Managed World

So I've gotten into a new hobby as of late. Why? Simple: my son. You see, many of the hobbies I've had in the past are "loner" hobbies that don't involve many people well: playing RPGs, programming video games, etc. I had some criteria that I was thinking about. First of all, I wanted it to be a family friendly hobby (so my son can get involved if he's interested). Second, it needed to be outdoors (I'm stuck inside enough because of my day job, no reason to make it worse). Lastly, it needed to be somewhat "geeky" still.

After doing some research, I found one that fit the bill quite well that piqued my interested: R/C Airplanes. Yes, you heard me right, I'm getting into R/C Airplanes. I put some research into it to make sure I got the right way, went down to check out one of the local R/C clubs and their flying field, and even attended their Open House and was able to fly the plane I eventually bought in person. It was a GREAT experience and somewhat of a "high" to be able to fly an R/C plane. GREAT hobby with lots of great people.

I also figure that getting into a hobby that has NOTHING to do with computers will also help make me a little more "well-rounded" that I possibly was before. You know, give me some fresh life experiences that I can bring into the other areas of my life.

So in that vein, yesterday I went down to the LHS (Local Hobby Shop) and picked up my new baby:

Oh yeah! All the goods I needed to get started. The Arrow has a 63" wingspan and a semi-symmetrical wing that makes it a good training airplane, as well as still being able to maneuverable enough to pull off some easier aerobatics. It is also a Glow Engine ("glow" being a type of fuel). I went this route instead of electric because I wanted a larger, more powerful plane that will handle the higher winds we get here in the Northwest (read: beefier than an electric in the same price range).

Tonight, I fully plan on putting this bad boy together and starting to charge the batteries. Then, next Tuesday (weather permitting and if my AMA membership card arrives in time), I'm off to the local airfield to do some training with a club instructor. Oh yeah! Summer is here, and I couldn't be more excited about it!

I already bought my second plane as well. It is a SIG Four-Star 40 in kit format. So, basically, I will be putting it together from the ground up myself (from the balsa wood baby!). It will be a great feeling to put something together with my own hands and then getting to fly it through the air.

Do you want to have a great job where you get paid to have fun? Well, there is a job opening on the team I work for here at Microsoft.

So, if you want to work for the greatest team in Developer & Platform Evangelism here at Microsoft, check it out. You'll get lots of opportunities to not only drive adoption of Windows Server Virtualization in the community, but you get to work directly with the product team as well. If that sounds exciting, make sure to apply.

Well, it's official, again, for now. I just went and canceled my WoW account. With the birth of my first child, I have come to the realization that I don't have enough time for WoW (or, better put, what time I do have should be spent either with my son, or doing a hobby that's creative and produces results I can show off).

What's funny is that I don't miss it in the least bit. At first, I made the decision to stop playing WoW because I simply had to play games where I could pause at a moment's notice to help out with Baby Xander. Then, after several weeks of not playing WoW, I realized I didn't miss it at all and have really enjoyed spending time either with music, or in doing Windows system programming in C (yeah, I'm a geek, I know it).

So, I say farewell to World of Warcraft for the third time in my life. Hopefully this is for good (or until the _next_ expansion pack comes out :P).

P.S. Back to reading my current book, Windows Internals.

I know, no posts in a while. There's a good reason though: last night, at 10:32pm, my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby son. He weighed 8lbs 13oz, and measured 20.5 inches. The name isn't "official" yet, but we are leaning strongly towards "Alexander Lewis Olson". Needless to say, I'm just soaking it all in and enjoying fatherhood.

Once we are out of the hospital (we wanted a home birth, so long story), I'll write up a longer post with our birth story. It was filled with all sorts of turns and changes, but it ended well, so we are happy :).

And with that, I leave you with some pictures of our beautiful baby boy. Sorry about the size of the pictures, but I'm a bit too pre-occupied to resize them right now :).

You just gotta love Stephen Colbert. Check out his take on CES and the iPhone. Classic!

Well, Rory just tagged me, so I suppose it's about my time to do this whole "share five things about yourself your readers probably don't know and then encourage five others to do the same." The problem is that I'm such a loner and hermit that it's hard to come up with five things :P. Oh well, I guess I have to give it a go. Here goes! I just hope you all still respect me in the morning :).

#1 - I'm a published music composer/arranger

That's right, I actually have published songs out there. Not much mind you, but it's a start :). It's mostly (read: practically all) jazz choir arrangements. The publishing company is Sound Music Publications from the Northwest and was started by two of the "greats" in vocal jazz groups (especially in education) from this region: Frank DeMiero and Ken Kraintz (here is a link to my profile on their site as well as the tunes I've composed/arranged for them). I just feel great to be there next to some of the greats like Dave Barduhn.

Truth be told, I've kind of "fallen of the wagon" a bit in regard to this number. I started arranging for jazz choir back when I was in high school at McMinnville High School. When I graduated, I was dying to go to University of Oregon as a Jazz Studies major (and actually was accepted as part of the program (they only take a single piano player each year for this program (or did at the time)) but was unable to attend due to financial issues (read: not enough moolah). Luckily, I had been offered a free ride to Mt. Hood Community College which has a great jazz program.

After doing two years in the jazz band there, I started playing in their jazz choir. The jazz choir is directed by Dave Barduhn (anyone familiar with middle school / high school jazz charts probably know this name), and I was luckily enough to be taken under his wing. He definitely helped me stretch my legs as a composer/arranger from the start, including throwing a bunch of Stan Kenton charts at me and asking me to adapt them for jazz choir. All three years I was in the choir, I had anywhere from two to four of my charts on the CD that we produced. Pretty cool exposure, I must say.

It was through this exposure at Mt. Hood and with Dave Barduhn that Frank and Ken approached me about writing for SMP (they are both very close friends with Dave).

In my second year at Mt. Hood was when I got my first computer job (I hadn't even touched a computer seriously until my first year in college at Mt. Hood (thanks to Marc Litchfield, my roommate at the time and current best friend who got me hooked on computers)). Ever since then, music has taken a back seat to computers. It's something that I want to "correct" of sorts and the reason I've started getting back into music composition as of late.

#2 - I've performed with famous jazz musicians (I _still_ can't believe this one)

As part of my experience in #1, I had the pleasure of performing on stage with some GREAT jazz musicians: drummer Jeff Hamilton (of the Jeff Hamilton Trio, Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and the late, great Ray Brown Trio), Blue-Lou Marini (of the Blues Brothers), Mike Vax (a great trumpeter and band-leader, formerly with the Stan Kenton Orchestra), vocalist Kevin Mahogany, vocalist Nancy King, and the incomparable Louise Rose.

#3 - I am (was) a serious bowler

I'm not so much now (although I intended to return after I lose some weight), but I bowled my entire childhood (up until I was 19 or so). And I don't mean "well, it's Wednesday night, let's go hang out with some friends and throw gutterballs", I mean "Let's get up very early this weekend and drive across the state for yet another bowling tournament." Not only that, but I drove 45 miles every Saturday in high school in order to bowl in one of the state/region's most outstanding bowling programs, the Wilsonville "R Kids."

I come from a family of serious bowlers. When I stopped bowling at 19, I was _averaging_ around 204. The funny part, is that I was the lowest average in the family. My younger brother still bowls and is currently averaging around 221 in one of his leagues (and has bowled 5 perfect 300 games). I never bowled a perfect game, but my highest was 279 (twice). It can be pretty intimidating coming from a family of such bowlers, but I always found it fun. It was never "not" fun for me. I loved it. And I plan on coming back to it one day.

#4 - I almost didn't graduate high school

My senior year in high school, there was one course that I absolutely HAD to pass: Government (and it was because it was the last semester before graduation (so if I failed, no walking in the graduation ceremony for me)). My problem was that I was more interested in skipping class (it was first period, first class of the day) in order to hang out in the choir room than to go to class.

The sad part for me is how far I took that non-interest. First of all, I learned to forge my choir director's signature in order to forge my own excuse notes (sorry Mr. Libonati!). But when the teacher caught on to that after chatting with the choir director, I had to find a new stream to drink my wonderful skipping-class-Kool-Aid from. At the time I was living with my mom, so I decided to forge my Dad's signature. That got me out of a BUNCH of other classes. Unfortunately, my teacher was QUITE PISSED with me at this time (something about me "having potential", I think he said).

So now he told me that I had to bring in a parent to have a conference with. I didn't want to upset my Mom, so I decided to ask my Dad to come in (forgetting that I had forged my Dad's signature on all those notes). My Dad came in, and the FIRST thing out of the teacher's mouth was "Does your son plan on going to college?" When my Dad informed him that I was going to college, the teacher said (and I'm not lying): "Well, if he does go to college, I can tell you with absolute certainty that he will do fine in music and flunk out of every single other class." OH BOY! My Dad was LIVID. I don't think I've ever seen him that mad before. To this day, my Dad swears how much he wanted to just stand up and smack that teacher across the face hard enough to knock his head off (which probably wouldn't have been a good move since I believe people look down on city councilmen for going around knocking people's heads off).

Then came a horrifying transition. He was taking my Dad to the attendance office to verify that every single one of the notes that he signed for me was _actually_ his signature. And if any of them weren't and happened to fall on the day of a test, an instant 0 for me (meaning I would fail the class and not graduate). Busted! Then when my Dad was going through the notes, he started verifying that all of them were his signature. At the time, I thought I had triumphed and that I was SOOO good at forging my Dad's signature that he didn't recognize my forgeries. In hindsight though, I'm pretty sure my Dad was smart enough to know that I wasn't living with him at the time and that he hadn't written a note for school for me since I was a kid. OH MAN! The teacher was PISSED. I could tell he wanted to just shout out how much my Dad was obviously lying.

I still wasn't out of the woods though.

The next week, I was called into the Vice Principal's office. When I entered the office, my mom was sitting right there. Uh oh, and she was crying. She had somehow heard of this incident (probably from my dad even though they were divorced) and went down to the school MAJORLY upset that she wasn't made aware of the situation. When I sat down, she look straight at the Vice Principal and demanded why she wasn't notified that I was "in danger" of not graduating. You see, every year, the school made a list of Seniors were "in danger" of not graduating, and my name had been on that list all second term.

Well, if my name was on the list all second term, why were my parents notified? At the time, it seemed like all the staff in the school knew me from my music abilities and had high regard for me. The reason my mom wasn't notified? Because the people doing the notifications thought for sure it was a typo that I was on the list. LOL. Well, I guess maybe there's nothing to laugh at. That day was still the worst day of my entire high school career. The reason? Because I knew then that I had caused my mom so much pain and sorry that day (cheesy, but true).

The thoughtful part? In the end, I have GREAT respect for that teacher. I believe it was exactly him doing what he did that helped me be successful while I was in college (I was on the Presidential Honor Roll and everything (shocking, I know!)). I even went back two years later and thanked him and showed him my report card with a 3.9 GPA and Presidential Honor Roll. To this day, I'm ever grateful for what he did for me and my career. Even with that, I did certainly get some scary and funny memories from it though.

#5 - I can solve a Rubik's Cube (or, I used to be able to solve a Rubik's Cube)

Okay, I had to throw one "non-serious", quirky one in there. When rooming with Marc Litchfield in college (a close friend to this day), I picked up his habit of solving Rubik's Cubes. At one time, my fastest time was 42 seconds. I went through five Cubes that I had worn out because of constantly solving them (it turned into a very relaxing hobby). I stopped for several years though and don't remember all the moves anymore. I can still solve two of the three layers, but solving the last layer has finally eluded my muscle memory.

After seeing Keith Brown's ability with a Yo-Yo on a recent training trip with Keith, I figured it was about time to relearn though. So now I'm re-training myself to solve a Rubik's Cube (the 3x3 variety (although I have the 4x4 variety that I would like to learn to solve eventually as well (and perhaps move on to the 5x5 as well)). This time though, I'm learning an entirely new algorithm that is more efficient, so hopefully I should be able to beat my best time of 42 seconds. Although I think it will take a good amount of time for me to get back to that proficiency level.

Now it's my turn with the laser

I suppose now it's my turn to tag five other people. Unfortunately, a good number of my friends have been tagged already so I will have to make do. Here's my five (YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED):

Andy Dunn, Chris Williams, Benjamin Nitschke, Jonathan Sampson (representin' the Channel 9 Peeps, yo!), and Volker Will.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Spider-Man 60% Robin 43% Catwoman 40% Iron Man 40% Batman 35% Green Lantern 35% Hulk 30% Supergirl 28% The Flash 20% Wonder Woman 18%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 47% Apocalypse 40% Mr. Freeze 40% Green Goblin 40% Magneto 39% Lex Luthor 39% The Joker 37% Kingpin 32% Riddler 26% Juggernaut 20% Catwoman 19% Venom 18% Dark Phoenix 17% Mystique 16% Two-Face 16% Poison Ivy 3%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

It's interesting to see how different the culture is in certain ways here in Amsterdam. For instance, the difference that everyone talks about: marijuana. There were several times where I was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for someone and I smelt an overwhelming smell of smoke, and NOT cigarette smoke. Not only that, but you find Bongs, Hookahs (sp?), and various other drug parafenalia at the local corner store.

The impression I get though is that Europeans (at least those here in Holland (the small sample that I hung around with)) tend to have a great sense of culture. There is definitely a sense of community and history that you get over here (that I haven't gotten in the States).

I know this is going to be a gross generalization, but it always feels like in the States you are surrounded by people driving their SUVs to work without a care about anyone around them, working all day, and then heading home and not investing back into the community in any way. I know I'm certainly guilty of this type of life myself. But why? Why am I a hermit? That's something I want to think more about while I'm away on this trip.

One other thing, the public transit system here ROCKS. Other than the charter bus I took to the venue a couple of days, I took the train everywhere I went. And it never failed, I was always within three stops on a single train when I did go there. And it's so efficient. Everytime I tried to catch was either on time, or one to two minutes early. I can't imagine this is the way it always is, but it certainly was when I tried to take the train.

Seeing how much traffic sucked when I did take the charter bus here, it's no wonder why bikes and public transit are so popular here. And with how many people I saw riding their bikes or walking, it's no wonder why there were so many people that were not obese.

What a great country. It's so great to get a different perspective on life every once in a while.

Next up: Singapore.

Well, my trip to Amsterdam is almost over. I was here in Amsterdam to do some training of trainers for an upcoming Longhorn Server event that we (DPE @ Microsoft) will be launching world-wide in the coming months.

I knew there were going to be some "big" types of names here, but I don't think I fully understood what that meant :P. There were several MS Regional Directors at the events, countless MS MVPs, and other highly-respected trainers from all over the globe (about 32 people in total). I'm also proud to say that I finally get to meet Christian Weyer in person (and have a beer (or two (or three (or four))) with him). What a fun gun. And he's just as smart as he seems online. It was a blast chatting about TxF with him on several occasions.

Considering it was the first "major event" I talked at, I thought it went decently well. I tag-teamed with Keith Brown from Pluralsight (another pleasure, that's for sure). I gave four talks in total: High Performance Computing and Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows Virtualization Roadmap (including Windows Server Virtualization), Transactional NTFS (my favorite, but I'm a little biased), and Terminal Services in Longhorn Server.

I definitely don't know enough about HPC. While I was able to answer some questions, I have a very high-level knowledge of HPC so I wasn't able to answer most of the in-depth questions. Windows Virtualization Roadmap went well. I just love this stuff. I love talking about Ring Compression and the new Virtualization hardware assists that are coming (and the like). I'm hoping to work up some demos before I present this again in Singapore next week. Perhaps some two demos using PowerShell: one using CmdLets to add new virtual machines into Virtual Server, and the other one about building a PS provider that allows you to browse Virtual Server -> Virtual Machine -> Virtual Properties by "dir" and "cd" and the like :).

The Transactional NTFS talk went well, but that was the talk I was least concerned about. Since I have been living in TxF land for a bit now, I'm comfortable talking about all the issues for it. In the future, I want to make some demos that are more sexy for TxF. I'm also thinking about possibly coming up with a demo scenario I can use to help tell the TxF Story. The funny part is that I realized I'm missing some slides. I realize this because there were several questions that came up from the audience that would have been addressed directly by some of the slides I had removed. Oops :).

Last was the Terminal Services in Longhorn Server talk. Ouch! This talk is nowhere near technical enough, nor developer-oriented enough. It's my own fault though since I "put together" the deck for the Touchdown program. I'm hoping to get a team member back in Redmond to mail the latest LHS build to me in Singapore so I can setup a Virtual Machine in order to write up some demos and show off features like TS-Remote Programs. We'll see how that situation works out.

That's about it. I managed to take some pictures while I was here, so I will try to put them up when I get back to Seattle (or if I can find time while I'm in Singapore).

Yesterday we saw our first snowfall of the year (at least, sticking-to-the-ground-wise) in the Redmond/Kirkland, WA area. While the Microsoft campus was technically "open" today, all major services (read: shuttles, reception, cafeterias, etc.) were all closed. So, in that sense, I consider the campus "closed" in practice. Since the roads are an absolute mess, I decided staying home today was the best option.

I went out for some food last night and learned my lesson. While I did get home safely, it took about 1.5 hours to get 16 city blocks. Not fun, in the least.

This was also Jasmine's (our doggy) first measurable snow fall as well (at least enough to play in). And now, the jury is in: Jasmine Loves Snow. I decided I wasn't going to let this moment slip past me, so I whipped out the camera (which reminded me, I really need to get a _good_ digital camera).

Here's the view from our back porch this morning (it was a couple inches deep in places):


Jasmine playing in the snow:


And, the aftermath of Jasmine playing in the snow (what a cute puppy!!!!):


This time of year is definitely a beautiful one :).

When setting up a virtual machine for some internal development today, I came to a sore realization:

The only thing in this universe that takes longer than installing Visual Studio 2005, is uninstalling Visual Studio 2005.

Sigh...

As became known to many of us recently, Rory is feeling a bit disenfranchised to the whole blogging scene. In truly ironic fashion of his post, I've made this comic for him, to cheer him up and stuff.

Rory, I might not be half as funny as you are, and I might not be that good of a writer, but I'll be damned if I won't at least give it a go.

Stay in there bud!

NBC Universal launched their own pseudo-YouTube competitor, called DotComedy. Here's a video from DotComedy that is wrong for so many reasons: Mark Foley, Holy Moly. I can't believe I just watched that.

Other videos:

• Double Dragon, 18 years later
• Monkey See, Monkey Mack

I guess I truly can't deny that I was able to create another human being now :). My wife and I just got back from our 12th week appointment with the mid-wife. Everything's a-okay. Rebecca is perfectly healthy and doing well. The bonus? Today we got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!!! Man, I'm totally on Cloud 9 right now. I can't believe I just heard our baby's heartbeat.

There's like a little human being in there living and growing :). The miracle of life is, well, miraculous. Okay, that's pretty cheesy. I admit I'm no elegant linguist like Rory, but still, I'm going to share my excitement in my own kind of way :).

So, after today, I'm one step closer to my goal:

Step 1. Get wife pregnant

Step 2. Hear baby's heartbeat

....

....

....

Step 125. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!!!

Well, I have some exciting news to share with everyone who reads this (all three of you (Hi Mom!)). I've been about ready to burst, but my wife and I wanted to wait until we were a ways into "the project."

So, about eight weeks ago or so, we found out my wife is pregnant (FINALLY!). She is almost 11 weeks in. In fact, the next time we get together with the midwife this coming Thursday, we may even be able to hear the baby's heartbeat!!! Of course, with how long we've been trying (three-four years now?), it still seems too good to be true.

While I'm looking forward to the next 6-7 months, I'm DYING to hold our baby in my arms :D. Oh boy, my life is going to change in ways I can't even imagine, and I am friggen' ecstatic about it!

You know, when I read George's opinion last week, I was still skeptical. But I figured that I would tune in and watch it tonight. Oh... My... Goodness!!!! George was right, this show kicks total buttay. I just can't get enough of it. After an hour, I was pissed that it was over and I have to wait another week (ANOTHER WEEK!) to see the next one.

please, Please, PLEASE let the network not cancel this show. This is one of the best TV shows I've seen in a while (although now I don't know whether I like this or Eureka better). Man, between Eureka and Heroes, I'm in TV heaven right now.

Why Shaun, Why?!?!? Why did you have to be on the cover of Madden this year? Yes folks, the Madden Curse strikes again. The Madden Curse has been going strong since 2001, and it appears the trend has continued.

Tonight, it was accounced that Shaun Alexander would be out "indefinitely" with a broken foot. What a surprise. I suppose those of us that knew about the Madden Curse knew that it was a matter of "when", not "if." Damn. It's a good thing the Seahawks have a good backup running back like Maurice Morris (former UofO stand-out).

Oy!

Yay, I can finally talk about this. For those of you that haven't heard yet, the incomparable Rory Blyth, the smartest man, is joining the C9 team.

Rory is going to make a GREAT addition to the C9 team and I expect to see some great stuff coming from him in the future. Of course, I'm also psyched because it means that he will most likely be working just one or two hallways away from me :).

Congrats Rory!

It's moments like these that make me proud to be a Microsoft employee. Here's an excerpt:

Students have scheduled appointments with teachers, typed into their online calendars, instead of being limited to structured times for classes. Their laptops carry software that assesses how quickly they're learning the lesson. If they get it, they'll dive deeper into the subject. If not, they get remedial help.

Lessons will have more incorporation of current events to teach subjects. For instance, a question of whether Philadelphia is safe from the avian flu will teach students about geography, science and history.

"Learning is not just going to school," said Shirley Grover, the school's energetic principal who came from the American School in Milan, Italy. "Learning is equal to life."

If this proves to be viable and we find it happening elsewhere, it just may be a way to save our public education system. Perhaps if this trend continues, I'll revisit the decision to home-school my kids (no I don't have any yet, but my wife and I are hoping to :D) and send them to public school instead.

Way to go Microsoft (and BillG) for stepping up and trying to make this country better. Everybody knows that MS has performed some "questionable acts" in the past, so it's nice to see the company start "walking the walk" when it comes to changing the world for the better.

My hope is that this news sparks a competitive attitude from Apple. With how much Apple has dominated the education system as the vendor of choice, I hope they try their own "school of the future" project. This kind of competition would be a win-win for everyone. Imagine, two of the largest OS companies in the world competing to see who can make the best school? How cool would that be?!?

After my post the other day linking out to a post about authoring file systems on Linux with Mono, I decided that I wanted to try it out myself. So, I went and grabbed the latest Ubuntu, and sojourned out to install it under Virtual PC 2004.

I remember trying to do this 6-12 months ago and having it fail _miserably_ for me (or most of the Linux distros for that matter) when trying to install under Virtual PC 2004. Eventually, I just gave up. Now that I have a little more knowledge on Linux and virtual machines using Virtual PC/Virtual Server, I decided to try again. Luckily, I'm now up and running with Ubuntu in a virtual machine. It wasn't without its hardships though.

Since I don't really use my virtual machines for multimedia purposes, I haven't bothered looking into whether the sound is working properly or not. Besides, my largest problem was with the graphics display. And if I can't even see what the hell I'm doing, how am I suppose to figure out if the sound is working :). Basically, when booting up Ubuntu, the graphics would freak out, go into a total whacko resolution, and there was no usage-o going on-o. This was easily fixable though. First, on the boot menu, I chose a display of 1024x768. Second of all, I forced it to boot with the vesa driver. You can either use the "boot with safe graphics" option or simply add "xforcevesa" as a boot option to the regular boot (which I ended up doing even though that might be the only difference between the two options. After doing that, my graphics were fine and I was living happily in Ubuntu land (as an aside: now I see why people are so excited about Ubuntu; it comes a _long way_ in bridging the "usability gap" between Windows/MacOS and Linux for the "typical" computer end-user (not the geek, mind you)).

Of course, after all this, I found this article on the Ubuntu site describing how to install it under Virtual PC 2004. How in the world could I have missed that article six months ago? I'm hoping it's just because the article is new and not because I'm a total tool.

So, to make a long story short, if you're wanting to try out Ubuntu under Virtual PC 2004 (and why wouldn't you considering everything you need is free :D), make sure to check out the guide from Ubuntu. It will save you time and heartache if you're not a Linux guy.

Well, as part of relocating to Redmond, WA to work at Microsoft, my wife and I are selling our house in Battle Ground, WA (if the link is dead, you're probably reading this after it's been sold). I'm going to miss that house. It is a very cute house and it was absolutely wonderful to my wife and I.

It's within driving range of downtown Portland, OR (I used to drive to work everyday from there). It's just over 2100 sqft, 4 bedroom, two and a half baths, and in a very cute neighborhood with a park and tennis courts.

So, if you are looking for a house around the Portland, OR area (or know someone who is), feel free to check out our goods. 

Have I said yet that I'm really going to miss that house?

If you haven't already, you must go checkout InfoCenter (being developed by a coworker of mine). I want it, I want it bad. A new toy to play with. Gimme gimme gimme :). 

I now officially HATE Sea Fair / Fleet Week or whatever the hell it is called up here. Don't get me wrong, the Blue Angels are pretty cool. But, the traffic SUCKS. And NOONE, no official city organization or anything is doing ANYTHING about helping it out. It's like seeing Survival of the Fittest, only with cars. I'm pretty sure I saw 11 misdemeanors committed while I was on the freeway, and that's just the vehicles, not even counting the crimes committed by the humans inside. That's right, it was SO bad, the CARS were committing crimes to get around.

Of course, some might argue that it is my own damn fault for trying to sift through traffic. You see, I mistakenly forgot it was Big-Scary-Underwater-Squid-Monster-Celebrating-Wicked-Fast-UFOs-Or-Whatever-The-Hell-Else-Fair this weekend. But, alas, my wife and I need to return the rental car we used while relocating today. On our way back, it took us TWO HOURS to drive a SINGLE MILE on the freeway. No lie, no exaggeration (I have witnesses to prove it). You don't quite understand. Even with my so-called "weight problem," I could have traveled that mile faster doing The Worm for goodness sakes. I don't even want to do the math to calculate what amount of measly feet per second we were traveling because I know it'll just cause me to go (as Rory so eloquently puts it) "Bat-Shit Crazy."

The worst part is that these kind of conditions brings out the worst in people. You know, those people that think it's fine to drive the 3/4 mile on the shoulder and then get pissed at us (the ones that have been sitting patiently in this crap condition) when we don't let them over. Well, I'm sorry misses Important-BMW-Business-Woman-Talking-On-Your-Cell-Phone that you're running late to get your manicure. Hell, I don't care if you're going to get the crap beaten out of you by your pimp because you're running late dropping off the money from your tricks, you can wait in line like the rest of us.

It amazes me how people change once they get into a car. You won't cut in line like that while you're waiting to order your Double Cheeseburger and Large Fry, but hell, you and your Beamer are so much more important than everyone else that we should be the parting waters for you like you're friggen' Moses parting the Red Sea. Well, excuse me, I don't mean to insult you, but YOU'RE NOT MOSES, DUMBASS. Get back in line, and take it like a man/woman/thing. You don't see the rest of us getting bent our of shape because we have a metaphorical banana up our metaphorical tail pipe, so chill out. (Ironic, I know, since this post itself could be constrained as being all bent out of shape myself. Well, I'll tell you a secret: I'm not exactly in the kind of mood to care about irony.)

It is moments like today that I realize Darwin was a dumbass. "Survival of the Fittest", ha, that's a joke. If that were true, these people would have blown out their brains with an empty shotgun long ago. What pisses me off more is that people like this are MULTIPLYING. It almost makes me want to run for president and prevent dumb people from procreating. I know that's not very nice, but I'm a little pissy right now, and I don't particularly care. Why this Dumbass DNA is still in our Genetic Ecosystem is beyond me.

On the other hand, days like today make me think that people like Trisha are perhaps the most enlightened of us all. Sooner or later, I'm sure I'll get super pissed and just sell off my car and take the bus everywhere. At least then, if I'm stuck in traffic for two hours like today, I can be doing something productive like reading, writing, or arithmetic, or saving the human race for all I know.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some H2's to go flip off.

Is anyone else watching this show on SciFi? Unfortunately, I missed the two-hour pilot. I have caught all shows since then. You know what? I'm addicted. One of the things I have always loved about SciFi is when it deals with Technology. This is why I was such a big fan of the Star Trek: TNG (heck, although I hate to admit it, I was also a closet-fan of Star Trek: Voyager). To me, Eureka captures this same "feel" that I got from TNG. The geek in me weeps with envy over the elaborate use of Technology. However, the story lines and characters aren't too cheesy either.

All I know is that after the cancellation of a show like Firefly (how can people NOT like that show for goodness sakes?!?!?), Eureka BETTER NOT get canceled or I will be forever disappointed with the American, TV-watching public (after all, how is Survivor still around yet a show like The Mole gets canceled?).

If you want to get a hint of the flavor of Eureka, check out this website put together by SciFi (it's classic Eureka): http://www.scifi.com/eureka/madeineureka/.

[The usual disclaimer about my opinions not reflecting the opinions of my employer apply here]

At times, this was a very frustrating weekend. The biggest contributor to that frustration was a set of directions I got. You see, I was traveling from the Seattle area to Walla Walla, WA (think Northwest Washington to Southeast Washington). I needed to get some directions on how to get there and I figured it was as good of a time as any to start dogfooding Microsoft technologies now that I'm working here.

In the past, everytime I've needed directions, I've used MapQuest. I'm a long-time MapQuest user. Recently, I've started using Google Maps instead and have loved it. For those dissenters out there, I should make it clear that as a Microsoft employee, I am not required to use Microsoft products. Heck, to tell you the truth, I simply want to dogfood our products out of company pride. So, I decided to start with my weekend trip and went to Windows Live Local Beta to get my directions (http://maps.msn.com).

I suppose my first mistake was using a Beta product. But I've used other beta products with no problem. The directions looked good (and believe it or not, they looked better than Google (a 4.25 hour drive according to Windows Live, and a 5.5 hour drive according to Google Maps). Technically, the directions were _sort of_ correct. Practically, they were HORRIBLE. Oh my goodness, I think we need to give some people dictionaries.

One direction said "Stay RIGHT on local roads". When I see that, I immediately think "okay, I'll still in the right hand lane because there are probably exits and turns in the left lane". Nope, that was far from the truth. What did they actually mean? "Take a 90 degree right turn onto a different highway as soon as humanly possible". Oh, and I don't understand how they can say "on local roads" as these were highways in the MIDDLE OF FRIGGEN NOWHERE in central Washington. They might as well have told me "Look for the four-leaf clover and pot of lucky charms. When you see them, you should be right next to a leprechaun. Turn right at the leprechaun and drive through the rainbow bridge." Oy!!!

Later down the road (oh, 60 miles or so), the directions said "Take the I-182 exit". Problem is that they didn't say _which_ I-182 exit. At the first exit sign, there is no visible indication that there is another I-182 sign down the road. Combine that with the fact that the exit sign itself doesn't specify East or West for the exit, and I was sufficiently on my way to a much longer drive that I thought I was in for. So, I take the exit still thinking that I'm heading the right direction. The next direction was "After Exit 14, I-182 will become US-12". Okay, that's an easy one. After all, I'm on the right road. After Exit 5, the Interstate comes to a complete stop and there are only two directions to go, left or right. This meant that there was absolutely NO way I was every going to reach Exit 14 because it DOESN'T EXIST!!!

The frustrating part to me is that if I was a "normal" end-user, I'm pretty sure there would be no way in heck I would ever use that product again. Sadly, when I was getting ready to come home, I went back to MapQuest. You know what? The directions were wonderful and I got home in great time. Boy, both Microsoft and Google still have a long way to go to catch up to MapQuest in my mind.

I can't think of a better way to express my first two days at Microsoft than "drinking from the fire hose". There is a lot of information for a new employee to take in. The good thing is that they (read: Microsoft) know this and have an entire team dedicated to the "On-Boarding" experience of new employees.

Was Microsoft "People-Ready" like I was wondering? As a new employee, I feel they definitely are. Of all the companies I have worked for, Microsoft is the company is by far the most prepared for new employees that I have seen. Of course, with how many employees they hire (just over 12k last fiscal year world wide, I believe), it is hardly surprising they are so prepared. From what I understand, it hasn't always been that way. Frankly, I'm just glad they're more prepared now :).

I was really thinking of making a more detailed blog post about New Employee Orientation and my On-Boarding experience so far at Microsoft but I am simply emotionally drained right now. I'm definitely looking forward to a good night's sleep so I can really dive into the deep end tomorrow. I guess I'm one of those people who like to simply dive right in. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to tomorrow: it is the first "full day" at Microsoft without New Employee Orientation.

One thing I will share with all of you? No lie, every time I swipe my Microsoft badge at a door and hear the ding when the light goes "green", I smile :). I guess it's just starting to "sink in" that I'm now working for Microsoft.

In the past I've had definite self-confidence issues. Heck, I still have self-confidence issues that I privately fight with. Recently, I came across something that touched a bit close to home and really resonated with me. Funny enough, I actually came across this when watching the movie "Akeelah And The Bee" with my wife (which I found to be a surprisingly cute movie (despite what "movie critics" might have said (I'll save that rant for another time))).

While interviewing at Microsoft, I found myself repeating sections of this to myself over and over. It has definitely helped me along when I start to fight self-confidence issues. I'd imagine there are others out there that fight with the same kind of mental issues. For those of you who do, I would like to share this passage by Nelson Mandela and Marriane Williamson:

What We Fear the Most

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure,

It is our light not darkness that most frightens us,

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear; Our presence automatically liberates others.

by Nelson Mandela and Marriane Williamson

I'm proud to announce that I have received my sticker from Jeff in the mail :). The update? My laptop is now fully pimp-ified. Behold my laptop in all its newfound glory:

When looking back on the last two weeks, I'm still in disbelief that the process of getting a job at Microsoft passed so quickly. I believe the amount of time that expired from being contacted by the recruiter (Hello Steph :D) to getting an offer was less than two weeks. For me, this is all the more impressive with how big of a company Microsoft is.

I almost don't want to be making this post as I'm still going through the process of Microsoft performing a background check. I keep having this nagging feeling that I'll get an email from Microsoft saying "We're sorry, we meant to extend the offer to Jason Golson, not Jason Olson, sorry for the confusion" or something crazy like that. Granted, I'm hopeful that the chances of this happening are nil but it still seems almost too good to be true. In some ways, I can't believe this is happening to me. In other ways, I'm very excited as I think I'll make a great Technical Evangelist.

So, how was this whole experience with Microsoft? So far, it has been rather painless and quite fun actually (and I, for one, hope this trend continues). I suppose that this time around (I had interviewed with Microsoft before my current job), I knew what to expect so I was not taken by surprise by anything. Once I got over the "performance jitters" before the first interview (actually, _during_ the first interview I suppose), it was quite easy to be myself and to just enjoy all the conversations that I had the pleasure of having that day.

I would like to take this opportunity though to talk about what it was like being recruited by Microsoft (if you would like Microsoft Interview advice, just search on "Microsoft Interview" on the search engine of your choice (dare I admit that mine has been Google?!?) and you will find a plethora of information out there).

Two weeks ago or so (at the time of this writing at least), I was contacted by Steph Coleman at Microsoft asking if I was interested in interviewing for a Technical Evangelist position that was open at the company. Being a person who has started to prefer to take advantage of the opportunities I get, I was (of course) interested in interviewing for the position (I mean, come on! It's a Technical Evangelist position :D).

You see, I was not actively looking for another job. I was happy at Fios, Inc. I was what some recruiters would call a "passive candidate/lead" (check out these two posts from Gretchen back from 2004 on the "JobsBlog"). Interestingly enough, in one of those posts, Gretchen says "Recruiting the passive candidate is where we prove our worth and doing it well is what separates the great recruiters from the pack.". If that is the case, I happen to think Steph is a great recruiter. All in all, she is making this entire process quite painless for me and my wife.

When contacted by Steph, I loved the idea that there was a chance for me to get a Technical Evangelist position. Needless to say, there was no way I was going to pass up that opportunity. So then the interview loop started. It was what you would expect: phone screening with the Recruiter, technical screening with another person (this time, the Director), in-person interviews, status report afterward. Sometimes people don't make it through some of these steps. To those people, I say "stick in there, hopefully you'll get your dream position some day."

Like I mentioned before, I was pleasantly surprised how quick this whole process moved. I believe it was Wednesday that I had talked with Steph. The next day I discussed the position with Neil Hutson (the Director). On Friday (the day after that), Steph was able to put together a trip for me up to Redmond (with only two business days of warning). The following Wednesday I flew up, met with Steph, discussed what to expect, and the day started. In total (including Steph), I believe I interviewed/chatted/discussed with seven different people. My original schedule only had five scheduled, so I felt better that two extra were scheduled (my first time (for an SDET position), I only made it through four). Two days later (less than two weeks since the first email from Steph) I was extended an offer for the position.

As I've already used the word many times before, the single word that best describes my whole experience is "painless." We'll see if that is still the case after having to sell my house and relocate up to Redmond. Man, even if it isn't, once it is over, I'm so excited that I'll be working on campus (yup, relocation is NO problem for me).

After reflecting on my entire Microsoft experience this time around, I believe I could sum it up with one key piece of advice for any candidates out there: Be Yourself! You have to remember that you're interviewing with very smart people. If you don't know something, trust me, they'll find that out pretty quickly. Don't even kid yourself that you'll be able to B.S. your way through anything. Be willing to admit "I don't know" because sometimes they only want to see if you have the aptitude to _learn_. After all, anyone can memorize useless facts from a book. The key? Do you really _understand_ what you are learning. If you don't know something before your screening with the Recruiter/Hiring Manager, there is probably no way you are going to be able to do the "mid-term cram" act and pass yourself off as having deep knowledge of that subject. With all that said, Be Yourself! They want to know You! In the long run, you'll be harming yourself if you manage to get a job by not being yourself as the real you may not actually be interested in that job.

If I get the time to do so, you may hear more from me on my continuing adventures on getting hired by Microsoft. Until then, my friend, that's how the cookie crumbles!

On a side note, one of the questions I found interesting in my first screening (albeit applicable to the job in question), was that I was asked whether I had a blog or not. Sometimes I'm amazed at how far blogging has come. Now Microsoft is even asking the question in screenings for Evangelist positions? Cool. But that's neither here nor there.

I can now finally blog the big news that I've been _dying_ to share with everyone. I'm proud to announce that I will soon officially become a Microsoft employee. I have accepted an offer to be a Technical Evangelist on the Developer and Platform Evangelism Team working with Longhorn Server. That's right, baby! Technical Evangelist!!! I'm really looking forward to the challenge, the never-stop-learning experience, and everything else about the position.

I feel so lucky that I will be getting the opportunity to work with amazingly smart people such as (in no special order): Vitorrio Bertocci, Volker Will, James Conard, Matthew Winkler, and Neil Hutson (the ones I met during my interview loop).

I would like to send out a thank you to Steve Cellini for giving me my final interview and providing me with some more insight into what the purpose of Evangelism is.

I also would be remiss to not send a "shout out" to Steph Coleman, the recruiter who recruited me in the first place, and without whom this would not be happening to me at this time :). I will be creating a new post detailing my recruiting experience and how the whole process went (so stay tuned).

So, thank all of you for the opportunity and I look forward to working with all of you!