Older blog entries for rjp (starting at number 41)

saw harry connick tonight - i'm not a major big band fan, but significant other likes connick. actually, it was a really fun show, and there was some decent bluesy stuff.

packing the house. ugh. discovered today that moving expenses are tax deductible! sheeyit! we're definitely hiring movers, forget driving a truck myself! first order of business tomorrow morning is getting quotes and timelines for moving. we'd like to use the same guy/group that moved us up here in the first place. [big company] paid for that move, and even though we'll deduct the cost, it's still going to hurt a bit to pay out of pocket. still, it's much preferable to loading/driving/unloading ourselves.

*so* much to do.

house hunting, just as fruitful as job hunting, and in the same strange way: on the 1st day, we found the winner. amazing. if it all works out that is . . . right now signs point to yes, but anything's possible. that means we will need to move probably next week. next week! shit.

it's really strange, as if santa barbara is opening its arms and welcoming us back. definitely not how i felt when we left. but it's the only place that feels anything like "home" (whatever the hell that is supposed to be) in something like 14 years.

grampa died this morning. i got the call at about 6:30 am - we were still in santa barbara. we had several appointments, but blew them off and by 1 pm we were back up in the valley. i don't have words to describe the emptiness. i've spent the last 5 months of my life basically devoted to his comfort, and to help him and the rest of the family face his impending death. i understand, on an intellectual but not emotional level, the event that has taken place. actually i understand it for about 5 minutes at a time, and then i feel numb for a while.

geez - two of my friends that just recently found work here in the valley (after some length of time unemployed) are looking at pink slips within a month. things up here are supposed to be getting better - whatever.

i'm getting back into working on dcserver. shit, i haven't done anything technical except scripts and app configuration files (if you can call that technical) in about 2 months. it's going to be a tough couple of days when i finally go back to work - while i'm adjusting to having a real work schedule again.

lots of stuff to get done in the short period before we move: sell that damn car, get wheels and rollbar, finalize job, find a house, yadda yadda. i hate moving. damn, i hate moving. i really really hate moving.

dilemma: job offer is hanging there, waiting for me to take it. startup is 3 - 6 months out. if i take job offer and they have a problem with me leaving in ~3 months (which is reasonable for them), i can't go be a founder. i like them at [job offering company]. they are nice, and the work would be nice. the commonly held notion is that salaries in santa barbara are 10 - 15% lower than up here in the valley; and while that seems to be the case, i'm still coming out okay. so that's great too . . .

regardless, santa barbara is now firmly on the horizon. next week: house-hunting trip. shit, where do i host my sites while we get moved in and wait for cable/dsl? hmmmm.

svlug installfest today - i lugged the old sparc lx over to see if anyone could help me figure it out. no luck, except that this nice guy - from argentina i think he said? - thought we could boot it via bootp. he wasn't running bootp, so he had to install it and try to configure it . . . i think it can be done with bootp, but i doubt i'll try it until we move and get settled in. i'm convinced now that my linuxcentral sparc red hat 6.2 cd is simply not sparc-bootable.

what i *do* need to play with, though, is jabber. my dad wants to offer a private im service to the paying members of his site, and of course he wants it for free. so, i suggested jabber, and told him i'd set it up and get it all ready for him.

sb job hunt was fruitful - one offer, a couple of other possibilities. one of which is much more attractive than anything else - it would actually be focused on open source. the problem is, there won't be funding for a while.

i don't want to take a job down there and then skip out on them when the other thing is ready to roll - one can do that in silicon valley, but it's too small a town down there to pull it off. if i want to live down there for a while (like, settle down for good), i can't afford to burn bridges like that.

all in all though, having a concrete offer in hand is more than i could have hoped for. they're being flexible with me in terms of time, which allows me to look around more - and they know that's what i'm doing, and they're okay with it. hmmm . . .

this week: road trip to sb to job hunt. got one appointment lined up already, but i'd really like to get at least 3 more this week. i'm not in a hurry to take the 1st thing that comes along - i want to make sure it's the right thing to spend the next few years doing. agh! got to get the road music cd collection together. damn, i'd love one of those car audio systems that reads mp3s.

the sj skate last week: rained out. when i move to sb, i'll have to set up a good downtown route and start a group to do a weekly skate there.

and, so, the guilt sets in. moving out of town == abandoning my family here? no, not really - things are settling down, and grampa is well cared for at home (never in one of those "homes" where families leave their old people to die - NEVER - only in his own home, that's what we've sworn to). it's amazing that he's held on this long - despite what the doctors said, it could be months longer. i'm not really helping anything by staying now, and i'll be back every other weekend or so. why then am i feeling so guilty about it? he's comfortable, safe, and as happy as could be under the circumstances.

got to put the sb job search into high gear - and soon, or i'll be tempted to stay. it never rains, it pours; that cliche seems to have a magical truth about it, whether it's relationships, jobs, or whatever.

got to get my sparc lx over to the svlug installfest this month! i'm sure someone there can help me out - i just can't get the damn thing to boot linux . . . now i think it may be my media - it's a cd from linux central, red hat 6.2 for sparc, but i have this odd feeling they screwed up and the cdrom is not sparc-bootable. i can get a recent version of solaris to boot and install . . .

we're doing it: santa barbara, here we come. it's going to be great to be back. but damn, suddenly i start getting the calls and emails - the job market in the valley has definitely heated up.

thank god for memepool. it's sites like that that keep today's www from sucking badly.

great trip - good weather, good company, good good good.

we may move back to santa barbara - the job market down there is doable, things are very much under control with my family here, it's close enough that i can be here even every weekend if i wish . . . we are considering it. it would be great to be back there - i had almost forgotten how beautiful it is ;)

funny, just when i start thinking about moving, the job situation here starts to heat up. irony sucks.

fatmouse rocks your world.