Author: cdwan

I’m writing this from safely in Mystic, CT. We have good friends here who are willing to not only share their home with us for a day, but they also let me hold their 11 day old baby, Alayna. She’s a very calm baby. Just sat in my arms and looked at me.

the trip

In its very own little post: How violent should I be with my moving company? I’ve been calling every day.

The details.

The set of things for which I’m directly and materially responsible, right now, has shrunk to one wife, two cats, two cars and a few suitcases. Letting go of all control over the rest of the stuff (all five tons of it, thanks for asking) was difficult but liberating.

I had a fun time trying to return a propane tank (the kind that goes with a gas grill). I went to a hardware store and asked something like “you exchange these, right? Well, can I just give one to you?” Total bafflement. “How about if I exchange this one, but forget to take the new one…how about that.” I got to talk to the manager. The manager said “we don’t do things like that here.” So I went to another store, got to talk to the manager there, and he said “sure, no problem.” The key is to get past the robots as rapidly as possible. We just needed one person, somewhere in the chain, to jump outside of the corporate protocol.

Job negotiations continue. We might be approaching agreement. That would be good, since I would theoretically start work a week from today.

Climbed well today. I led several 5.9′s, and made substantial progress on a 5.10b top rope. I hope that the gym in Providence is good.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

All my stuff just drove off in a great big truck.

Goodbye, stuff.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

Even as I speak, strong men are taking my possessions and loading them into a truck. We’ve got a team of three, plus the driver (owner / operator, contracted to Ace Atlas). They have a system involving little numbered stickers and a clipboard dereferencing the numbers on the stickers back to what that sticker is supposed to be stuck to.

Having removed all illusions that I’m in control here, I find that I’m much more relaxed. I just sign on the line, and some sizable fraction of my stuff ends up in Rhode Island.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

P4C/<1|\|G & |\/|0\/1|\|G |-|4\/3 \/\/HUPP3D |\/|Y 455

About the same number of boxes tonight as Tues. There’s still more to do. We need to achieve at least a stable state from which to issue instructions for when the packers / movers arrive tomorrow. I’m really glad we went with the “partial pack” option. Anything that’s not packed yet will simply be put in a box and appear (hopefully) in Rhode Island in about two weeks.

New owner did the final walkthrough. We explained about burying the roses. She was baffled. She’ll learn.

Negotiations continue with the prospective bosses. They need to get through their head that I’m simply not going to sign myself out of the entire industry. “computer programming and / or high performance computing for life sciences researchers and, plus whatever we happen to be working on besides that, plus no working for any of our clients, prospective clients, suppliers …” Not without a promise of truly obscene pay for the duration. If I have to take an involuntary year off, I want to take it on vacation.

Considering tapping the “unholy strength” that is 10pm coffee. I’ll twitch and have freaky dreams…but I’ll get another two hours of productivity. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.

Now: No more thinking. That thing you’re holding: Pack it. Now pick up something else. Move move move move…

0\/\/|\|Z0R.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

My friends threw a little going-away party for me this evening. It was a good time. We went out for sushi and then out for peanuts and beers.

Knowing our longstanding thing for pandas (particularly Hua Mei at the San Diego Zoo), Tim and Sarah gave me a children’s panda costume. As a gag, I put it over my head for a group picture. Within seconds, two random women were over from the bar asking to have a picture taken with me in the costume. They claimed that they thought it was some sort of bachelor party thing (hello, they asked my wife to take the picture) and just wanted to be part of the fun. I let them wear the panda costume and photographed them instead.

Take home lesson: If you want random women to talk to you in a bar, put on a children’s panda costume. Thanks Tim and Sarah.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

I mailed an express mail package yesterday to my mortgage agent in Rhode Island, at the address below:

100 Midway
Cranston, RI 02937

The kid behind the counter asked “is that international?”

To his credit, he was very embarrassed when I said “it’s going to Rhode Island.” He kept going on about how he had never seen the state code for Rhode Island before, was new here, etc.

The post office where this happened is in the student union at U of MN, and employs primarily work / study students.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.

The update

What’s the favorite, preferred method for finding a truly vicious and goal oriented attorney?

I have a number of document’s I’d like reviewed, and the “personal referral” method isn’t working out (apparently, none of my local friends ever have their employment documents examined before signing them). I’ve gone through the bar association, which promises random referrals to licensed attorneys in my area, but I was hoping for a bit more selective process than “licensed to practice law, and in your zip code.”

I’m being asked to sign both nondisclosures and noncompetes in pursuit of my new job. I’m all cool with nondisclosures (I mean, duh: I work in high tech. Intellectual is the *only* property), and I’m pretty impressed by the limited nature of the “we ownzez all youz ideaz” clause. Instead of claiming *all* my ideas, they just claim the ones that I have during the time I’m working for them (like, business hours) that are related to the business of the company. This is far more limited than others I’ve seen.

The noncompete says that I won’t sign on with any business that competes with these guys for a year, after my employment with them ends. This seems a bit pushy, but I’m not sure what to counteroffer. Maybe “I promise to not steal your customers” or something.

Originally published at chris.dwan.org. You can comment here or there.