Pycon, moving, coding oh my!
It’s been a long month, and there just doesn’t seem to be an end in sight! I’ve been living a more fulfilling life for the last 2 months than I did for the previous 1.5 years. My old job consumed me; I brought work home every night, and that was only after I had been at work well past everyone else had left. Don’t get me wrong, it was my choice, and I felt like I had nothing but work so I didn’t mind it at the time. Looking back now however, I’m glad it’s over, and I feel no regret towards taking the last two months to realize who I am and what I love.
I sent myself to pycon at the end of March as a mini ‘vacation’ of sorts (despite the fact that I can’t really afford to spend money like that). The trip started off rough with me missing my flight out, but picked up from there. Truthfully, I had a great time. I didn’t really learn much, but I did get the chance to meet some really cool guys, got to eat lunch with python superheroes and generally just enjoyed myself for a few days away from DC.
I spent the week after pycon packing my stuff up, moving it all to NoVA, and cleaning the old house. Truly an awful experience. I either need to get rid of my expensive stuff, or just generally stop buying toys. I have a spending problem, I admit it. I didn’t really need 5 turntables, or 7 rack servers, or 6 UPS (which weigh a f’n ton) just to name a few things off the top of my head.
I got a chance to hang out with some local security guys, and as an added benefit I got a feel for some of the jobs out there as well. Finished up an interview process with a company I think I could do really great things at. Got a chance to check out NoVA-DUG (really enjoy this lot!) and it inspired me to throw all of that useless Django knowledge I’ve got floating around in my fat head into an app. Don’t have a name for it now, but it’s meant to be a middle ground between VCS’s and those groups out there that just haven’t gotten on board with storing code in repo’s (I know they’re out there, I recently worked at one). Did most of the work last weekend and have spent a few hours here and there getting up to speed on jQuery to give the site that o-so-loved web2.0 look/feel. FunFact: I am terrible at web design!
This morning I got an offer letter that I need to respond to within a week. I actually like the job a lot on paper. I feel like I’d be better supported than past experience and from the looks of it I could actually walk to work in minutes! That said, I’m apprehensive about this decision and want to make sure I really weigh out my options. The way I put it: I don’t want to look back six months from now and wish I had made a different decision. I wont stick around at a job that makes me miserable again, but at the end of the day I hate saying ‘no’ to people too. I would drag it out and just make myself miserable and it wouldn’t be right. Wherever I do end up I want to feel really good about, and hopefully I’ll have a better idea of where that place is within the week. The last of my resumes have been sent to the appropriate parties and now I’m just waiting. I’ll post an update when I have a better idea of where I’m going to end up (if I can).
Last weekend I got word that my motorcycle has been fixed and is ready to go! First thought: F YEA! Second thought: FML, I don’t have a helmet. I had actually ordered a replacement the night before the call came (thinking it would still be another week till my bike was done). None the less, my helmet should be in on Thursday, and starting Friday the forecast for the next week is nothing but clear skies and 75-85*F. I’m going to try and get in as much riding as possible (while finding a job!).
