Soyuz
Here’s a Soyuz rocket on its way to the International Space Station a couple of years back. I thought it might be nice to not have a picture of Big Sur for a day or so. The viewing area for the Soyuz pads is way too close. It’s pretty cool to be right there, but there would be big trouble if there were a failure close to the pad. Big trouble.
Wow. Busy day. Let’s have a look at today’s schedule, shall we?
9:00 – Short standup meeting
10:00 – Hour-long daily meeting
11:00 – Hour-long weekly meeting
11:30-1:00 – Luncheon for departing employees
1:00 – 30-minute phone interview
1:30 – 30-minute phone interview
2:00 – 30-minute weekly meeting (I skipped it)
2:30 – 30-minute interview
3:00 – 30-minute meeting
3:30 – 30-minute phone interview
4:00 – 30-minute daily meeting
4:30 – Short standup meeting
Otherwise, I didn’t have much to do today. Oh, except that I’ll be home for about half an hour tonight and then off to my Wednesday PEC meeting. After that, I hope to post the blog and then go to bed. What a glamorous life.
A couple of today’s job candidates were okay. One was outstanding. We’re going to invite him out to see us. One was simply unqualified, but he was so enthusiastic and so hopeful and has had some really bad breaks and I really wanted to find a reason to hire him. I just can’t. Very sad.
The luncheon was nice. Lots of people came, which hopefully made our departing colleagues happy. We saw a few previous colleagues, which was nice. We went to a pretty good Mexican restaurant. Not real good, but pretty good. I had mole. It was nearly authentic and the tortillas were quite good. I went with my usual Theory of Luncheons, which states that since we’re splitting the bill, order large. Today it backfired. It turns out our colleague who figured out the bill decided to charge everybody for exactly what they ordered, plus a surcharge for tax, tip, and honoree meals. Oh well. At least the speeches were nice. Come to think of it, I gave the only one.
I started listening to a new podcast today, called “Late-Night Cocoa.” It’s for Macintosh developers, hosted by a guy who wants to learn Cocoa and couldn’t find anything out there in podcast form to help him, so he decided to start one of his own. He interviews various developers, each of which is more or less an expert in some area. As our host learns, we learn. Because it emphasizes methods rather than actual examples, the audio-only format seems to work. The only downside is that you really need to pay attention. I find it much easier to pay attention to the podcast while I’m driving than when I’m on the train/on the bus/at the station/walking to the office. Still, I think I’m getting something out of it.
I continue to enjoy watching video podcasts on the train. I get through five or six every day. I have several episodes of Command-N, MacBreak, and dl.tv on the computer now. When (and if) those ones get caught up, there are many more to try, including a large number of Make magazine podcasts and who knows what else.
And I think I’ll watch one now. See you tomorrow.