Trick
Or Treat
A Lifelong Mentor
I hit up an old boss of mine recently and he informed me he'd be working in my area today. I was excited to see this guy since I worked for him about half a year ago until my car broke down and I couldn't make the hour-long commute. We did flooring but I also helped drop off materials as well as doing gardening and helping him with other errands. This guy was so busy I was also his personal driver so he could take calls hands-free and coordinate with clients! I respected him a lot so it was good to meet up again, the last day we worked together I worked a 12 hour day after which he payed me more than I was worth and I had a chance to walk around his property while looking over the lake and watching the sky turn a golden color.
I told him my biggest regret was that I didn't get a car and stayed working with him, choosing the easy route and blowing through my money partying in Vegas! I told him that on my way back home after our last meeting is when my car really started messing up and there were several times on the way home I thought about turning back because my acceleration was so bad. If I had transportation I would have kept working with the guy but instead I partied and blew threw my savings. Going to Vegas wasn't a complete waste though, the reason I went is because I got into a mobile app marketing conference for free and didn’t pay for a single meal or drink the whole time! Actually, that isn't exactly true. The only drink I payed for was at an exclusive night club that I got into for free and I bought it for this redhead who I danced and made out with. It's a long story and I better save that one for later.
This mentor was a great guy and the complete opposite of my boss I walked out on at my last tech job. If the best boss I've had was punctual, hard-working, possessing a good mind for business along with solid morals, the worst boss I had at my last tech job was the reverse. The worst boss was self-centered, hypocritical, super strict and unpredictable at the same time. The best boss expected me to look good which is atypical for a construction job while the worst boss would criticize my appearance the days I dressed to look my best for him. The former was like me who helped those around him without expecting anything in return while the latter resorted to screaming, changing his mind, and talking about blame 24/7, and instate rules that didn’t make any sense.
As I gave my mentor a tour of my house I showed him a Mike Rowe poster that reminded me of him, it said "work smart and hard" instead of the typical "work smart, not hard". I also introduced him to my roomate and I caught him up on my legends over the past 6 months, including my crazy interview stories and how competitive the tech space is with all this AI development. What's interesting was that he was also expanding his business, and what I thought was one of his side-projects (like I have) actually turned out to be a serious endeavor for him. He was trying to get into the business of using lasers as a cleaning technology to get dirt, paint, and other contaminants off of surfaces without deforming them. It was cool that we both made progress in our journeys as when I last saw him he was in the process of buying the laser equipment with some folks from China.
And now I think I finally cracked the formula to writing the best resume. One of the things I talked about with my mentor was the importance of having good systems in place, which often-times means delegating tasks to the right people and giving them autonomy to let them do what they do best. That’s exactly what I need to emphasize in my resume and leverage my connections as proffessional references since I've met so many people through many different walks of life, especially when I go to conferences. When my mentor left I told my roomate that even though I might not have a college degree, life is competitive and you'd still see the same hurdles in construction as you do in the tech space. If college gatekeeps the tech jobs then unions do the same for construction and you need to try to find people who value genuine skill over credentials. Being a great man sometimes means going against the grain.
Dungeons and Double D's
We decided to call our D&D group Dungeons and Double D's because the party really ended up being a bunch of dudes making dirty jokes the whole time. I opened with telling the bard I was tied up with that I was still going to turn him into King James when we got back to the material plane but I was going to protect him the whole way there and let him commit as many devious acts as he wanted!
My escape plan went haywire though: the bard let out a sharp piercing noise and told one of the guards that it was a giant eagle which they are afraid of in this realm. When the guards were talking to one another discussing what they should do I didn't role high enough to whisk away the key. Later that night when our characters were transformed into elks I told the bard that "tonight we fight like hell!"
Unfortunately we were able to beat back some of the guard dogs but 2 elks were no match going up against the goddess of the hunt and her companions. The next day our characters awoke in a banquet hall, we got unchained and sat around the table with the goddess and our D&D player characters to feast, including the lionin, goliath, and satyr. We were tasked with bringing back a branch from the world tree to be made into a magic wand for multi-planar travel, hunting bows, and other equipment.
We ended up making the trek to the world tree but the track back next session is going to be more difficult since the giant character is the only one capable of carrying an object that weighs a ton and he might have to leave his blaster weapon behind. It is a tough situation since he's the only one strong enough to protect us in the huntresses realm and using him as a mule puts us in danger. There are so many different directions the story could go though! I might try to convince the other players to sneakily climb the world tree into the satyrs home of the feywilds or navigate the cavern system to get to the shadowdark which is where my elven ancestors came from.
The craziest thing that happened during the game is when me and the DM rolled the same exact number 3 or 4 times consecutively on 20 sided dice. On my last role I even said "I better not role a 14 this time" and its exactly what happened. The odds of that happening are over 1 in 60 million which puts it around the same likelihood as winning the lottery! The most intense thing that happened in the game was our last escape attempt where we actually put up a decent fight and the funniest thing that happened was then the bard wasted a spell to talk to a koala (out of all the animals we could have picked to help us) and it flicked him off after he told it to commit adultery.
The Opportunist
This morning I was up at 6am talking to a recruiter from the UK for a role based in San Diego, which is funny because at midday I'm speaking with a company that roles it's own OS and I just set up another call with a company that’s interested in me from San Francisco! That’s 3 companies in all 3 of the major cities in California and each serving different niches. Obviously I'd prefer living in the Bay area if I could but the other 2 options aren't bad either. Since tech lives in the Silicon Valley, the music scene is best in LA, and San Diego has the best beaches and some of the kindest people I've ever met.
Sometimes it feels like life is full of extremes: I am more broke than I've ever been but I'm simultaneously pursuing the most lucrative careers I could ever think of! I'm also really glad I have a roomate who's been on my ass about partying and blowing through my money on stupid purchases like birdfeed because the last time I was in a similar situation I resorted to crime and I never want to do it again. When I first moved into this apartment I did it on my own while working a roofing job and thankfully I still had a car back then.
A few months after I got my crib I had an old friend try to move in with me -- the same guy who introduced me to my dungeon master -- and even though refusing him broke my heart I realize it was the right decision now because I probably would have lost my beautiful apartment. I watched this friend move from his own parents into my moms house, then a mutual friends house, then into a card shop, and it was always the same pattern of creating a huge mess, not paying, playing politics, and acting like the owners house was his turf. I offered him the couch and to live with me on my terms, but obviously it wasn't going to go down easy and I did snap pretty hard at the guy because of the years of pent up rage I had against him. He probably wouldn't be alive if he tried pulling the same shit under my roof as he did in the past. The thing I hated the most about that situation was that he was trying to play both sides and set his spoiled rich friend against me during the negotiations instead of just moving in with him!
If there's anything I do have to be grateful for its the fact that I did not go down the wrong path in life. Theft is one thing but I also got into crypto back when I traded it on the dark-net and luckily I ended up going into gaming and graphics rather than pen-testing and becoming the proverbial "Russian hacker". Crime is not good way to make a living -- even as a last resort -- and I feel I don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Someone smashed a screen on one of our computers at work, my roomate left our bike unchained for the millionth time which got it stolen, and my mom's car got broken in yesterday with important documents and credit cards missing (luckily my passport is still safe). Ending up on the street or in jail is not where anyone would like to end up.
But I've still got plenty to look forward to: In addition to the 3 leads I have in California -- one of which is the recruiter I'm speaking to tomorrow about the San Francisco position -- I also have another person hitting me up about a remote role for a grocery and retail company! According to the description to they are looking to fill this role quickly whereas a lot of the companies I've been applying for take months to find the right candidate. At this point I think the best thing I can do is cast a wide enough net, see what offers I can get and take the best one. So we will see what happens in the coming weeks...
Money Talks
Woke up this morning taking a call from the recruiter targeting roles in San Francisco and shortly after I hit up another recruiter for a remote-based role at a large grocery chain who I might be following up with later today. I also got a call from the San Diego recruiter pertaining to the flutter developer position and in 15 minutes I have my 1st round for the company rolling their own OS that's based in LA!
I'm trying to study up on my low-level Android development by reading a book I got for embedded development to make sure I have the right preliminary knowledge. Once I get a cable to connect my 3rd monitor I'll have a full working setup on my brand new PC to actually make good progress on some of my side-projects and hopefully learn more about AOSP development.
The interview for the LA company went really well but there are 4 more rounds to go, the last of which the company also flies you out to Cali! It's crazy how many people ended up hitting me up today, probably had more calls than I ever have made within 24 hours. It's also super important that I'm pursuing multiple opportunities because I learned the hard way not to put all my eggs in one basket. I thought I landed my dream job the last time I was flown out and now I'm barely making ends meet. But its okay because you just need to grow skillset (as you would your own garden) and let the companies interested (like the white white rabbits) notice you more.
I might have also lost my drivers license today which is a total bummer, hopefully it turns up at home or at the job. It got me thinking back to yesterday working at the pizza place: it was odd that I made so many deliveries on a Tuesday morning which is usually the slowest time typically to work. What I also found interesting that day was that on at least 3 deliveries I made in a row there was some kind of construction going on at the property: either roofing, pouring cement, or painting. My second job at the moment is holiday lighting -- which I'm doing tomorrow -- since right now I'm just trying to get my money up, even if it means working 6 days a week. Having lots of different experiences and doing different lines of work can never be a bad thing!
I feel like interviewing is also a skill and after today I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow even though I know I'll probably be exhausted by the end of it. Working delivery until midnight tonight, 5 hours later I'll have to be up to do holiday lighting, then I have an interview with the San Diego company and a band practice coming after that! And the day after that is my favorite holiday, Haloween.
Happy Haloween
Still feeling tired and a bit hungover from yesterday, I did a pretty tedious task at my lighting job yesterday which took me all day and the night before I closed up at the pizza place. I was pretty much running on no sleep until today. Still haven't found my drivers license which sucks cause I know buying alcohol and Mary Jane is going to be a problem. But the good news is today is the day of my favorite holiday, Halloween!
I have a pretty cool set of decorations and some lighting I did around the garden area. I was gonna head to the store as soon as I'm up to it for the final touches, plus some candy for anyone who comes to the table I set up on my patio are. The final result looked dope after I connected all the lights. I really went all out this year since I have a sizable collection of Halloween props I've gathered over time and even though we don't get that many trick or treaters my spot will definitely be the biggest attraction in the neighborhood tonight.
Unfortunately work was a complete shit show today since today was probably the single most busiest day of the year with an all time high in sales. If you've ever heard of Murphy's law well that's exactly how today felt like: technology was acting up, frustrated customers waited for wrong orders, we were low on everything including no 2-liter coke bottles, one of my deliveries cancelled after I tried to call them 3 times before my 20 minute drive there, and the worst part is a bunch of people didn't show up that day, including my roomate! He picked the worst day possible to relapse and I had to tell work he was detoxing in the hospital since I rely on him financially and I didn't want either of us out of work.
Tomorrow I'm doing lighting again and even if I get a menial task I don't mind, I'll just make sure to bring a speaker next time so I can listen to a podcast or music. Obviously being up in trees and roofs is one thing but even so I've done every kind of job you can imagine and it's not all that bad by comparison. Looking forward to band practice on Sunday as well since we might actually be able to get drums and sax together that day, but the most exciting part is the new chick trying out for the band. I tried to bring her in before our last show at Wrigleyville but we had 3 chicks in the band at the time and a 4th was too much for my guitarist!
If being broke and working 6 days a week has taught me anything it's that I don't want to ever relax and put myself in this situation again. I partied too hard, traveled too often, and blew threw all my money! Obviously putting all my eggs in one basket hasn't panned out as well as I hoped and I just need to keep pursuing tech leads and hopefully find the role that can get me out of Chicago. I know it will all work out, it's just gonna take me longer than I expected. After all, it takes pressure to make diamonds
Bewitched These Weekends
Woke up in the morning contemplating whether I should work a few hours and make 100$ or try to get my new PC set up with my 3 monitors since I finally got the component I was missing. I knew I may have to get back into programming to prepare for serious interviews and I also knew it was my moms birthday today. The band was also setup have a great jam later tonight with drums, sax, keys, and a female vocalist, which I'm surprised I was able to finally orchestrate! Since I literally spent my entire Saturday screwing in 1000 lightbulbs (I counted) maybe I should keep one day for myself. Knowing myself and my drive I'd probably end up just trying to beat my own record and do another 1000!
Had a bit of a hiccup with the PC and am considering just buying another cheap monitor at this point for 150$. If I'm snobbish about one thing it's decorating my house so if it works amazing then that's fine, but if I'm getting an upgrade, my new rig also needs to look good! I decided to put off D&D for today since there's so much going on already. But I do already have some idea of where next week's escape from the Outer Planes will go: we could put our faith in the goddess to grant the ranger teleportation powers, we can deceive her guardians and try to climb up the World Tree to the Feywilds after creating a diversion, or we can try to turn her guardians on our side to navigate the underground cave systems reaching the Shadowdark by exploiting the leonins lust and the giants fear of being replaced! I call them the pre-planned dubious route, the short & scary route, and the long & arduous route, respectively.
It's rare that we get my family together with siblings so it's good that we get to celebrate my mom's birthday. I'm also thrilled to go to practice soon since it's rare that we can get 5 musicians together. The last time we pulled it off we had 3 chicks in the band! One was my drummer friend and 2 singers my guitarist brought: one who played at the last show who's good with covers and the other I was seeing who has the voice of a goddess. The one coming out tonight is really good at improvising and I tried getting her in before our last show, but a 4th chick was too much for my guitarist!
When we got together to finally jam it took us longer to get into the groove than I expected. When the female vocalist showed up we were still kinda warming up while trying to show us some of our tunes. The keyboard we rented for the night was also acting up and we couldn't just get a normal piano sound out of it! The new chick wasn't all over me the way I'd probably hoped but she was really respectful with my friends and definitely complemented the guitarist when he was lead singing which was always my intention. She liked when I complemented her and I explained that todays practice was just to see what the vibe was like.
We sounded best towards the end while the singer had to leave 30 minutes early. I even got to play on keys and sing a bit! Since my guitarist and I are the only permanent band members sometimes we need a practice or two to get into the pocket with new members. Every musician we've had is different so I feel like we got our groove down tonight. All in all today was a good day, I even managed to find my driver's license since I simply retraced my steps to the last place I needed it (at the liquor store). Our new drummer in the band is also opening a venue that's pretty close to us we could potentially use for events or jam sessions which makes logistics easier. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can take care of some bills and pay some of the rent. Just gotta remind myself to take things one step at a time and that each new chick completes the bigger picture!