The World According to Jason

10:32am: Five Weeks and Not Fired Yet
Wow, I can't believe I've neglected my LiveJournal for the last two months! With the new job, I've had other stuff on my mind, I guess. For those who haven't heard, I started my new job at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems in Carson, CA, on March 15th, and now that I've been around for five weeks, I can say that I'm really glad that I took this job.

One of the great things about this job is the importance of the stuff that I'm working on. At my last job, I was developing Computer-Aided Drafting tools for companies that made microprocessors. I was at a small company, so our business really depended on a relatively small number of companies that we did business with. Now I'm developing software used by the U.S. Army, a program that's already been used in Afghanistan and Iraq with a lot of success. The program is called Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below, or FBCB2 for short. It's also referred to as Blue Force Tracking, since its main function is to track friendly units (blue forces) and display everyone's position on each other's computer screens. The program's been very well-received, and it's been credited for saving the lives of many soldiers from friendly fire. You can read an article about FBCB2 at

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0322/tec-blueforce-03-22-04.asp

I also really like the people that I'm working with. I got along very well with the people in my last job, so I'm glad to see that I'm also making friends among my new coworkers. One of the neat things that I've been doing with them is that I've joined the "Anderson Classic Disc Golf Tour", a friendly competition of frisbee golf that we do every other Thursday in Anderson and Mills Parks in Carson. That's been pretty fun, even though I admit that I need more practice at it. It's helped me to learn people's names better, which is more of a challenge now with my 30 or so coworkers than with my 5 previous coworkers. It also doesn't hurt that people wear security badges with their names on them.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll write again sometime before mid-June. :)

10:51pm: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Well, last Wednesday I handed in my letter of resignation to my boss. I knew it was going to be hard to tell him that I was leaving, but I didn't know it would be that hard. I kept it simple, especially since I was finding it so hard to speak. I found that I couldn't talk too much louder than a mumble. Not only that, but I had to go to the bathroom afterwards and take a couple of minutes to clear my eyes. I'm really going to miss working with these guys, but when I remind myself of where I'm going, I know that I can't pass up an opportunity like this.

It got me thinking, this must be similar to breaking up with a girlfriend. I'm sorry, but there's someone else... You've just been so great for me... It's not you, it's me...

On a totally different note, I found out recently about a great website where you can play all sorts of great classic video games. It's at http://www.shockwave.com/sw/actiongames/arcade_classics. I especially recommend Root Beer Tapper; I've been addicted to that game for the last few days.

9:58pm: S-U-C-C-E-S-S, That's the Way You Spell Success!
Well, everyone, I'm moving up in the world. On Friday, I got an offer of employment from Northrop Grumman Mission Systems in Carson, just a couple of blocks from Cal State Dominguez Hills. Apparently I made a good enough impression on them during my interviews that they wanted me to be part of the team. I can't tell you the number of times in the last few days I've just stopped and thought, "Wow, I'm going to work for Northrop." In fact, now that I think of it, wow, I'm going to work for Northrop.

After the Northrop career fair last week (see the last post for more details), I got a call the following Monday from one of the managers saying that they'd like to schedule a round of interviews that week. I called, they called, and it turned into a fun round of phone tag for the next couple of days since I didn't want them calling me at work. I finally got in touch with the guy on Wednesday evening and set up the interviews for Thursday morning. Thankfully I had a great excuse for missing the morning hours at work; I left a message on the machine saying that with the work being done on my house, I had to be here to sign for some stuff being delivered. I thought the interviews went pretty well, except for one of them. Everyone seemed to be smiling and engaged with what I was saying, except for the second-to-last guy that I talked to. He seemed like he had other things on his mind, and the way he asked me questions was like he was reading them off a card. Not to mention the fact that he played with his pen and didn't look up too often. Of course, this guy was a higher level executive-type, so he probably went along with whatever the more technical people thought. That part wasn't the greatest, but the other people I talked to seemed to like me. Apparently they liked me enough, though, since I'm going to be working with them.

It's really a great opportunity. I'm going to be working on software being used by the U.S. Army called Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking, or FBCB2/BFT for short, if you consider that short. My salary at my current company depends a lot on our monthly sales, but I'll just say that we would have to have quite a good year to match what I'll be getting with my new job. I'm just so excited, but I'm not looking forward to telling the guys at work that I'm going to be leaving them. I've really gotten to like the people that I work with, so it's weird knowing that soon I won't be having lunch with them almost everyday like I do now. However, I know that my opportunities are a lot greater with Northrop, and today I mailed the papers saying that I've accepted the job offer.

I'll let you all know any developments as they happen.

9:53pm: My Weekend/Random Question for the Week
Hi, everyone! Well, this last weekend went pretty well for me. First thing Saturday morning, I went to the Embassy Suites where my sister works for a career fair being held by Northrop Grumman. I kinda expected to hand in my resume, talk with a person or two, and if I was lucky, maybe to schedule an interview. Overall, I expected it to take about half an hour or so. I went up to a person representing the Redondo Beach office and talked with him only to find out that I needed a preexisting security clearance to work there. However, he seemed to like me and introduced me to someone from the Carson office. He liked me enough that he had me fill out an application, after which we went into one of the hotel rooms for a 20-minute interview. I felt that the interview went pretty well, and I got confirmation today when another person from that office left a message on my machine that they'd like to schedule an interview at their office. Things are looking up...

And now for my Random Question for this week, something that I was discussing with my coworkers after lunch. If you could have a unit of measurement named for you, what would you want to be a measurement of? Personally, I think I'd like to be a measurement of time. "What time is it?" "Oh, it's about 15 Jasons past noon." OR "Hold on, I'll be there in a Jason!"

Yeah, I'm weird, but I'd like to hear what anyone else would choose. Feel free to send in your comments!

11:54pm: The road to better vision
Hi, all! Sorry I haven't written in a while. My computer was packed away in my closet for a few weeks while a new window was being put in my room. Now that my window's been installed in all of its double-paned glory, I actually have a computer that I can use on a regular basis. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know of a funny (and somewhat sad) story. Life is hilariously cruel...

The day before Thanksgiving, I had my eyes checked for the first time since my freshman year of college (that's about 6 years to you and me). My vision's been pretty good, which the exam proved, but my lenses and frames have been scratched for a while, and as long as I'm getting new glasses, I might as well have my eyes checked. So, I got the exam, I ordered my glasses, and things were good. The next week, I picked up my new glasses and brought them home, only to notice that they had lots of tiny scratches on the lenses. I brought them back, and they told me that this is something that was done at the lab they work with. That makes sense, since the scratches were in pretty exact circles in the middle of the lenses. They took the glasses back, and next week I call to find out what's been going on. The lady tells me that the lab sent them a new pair of lenses, but those were scratched, too, so they had them sent back.

The optician got into some sort of dispute with this lab about my lenses, so they stopped doing business with them, and on the day of Christmas Eve, I went in to pick up the new glasses made by a completely different lab. I looked at the lenses in the store, and they looked fine. It wasn't until I left and was out shopping that I realized that I could see scratches on the lenses in the daylight. So I brought those glasses back and showed them these scratches, and they were quite befuddled. What are the chances that three sets of lenses could be scratched by two different labs? This time they sent the order to yet another lab, and last Thursday I picked up the glasses. I checked very carefully, even in the daylight, to make sure that there are absolutely no marks on the lenses. They were perfect. Since it always takes me a couple of days to get used to a new set of lenses, I saved them for the weekend.

On Saturday morning, I was looking at my new glasses and realized, "I can see my reflection in these lenses." I ordered the anti-glare coating, and sure enough, there was no such coating on these lenses. When I went back into the store on Saturday, they were so embarrassed. They apologized profusely, and said that they'd have the glasses ready in another week. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, the fifth pair of lenses will actually be correct. Now the question is, what are they going to give me for this wait? I'm one of the most forgiving people that I know, but when I go in to pick up the glasses, I'm going to ask them for some sort of compensation. I've talked with them, and they seem like really nice people, but if they don't give me something good, I'm not going to go there again. Call me a sucker, but maybe if they give me a good enough deal, I might be willing to go to them next time.

10:49pm: A Tip For You Sickies
No, I'm not intending the word sickies to be an insult. Last week I came down with a bit of a cold, and there are a couple of things that I've done that have helped quite a bit.

My colds always seem to start off with a sore throat, which is extremely annoying. Most other parts of the cold you can ignore for a while, but you're reminded of a sore throat anytime you swallow. My advice: warm Coke. It sounds weird, but this did absolute wonders for me. Put some Coke into the microwave (please remember to pour it into a cup; I don't want anyone putting an aluminum can into the microwave) and warm it up until it's a little bit warmer than room temperature. It'll lose most of its carbonation after you take it out, but that's fine. It goes down easily, and something about it takes away some of the pain. Probably because it has more of a coating effect than water does.

Secondly, I've found that Zicam works pretty well for me. It's in a nasal spray container, but it's more of a gel than a spray. Before, my colds would generally take about two weeks to go away. Since I started taking Zicam, the cold is mostly gone after a week. The stuff makes your nose tingle, and it makes your nose run quite a bit for a few minutes, but it's worth it.

Hopefully these suggestions will help you the next time you get a cold. Use the knowledge wisely.

11:43pm: Twice the Choir, Twice the Fun
Well, looks like I'm doing pretty good with my new updating schedule, huh? Maybe next time I won't be a few days late.

Most of you know by now that I'm in my church's Youth Choir, and a lot of times I get the same question, something to the effect of, "Are you enough of a youth to be in the Youth Choir?" Granted, I'm the oldest one in the choir, but there are a few college people in our choir. It's basically the choir for young people in 8th Grade and up. When my brother started singing with the Youth Choir, there were probably three or four people my age, but unfortunately I'm the only college graduate right now. Needless to say, it makes me feel a little old sometimes, especially since some people are little more than half my age.

Just last week, I accepted an invitation from our director, Grant, for any of us to temporarily join the Contemporary Choir to help with an upcoming Christmas concert. After going to a couple of practices with this other choir, some concerns of mine have been relieved. I've planned that this will be my last year with the Youth Choir, and next year I'm going to join the Contemporary Choir. I was afraid that joining an adult choir meant singing boring songs, but from the sampling that we've been doing, that's not the case. Also, needless to say, the adult choir is much more focused on the singing, rather than chatting with friends when we should be getting ready. So even though it means that I'll go from being the oldest (by quite a bit) in one choir to being the youngest (by quite a bit) in the other choir, the time is drawing near for me to make the switch.

By the way, if you are interested in the Christmas concert that we're doing, I don't know all the details except that it'll be on December 14 at St. John Fisher in RPV. I'll let you know when I find out more.

11:23pm: Opportunity Strikes at Weird Times
Well, there's no time like the present to start what I'm hoping will be a weekly tradition.

I've mentioned before that I've been looking around for job openings in the aerospace industry. About a month ago, I went to a career fair that was being held by Raytheon. I did some shopping around the different departments to find out who I could give my resume to, starting with the table labeled "Software Engineering". I gave them my resume and talked to them for a while about the stuff that they work on. It sounded pretty neat for the most part, and what really impressed me is that they each said that they had been around for 15, 18, even 23 years. It can't be too bad to work there if people stay around for that long.

A couple weeks later, I hadn't heard anything yet, but that's not too surprising; career fairs have a habit of just getting your resume and keeping it around until something comes up. I was out with Jim at Y-Not Burger, and he was asking me about how my job search was going on as we were getting our drinks. This guy who was next to us getting a refill asks me, "Oh, what kind of job are you looking for?" I tell him that I'm a computer programmer, and he says, "Well, I work for Raytheon, and I know that our company's hiring lots of software people in the next few months." We ended up talking for a minute or so and he gave me his business card. He's a manager in their electrical engineering department. Now that I've e-mailed this guy my resume, it would be great if something came out of it. He's told me that I should contact him in the next week or so to see if something's come up. I've got someone in the company helping me out! How great is that?

I guess if I have to have a moral to this story, it's that good things can happen when you least expect them. I'm still just amazed by the coincidence, since Jim and I could have eaten any other place at any other time and we would have missed him.

That's it for this installment. Until next time, remember: don't jam sharp objects in your eye. It impairs your vision, and it tends to get blood all over the sharp object.

11:08pm: I'm back! Mwahahaha!!!
Hi there! Missed me? Yeah, I didn't think so. Wow, it's been well over a month since I last posted. I'm getting really bad at this. You see, that's why I was resisting at first when Kalyan told me to get a LiveJournal. Well, I have a new plan. I'm going to try to post something every week, probably on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe if I make it a weekly thing I won't have so much trouble updating my journal. It won't always be autobiographical, but it'll be about whatever I feel like saying. Let's see how it works out.

11:19pm: One more update
Hello again, people, and welcome to another, somewhat sporadic, update to my world.

Things have been pretty weird around the house lately, now that we've done the demolition and have started some of the new construction. The first job that we had done to the house, about two weeks ago, was removing the "popcorn" acoustic ceiling covering from the first floor rooms. Because the stuff contained more asbestos than is now considered negligible, they had to get people with full body suits to take it down. That night we had a plastic tunnel that led from the front door to the staircase, and we spent the whole evening upstairs. That wasn't so bad, because even though the ceilings now look ugly until they're painted, ceilings don't really affect my daily life. What does affect me, however, is that we've taken out all of the tile flooring, so most of the floors are now dusty concrete. I can't walk from room to room anymore without shoes! We'd clean it up, but there's all sorts of dried glue from the tiles, and more dust is raised every time the construction people do more work.

The kitchen is looking really nice, now. And by nice, I mean that it has no wallboard, so you can see the beams and the insulation. There are some large drainage pipes that run through those walls that were opened up, so when people upstairs flush the toilet, it now sounds like a waterfall in the kitchen. That's not a pleasant thought, is it? On the bright side, the demolition part is pretty much done, so they're putting in some new lights, and in a couple of cases, new walls. Hopefully this'll be done by Thanksgiving like they said it would.

I've taken plenty of pictures with my not-so-great digital camera, so I'll have to post a couple some other time. Thanks to Jim, I'm currently typing this from my own room, since he found a great deal on a wireless router for me. Let's just say that on the three pieces of hardware I had to buy (wireless router, wireless receiver, and USB card), I'm sending in for five rebates. It's a good thing.

I'll update later, hopefully with some pictures to show you all. In the meantime, peace out, yo.

10:35pm: Long time no write...
Wow, can you believe it's been two weeks since I've written anything on this page? Time really flies, doesn't it? I guess one of the reasons that I haven't posted in a while is because I know that once I'm on the computer, I won't have any excuse to avoid working on my resume. I know I need to do it, but it's just reminding me too much of my constant resume modifications and cover letter writing that I had to do for months until I landed my current job. But hey, I got some work done on the resume tonight, and even though it's not done yet, it's closer. As Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing.

The big news since my last posting involves the Casa de Jason. Yeah, we're going to be doing some remodeling. My mom has wanted to do something with our kitchen for a long time, so we're going to be renovating it along with what is currently our computer room (next to the kitchen). This is not going to be a quick little, "Let's fix a little part of the room." No, no. This is gong to be a, "Let's change everything, including all our appliances, in a 2 1/2 month operation." Apparently the construction is going to begin next Monday or Tuesday, and they plan to be done sometime before Thanksgiving. Until then, we're going to be doing our food preparation in the garage. No, I'm not kidding about that. The garage has the only other big sink, and there's no other room that makes sense. I have no idea what we're going to be able to make ourselves, since the only cooking appliance will be the microwave from my apartment in Berkeley. I'm guessing that Panda Express is going to be making more money off of us than they already are. As for the computer room, I guess we're going to have to move our computer into the living room. That should change the scenery for our bi-weekly webcam talks with my brother. I'm looking forward to it, or rather, I'm looking forward to the completion of it.

That's it for now. See y'all later. Hopefully less than two weeks later, this time.

11:15pm: What's New in Jason's World
Well, there may not always be new stuff to talk about in my world, but hey, there have been a couple of interesting developments for me recently.

First off, I'm now a member of 24-Hour Fitness. Hooray, I'm contributing to the ever-expanding empire of Magic Johnson. Ironically, I'm also helping him out by eating at Fatburger about once a week, although I always have the Turkeyburger with no mayo. You see, it's health food, really. For the past few months, I've been waking up early four times a week and doing sit-ups and push-ups, and for the past month or so I've been riding our exercise bike for 15-20 minutes. My sister and I were getting bored with our routine, so after some shopping around, we settled on joining 24-Hour. It's pretty nice, and right at Hawthorne and Crenshaw.

( What else? )

10:55pm: Cool Website for You
If you've ever seen the XBox game Halo, or maybe if you're into computer games in general, there's a great site that you've got to check out. Go to

http://www.redvsblue.com

Some people who probably have too much free time on their hands are making a humorous story set completely in the world of Halo. All of the acting is done with the character models in the video game, with really good dialogue provided by the creators. They made an appearance at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) this year, and just this last weekend, they did a presentation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Really, if you're into computer games at all, download the episodes of the Blood Gulch Cronicles.

On a side note, I heard a couple of booms outside, and I've been wondering what it was. Son of a gun, it's been raining, and I didn't notice until now! The rain's gone, but there's thunder coming every couple of minutes. Pretty cool as far as I'm concerned, but it's scaring my cats. They'll get used to it if it keeps going, so I'm not worried.

9:54pm: No News
Howdy, y'all. You can see just how used I am to the LiveJournal thing; I haven't posted a single thing in two weeks. Somehow I'll have to remember not to neglect my adoring fans. That would be you, in case you couldn't tell. Hey, what's so funny?

There hasn't been too much new stuff going on recently. Just yesterday I went out for dinner and a movie with Ted and Charles, two of my old high school buddies who I pretty much didn't see at all during my four years of college. I've hung out with them a couple of times since, and it's really nice to catch up with what they're doing now. They're both in the software industry, though in pretty different roles. Charles is a programmer for DirecTV, working on a data services component. His stuff is going beta pretty soon, so he's been working pretty hard recently. Ted's working as a customer service guy for Ulead Systems, so he got to tell us funny stories about the customers that call him.

As for me, I've been plugging away at this new program that my company's developing, called Netex-G. Our release cycle is quite different than what you'd see at most larger companies. Most places put out a program after a year or more of working on it, and then release an update maybe every year. We're in a continual cycle of releases, where we put out a program, version 1.00, for example, and then make an improvement for version 1.01, released a few weeks later. Of course, when our customers purchase a license, they can download any new upgrades that we have. Otherwise the customers wouldn't have much incentive, knowing that if they held out for a few weeks longer, they could get a better product. Since we're small (about 11 employees at two offices), we're pretty responsive to the needs of our customers. So work's been keeping me busy, but not to the point where I'm working tons of overtime, thank goodness.

That's it for now. Pray that I write again within the next two weeks!

6:47pm: Music and Me
You know, one of the things that I've been thinking about is how my interest in music has changed over the years.

It may sound kinda weird, but I really never enjoyed much music at all until sometime in high school. When I was in kindergarten, I liked the music that was played on Sesame Street, but that's about it. Not that 6-year-olds are expected to have much more interest than that. When I was in elementary school, I'd listen to Neil Diamond and Paul Simon. I know you're scratching your head at that, but my parents had those tapes, and they were pretty much the only thing we'd have to listen to in the car. I swear, whenever I hear that song Kodachrome, I get relapses of riding in our old minivan. In junior high, I guess I kinda liked M.C. Hammer, but who didn't in that day. Don't judge me; you know you liked him, too.

Then in high school I was introduced to country music. The thing that immediately struck me about country is that you can actually understand the words they're singing. And the subject material is much better than most other genres, probably 90% love songs. I'd much rather hear a song where vocals count than one where the practice is to play loud and scream unintelligibly. For those of you that like heavy metal, I'm not trying to make you wrong, but you are. :)

I'm now part of the St. John Fisher Youth Choir (I guess you could say I'm the lead bass), and I'm starting to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. I know a lot more music theory than I did a couple of years ago, and I'm learning more as I go. It's now my main hobby, even surpassing computer games. Kinda surprising for someone like me who was hardly into music at all when I was younger.

12:19am: Introduction
Alright, this time I'm not finishing my lunch break at work, so I can do things the right way.

Welcome to my LiveJournal

For now, I'm entitling this page The World According to Jason. Hmmm...the world seems a little empty at the moment. Oh yeah, that's because this is my first real entry. Well, I'll change that soon enough. Let me give you a quick overview of what this page is going to be about.

What You Will and Won't See

Since this is The World According to Jason, this page is going to deal mostly with what I'm up to at the moment. That means you shouldn't expect to see my talking about what a rush it is to bungie jump off of the Space Needle, because very likely, I'm not going to do it (but if I do, I'll tell you about it). If my life is boring to you, well, that's too bad. Get your own world.

People who know me know that I usually have a smile on my face. I guess those Project Self Esteem classes in elementary school worked pretty well for me. I tend to always look on the bright side of life, as Eric Idle would sing. If something really depressing happens, I'll talk about it, but I generally don't get bogged down in a bad mood. You might see me ranting about something every once in a while, but that's about it.

The Ground Rules

This world is mine, and you all are visitors. I make up the rules, I write the entries. I'll admit that I'm a dictator here, but I'm a benevolent one. If you have something to say about one of my entries, you can post a comment. Try to keep it clean, since my world is meant to be family-friendly.

Now, sit back and enjoy the beautiful madness that is my LiveJournal.

2:06pm: Quick Note
Hi, there.

If you're actually here, how did you find this place? If you aren't really here, then maybe you should ask yourself where you really are.

In any case, welcome to my new (and very, very empty) LiveJournal page. I swear, I'll get around to posting something sometime that might be remotely interesting. But seeing as how I don't have the time for that right now, all you have is this little message. How I pity you.

So, for the moment, go and read something else. To quote Ferris Bueller, "You're still here? It's over. Go home... Go."