bend derenback

• Looking like a bad year for softball team.  The once mighty juggernaut that was the Sunriver Nature Center team has split in two, and those of use who have amalgamated with another team – well, when your starting third baseman flinches at balls hit to her, that’s kind of a tip-off.  Still, any softball is good softball, even if I’m not off to the best start.
• On the bright side, Samantha seems to be doing a little better with the latest fluid injections.  On the bad side, she’s still having hydration issues and is currently down at the vet getting an enema, as she was kind of “backed up.”  I’m sure that’s just as much fun as it sounds.
• They do seem to like me at work.  I’ve gotten good reviews so far and for some reason, the people there seem to think I’m hilarious.  Seriously.
• In other work news, though, I may soon be able to share information on the Project That Can Not Yet Be Named, other than that it’s potentially very exciting.  But I can say no more.
• Snow, again?  In the middle of May?  Well, that’s a typical Central Oregon “spring” for you.
• Other than that, I got nuthin’.

I’m leaving later this week to go to New Mexico with Cheryl’s folks, where we are going to scatter the last of her ashes. Cheryl loved New Mexico, and after Oregon, it was where we were looking at ending up after she escaped WSU. It was New Mexico where we rekindled our relationship, and I could see why she loved it. It’s really beautiful country. I visited her several times down there, and got to see a lot of the state; Taos, Chaco Canyon, Roswell, Carlsbad Caverns.

Even though I’m a Nor’wester born and bred, I would have liked to have lived there. When Cheryl put out feelers for grad school, the two places she was accepted were the University of New Mexico and Washington State. She went to WSU ostensibly to be closer to me and family, and also because they actually offered her a job in addition to acceptance.

In retrospect (and with apologies to our friends and acquaintances up there), we looked back at it as a really awful decision. To paraphrase the great Edmund Blackadder, if I never see Pullman, Washington again, it will be a million billion years too soon.

Yes, I am a bitter, bitter man. I hated Pullman and found WSU to be a very horrible place to work (again, stealing from Rodney Dangerfield, why does WSU treat its employees so poorly? Why does a dog lick its balls? Because it can.)

Curiously enough, just five miles over the border, I found Moscow much more liveable. Go figure.

But I would have come to New Mexico if Cheryl had gone there, and I wish she did.

So, yeah, I’m a little down this week. But, I suppose, it will be nice to be in New Mexico again and perhaps see one or two of Cheryl’s old friends. I suppose.

I have previously mentioned The Project That Cannot Be Named as yet I’m working on with ol’ buddy Scot from my time in the game biz.

I have it on good authority that I may have something to say about this very very shortly.

So watch this space. Jus’ sayin’…

So, I finally broke down and joined the 2010′s (tens? tweens?) and got me one of these here newfangled smart phones. After much consideration, I decided to eschew the iPhone and go with an Android-based system. I was a T-Mobile subscriber, but after encountering the amazing apathy of their salespeople at their store, I ended up going with a Verizon Droid 2. Didn’t hurt that I got an employee discount off the phone and my monthly bill (which, curiously, going with the bare-basement data plan, is barely more than my crappy T-Mobile plan). Go figure.

So what have we learned so far, now that I’ve had it for a week?

1) How have I lived without one of these things before?

2) The first app you should ever download is a power saver. The first day I had it, despite only making two phone calls, the battery barely made it six hours. A quick trip to the Android app store and now my battery lasts two days, not half a day. Much more acceptable

3) Speaking of the App store, Angry Birds definitely has it’s hooks into me.

4) Maybe I can count it as a business expense if I can use this for testing The Project That Cannot Yet Be Named But Will Hopefully Make Some Angry Birds Money.

Haven’t had the opportunity to use the GPS or camera much yet, but I’m sure we’ll find some time to have fun there.

I remain unbowed in my quest to have the first two days of the NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship declared a national two-day holiday. Or at the very least, have the games streamed to work.

Now, at my previous position, where they just didn’t care, I could stream games at work (at, the glories of the internet – I remember dragging a 5″ B&W TV, powered by 8 “D” cells, into work more than once), but my current employer frowns upon such shenanigans, and, being as I’m still brand new, I’m very reluctant to rock the boat at this stage of my employment. I can live with the surreptitious glance at ESPN.com, and the longer-than-average lunch to watch some games at a local brewpub.

Speaking of the job, it’s going pretty good lately. I’m getting a better idea of what I need to do (I have now memorized about twenty really long alpha-numeric passwords for various sites I have to visit, so draw from that what you will). Testing may not be the most exciting thing, but I do enjoy the people there. And we had a beer-thirty party to celebrate a new client. So, in terms of job security, I’m pretty safe in that regard. After the past few years, I’ll happily take that.

Now, unless Belmont can pull off the upset, I will be crying in said beer as my brackets begin to go up in flames early.

I recently read that more and more “bloggers” are getting away from the long-form entry and more and more using Facebook and Twitter. I have to say, it’s not surprising. I find I use FB far more than blogging these days for updates, pithy asides and whatnot. Blogging, ‘twould seem, is work.

Been debating if I want to keep doing this blog, what with my once-every-two-week entries. In the short term, I will, as there are those of you out there who keep track of me here. Long term, we’ll see.

While work is getting better, there are still days I feel quite lost. Bound to happen when all your QA experience is really of the “bang on it until it breaks” variety, not using actual use cases and the like. But I’m learning, apparently ahead of the curve of some other new hires, and they seem to like me. So I got that going for me.

Met with Scot regarding The Project Which Cannot Be Named as yet, and we’re getting some curious nibbles. The odds of Scot actually getting a little niche game studio going up here? Improving. Possibly by this summer. That would rock, as all things being equal, and while where I work is filled with very nice people, working on game design and writing again for a boss who is not an asshole – here in Bend no less – would be a dream come true.

That said, I’m glad I got what I got.

As previously mentioned, the place I’m working it is really big on fostering a positive work environment, to the point that I was given a personality test as part of my interview.

So, as part of my “training” – mine and about 30 other new hires – we spend a two day workshop working on our “enneagrams,” which is…oh, just go read it. It’s easier to explain. But it’s kind of a way of examining your personality, and how you interact with others. It’s actually pretty interesting, and it should come as no surprise that I’m a solid “5.”

And, hey, I’m not turning my nose up at two days away from work, while still getting paid. And free lunch, too, can’t forget the free lunch.

I will say this: it was actually pretty edifying. You actually had people talking in front of strangers, almost breaking down in tears at a few points (but in a positive way), learning more about ourselves and how we interact with others, and I was thinking, was there anyplace that would have done this ten years ago? Even five? I personally think it’s pretty forward thinking, and a great way to build a good work environment.

Perhaps not coincidentally, today was a pretty good day for me at work, even if I was stuck there until seven. But I get to come in late tomorrow, so it’s not a complete loss.