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San Francisco post-post.
Aug. 10th, 2005 05:40 amWell, I am back in Philadelphia now, at least for another week or so. This sublet wraps up on the 20th, and we can't leave until then because we need to deliver the keys back to Heather (the girl on the actual lease for this place.)
That's not to say that my stress has ended. I obtained an apartment for us in San francisco, but we don't live there yet, so I'll worry about that until we can get into the door there, and also went on an interview in San Francisco. The interview went well, but it's anyone's guess as to whether or not I out-performed the other interviewees. There are two slots, and nine people that they are interviewing face-to-face. I can only say that I did my best, and the rest is up to whomever the rest is up to.
I ended up going with the "Visual Quickstart Guide to SQL" as my basic SQL brush-up reference. I've used the series before, and I liked its comprehensive approach at an inexpensive price. This one was exceptional, explaining the terms and differences between DBMSs and the different clients in simple laymans terms. The interview included a half hour with the current user of the GUI and DBMS that they use, and I was able to hang with him on the SQL side. When I explained about my hacking familiartiy with SQL, and how I could construct queries that only got as complex as a table join, he confided that he still had to look those up, and that most of his queries were "canned," having been written long ago by a developer. They were more interested in my customer service background and skills. I'm extrememly strong in that regard, so I went with my strengths. All in all, it was the best job interview I've ever had, if that counts for anything.
We'll know more on Friday.
That's not to say that my last day went well in San Francisco. There seemed to be a number of obstacles around physically leaving the city, and the mood of the city became positively hostile. A patron of a Starbucks became super aggressive over me changing from my work clothes to street clothes in the Starbuck's bathroom, (I patronized the place, I bought an iced latte, which suprisingly, was very good,) and two punks (Punks, as in anarchists, as opposed to punks as in, hoodlums, although they were that, too,) threw a DIET coke at me as I went down into the BART station at the Civic Center. I almost stopped and said "Diet? What kind of punks ARE you, anyhow?"
Today's stress du-jour is "Giving notice at work." I'm a little apprehensive about that. They've an "at will" employment policy, so no notice is required, but I can't help but think that they will be a little ... upset. Once again, I'm going to be honest and just tell them the truth, that the sublet is up, and we are moving on, prospects or not. My last day at work will be the 17th. (Yes, I realize that isn't much time to move, but everything we own is still in boxes, so moving will be quick.)
The good news is that after today, the only stress is "Get a trailer from u-haul" before the major stress of "Get the heck out of Philadelphia." That's small potatoes, that u-haul thing, but I've had experiences with u-haul in the past that bordered on the Kafka-esque, but as long as you've got some way to pay them, u-haul eventually tries to get you what you need. (U-haul is all about the money, folks.) So we'll see how it goes.
That's not to say that my stress has ended. I obtained an apartment for us in San francisco, but we don't live there yet, so I'll worry about that until we can get into the door there, and also went on an interview in San Francisco. The interview went well, but it's anyone's guess as to whether or not I out-performed the other interviewees. There are two slots, and nine people that they are interviewing face-to-face. I can only say that I did my best, and the rest is up to whomever the rest is up to.
I ended up going with the "Visual Quickstart Guide to SQL" as my basic SQL brush-up reference. I've used the series before, and I liked its comprehensive approach at an inexpensive price. This one was exceptional, explaining the terms and differences between DBMSs and the different clients in simple laymans terms. The interview included a half hour with the current user of the GUI and DBMS that they use, and I was able to hang with him on the SQL side. When I explained about my hacking familiartiy with SQL, and how I could construct queries that only got as complex as a table join, he confided that he still had to look those up, and that most of his queries were "canned," having been written long ago by a developer. They were more interested in my customer service background and skills. I'm extrememly strong in that regard, so I went with my strengths. All in all, it was the best job interview I've ever had, if that counts for anything.
We'll know more on Friday.
That's not to say that my last day went well in San Francisco. There seemed to be a number of obstacles around physically leaving the city, and the mood of the city became positively hostile. A patron of a Starbucks became super aggressive over me changing from my work clothes to street clothes in the Starbuck's bathroom, (I patronized the place, I bought an iced latte, which suprisingly, was very good,) and two punks (Punks, as in anarchists, as opposed to punks as in, hoodlums, although they were that, too,) threw a DIET coke at me as I went down into the BART station at the Civic Center. I almost stopped and said "Diet? What kind of punks ARE you, anyhow?"
Today's stress du-jour is "Giving notice at work." I'm a little apprehensive about that. They've an "at will" employment policy, so no notice is required, but I can't help but think that they will be a little ... upset. Once again, I'm going to be honest and just tell them the truth, that the sublet is up, and we are moving on, prospects or not. My last day at work will be the 17th. (Yes, I realize that isn't much time to move, but everything we own is still in boxes, so moving will be quick.)
The good news is that after today, the only stress is "Get a trailer from u-haul" before the major stress of "Get the heck out of Philadelphia." That's small potatoes, that u-haul thing, but I've had experiences with u-haul in the past that bordered on the Kafka-esque, but as long as you've got some way to pay them, u-haul eventually tries to get you what you need. (U-haul is all about the money, folks.) So we'll see how it goes.
