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.

Yesterday I was laid off from DivX. It is what it is, there is plenty of opportunity out there. I think of it as an opportunity for new adventures! I figure this week I will take some time to unwind and figure out which way my compass is going to point me. As a part of that Tim, Seth and I went out mountain biking! I’m really happy that I’ve had the opportunity to work with Tim and Seth, and I am certainly happy that Tim and I have become friends. Riding the bike has a certain kind of cathartic release and I find I have some really good time to think of things, put them in perspective, and invent new things.

Today was also great in the fact it started out with free Jamba Juice, a mountain bike ride, free dinner, and free beer! I also discovered that the museums are free in Balboa Park to locals on Tuesday. I think next Tuesday I’m going to spend a day in the park.

With all of that said I have made contact with several people about employment possibilities. Very positive so far. All said, not a bad day.

Well gang, that deep in my gut feeling that something was going to happen over the last month came true. When you’ve worked long enough in someplace you can feel when it changes. And, a few weeks ago it changed. Today DivX laid off some people myself included. I’m actually relieved and incredibly excited about what can come next. I’ll take some time to mountain bike and go see family and friends via my motorcycle.

I made some incredible friends and had some memorable experiences. That chapter is over, time to start writing a new one! If you know anyone who is looking for a good technical manager/project manager keep me in mind!

CIAO!