Posts (page 2)
I started thinking about the last few meals that I've had.
Wednesday Dinner: Ribeye (on sale at HEB)
Thursday Lunch: Sushi (c/o my manager, who is leaving the company)
Thursday Dinner: Omaha Steak wrapped with bacon (c/o Enoch)
Friday Lunch: Rudy's
And it's disgustingly early right now. (4:45 AM).
I spent most of today outside working in 90-something degree weather. If you happened to be at a Houston Metro Park & Ride and you saw a beige Corolla clogging the exit while also hooked up something on a pole via a few BNC cables, that was me. It's so weird huddling over a laptop in a futile attempt to create a make-shift hood just to read the faint LCD that's dwarved by the still hot 5 PM sun. All the while people leaving work are eyeing you and wondering what this fool in a t-shirt and jeans is doing. (Yes, I was told to wear jeans. For 90-something degree weather.)
But we still managed to cover almost half of the upgrades in Houston today. On a combined total of 6 hours of sleep? (2.5 by me, 3.5 by my co-worker)
We worked so hard that we didn't have lunch. Wait, no... he worked so hard he didn't have lunch. I got fed up with everything and took a 2:30 lunch.
---
We were so tired by the end of the day, we thought we deserved a good meal. Before cooking my entree, the waiter brought it out to see if it was acceptable. It spat at me.
Yeah... it was a really expensive dinner at Pappadeaux.
I got an email two days ago telling me that there was a chance that I might be sent out to Houston for a few days to help our technical support group re-flash (load new software) onto cameras that we have at a customer's site.
If you don't already know, this has very little to do with what I normally do. I'm a software developer. I sit at desk, design software, and program most of the day.
I don't go out to customer sites to fix things.
And what ends up happening? I get sent out with another engineer to fix cameras that are scattered throughout Houston.
They weren't sure of when they were going to send us out. There was talk of Thursday and Friday, so I figured... leave on Thursday, come back on Friday, right? Wrong. They tell me today that they're hoping we can get to Houston by Wednesday night and stay in a hotel for a couple of nights.
Because it was so last minute and I had plans for Wednesday night already, we end up leaving Austin around 10:45 PM and ended up arriving in Houston around 12:45 AM. The company was going to rent out one car each for the other engineer and myself. But because I'm not 25 yet, they end up only renting out one. I offered my dad's Corolla as the car I'd drive, so they'll be reimbursing me for all that.
But this meant another thing. We'd have to go to Sugar Land first, pick up the Corolla, and then caravan up to the hotel in Northwest Houston, which we got to at around 2:20 AM. Not the best thing to have happen when you're meeting the customer at 8:30 AM.
So yeah... I'm pretty spent. And tomorrow is gonna be a very caffeinated day.
At least there's a king-sized bed, sofa, and complimentary broadband... all for me. :-D
I don't know how this keeps happening to me.
I was at Fry's tonight looking at some DVD labels to experiment with the possibility of using an alternative label for the wedding videography DVDs that Enoch and I make. There was this middle-aged gentleman of
Indian descent in the same aisle seemingly mulling over the same selection of printable labels.
He looks over at me and asks, "Do you print your own labels?"
Somewhat amazed at his boldness to make conversation with a complete stranger, I nodded, "Yeah, I print my own DVD labels."
"They turn out pretty well?"
"Yeah, they look pretty decent."
"Is this your regular job?"
I chuckled at the thought of being a full-fledged professional videographer, "Oh, no... it's a hobby. A side job, if anything."
"I see. What do you normally do?"
This is one of those questions I don't like answering because I'll say my company name and it doesn't register with most people because it's not IBM, NI, Samsung, or Dell.
At least it's a stranger. The last few times I said "Covi Technologies," people in my community have for the most part followed that up with, "Doesn't Matt Chin work there?" (I told Matt about the job he has now.)
So I gave him a vague answer, "I write software for a startup company."
"Oh! Very good, very good. What kind of software?"
"Video analytics."
"Very nice! And you look so young, too. You must be 18 or 19?"
"Mm.. 23," I said as a smirk broke over my face. 18 or 19. What the heck.
"Now let me ask this," he said, just seconds before a cliched-sales-pitch spirit seemed to have completely possessed my newfound acquaintance. "Are you open to anything besides your job if a good opportunity comes up?"
Uh oh. That's when I got really annoyed. See, I've been down this road before. I'll be shopping at some store in North Austin -- Fry's, HEB, Walmart, whatever -- and every now and then, random people who look like they just left work will randomly make conversation with me and ask this very question. Next thing I know they're all giving me elevator pitches about their little pet project of a side business that they think will make it big like the next Amazon.com. Or if they're lucky, they'll tell me how they're partnering with big corporations like Bank of America. I'll be as nice as possible and nod along to what they're saying, ask good follow up questions, and try to see what they're doing without being too invasive of their business model, occasionally wondering if I can hook one of my unemployed friends with what they're doing if it's remotely interesting.
Before I know it, they're asking if I can get together with them sometime. They want to give me more details about their business and see if I can help them out or if I want to partner with them because they want bright and high-caliber individuals such as myself.
And I had only known of their very existence a few minutes earlier. And they want me to leave the company I've been working at for the last year and a half for them. Anyway...
This time I just politely declined, "My plate is full right now."
Why does this keep happening to me? Why is it always a bunch of middle-aged Indian engineers asking me these questions??? This is the fourth time in the last year!
And then it continued, perhaps shedding some light.
"Oh okay. I understand. Let me ask you this though. Where are you from originally?"
"Houston."
"You were born here?"
"Yes. My parents emigrated."
"Oh, where did they come from?"
"Taiwan." (Not the whole story, but true nonetheless.)
"Oh....." he said, with a shade of disappointment in his voice. "I was going to guess India."
Sigh. He did say I would do well in interviews though. (Pffft.)
I was driving to Din Ho for Meson's birthday dinner on Friday when Janice called me.
"There's a Camry in the Church's Chicken."
Huh?
Ah.
I thought about getting a lot closer for better shots, but it was awkward enough as it was.
Lately, I just can't get myself to take the time to reflect on stuff -- forget about writing about it.
It's been a pretty packed few weeks, so I've had tons of stuff going on but not a lot of time (or energy... although if I think about it, it's more an energy thing) to organize my thoughts and write. I know I should have tons of New Orleans stuff to write about but that will come later. In all honesty though, my teammates pretty much covered everything quite well in the Vox Veniae blog. Maybe I'll come up with something less insightful but different later...
I was capturing the footage for one of the videos to be played at Jim and Gretchen's reception earlier this afternoon. I'll be sharing different outtakes as I continue working on this project.
This is one of the gems:
[ Joshua is trying to get the set to be quiet. ]
Joshua: Moooooooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!!!! Be quiiiieeeeetttt!
[ No success. Five seconds later... ]
Joshua: Shuuuuuuuuuuush!
[ Still no success. Five seconds later...]
Joshua: ...please?
:-P
