personal

I just came across this job opening. I'd like to think I'm uniquely suited for the position.


Unfortunately, I don't live in the US or Canada, and I'm quite happy with my current job at Google. Oh well.

I did eventually get a response from Gohop - my apologies for not posting it sooner. Here's the response:


Not entirely to my satisfaction, since they haven't promised to do anything, really - just offered an apology.

Edit: Also worth noting is that she claims that "the system in this case booked the next available alternatives, seating you apart", which contradicts what the arline told us - that our tickets weren't group-coded in the first place, so 'the system' didn't know it should be trying to seat us together at all.

Just a quick update: Yes, I did get back from Switzerland (with a new passport), eventually.

I also went back to NZ, got married to my (now) wife Hayley, and had a wonderful honeymoon. After a horrid flight back (about which more later), we're now back in Ireland and ready to go back to work.

Photos of the wedding will be forthcoming in a week or two for anyone who cares.

(Though of all the places to be stuck, this isn't a bad one)

I've been on holiday in Switzerland with my SO for the past few days, staying with a friend. Just after christmas, however, we took the train up to Zermatt to spend the night and see the matterhorn. However, on the train from Losanne to Visp, my bag was stolen. The bag containing my Passport and my Work Permit, not to mention my work laptop, the new watch I bought just the day before, and a bunch of other things.

To top it off, it looks like we're not covered by travel insurance (I thought we were).

And now I can't leave until I get a new passport issued and mailed to me. Fortunately, this only takes 3 days (plus postage) if I pay for expedited processing, but the passport office doesn't open until the 3rd.

Also on the plus side, I got some nice photos of the fantastic fireworks show in Zurich for new year, which I hope to post soon, and I'm able to work out of our Zurich office while I wait for my passport.

Yesterday morning, someone from the relocation company came by to pick me up and take me on a bit of a tour of Dublin, with an emphasis on the sort of neighbourhoods I might like to live in. There's a fairly wide variety of housing available here in Dublin, though if you want a garden you're more or less out of luck unless you're particularly wealthy.

One particular place that impressed me, however, were the apartments at the Gasworks - the same facility the Google offices are on. There's a lot of apartment buildings there, all fairly nice, but the really impressive one is the old Gasometer. Basically, they took a gasometer, demolished everything but the frame, then built an apartment building inside it. It's pretty big:


What's really impressive, though, is what they've done inside. The building is shaped like a torus, with a large open area in the middle. They've planted a large tree in the center, and the end effect is that you have almost a sanctuary-type environment inside. My pictures really don't do it justice, especially with the overcast weather we're having, but here they are anyway:





None of the apartments are inhabited yet - I presume there's some finishing work yet to be done. I really hope they're renting them about the time we need one - it looks like it'd be a really cool place to live.

I just finished my first week at Google Dublin. It's been a blast.

The first couple of days of general induction are a bit slow, but once you meet your team, stuff really speeds up. The sheer amount of information I've been exposed to and had to learn this week is astounding.

I'm really looking forward to next week, not to mention going down to Mountain View for more training.

So, first a quick update on everything I've been leaving out on this blog: Waaaay back in February, I was offered a (phone) job interview with Google. Things proceeded well, and a while ago, I was made an offer of a job as a Site Reliability Engineer in Dublin, which I accepted. I resigned from my position in NZ, sorted out stuff for moving, and hopped on a plane.

I'm writing this entry from a Dublin internet cafe. I arrived here in Ireland mere hours ago, and I'm still exhausted and jetlagged, but I have to do something with the time until I can let myself try and sleep. Hence the sudden update.

First, for those wondering, Hayley, the love if my life, is, alas, still back in NZ for the moment. At the moment it looks like she'll be joining me up here in about 6 weeks.

When I arrived in Dublin, I was met by someone hired by Google, who drove me to my temporary accommodations provided for me for the next 30 days. Light commentary on the city was provided. Upon reaching my accommodation, I was handed off to someone else, who gave me the Grand Tour of my apartment for the next month. This place is... luxurious. Two double bedrooms, full bathroom (w/ shower and bath), ensuite in master bedroom, leather lounge suite and wide-screen plasma TV, fully equipped, new kitchen, etc. I have no idea how I'm supposed to use all that.

Roughly, my plans for the next few weeks go like this:
Today, Sunday: Try to recover from jetlag, explore a little of dublin. Spend lots of time in Internet cafes, and pine after Hayley. Curse the lack of connectivity that makes all of this a lot harder than it should be. Eat out a lot.
Monday: First day at Google. Get inducted, get my laptop. Begin training. Hopefully, better connectivity ensues now I have a computer again. Attempt to open a bank account, get a cellphone account, and buy a bike, not neccessarially in that order.
Tuesday: More training.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, +3 more weeks: More training. Try and locate more permanent accommodations.

Then, I get shipped down to Mountain View for 4 weeks' training there. Cue pictures of eyes held open with clamps, mass brainwashing, etc. At some point during this period, Hayley flies up to meet me, and we have a joyous reunion the speculative details of which I shall not elaborate on in this family-rated blog.

Then, finally, we both fly back to Dublin, hopefully to our new apartment, and settle in to our new lives here.

Right now, all that seems pretty damn intimidating. I'm sure it's the jetlag and sheer overwhelmingness of it talking at least a little.

PS: This internet cafe rocks. It has Firefox!

Recently, when we changed over to the new, smaller coins, the council went around replacing all the old (digital) meters with new, pay-and-display ones. The old meters had one meter for every 8 or so parks, and you selected the park you were paying for before paying. Inset into the footpath by each parking space, therefore, there was a cobblestone bearing a number from 1 to 8, to identify the parking space.

When they switched over to the new meters, they went along with a sandblaster and blasted off all the numbers, leaving several long series of blank cobblestones inset into the pavement at regular intervals. Walking home one night, Hayley and I got thinking: What could one do with these cobblestones?

Our first thought was to chalk or spray-paint (with a stencil) random squares from board games: "Forward 3 squares", "Roll again", "Park Terrace", "Double Word Score", "Go to Jail", "Triple letter score" and the like, to create some amusement and confusion.

But why not go one step further? Why not invent our own game people could play on the cobblestones? The question now is: what? There are a few criteria any game would have to meet:

• Easy to play. The rules need to be either implicit and easily figured out, or explicit and very short.
  
• Minimal resources. Even requiring people to have a dice is probably too much.
  
• Symmetric. People will be approaching from either end. They should be able to play it starting from either end.
  

The layout of the parks is:

• 14 'serial' parks
  
• 20 parallel parks
  
• 20 serial parks
  
• A cross-street
  
• 12 serial parks
  
• 15 serial parks
  
• 16 serial parks
  

This lends itself to either one rather long game, or perhaps 2 or 6 mini-games. Or, we could just go back to the idea of putting random game squares on them.

So: suggestion time! What crazy things should we do with this?

Incidentally, the new meters are solar powered, and accept payment via credit card and cellphone (presumably via a GPRS modem for recieving instructions and clearing payments). How cool is that?

Hayley showing off her new hair color:

On Sunday, Hayley's flat had a flat meeting. Hayley wanted to move out of her flat (and into our apartment full-time), and the upshot is: no problem! As soon as she/they can find a replacement flatmate, she's moving in with me full-time!

I've found a flat, and I moved in this weekend. It's a single apartment in a '60s apartment block right in town, which is certainly convenient, and the rent is really low. It's fairly large for a single apartment, consisting of a sizeable entryway, a bathroom, bedroom, small kitchen, large lounge, and study.

The catch? The decor is hideous. As far as we can tell, some time in the 80s, the owners decided they wanted to redecorate, and couldn't decide between three different, conflicting, styles. So they used all 3, usually in different parts of the apartment, but sometimes together. The result is something you're likely to remember for a long time. There's a big emphasis on border prints, and quite a lot of patterned wallpaper.

The owners are intending to re-rent or sell it in the new year, and Hayley and I are hoping we can convince them to let us redecorate. Initial attempts ("We'll repaint if you pay for the paint!") have met with "don't bother" responses, but I'm actually prepared to pay for the supplies - it shouldn't take much - in order to be able to redecorate. Strangely, I'm actually looking forward to doing it, too.

In the meantime, we're doing what we can: I've started hanging up what little art I have (I have some nice prints I got in Vancouver, and a nice pencil drawing I got at the seattle comic con that I need to get framed), and we're taking down what we can that can be replaced (including a couple of hideous lightshades). More significantly, Hayley and I went out and got some canvases today, and she's currently penciling in a Girl Genius design on one of the larger ones. I'm really looking forward to seeing them hanging up. The largest one we're reserving for an anime collage, with parts from a number of different anime series, which we'll paint together - assuming I don't make a mess of it, at least.

Since this is my first (unfurnished) place of my own, I've had a whole heap of stuff to buy. I've got a fair bit done, but there's still a whole lot left to get. We've got plates, cups, bowls, cutlery, kitchen supplies, most of those sort of basics. I picked up a Vacuum cleaner - cheap, but not the cheapest, so hopefully it won't fall apart - and got a Fridge for a bargain $600NZ. It's new, but ever so slightly shop-damaged.

Also, on Saturday, we picked up a two-seater beanbag sofa from Beanbags and Beyond, in town, then ordered a taxi. You really don't realise just how big it is until you try and cram it into the back seat of a Taxi, and still fit Hayley without threatening suffocation. We did get it home without incident, and it's extremely comfortable.

To finish off Saturday evening, we sat on the new beanbag sofa in the study, ate takeaway indian food, drank sparkling grape juice, and watched the Dark Crystal.

A brief update about work: Going great. I'm enjoying myself much of the time, and the work is generally interesting. I love working with GIS and mapping. I have the unsettling feeling that my boss disapproves of just about everything I do, though. I'm probably wrong - I felt similarly when I first started at Niche and had no performance reviews or anything. Hopefully my 3 month review will prove me wrong, if nothing does sooner.

I'm now officially employed again. I've found a kickass job at a local software company specialising in GIS (mapping etc). Their main product is a fleet tracking package. I just finished my first day there today.

They're using Postgres extensively, with their own extensions such as some form of multi-master replication. The boxes are based on Gentoo, with (oddly), VMWare instances running windows for the application servers. The environment's quite well set up, and so far quite nice to work with (with my whole 8 hours' worth of experience with it).

I'm also starting back part-time at Uni this semester, doing two papers - COSC229 - Algorithms, and COSC362 - Microprocessor Systems 2. My new employer is quite flexible about allowing me to fit my work hours around uni, and the two are very close together to boot.

Now I just have to find a flat in the same general vicinity...

Lex has posted rather interesting entry about our trip to the supermarket.

So here I am, sitting in Vancouver airport, wasting time while I wait for my flight back home, via Sydney, via Honolulu (two new airports to get lost in! Oh joy!). And what better way to waste time than by blogging, right?

Checking in was, this time, fairly uneventful. I had to pay extra for my bike and because my suitcase was heavy, but less than I expected - Air Canada charge $50 for a bike, instead of the usual $175 for an extra piece of luggage. Because their system can't handle having both a bike and an overweight luggage item, I had to line up a second time at ticketing to pay for it. Oh well. After that, US immigration, checking my baggage in, and the inevitable x-ray scans and inspections were relatively simple. I'm just ophing I don't have to check my baggage in again at Sydney, since hauling that much baggage around on my own is no fun, but I have a sinking feeling I'll have to.

I'm really not looking forward to the long flight, but at least I have a light at the end of the tunnel. I'll be home soon, Hayley!

Oh, and I forgot: More customs/immigration excitement!

After being questioned by customs, I was, to my not-so-great surprise, directed to the immigration counter for further investigation. I got a rather friendly person, who nevertheless was asking about my work/holiday/movement situation in great detail. I discussed my previous issues, and he asked for the documentation I'd hustled up but never had to use last time. As I did, he recaps:

Him: So, you work for this US company, Haydrian
Me: Used to. I resigned
Him: Oh. Right, in that case don't worry. Just show me your return ticket.
Me: shows ticket
Him: examining ticket Why'd you quit?
I explain.
Him: Off you go, then. And good luck!

So there's the easy way to solve all your issues: resign!