Free Boxing

I got a copy of 3D Bridge Deluxe at the BMac meeting last week… I don’t play Bridge, and I’m not really interested in learning, so if anyone here wants it let me know.. It’s compatible with OSX and MacOS 8.6 (according to the back of the jewel case).

Things have been hectic lately… I interviewed at a company a few times last week, and was golden….. Until an employee there recommended one of their friends who had 5 years of experience over me… Apparently the company is considering opening another position just for me, but I am not holding my breath. Some of you may be surprised that I am considering leaving Goodrich, but trust me, this is not a decision I have made lightly. There are a number of factors:

• Commute: 30 miles in each direction every day adds up… I am sick of polluting the environment, dumping hundreds of dollars a month into the gas tank, and putting all that wear and tear on my car. In less than two years I have put more than 40k miles on my car… Obviously I take quite a number of road trips, but most of that is the 60 miles a day I put on my car going to and from work. I want a local job that I can take public transit to in a reasonable amount of time (less than an hour).
• Creatively Stifled: Sure, any time you are working for someone else, your creativity is going to be restricted in some way. But working for a government contractor is the worst. We are on contract to deliver a sprocket, not a sprocket plus “Sean’s whiz-bang feature #3”. I could push to have someone sell “whiz-bang” to the government, but I have to get 800 people to sign off on it and then the customer has to buy into it before I can do anything with my idea. And I don’t even have a charge number to actually write any of these proposals, so it’s a stalemate.
• Security Clearance: Most of my work is classified, and working in that environment sucks on many levels.. First of all, our development occurs in an isolated lab (no external connectivity), so if I have to look something up, want to check my email, or even just want to goof off for a minute or 4, I have to leave the lab and return to my desk (on the other side of the building). I can’t even bring my iPod in there… Second, I want to be able to talk about all the cool shit I work on, but I can’t. I realize that every company has it’s secrets, but it’s frustrating when you can only talk about what you are doing in the broadest strokes.
• Inflexibility: This comes on many levels… When I worked at the startup, Rovia, it was a meritocracy.. The best ideas won, the best tools won, and fun won. At Goodrich, the 30k person organization has a set of tools they want you to use, a set of technologies they want you to use, etc… Want to use Python? You might be able to do it on the sly, but don’t let your manager find out.. But in addition, Goodrich has silly policies like core hours of 9a-3:30p… and beyond that, they do things like mandate that people work 8 hours a day.. You worked 11 hours Monday-Thursday? Tough shit, you still have to come in on Friday.
• Boredom: I feel like I’ve been doing the same project over and over again for almost two years. It’s time for something new.

So I’ve been looking..