Post-week thoughts of my future.

May 8, 2004

I meant to write in my blog last night, but I was so, so tired and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. When I got home around 4:45 PM, I immediately changed into my exercise clothes, but I decided I was far too tired to go jogging, and that instead I’d put it off until today. No problem. I need to keep regularly exercising, but there’s no way that I could have made it over to the room without falling asleep standing up.

I can’t figure out why I was so tired, though. I’ve been getting up at 6 AM every day this week to make it into work on time, but yesterday was the only day that I was super tired. I didn’t go to bed too late, so I dunno. Anyway, I slept very well, and slept in three hours past my normal wake up time. And I still get another day of it before I have to go back to getting up at a normal time.

After my first week of work, I have a few thoughts. In 90 days I get a performance review and a salary increase, as well as benefits beginning. I asked someone about the salary increase, figuring I’d go up maybe $0.45 or somthing, but she said that normally it’s a dollar or two per hour. Well, technically I’m not really paid hourly, but that’s how it breaks down, really. Anyway, 90 days seems like such a long time now, but I know that it will be upon me sooner than I think. I remember when my 90 days were up when I was workng at Stream, and when they called me in for my review and handed me my benefits package, I remember thinking “It’s been three months already?” Since it’s only been a week, I’m not sure if I’ll feel the same way, though my first few days felt remarkably similar t my first few days at Stream. Luckily, I don’t have to continue on tech support for much longer since that’s not my primary job function.

On Monday, we’re hiring a new employee that will also being doing QA/tech support like me, but he gets to spend his first week on the phones like I did. I guess that means that Monday, I finally get situated with my permanent computer and desk area, so I can get things set up the way I like. I can even bring in stuff for my desk if I want, like a mousepad, even a different mouse. I doubt I’ll replace the whole mouse, but a mousepad is definitely in order. The company has some interesting rules that the enforce, but nothing particularly bad. They don’t allow music in the workplace, nor even music with headphones, so as I’m working on QA projects I can’t listen to my iPod at work while I’m working. That’s sort of a bummer, but I can live with that. The rule about no smokers at work is sort of an odd one, but since I don’t smoke it doesn’t even affect me. But that they don’t allow someone to smoke even on their lunch break is kind of interesting. I guess the company doesn’t want people coming back in smelling like smoke that other people don’t necessarily want to smell.

Interestingly enough, if I smelled smoke on someone at work, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for me. One of my cubemates at Stream smoked, though he rolled his own cigarettes, and so the smell of fresh tobacco always makes me think of him, and our cube always had a faint aroma of tobacco, both smoked and unsmoked. It really didn’t bother me. Because I wasn’t exposed to the smoke itself, it never rubbed off on me, but honestly, I somewhat enjoy the smell of unaltered, fresh tobacco now. But I can see why they don’t want people smoking there. As I said, doesn’t affect me, so it’s not a problem.

So how was my first week overall? Well, I learned a few new pieces of software fairly well, and I got to play with several different types of PDAs. All in all, not a bad week. There’s a particular model there that isn’t being used anymore as far as I can tell, though it’s missing the AC adapter for it as well as the cable to hook it up to a PC. Both can be purchased elsewhere. In any case, I offered to buy it off my boss, though since it’s unused and now somewhat old (and useless without the cables, though he’s pretty sure they’re in the office somewhere), I might get it for free. Not bad. If you take a look at the product page for the model in question, you’ll see why I’m so interested in it. It’s basically a small sub-notebook, but it runs the software found on Pocket PC, so it has instant bootup and shutdown, as well as 10-12 hour battery life. I can write on it, even hook up a network card (even wireless!) and browse the web, chat with people, send email, etc. Basically lots of the things I do on my laptop, but I can realistically take it somewhere. I hear that the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse McMenamins is getting a wireless hotspot. How cool would that be, take something like that and hoist a few while being able to browse the web? Talk about a beer-loving geek’s dream come true.

When I start making money, I’m going to replace my Palm m500 with this bad boy right here. Built-in wireless networking, so as I pass a Starbucks I can check my mail. Another geek’s dream come true?

Speaking of making money, I’ve begun budgeting for monthly expenses, and I believe that I’ll be able to pay my sister rent every month, pay my Mom some money every month to pay down what I owe her (not sure of the exact amount yet, actually), make payments on my college loans, pay for car insurance, make car payments, and even pay for food, and still have some money left over to go into the bank. It’s a start. But since I don’t know exact figures yet, I’m estimating things like car payments, insurance, and student loan payments. But I think it’ll work out.

So, at the end of my first week of work, I’m somewhat happier. I’m enjoying my job so far, but I am looking forward to doing things other than tech support as time goes on. It’s going to be an interesting experiment, to say the least. Catch you all later.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General