now and I'm finally ready to talk about my new job.

My last day at the old place was June 8th, and my first day at the new place was June 11th.

I have changed careers completely. I used to work in apparel. Now I work in... tech. Specifically, email, web, etc.... communication security and compliance? That sums it up I guess.

I'm on a brand newish team in a wonderful company, which has been growing fast, and has an awesome product. that works, really, really well, and is very useful, and becoming more useful every day.

The people I work with are geniuses. When they explained the architecture of our product to me, and how it differs fundamentally from our competitors, I was so totally impressed. The way they take care to hire, train, and grow people is awesome. The people are really nice and happy, AND?!?!?!

We are having fun. A lot of it.

Of course, there's the small detail about how I know nothing about the intricacies of setting up servers and janky protocols. Never you mind! I will learn it! This is my big hurdle. I am starting at the back of the pack with my shoelaces tied together, but I will come up to speed. It is stressful, and overwhelming sometimes, but it will come. They knew I wasn't a tech person when they hired me, but I did promise them I was smart and liked to learn, so here we are.

And I have the best boss I've had since Rainbeau. A mentor boss. A sane boss. A "what are your strengths and interests?" boss. Yay!

I baked them brownies. I may bake more this week. I like these people that much.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I guess this means I'll have to stop using "Google" as a verb

I had planned to not really post about my new job until the one-month milestone, which is tomorrow.

BUT?!!??!

Yesterday, my company got bought by Google. (!)

Everyone seems very excited. I have to say it's exciting but I'm a little anxious about it.

My company is awesome. Strong, makes a very good product, has very high customer satisfaction, and a bunch of brilliant people behind it. I am working on being one of those people that makes the company great. I am not there yet, at all, but every day, learn more.

I, for one, welcome our new overlords!

Friday, July 06, 2007

Mysterious




A couple of weekends ago, I got to go to Rich Oliver's Mystery School.
After this year's Sheetiron, Paul was so mortified to be seen with me, that he decided to ship me off to school to learn to ride a dirtbike.

2 Day Fun Camp, coming right up.

Given that the only dirtbike I have is my DRZ400S, I was really looking forward to being able to learn on a smaller, lighter bike. All the students in the Fun Camp ride the same bike: TTR125 with a kick start (Rich sets the bikes up for each individual rider before you get there) These bikes were terribly fun. For one thing, I could finally just step over something instead of having to climb up onto it. Second, the kickstarter actually worked, every time, third, with a whopping TEN horsepower, I was pretty sure I could not actually hurt myself. But mostly? I didn't need that bike to get me to work in the morning!

I am in no way interested in racing. I consider myself interested in dirt riding mainly for trail riding type stuff. This camp was mainly geared toward flat track style turning techniques, and a bunch of races. Despite that, I had a really good time and I think I improved some. I definitely felt more confident afterwards?

There were starting, stopping, turning, and crashing drills (OK, not crashing) there were timed trials, and races. We watched the pros go around, then looked at the corners and talked about how to take them. But there was also a lot of off-track stuff, about seeing, health and fitness, and mental and interpersonal stuff, inasmuch as how it can pertain to riding.

I was lucky enough to go on a weekend where the other people in the class (one of whom I knew, coincidentally) were really nice and friendly. There was a lot of clapping and cheering, which I think isn't all that common for other classes. So yay.

Paul and I stayed in a barn converted into a rustic cabin. There were llamas staring at me in the morning when I got up. It was grand.

Now if only I had a TTR125 and a big pickup truck?
Actually, we went down to Metcalf on Saturday to give it a whirl on my DRZ. Of course it is heavier and bigger, but still fun. I went around in ovals, and on the TT Track, and did not fall. We saw a roadrunner, which I had never seen before. Dirt biking is fun, yes?

Monday, July 02, 2007