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| elan.org > Writing > Journal Entry - September 22, 2000 |
| Bear with me as I change my life. I have been procrastinating from writing this. I was hoping to write a few large entries that would bring significant emotional and intellectual context to my decisions to move to California. I wanted to explain to you how these changes in my life came about from years of dreaming and learning from my experiences. However, I am not finding the time for that approach, so it is going to be single attempt at just the facts maam:
One day about six months ago, I woke up with the clear feeling that I needed to do this. So, I did it. The trip I took out there a month ago was to interview and look for an apartment. Now, I got an apartment and a job and I'm making it happen. My flight to California is September 27, 2000. I am renting an apartment in Menlo Park. Honestly, it wasn't as hard to find an apartment as everybody warned. That was mainly because of Jason, my roommate to be (more on him later). I also expected the worst, so whatever happened wasn't that bad. We initially put a deposit down for an apartment in Redwood City, but I didn't like the ants in the sink, the street was too busy and there weren't any laundry facilities. Nevertheless, I was expecting the worst, so I would have been content there for at least a year. Yet, I had a hunch and pushed my roommate and myself to keep looking. We lucked out with a place on Mills Street and I mean really lucked out. The apartment is 3.1 miles from my job. It is one block away from the train station. It is a two bedroom with two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and balcony. It is one of four apartments and the landlady lives in one of them. If anything happens, she'll also be affected or at least will be close by to hear about it. The people who lived there before were there for seven years and they didn't do anything new to their apartment. So before our lease started the landlady cleaned the carpets, painted the walls, doors and kitchen cabinets, installed a new refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher, installed shelves into the bedroom closets and put new tiles down in the kitchen. That is what I mean by lucked out. Jason is also less than five miles from work. Jason and I took pictures right after signing the lease. I didn't work too hard on them, but here are some apartment pictures! (The page has many images, so you may need to be patient). My roommate is Jason Williams. I met Jason during my junior year at Lehigh University. While pursuing his Computer Engineering degree, he worked at the office that managed budgets for university clubs and organizations. I met him at the office while I was getting money for the ACM chapter that I was president of. We hit it off partially because he was new to the school and the department and I wasn't. We talked tech, but quickly moved to more fulfilling discussions about life in general and life particularly at Lehigh. We shared a few meals, more chats and eventually I convinced him to join the board for the ACM the following year. I graduated, but we kept in touch. Well, he graduated this past May and accepted an offer at Andersen Consulting in Palo Alto, CA. He will be working in the strategic group or something like that. He gets to play with new technologies, see what they are good for and write papers about it. No, that's not a real job, but he is getting paid for it. I've actually mentioned him here on the site a few times in the past year. Jason has a web site, although, he doesn't work on it much. If you visit it, you'll see he dabbles with poetry and expressing his emotions. For that I respect him tremendously. Emotional expressiveness is something I hope to learn from him and maybe I'll get him to work on his web site more. I will be a Designer for Cooper Interaction Design in Palo Alto. How many times have I complained about a web site, piece of software or technology? I've lost count. I want to do good ("well" too, but I mean good). The last few years I have been trying to take positions in companies where I can prevent the chucking of crappy technology on innocent people. I knew my intentions were good, but I also knew I wasn't doing the best job I could. Along came my last job at Onclave, where the opportunity existed to do it right the first time. I scanned through the best software design research and discovered a book called The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Alan Cooper. The book spoke to me, much like a bible to a religious zealot. I connected to the way Cooper described the problem and the solution he presented (read my Epinions review of the book). I was hooked. If you haven't made the connection yet, Alan Cooper is the founder and head of Cooper Interaction Design. Cooper Interaction Design (CID) practices what Cooper preaches in his book. The employees there get to use this great process on three to four month engagements with different clients over the span of a year. Big or small, new or old (however you want to categorize them-I prefer smart) companies hire CID to solve their interaction design problems. You want your users to figure it out? You want to get a high quality product out at the first attempt? You hire CID, they (we) fling their (our) experienced designers and rocking process at your problem and then deliver the blueprint you need to construct the solution. So, why exactly am I going there? Well, I've had smart bosses and great mentors, but I've never worked with anyone experienced at solving interaction design problems. I've never worked at a place with the maturity and security necessary to trust in process for the long haul. I can only get so good at what I want to do and who I want to be by reading good books and applying them. I need to be with people smarter than me. I need to be at a place that practices what it preaches. Yeah, I have high (perhaps unrealistic) expectations, but I think many of them are grounded and from what I saw during my interview process, very realistic. Here I go, off to learn from professionals in this new realm and to put some successful projects behind me. Wish me luck. Stick around and you'll definitely hear how it goes. My friend Max has moved to Silicon Valley, too. Totally unplanned and totally rocking is the fact that a best friend from home has moved to California. Max (picture here, web site here) lived in Fair Lawn for about ten years of his life. I met him in junior high, but really got to know him well in high school and in recent years. He was my inspiration for taking time off after graduation to be introspective. Earlier this year, he moved to Boston to work for Akamai. I was very sad that he left. Earlier this month, independent of my plans, he went to work in the San Mateo, CA office of Akamai. Now he is living in my apartment since my lease started September 1 and my roommate and I aren't moving in until next week. His plan is to find an apartment in the same vicinity before we get there. I'm going to have my Max back in my life. What a nice bonus. I want to change my life. There are deeper motivations than what I shared above. Let us look at the facts. I'm 24 years old and I live at home. My mother washes my clothes and cooks for me (I am going to miss this part). My bedroom (with a twin-sized bed in it) is next to my parents' bedroom. I see my parents everyday who remind me of who I was, who I am and who I'm not. I want to change myself and I feel restraining forces from those around me that want me to stay the same. I want to study art, writing and acting. I want to learn more about Asian religions. I want to spend more time outdoors. The place for me is Northern California. Get it yet? I want to cook for myself and my roommate (and all you always-welcome friends and family). I want to live the hours I want to live and change the way I want to change. I want to be independent, not just read about it. Here is a simplistic way to think about it: Childhood=Depedence, Moving out of your childhood home and living on your own=Indepedence and Marriage=Interdepedence. I'm taking step two. Expect some changes around here. Well, to start, my web site writing and emails will be sporadic. Over the next two weeks, my writing will be as unpredictable as it has been over the past month. I may write a lot or I may write a little. The webcams will be probably not work again until the end of the first week of October. Webcam 3 will be on and off as it comes with my laptop. When I do settle in and start writing, expect to read about new things. I will write about missing Jersey, missing old friends, making new friends, new ideas learned at work, cooking catastrophes, buying furniture, exploring the area, differences between California and Jersey and other stuff about starting anew. In general, life will be a changing and you're probably going to hear about it. Oh, and expect to start seeing Jason on the cams instead of my parents. This is an exciting time for me and I'm working hard to do it right. I have a lot of important goodbyes (more like see you later) and hellos to make in the next few weeks. Emotional it will be and all worth it I'm sure. :) Be well, Elan Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved. |
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