Hey gang.  I have to tell you about these great shorts I bought from the local shop.  If you’re going to ride for a decent distance, I can’t recommend these enough.  They are apparently hard to find but Bicycle Warehouse in San Diego carries them and has them in stock most of the time.  Additionally you can order them online at www.sugoi.com via their online store (They list REI as a carrier, but they have a limited inventory).

The shorts I bought are the Sugoi RS Short.  They are pricey, but after spending all day wearing them and having no discomfort.  They are worth every penny.  I’m planning to buy their Gustov Short this summer and few other items after seeing their quality first hand.  If you want to know more, email me and I’ll spout on for hours. haha!

Some of you may have noticed that the ‘days’ don’t correlate to real time. I’m actually only posting days I would have ben working. Got back from the camping trip yesterday (Which you probably saw) and finished putting the house back together today. Had the funniest thing happen. Someone from DivX got me on AIM asking when a project was going to be done. I got to tell them “I have no idea, I was laid off two weeks ago.” I see DivX is still awesome at internal communication.

I woke up early ‘again’ and beat Patapon on the PSP. Pretty fun game. They definitely leave it open to a sequel. You can keep playing it and killing the bosses and collect more loot. I wonder if you do, if you can use that stuff in the next game?

Few more bites on the employment front. Some possible interviews this week.  I have an all afternoon interview on Wednesday so I better make sure my suit is in good order.  A few possible contract positions popped up on the radar as well.

I went to lunch with Morgan today at the Costco out in Poway. He said he’d buy me lunch, it was the $1.50 hotdog and a coke deal. Actually pretty good, and, if I remain unemployed I know I can always get a meal for a $1.50 at Costco. Of course, you can never go to Costco without spending money. They had a great deal on SD Memory cards. $34.50 for two 2 GB cards! Apparently you’re supposed to turn in the thing you pick up in the store at the register to receive said cards. I got all the way home and tried to open the package. No dice. The local Costco won’t let me trade them so I’ve got to make my way back up to the Poway Costco now. I guess I’ll do it on one of the mountain bike trips. I also got some of that orange hand cleaner stuff, and a rechargeable battery set. I’ve been burning through batteries with the camera, GPS, and the new helmet cam will likely do the same.

On the way home I stopped by National University and re-enrolled. I’ve been rejected due to my lack of degree a couple of times in the last week. I find it interesting. As I know geniouses with no degree, and will likely never get a degree. And I know complete idiots with a doctorate. Go figure. I’m not sure why if someone has significant life experience why a degree is required. Especially if with that life experience you spent 4 year in the military. I have found that people with former military experience are far more desirable to work with than someone who just went to college. But, that’s just my opinion. Perhaps the places which ‘require’ a degree feel the same way about people who have degrees?

Wrapped up the day watching Boondock Saints and eating Bronx Pizza with Diane.  I can’t believe she hadn’t seen that movie being such the moviephile that she is.

…except you get to hang around with your workin’ friends!!! We had a great weekend camping in spite of the cold and windy weather. It would have been fantastic had there been no wind. We got packed up and headed up to Laguna Mountain to camp for the weekend on Friday. Getting up there was pretty uneventful other than me forgetting stuff and having to return back into the house oh 5-6 times. Once we were on the road we linked up with Dan and NJ and made our way to the campsite. The site was gorgeous!!! Parking the trailer was a little interesting. I would classify myself as an expert trailer driver (One of the two things I attribute to the Army). It must have taken 15 tries to get the trailer backed into the spot. Once in there leveling the trailer was another challenge. I have these neat Lego like leveling blocks, but apparently not enough. We tried at least five configurations before I got the shovel out and dug out the dirt on the other side of the trailer for the tires to settle into. As the evening came on the rest of the gang showed up. Lasagna, fire, & good friends were the fare for the evening (Don’t use lighter fluid to start a campfire, it sucks. Gasoline is much better)

Saturday morning we woke up to super wind and pretty cold temperatures. Rather than stick with the original menu of cold cereal and fruit, we busted out the pancakes and bacon to warm everyone up. Tim and Tracie showed up finishing off our riding quorum prompting us to get ready to roll. Starting out in the wind and cold made everyone doubtful, but as soon as we pedaled up the hill a little bit the wind was mostly gone. Our campsite was situated at the edge of a meadow just inside the trees. Basically the wind gets funneled from the meadow right into the campsite. Get inside the trees some, and it was beautiful. The trails up there are in pretty good shape and a pleasure to ride. The altitude however, kicked a few people’s butts.

More Photos

My two favorite areas of the ride were Chico Ravine and Gatos Ravine. We rode up Chico Ravine and came down Gatos, but I think most would agree we all would have preferred the other way. Chico Ravine’s trail was just so smooth and nice. We had no major mishaps along the ride and had a total blast. We rolled back into camp, and our spot was still windy. Not as cold, but stupid windy. Fired up the grill and made Carne Asada and Pollo Asado! DELICIOUS!!! While all of us hid in the trailer from the wind we laughed at the kids playing in the tents that looked like they were about to fly off to Oz any moment. Tim and Tracie headed on home and we spent the afternoon playing Uno and Scrabble. It was just too fricken cold to hang around outside.

Alison and I attempted another ride where we would reverse the Gatos/Chico ravine route. But our legs just would not warm up. We started the ascent and it just wasn’t going to happen. We explored some of the flatter areas but kept it a pretty short ride. For dinner we fired up the grill to cook hotdogs and hamburgers. We had to put it on the other side of the trailer to keep the wind from blowing the flames out. It was so cold at that point you could see your breathe when you were talking. With this in mind, Dan & NJ decided to head on home after dinner. Gregg & Amanda were soon to follow. We packed up Vaugh, Jen & the kids in the trailer and crashed out for the night.

Sunday was pretty lazy. We weren’t feeling up for a ride so we cooked a big awesome breakfast and cleaned up the camp. I tried to start another fire but the wood just didn’t want to burn. After packing everything up we scoped out the rest of the campgrounds to find one that would be better to park the trailer in for the future then pointed ourselves home.

Great weekend! Thank you everyone who came along. I’ll be planning another one next month!!!

Here are the current photo albums. I’ll post the other links when I have them

Jason’s Photos Alison’s Photos Paco’s Photos Dan’s Photos

Not much to say about today. I went to my last physical therapy appointment for my hands before my health insurance runs out in 12 days. Dropped by Borders and read a few magazines and had a pretty good cinnamon coffee cake. (You can read books and magazines at Borders without paying for them, not sure if they intended that but it works for me at the moment) Picked up all the food for the camping trip this weekend. And, wrapped up the night with Dart Night.

Something that was pointed out to me is how I look now opposed to a few months ago.

Now

Few Months ago

I still can’t sleep in! Today, woke up at 5:30… Couldn’t go back to sleep so I went ahead and got out of bed and took care of some stuff around the house. Sold all my remaining DivX stock so some more cash in the bank. I debated making a purchase I’ve wanted for some time, and went ahead and made it.  Not a significant cost, but the fact that I have no real income at the moment I should have probably kept the money in the bank.  So far in the last week I’ve made $1,245 off of Ebay sales.  Mostly stuff I wasn’t using, or don’t need much.  Nice way to clean the house up!

I’ve had a few people ask me “Are you ok?”  My answer is “Yeah, it is what I make of it.”  True, that in a few months if I haven’t become gainfully employed life will get uncomfortable.  Honestly, its just stuff.  I can get new stuff later if I want/need it.  I’ve been mountain biking to take my mind off things and enjoy the good weather we are having.  As well as enjoy time lost with friends which I can now make up for.  (Need to take a couple days off the bike though, cut my foot open somehow, and got Poison Oak.  DOH!)

Today I had two phone interviews.  One of them has resulted in a face-to-face next week.  Good news on that!  I have a few other opportunities which I’m trying to get to turn into something.  Added a section to my site.  Hire Me, I figure I can maximize visibility!  Keeping my head up, hope you are too!

Ciao!

Another morning ride with Tim, Seth & Iwo. On the way up we saw this awesome display of East County Americana. Its cooled off so it was a great ride. We rode up near Ramona and found some really fun trails, and got lost a little bit. All good fun! Looking forward to checking more of that area out. There are a bunch of signs along the trails up there talking about how the plants and animals recover from the fires. Very resilient. I think the local flora and fauna recover better than we humans do.

Had two phone interviews today. Both seemed to go pretty well and I’m anticipating some follow up from them or I’ll be following up with them myself. One of them is something I worked on 14 years ago. That would be kind of neat to work on that project again and see how its evolved.

Finished up some of the camping logistics for this weekend! And, I got my single speed conversion done on my old Univega. Basically its a simple single speed mountain bike that only weighs 15 lbs. Its kinda ugly, but I love it anyway.

Hello gang! I’m enjoying this unplanned vacation and I am making the most of it. Finishing a few house projects, mountain biking, and spending time with friends. I’ve had a few possibilities on the employment front which is always pleasing. I also noticed that my email signature was pointing people to my site. Oops. But, then I have nothing to hide really.  I got a nice take home ‘lunch’ baggy today!  With my reinvestment in mountain biking I decided to turn my poor old hardtail race bike into a single speed mountain bike.  The shifters were shot and the rear dérailleur was bent.  So rather than fix those I picked up a single speed conversion kit.    I’m anticipating  a great deal of fun to be had.

This last weekend Gregg brought over the new workbench.  What a work of art!  I can’t even express how cool this thing is.  With the installation of th workbench the garage is nearly done.  Just a few cabinets, some drywall finishing, and a coat of paint and it will be complete!  Tomorrow early some of the other former DivX gang and I are heading out for a mountain bike ride.

Things are coming together for the camping trip this weekend.  I’m looking forward to spending time with some of good friends.  Riding, eating, and napping will be in order!

I woke up early today and rode the motorcycle out to the campsite off Sunrise Highway.  It was quite a bit cooler up in the mountains than it has been down here in San Diego.  Nice and refreshing!  Along the road I kept noticing these funny lizards all over the place.  I’ve never seen them before, but they were out in force today.  At one point along the ride I caught something moving fast and directly at me out of the corner of my eye.  I flinched thinking “Oh, this is gonna hit me” then it didn’t.  I looked over to my right and a big golden eagle was flying right there next to me.  It seemed like it went on for minutes but I’m sure it was 1-3 seconds.  Then, it flew right off again.  It was so close I could have reached out and touched it.  Totally stunning!  I’m sure he was going after something before I got in his way.

That’s about it for today.  I have a few emails to follow up on with a few prospective employment opportunities.  I’ll keep ya all up to date!

Pretty uneventful, so much that I’m updating a day late :-).  Took Dave Finley out to lunch for his Birthday.  Good times there.  Just waiting for a some bites on the fishing lures (Job Postings)  Took the day off from mountain biking to let the legs recover.  I’m getting in to pretty trim shape and I’m pretty stoked about that.  Sold the Husky yesterday, it rolled out of the garage to day on the back of Kevin’s truck.  Amazing how much room I’ve got around my house now after selling a ton of stuff.

Now, I’m just trying to decide.  Do I find a job, or do I head to Central and South America on the motorcycle?  Amanda via Gregg pointed me to this add looking for people to be on a reality show about people who do long distance motorcycle trips (1-2 Weeks).  I might send in an audition clip for that to see where it goes.

Beautiful weekend!  Get out there and enjoy it!

As remarkable as it is, I CAN’T sleep in. I’ve tried all week and no luck. I woke up at 6 AM this morning. Refused to open my eyes in the hopes I’d go back to sleep. After about 30 minutes I gave up and got out of bed. Washed the Nomad so it wouldn’t be all nasty when Morgan at the Bicycle Warehouse in Kearny Mesa tunes it up.

Afterwards I cleaned up and headed on over to DivX to turn in my paperwork, get my stuff, and receive my final check. It was pretty nice to see some of the people I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I’ll miss working with so many people who became my friends, but I won’t miss other things. Someone had already looted my desk, but that’s to be expected. They didn’t take anything that looked personal so that was nice :-). Of course, they were having Waffle Day, one of my most favorite things about DivX. I was going to take a waffle, but I decided against it as I wasn’t a part of the place anymore.

Got a bagel and read my book some. Then took the bike over to the shop to get its tune up. After leaving there Diane texted me and asked if we could take off Dart Night since she had poured toxic contact cleaner in her eye (In a failed attempt to become a pirate I guess). I offered to drop her off at the doctor’s office on my way to a lunch interview with a familiar recruiter. The irony of the matter, is it was the recruiter that got me a job at the once great DivX. Good thing to keep good relations with people.

From the lunch a few possibilities have rolled in. I don’t think it will take long to find a new job. I’m planning on finding a place that will be fun to go into as well as personally and professionally rewarding. So far so good!

Wrapped up the afternoon by picking Diane back up and getting her home. Visited the ‘new’ Adams Avenue Bicycles. (I worked at the ‘old’ one about 14 years ago as a part time gig) Hit up REI for a few munchies and a really cool Gorilla Pod. Picked up the bike and headed on home. Finally I rolled the trusty Husky out of the Toybox Trailer to make sure she ran before Kevin picks it up tomorrow. Now I’m down to just my BMW and my Nomad in the ‘toy department’. In the last month I’ve sold my 350Z, Three Jetskis, Two Mountainbikes, Xbox, PS2, Wii, Computer & Monitor, and a ton of other things on Ebay.

Tomorrow Kevin and Karen arrive. Perhaps I’ll take a ride out to the mountains to scope out the campspot for next weekend’s trip…

Surprisingly, I can’t sleep in! I figured I’d be able to, but, around 6:30-7 I’m wide awake. I’ve pretty much decided based on current and prior experience that finding a job is like fishing. You get a bunch of lures (resumes) out into the water, and wait for someone to bite. After a while, you reel in a few and find you have sticks, garbage or other undesirable things attached to your hook, clean it off, and recast. I put a few more lures today, made a couple contacts, and found things to keep me busy. Fortunately I have a personal assistant to help me on my job search. She’s kinda lazy, and generally complains if I try to get her to do anything other than lay on top of my arms while I’m trying to use the computer. But, its nice to have some kind of help (If you can call it that).

Before I was let go one of my teams had a lunch or dinner planned, so we went ahead and did it anyway. The funny thing was apparently so did every other team who lost a member and about 25-30 of us ended up at Rock Bottom. Pretty good reunion! I’ll miss the guys, that’s for sure.

Someone sent this along to me. Its a short satire on the US Job situation (Wrong, but funny)

Some of the gang and I went mountain biking after their work (Since well, I don’t work right now). Its furthering me towards my goal of my stomach not touching my knees when I’m pedaling. I think Thursday I’ll have to take a day off riding since I went Monday, Tuesday & today (Wednesday). Tomorrow I pick up the remaining stuff at the office and drop off the signed gag/severance letter.