Every several weeks for the last few months, we’ve had at work a personal trainer guy come in and give talks on various health-related topics. The last one he did was on posture. My posture isn’t bad, but I’m conscientious of it and think it could be improved (especially since I sit at a desk all day), so I attended. After the talk I spoke with him, and realized during our conversation that this guy’s shoes had each of his toes separated, so it rather looked like he was barefoot, except that he was clearly wearing shoes. I had to know what they were, and he told me a bit about them, including that they’re made by Vibram (the same company that makes, for example, hiking boot soles), and they’re called FiveFingers (due to the separation of the toes).

My buddy Jack thinks they ought to be called “Monkey Feet,” but that’s another story altogether…
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I’m very good at it, you see. Not so much necessarily procrastination per se, but at doing something and then getting onto a completely different track and basically forgetting about that other pot cooking on the fire until it goes and burns down so low that its contents congeals, evolves a new life of its own, pulls itself from the pot and leaves to start a new exciting life, far away from he who created it - me, you see. I’m that person leaving stuff for so long that it evolves legs and creeps away.

If you didn’t get the rather obscure reference above, I was referring to posting to my blog. I can’t believe it’s been since last summer that I posted last! “Got a Job!?” That was my last post? So much has happened in that time!

I’m going to try to start writing here again, not that anyone’s really keeping track I think, but hey - I have thoughts and stuff I want to write, so this is as much for me as it is for you. If you read it and enjoy what I write, cool! Otherwise, there’s always YouTube or Hulu, right?

More to come shortly…

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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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