So hey, I got a job (and some other updates)Sorry for the unplanned silence; I had a nice cadence going on the blog going into Thanksgiving and a number of pieces queued up to write over the holiday, and then things changed a bit.I got involved in discussions with a couple of companies, and I ended up getting an offer from one of them, which I’ve accepted. I’m going to manage their technical publications group. More correctly, since this is a smaller startup, I’m going to be most of the publications group, although I expect to be bringing in some contract writers down the road, and if that might be you, ping me in January after I have a chance to start sorting this all out.I’m starting December 18, which gives me a week to find everything, and the holiday week to start digging in and understanding what I need to dig into first, and then I expect to be moving forward by January on things.This is a small start-up doing security software, and yes, I’m not naming names quite yet. The other company I was talking to was also quite interesting to me, but the more I chatted with these folks about the short term and long term goals for me, the more I was sure it was what I wanted. I’m thrilled and looking forward to digging in.
A quick health update
And since we’re getting close to the end of the year… I’ve gotten below 355 pounds, which puts me at close to 30 pounds lost this year, although I think I’ll fall just short of that number. In January I set a goal for 50, which I knew was aggressive, and while I didn’t get there, I’m really happy with the result. Given some of the craziness on the health front at the beginning of the year due to that drug reaction, I’m not surprised things were slow for a while. My weight was down 9 months and flat two others, so I can’t really complain; the one month I gained it was a single pound. That’s 40 pounds in 2 years, and it’s taken me from 5X clothes to 3X. It’s made a huge positive difference on the knees, which makes me really happy.Next year? Setting the goal for 50 again and we’ll see how close I get.It’s also been 8 months since my last visit to the Emergency Room, which marked the end of that seven months of fun. That sequence started with what we thought was a simple and safe shift in the prescriptions (it wasn’t) that caused the blood sugars to spike, and it took us a while to figure it out and get it under control; whatever went sideways did so in the liver, and my ALT is finally back to normal and my A1C went down about 10% to the lowest it’s been since before I went diabetic.So overall, a year that started out with some serious questions (like: why do I keep going to the ER and why can’t we figure out how to fix it?) has turned around and is ending on a rather nice positive momentum. Which makes me happy.
A few other things
Just to annoy the rest of you, I can admit that I’ve finished my Christmas shopping, everything it wrapped, the boxes that need to be shipped are shipped, and so I can relax and not worry about things like UPS delays or whether I’ll find the right presents. And I’m really enjoying the season so far, which I haven’t always been able to say in recent years.I’ve also agreed to become the chair of the Birdathon committee for the
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, and we’re organizing the first meeting of that team now. The Birdathons are a major fund raising activity for the organization and so I’m thrilled to be able to get involved and help; we have some interesting ideas on how we can improve and modernize what we’ve been doing.I’ve also volunteered to run an excursion for SCVAS, and in February I’ll be leading a group out to Merced National Wildlife Refuge for a half day birding outing there. When that is posted in the events listings I’ll pass along a link to it.
And finally, the Youtube project
Taking a look at my progress on launching that Youtube project, and factoring in that I’m going back to work in a week, I’ve decided to push launch back a month. I found when I started working on video that I really needed a refresher on Final Cut, and so I’ve been working through an online training class to get my brain wrapped around the program again. That and the start up time I expect to spend on the new job makes January 15 unrealistic, although I could possibly still make it. Instead, I’ll push it off a month so I’m not stressing about it much, and if I have it ready to go early, that’s more time for me to add more video to be available at launch (never a bad thing).I don’t expect having a job to affect my contributing to the channel, I always had it set up as a moonlight/part time thing I could scale up if I wasn’t working, so the ongoing work involved won’t be impacted (I think).And that’s about it. To all of you who celebrate something this time of year, I hope your celebration is wonderful and you do it with people you like being with.
