Many things happened today.
Hopefully I can remember them all

I got in a bit later than I would have liked to have been (09:40) however my anticipation of being 'late' was groundless as no one in engineering bothered to turn up till well after 10:30... I spot a flaw in this. Admitidly I used to turn up at work at AT&T/IBM later than that, though normally after doing 15-18hrs of work.. (cough)... Actually thinking about it, we used to have an online timesheet system to log hours worked on projects etc at IBM,.. it was generally hated and dispised, however, I did actually use it, until such time as it started complaining that I couldn't possibly be working the hours that I was.

Called up the SSA to see if they had my social security number available. They did. Joy, this makes a lot of things much easier to do now. I needed to go to the bank, however, today is pay day. I had to wait to get a cheque signed by the HR/payroll dept first. By this time I decided to put off going to the bank until after going out to have a look at the housing at Innsbrook.

Innsbrook isn't that far away at all. I had a look at two types of apartment a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom and a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment. the 2br/1ba was a bit dark and not as large as I thought it might have been. The 2br/2ba apartment I saw was a showcase apartment so had some furniture and decoration already in it which while it was designed to show off the apartment as best as possible gave me an idea of just how much space was available for furnishings. Many people have gone on at length about facilities etc however, all I truely want is a bedroom, a study, a living/dining room, a bathroom and a kitchen/utility room.

Beyond that, I really have no special needs. Still, at 785 a month, it's quite affordable though I need to factor in intresting things such as furniture rental, electric, phone, food, other living expenses. I still have three other places to go look at out at Chapel hill, (Rock Creek, Bradford Place and The Falls at Duraleigh). I'll see how it goes over the next few days. One intresting observation about US household electrics compared to the UK, in the UK to switch a light or appliance on we switch DOWN and not UP as the US seems to have adaopted as it's standard. (oh, and the UK have better switches as well which won't snag on a jumper or coat.). Another observation I've made is this odd dependance on haveing a washing machine and a tumble dryer using up rediculous amounts of space.. observe the future... Washer dryers that take up a fraction of the space.

Having grabed a load of documentation from the Innsbrook people, and been surprised that Redhat *wasn't* a prefered employer even though I had originally been told they were, I popped over to the Wachovia bank. Happily filled out the rest of the banking details and applied for home banking, the bill payment facility and credit rating. I did find out that international money transfers are still behind the times though they have given up on requireing a 1/2 pint of your blood for the intricate scrollwork of selling your soul to the devil. As I've had to pay the hotel bill out of my credit card, I'll have to pay it off from here in the US since RH kindly decided it would rather I paid for it (duh!)

As a result I estimate the costs as follows
10 days in the hotel + various taxes etc = $832
payment = my UK credit card
So, having to submit an expenses claim, I will actually have to claim the $832, and additionally, the currency conversion charge that my credit company will charge which I won't know until I get a statement and when thats done, I'll need to wire over that amount to the UK which incurs a $30 wiring fee.

So, any new RH employees coming to the US should beware. I really have no idea as to why RH wouldn't pay the hotel bill directly it's simply made things more complex and expensive than they had to be.

Wanger has made noises about the hire car on his credit card,.. however, my hands are tied until the bank gets the credit rating sortted out. At that point I can go and buy a car. Again, having talked to a few more people, the saving on buying a 2nd hand car is offset by the various warranties that you would get with a new car. As I'll be in the US for 3 years, and don't expect to be driving any large milage, I think I'd be better off going to buy a new car for the sake of a few thousand. From what I can tell, a new car (bizzarely) will mean I'll get cheaper insurance with one firm... umm....
The bank also told me that I'd probably be better off with a car dealership finance package rather than getting a loan from them to buy a car with. Seems fair enough to me. I might need to wait to get the credit rating and a formal chequebook though.

Ah great! something I was unsure if I'd brought with me or not has turned up. the ScanDo 1024 which is used to convert the SVGA output of a computer to NTSC/PAL via composite/rgb or SVHS. It seems it had somehow got left in Keiths car after he picked me up when I first arrived at Raleigh. This is good news because I have plans to use it to make 'training' video's, though I'll need a few other 'toys' to add in audio.

Looks like I'll be visiting a LUG in the area tomorrow with devient. Seems I'll have to be at RH at the ungodly time of 11:00 in the morning on saturday, though I'll have to disappear later on to go look at Rock Creek.
fun...

Note to Raph or someone, Advogato is BADLY in need for alphabetical sorting for the projects area as well as the people index.