New Job

It's the end of my first week at Mirapoint, and
while it might be too soon to tell for sure, I think
I'm going to be happy there. It's very much a
start-up: informal, disorganized, and friendly.
I'm reminded of my days at AIDA, where PS and NH
would juggle ten-pins in the cramped hallways
to work through difficult coding problems. I had
forgotten how much fun it is to be able to make a
real difference. When Sun laid me off, everyone
told me that at my age I'd have to settle for
lower pay and contract work and no benefits, but I
set myself a secret challenge: that I'd find a job
at higher pay and equivalent benefits with people
I liked and doing work that I enjoyed more -- and
I fucking did it. It's been a hard six months,
but I'm letting myself hope that getting laid off
from Sun was a blessing in disguise. (Even if
working with Windows is like trying to build tools
in Disneyland rather than a proper machine shop.)
"And still champ!" (cf. Lester's "Juggernaut").