Summer is approaching it’s end. Part of me thinks it can’t come soon enough because of all the heat, but part of me isn’t ready for it to end.
We’ve had so many hot days this summer. We didn’t reach the records of last year, but I believe this year has been more consistently hot.
I’ve had a lot of fun this summer. It doesn’t seem like I’ve done as much as last year. I think last summer people were glad to finally be able to do things together again, so we made up for lost time. This year people have been taking it more easy, especially with covid variants and monkeypox going around.
Xander came to visit in early June and we spent a couple of days in Bend. It was my first time and we had a lot of fun!
A bunch of us went to Seattle in July for Alan and Austin’s belated bachelor party. So much fun!
Last weekend we had a corn themed party at Cory and Chris’s.
I’ve been doing tons on PDX Gaymer activities. A bit more than normal. We’ll slow down after this month I think! I also started putting together a board earlier in the year and started the process of becoming a nonprofit.
I made the decision not to go to PAX this year, which is where I would have been this weekend. I just wasn’t looking forward to it at all, especially after being in Seattle so recently. I know that I often dreading a trip and have tons of fun anyway, but I decided to save the money and spend it on a different trip.
Work is going well. I’m finally starting to see where I fit in on this new team.
I’ve been bad about documenting events on this this page. One month ago today I started a new job at Nike. I was a contractor, but I interviewed for a full-time position on a different team. Although I hated leaving my old team, I’m really enjoying my new team as well as the benefits of being a full-time employee.
My title is Senior Full-Stack Innovation Engineer and I work in the Technology Innovation Office. The group I’m in is new and still figuring out a lot of things about what we’re working on and how we’re operating, which is exciting. It’s my 5th week and my badge finally started working today. I’ve already had 1 manager change.
I’m really looking forward to what’s to come. My shoe collection is growing tremendously. I have to slow down on buying them.
I’m feeling pretty positive about life lately all things considered. Work is going well. I’ve had so many great experiences with friends this past month or so. I’m once again grateful for the friendships I have and it’s nice to be out and about again post Omicron peak. My friend Cody and I were both saying that we weren’t going to let the pandemic take another year from us. I’m taking precautions, but I’m out enjoying my life.
The biggest negative is that Reese has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. I’ve had almost 5 months to get used to the idea that he will be leaving. I take solace in the fact that he won’t be sick anymore.
Wow, time flies. It’s been a while since my last post, so I figured I’d pop in with an update like I do.
Life has been great. Between spending time with friends and PDX Gaymers events, I’ve been busy. October especially with all the Halloween things. My friend Aaron had a Disney-themed party this year. I dressed like a Sith Lord and everyone seemed to like it. PDX Gaymers had a Halloween game night again and my friend Jer also had a party. I’ve come to enjoy Halloween these past few years. I sympathize with those who don’t get into it but have to watch as everyone else is excited about it. It’s kinda how I’ve felt about Thanksgiving and Christmas most recent years.
Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, it feels like a sprint from October until the end of the year. So much happening and work usually has end of the year deadlines. At least I have a few weeks to catch my breath though before things really pick up again.
Work at Nike is still great. I’m not sure that there’s any chance of being hired full time. Not on this team, at least. I received an offer from a team at Intel to return there. A generous offer. I didn’t even have to go through an interview process, probably because I was recommended by one of my old managers. I ended up turning it down, mostly because I didn’t think I would like the work and I would be unmotivated to come to to work every day. While this was going on, a team that includes some of the people I last worked with there also wanted to make an offer, but they couldn’t because of the other offer. It’s nice to feel wanted. I still feel the mental effects of that year of unemployment I had.
I got my covid booster on the 20th. Thank goodness for vaccines. So glad that I’m able to go out and have fun again this year.
I went to see the Trailblazers play the Clippers on the 29th. Aaron got tickets through his work. Floor seats! So weird being that close to all the action.
Oh, early in the month I went to see a Bianca Del Rio show. Wendy Ho opened for her. They were both so funny. I’ve never seen the early seasons of Drag Race, but I want to go back and watch them.
There’s more stuff coming up, but I’ll save it for another time. Happy Halloween!
This has been another busy month. Since I’ve been vaccinated, it seems like every weekend has been packed with activity. Summer always seems busy because Portland only had a few months of non-rainy weather each year. Add onto that the fact that we had go a year without being able to go out because of covid-19. Today is my first weekend day that in a while that I’ve decided I’m not going anywhere. It’s nice to relax and recharge. I just hope the delta variant doesn’t disrupt our lives too much.
I’ve seen my friends a lot and not just on weekends. We celebrated one person’s birthday 2 weekends in a row and had a wine get together on a weeknight this past week, among other things. We went to a wine tasting out in Oregon wine country (I think that was this month). An old friend, Aaron, came back to Portland to visit with his boyfriend and his (Aaron’s) twin brother. I met the brother last time he was here. I miss Aaron a lot. He’s was one of the 1st people in Portland to make me feel welcome. He invited me to so many of his parties and night out excursions. That day I met some of Aaron’s local friends I had never met before and I’ve seen them a few times since.
PDX Gaymers had an outside in the park event that I refused to call a picnic. I first scheduled this in April and had no idea at the time how open things would be or how comfortable people would be around each other. It was originally supposed to be our 1st in-person post-lockdown event. A few days before I suggested people bring food if they wanted to, so it ended up being a picnic I guess. I brought a cooler, which ended up full of drinks that I got to take home. About 35 people showed up to this event, making it the biggest since I took over as leader in October 2016. We even had to borrow a couple of tables from an neighboring picnic area. It was so much fun! A lot of the time I wasn’t even playing anything. I was just trying to make sure people were playing something. I think everyone had a good time. I learned a lot that I’ll keep in mind for next year.
I’ve seen a ton of movies lately, thanks to Regal Unlimited. I’m going to see 2 more this week.
At work, full-time employees got every Friday off in July along with a 1 week in August. As a contractor I don’t get that and technically I’m not supposed to work. However, my manager gave me permission to work those days, adjust my schedule so that I can get those days off and still get 40 hours for the week, or just take some off. I’ve done the first 2 so far. I think I will work that week in August., but I’m not sure. Either way, it’s been nice having some extra days off this summer.
I found out this week that 1 person I went to school with and 1 person I met online because of LOST are in their final days because of cancer. I hope that we really have more treatment options soon. This has been a bad month for friends and their pets and not all of them recovered. Reese has been exhibiting some weird behavior lately. Of course, over the past 13 years I’ve always gotten worried when he started acting weird.
I’m busy and happy and fortunate. Eager to see what the rest of the year brings.
April was actually a pretty dry month relatively speaking. I think I remember hearing that we set a record for most consecutive days in April without rain. Anyway, that’s not why I’m here.
I started working as a contractor at Nike at the beginning of the month. I’ve wanted to work for Nike for a long time. They’ve been my dream local company for a while now. I really like the team that I’m on and the work that I’m doing. I’ve already taken 1 trip to the employee store and bought a whole bunch of stuff at discount. The only thing that took away a little enthusiasm is that around the time I interviewed with them, another company showed interest. I couldn’t get an answer from the other company a month ago, but they reached out again a couple of weeks ago and I formally interviewed with them this week. I would feel terrible about leaving Nike so soon, but it would be hard to pass up this opportunity.
I got my 2nd dose of the covid vaccine on April 20. Yeah, the next day was awful like I expected. I had chills, a fever, nausea. Thankfully, I felt much better the next day. I already have plans for some social activities this summer. Some friends and I are planning a cabin getaway Memorial Day Weekend. I’m so excited.
I have so many plants now. I’m sure they were happy for what rain we did get. I’m still a newbie when it comes to raising plants. A lot of what I’m doin now is experimentation.
I got talked into trading in my last week Toyota Corolla for a new car. I decided to get a 2021 Toyota Corolla hybrid. I really loved that Corolla, but I like this one better so far. I remember joking after moving to Portland and seeing so many hybrids that my next car would be one. I didn’t happen that way and all electric seems to be the way to go now, but I’m usually behind on this kind of thing.
Don’t ever think life can’t get crazier, because it can.
A lot of the West Coast has been on fire recently. In the middle of a pandemic. About 2 or 3 weeks ago there was so much smoke in the Portland area, it was hazardous to be outside for more than a few minutes. I blocked off the windows and doors as much as I could, but enough was still getting inside to make it hard for me to breath. This asthmatic did not like that. Air quality here is back to normal now.
Work is good, but it’s been hectic. My team has a lot of requests thrown at it that need to be done in a short period of time. I like being busy. I just hope I can maintain a good work/life balance.
The first presidential debate between Biden and Trump last night was insane. I’ll be glad when the election is finally over. 34 days until Election Day.
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my team at Intel finding out that we were all being laid off. A few days ago I received an offer for a contract position. I held off on saying anything publicly because I received an offer for a contract role at Nike last September, but it was rescinded the next day because they wanted to go in another direction. I can’t remember if I mentioned that here or not. This position is with Walmart through a company called Insight Global. I’m definitely not a fan of Walmart. I had stopped shopping there even when I lived in the land of Walmart. However, a good friend reminded me that we are more important than our employers. I’m not going to feel too bad that Walmart is keeping a roof over my head. They’re giving me a chance when nobody else would. If doesn’t have to be forever. Since my start date is in 2 days I’m pretty confident I will actually get to start. My laptop was mailed yesterday and is expected to arrive Monday morning.
It’ll be nice and also weird to really be working again. Other than a short contract I worked on during the month of June, I haven’t done any “real” work since last July.
This will be a remote position. I’m going to turn my 2nd bedroom into a home office again. I’ve already ordered a new desk and a few other things.
Today was my last day at Intel. I can’t say that I’m happy about it. I’ve been there the past 3 years as an FTE and was there on and off the previous 4.5 years as a contractor. The have been ups and downs the past 3 years have been fantastic. I’ve grown so much as a developer and leader.
I’ve hardly been in the office the past 3 months. The area my team occupied is a ghost town. I went in yesterday to clean out my desk. Today I had my exit interview and turned in my equipment. At least I got to keep my badge.
Feelings can change, but I feel like this might be it for me with Intel. I’ve been shoved out the door too many times by them when their business needs changed. We’ll see though. Never say never.
A week ago today, my entire team found out that we were being eliminated, including management. That’s around 30 people. It really sucks because I enjoyed being on this team. Some of them have been working together for 10 years. I’ve been with them since early last year, when my previous team merged with their team. It’s not just our team that’s being eliminated, pretty much all the engineers in our division were being let go. It’s all cost cutting. The work we’re doing is being outsourced to teams in Ireland, India, and Poland. The term they used is that they were “right-sizing” the organization.
The good news is that I’ll still get an employee until October 31 and I can spend that time looking for a new job. I guessed what was happening last Tuesday when unusual meeting invites started going out, so I started updating my resume then. I’ve sent it out to a few contacts and applied for a few positions. There’s an internal job fair at Intel next week and there’s a good chance I’ll find another position then. I just don’t know if it’ll be as exciting as the one I’m currently losing. I’m not just limiting my search to Intel though. Hopefully, I’ll have something definite by October 31.
I don’t know how people have 20+ year careers at one company. I keep getting laid off every 2-3 years.
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