So, about four weeks after I started looking for work, I accepted a job offer from Dealer.com, a high tech software company in downtown Burlington, Vermont. I will be a Java Developer there, where I’ll get a chance to work with cutting-edge Java technologies, which is right where I want to be professionally. As best I understand it, the culture there is informal and relaxed in certain respects, but full-speed ahead in others (namely, in ways having to do with the bottom line). They have a variety of nice amenities as well, including an organic cafe, tennis court, and gym, which will be great ways to relieve pent-up energy from sitting in front of a screen all day. One of their nice perks is that they’ll subsidize 50% of a Stowe season’s pass, which I’ll definitely be taking advantage of!

So I should be starting there on September 22nd. That gives me enough time to find a condo and perhaps move in before I start work. Will also give me time to get down to NYC to visit my cousin Jeff, who’s working as a page for NBC Studios (who got me tix for the Conan O’Brien Show, too! Woo hoo!) I have great credit and a fair chunk of change saved up for a down payment, so all I really need to do now is find somewhere I like, preferably walking distance from downtown. That’s the next step, which will hopefully be a fun and enjoyable one, now that I’ve secured a source of income.

I just had my second Amazon interview today. It went very well, I think, based on everything from what was said, to the tone, to, well, everything. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed here! It could be a very cool thing to live and work in Seattle for a while, especially for such a well-known powerhouse as Amazon.
Read More… (556 words)

So I just got back from Boston yesterday. I spent a day down there doing job interviews. I was supposed to do only one, but as it so happens I had three (I had received two interesting proposals from recruiters while driving down there - go figure).
Read More… (423 words)

Today I had my first technical interview with Amazon.com. I think it went pretty well, although I haven’t heard back from the guy yet so I can’t say for sure. Read on for details.
Read More… (592 words)

As the subject line suggests, I passed the Basic Rider course I’ve been taking this weekend, so I now have a full endorsement from Vermont to drive motorcycles. Cool! Now all I need is a motorcycle.
Read More… (581 words)

Today I had my first real day of learning to ride a motorcycle. I signed up for this Basic Rider Course about half a year ago (they’re very popular, you need to sign up way in advance to get a slot in one of these courses). It’s a two-and-a-half day course, running Friday evening, and all day Saturday and Sunday. Friday evening is just course work, while most of Saturday and all of Sunday involves actually riding bikes.
Read More… (440 words)

So, I haven’t posted in a really long time, and to anyone who actually follows my posts, I apologize. No real excuse, except that I was getting burned out doing stuff in the Peace Corps office, and I tried to spend as little time there as possible. Mostly anytime I went there, I tried to get in and get out as quickly as I could, which left little time for posts about my goings on, which were by far and away mundane and routine towards the end of my service.

There were a few highlights, such as COS Conference, meeting the new Education volunteers, and my trip home. I will definitely write about my trip home as that is really post-worthy, but not now as it’s late.
Read More… (446 words)

This one’s going to be short and sweet… I think, and sort of. Sweet because it’s short, not because of what happened. Because what happened was decidedly not sweet.
Read More… (1646 words)

So, this is part three of the three part series about Peace Corps Mail Run in January 2008.

Tuesday, Day 5: Tendaba to Fajara

Today, woke up in Tendaba all ready for the last real day of MR. It’s the last real day of MR because tonight we’ll be back in Kombo, and I’ll probably be crashing at the Stodge, our capital-region transit house. But before we can relax on the couches eating beans and cassava while drinking a JulBrew in front of any number of movies I’ve already seen ten times, we’ve got to handle the South Bank, a notoriously bad road - very possibly the worst in the coutry - for the better part of the day. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Read More… (1502 words)

So, tomorrow we’re heading back up to Dakar, Senegal, to take part in WAIST, the West African Invitational Softball Tournament! Early early tomorrow morning, I’ll be leaving town with some of my PC cohorts to catch the ferry across to the north bank, then up to the border on a gele, bounce into Senegal, and then spend the next six hours cramped into a sept-place. And then I’ll get to argue with the taxi driver that’s supposed to bring us to the club we’re meeting at in Dakar in Wolof about how he hasn’t brought us to the right place, and no we’re not going to pay him more to bring us to the place we originally agreed on. sigh it is not easy.

Read More… (420 words)