Goodbye, Sasquatch, Yetti, Bigfoot... friend

While there have always been several Sasquatch sightings in the past, I first encountered Bigfoot while on special assignment with the OSI in the fall of  1976.  It was a tumultuous time for all of us with the aliens, experimentation in cyborg technology and the cold war.   I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy breaking down the barriers that Sas built up around him, but it was worth it in the end.  When I found myself in a pinch, I knew I could count on him.

Sasquatch at Van Halen Concert in the '80s

In the 80’s, Sas showed a strong desire to blend in.  He would regularly shave his body and venture out.  He loved rock and would travel across country to catch some of his favorite bands.

Thanks for the rise of the X-Files in the 90’s, Sas had to go back underground.  Every freak with a video camera was out to ‘expose’ him.  We fell out of touch after that. I blame the rise of super smart snakes on this.  What most people don’t know is that sasquatch are the sworn enemy of snakes and spend much of their time hunting down and stopping reptillian world domination plans and hit squads.

I don’t know if what these guys found in Georgia is really Sas or not, but I want to believe not.  He recently sent me an IM talking about starting up a facebook account and getting excited about some new MMORPGs coming out.  All I know is that if anyone ever needed a boulder thrown across a valley, they could count on Sas.  It will be a sad, sad world if that was no longer true.

Again, I’m just going with some random perspectives on what I saw and experienced… very much train of thought.  You can see the pictures I took here.

• •The people are incredibly nice. Often, they want to practice their english with native speakers, so you will find yourself being engaged in conversation with everyone.
• •Even though you may be tempted, DO NOT ORDER A STEAK AT ANY RESTAURANT. It’s not that they will be offended. If it’s on the menu, it’s there for a reason. It’s not going to be good, though. I told a friend I was going to India and going to have a steak, so I felt obligated. It’s not that I wanted to offend anyone, I thought it would be ironic. Little did I know the levels the irony would take. It was the most dreadful piece of meat I’ve seen. Not only did that cow die of old age, it must have laid alongside the road while someone performed some ceremony for days on end. (more…)

I took a new job with a different company. You can check here to see the details, but the bottom line is that I realized fairly early on that the work and general approach to software development where I ended up was not inline with my overall career goals. I like…

→ agile development
→ open source/Internet development communities
→ building applications that people I know will use and find value in
→ doing something I can show my kids and they’ll get

Luckily, a local company I’ve had my eye on opened up a management position. Three people who were on my team at AOL all have jobs there and were kind enough to go recommend me to the hiring manager. In my second week, I’m already more relaxed then during my 5th month at the other place. I have no more insight into the “business” of what we do here than I did at the last place, but I’m more comfortable with the people and my abilities to contribute. I need to research and post about “rebound jobs” in the future, but I still need a bit more distance to get that objectivity back.

Chimps Choose More Rationally…

Sounds like the best thing to do is bring a chimp when negotiating a salary.