There was a point today, sometime in-between the deluge of new-hire paperwork, getting to know a new office-space, having to configure a new Microsoft system because my Macbook Pro hasn't yet arrived, the multitude of new names, and a code overview for (just one) part (of many) of an intricate Rails system, when I thought: "this is exactly what I was looking for."

Today ranks as one of the best first days I've had since starting as a software engineer. I like the people I'll be working with, I like the company, I like the product, and I like the numerous challenges before me.

Although, I'll admit that I didn't sleep very well last night. It was mostly due to the heat in San Francisco but partially due to one nightmare I had about showing up unprepared. I don't exactly remember what happened in the dream; I either wore shorts or didn't have any pants on when walking into the office. One is certainly worse than the other, but considering the magnitude of change from my previous position, only one (fairly harmless) nightmare is doing pretty well for the night before a new job.

There was, however, a funny moment at lunch today. The question came up: "so how did someone from Yahoo! get a job at a rails shop?" (alluding to the fact that Yahoo! is primarily a PHP shop.) It reminded me of the time just over three years ago when I caught the Yahoo! shuttle bus back into San Francisco after a day of interviewing in Sunnyvale (which ultimately resulted in my first job at Yahoo!.)

On the shuttle, I started chit-chatting with the guy next to me. He asked if I had snagged the interview through a friend or relative and when I responded that I had landed it after an application through HotJobs, he jolted a bit and responded, rather surprised: "you must have some pretty special skills, then..."

Special enough, I guess...

Yesterday was my final day after just over three years with Yahoo! and while I was sad to say goodbye to the many talented professionals I met there, I'm excited to embark on a new adventure. I'll be fulfilling the other half of a dream to live *AND* work in San Francisco at a startup whose service you're sure to hear about if you haven't already.

I've been looking for a good fit at a small(-ish) Rails shop where I would be able to concentrate on the frontend (read: tons of JavaScript/HTML/CSS) for a customer-facing site; a place with growth potential where I could make a substantial impact, a place where they would value my years of experience in the backend in addition to my UI chops, a place where I could utilize my soft skills, a place where I could teach and learn, a place where I could potentially contribute back to the Rails community.

As of next week, I'll be joining the company making personalized shopping effortless - Shop It To Me - as Senior Web Developer. If I have your contact info, get ready for an invite to join!

You weren't at Modulations? You missed out... on things like these... (all thanks to CCRMA):

Gettin' down with Visda Goudarzi and Ge Wang on Michael Zeligs' "Rhythm for Squares"

Groovin' with Megan Miller and Michael Berger on Terry Berlier's Pan Lid Gamelan I

About a month ago, it was announced that Ignite would be coming to Chirp.

I decided to submit an abstract for a talk, but on what? My wife told me that I should probably make it something Twitter-related but I decided to go in a different direction, given what I saw here.

If you haven't deduced from this post's title, I guess I should listen to her more often in the future.

Anyway, I found myself gravitating towards two particular topics from which I could draw a great deal of personal experience: fitness and nutrition (geeks' favorite topics, right?)

I thought about how to frame a talk for the 5 min/20 slides format. As part of the exercise, I captured a few of the most meaningful moments in my life so far regarding my physical fitness. Based on those events, I focused on distilling the lessons I've learned over the last two decades into 15 second chunks.

Perhaps I'll get to sharing those lessons in the future at a different Ignite session but as my talk wasn't accepted for this round, I thought I would at least blog about each of the moments as they've had an impact on me. I'll save the details for another day, but here are each of the events in a nutshell, reverse-chronological order:

1. Bootcamp with Maurice Rodriguez
2. Masters' swimming with Markus Lombardini
3. Kieser Fitness
4. Body for Life
5. Kursalon Fitness/John Harris/Club Danube
6. Health Dynamics with John Patnott
7. The Strength Shoe
8. High School Football & Basketball Coach
9. HFCS

Over the coming months, I'll look to flesh out each as vignettes as time allows.

(BTW, the speakers who were selected for the evening were great. You can check them out here.)

In February 2010, I hit the GDC when I came to SF with the hopes of finding a job. I thought, "surely, with my web skills... I'll be in-demand" but oh how sobering of an experience it was.

A few months later in July 2010, Zynga was formed.

Several months ago, my brother came to town. He wanted a good steak dinner so we went to one of the best steakhouses in town.

Our table wasn't quite ready when we arrived so we sat at the bar for a drink. When it was time to be seated we made our way into the dining room but as we were leaving the lounge area, a trio of jazz musicians were setting up. As I was leaving, I noticed and immediately recognized the drummer: Peter Magadini of polyrhythm fame. Unbelievable after all these years; Peter was setting up to play in the steakhouse where we were about to have dinner!

The trio played a set and when they took a break, I rushed up to greet Peter and tell him my story of having met him years previously. What a rush to meet a musician I so admire in a steakhouse in SF.

And yes, the steaks were fantastic. The best I've ever had, actually.

A concert I attended last week stirred something deep within.

My wife performed as part of a final project for her class entitled, "Compositional Algorithms, Psychoacoustics, and Spatial Processing." The video is (unfortunately) not ready but had you been there, you would have been fascinated by the blend of music (acoustic and electronic) performance and computer science. Oh, to have the skills of a keyboardist, a network admin, a drummer, a software engineer, *AND* a DJ.

Last night, I had the pleasure of dining with a friend who's in town from Austria; someone I met years ago there in my very first programming class. He's visiting the area for a conference (one of the best things about living in the bay area - since it's the center of the tech universe and such a fantastic place to visit/live - all of your contacts come to visit sooner or later.) One of the many topics that came up was the role of theory and practice in education, particularly for computer science. His argument was that a CS education should consist of a bit of theory, then a bit of practice, then deeper theory, then deeper practice, etc.; an argument I agree with for the most part.

After we talked, I had to reflect: if my education had been like that, would I have been able to enjoy the interconnections I experienced at my wife's concert? If I only would have known how useful B-trees, relational algebra, and IPC would be, I would have studied more and probably harder! But then, if I would have followed a strict diet of CS schooling and working, I wouldn't have the appreciation I do for aural skills, polyrhythm, form, and counterpoint, the sum of all of which - computer science and music - made it possible to appreciate the art my wife was/is creating.

Speaking of polyrhythm, this morning, I had some Groove Armada playing when there was some polyrhythmic action (6 over 4, nothing crazy) going on when I thought of Peter Magadini, a master of polyrhythm, from whom I bought a video at the 1995 PASIC. I looked him up and guess where he teaches? Haight Ashbury! Reason enough to take up drumming again?

This evening, while I was out, I stopped to pick up some Thyme and Oregano. I had to marvel at how nice it is that that's all we needed at home.

Over the last five years, I've gained a new appreciation for the effort it takes to build a life, having had to do so from scratch twice in that time. When I arrived both in Vienna and then San Francisco, I had nothing but suitcases of clothes.

In time, in both places, I/we acquired what was necessary for a household, and it's so easy to take for granted things like shampoo, a bed, twisty-ties, a computer monitor, or a screwdriver.

When on every trip out-of-the-house, you have to think about what essentials are still missing, it's nice that the day comes that all you need is some Thyme and Oregano.

"You see those guys with all kinds of piercings riding bikes *against* traffic in San Francisco? I want to say to them, "you think you're crazy? I'm raising kids in San Francisco."

When I lived in Vienna, I was frustrated that I couldn't make use of services based in the States. Now it's the other way around.

We don't have cable TV at home and I've been hoping and praying that I could find some sort of online radio coverage. I found streaming services from BBC and Austria's own ORF but they're blocked to anyone outside of those respective markets. Of course I can't find the game on any local FM or AM radio stations. Frustrating.