Friday

So for most of this week, I've been at work at or before 7:45 AM, and I've been leaving fairly late- partially to avoid the big crunch of traffic on my way to and from there, but also because I'm really enjoying the challenge of buckling down and being productive as soon as possible.  My brain is brimming with new tools and information, and I'm excited about getting back to work Monday!

I made kind of a faux pas today, though, by assuming that because of the lenient policy that was described to me about my work schedule that flex time was in effect.  This afternoon, then, when my 40 hours was complete- around 1:30 PM- I talked to my manager and asked if it was okay to take off early to go workout.  He said that that was fine, and I did.  Later in the day I got an email letting me know that the company didn't really have a flex time policy, and that taking off early (as long as the hours were made up and it was done in a responsible way) every once in a while was okay, but that it should be the exception rather than the rule.  I had been doing so well assimilating up until that point, I felt chagrined and a little bit disappointed with myself for making assumptions.  It's all part of the learning curve, and I view it as a learning opportunity.  I will do better in the future.

In another piece of work-related fun, a group of us at work have formed a book club, going through the Effective Java book a couple of chapters a week.  I just got my paws on it today.  Thanks to my coworker James Elliot's Amazon Prime account, it was here 2 days after he ordered it.  James was one of the first of my new coworkers I met, he's an author and so far my impressions are that he's a socially active, interesting, nice guy...and he drives a really shiny car.

Sunrise

Today, to avoid the crunch of the Beltline on my way to work, I got up fairly early and was at work before 7 AM.  Fortunately, this allowed me to see a beautiful sunrise through my rear window, and I got there in less than 20 minutes.

My previous post about March Madness was about the weather, but today, the Badgers got kicked out of the tourney by Butler in what turned out to be a pretty interesting example of pitiful shooting, then fighting back...only to lose in the end.

At work, I've finally got everything I need to be productive installed on my work laptop (no, not a bitTorrent client, mostly I'm referring to Eclipse, Subversion, Jenkins, etc.).  More to come.

March (Weather) Madness

Even though it's almost April already, today I awoke to freezing rain and icy roads.  Yuck.  The drive to work wasn't that bad today- yesterday the Westbound Beltline was pretty bad from Stoughton Rd. to Park Street.  On my way home from work, the Eastbound lanes were a parking lot, so I used some trickery (took a different route) and avoided that mess.  So far, that's one of the only drawbacks to this job that I've found- the commute is about 15 minutes on a day with a tailwind and over 40 when the Beltline is pitching a hissy fit.  I can't wait till the weather is nice enough to ride my bike to work- then it doesn't matter how long it takes, because I'm doing something productive with that time.

I've been listening to a book on mp3 while I drive- the first book of The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, narrated by (Hellboy) Ron Perlman.  So far it's pretty interesting.

Madison Marathon

Yesterday (Monday) was a pretty packed day.  Not only was it my first day at my new job, but my nephew Buddie Powell had a band concert, and I was supposed to be running 15 miles as part of my marathon training.

I tried my best to make all of that happen, but Buddie's concert and my new job were first on my list of priorities, so I was sure to make it to those.  The training didn't go very well- I had a nagging injury that was bothering me enough that I was very aware of it.  A tendon on the top of my left foot seemed to be irritated by the tongue of my shoe, and although I was able to run about 10 miles, that was my limit and I decided that I probably need more rest to help that injury heal.

The concert was really good for a high school band.  The freshmen band was not so great, but luckily, they only played a couple of songs and then the upper classmen took over.

Today I got the first portion of an overview of the InformaCast suite, a very neat and functional piece of software.  Another neat thing that happened today was that I got a call from Ken Bywaters, my company's Executive VP of Product Development.  We discussed the campus and culture of Texas A&M at some length, he introduced himself and welcomed me to Singlewire.  It was really a nice gesture- one of many ways my new co-workers have made me feel welcome.

First Monday

Today I was introduced to a ton of people- I had met 5 or six of my co-workers already during the interview process.  Learning names is going to be an interesting challenge.

I met with my benefits representative today also, she has a really cool British name, Thomasin.  Here's what www.thinkbabynames.com has to say about the name:
Think baby names

Thomasin \th(o)-ma-sin\ as a girl's name is a variant of Thomasina (Aramaic), and the meaning of Thomasin is "twin".
The baby name Thomasin sounds like Thomasine, Tamasin, Tomasine, Tomasina and Thomazine. Other similar baby names are Thomasa, Tamsin and Tamasine.
Thomasin is not a popular first name for women and an equally uncommon surname or last name for all people. (1990 U.S. Census)

Displayed below is the baby names popularity of the name Thomasin for girls. (2010 statistics)