How to do a job hunt...

...when you live 400+ miles away. And you don't have a sense of where places are. You see job listings for the 'greater region', but have no idea whether that means the place is going to be a short 20 minute drive, or a long 2 hour drive.

I got my first semi-bite, and, while it could be a great experience, I looked where it is on the map. Its not mass-transit-able. Theoretically I could take the train all the way to Boston then switch to another commuter rail and take that back out. On the other hand, it'd be working for a start up again, this time as a much more senior person (CTO type). Of course, with it being a start up, I have my list of 1,000,001 questions that need to be answered to my satisfaction. Things like funding. Business plan. Growth rate. etc.

I applied to a number of other jobs, and, I'm really thinking about going to a recruiter. The type of work I want to do is specialized, but, it can exist anywhere. Which is why the online search engines don't help me very much. I can usually only pick a few areas to search in. Or everything. And not the dozen or two that would reflect what I'm looking for.

Or I could start my own company. Again.....

I'm giving the job search about 2 months from down here, and then I'll move up so that I can actually be with DH.

Exurbs and Politics

An article in today's Washington Post describes politics in the gated exurban communities. There are a couple of choice comments from the article.

"One reason local politics seems so distant, residents say, is that when issues do arise -- say, speed bumps vs. stop signs -- they tend to look to their own private government, the homeowners association, for a solution."

Private government? Government is public by definition. Private government is like lynch mobs.

"He was chatting last week with a neighbor, Nancy Perilla, on Valhalla Drive, where green and manicured lawns were free of political signs, which association rules do not allow, and where on a sunny, warm afternoon near election time, there were no candidates going door to door, because solicitation is not allowed, either."

I guess that means no selling of girl scout cookies.

"It sounds awful," Perilla said, "but it was turning into a more working-class neighborhood. More pickups -- not that there's anything wrong with that. . . . There were problems we didn't want to deal with -- at least on a personal level."

Yeah. Pickups. That's a sign of a bad community. How dare people drive such a vehicle. And how dare you have to deal with people from the 'working class' on a personal level.

"At a certain point, you want your kids to grow up in Mayberry," Jamie Lechner said. "And this is as close to Mayberry as we can get."

Mayberry. I'd never want my kids to grow up in a place like Mayberry. I want them to learn about others. People who are different than they are - ethnically, religiously, socially. I want them to explore the world. All of the studies done in b-schools show that you get your best ideas when you have a diverse group of people working on a problem, not one type of person.

"This is not a bubble," said Lisa LaBelle, who moved to the development three years ago from Massachusetts. The evidence, she said, is in all the charitable work that residents of Dominion Valley do. There is a drop box in the sports pavilion for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she said.

Yeah. A drop box. Glad you care so much.

The start of changes

My roommate is moving out today. His cat is going as well (obviously). I'm fairly certain I will be missing the cat more.

My roommate's a good guy. The cat is a friendly, but self-serving, cat. I'm thinking there's something psychological about animals though. The cat looks up at you with begging eyes, saying 'please feed me dinner' or 'move over in the chair'. You feel needed / wanted. I'm going to miss the cat's insistence at "sharing" the chair with me. If I'm not in the chair, he wants nothing to do with me or the chair. If I'm in the chair, he has to be there. On my left side.

I bet I get an animal (dog) within 6-12 months.

A longer update

I have returned. Here is an overview of what I saw / ate / drank. It was good. It was very good.

Day 1 (Monday, Oct 10):
Slept until early afternoon. Got out and strolled around the town center. Managed to get completely turned around and wandered in the completely wrong direction. Eventually made it to the Grand' Place (don't ask me what the apostrophe is for... I really don't know). Amazing looking place. We picked up our tourism packages from the place there which included a museum pass and metro pass. Went back to the hotel and got a dinner recommendation. Awesome food. Great wine. Not too expensive. (L'Estrille, if anyone's planning a trip. Highly recommend).

Day 2:
Went to the museum of the city. Luckily I can read French passably (as in, I understand about 75% of the words, and can make contextual guesses at the rest). Almost all of the signs were in French or Dutch/Flemish (I still don't know what the difference is, I think its accent, which I'd never be able to pick out). Interesting things about the history and growth of the city. The supposedly most interesting exhibit was closed: the wardrobe of the Mannekin Pis. The we went to the Beer Museum. Its not so much a museum as a video (there are about 5 objects from 17th-19th century brewing). Had a nice lunch (with more beer). Then went off in search of the musical instruments museum. We got lost and wandered around the Palace. Then we walked through the small park next to the royal palace. It was nice, and reminded me of a mini-Central Park. I learned to curse our tourist based maps which were missing streets or parts of street names. And the locations listed may not correspond to how you actually entered places. Went back to the hotel and rested for a bit, then went out for a nice dinner at the Grand' Place.

Day 3:
Re-attempted to find the museum of musical instruments and the art museum. We found them. Was very happy with both of them. Both of the museums were well laid out and had nice audio tours (in English). The musical instrument museum had little written description, but, as you neared exhibits there was a selection of music that played for the music. I had no idea bagpipes were as prevalent as they were. A very different approach from the one taken at NYC's Metropolitan's musical instrument exhibit. Less of the unusual instruments but more of the folk instruments in all their variety. Had a very nice restaurant on the top where we ate lunch. I had a great veggie lasagna with a creamy squash sauce. Then we went to the art museum. All of its sections are in different buildings: 20th, 19th, "ancient", but they're all connected through an underground passage. The 20th century one was all on "negative" floors, which should mean below ground, but, there was a large shaft which gave natural light onto all the artwork.

Day 4:
Went to Waterloo. I never was into battle history. I still am not. The museum was nice for what it had, but it seemed to be in a state of near dis-repair. The wax museum, which had some very interesting parts, had not been updated since the 50s or 60s. All of the cards were written in French only (unusual for such a location of international significance) and they were HAND written. It also had us exploring the bus system of Belgium. The guidebook said that the bus stopped at Waterloo. Nope. It stopped about 1/4 - 1/2 mile down the road and with a blocked view. The bus driver had to point us in the direction. If you ever visit, skip the the film and the 'audio-visuel spectacular'. Complete wastes of time. Oh, and bring good walking shoes. Its a long climb to the top of the Lion Butte. We decided to splurge on a very nice dinner. It was very good.

Day 5:
Went to Bruges. The city itself is gorgeous. But, there's not all that much to see here. Unlike Brussels, French is not spoken. People are very fluent in English. We saw a monastery hospital. It was more on the monastic aspect than the hospital aspect. I'd check the concert schedule as there's a lot going on at the concertgebouw here with good musicians. But, nothing we were interested in when we were there. If it had not been cloudy/foggy, we would have gone to the top of the belfry and looked around, but, when all we would have seen was clouds, we decided it wasn't worth the Euros.

Day 6:
Visited the Royal Museum of Military History and the Toy Museum. The former was great. Lots of exhibits, and you can tell that there's a lot more coming. Lots of armor, ballistics, uniforms, etc. Not much in English. The WW2 exhibit was about half done, but the first half was very nice. The toy museum was not worth the walk.

Day 7:
Went to Amsterdam. It happened to be the day of the Amsterdam Marathon. Oops. The marathon circled the park where the big museums were. We also discovered that two of the main museums were under reconstruction and closed until 2008. So, we turned around and walked back in search of lunch. DH was craving spices so we ate at a decent Chinese restuarant. Tasted just like they do in the US. Which of itself seemed a bit odd. Then we walked to the FOAM. I love photography and its exhibits. This was a very modern, bright museum. Great exhibits. The Netherlands have English as the second language, so almost every exhibit was in Dutch and English. We eventually got around the marathon and went to the Van Gogh museum. It was great. We started walking towards the Rembrandt house, but, we were very tired and never quite made it there. We enjoyed the ambience at a little park. Then took the train back to Brussels.

Day 8:
Shopped. And window-shopped. There is a ton of shopping in Brussels. Had a Guinness at an Irish-style pub, which I think was technically English.

Day 9:
Flew home. Very tired. Wrote this up, and I think I got things in the right order, but I'm not completely certain.

Things I wish I knew before travelling (and these aren't in the guidebooks):
Unless its a very nice restaurant, you seat yourself.
The restaurants in the Ilot Sacre are not worth it. The food is subpar and the service is as well. Better can be found 1-2 blocks off the Grand'Place.
Check when major sporting events are going on, and don't plan on travelling to those cities when said events are going on (unless you want to see the event).
How to speak French would be very useful. Mine is substantially subpar. Its mostly restricted to 'bonjour', 'merci','sil vous plait', and fencing terms.

A mini update

We have arrived in Europe. My internal clock is completely messed up. I could not sleep on the plane... steerage is definately the appropriate term for that class, not 'Economy'. So, instead I watched the movies being shown: Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Bewitched, and most of EdTV.

We got in at 6:45am local time. At that point I'd slept about 9 hours in the past 72, so I was completely exhausted. We got to our hotel and luckily, our room was ready. Now, we asked for a double. And I guess it could be called a double.... there's two twin beds in the room side by side. We can't figure out why its not a double bed. It took us about 40 minutes to figure out how to turn the lights on. And shortly thereafter, we collapsed and got some much needed sleep.

After about 5 hours of sleep, we woke up and decided to walk around the downtown area. The famous Mannequin Pis is under construction / rehabilitation so we only got to glimpse it through the curtain. We got lost several times. And the words here are so interesting. There are street which if translated into english are 'Street of House Street' and not just one, but dozens. Because the formal language is French - everyone greets in French etc - but the everyday language is Flemish/Dutch. And you get these bizarre words. On a sign that I would take to read [not sure that I'm reading it right]: no right turns except bicycles, it has a right arrow with the line through it, the word EXCEPT, then a picture of a bicycle, and the word 'uinge.....' (can't remember the rest right now). It has me most confused.

We went out for a nice French style dinner. Good food. Good wine. When we got back to the hotel, I was still tired from travelling and fell asleep watching Lost (in English, Dutch/Flemish subtitles). I woke up about 3 hours later, then dozed for a bit, and now I'm awake. At 2 in the morning. DF, er, DH, just went to sleep as I was waking up. So, now its 2am and I'm awake, having slept about 10 hours today total.

At least we have internet in the hotel room. It makes a lot of things much easier. Although its not cheap - 10 Euros ($13) per day.

Verbally Accepted

An offer has been accepted.

Now I just need to find a job within 40 minutes driving / 75 minutes train. In traffic. Since I know that 40 minutes driving without traffic never occurs when you're commuting.

Great Daily Kos Sigs

If the Republicans stay in power much longer, An Army of One isn't going to be just a slogan.

George W. Bush makes Reagan look smart, Nixon look honest, and his dad look coherent.

GOP: 17th century values, 21st century marketing.

George W. Bush - Often wrong, but never in doubt!

5 day countdown

In addition to wanting to strangle my MIL-to be for general buttinsky-ness, I have had the strangest assortment of songs stuck in my head.

For the past 8+ hours it has been two lines (not more, even though I know the entire song) of Seasons of Love.

5 more days... 5 more days....

5 hundred 25 thousand 6 hundred minutes. How do you measure a year in the life.

Ack... It Must Stop.