Ugh. Refinancing is a pain, but worth it I guess. nuff said.

So I am starting my job search more seriously now. Ebay hasn’t gotten back to me yet, so I am not too hopeful about them giving me an offer any more. I am looking at a lot of jobs, and a lot talk about using software design patterns. This software design pattern sounds to me like the latest buzzword in software development management speak that is doomed to failure. I’ve been writing software for a while and every couple of years a new trend in software design will come along and promise big results and of course fail to deliver. Some ideas last longer than others, but in the end, most things don’t amount to much. Here are some of the more prominent examples: CAD/CASE tools, use-case software design, RAD design, extreme programming, UML design. That’s just to name a few. At least object oriented programming has been something of a success.

I rode up Old La Honda rode yesterday in record time for me, 31 minutes. It seems the record is something on the order of 15 minutes. Also there’s an interesting anecdote I read that claims that Dr. Eric Heiden(most known for his record setting Olympic speed skating accomplishments, but later a professional bicyclist, and now a famous orthopedic surgeon) used to live up on Old La Honda. I think my time is pretty respectable in comparison to what others have done.

Yesterday the cats had a an appointment with the vet. That was an adventure which ultimately failed. I tried to coax the cats into a box for transporting, but they have an uncanny sixth sense about knowing when they are going to the vet. I eventually failed and had to call and cancel the appointment because the cats were so ornery.

And I found out my friend Jeff Lai will be doing the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon with me and Kojo. I hope I own him.

Oh yea, Blizzard has announced a an expansion to war3 called Warcraft III: The Frozen Zone. I’m pretty excited about it. Right now, it’s pretty much just castercraft, where mass armies of casters pretty much rule. Some of the announced units should help it sounds like.

here’s an amusing baseball article from theonion

Had a terrible run. It was supposed to be a 3 mile as fast as you can run time trial. I only ran it at 8:40/mile pace. I ran super fast the first mile, then gave up pretty much because i knew i couldn’t maintain the pace.

Kojo got a new bike. It’s a beautiful Cervelo P2k he got at Freewheel Bicycles in San Francisco. Now I’m going to be at a an even bigger disadvantage than before. I think I’m going to wait until next year and if I still want to do more tris then i’ll get a new bike then.

Had an interview with eBay yesterday. Some interesting things from that… They are hiring 60 software engineers this quarter and growing rapidly. I was among a dozen interviewees they ushered in like cattle for those 60 positions. Of the dozen people interviewing with me, there were roughly 8 Indian and 4 Asians, 0 white, Hispanic, or African Americans. They had managers and engineers block off a whole afternoon for interviews. They had a really efficient process worked out and they said they’d get back to me in a week.

Everyone there was smart and seemed pretty upbeat about the company, which isn’t a surprise given that it’s one of the few super successes of the dotcom era.

Hmm.. Valentines day today. Bought Tracy some chocolate and flowers and a card. The usual stuff. Although I tend to avoid roses these days because it’s so overdone and she doesn’t seem that thrilled with them. Got her a small pot of lavender Hydrangea(sp?)., and its nice because she can theoretically replant them in a garden or something. She hasn’t had much success in planting fruits and flowers because deer keep eating whatever it is. Even the so called deer resistant plants get eaten.

Kojo and I did a swim time trial today. I almost beat him. We did 3 sets of 300m and mine averaged about 5:35. So that’s about 1:55/100m. Which is a really good for me. Kojo averaged just a bit better, not more than 2-3 seconds/100m. Although I think he has a greater advantage in open water.

Ouch. Brutal 4 hour ride today. This is my first of four long rides in our training program. The longest one is a full 5 hour ride. I actually didn’t feel that bad afterwards, just a bit tired. and I made good time. Almost exactly 4 hours, covering almost exactly 70 miles. So that’s 17.5 mph, in a rolling course. Although Kojo said he did his at 19mph, damn him. I think this calls for a new bike.

Finally saw The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This year is going to be movie sequel hell. X-men 2, Terminator 3, Matrix 2 and 3, another Lord of the Rings.

This is sad. Only one week off of work and I am bored already.

So you think you’re smart, eh? Try some of these:

IQ Tests

I did the “Ultimate Test” one and it took more than an hour. The spatial perception tests are damn annoying. I gave up on at least 3-4 of them because they were so hard. target who i consider extremely smart, tried the “Test for Exceptional Intelligence” and he said it was fucking impossible. He looked at two questions and had no clue and gave up.

The first week of my unemployment is half over, and I haven’t done much yet. Played a bunch of poker is all, and sent out just a couple resumes. Nothing really grabbing me yet, but if you have something that I might be good for, tell me. Here’s my resume just in case you can’t find it.