Baby Finances

The good news: The job sounds really great, great company, sounds like it could be a good culture fit, the interview went really well -- I think people liked me. I think I proved myself pretty well. The bad news. COWS! The place is in the middle of no where CT and litterally is next door to cows. I think this might be a "no-bid" on my part. Oh well -- on to the next.

The singers on American Idol this season -- some of them are amazingly generic. The couple of the girls that I've actually sat and listened to are just -- okay -- nothing special, nothing amazing, nothing different. It's a little sad to think that I am their same age. Shouldn't I be doing something amazing too? I need to figure out how to make the best job move. I'm on the right path with the interviews and stuff -- I just need to find the right job with the right company with the right people. I think I get to go to DC in a couple weeks. Had to reschedule the second phone interview for Tucson #2 today. Guess I have to wait til Monday. I think I have everything ready for CT. It's going to be an interesting interview that's for sure... we'll see what happens with it.

AZ place #1 is out. They offered the position to another person. Which kind of blows. I had already scheduled my travel arrangements for the reschedule too. The whole thing is kind of weird. But whatever. We'll see what happens. There are bigger fish in the sea and other types of fish to catch. But that doesn't stop me from asking if I did something wrong -- which I don't see how I could have done so I haven't even talked to them or seen them yet. It sucks that a snow storm blew my chances at the position though. I guess the candidate must have been really good because they didn't even give me a chance to interview for it. Maybe the candidate had multiple offers and they threw their hat in the ring. So who knows if they will actually accept it though. I'm not waiting around for them though. It makes you think though. If this is how they treat me as a candidate -- how would they treat me as an employee? Why would you ever reschedule an interview if ...

Well... apparently someone doesn't want me to go to Tucson. The weather here has grounded myh flight to Chicago -- which means I can't get to Tucson. After an hour on hold with the airlines, and calling the travel agent like 15X -- I found no viable alternative to be able to leave this hell hole of snow. So now there's not much of a choice for me to go into work because I said I was going home. So at least I have a couple days off work :-) That's always a good thing. I'm not really sure what to do with myself -- but I'll figure something out I'm sure. Hopefully the weather next weekend wont' be too bad and it will be easy to go to CT. I was really looking forward to the warm weather too.

Today was pretty boring. I didn't have to go to work until nine -- an hour later than normal -- so I did some household chores in that hour. It was actually really productive. I king of like it. Though I did have to stay at work until 6pm which really bit the big one. There's not much that I can do after 5pm because no one else is around. So I just sit and play Sudoku and pretend like I'm busy if anyone walks by. After work I went and did my laundry. Which is really not interesting. What was crazy was by the time I got out of the laundrymat there was already about 2" of snow on the ground. We're supposed to get 6-12" tonight. The high chance of snow isn't even supposed to start until like 11pm..... I think we're getting closer to 12" than we will to 6". It's basically supposed to snow all day tomorrow too. Arizona will be a huge contrast to here. Amazing. I'm really excited about it. I should probably start packing and m...

This guy at work has interviewed at 4 places so far -- and is going to interview in San Diego this Friday. He's gotten 3 offers so far, told he should get something on the fourth. He also gave his two weeks notice today. Awesome. Maybe that will be me in another couple of weeks. I can only hope.

If anyone has ever ridden as a passanger in my car -- let me just apologize now. I know it's a horrible experience. But just the act of turning the key in the ignition does something to me. I don't know exactly what it is - hormones, adreneline, pent up undeniable rage against life? Whatever it is, it causes me to act like a raving lunatic every time I step on the gas peddle. My typical drive to work in the morning goes something like this: Turn on car and start to defrost -- start scrapping off the windows, I clearly leave the snow to blow off the rest of the car when I get to the expressway. It's not that I like to leave it on and having it blowing all over, I just know that some people at work absolutely despise people who don't brush off their cars ("Why doesn't everyone just put their car in the garage at night? um... I don't have a response for that one.) so I do it just in case one of the happens to drive down my street after I leave in the morn...

I never had any idea until now how vastly different the hiring process can be. The contrast between the two hiring process for the two companies I have already scheduled interviews with is striking. The first one just schedules everything for me -- flight hotel etc. Does everything for me other than the expense report which I figure I'll get once I get to the interview. The second doesn't even schedule a hotel for me, but give me all the paperwork upfront. This paperwork not only includes the schedule -- but goes way beyond that. I have to consent to a background check and sign off on a drug test, along with a formal invite to visit the company, directions, etc. It's really interesting to see how different the two places are. In more interesting news (to me -- probably not to you) I finally got my desktop full up and running (what like three months after the drive failed -- I'm finally getting things running again...) The drive was able to quarantine some of the...

I have another interview in CT!!! Yeah for me! I thought that looking for a job was going to be difficult like it was last time. It's not though. It's really really easy. I thought that it would be much more complicated to find something much less get an interview. I guess I'm much more targeted in my search -- so I'm not applying for shit that I'm not qualified for or know that I wouldn't be hired -- or I'm way over qualified. It makes it a lot easier and a lot more effective. It's kind of exciting. Scratch that -- it's really exciting. Both places seem to have a very established track for advancement -- whereas I'm going to have to stay where I'm at for (based on past history) 4 years before getting any kind of promotion. I don't think I have that kind of patience this early in my career. At least I feel like I have options now. The whole thing is kind of crazy. I don't think that my boss really has any clue. Amazing! ...

I recovered some stuff from my old hard drive this evening (OMG such a pain -- but I had to get some old tax information off it it before I filed.... so there wasn't much of a choice involved.) Note to self put tax info into email + USB Drive + Hard drive - then it will not be painful next year. In the process though I found a ton of pictures that had been taken a while ago a subsequently lost. So I'm uploading them to my Picasa. Unfortunately they are not in any great order .... but they are there at least. I figure I will add comments and better organize them if I get a chance. For now you'll have to be happy with the fact that they are up. But there are pictures from London mixed in there -- plus some shots I did for BioInfo -- and someone's birthday ... not sure whose though.... I feel like I should be watching the Super Bowl right now.. instead I'm doing my taxes and suffering through the painfulness of getting stuff off my half failed old hard drive... th...

After watching countless episodes of "The Office" this weekend -- I think I have finally found what my career path should be. Now how, you ask, can you figure out your career path from "The Office"? Very simple my friend. I should be Jim. Putting people's beloved office supplies in Jello, making prank phone calls, and generally creating havoic around the office. Screwing with people in my spare time instead of just screwing around to waste the hours. I should be doing something constructive. Like making salad with the paper shredder. Faxing messages "from the future" from the one fax number to the other -- thinks like "there will be a delivery in the back" and then ring the bell in the back at the appropriate time. You know, constructive things. I know work is supposed to be mind numbing. But how does everyone do it for years on end? I guess they have to be like Jim and entertain themselves. Now all I need is a partner in crime. ...

Work always confuses me. It's not the technical stuff. I know some people would be very confused at my job because it's very technical nitty gritty stuff. It's not administria or journalism or even banking. It's hard core engineering and really boring mind numbing stuff if you don't like it. What really confuses me at work are the people. Today was especially interesting and I'll tell you why: Yesterday I was in my bosses office to talk about something and he asked me if I wanted to basically take over a supervisor's position when she goes on materity leave. Ummm... wasn't I the one that turned down a position to supervise Admin positions? Why would I want to supervise production employees. Isn't that like a step down from the Admin? Then today, the VP of Sales called me up and started to prep me. Saying, relax, drink some coffee, kick up your feet, get into a happy place (are we doing some type of group therapy session here or what?), now ...

And I've been working like a dog. I went to a financial adviser yesterday. It was interesting in some cases. But annoying in the fact that I felt he was more interested in selling his firms products and services than he was in my individual case. It's hard too -- because everyone who talks about managing money is in their 50's or 60's. It's hard for them to remember what it was like when they were first starting out in their early 20's. Basically I've got some short term savings + my 401K. The question now is how to generate that mid term savings. The options are basically an investment account or a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA you say? Apparently you can withdraw the principal on a Roth to make a down payment on a house. You can't withdraw the interest, nor can you withdraw the principle for a new car. So that's one options that has some limitations. I'm thinking that an investment account might be the best bet. I would like to have a littl...