I still haven't made a post about my trip to Cancun. I'm waiting to get pictures from our neighbors and then I will try to file a report. I know this is hypercritical and you may be unable to function in your daily life to full capacity until I do so. I simply ask for your patience.
So...today..I'm at work. Did I mention I've got a job? I left Sony at the beginning of the year. I joined a startup company. I'm not allowed to mention the name of the company I work for. It's all far too top secret. They gave me some stock. I think I paid a penny, or was it two cents, a share for it? Someday, who knows, it could be worth a nickel.
I work at Forest Park and Sarah. That's near Saint Louis University and a 45 minute commute on a *good day* from my home. Let's not talk about the bad days. The office is in a "technology incubator" (formally "Dorris Motors). The company is making a product for the game industry and I am the official on-site 'game guy'. What an honor it is.
So, I commute 2 hours a day to sit behind a desk for eight to nine hours. Me, I'm thinking "Let's say I not commute and work ten?"
From time to time I have been working from home. I'm not entirely certain I have been given permission to work from home; but I always show back up at work with an awful lot of fresh source code checked in so it certainly indicates I'm getting something done.
Meanwhile, I have head hunters calling me all the time. There are an awful lot of seriously fucked up projects out in the world and if you are willing to say "I'll jump into your boiling vat of oil" the opportunities are endless.
Today I worked in the office. The weather human beings claim that the temperature is going to be near 90 degrees for the whole rest of the week, including the weekend. Now, for a guy with an addiction to convertibles and coming off of a long winter, that sounds just fine to me.
At lunch I threw the top down and cruised through "The Hill" for a nice Italian resturant.
On the way back into the office I was accosted by a guy in the parking log. "Are you John Ratcliff?" he asks me?
I suddenly get scared. Somebody who's been paying $13 a month for Planetside want's his pound of flesh and he wants it NOW!!!
As he walks closer to me he looks vaugely familiar in that "Didn't I got to high school with you 20 years ago" sort of way.....
He asks, "Do you know who I am?"
And, suddenly, of course, I do.
It's my old friend Mark Glaenzer. I helped Mark get his first job something like 18 years or so ago. Back then I was working for my first startup "Cardiosoft". We had a contract to do a biomedical software application and I needed some coders. I went down to Rolla and interviewed the brightest kid there with the worst GPA. Mark did a fantastic job for me and later went to work for one of the companies we had a contract with. I went off and wrote "688 Attack Sub" for Electonic Arts and gracefully exited the biotech field.
I briefly chatted with Mark in the parking lot. He's working for another startup company in our building doing biomedical software development. He also plays in a band called "Caustic"
This evening when I got home Mark had sent me a lengthy and detailed email message about his life over these past years. I feel really bad to find out that Mark has actually been back in St. Louis for quite some time and we had never gotten together before now.
Mark is still passionate about software and has a special interest in genetic algorithms. This is exciting to me because not only do I share that passion but I am now working on technology that I believe is going to provide a tremendous impetus for future development in this area.
So, how odd. After almost 20 years the kid I helped get his first job ends up working out of the same building as me all these years later. I would have been less suprised to bump into him at a baseball game or at the grocery store. But, to end up at the same building both working for different startup companies is just so perfect!
Ok, well, now I feel like I have made an honest post to my blog. Let me wrap up by pointing out that on Saturday. Yes, THIS SATURDAY, you are invited to my house for a BBQ and swimming pool party. Yes, I mean you. It officially starts at 2pm and goes on until late in the evening. Bring a covered dish, swimming trunks, a small cooler of beer or your favorite beverage, and an attitude for fun in the sun.
So...today..I'm at work. Did I mention I've got a job? I left Sony at the beginning of the year. I joined a startup company. I'm not allowed to mention the name of the company I work for. It's all far too top secret. They gave me some stock. I think I paid a penny, or was it two cents, a share for it? Someday, who knows, it could be worth a nickel.
I work at Forest Park and Sarah. That's near Saint Louis University and a 45 minute commute on a *good day* from my home. Let's not talk about the bad days. The office is in a "technology incubator" (formally "Dorris Motors). The company is making a product for the game industry and I am the official on-site 'game guy'. What an honor it is.
So, I commute 2 hours a day to sit behind a desk for eight to nine hours. Me, I'm thinking "Let's say I not commute and work ten?"
From time to time I have been working from home. I'm not entirely certain I have been given permission to work from home; but I always show back up at work with an awful lot of fresh source code checked in so it certainly indicates I'm getting something done.
Meanwhile, I have head hunters calling me all the time. There are an awful lot of seriously fucked up projects out in the world and if you are willing to say "I'll jump into your boiling vat of oil" the opportunities are endless.
Today I worked in the office. The weather human beings claim that the temperature is going to be near 90 degrees for the whole rest of the week, including the weekend. Now, for a guy with an addiction to convertibles and coming off of a long winter, that sounds just fine to me.
At lunch I threw the top down and cruised through "The Hill" for a nice Italian resturant.
On the way back into the office I was accosted by a guy in the parking log. "Are you John Ratcliff?" he asks me?
I suddenly get scared. Somebody who's been paying $13 a month for Planetside want's his pound of flesh and he wants it NOW!!!
As he walks closer to me he looks vaugely familiar in that "Didn't I got to high school with you 20 years ago" sort of way.....
He asks, "Do you know who I am?"
And, suddenly, of course, I do.
It's my old friend Mark Glaenzer. I helped Mark get his first job something like 18 years or so ago. Back then I was working for my first startup "Cardiosoft". We had a contract to do a biomedical software application and I needed some coders. I went down to Rolla and interviewed the brightest kid there with the worst GPA. Mark did a fantastic job for me and later went to work for one of the companies we had a contract with. I went off and wrote "688 Attack Sub" for Electonic Arts and gracefully exited the biotech field.
I briefly chatted with Mark in the parking lot. He's working for another startup company in our building doing biomedical software development. He also plays in a band called "Caustic"
This evening when I got home Mark had sent me a lengthy and detailed email message about his life over these past years. I feel really bad to find out that Mark has actually been back in St. Louis for quite some time and we had never gotten together before now.
Mark is still passionate about software and has a special interest in genetic algorithms. This is exciting to me because not only do I share that passion but I am now working on technology that I believe is going to provide a tremendous impetus for future development in this area.
So, how odd. After almost 20 years the kid I helped get his first job ends up working out of the same building as me all these years later. I would have been less suprised to bump into him at a baseball game or at the grocery store. But, to end up at the same building both working for different startup companies is just so perfect!
Ok, well, now I feel like I have made an honest post to my blog. Let me wrap up by pointing out that on Saturday. Yes, THIS SATURDAY, you are invited to my house for a BBQ and swimming pool party. Yes, I mean you. It officially starts at 2pm and goes on until late in the evening. Bring a covered dish, swimming trunks, a small cooler of beer or your favorite beverage, and an attitude for fun in the sun.
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