A Year.

It's been a year since I moved to PA, a year since I started working for Uncle Bill, a year since I entered the real world.

And what a year it's been.

Now, I obviously have a problem with consistently updating anything (ie: this blog,
my work blog, my myspace, etc.), but I'm not going to make any heartfelt pledges to change. That being said, I was going to condense a year of my life into this post. But what can I write about a year that has been slow and fast, hard and easy, horrible and wonderful? I've felt the pain of loneliness, the joy of true friendships, the confusion and frustration of a crazy job, the satisfaction of a job well done, the cold of winter, guy drama, girl drama, the freedom of financial independence, the homesickness for Guam, and so much more, but most of all: the true grace and providence of God. He's put me in this place, with these people, to have these experiences. All of which have changed me, grown me, brought me closer to Him and increased my dependence on Christ, His word and His community.

I'm curious, excited, scared about what this next year will bring. But at least I know who's bringing it.

Side note: 28 days til Guam!

long time no post

Hey, yeah, so I haven't posted in a while. Life got the best of me.

Lots has happened. And by that, I mean nothing has. I've gotten pretty settled in here, which is good. I have friends - it's awesome. And that's about it.

I think I'm getting better at my job, or at least understanding its scope and my responsibilities. I'm still overwhelmed with all I *need* to do and the crazy amount of travel - but it'll improve with time.

I really really really need to clean my apartment. Like, really.

Another Year...

24. How the heck did I get to be 24? Where did the last 5 years go? Goodbye early 20s, hello mid-20s. MID-20s! Holy aging process, Batman!

Ok, now that I've calmed down.

Well, I'm in Kentucky at the moment. Who knew it was right next to Cincinnati? I didn't. Yay. So, to celebrate, I'm going to White Castle for dinner. I've only ever had their frozen microwaveable burgers that they used to sell at Cost-U-Less (Guam's version of Costco).

Happy Birthday to me.

The Big Time

I made it:

http://www.msdnevents.com/Speakers/default.aspx?ID=39#s

USC Football

I just saw Dr. Drew's erectile dysfunction commercial that was filmed at the LA Colliseum, man I'm gonna miss going to home games. Stupid commercial.

At home...

A week at home, ah, feels good. I get to sleep in my own bed, wander around my empty apartment. Walk everywhere because I don't have a car (though I'm currently bidding on this one). Mostly, I've just been working on the content that we're presenting in a couple of weeks. It's not easy stuff.

I had a weird experience last Saturday. I was taking a private car home from the airport (because I got stuck in fricken Dallas for an extra night), and my driver asked me what I did for a living. I told him that I was a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft and turns out he was an out-of-work developer. He should have been an extra on the Sopranos: slicked back hair, a belly produced evidently by too many pizza pies, a thick New Yohk accent, gold chain, thick and heavily jeweled fingers. And here he was talking about Visual Basic 6 - "They shoulda nevah switched to that .NET baloney, pissed me off, I tell ya." And how he was so passionate about robotics - "If a robot works in a warehouse, he should look like he does. Wear a flannel shirt, overalls, workboots - not like a f***en forklift." All in all a nice guy. So, I invited him to my Philly event in a couple of weeks. I hope he shows up.

Crazy work.

I'm not going to apologize for the lack of posts. If I kept doing that, every post would begin with: "Sorry...blah blah blah...I promise...blah blah blah." But know that I'm thinking it.

Work is great great great. Each day the feasibility that I will succeed in this job increases and I can feel my fear ebbing away. My coworkers, manager, even the people who attend the events, want to see me succeed. Which is awesome. I just passed my month anniversary. I celebrated by writing a limerick alone in my hotel room in Norfolk, Virginia:

It's been a month since I started to work
And nobody thinks I'm a jerk.
I've stopped using Google**,
I'm no longer as frugal,
Too much travel may drive me berserk.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

**except that Google owns Blogspot.

Also, I did my first webcast, which you can find here. Unfortunately, you need an MSN Passport to see it. Count the "ums," I dare you. I was a bumbling idiot, but I didn't expect not to be. I can only get better.

About that travel, since I started on February 15th, I've been to:

Dallas, TX
Charlottesville, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Allentown, PA
Richmond, VA
Norfolk, VA

And I drove most of the time, so that doesn't include the places I drove through: Washington DC, Baltimore, MD, etc. Next week I'm going to Boston, the week after to New Jersey, the week after THAT back to Dallas. And Ohio right after that. Crazy. It's all good, though, I like it.

Oh, I started a work blog, though nothing's up there: http://blogs.msdn.com/lindsay.

Peace out, yo.

Philadelphia it is.

That's my decision and I'm sticking to it. I think. I drove through Washington, DC and Baltimore...but they didn't strike me as that great. The area where Shelly is from is really close to a Microsoft district office, and it's a beautiful area. Lots of rivers, woods and nice people. And it's not too expensive. I'm thinking of living here. What do you think?

My first 3 days at work were great, everyone at the "home" office was wonderfully nice. There's a lot of information to process, but I'll be ok, just gotta get cracking. The frustrating part of starting a new job is all the paperwork and systems set up. I can't access a lot of internal sites, yet, but at least my email is working. Ooh, and I just bought a new smartphone for "work." I thought I'd never be a fancy phone person, but I got it cheap, so I did. Uh-oh, am I selling out? I think that's the first sign. Oh wait, I've already sold out, I work for Microsoft.