So what's been going on?

[chipotle]

Time for another update, and also time for my quasi-regular reminder that if you’re interested in more minutae from me, follow my Twitter feed; my journaling is as light as it is in part because I just throw the little things I’m doing up on Twitter rather than collect them and write about them here. One may argue that Twitter can’t adequately replace a journal, and of course that’s true; I may try to get back to more “long form” journaling, if for no other reason than to keep in practice.

However, the big news for me is as follows:

1. The contract that I am on is still not concluded. While I give some knocks to myself for not having done a good job of measuring the scope of this project initially, the truth is that the scope simply wasn’t understood by the client at the start, either. And it… kind of still isn’t. “I think we’re close, just a couple more little things” has been the watch phrase for the past three months at this point. The little things in question sometimes involve database changes and adding new functionality. I have a much deeper understanding now, at least, of the importance of not just sitting down with a client and having them describe the functionality they want, but stopping at every bit of customer input and exchanged data and saying Is this capturing everything that we need? and Is this sending everything to the other system that it needs? and Is this screen displaying all the data you need here and in the right fashion?

2. I am starting a new contract position sometime this month. This will be full time, on site in San Francisco.

This new position doesn’t replace the old one directly. For a time I will be working on both of them at once, and I’ll continue as the current contractor’s “web maintenance guy” indefinitely. I hope this will not drive me nuts. We shall see.

I’m excited about the new job. The intent is that if it works out, it will transition into a full-time job with the employer. It is through a recruiting company, so I am technically working for the recruiting agency, and they will be handling taxes and potentially providing health insurance. (I’ve just switched my personal health insurance over to Kaiser Permanente from Anthem Blue Cross, and I have to decide whether it’s worth it to immediately switch over to the recruiting company’s insurer.)

I’m also frankly kind of intimidated by the new job. It’s paying a lot of money, and that’s good. But, you know, it’s paying a lot of money. More than I’ve ever been paid. By a significant amount. I think I’m a pretty good programmer, but there is part of me going Holy hand grenades, I don’t know if I’m that good a programmer.

Even so—well, getting a lot of money quickly would be good. I have debts from the last year of underemployment to pay down and a savings account to build back up. And the job’s location in San Francisco—in the Embarcadero area, for those of you who know the area—guarantees I’m going to see a lot more of the city than I’ve been seeing since I’ve been living out here.

The two concurrent contracts are probably going to put a dent in Claw & Quill, I know, but hopefully not too much of one. I’m looking at it as yet another opportunity to get better at personal time management—other people seem to be able to manage not only a full-time job and a couple hobby projects, but frequently a family as well, whereas I’m still inexplicably living like a college student in middle age. So I have no excuse, really, do I? Perhaps I’ll figure it out before I retire.

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I'm really happy for you on the money front, though I hope it doesn't mean that they expect crazy work hours on top of it. Even if they do, it might be worth it for a while to get in good financial shape. I just don't want to see you fall victim to golden handcuff syndrome (the way some of my friends have).

I often feel the way you've described, in that just running a family/household seems to take up a significant amount of my time and energy. My novel is going noplace atm, and...I've really been okay with that. Sometimes I beat myself up over the fact that other moms have full-time jobs and do all the stuff that I do on top of that plus keep up with personal projects and volunteer work. I think that kind of self-flagellation is counterproductive, though, for the most part. Whether it's ADD or just general quirkiness, we are who we are...and by and large, that's probably a lot better than we think it is. *snug*

[aliasisudonomo.livejournal.com]

Hey, nothing wrong with living like an overgrown college student - it's not the most uncommon thing, and I'm of the opinion that if you can hold down a job and pay your bills on time, quite frankly that sets you above a great many. And don't worry about the pay - while I haven't a great deal of experience in the IT industry, still being a student working a shitty McJob (part time college is slow!)... I have done enough side contracts to know half the time the other person isn't entirely sure what to offer, so take the money and run. :)

Also, re: Twitter, I hates it with the fury of a thousand burning suns. Maybe I'm sounding like some old grognard railing against these newfangled horseless carriages, or texting as opposed to email, but Twitter is possibly the most goddamned pointless thing on the Internet that theoretically serves a purpose. The times it HAS served a purpose, I dunno, half a dozen other means of communication would serve as well... and, well, http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/ .

I say this not to dump on your choice of using Twitter for the little personal updates, but rather to demonstrate by contrast how enormously glad you haven't entirely abandoned posts of greater than 140 characters. ;)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Good luck with it! And the new contract->job sounds very promising.