Updates

Well, apparently I succeeded in turning my family onto this, because I got a few emails / calls from family and friends saying "Hey, no updates? How's the new job?" Well, I've been avoiding writing about it for a few reasons, mostly because I know that first impressions often end up being incorrect, and I don't want to give an incorrect assessment just to look back on it later on in embarrassment. But, so far, here's the gist: I don't have a heck of a lot to do, and I'm constantly double- and triple-checking my email to make sure that there isn't some looming action item that I've managed to forget about. So far I seem to have everything in hand. This is, of course, a big change from having work casually tossed onto my plate all the time, so much that there's really no time to organize everything. So, that's big adjustment #1. My wife tells me that this is normal for a job and that the workload will increase soon. I hope so, because at the moment I'm feeling significantly underutilized.
The other big, big difference between Company_A and Company_B is the acknowledgment factor. At Company_A, I worked my fanny off all the time and it was just sort of expected. The people who I did things for were generally grateful, but on the other hand it was my job, and many times I managed to think way outside of the box and make something work that really should have been inviable. Not that I expected praise for this; it was, after all, my job, and I was good at it. At Company_B, it's the exact opposite - I get asked to make something work in a relatively standard fashion, and most times I just end up delegating it to someone else. For the rare time where I have to do something even slightly non-standard (i.e. write some kind of Perl filter or a hook for one application to another), I crank it out and receive endless praise for it. Keep in mind that these are not particularly convoluted things, and the best part is that I can say "no, we're not going to do that because that will create problems in the future", and WE DON"T DO IT! If I'm asked to do something really wacky, I can just say "no". If a developer writes himself into a corner and there's no way I can help him without introducing more problems down the line (i.e. a band-aid that I know will haunt us forever), I can simply tell him that he's got to go back and start over again. How sweet is that?!?
On a personal note, last Saturday we spent the day with our friend Aki. Aki is a Japanese Carioca who lived in NYC for about 10 years, and she loves food. She's introduced us to countless wonderful, reasonably-priced restaurants, and she absolutely outdid herself on Saturday - we went to a Japanese restaurant on Saturday night and had just about the best fish I've ever had. Grilled yellowtail with almost no seasoning or oil, just absolutely delicious fish. Fish stewed in sweet miso that was almost like a desert. Grilled toro, cooked just right, with the consistency of a rib eye steak. Sashimi that was like butter - I'm not a big sashimi fan but I gotta admit it was really, really good. For three people the bill came out to $100 - pretty damn good. Can't remember the name of the place but we'll for sure be taking our friends there when we get a chance.
Anyway, got to get back to work - going to quadruple-check and make sure I'm caught up...

--Nate