27th June 2001 (Part 2)

Het wordt weer eens tijd om iets in het Nederlands te posten.

Stanley, lees jij dit? Tom? Nico? Jules? Wie houdt deze shit nou allemaal bij? Schrijf ik dit allemaal voor Jan Lul, of zijn er nou echt mensen die het regelmatig raadplegen om te kijken waar ik mee bezig ben? Laat ‘t me even weten, jongens.

In de veronderstelling dat mensen thuis (ja, Nederland beschouw ik nog altijd als thuis) willen weten wat deze gek aan het doen is in het land van dubje (Texaanse uitspraak van de middenletter van de zeer geliefde president alhier), ga ik verder met het op papier zetten van het laatste hoofdstuk van mijn avonturen.

Zoals jullie al hebben kunnen lezen, ben ik nu weg bij Linuxcare. Ik zit nu op mijn luie reet te genieten van een week thuis, want volgende week al ga ik bij Google werken in Mountain View.

Forensen op snelweg 101 is niet echt aan te raden, vooral in zuidelijke richting, dus ga ik ook verhuizen. Vanaf 1 augustus wonen Sarah en ik dus in het centrum van Palo Alto in hartje Silicon Valley. We hebben vanavond een jaarcontract ondertekend op wat de Amerikanen een condominium noemen, oftewel een groot appartement.

Dit wordt de eerste keer in zestien jaar dat ik niet in een grote stad woon. Waarschijnlijk is het makkelijk overgaan tot dit idee te danken aan het feit dat ik inmiddels een stukje ouder ben geworden. Oude-lullendingen als het klimaat worden mij steeds belangrijker, merk ik niet zonder enige verontrusting.

Het heeft toch wat om ergens te wonen waar citroenenbomen de straten versieren. De mist, de wind en de vuile pislucht van San Francisco ben ik daarentegen inmiddels zat.

Op 20 juli gaan we twee weken met vakantie naar Engeland. Lekker uitrusten kan geen kwaad na de afgelopen zestien maanden.

Goed, schrijf me eens met het laatste nieuws van jullie kant.

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26th June 2001

Things are moving rapidly.

Not only did Google inform me yesterday that I can start work as soon as I like (the receipt of the H-1B transfer application came through — woo hoo!), but we also viewed a great apartment in downtown Palo Alto in the evening.

Another prospective tenant had first refusal on the place, so we waited with baited breath today to see whether she would accept it. Fortunately for us however, the other party needed more time, so it was offered to us.

So, within a few weeks, Sarah and I will be going to live in sunny downtown Palo Alto, starting a new chapter of our lives in the process.

A new job, a new place to live…

I feel good.

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25th June 2001

So, my last day at Linuxcare was on Friday and I’m now officially between jobs.

I thank my lucky stars that I have the requisite skills to have survived so many rounds of lay-offs, was able to resign of my own volition in my own good time, and secured multiple other offers in the midst of this economic downturn.

I’m glad I’m not a junior admin any more. I interviewed several to replace me at Linuxcare and the job market is not a pretty place to be selling your wares right now. If you’re unemployed, you need to have some senior level skills to find decent work right now.

So, this week will see me viewing apartments in Palo Alto and probably enjoying a few biking trips, as I make the most of my free time before going to work for Google next week. If there’s time, I intend to brush up on some of my low level TCP/IP and programming skills. I desperately need to brush up on my C coding.

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18th June 2001

And so begins my last week at Linuxcare, as I hand over the reigns to my successor, Rodney.

It’s a bittersweet time in my career, because I usually leave a job only when I feel I have outgrown it. This time, my employer has outshrunk me.

Such is life, though. I take with me some very valuable lessons, many of them non-technical.

Sunday was spent looking for a new apartment in Palo Alto, which Sarah and I will move into some time in August or September. We saw a couple of decent ones in complexes, but the rents are pretty steep because of all the extra facilities they include that we’ll never use.

I would like to live on the corner of Homer and Emerson, since there’s a Whole Foods, a Mexican restaurant, and a good breakfast place, all at that intersection. Getting a place around there will be a pretty tall order, though.

We spent time with a couple of Sarah’s friends this weekend, so didn’t get an awful lot done. I downloaded Mozilla 0.9.1, which took two hours over a modem and then another three to compile on my laptop.

I’m kind of looking forward to my time off work next week, although not as much as I would be if I still lived in Amsterdam. I don’t have many friends in the Bay Area, don’t have a computer at home, don’t have DSL, etc. It could be a lonely time and I definitely don’t want to end up watching daytime TV, since American TV is the worst in the civilized world as far as I’m concerned.

Maybe I’ll go travelling, although international travel will be out of the question because of visa considerations. Santa Fe would be nice, but Sarah wants us to go there together. Maybe I’ll head up to Washington and visit Mount St. Helens. I don’t really feel like travelling alone, though.

Whatever happens, Linuxcare and I will have parted company by the end of this coming Friday. So ends another chapter in my illustrious career.

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5th June 2001

I interviewed a number of candidates today for the role of successor to the throne of Linuxcare’s senior system administrator.

In just a couple more weeks, all of this will be someone else’s er… concern.

I’ll be conducting more interviews tomorrow.

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