right on bro!

I have been at my new job for a week now. It’s been exciting, scary, stressful, and awesome, all at once, and right now I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. Despite some long hours last week which I do not expect to repeat often (trying to get things set up properly), I hope it stays this way.

It’s weird - three weeks ago I was planning to finish up the Irvine job and spend the rest of the year screwing around playing video games, hanging out at the local coffee shop, visiting my folks back home, doing some low-key work on a couple of projects, and maybe writing a new song or two. Probably none of that is going to happen now. Yet, here I am back in the World of Work, and I’m liking it a lot. It’s a bit of a different challenge than I’m used to, and I like new challenges.

We shall see. I have my first talk in front of the entire division tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I saw a dead guy tonight, it put a damper on the evening.

Here’s what’s been burning up my iPod lately…

The Appleseed Cast -Woodland Hunter (Part 2)
indie emo in protools with wide, wide stereo

SCSI-9 - “When She Said Goodbye”

The National - “The Geese of Beverly Road”
“hey love/we’ll get away with it/we’ll run like we’re awesome, totally genius” Still love this album after a few months of heavy rotation.

Kaito - Hundred Million Love Years

The Court & Spark - “Berliners”
“It was a beautiful burned out town, and I was a proud young man…”

The New Year - “Reconstruction”
Played at a vegetarian dinner a few weeks ago. When she put it on the stereo…I forgot how much I really like this band.

Marjorie Fair - “Empty Room”
Sometimes a song makes absolutely no sense, but is written, performed and arranged perfectly. This is one of those times. “This don’t matter/like it did before/this don’t matter much anymore…”

I spent a good part of last month working out of a client’s office in Irvine. In the eight years I’ve lived in Los Angeles, this was my first time there, and I was pleasantly surprised: the OC is not bad!

Highlights of my month in the OC:

• Two very fun nights at Matt and Michele’s place for some home-cookin’ (Michele is a fantastic cook!), Lost, and more than a few bottles of sauvignon blanc. (Sorry Matt I’d link to your blog too but apparently you don’t have one anymore.)
• Philly’s Best, which is the closest I’ve found to authentic Philly cheesesteaks here in Southern California (to totally ruin any health benefits I may have gained from Michele’s cooking)
• Catching up on podcasts on the drive (45 minutes, not in rush hour)
• Cheaper gas
• Everything’s clean and the roads are wide

So that’s my Irvine report. See you in another eight years OC!

Also: I need to find a senior front-end developer with experience in Java/JSP, PHP, HTML/CSS, and AJAX-grade Javascript. If you know anyone like that who wants a job in West Los Angeles, shoot me a note? Thanks.