Confidence

Well, today was the driver's test. I've probably driven about 1500 miles or so this month, but California wants to see how qualified I am. I hate tests like that, they're testing a style of driving I never do, and keep me from doing things the way I'm used to. But, I got through the written test, and that was supposed to be the hard part. I figured my experience would lead the way.

I did have a few handicaps. This was a city I've never been in, I'd need to take verbal cues for where to go, instead of following the GPS, or taking known roads, and I wouldn't have the GPS to tell me my speed or the speed limit.

So, we started, and I started driving in "driving test" mode, exaggerating every motion and doing stuff as smoothly as possible. I was nervous, as I usually am when I'm not in control, and someone else decides my fate. We ended up navigating down some residential roads, and they asked me to park anywhere that's legal, so that was easy. Then, they asked me to back up in a straight line. I'm terrible at backing up, that's why I took a car with a rear camera. So, I took cues from Worst Driver, put my arm behind the passenger seat, and tried driving looking behind me. I had no useful visual cues, and I ended up rolling over the curb.

That's a test ending mistake. Apparently, they don't need you to parallel park, but they want that reversing, and I probably took 'back up in a straight line' too literally. The way the tests there work is there's a bunch of minor errors, and you need to be below the quota. However, one critical mistake is an automatic fail.

Now, I'm terrible at knowing where my corners are, so I usually guess very conservatively, and set myself for near impossible tasks. I avoid hitting obstacles that could damage cars, but curbs are fair territory for me, as it's the best thing for me to hit. I've hit countless cement obstacles this month, which are to keep people from parking too far. But, I know what needs to happen. Also, I was driving so passively, that I was dangerously slow. Apparently, I was doing 25 in a 40 zone. I also failed to turn when cars were far away, since I got burned by that on one of my first tests, a decade ago. Seems I should try driving normally, instead of trying to metagame the driving test. However, that requires confidence, and after missing that, I kept doubting my driving the rest of the day. I'll need to build that back up, and return in full force. I have the list of everything I did wrong, so I can check for those.

I tried setting up the next appointment, and I could have one as soon as tomorrow, but I'd rather try that reversing thing in daylight, first, so I'll set it for next Tuesday, since it's the first day I can get when I'll have a chance. I hear the test in Fullerton is terrible, so I'll stick with Whittier. It's closer to work, so I don't need to work from home, and apparently, the testers there aren't as strict. Seems it's commonplace for everyone to pass on their 3rd/last test in Fullerton.

Also, today was another run day. Still at 25 minutes, but the last 5 minutes was supposed to be at higher speed. I had to walk a few pieces, but I'm getting there. Got about 8 weeks to go from 2 miles to...? Next one will also be 25 minutes, but with a few hard sprints mixed in, instead of a long faster session.

Ooh, and my new phone shipped. I finally got my watch on the weekend, and I'm getting a Nexus 5 to replace my old phone, since it's starting to slip on me.

So, I have things to look forward to. We'll see how it goes. I still have some projects to work on.

Not much to say

I didn't post yesterday, since there really wasn't much news, and there isn't much now either.

I ran. Today was volleyball day, but my ankle was still wonky, so I cancelled and planned to run instead. I ended up underestimating the noon sun and had to abort. The volleyball people were still there, so after some rest, I joined them. I then planned to finish the run later in the afternoon.

I went back to the same park, but couldn't do it then either. Not sure if it's the dirt trail, or the plants, but I had to abort that too. So, I tried driving home without the GPS, and guess the wrong way on a turn. I saw there was a small park with trails, so I tried there, and got the two miles, albeit slower than usual. Guess I'll need to stick to my usual spot to build up endurance and speed.

Other than that, little happened. I got my new watch, but I'll need to adapt to the strap again. One of my team leads showed me a new game on Android, so I advanced a good chunk there.

Tomorrow will mostly be uncluttering, as I figure out where stuff will live. Also, try to get rid of all that packing paper.

There are projects I need to catch up on, and stuff I need to shop for. I'll take advantage of the sun when I can, and do stuff the rest of the time. I'm just not familiar with the stores, so I don't know where to get little things. I'll figure it out.

DMV, rain, and running

Things are getting interesting at work... I'm in a weird spot where I'm new enough that people tend to forget about me, but that I'm experienced enough that I'm doing real things. So, it leads to spots where I don't get meeting invites, and teammates need to ask me if I'm going to the meeting they're headed into that I don't know about.

Other than that, the new code is still really raw, so it doesn't quite work yet, limiting my productivity, but there's a plan B I can work on.

Oh yea, today was the morning at the DMV. It didn't go as bad as you'd expect. I had an appointment, so I was able to cut the main line and get the shorter route. Filled out the form, waited a few minutes to see the next person, and got the main stuff going. So, after getting the picture, the last step was the written test. I did binge read the manual a week or two ago, when I was expecting to take the test originally, so I was going from memory and common sense. I was figuring I had a 50/50 chance to pass it, but I only had 4 mistakes out of a limit of 6 (out of 36), so not bad.

It took some double checking of facts, but I will be able to keep my Canadian license (which expires in September), while getting what is essentially a learner's permit in California, while still using my Canadian licence (with passport and immigration documents) to keep going until the road test, which is Monday.

It did rain the most of the day, so the drive back was pretty interesting. And, today is a run day, so I ran in the rain. It wasn't too bad, but the mist kept going in my glasses and cutting vision. It's tricky to dodge ducks when you can't see them. I'll need to get more contact lenses soon. Otherwise, it went pretty well. My shins took most of the brunt this time, but I added some speed, and that park has hills, which will help. Next time, I'll need to try a different park, likely where I play volleyball.

So, the big part of the week is done. There are projects I'll need to catch up on, but I'm pretty open. If the weather clears up, I might try one of the local amusement parks, for good measure. We'll see. Options are wide open.

Getting settled in

Not much to say today, but let's see...

Work's interesting... we're guinea pigs on new ground, so things are bound to have complications. But, I'm in a position where I can't really fix it myself, so I'm relying on others to get back to where I'm supposed to be. However, I can still help others out, so that's nice.

Today was a rest day for running, so I hung out in the hot tub, and things are looking good. I will need to stretch better, but this might work.

Tomorrow is the DMV appointment, so I should be ready for that. I've got the money, I've got the passport, I should be good to go. We'll see what happens. This might help, since my plates aren't in yet, and I will need those for the driving test.

So, tomorrow, I'll also go running, and I'll have a weekend ahead of me, and I will probably hang out with some guys from the football game last week. So, we'll see what happens. But, I've got other projects to work with too.

I ran so far away

Well, today was an interesting day. It went well at work, I had lunch with a few members from my team, and we were talking about a race our team was planning to take part in, so I threw my name in the ring.

It's called Ragnar, and it's a team relay race, where a 12 person team takes turns running from Huntington Beach to San Diego, just under 200 miles away. Now, I've never run 15 miles, so I need to start training. It looks like this is usually a 12 week thing, but the race is in early April, so I have 9 weeks. So, I'll need to get creative. But, it's a good project. I did want to get more active.

So, if I'm going to be anything close to ready by race time, I needed to start tonight. So, the plan was, take the treadmill at my place, 20 minutes slow, to get started, and then I'd go barbeque up some steak, and soak in the hot tub. (Spoiler alert: nothing goes according to plan).

So, I get ready and pass by the treadmill. I turn it on, but the controls seem a bit broken. I can't get it off of it's slowest speed. That's... not going to be useful. So, I head upstairs, get my keys, and drive to Tri-city park, so I can go run around the lake. Now, the main reason I couldn't run much home is because I need summer weather, I have a hard time breathing cool air when I exert myself, and it was about 8:30 by the time I got out there, so it was a bit cool, and difficult, but I was able to power through it. The worst was the halfway mark, but it got better. However, I'm apparently terrible at pacing myself... for what was supposed to be a slow run, I still ran at an 11-minute mile pace, so I may need a lower gear, for endurance.

So, I got back, and turned the BBQ on to grill that steak... I never actually grilled since... I have no idea. So, I read the instructions, and did what I could. But, it wouldn't ignite. There was heat, but that might have been from the last person who used it. I borrowed a lighter, but couldn't start it up. I'll try it out later, when someone who knows what they're doing can show me. I think it involves a long distance lighter. So, I went upstairs, and fried it up in the pan. It was good.

And as for the hot tub, it was like 9:30 by the time I got upstairs, and I never would have had enough time to fry, eat and shower before 10, so I'll wait for tomorrow.

But, all in all, it's a good start. The program has me run about 3-4 times a week, with two 'easy' runs, and two 'hard' runs, building stamina, speed, and other useful things. This could work, and given I already put my name in, I don't have much choice.

Go team!

Rest and song

Today was mostly a day of rest, so there isn't much to say.

I passed by Costco, and got some steak, because there's a grill in the common area at the apartment. We'll see how that works tomorrow.

I was told that non-regulated gas would be problematic, because it can go up and down at will (mostly up), but I don't see it. Gas prices are all over the place, but the low water mark is pretty constant at 3.39, and I'm pretty sure the low water mark was in the 3.40's when I got there, so I'm fine with it. I go to Costco anyway, and it's at the bottom.

One big difference of the big city is how many radio stations there are. You can't tune more than a click or two before finding something new. When I first got the rental car, it was Spanish talk radio, and I kept it on a few days in case I'd pick something. I then found a rock station, and was using that mostly. When I switched cars, I learned of a top 40 channel, but there's too many dance remixes for my liking. I did ask for suggestions, and have a rotation of about 6-7 stations now. I say this because I'm discovering some new music, which is nice.

I've also lost the ability to stream from Slacker, so I sort of lost my custom radio, but I'm slowly teaching Spotify to do something just as good. I'll need to remember more artists, and make more recommendations, but I'm learning about cool new artists, and trying to sell some more obscure Canadian artists to people. Go culture shock!

I also need to work on my guitar chords... I'm still having difficulty cramming all the fingers in there without hitting any other strings. Once I convince Rocksmith I can do one, the rest will probably go easier.

But, I should get sleep, since I'm in the 'get to work around 7' part of the week. It's been a while since I've been at a job with fixed hours, so my father has no clue what to make of it, but I like the flexibility. I might tweak my schedule somewhat, to make a "42-hour week", so that I can take 2 hours off on a day to be determined, which will probably prove useful once I get involved in softball again. Something else for the todo list. The company team probably won't play again for a few months, so I'll need to make a solo effort. I'm also wondering if I've got a fighting chance at hardball, but given I'll probably end up in the "beginner" softball league, I'm guessing no. But it would be cool to try. We'll see.

At least the hard part is over, now, it's time to mix it up and work up to cool stuff.

Puppies!

Because I did a bit of an all-nighter for the robotics competition back home, I slept in a bit. I needed to get set up to watch the Puppy Bowl, so I was working on getting the TV set up better. I went out to get batteries, and ended up finding that all you can eat sushi place again. Given I hadn't eaten yet today, I decided to try it out, and tried four different rolls, before getting stuffed. It was really good, but I have the feeling it would be better if I wasn't aiming for all I could eat.

So, I got back and tried to watch the Puppy Bowl. Unfortunately, it was at 3 pm Eastern, not Pacific. I'll find a way to get it, shouldn't be too hard to acquire after the fact.

But, given it was 3:30pm or so, I went downstairs to see who was watching in the clubhouse, a common area to my apartment complex. There were two other couples there, and along with the girls at the office, who came in on occasion, we had a good show.

Now, I'm not a football fan, but that game was amazing. I never had such a good time watching it, because it was hilarious. Never have I laughed so much watching football. I won't spoil the results, but everything that could have gone wrong did, and it was incredibly entertaining watching a live blooper reel.

But, watching the game with them got us to talking, and we got to know each other a lot better. Afterwards, we talked a lot more, and I found more people to do stuff with. Things are falling into place! We'll probably contact each other in the week to do stuff, which is nice.

But other than that, not much else happened this weekend. I'll want to rest up, in hopes that I get the energy to run the next week. But, one big thing's handled (though I will want to finish the new robotics thing, it's no longer a priority).

Meeting people, volunteering back home

Sorry I missed yesterday's post, but I came close to missing today's one too... I'm a bit exhausted and sleep deprived, so I'll try to be quick, and if things get weird, the sanity usually returns after a good night's sleep.

Friday was mostly a short day, but I needed to catch up on work, to get those 40 hours in. Not too much happened, but someone had converted some office space to a bit of a Mexican buffet, so that was nice. I also got a good chat with another co-worker, from just across from me. We've had some quick exchanges, but we got to catch up a bit. She also gave me a copy of all the restaurants in the area, so I'll be able to use that as a checklist. There are areas near the office where I can walk, but there are a lot of other, nice options a little bit further too. I'll need to experiment.

I also hear this is a big sports weekend in the states, so I went in with my best Braves jersey. We had a team meeting, and we'll need to see how things go. Oddly enough, it'll be tricky to fit on my own team, but I'm getting good work done on my other team, so we'll see. There's just a lot to do, and with everyone busy, training new people is probably not the best move. I'll see what I can do.

But, after all that, things weren't quite done. Every year, I volunteer for the robotics competition on campus, and since my best solution is to write a program to help do stuff, I handle the scoreboard. This year is most notable, because I won't be there.

Every year, I basically take the old app, toy around with it to handle the new year, and go with that, slowly adding improvements. This year, I had a plan for a completely new system, which would be a lot easier to modify, year in and year out. So, I spent most of the last two days (Friday and Saturday) on that.

Saturday morning, I went out to play beach volleyball with people I met online at a nearby park. There was a lot of rust to shake off. My control was all over the place, and the sun made it very difficult to read plays, or align anything. Also, the sand was really hard on my ankle, so I'll need to figure something out for that too. The good news is, I should be able to get new contacts soon, so I'll be able to use the sunglasses again. Most people wore shoes on the sand, but I'll see what solution I go with.

But, after fun and games, I needed to go back to work. I knew what had to happen, but I wasn't entirely sure of all the details until I started writing parts of it. Things seemed like they were going well, but I got some setbacks, and things didn't want to behave, and I had to keep spending time looking up how to do things right. When it started getting late, I had to start doing triage, and see what I could cut and still get the thing to work. Perfect is the opposite of good, as they say. I tried a bunch of things, but ultimately, the half that needed to work still had issues, and there was too much to do.

So, I put all that aside, found a copy of the old code, and hacked it to make it work for this year. It isn't a perfect fit, we are losing some features they wanted, but I did what I could. Once I rest and get some sanity back, I might be able to get the new system going in time for the finals, but then again, maybe not. We'll have to see. This time difference is a real issue here, because my contact went to bed very early for me, and by the time I wake up, they'll already be up and running.

Either way, I got a system running. I sent it to him, with as much instructions as I could think of. It's not plan A (or even B in this case), but it's much better than nothing. They'll manage. Engineers are pretty good at that.

Well, I'm still conscious, so I'll go fix that. Tomorrow is a relatively big day, and with any luck, I'll finally be able to watch the Puppy Bowl! I also assume people will be in the clubhouse, so I'll be able to meet more people too. That said, good night!

Chinese New Year

Whoops, forgot to post this last night. The long part of the week is getting to me, but now that things are getting stable, I'll be able to plan better.

I went to work, a group of people from work decided to go to a dim sum, so we went there, and it was as good as advertised. I haven't had one of those since I was in Toronto, and here, we had a group of 8. Because it was Chinese New Year, we had 20% off, on it all as well. For those unfamiliar, a Dim Sum is a type of meal, where you order all sorts of small dishes for your table, and essentially have a small buffet within your table. It's very interesting, and very good.

On a related note, I need to remember to sign my cheques "Year of the Horse", now.

Other than that, the day was mostly uneventful. We have a bunch of documents to finish at work, and I'm probably the only person 100% assigned to that, so I'm churning through them.

After work, there was light rain, which I've heard nothing but nightmares of on the road, and it's the first time I saw rain driving. As such, freeway traffic slowed down to about 45-55 mph, and I was fine with that.

Also, back home, my family was handling the checkout of my old place, and seem to have done a very good job with that, except for my brother breaking a window. Apparently, that'll be just over $300 to fix, so I'll wrap that in with the moving expenses.

Other than that, I watched Netflix and went to bed. I have the weekend ahead of me, so I'll be catching up on things. I'll also do my annual volunteering for the robotics competition, back in Fredericton, except I'll be doing it online. Given my job is to get them a working (and awesome) scoreboard, it's something I can do abroad, but someone else will need to run it.

So, other than that, I should be meeting up with people for volleyball and/or hiking on the weekend, and I'll also want to finally watch the Puppy Bowl game on Sunday, now that I'm in the "right" country.

Should be a good time.

Adventures at the DMV, part one

I had a 10:20 appointment, so I made sure to leave plenty early, in case of traffic, parking, or GPS-related issues.

10:00am: I arrived, so plenty of time. Turns out because I have an appointment, I just need to stand in line on the red carpet (it's not that fancy), and figure it out from there. I left the appointment paper in the car, and I don't know how anal they'll be. I'll just grab that quick.
10:05am: Well, I'm at the front of the line. New license, out of country, so I give the ID, and I forgot my passport, and they won't take the I-94 without it. Well. That's probably record time for getting in and out of the DMV. I passed by the postal office to send my watch to get replaced, and headed to work. I booked an appointment for Thursday, Feb 6th, and I'll try planning better next time.

Work went well. Got much further in the training manual of the old system, and got all the errors flushed out on the development side. We've got the new system running on our development environments, so we'll be able to start coding soon.

Also, using the phone as a GPS doesn't work so good, because the GPS unit is a bit wonky, and sometimes bounces around, causing silly recalculations. I should get me a new phone, at some point.

So, I got home, and spent the evening relaxing between the hot tub, and Netflix, because clearly, I need to rest.

On a related note, back home, my family is finishing up the logistics of my move by tidying up my old place and leaving it with a nice big red bow, so that it can be given back. I am very grateful that I can count on family to help me out on this stuff, because I can't do it all on my own. So thank you very much!

And in closing, if I'm to get to work somewhere in the neighbourhood of 7 am, I should probably find the bed. Tomorrow is Thursday, and I've got about 16-17 hours left to do, unless I fill the gap with vacation hours. 10-6 should suffice.

Adventures in pretty much everything

Time can be a weird thing. The more thing that happens, the harder it is to keep track of what's going on, and interpreting time correctly. Last year, I'd have events happen earlier in the week feel like way earlier in the month. Now, I'm actually confusing events from today as being earlier this week, and it's only Tuesday.

So, let's see what I can remember of the day... the good news is that writing it down does jog the memory.

I'm back in my 7-6 days, and you'd think I'd be used to them by now, but last week, I had a bunch of appointments interrupt them, so I haven't had one in almost two weeks. As a result, I had a bit of insomnia and only really slept at midnight. But, I got up, and headed in.

My GPS is officially in the doghouse. There are basically two routes I can take. The freeways, or sneak up a mile or two, and take a straight line route on surface streets. Because of traffic, I wanted the surface streets, so I told it to use the alternate route. I live in a big apartment complex, and my parking spot is basically in the middle of the block. There are north and south exits, but my straightest route is north, while my GPS assumes I'll take the south. So, I set up in the garage, and when I go out the north route, it needs to recalculate. Doing so canceled out my previous request to use the surface streets, so it sent me on the freeways. I rolled with it.

The GPS did know about the traffic, and had me take an earlier exit, instead of going to the closest exit. However, others must have had the same idea, because the offramp was completely congested. So, the GPS had the brilliant idea to put me back on the freeway using a road that was closed. That's when I told it to just stop.

I pulled out the phone, got a proper route using current information, made a three point turn, and got to work within 5 minutes. I mentioned it at work, and someone told me of a crowdsourced mapping app that helps with navigation. Looks pretty cool, I'll need to try it when I take new routes, like going to the DMV tomorrow morning.

I'm not sure where my team was just before lunch, so I figured they must have left already, so I went to get something to eat, when I noticed them in front of me outside. We went to one of the Asian places near work where I haven't been, and they were pretty good. So, I have the Subway, two Asian places and a Mexican place to work with.

Work was interesting too, despite the fact that I never got the meeting request, we had a developer meeting, where our dev lead decided to stop relying on the architecture team to handle training, and walked his team through the setup himself. Our team did see new faces, so my old coworker and I have been helping them as well, while getting ours set up as well. So, I was able to spend most of the day in dev, instead of just playing around in the old system. I'd like to have an idea what's next, but working from the seat of my pants works too.

On the way back, I needed to hit a Staples to get a bubble mailer, so I can send my broken watch back and get a replacement. On that road, I spotted a Peruvian seafood restaurant that I was referred to by my car guy. It was really different, but really good, and generous portions. Also, for as worldly as I pretend to be, I forgot Peru was a Spanish speaking country. I'm still trying to talk Spanish, but I keep getting talked to in English, and forget.

I also picked up the new Rocksmith yesterday, so I started working on that. I'm extremely beginner at this stage, but they got me to tune the thing, and started taking some lessons, which is nice. It'll take some time, but it's something else to work on. I took the rhythm guitar path, so I can do acoustic stuff, which is my real goal. It still sounds a bit weird, and I can't tell if it's me or the guitar. But, we'll see. Making it sound good is a skill I need.

Huh. Guess I do still have plenty to talk about. Tomorrow is the DMV appointment, so I'll start working from home, then head in after. Unfortunately, I can't do dev from there without a VPN (connection to work network), so I'll stick to self teaching.

Licence to thrill

Well, turns out I'm not quite done with logistics. My coworker was asking if I had gotten my new licence yet, and I swear, no one else seemed to think this is a thing, but if I'm a California resident, I'm supposed to get a drivers licence within 10 days. So, I'm about two weeks late on that. I knew someone was telling me about that, but couldn't remember who, or how credible they were. The car rental was fine with me for 3 weeks with a foreign licence, the car dealership was fine with it, and I'm pretty sure I asked them about it, and they said it was fine.

So, I've got an appointment with the DMV on Wednesday, and we'll see what needs to happen. As far as I can tell, I just need a lot of ID, and to pass the written and eye test, as well as a few other things. I'm going through the California driver's handbook, and that's not the funnest of reads, but hopefully common sense and my general intellect prevails. I will need to take a test behind the wheel, and that'll need to happen after I get my plates, so hopefully that happens soon.

Their manual seems to assume everyone's just turning 16, so we'll need to see how many of those actually apply. Technically, I need someone over 25 with a valid driver's licence to drive me there. You can make an interpretation that I count, or one that I don't. I'm hoping common sense prevails.

So, that'll be the next step in my adventure. Thankfully, I've got three weeks of experience to go by.

Also, Netflix didn't want to work tonight, hopefully that fixes itself. And, I'm in the long part of the week, so we'll see what happens. Wish me luck!

Downtime and meeting people

Well, the good news is, now that all the big goals are done, I'm no longer on insane hours, but it means I need to do something with the time, again.

The area I'm in is nice, and I'm within walking distance to some shopping, so I passed through there, and saw what was available to me. I did find a nice frozen yogourt place, and a smaller sports store than the big chain one I was using until now.

I have been spending some time at the pool/whirlpool, and I've started meeting more people, which is nice. I was also referred to a site for meeting people at activities, so I joined a volleyball group, and an outdoors group, so I should get more active soon. Just the timing this week was a bit iffy, since I need stuff. I did get new volleyball kneepads, and I know I have a new pair of running shoes, for when I resume my running, and/or go hiking, which I might be doing next week.

Other than that, I've also been catching up on some Netflix, and some shows I've been meaning to see. It makes good watching for relaxing.

Over the next few days, I'll also unpack more stuff, so I'll get more of my stuff going. But, the move has generated a massive amount of packing paper, so I'll need to see how recycling works here. I'm pretty sure they're big on that, though there are easy to find massive dumpsters, where it would be easy to dispose of large amounts of stuff, but I do like being at least somewhat environmentally friendly.

So, all things said, I basically went from 0 to 60 in about 3 weeks, and everything now, is way less critical.

Hopefully the tech issues at work get resolved, so I can finish developer training. That probably is the fastest way to be a major contributor at work. However, my actual team is pretty busy, so hopefully I get to talk to my team lead about short term goals, soon. I also found a new career counsellor, so once I have short term goals handled, we'll see what long term goals are. I did come here for growth, so we'll see what resources my company has.

So, I'm not entirely sure what the next step is, but I'll plant some seeds and see what comes out.

I did volunteer to take over the company softball team, and most of the office pools, and I think I also volunteered to lead our team at a 'tough mudder' style obstacle course, so I guess I might also need to train.

I also vow to finish that damned couch to 5k program!

They like it! Hey, Mikey!

With a full apartment, and the car thing settled, there were some things I needed to go shop for, so I did a Costco run, for food, and some key things I'd need for. Essentially getting things like laundry tabs, so I can do laundry, because I really need some of those.

When I got back, we had a long Skype session, so I could show home all my cool new stuff. My parents liked the new car, seem to like the complex I'm living in, and seemed to like the apartment as well. So, I got everything to my and their satisfaction, and still ran within budget. Huzzah!

Actually, there is one question mark left... I still need to finalize car insurance, and I'm still guessing at how much gas I'll need, but I got a car that's good on gas, so that should work.

With that out of the way, I had a nice afternoon ahead of me, so I spent most of it by the pool, trying to learn to handle the sun. There were other people out there, and we were able to chat a good bunch. So, getting to know people too. We also managed to get in the pool proper, instead of hanging out in the whirlpool all day. It took some getting used to, but I was able to cover some distance, and tread water. However, it's still really cold, and when I got out, I was shivering uncontrollably, so much so that I could barely use my phone to show him something. There will still be things to get used to, but I'm getting there.

With a bit more shopping, whirlpooling, and chatting, when the wind turned, I headed back upstairs, got the PS3 running, and spent the evening relaxing to Netflix. I lost a show or two I was watching, but gained a bunch more. There will be plenty of stuff for me to watch, if I feel the need to. I also got rabbit ears, which I can plug into the TV at some point.

So, we have options, and I was referred to a site made for meeting people for things, so I might be playing volleyball tomorrow (but I will need to make a Sport chalet run for new kneepads). Everything's coming up Milhouse!

The final puzzle piece?

(I forgot to post this yesterday, this is for Friday, the 24th)

So, now that I have a car, the last loose end to tie up is to properly dispose of the rental car. By this point, I was at the dealer, trying to acquire the car. This time, I let the dealer try to figure out this one, since it was nice to have others trying to solve problems for me. This one was more akin to a puzzle.

So, I have a rental car, and my new car at the dealership. I need to get the rental back to the rental place, and I need to be with my car, to drive off. Also, the fox can't be with the chicken, and the chicken can't be with the grain.

So, the plan was... after I got the new car, I'd leave the rental at the dealership (they lock the lot down), and drive home with the new car. Then, the next day, I'd drive to the dealership, they'd get my car to the Norwalk metro station, and I drive in with the rental. (They had their own car and an extra guy to get them back). So, with both cars at the metro, I'd be able to drive the rental back to LAX, then take the metro back to Norwalk (it's on the same line), and I'd hop into the new car and drive back.

So, we got to the metro station, I parked the new car, they left, and I took the rental back to LAX. I'm getting better at not taking silly routes there, but it can always use improvement. However, I took the instructions so well, I forgot to gas it up. And if it's not gassed, they do it themselves, and charge you like 9 dollars a gallon. They let me drive out, I eventually found a gas station, filled it with $20, and went back to dispose of the car.

So, part 1 complete. I asked which shuttle goes to the metro station, and they have a shuttle that goes places. They were supposed to bring me to a bus stop that goes to the metro station, but we ended up talking, and he brought me straight to the metro station, so that was nice. I got a metro card quick, and loaded it with one fare (it was like, $2.50 total), and got on. Now, on a Friday afternoon, it was pretty packed, but I got back out in one piece. The public transportation there is not the greatest, but it worked. I got back to Norwalk station, got in my new car, and went back.

However, the freeway area near there is under construction, and half the connections are shut down. The GPS is still oblivious to this, and tries to send me through most of those. There were traffic jams as well, making a pointless road even more painful. But, I did convince it of a heading, and request to avoid highways, and it gave me a reasonable route. At least until we hit 2 miles of bumper to bumper traffic because of an accident.

By then, I was pretty exhausted and frustrated, so I set my heading to a sushi place near home, because I could really use their all you can eat deal. I eventually made it, but not without picking the wrong entrance, and needing to make a long U-turn. Remember you can't always turn left, and the GPS really tries to avoid left turns, even if it would save a mile of pointless looping.

So, I eventually got in, to notice all the assigned parking was used up. I was trying to figure out a gameplan until I saw people leaving, so I staked out a position and readied to take their spot.

It wasn't the place I was aiming for, they didn't have the all you can eat, or the kimono girls, but it was that first place I found, where I had an awesome lunch, so I made the most of it. Tried all sorts of fish and seafood I didn't usually take. It was still great.

Now, thoroughly exhausted, and out of obvious things to do, I did what any reasonable person would do. I crashed at the computer and played Minecraft. Oh, and I watched some US Netflix before going to bed. Weekend!

Vroom

Well, today was another long day.

I needed to wait home this morning for the cable guy to come install the internet. It took some time, since he needed to drill some holes, but everything is working, and I've got some pretty good speed.

I didn't get much more out of the boxes, since the core necessities are out. I did get the TV back on its mount, and into position. Nothing is plugged into it, but I hear I can get a $20 antenna at Target.

We were supposed to have a team lunch at work, but the cable appointment cancelled that. Oh well. I did my half day, and got some stuff done, and learned a few more things. However, I will have another appointment tomorrow morning, but with the internet, I'll be able to work from home, until the guy shows up.

After work, I went back to the dealership, and got the last few pieces of information they needed to secure the lease. They needed proof of employment, proof I'd stay in the country long enough, and proof of residence. They got all they needed, and we could finally talk finance.

It's a 2014 Toyota Corolla, with a rear camera. It had 4 miles when I drove it off the lot, and about 16, when I got home.

It took a lot longer than I was hoping, I got in soon after I left work at 6, and left well after 9. But my situation wasn't the most ideal. I still ended up with a good rate, though I will be losing a few thousand in interest. However, not too shabby. They did manage to package on some extra insurance, and I did make them nervous when I was questioning their math, but I did get them to notice an error, lowering the monthly cost, and I did see the accounting as to how we got to the number.

Overall, it seems like a very nice car, and I guess I'll see how it goes. It's a car, but I'll be paying way less than rentals, and it's pretty good on gas.

I did start looking at insurance, but it's getting late. Shouldn't be hard to get, since Geiko seems to count Canada/US as equivalent for the questionnaire. I should be able to get insurance around 100-115 a month, depending on how much I want.

So, we're really getting close to being done here, and I might have the weekend all to myself. But I need sleep, badly.

Like Christmas

Today, the movers arrived. I met the lead one while his helpers arrived, and did a quick once over to figure out the best plan of attack. They parked on the main street, and walked everything through the gate, around the corner, up the stairs, and in.

They made it look easy. They were in and out in like two hours, assembling everything that had been disassembled, and putting the boxes where I wanted them. I had to make some spontaneous interior decorating, but we've got a setup, and there's plenty of room.

I then went to work, and technical issues cancelled the training we were supposed to have. However, most of the dev team had other things to do, so their tasks here weren't ready. Since that's the most productive thing I can do now, I took over a bunch of those, and got another one done. They're pretty easy, so it's just getting a rhythm. I also got some HR tasks handled, and I'll soon be talking about career growth.

I let the guy at Toyota know the letter they were waiting for was in, and they said tomorrow is better. I passed by Mazda just out if Anaheim, and got progress there too. Good to have a backup, since my credit or lack thereof is still problematic.

I got back home and started cracking at boxes. I needed the TV powered to give it time to warm up, so I got a bunch of computer things out. Opening those boxes was like Christmas, unwrapping all the packing paper and seeing what was inside... I was literally giddy, even though there was a lot of junk too. I'll need to figure out what to do with some of this, since I'm low on souvenir space.

But, I have the real bed, so I'll get my new bedding on, and get rest. Tomorrow, the cable guys come, and I have no idea how were doing that, since the computer and TV are in separate rooms now. We'll see, Ethernet cable and drills must be cheap, worst case.

Settling in

Well, things are slowly getting productive at work. Have access to the baseline code and, there's a lot of code. There's a reason there are hundreds on this project. I'll also get involved in the activities, while I can. I'm focusing on sports, since it relies less on knowing the geography.

That said, I am getting used to the area. I wouldn't navigate without a GPS yet, but I know when to ignore it and go my way.

The movers will be here at 8 or 9 am. It won't be easy, but they know what they're doing. I'll do what I can to facilitate.

I also got the papers I need for the car, sort of. I'll check the dealership tomorrow.

That said, things are going well. I had to pass through 3 stores to get garbage bags, but learned more about the stores here, including two different grocery stores.

So tomorrow, I'll have my stuff, Thursday, the real internet will be set up, and with any luck, the barriers behind having a car will be lifted. I might finally be able to relax as early as Friday. But, for now, I need to crash.

The home stretch

This morning was the first time sleeping at the new place, and I took an air mattress for the time being. However, I did overestimate the temperature at night, and despite being fine with just the one cover at the hotel, it was really cold at night. So, I grabbed a plush blanket, and that should cover it. I miss my wolf sheet.

I also called HR before going to work, since I need that letter for the car. Apparently, these things take time, but I did get them to make a letter. However, that'll take two business days, so I guess the car will be acquired on Wednesday. I also contacted the dealer, and asked about insurance and getting the rental back. Sounds like they'll cover that at the time, but I'll try getting estimates on insurance on tomorrow.

Either way, we're getting dangerously close to the endgame here. My stuff arrives on Wednesday, the letter for the car should get in on Wednesday, the internet will get set up on Thursday. So, by the end of the week, I should be covered, and can start spreading out to other things.

So, today, I mostly just went shopping for other logistics. My phone's data connection wasn't doing anything, so I went there, and all they needed to do was restart the phone. So, I'll be connected at all times, which is nice. I also started getting more money orders, to pay the movers on Wednesday. I'm glad I got one more question mark out of the way.

One way or another, things are winding down. I'm running out of things to say, but that's a good thing. There's a lot of directions I can go from here, and there's a meeting at work tomorrow for social activities. I'll attend that, and see if I can get involved there. Like I said, I'll probably inherit the softball team, but that might not start for a while. But I do need to start getting involved.

I also want to wish a happy birthday to my youngest niece. I wanted to call after work, but realized it would be like 8 or 9 local time, a bit late for a 6-year old. To be honest, I still have a hard time believing it's January. But I do hope to get things in order soon, so I can stay up-to-date on things. The lack of communication is a bit new to me, still.

Home sweet home?

This morning, I woke up at the hotel, caught up on my usual reading, then made sure to get all my stuff into the car or garbage. I checked out, so I'm officially living at the new place. It's very empty, but for a few days, I'll manage.

I also had to get the rental car renewed for another week. I tried calling, and when they told me it would cost $1400, I told them I'd just do what I did last week, and go to the place in person. As usual, this was harder than it had to be.
I didn't remember which one I hit last week, but I put the GPS to the nearest one, (heading west in case I had to go LAX), and I arrived to find nothing. I picked a second one, drove there, and discovered it was closed, and barricaded off. Looked like they repaved.
Since the third one was halfway to LAX, already, I just went straight to the airport. It looked like I'd get there in time, but I misinterpreted the GPS or the road, and ended up passing right by the airport pickup area. After more driving, some in the right direction, I found myself there, and was able to extend without a hitch. It also turns out I can leave it at another location, but it'll cost $25-75, depending on how far it is. I'll keep it in mind when I lease the car next week.

So, given how warm it was in the car, I went right home and took take 2 at the pool. It was still way too cold. So I tried the hot tub, and after a few minutes, it was too hot. The beach volleyball court seemed just right, but no one else was playing. So, I went for food and shopping.

Now, I should know better by now, but portions in the US are big. At least it means I can get a lot of food cheap, if I choose to go that route. But, if I ever open a restaurant, everything on the menu will have pictures, and each picture will have a banana for comparison. The banana wouldn't come with the meal per say, but it's a banana. If they ask, we'll give them one. Or make them the little breads on the table.

So, I got some basic things, and I'm set up. I'll probably continue to eat out, but I have plenty of breakfast crackers, fruit, bread, deli meats... Some basics that need no real cooking, as well as a bunch of dollar store utensils and plates. I'm pretty surprised how thorough their 99 cent stores are, they even have produce. It won't be my core shopping spot, but I have some ideas that would be cheaper and less wasteful than my usual.

However, the internet won't be set up until Thursday, and the public WiFi here is very iffy. I actually lost it an hour or two ago (Sunday evening), so this won't be posted on schedule. Sorry. I'll get it up first thing in the morning. I'll also need to talk to my cell phone provider and see why I can't get internet access. Phone always works.

Well, tomorrow, I'll try getting that letter and look at getting that car. I may have put 1000 miles on the rental, but all those trips to LAX add up. I'll use way less gas once I'm stable.

Oh, and I just heard from the movers... They should be here Wednesday afternoon, and the actual cost is less than we were expected, so that frees up more cash! Huzzah!