Well it's official, I failed to get the McLaren job. The crappy thing is that although I only interviewed for the controls job, the vehicle dynamics people decided "not to take my application any further." Maybe this would have been the case regardless but I know that the control people talked to the vehicle dynamics people and I can't imagine they gave me any positive reviews. Like I said it kinda sucks that interviewing for the control job, which I wasn't really expecting to get when I applied in the first place, ruined my chances of getting the vehicle dynamics job, which I was more comfortable with and better qualified for. Oh well, there isn't anything I can do about it now. I've been to the promised land and I firmly slammed the door in my own face with a horrible interview. God I wish it had not been my first interview. Why couldn't some other company I didn't want to work for give me an interview first. Well, back to finding more jobs. There have been a few nibbles here and there but nothing very concrete yet. So hopefully I can sort out something good in the next week or so.
The problem with a performance like the one I had in the McLaren interview is that it introduces all sorts of self doubts. I began to think that despite thinking of myself as reasonably intelligent I actually don't know anything. That I managed to squeak through my undergrad with the bare minimum of work and no actual knowledge retention. That I also pretty much sailed through my job in Detroit without having to think and again did just about the minimum required of me to not get fired. And that my PhD was a load of missguided research that looked quite nice because I managed to write it fairly well but actually didn't contain anything that someone in industry would find remotely relevant or interesting and has about as many holes in it as swiss cheese and once again I pulled it off without actually retaining any knowledge. I'm not sure if this really is the case. Although I can think of all sorts of holes in the research and looking back on it I can think of a million ways of improving it and giving it some credibility, patching holes etc, from what I hear, pretty much everyone who has done a PhD says the same thing. I guess you never really know what people mean when they say their work was rubbish and it could have been better by doing a few things and how that compares to how rubbish your own work was. So maybe it's not that bad. However, what I do know is this. First, I have passed my viva and handed in and completed everything I need to do so unless something goes horribly wrong, I'll get the degree. So at least three other people have read my work and consider it good enough, in fact they keep saying its actually very good (but I'm not sure if they are refering to the writing and presentation or the actual work). And second, I don't know enough to hold my own in an interview so I've got a lot of work to do in revising and studying a bunch of stuff that I should already know (and claim to know) so that I can actually understand everything properly and defend myself in an interview. Basically, fill in all the background for what I've implemented in my research so I not only understand it but can explian it to people who don't know what I've done.
So plenty of work ahead of me, and plenty of time to do it since I have nothing else to do. I just have to get of the internet and actually apply myself. So on that note, I'll see you later, once I've filled my brain with knowledge.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The job hunt, or should that be with a 'c'
So here I am, working away trying to pull the fleece over employers eyes, trying to convince them to hire me, and then it happened. I got a response from someone that wasn't a small, one page letter saying:
Dear applicant,
Thank you for your interest. Unfortuantely, due to the large response and quality of applicants we have not given you the job but we will keep your records on file and if something should come up in the future we'll give you a call. Now go fuck off and don't come back.
Sincerely,
Cockblocking assholes.
or something along those lines. So I finally got a response from someone. Well, that's a bit of a missrepresentation because it wasn't just someone, it was McLaren. Who you might ask? Oh wait, they're a Formula One team, yeah, that's right, one of the most successful teams out there, the one thats also made the McLaren F1 supercar and the McLaren Mercedes SLR, oh and hang haven't they been in the news lately? That's right, one of their employees was being supplied top secret information from a Ferrari employee and they got busted for cheating with the biggest fine in history ($100 million) and kicked out of the constructors championships. Well that last bit isn't so flattering but I won't go into that, there's already plenty of crap on the internet discussing that and it really doesn't bother me too much in my quest for a job. They are a fantasitc company and dspite the actions of a few bad apples they will fight on a continue to be a top F1 team.
So I got a response (did I mention it was from McLaren, you know F1, anyway) it was just a nibble at first. They wanted a phone interview for a control job I applied for. I had also applied for a vehicle dynamics job with them which is more my specialty, but never mind I did some controls as well so lets go. The phone interview went well and I was pretty happy with my performance. Then I got another nibble. They wanted a phone interview, and I was going to be interviewed by the same two people. Now This wasn't what I expected. In the first phone interview I had mentioned I had also applied for a VD job (vehicle dynamics you dirty minded bastards). They said that was fine, it was a different group but they talked. So when I had a second phone interview with the same people it didn't make much sense. So I asked the HR person if it was for ths VD job and she said yes it was. Ok what ever. So I was dilligently waiting by the phone, waiting for my second phone interview ... just waiting ... by my phone. Time was ticking by and I wasn't getting a call. Not the most reassuring feeling, not a good feeling at all. Then twenty minutes after the interview was scheduled I got a call,. Hey, a bit late but no big deal, feeling good now. However, it wasn't the people who were supposed to interview me, it was the HR person, which sent the feeelings down again. Damn this job hunt thing is a rollercoaster (if only I knew about the following week). Anyway, I figured I should heart out what the HR girl had to say. Wait, what was that, there wasn't any point in conducting two phone interviews so why don't you come down for a proper interview at the McLaren factory (which I was to learn wasn't a factory at all. It was the McLaren Technology Centre and it is a thing of wonder and amazment). So the nibble had turned into a good bite and I was on my way down to Woking for an interview, no more bad thoughts, just high spirits.
So it was that I found myself on the train down south, reading through some things, trying to study up on some control stuff and the VD stuff as well. just getting my mind in the right frame for the interview. I got down to Woking and grabbed a cab to teh McLaren Technology Centre. Now I should say that it is absolutely phenomenal, I was completely blown away by it. Now keep in mind I have already visited the Renault F1 Factory, which was amazing but this place, wow, it's just on a different level all together. We got to the security gate and the security shack was no shack at all. It was a circular glass building that wouldn't look out of place in a comtempory design gallery. So I signed in. The guard gave me a pass card and one for the cab. He told me to be dropped off at Rotunda B/C, go inside and down the steps, along the corridor, up the lift to Level 1+ and go to the racing reception. Ok, no problem so I got back in the cab and gave the driver his card and the directions. He dropped me off at Rotunda B/C, which was just a small circular glass building at the back of the main building. Oh did I mention, all the transporter trucks where parked right between me and the main building. They had jsut come back from the Belgium GP at Spa, pretty cool. Anyway, I wasn't there for the sightseeing so I swiped my card by the door and went in. There wasn't anyone there. Here I was, inside a top F1 facility belonging to a team just convicted of a major cheating afair, and they just give you a pass card and let you loose. Well not entirely I had a stair case in front of me. So I went down the stairs and got ready to "go along the corridor to the lift" like the guard at the gate told me. But this was no ordinary corridor. It was a gleaming, white 200m of perfect, underground corridor. It looked like it was out of a spaceship, maybe from 2001. It was fantastic. There were some doors but they were flush with the wall so you didn't even notice them. I was impressed toi say the least. But no time to dilly dally, I didn't want to get caught gobsmacked when I was here trying convince them I actually belonged there. So I wandered along, quite casually I thought, to the other end of the corridor, which just had a circular white pillar in the middle of the circular room. The lift entrance was around the back. So I got in the lift, but it was really disorienting. It was a glass lift but in a black chamber so it was all super reflective and you couldn't see anything. It took a little while to find the buttons to hit 1+. Before I did though, I looked up. Through the black hole was a white light at the top. I hit the button and started to move towards the light. I came up out of the floor and moved up to Level 1+. Now Level 1+ was a floating level, or at least the part I was on was. I had been brought up straight out of the ground and up to these floating walkways. I got out of the lift and looked around. How about right, oh there are a bunch of race cars that Bruce McLaren raced back in the day, including his first ever race car. Oh and check that out, there are a bunch of McLaren F1 super cars and behind them there's the work shop where they make the McLaren Mercedes SLR. Not too shabby. How about we look right. Oh, a bunch of F1 cars and whats the name on the side, just Ayrton Senna, no big deal. And beyond them, just the current F1 cars in various states of build. And guess what, there's not a single drop of oil anywhere. Everything was pristene and perfect. Did I say this place was absolutely phenominal yet? So I managed to get my feet moving and looked for anythign that could be Racing Reception. I saw a floating circle with a desk in the middle with a lady. I went over there and it turned out to be Racing Reception. Result, I had made it. It was a good thing I was a few minute early because that let me calm down and get used to the place. By the time I got called for the interview I felt pretty good and relaxed, which is good because that feeling wasn't going to last through the end of the day.
So I met the guy interviewing me and he briefly showed me around before we headed into the interview proper. Everything went nicely to begin with. There were two people interviewing me and they were nice and friendly. They started off giving me a run down of what they did and the job they had open, which was actually three positions and a bunch of work that needed to be done. After that we got into some more technical stuff, but that was fine because we started out just talking about my research and what I had done. This went well and I was quite happy and comfortable talking about it. But they certainly looked at it all with an eye for the control stuff and I got caught a little bit here and there trying to explain the control stuff in the terms they were familiar with. So not entirely smooth sailing but no big drama, yet. We ended up getting caught up with one thing in particular, sliding mode control, which I had trouble understanding myself and with an eight month break I was having trouble understanding it again and trouble explaining it again (as you might imagine if you don't remember it yourself). So we moved on. Maybe not the best if you can't fully explain work that you claim to have done. But like I said not a big deal, just a little slip. So we moved on, like I said. Fine, I was quite happy to no longer be interrogated about my own work, and fail to explain it properly, or thats what I thought.
"So I'm going to give you an example problem and just see how you do it. If we have a valve here and the flow rate is proportional to ... blah blah blah ... (stuff that's not really interesting to 99.999% of the people reading this)"
As he was saying all this he was drawing out a diagram of a hydraulic system. I hadn't even looked at a hydraulic system since my undergraduate days, about eight years ago. Ok don't panic, it's really not that complicated, actually it's about as simple a system as you could create. Even if I can't remember anything I should be able to at least just think logically and think my through this.
"... blah blah blah ... so what's the relationship between the current and the position of the piston, x?"
Ok, don't panic. Just think this one through ... right so we've got i, Q, x ... I need A so I'll introduce that ... then there's this ... oh wait not sure I need that ... how about if I do this ... hang on, this isn't going well ... ok, stop, this isn't that hard, just think, you can do this ... nope not getting it ... come on Nick!!!! ... right start again ... ok so you've got ...
And it just didn't get better. My brain froze up and I may as well have been sitting there drooling on myself, scratching my balls and farting. After some proding and a little help I fumbled my way through it, very poorly.
"Ok, so now whats the response of this system to a step input?"
Ok, put the last failure behind you and, wait, don't say failure, we need positive thoughts. Put that behind you and crack on with this ... ok, so its a first order system ... erm ... um ...
So once again I was fumbling around, and with a little guidance I managed to get to what could have been the right answer. I'm not sure if it actually was the right answer because they never really gave me any positive reassurance to that effect. Well shit. I was sitting there in a pool of dispair. I was embarassed by my performance, it was humiliating. It's not like they had asked me a really tough question or posed a problem with a tricky aspect to try and catch me out. They had given a problem that was about as siple as possible that was a direct representation of the work I would potentially be doing, or not as teh case was beginning to look like. Anyway, they had beaten me, or maybe they hadn't beaten me, but rather I had beaten myself up over my complete incompetence. Well they moved on and we had a few HR type questions, whats your salary expectation? when can you start work? etc. Things got a bit better and I did manage to move on from the previous suicide attempt and get back in the grove of talking confidently again. It did end with a more positive feeling. I asked about the jobs available and it did seem like they were suggesting things that I could do, and that they were thinking of were I might fit in. But in any case I had already committed suicide and the job was gone. I left the interview and walked out with my head down and my tail between my legs. If I was them I wouldn't hire me, in fact I would wonder how I had managed to graduate from university let alone got a PhD. I left the promised land ashamed and thoroughly dejected.
I headed back to London and was staying with Jules for the night. He tried his best to cheer me up. We all know you are your own harshest critic and maybe it didn't go that badly? No, I'm pretty sure it was that bad. Well, who knows what the other applicants are like? Good point but if they have a pulse they'll probably get the job over me. I suppose maybe I was being harsh on myself. First, everything went well until the final part of the interview, my resume/CV and therefore my qualifications got me the phone interview. So they must have liked the PhD and thought I was a good candidate. The phone interview went well and I did present myself well (until it all went wrong). I wasn't a control engineer, I was a VD engineer that did controls and I did bring this up. I never had any formal controls education. I had just taught myself what I needed to know for the PhD and it was a very well received piece of work. The fact is that no matter what job I end up with I'm going to have a steep learning curve, but just like my PhD, I'll get stuck in, learn what I need and get the job done, I just need some one to give me a chance to show what I am capable of. On top of this is that it was a controls job, not the VD job. The VD people would contact me separately about that job if they wanted to. So the VD stuff is my specialty and what I want to do, but the controls stuff is still very interesting and it has a much broader scope. It can be applied to almost anything so it would give me more opportunities in the future, unlike the VD stuff which would be more limited to the automotive industry. So maybe I would have a tough time getting going with the controls job but it would still be an amazing job. It just sucks that my first interview, which you always tend to fuck up since you have no idea what to expect, was with a company and job that what I've been dreaming about for years, its the whole reason I'm here now. And it killed me to fuck up the interview so badly when it was all actually easy stuff that I shoul dhave been able to do. The other crappy thing is that I thought I was also interviewing for the VD job. If I had know it was only the control job I was interviewing for I would have tried to sneak an interview with the VD guys while I was already down there. Oh well, they only told me that after the interview. Not much you can do about it at that point. I just hope that any negative feedback from this interview doesn't work against me for the VD job. So maybe it wasn't all bad, just 99% bad. Well Jules was trying to cheer me up. Needless to say we hit the pub and ended talking to a bunch of people I really didn't want to deal with when I felt so shitty.
Well I woke up the next day, feeling shit from the booze and feeling shit from teh interview. I didn't really think that a night getting drunk would make me feel any better about royally fucking the interview but it worth a try. Actually, the hang over probably made me feel worse about everything, which is generally the case. Anyway, I got up and moved out. I jumped on a train, not back up to Leeds, no not yet, I was heading out to Salisbury. Why might you ask? To visit Kirsty. She had broken her back at the start of summer and being down south and so near, it would be criminal not to visit. In any case I wanted to go down and visit, see how she was doing and try and brighten up her day. She had an incomplete spinal which means that its not complete paralysis. She can feel everything down to her knees and then after that she still has sensation but its a bit strange. She is recovering well and generally cruises around in a wheel chair but I was around when she had some physio work. She managed to walk around the building, about 100m, very slowly and with walking sticks. For someone with a massive spinal injury this was amazing. She is having to teach herself to walk again and it's amazing how well she is recovering. We also headed into town and got some lunch and a drink. It was awesome to hang out with her and jsut chill. We were sitting in the pub and it was like there was nothing different for when I saw her last. But then when we left and she wheeled away instead of walking it brought it back again. But she's fighting hard and I have no doubt that she's going to keep improving and getting better and she will walk again. It was a good day and I'm really glad I took the time to go and see her. It did put a few thigns in perspective. Here I was moaning about doing poorly in an interview, which really did mean a lot to me, but here was a really good friend and what she was going through just put all my trails and tribulations to nothing. So my job hunt (or cunt) isn't going too well, but I don't really know, maybe they will offer me the job. If they don't, there are more jobs out there and I'll get one sooner or later. I'm just thankful that I have a sound body and mind (at least for now) and that I have all the opportunities open to me because things could be very different, there are many people out there without the opportunities that I have and they are fighting on with more strength than I could ever hope to have.
So I potentially didn't get a dream job with an F1 team but come on, I've really got nothing to complain about. I'll let you know how it goes when I hear back and till the next nibble or bite on the job front I wish everyone well and I hope in particular that both Kirsty and Marco have speady and full recoverys, my thoughts are with you.
Dear applicant,
Thank you for your interest. Unfortuantely, due to the large response and quality of applicants we have not given you the job but we will keep your records on file and if something should come up in the future we'll give you a call. Now go fuck off and don't come back.
Sincerely,
Cockblocking assholes.
or something along those lines. So I finally got a response from someone. Well, that's a bit of a missrepresentation because it wasn't just someone, it was McLaren. Who you might ask? Oh wait, they're a Formula One team, yeah, that's right, one of the most successful teams out there, the one thats also made the McLaren F1 supercar and the McLaren Mercedes SLR, oh and hang haven't they been in the news lately? That's right, one of their employees was being supplied top secret information from a Ferrari employee and they got busted for cheating with the biggest fine in history ($100 million) and kicked out of the constructors championships. Well that last bit isn't so flattering but I won't go into that, there's already plenty of crap on the internet discussing that and it really doesn't bother me too much in my quest for a job. They are a fantasitc company and dspite the actions of a few bad apples they will fight on a continue to be a top F1 team.
So I got a response (did I mention it was from McLaren, you know F1, anyway) it was just a nibble at first. They wanted a phone interview for a control job I applied for. I had also applied for a vehicle dynamics job with them which is more my specialty, but never mind I did some controls as well so lets go. The phone interview went well and I was pretty happy with my performance. Then I got another nibble. They wanted a phone interview, and I was going to be interviewed by the same two people. Now This wasn't what I expected. In the first phone interview I had mentioned I had also applied for a VD job (vehicle dynamics you dirty minded bastards). They said that was fine, it was a different group but they talked. So when I had a second phone interview with the same people it didn't make much sense. So I asked the HR person if it was for ths VD job and she said yes it was. Ok what ever. So I was dilligently waiting by the phone, waiting for my second phone interview ... just waiting ... by my phone. Time was ticking by and I wasn't getting a call. Not the most reassuring feeling, not a good feeling at all. Then twenty minutes after the interview was scheduled I got a call,. Hey, a bit late but no big deal, feeling good now. However, it wasn't the people who were supposed to interview me, it was the HR person, which sent the feeelings down again. Damn this job hunt thing is a rollercoaster (if only I knew about the following week). Anyway, I figured I should heart out what the HR girl had to say. Wait, what was that, there wasn't any point in conducting two phone interviews so why don't you come down for a proper interview at the McLaren factory (which I was to learn wasn't a factory at all. It was the McLaren Technology Centre and it is a thing of wonder and amazment). So the nibble had turned into a good bite and I was on my way down to Woking for an interview, no more bad thoughts, just high spirits.
So it was that I found myself on the train down south, reading through some things, trying to study up on some control stuff and the VD stuff as well. just getting my mind in the right frame for the interview. I got down to Woking and grabbed a cab to teh McLaren Technology Centre. Now I should say that it is absolutely phenomenal, I was completely blown away by it. Now keep in mind I have already visited the Renault F1 Factory, which was amazing but this place, wow, it's just on a different level all together. We got to the security gate and the security shack was no shack at all. It was a circular glass building that wouldn't look out of place in a comtempory design gallery. So I signed in. The guard gave me a pass card and one for the cab. He told me to be dropped off at Rotunda B/C, go inside and down the steps, along the corridor, up the lift to Level 1+ and go to the racing reception. Ok, no problem so I got back in the cab and gave the driver his card and the directions. He dropped me off at Rotunda B/C, which was just a small circular glass building at the back of the main building. Oh did I mention, all the transporter trucks where parked right between me and the main building. They had jsut come back from the Belgium GP at Spa, pretty cool. Anyway, I wasn't there for the sightseeing so I swiped my card by the door and went in. There wasn't anyone there. Here I was, inside a top F1 facility belonging to a team just convicted of a major cheating afair, and they just give you a pass card and let you loose. Well not entirely I had a stair case in front of me. So I went down the stairs and got ready to "go along the corridor to the lift" like the guard at the gate told me. But this was no ordinary corridor. It was a gleaming, white 200m of perfect, underground corridor. It looked like it was out of a spaceship, maybe from 2001. It was fantastic. There were some doors but they were flush with the wall so you didn't even notice them. I was impressed toi say the least. But no time to dilly dally, I didn't want to get caught gobsmacked when I was here trying convince them I actually belonged there. So I wandered along, quite casually I thought, to the other end of the corridor, which just had a circular white pillar in the middle of the circular room. The lift entrance was around the back. So I got in the lift, but it was really disorienting. It was a glass lift but in a black chamber so it was all super reflective and you couldn't see anything. It took a little while to find the buttons to hit 1+. Before I did though, I looked up. Through the black hole was a white light at the top. I hit the button and started to move towards the light. I came up out of the floor and moved up to Level 1+. Now Level 1+ was a floating level, or at least the part I was on was. I had been brought up straight out of the ground and up to these floating walkways. I got out of the lift and looked around. How about right, oh there are a bunch of race cars that Bruce McLaren raced back in the day, including his first ever race car. Oh and check that out, there are a bunch of McLaren F1 super cars and behind them there's the work shop where they make the McLaren Mercedes SLR. Not too shabby. How about we look right. Oh, a bunch of F1 cars and whats the name on the side, just Ayrton Senna, no big deal. And beyond them, just the current F1 cars in various states of build. And guess what, there's not a single drop of oil anywhere. Everything was pristene and perfect. Did I say this place was absolutely phenominal yet? So I managed to get my feet moving and looked for anythign that could be Racing Reception. I saw a floating circle with a desk in the middle with a lady. I went over there and it turned out to be Racing Reception. Result, I had made it. It was a good thing I was a few minute early because that let me calm down and get used to the place. By the time I got called for the interview I felt pretty good and relaxed, which is good because that feeling wasn't going to last through the end of the day.
So I met the guy interviewing me and he briefly showed me around before we headed into the interview proper. Everything went nicely to begin with. There were two people interviewing me and they were nice and friendly. They started off giving me a run down of what they did and the job they had open, which was actually three positions and a bunch of work that needed to be done. After that we got into some more technical stuff, but that was fine because we started out just talking about my research and what I had done. This went well and I was quite happy and comfortable talking about it. But they certainly looked at it all with an eye for the control stuff and I got caught a little bit here and there trying to explain the control stuff in the terms they were familiar with. So not entirely smooth sailing but no big drama, yet. We ended up getting caught up with one thing in particular, sliding mode control, which I had trouble understanding myself and with an eight month break I was having trouble understanding it again and trouble explaining it again (as you might imagine if you don't remember it yourself). So we moved on. Maybe not the best if you can't fully explain work that you claim to have done. But like I said not a big deal, just a little slip. So we moved on, like I said. Fine, I was quite happy to no longer be interrogated about my own work, and fail to explain it properly, or thats what I thought.
"So I'm going to give you an example problem and just see how you do it. If we have a valve here and the flow rate is proportional to ... blah blah blah ... (stuff that's not really interesting to 99.999% of the people reading this)"
As he was saying all this he was drawing out a diagram of a hydraulic system. I hadn't even looked at a hydraulic system since my undergraduate days, about eight years ago. Ok don't panic, it's really not that complicated, actually it's about as simple a system as you could create. Even if I can't remember anything I should be able to at least just think logically and think my through this.
"... blah blah blah ... so what's the relationship between the current and the position of the piston, x?"
Ok, don't panic. Just think this one through ... right so we've got i, Q, x ... I need A so I'll introduce that ... then there's this ... oh wait not sure I need that ... how about if I do this ... hang on, this isn't going well ... ok, stop, this isn't that hard, just think, you can do this ... nope not getting it ... come on Nick!!!! ... right start again ... ok so you've got ...
And it just didn't get better. My brain froze up and I may as well have been sitting there drooling on myself, scratching my balls and farting. After some proding and a little help I fumbled my way through it, very poorly.
"Ok, so now whats the response of this system to a step input?"
Ok, put the last failure behind you and, wait, don't say failure, we need positive thoughts. Put that behind you and crack on with this ... ok, so its a first order system ... erm ... um ...
So once again I was fumbling around, and with a little guidance I managed to get to what could have been the right answer. I'm not sure if it actually was the right answer because they never really gave me any positive reassurance to that effect. Well shit. I was sitting there in a pool of dispair. I was embarassed by my performance, it was humiliating. It's not like they had asked me a really tough question or posed a problem with a tricky aspect to try and catch me out. They had given a problem that was about as siple as possible that was a direct representation of the work I would potentially be doing, or not as teh case was beginning to look like. Anyway, they had beaten me, or maybe they hadn't beaten me, but rather I had beaten myself up over my complete incompetence. Well they moved on and we had a few HR type questions, whats your salary expectation? when can you start work? etc. Things got a bit better and I did manage to move on from the previous suicide attempt and get back in the grove of talking confidently again. It did end with a more positive feeling. I asked about the jobs available and it did seem like they were suggesting things that I could do, and that they were thinking of were I might fit in. But in any case I had already committed suicide and the job was gone. I left the interview and walked out with my head down and my tail between my legs. If I was them I wouldn't hire me, in fact I would wonder how I had managed to graduate from university let alone got a PhD. I left the promised land ashamed and thoroughly dejected.
I headed back to London and was staying with Jules for the night. He tried his best to cheer me up. We all know you are your own harshest critic and maybe it didn't go that badly? No, I'm pretty sure it was that bad. Well, who knows what the other applicants are like? Good point but if they have a pulse they'll probably get the job over me. I suppose maybe I was being harsh on myself. First, everything went well until the final part of the interview, my resume/CV and therefore my qualifications got me the phone interview. So they must have liked the PhD and thought I was a good candidate. The phone interview went well and I did present myself well (until it all went wrong). I wasn't a control engineer, I was a VD engineer that did controls and I did bring this up. I never had any formal controls education. I had just taught myself what I needed to know for the PhD and it was a very well received piece of work. The fact is that no matter what job I end up with I'm going to have a steep learning curve, but just like my PhD, I'll get stuck in, learn what I need and get the job done, I just need some one to give me a chance to show what I am capable of. On top of this is that it was a controls job, not the VD job. The VD people would contact me separately about that job if they wanted to. So the VD stuff is my specialty and what I want to do, but the controls stuff is still very interesting and it has a much broader scope. It can be applied to almost anything so it would give me more opportunities in the future, unlike the VD stuff which would be more limited to the automotive industry. So maybe I would have a tough time getting going with the controls job but it would still be an amazing job. It just sucks that my first interview, which you always tend to fuck up since you have no idea what to expect, was with a company and job that what I've been dreaming about for years, its the whole reason I'm here now. And it killed me to fuck up the interview so badly when it was all actually easy stuff that I shoul dhave been able to do. The other crappy thing is that I thought I was also interviewing for the VD job. If I had know it was only the control job I was interviewing for I would have tried to sneak an interview with the VD guys while I was already down there. Oh well, they only told me that after the interview. Not much you can do about it at that point. I just hope that any negative feedback from this interview doesn't work against me for the VD job. So maybe it wasn't all bad, just 99% bad. Well Jules was trying to cheer me up. Needless to say we hit the pub and ended talking to a bunch of people I really didn't want to deal with when I felt so shitty.
Well I woke up the next day, feeling shit from the booze and feeling shit from teh interview. I didn't really think that a night getting drunk would make me feel any better about royally fucking the interview but it worth a try. Actually, the hang over probably made me feel worse about everything, which is generally the case. Anyway, I got up and moved out. I jumped on a train, not back up to Leeds, no not yet, I was heading out to Salisbury. Why might you ask? To visit Kirsty. She had broken her back at the start of summer and being down south and so near, it would be criminal not to visit. In any case I wanted to go down and visit, see how she was doing and try and brighten up her day. She had an incomplete spinal which means that its not complete paralysis. She can feel everything down to her knees and then after that she still has sensation but its a bit strange. She is recovering well and generally cruises around in a wheel chair but I was around when she had some physio work. She managed to walk around the building, about 100m, very slowly and with walking sticks. For someone with a massive spinal injury this was amazing. She is having to teach herself to walk again and it's amazing how well she is recovering. We also headed into town and got some lunch and a drink. It was awesome to hang out with her and jsut chill. We were sitting in the pub and it was like there was nothing different for when I saw her last. But then when we left and she wheeled away instead of walking it brought it back again. But she's fighting hard and I have no doubt that she's going to keep improving and getting better and she will walk again. It was a good day and I'm really glad I took the time to go and see her. It did put a few thigns in perspective. Here I was moaning about doing poorly in an interview, which really did mean a lot to me, but here was a really good friend and what she was going through just put all my trails and tribulations to nothing. So my job hunt (or cunt) isn't going too well, but I don't really know, maybe they will offer me the job. If they don't, there are more jobs out there and I'll get one sooner or later. I'm just thankful that I have a sound body and mind (at least for now) and that I have all the opportunities open to me because things could be very different, there are many people out there without the opportunities that I have and they are fighting on with more strength than I could ever hope to have.
So I potentially didn't get a dream job with an F1 team but come on, I've really got nothing to complain about. I'll let you know how it goes when I hear back and till the next nibble or bite on the job front I wish everyone well and I hope in particular that both Kirsty and Marco have speady and full recoverys, my thoughts are with you.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Hanging out
So I've had quite a bit of free time lately. I've been keeping up to date with the job hunt but it's really not a full time activity. I've had a couple of outright rejections but I do have an interview next week so hopefully that goes well, I'll let you know. Apart from that, there's been a lot of sitting around and web surfing. I've got myself on Facebook now, to add to all the other stupid networking sites that I'm on. So that took some time and is providing something to do, searching around and seeing whats up. I've also just received the CF card reader I ordered. What does this mean, well I can now download the pictures from the digital camera my brother gave to me. The result, a new gallery in my picassa site with some pictures from when I was in the Bay Area. Although the camera is vastly superior to the crappy 2 megapixel point and shoot I was using I doubt you'll really see much difference in picture quality over the net. It just means I'm wasting more space on my picassa site and it takes 10 times as long to up load them. Oh well, I'll have to figure out how I can automatically resacle them or reduce the file size. Anyway, cehck them out.
Bay Area stop-over
Bay Area stop-over
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Leeds
Well, I'm back in Leeds and settling in a bit, hopefully not for long. As much as I'd love to stick around, the jobs I'm looking for aren't here so I should be moving on if all goes to plan, and hopefully soon. On the job front I have had a couple of nibbles and hopefully they'll be enough to turn into the full bite so fingers crossed something comes from it in the next couple of weeks. I've also printed out my thesis and sent it to the binder to get bound. I had to print out five copies of the 250 page thesis. I was going to check through them but realised I didn't really know what I'd be checking for. I certainly wasn't going to re-read each of them so I was pretty confident they were all complete and in order so I just left it at that. Hopefully all the pages are there and in order. So on that front things are almost sorted. There are a few other things I have to sort out, claim on my insurance for the cactus incident etc, but soon enough my to do list will be exhausted and it will just be the job hunt. On the social front, it's my birthday coming up on Friday so I'm going to watch the England vs. South Africa rugby world cup game then head out into town for a bit of drinking and dancing. It'll be the first time I'll see most people so it promises to be a good bit of fun.
In other news, back in Colorado, Arthur is probably on the mighty Colorado river in the Grand Canyon right now (or soon). How, you might ask, does a first year guide who wasn't into rafting before this summer end up on an 18 day Grand Canyon trip? Well Gouch from Four Corners got a permit through the lottery system and due to the late season date there were some places left open. Arthur just happened to be in the right place at the right time (along with a couple of other people, Podo and Mike among others) and scored a trip of a lifetime that a lot of people have been waiting more than 10 years to get on. So I hope you're having fun you bastard and you better have some good stories and pictures to share when you get off the river (not that I'm jealous or anything).
In other news, back in Colorado, Arthur is probably on the mighty Colorado river in the Grand Canyon right now (or soon). How, you might ask, does a first year guide who wasn't into rafting before this summer end up on an 18 day Grand Canyon trip? Well Gouch from Four Corners got a permit through the lottery system and due to the late season date there were some places left open. Arthur just happened to be in the right place at the right time (along with a couple of other people, Podo and Mike among others) and scored a trip of a lifetime that a lot of people have been waiting more than 10 years to get on. So I hope you're having fun you bastard and you better have some good stories and pictures to share when you get off the river (not that I'm jealous or anything).
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Home again
Well after almost nine months of having fun I'm back where it all began, lovely Leeds. I'm not too sure if the title of this post is really acurate, "Home again". I certainly have all my stuff here now and I'm here for a while until I find a job. But thats just it. When I get a job I'll probably move so really I'm just hanging out here until something comes up. It could be a couple weeks if things move quickly or a couple months or more if things aren't looking so promising. Hopefully I manage to find a job in good time and don't have to sweat it out here to long. Not to say that I don't like it here, on the contrary, it's quite nice. I have a good group of friends here and like the city. The weather is even nice and sunny right now, but I'm not sure I can call it home.
I've been thinking about this concept of home the last few days. I was talking Glen on the ride home after hanging out with the boys for the last time about this and he said "The Bay Area will always be your home". I guess he's right. There is something there which I will always be connected to despite the years passing but I can't really see myself returning there for a couple of years minimum. So England has to be my home. But to call something home by default just because you live there doesn't work. I found this in Detroit. I moved out there with no real plans to move on at any time. I was living and worknig out there for almost two years and yes, if someone asked where I was living then I would obviously say Detroit. But thats different from where home is. Although I think I would have said home was Detroit at that time I'm not sure I really believed it. I think in the back of my mind I always knew I wasn't really home, or if it was going to be home it would take a good few years to earn the title. So where is home? I guess I don't know right now because I don't know where I'll be next year. I don't really want to call Leeds home because when I get a job, chances are it won't be here. It will be down in the midlands somewhere. So I guess home will be England but I just don't know where yet. Even when I get a job and move to where ever it may be it will still take some time to really feel like home. I suppose thats really it, you need more than a quick few years to call something home. I've never quite resolved where I'm from or where home is because I've moved around quite a bit. I suppose home is the Bay Area. I grew up there and my parents live there. But I wouldn't say I'm definitively from the Bay Area since I did grow up in England and that was a big part of who I am, even just through the influence of the culture through my parents. So I guess it will take a while before I can call some where home again.
Anyway, I had a pretty good trip back with only a few delays. It started after a couple hours sleep at 4:00am in California (12:00 BST) on Wednesday and I didn't get into Leeds until 4:30pm (16:30 BST) on Thursday. So almost 30 hours travelling with maybe 8 hours sleep a couples hours at a time in the last 46 hours before I went to bed last night. Like I said I was only delayed once waiting for my flight out of Charlotte but I still made all my connections to trains once I hit England. The most testing thing was the final bus ride back in Leeds. I'd been travelling for close to 30 hours, I had a 70lb (32kg) snowboard bag that thankfully had wheels to roll it around, a 50lb (23kg) backpack and a heavy carry on that I'd been dragging around through airports, train stations, the underground and across town and I'd finally made it to the last connection, the bus home. I heaved all my crap on the bus and was ready to settle down for the final leg but there was stil one test for me. As I sat down this guy sits right next to me. Fine. Then he starts talking to me in this low mumble with a broad yorkshire accent. It wasn't so bad that you couldn't understand what he was saying but it certainly took some effort. He starts saying something about going to university and how he's starting a course and has to buy a laptop and sign up for classes and all tha sort of stuff. Now this guy is probably in his 30's and doesn't really look like a university type but he's on about open university and who knows, maybe he's taking a class or two and trying to improve himself, who knows. One thign I do know is that he stinks of booze. Anyway, he won't leave me alone. Starts asking if I'm going to university and all that. I'm crap at lying and I actually was replying honestly that I didn't go to uni any more but trying to give the shortest most deadend answers to end the conversation. But he was having none of it. In fact he was convinced he knew me. Well maybe not. He might have known that he really didn't know me but it didn't stop him pretending he knew me to carry on the conversation to try and learn about me. He would say things like:
"So, yeah, you still ... err ... living up the road, you know ... err ... by the um ... what's it called ... you know the shop there ..."
To which I'd reply "No, I don't know what you're talking about." trying to end the conversation. And he would carry on.
"Oh, I know, I remember now, you're up the hill from my misses, my ex that is ... you know Julie round the corner ..."
After a while I was trying to stop him by saying "Look, I really don't think I know you, I have no idea what you're talking about." But that was no sign to stop for this man. He just carried on.
"Oh no, I remember you ... I see you all the time. You know Doncaster Dave right? You know ... he's the one who came round with Ringo the other night ... if you need a phone he's got the best deals, just go round tell him I sent you, no problem ... You can get pay as you go from the bank ... or no, don't bother with the bank, see Jimmy up the road ..."
And on and on it went. I tried ignoring him as much as possible but it just wouldn't work. I wsa just praying he would get off at a stop before me. I had all kinds of visions of him stalking me off the bus and trying to come over for tea or something. Needless to say this was not what I wanted to deal with. Luckily he got off the bus after a while so I only had to endure about half an hour of this onslaught. In the end I guess it was harmless but certainly not the welcome home I wanted. In any case I made it back. I was safe and sound in Leeds with my stuff and thats all that mattered.
I think it really helped me that the weather was at least sunny and nice. I began this post with my struggle to figure where home is and I think if I'd landed in London and it had been pissing down with rain and generally miserable, like England can be, I would have been having second thougts. As far as I could guess, if I stuck around the USA and got a job, I would be on about double the salary. Meaning that I'd have about twice the spending power over there. So I could afford a nicer car, buy a nicer house and have more toys. Basically I figure that I will have taken four years (well five now), and bunch of money to get a PhD, a further qualification, but take a pay cut compared to what I was earning in Detroit. Now, there are some stipulations though. First is that getting a job out there would be a lot more difficult. I don't have any professional connections out there and if I wanted to live in California or Colorado the industry I'm interested in isn't there. So in practicality, if I was to get a job it would have to be in Detroit or it would take a while to find one in California or Colorado, which may not be very possible. But regardless, for the purpose of this argument lets assume I could get a job out in the USA some where nice, like California or Colorado. If we go with that, I'd be on a much better salary that could get me a lot more toys and I'd be living some where with big mountains and good weather for all the outdoor fun I'd want. The problem is that I wouldn't have the job I've been working towards for the last, oh I don't know lets say, 10 years. I really want to work in the racing industry and the best place to do it is in England and thats why I'm here. Now don't get me wrong, England isn't all bad, it's certainly much better than Detroit. Out here they actually have some mountains, even if they are small. But if I want to go climbing, hiking, paddling or what ever else they do have it here, it's just on a smaller scale. Whats more is that I have a good group of friends out here who are into all the outdoor stuff so I have people to do it all with. So really its pretty good in England, its just that after having a season boarding in Breck and rafting on the Arkansas I've had it good. If I'd come back to the prospects of no job and less money when I do get a job, and to top it off the weather was miserable I think I'd be having some pretty depressing thoughts about why I'd decided to come back. Luckily, that isn't the case. The weather is nice and I've got a call back from McLaren about a job so all in all things are starting to look up. The real test will come in the next few weeks and months so I'll keep updating the blog and we'll see where I live next, maybe it will become home some day.
I've been thinking about this concept of home the last few days. I was talking Glen on the ride home after hanging out with the boys for the last time about this and he said "The Bay Area will always be your home". I guess he's right. There is something there which I will always be connected to despite the years passing but I can't really see myself returning there for a couple of years minimum. So England has to be my home. But to call something home by default just because you live there doesn't work. I found this in Detroit. I moved out there with no real plans to move on at any time. I was living and worknig out there for almost two years and yes, if someone asked where I was living then I would obviously say Detroit. But thats different from where home is. Although I think I would have said home was Detroit at that time I'm not sure I really believed it. I think in the back of my mind I always knew I wasn't really home, or if it was going to be home it would take a good few years to earn the title. So where is home? I guess I don't know right now because I don't know where I'll be next year. I don't really want to call Leeds home because when I get a job, chances are it won't be here. It will be down in the midlands somewhere. So I guess home will be England but I just don't know where yet. Even when I get a job and move to where ever it may be it will still take some time to really feel like home. I suppose thats really it, you need more than a quick few years to call something home. I've never quite resolved where I'm from or where home is because I've moved around quite a bit. I suppose home is the Bay Area. I grew up there and my parents live there. But I wouldn't say I'm definitively from the Bay Area since I did grow up in England and that was a big part of who I am, even just through the influence of the culture through my parents. So I guess it will take a while before I can call some where home again.
Anyway, I had a pretty good trip back with only a few delays. It started after a couple hours sleep at 4:00am in California (12:00 BST) on Wednesday and I didn't get into Leeds until 4:30pm (16:30 BST) on Thursday. So almost 30 hours travelling with maybe 8 hours sleep a couples hours at a time in the last 46 hours before I went to bed last night. Like I said I was only delayed once waiting for my flight out of Charlotte but I still made all my connections to trains once I hit England. The most testing thing was the final bus ride back in Leeds. I'd been travelling for close to 30 hours, I had a 70lb (32kg) snowboard bag that thankfully had wheels to roll it around, a 50lb (23kg) backpack and a heavy carry on that I'd been dragging around through airports, train stations, the underground and across town and I'd finally made it to the last connection, the bus home. I heaved all my crap on the bus and was ready to settle down for the final leg but there was stil one test for me. As I sat down this guy sits right next to me. Fine. Then he starts talking to me in this low mumble with a broad yorkshire accent. It wasn't so bad that you couldn't understand what he was saying but it certainly took some effort. He starts saying something about going to university and how he's starting a course and has to buy a laptop and sign up for classes and all tha sort of stuff. Now this guy is probably in his 30's and doesn't really look like a university type but he's on about open university and who knows, maybe he's taking a class or two and trying to improve himself, who knows. One thign I do know is that he stinks of booze. Anyway, he won't leave me alone. Starts asking if I'm going to university and all that. I'm crap at lying and I actually was replying honestly that I didn't go to uni any more but trying to give the shortest most deadend answers to end the conversation. But he was having none of it. In fact he was convinced he knew me. Well maybe not. He might have known that he really didn't know me but it didn't stop him pretending he knew me to carry on the conversation to try and learn about me. He would say things like:
"So, yeah, you still ... err ... living up the road, you know ... err ... by the um ... what's it called ... you know the shop there ..."
To which I'd reply "No, I don't know what you're talking about." trying to end the conversation. And he would carry on.
"Oh, I know, I remember now, you're up the hill from my misses, my ex that is ... you know Julie round the corner ..."
After a while I was trying to stop him by saying "Look, I really don't think I know you, I have no idea what you're talking about." But that was no sign to stop for this man. He just carried on.
"Oh no, I remember you ... I see you all the time. You know Doncaster Dave right? You know ... he's the one who came round with Ringo the other night ... if you need a phone he's got the best deals, just go round tell him I sent you, no problem ... You can get pay as you go from the bank ... or no, don't bother with the bank, see Jimmy up the road ..."
And on and on it went. I tried ignoring him as much as possible but it just wouldn't work. I wsa just praying he would get off at a stop before me. I had all kinds of visions of him stalking me off the bus and trying to come over for tea or something. Needless to say this was not what I wanted to deal with. Luckily he got off the bus after a while so I only had to endure about half an hour of this onslaught. In the end I guess it was harmless but certainly not the welcome home I wanted. In any case I made it back. I was safe and sound in Leeds with my stuff and thats all that mattered.
I think it really helped me that the weather was at least sunny and nice. I began this post with my struggle to figure where home is and I think if I'd landed in London and it had been pissing down with rain and generally miserable, like England can be, I would have been having second thougts. As far as I could guess, if I stuck around the USA and got a job, I would be on about double the salary. Meaning that I'd have about twice the spending power over there. So I could afford a nicer car, buy a nicer house and have more toys. Basically I figure that I will have taken four years (well five now), and bunch of money to get a PhD, a further qualification, but take a pay cut compared to what I was earning in Detroit. Now, there are some stipulations though. First is that getting a job out there would be a lot more difficult. I don't have any professional connections out there and if I wanted to live in California or Colorado the industry I'm interested in isn't there. So in practicality, if I was to get a job it would have to be in Detroit or it would take a while to find one in California or Colorado, which may not be very possible. But regardless, for the purpose of this argument lets assume I could get a job out in the USA some where nice, like California or Colorado. If we go with that, I'd be on a much better salary that could get me a lot more toys and I'd be living some where with big mountains and good weather for all the outdoor fun I'd want. The problem is that I wouldn't have the job I've been working towards for the last, oh I don't know lets say, 10 years. I really want to work in the racing industry and the best place to do it is in England and thats why I'm here. Now don't get me wrong, England isn't all bad, it's certainly much better than Detroit. Out here they actually have some mountains, even if they are small. But if I want to go climbing, hiking, paddling or what ever else they do have it here, it's just on a smaller scale. Whats more is that I have a good group of friends out here who are into all the outdoor stuff so I have people to do it all with. So really its pretty good in England, its just that after having a season boarding in Breck and rafting on the Arkansas I've had it good. If I'd come back to the prospects of no job and less money when I do get a job, and to top it off the weather was miserable I think I'd be having some pretty depressing thoughts about why I'd decided to come back. Luckily, that isn't the case. The weather is nice and I've got a call back from McLaren about a job so all in all things are starting to look up. The real test will come in the next few weeks and months so I'll keep updating the blog and we'll see where I live next, maybe it will become home some day.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Labor Day weekend
So we just had labor day weekend, my last weekend in the USA. I went into SF on Thursday for a big old meal and booze up. We went over to a place in Japan town that did an all you can eat and drink special. So we hit that up and got a bit carried away. We had quite a lot of food and an excess of booze. Needless to say it was a good night, except for a bit of the usual couples getting into drunk arguments. But I managed to avoid it all and not get involved in trying to mediate any of it because I was blissfully unaware of it in my drunken state. Anyway, it made for a difficult Friday. I can't imagine how it was for the guys who had to go to work on Friday. As it was I just felt shitty sitting on the couch watching TV for the morning. In the afternoon I went out to Golden Gate park and hit up some frisbee golf again. I met up with Chupa and Jaime and ran the disc golf course. Its a good way to chill out and get outside, wander around a park and have a bit of fun. However the bus ride over there was pretty difficult. I was clenching my jaw the whole way and ready to run for the door if I was going to vomit, which could have been any time. Friday night was pretty relaxed, at least for me. We hit up the marina district in SF and although we were out till the bars closed I wasn't drinking much but still feeling pretty rough. I would have been quite happy to give up and go home around 10ish but it good seeing more people in town and hanging out.
Now Saturday was the big day. Cal vs. Tennessee in the football season opener. It was the biggest college game of the weekend and it was a home game for us. We headed over to Berkeley and hit up the house. Again it was good to run into a bunch of guys I hadn't seen in years and catch up over a few brews. There was the required foosball and beer pong, the shit talking from the deck and all the good old pre-game fun. I didn't bother with tickets but headed up to tightwad hill with Chupa and Kim. We hit up the game and saw a good victory for the Bears. All those Tennessee hillbillies could run back home to their trailers and go do their incest thing they do. It was great to be back at a Cal game and see a victory. The whole time I was at school there the football team sucked. Its only been the last few years that we've finally started winning again. After the game everyone was pretty knackered so we grabbed some food and headed back to the city and passed out.
The rest of the weekend involved a lot of chillin out, heading to Golden Gate park to play disc golf and then hitting a few bars and having a few brews. Jaime had a BBQ on Sunday night which was made especially good by Marco showing up. He was diagnosed with Leukemia at the start of the summer and has been battling it. He's been going through radiotherapy and chemotherapy and getting pretty beat up. The good news is that they have found a marrow donor for him so it all looks good. He ahs to go through a lot of proceedures to get the marrow, more chemo and radiotherapy and again he'll get pretty beat up from it but it certainly looks positive. So it was really good to see him out and have a chat and catch up, even if we pretty much only told stories and jokes about shitting the whole time. So that was my weekend. I'm heading out to see the boys one last time this evening before taking off early tomorrow morning. I did take a bunch of pictures with the new camera so once I get a card reader I'll post some of them.
It's kinda crazy to think this whole journey is coming to an end. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was just heading over to California after finishing my viva. Oh well, now its time to find a job. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to think about this whole experience and I'll keep the blog as active as I can so till next time, when I blog from England.
Now Saturday was the big day. Cal vs. Tennessee in the football season opener. It was the biggest college game of the weekend and it was a home game for us. We headed over to Berkeley and hit up the house. Again it was good to run into a bunch of guys I hadn't seen in years and catch up over a few brews. There was the required foosball and beer pong, the shit talking from the deck and all the good old pre-game fun. I didn't bother with tickets but headed up to tightwad hill with Chupa and Kim. We hit up the game and saw a good victory for the Bears. All those Tennessee hillbillies could run back home to their trailers and go do their incest thing they do. It was great to be back at a Cal game and see a victory. The whole time I was at school there the football team sucked. Its only been the last few years that we've finally started winning again. After the game everyone was pretty knackered so we grabbed some food and headed back to the city and passed out.
The rest of the weekend involved a lot of chillin out, heading to Golden Gate park to play disc golf and then hitting a few bars and having a few brews. Jaime had a BBQ on Sunday night which was made especially good by Marco showing up. He was diagnosed with Leukemia at the start of the summer and has been battling it. He's been going through radiotherapy and chemotherapy and getting pretty beat up. The good news is that they have found a marrow donor for him so it all looks good. He ahs to go through a lot of proceedures to get the marrow, more chemo and radiotherapy and again he'll get pretty beat up from it but it certainly looks positive. So it was really good to see him out and have a chat and catch up, even if we pretty much only told stories and jokes about shitting the whole time. So that was my weekend. I'm heading out to see the boys one last time this evening before taking off early tomorrow morning. I did take a bunch of pictures with the new camera so once I get a card reader I'll post some of them.
It's kinda crazy to think this whole journey is coming to an end. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was just heading over to California after finishing my viva. Oh well, now its time to find a job. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to think about this whole experience and I'll keep the blog as active as I can so till next time, when I blog from England.
Dinner with the family
So we all got together and had a family dinner out down in Palo Alto. My middle brother picked out the place and I headed down with my parents and met my oldest brother there as well. It was good to see them again and catch up a bit but the best part of the whole situation was that my oldest brother gave me a really good digital SLR camera. We were talking about taking photos and he realised I was still using a film camera and said "Well, I've got an old camera I don't use any more. You can have it if you want it." Its a Canon like my current film camera so my lense will work with it. Plus he gave me a bunch of stuff to go with it. An extra lense, a bunch of memory cards and batteries etc. The only thing I'll need to buy is a battery charger and a compact flash reader. So bottom line is that I've got a nice camera now and should be able to post pictures with much better resolution. The only problem is that its bigger and heavier than my old camera, but hopefully I'll take it out and get a bunch of good photos and post them.
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