Digital Dave

I’m pretty excited about this event that is going on in 77 days.  If you’re not aware, I asked Megan to marry me December of 2007, and time has finally come up on us to get the party started.  Most of everything is set and planned, side from just a couple of things.  It felt like yesterday that I said we had 100 days.  Time is flying.

So what have I been up to? Work. Which is probably reason #1 as to why my week goes by so damn quick.

And an independent iPhone project. I’m at the point where I need to get it into some peoples hands so I can come down to a final decision on if I’ll post it on iTunes for free, or sell it for, likely, $0.99.  It’s a drinking game that is designed to be played at a bar with friends.  You can consider it a catalog of drinks like the cocktails application, but with a slight variation to it – namely, the game/competition factor. And no, I don’t worry about the history of the drinks…

In other news.

The campaign to promote the movie is going to get on the road, err, tracks soon.  Read the buzz here: Train

Not that it wasn’t expected.

So this is my fourth week with IMD.  I’ve had my hands on all kinds of things, from the build system to an array of tools and systems.  I’ve written some integration testing scripts, learned all kinds of linux tricks, read a lot of information, sat through a few classes, messed around with some broken C++ and Python code, fixed some Python code, watched pieces of the movie, and… The list goes on and on.  They’ve kept me relatively busy.

The clips that I’ve seen look phenomenal.  But I guess I hold a bias now?  Bleh. It’s sweet.

Working from 8:30 A.M to 6:30 P.M sure doesn’t give me a lot of time to tinker with any hobby projects. I normally crash out at 10:00 P.M, so I’m sure I could wake up 5:30 or so to work on something.

This past weekend I put PyQt on my system and began writing a pathfinding application.   That happens to be a weakness at the moment that I need to tackle (PyQt).  Hopefully I can get some work done on it and post my results/source.

I also spent some time brushing up on some linear algebra.  In college I only took Calculus and another math class that gave me a slight introduction to linear algebra.  If I have any hope to get over to help the R&D side of IMD, this is a critical element.  Luckily I work with a bunch of geeks now, so I can’t imagine that one of them wouldn’t like to share some knowledge.

I’ve been wanting to watch some of MIT’s opencourseware videos since last year, but things were understandably busy.  Now I actually have weekends and nights to focus on these things.

This also brings up another point of interest… I’ve been thinking about what university I could possibly attend for my masters degree and what kind of topic I would like to research here in NorCal.  Both are at a stand-still.  I just don’t know.  Berkeley would be sexy but I doubt that I have a chance there.

But that brings up another issue that I’m still debating.  Do I want to go the MSE route or MS route?  My mind is all around a MS.  I have a year until I gain my California residency, so I have some time.  Hopefully I can spend some time exposing myself to some of the 3D technology.  I’m sure there are a ton of problems revolving graphics.  This school dilemma could be a post in itself.

Well that was an exciting week.  Not that the prior sentence alone could justify my excitement.  I am extremely happy and fortunate that I was blessed with this opportunity.  In a California economy with 10.5% unemployment, and 1.95 million people unemployed, I find this unbelievable.

So the week involved a lot of training on Disney, IMD, and the union.  I also spent a lot of time learning about a few of the many, many systems that make up IMD’s pipeline.  So far things are going great.

I even got my first coding assignment (started on Friday)!  I knocked out the first task and nearly finished up the rest of the tasks (will finish those up on Monday).  It involved writing some integration tests for a new tool we will be releasing.  Linux and the shell are still very new to me,  but I didn’t let that get in the way and knocked it out.  The good thing is that I learn very fast when I’m hands on, which they’ve taken notice to.

So I’m the second ATD to join the team.  What makes this cooler is that they are looking for a third.  Why is that cool?  A few reasons, but primarily I won’t be the lowbie anymore.

None of this is new information, but if you’re not aware, our first feature is A Christmas Carol.  Jim Carey plays a ton of roles in the feature, and by all accounts it looks like it’s going to rock (seeing some of the renderings, and clips which blow my mind).

So!  Our work area is extremely intriguing.  If you were not aware we occupy two old aircraft hangars on the old Hamilton Air Force Base (decommissioned in ‘74).  This is beyond awesome due to my history with the military.

This is what the hangars look like.  We actually have the hangar with the flight tower, which is epic.

This is the hangar (7) where all the artists and animators hang out at.  Why I didn’t take a picture of hangar 9 (where I’m at), I don’t know… But you can see it in the reflection at least!

Guess who our next door neighbor is? Ok, I’ll tell.

2K Games! *peeks into the windows*  ;p

But yeah, the area is rich with history.  Hit up Wikipedia or Google and look at some of the old images of this place.  It’s pretty sweet.

So this week has been dragging a bit.  I’m excited for Monday to get here and I’m also a bit anxious for it’s arrival.  It’s typical.  I’ve experienced it when I started my first job at Sonic.  Sitting at the airport waiting for my a drill instructor to pick me up.  Moving from school to school and eventually landing in Camp Pendleton.  Starting work at a supply warehouse to being officially in charge of the receiving warehouse.  Going over to help the Military Police to knowing that I was heading into a war zone in T-5 hours.  Receiving my discharge papers and arriving on my university campus for the next 4 years.  All leading to graduating and driving off into the sunset for a brighter future.

Now.  Jumping on a new ladder in life, starting what sounds and feels like a promising career climb.

So I guess I’ll sit back a little longer, breathe deep, and have peace in knowing that things will work out.

The living situation couldn’t be any closer to perfect.  I’m living extremely cheap for the area until I get married in July (on Surf Way, I might add).  I live with a very skilled family that grew up in the Novato area and who has traveled a lot.  They’ve driven me all over, shared experiences, and explained what kind of great things there are to do around the bay area.  They share their food and their culture (husband is Japanese) as well as a bed and desk.

But it’s not all picture perfect.  I’m 1,500 miles away from the most familiar faces.  I don’t have any belongings quite yet.  And July is too far away.  Distance sucks, but hopefully I can wrap my mind around work and personal projects to forget about it.  It won’t quite feel like home until I get Megan out here with her own career, our new place set up, and eventually having my mom and brother out for a visit.

Patience is virtue.  No doubt about that.

Social networking has taken a huge leap forward.  No longer are we dealing with seemingly static pages like LinkedIn and any job searching site, but we now have a newer and brighter tool – a miniature chat room in our face – Twitter.  News rooms are already adapting live streaming into their broadcasting.  Live stream of what your friends are doing just went live on Facebook.  It looks like this live-streaming concept is really catching on.

If you haven’t seen Twitter yet, I highly recommend you visit http://twitter.com and tinker around.  You’re sure to find it engaging to follow people with similar interests as yourself, which is exactly what got me into it.

I was in the depth of my job search when I joined Twitter; my goal was to make myself visible beyond Dice, LinkedIn, Facebook and my blog/portfolio (Monster and Career Builder were useless).  I was trying to open as many platforms as I could, knowing that it was going to be a rough ride to find a job due to a.) the economic slump, and b.) wanting to get out of Kansas. The direct nature of Twitter makes networking much easier to accomplish.

One day I saw a random tweet from an individual claiming that they LOVED their work at Six Apart in San Francisco. I was familiar with the company from my career research on them in the past.  Jokingly (but seriously), I sent out this tweet:

Not long after I sent that message I received a few DMs from another follower in my network.

Later that night I also got a DM from the individual that I initially sent my tweet to, asking for my resume.

I jumped on the IMD website and began looking at the careers page.  The follower from my network and I passed a few e-mails between each other.  He gave me some more information about IMD, like what they do and what kind of work he has done there.  Needless to say I was hooked and I sent out my resume for him to pass along.

After several conversations with IMD’s recruiter, a phone interview with one of the production engineers and an on-site interview with 4 members of the team, I was contacted on March 6th with a formal offer.  I announced my epic win to the follower who helped me and he threw this back:

and…

“I just got you in the door.” With that I was able to take advantage of the opportunity provided this time.

This train is moving, and without a doubt it helped me get to the next level of my life.  Through the last 6 months of job searching, I did not find one individual that was in my network that did not try and get me employed when they saw I needed help, but those positions didn’t match up as well as this most recent.  People are generous and they want to help, but they can’t help if they don’t know you are there and in need.

These doors are all over the place if you are willing to search for them and to use them.

Take this for example. I just recently found a new Twitter page called Job Angles (http://twitter.com/jobangels) that I was going to abuse if this opportunity fell through.  Their purpose is to find people who are searching for jobs or people who are aiding others in their job search, and to make them visible to the 3000+ followers. A grass roots movement!

So challenge yourself and say hello to a random person on Twitter, or graciously lurk around and make yourself visible by presenting your thoughts like I did.  Regardless, Twitter is a powerful median to express yourself and to easily be found by others. Take advantage of it.

I need to get out of my friends apartment as soon as possible.  Her landlord isn’t too thrilled that I’m still here due to the apartment complex policy, which puts me in an awkward situation.  Luckily I have a job (woot x∞), I just need to find somewhere to live.  Regardless, I’ll need to leave tomorrow.  I can’t risk getting them evicted by old man scrooge.

I do have two great options on the table in Novato, CA.  I’ve only pursued one and I am just waiting for them to get in touch with my references ASAP and giving me the thumbs up. I would pursue the other, but this one sounds like it will work out. If not, I’ll scramble to get with the second individual (who basically lives down the street from the first…).

I do have my twitter-networking post nearly complete.  I will post that soon.

Edit: The first option in Novato fell through.  The other tenant didn’t want a male to come in to occupy the other space.  Unfortunate.  My female friend here in Glendale has a) tech support and b) a personal dish-washer.  Trust me, I make myself useful.

Edit: The second option in Novato was a success!  I have somewhere to live! Woot!

I am still determining the start date start March 23rd; but I am now a… *drumroll*

Production Engineering Assistant Technical Director

at

ImageMovers Digital

a

Disney Company

How wild is that?  Words can’t express how excited I am about this opportunity.

What opened the door to this opportunity?  Twitter. Believe that.

Well, my feet have been on the ground for 2 weeks now.  Things are going awfully slow, but they are moving.  I’ve had a few opportunities, one being a perfect one in my mind.  It will allow me to program in Python and C++ (!), and learn/do a LOT. As they put it, they need a “Front-Line Fire Fighter.”  Ironically enough, I’ve been pretty close some wild front lines, and this place is on an old military base.

I’m still waiting to hear back from them.

Megan received a letter today that announced Megan owed money to the university for some amount.  What makes this extremely odd is that they are immediately garnishing wages at her work, and her tax return.

How mind blowing is that?  No warning at all.  Attack.

What confuses me more is that they turned the loan (in my prior entry) over to the creditors, and never attacked Megan.

But for this? They didn’t turn it to the creditors. They attacked.

Why didn’t they go after her when the loan originally defaulted instead of sending it to the creditors to ruin her life?

Hell! Why did the loan office not send a letter to this address that has been on file for years about the loan BEFORE going to the creditors?  They claimed they had the wrong address, but this letter arrived, from the school? Further proof that they HAD the address in their system.  Gah!

You wouldn’t believe the kind of things that Megan has had to go through a few days ago and is still trying to deal with.

See, there is this mysterious school loan that was overlooked by the one who has been dealing with Megan’s finances while she was at college.  Fair enough, it was overlooked.  Shit happens.

(rough time scale since I’m just trying to recall, but close to being accurate)

6 months had passed after Megan graduated… Repayment of loans began.

15 months had passed after Megan graduated… Mysterious loan, defaulted, turned to creditors…

21 months had passed after Megan graduated… Megan receives a phone call from the creditors. A whole 6 months after they got it, and a whole ~14 months after the first payment was missed while it was at Kansas State University.

So now she has an extra +$1,100 of interest/fees tacked onto the loan.  She also has an obliterated credit history, raised car insurance, and a credit card heading in that direction, despite the fact that she has been rock solid on everything until now.

Oh, did I mention that the university changed who handled the loan midterm, and that could have easily jarred things up?  Oh, but they don’t care.

She’s immediately going to pay back the loan.  So that should help a ‘little’.

We need better consumer protection laws.  There is absolutely no reason why this has to be in the condition that it is.  This isn’t a simple, “Somebody running from bills.”  This is ruining someones entire life.  If you owe me money, you can bet I’m not going to wait years before I call you.

This is far from the first individual that this sort of thing has happened to.  A moment after I posted a tweet on Twitter, I had someone immediately tell me that they were in the same kind of situation.

I would not expect full immunity from the situation.  I would just expect that the other side would lend a hand and find a way to balance the issue. But everybody on the other side has a terrible attitude.

It is a sure fire way to kill alumni relationships.  The university needs money today due to hard times, evidently not in the future.  And this was an act by a university where I thought they absolutely cared about their student base… I guess it’s true. “Nobody cares about you. You just take care of yourself.”

And to think. I just referred somebody to this ‘awesome’ university… Guess it’s time to tell him that the military might be a better option after all.