Temporary Unemployment

Ah, home. I have recently gotten home from my last day of employment at FLS. Technically, I'm working the last two hours from home, and will be officially off the clock and out the employee door in nineteen minutes.

I said good-bye to lots of people and got a few hugs, and was taken out to Chipotle for lunch. They also had birthday ice cream cake today. Ah, yummy.

It was hard to leave, because this place has been such a big part of my life for two and a half years, and I've made some very good friends there. I'm leaving on excellent terms with everyone. But alas, you must move on sometimes. Now I will enjoy my weekend of unemployment - the calm in the storm, or whatever you can call it. On Tuesday I start my next adventure. Hopefully it is all good. :)

I am continuing to work on my Lords of Sargoff story. One time, I sat down and starting typing up a few lines that I knew I wanted to have later in the story. Sooner or later, those three lines turned into five pages. Ah, it is good times when the creative juices are flowing. The chapter I've previously posted has been altered and moved to chapter two, to allow for less divulging of plot points, and also allow for a nifty shorter chapter one. I may post that new chapter sometime soon.

At Least The Formula Is Still In Tact

Well, last night I was driving along with my wife, when I saw an all-too-familiar sight behind me: red flashing lights. Yeah, that's right, I was pulled over last night. :) But, not for speeding, but because one of my headlights was out (as it has been for several months - I'm cheap). So, while I wasn't ticketed for it, I'm going to soon get it fixed. Ah, fun!

But, most importantly of course, my salary formula will not be affected, as last night's incident was not due to speeding. So everything is okay with the world. (Or something like that.)

Well, just like ten minutes ago, my boss sent out a company-wide email announcing my upcoming departure. Which, for some reason, instantly brought me a small amount of nervousness. It's of course a combination of sadness and excitement. Ah, the joys of change. I have no problem with change in life, and often enjoy it. Hopefully this a change for the better. :)

The Beginning of the End

Well, here I am.

This is my last week of employment at FLS. I will start at Priority Publications a week from tomorrow. This will be a big change, and is a change that I am both excited and a little nervous for. I'm sure everything will go well, but transitioning is always interesting.

I have been busy today, and will be finishing up a few projects this weeks, as well as training my semi-replacement (another IT guy who will be helping out in my absence while a more permanent replacement can be found). Fun stuff. Somewhere in there I'll get taken to lunch (and again on my first day at Priority). Ah, food is good, and is even better when its free.

Oh, the Horror

Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Como Zoo in St. Paul for a couple hours. I think zoos are nifty, but don't get as excited about them as my wife. Anywho, the weather was a little cooler, and some of the animals were a (little) more active, including the tiger. (Big cats are some of my very favorite animals on earth.) Anywho, they also had one of the polar bears splashing around in the pool where you can see in from the side. That was pretty nifty. One of the apes was also inside and sitting right up against the glass. Funky stuff.

But, then I saw it. One of the most horrible creatures ever, coming from the most violent and destructive species in the planet's history. I barely felt safe with such a thin sheet of glass between me and it. I have included a picture of it, but it is horrifying, so you have been warned. Goodness, I hope it never gets loose.

The Wheels on the Car Go Round and Round... For Now

My car went to the shop yesterday for new brakes (brake pads, rotors, calipers, all that crap I know nothing about) and cost a decent sum of money to replace. (I'm not smart enough to change these things myself.) Anyway, my car (2000 Chevy Cavalier) just recently hit 160,000 miles. It's getting up there, and is (probably) nearing the end of its life. Maybe. It still runs pretty good, but has started having a few more repairs here and there, and is getting to the point where we have to carefully evaluate any big repair and determine whether it's worth putting that amount of money into a car of that age and miles. I would love it if it lasted a few more years, but who knows. It will be a sad day when it goes bye-bye. I've had it for almost five years, and it's been a good car. My wife's car (1997 Pontiac Grand Am) is at just around 140,000 miles I believe, so both of them will need to be replaced within the next few years probably. Fortunately, we've saved up enough to pay cash for them (for "new to us" cars), so it would be no big deal if a car died tomorrow.

Anywho, I like cars, but they're a money hole.

Math is Fun

Ah, Mondays.

While it is commonly discouraged for people to publicly announce their salary, I am going to make an exception. Well, sort of. In order to determine my new job's annual salary, all you must do is solve this simple equation for X (the salary). Didn't you all take algebra? Easy peasy. (Round when dividing!)

I, of course, don't expect anyone to actually do this, I was just bored for a little bit and threw this together, and for some unknown reason decided to post it here. That being said, anyone who gets the right number wins the "I Know Way Too Much About Cooper" award.

(((A * B * C * D) / E) * F * G - (H * I) + J - (K * L * M * N * O * P) + Q - R + (S * T)) * U

A = My ending hourly salary at McDonald's (after 3 1/2 years)
B = Number of pounds I lost during 2005
C = My height in inches
D = Number of speeding tickets
E = Number of times I have been pulled over for speeding
F = Number of siblings
G = Number of those siblings who are married
H = The total age of my immediate family (including myself)
I = Number of total people in my immediate family
J = My favorite number
K = Number of total countries I have been in
L = Number of states I have lived in
M = Number of online role-playing games I play
N = Number of total "girlfriends" I have had in my life
O = Number of time zones I have lived in
P = Number of paper-route jobs in Minnesota
Q = Pounds at birth (round down)
R = Number of legs that are not prosthetics
S = Number of cavities in life
T = Number of broken bones in life
U = Number of colleges I have attended

I promise there will be a more useful and interesting blog entries in the future. :)

Cole Norman

So, I (for the next couple weeks) work at a political telemarketing company. They make fundraising calls for the Republican party and its candidates, along with other types of calling. Anyway, the QA (quality assurance) department is located in the same room I am, and they constantly listen to calls that people make, to make sure the telemarketers are making their calls correctly - following the policies my company has put in place for them.

Anyway, they often play recordings of these calls on their speakers, and I can hear them. While this is rather annoying sometimes, especially when I am trying to concentrate on programming or something else, there are times when it is rather amusing. Sometimes the people they are calling respond rather angrily.

This particular call contained no anger, but was rather amusing. For those who don't know, Norm Coleman is a Republican Senator from Minnesota, and we were doing a fundraising call for him. It went something like this....

"Hi, I'm calling for Senator Cole Norman--"
"Who?"
"Senator Cole Norman."
"You mean Norm Coleman?"
"Right, Cole Norman."
"I think it's Norm Coleman."
"Well, whoever it is, would you be interested in supporting him financially?"
"Well, I'm a democrat."
"You are?"
"Yes."
"You like democrats?"
"Yes."
"Well, would you still be interested in supporting Senator Norman?"
"No."
"Okay, bye."

There were so many things wrong with this call. That being said, the QA people were suspicious that he may have been framed (someone may have given him the wrong name on purpose). Who knows.

Anyway, here comes the weekend!

Game Over

On Monday night, I came home to a voice mail message from Priority Publications, the company I had a second interview with on Monday. It said something about "taking the next step," which could only mean one thing. Right? Well, after trying to call the woman at Priority a few times, I finally got a hold of her, and found out the truth.

Which....

Of course....

Was that, I got the job! Whooooahhh! I will be starting my position as Web Programmer on Tuesday, September 4th (the day after Labor Day), thus ending my stay at FLS Connect on Friday, August 31. It is bittersweet, as I really do like this job, the company, and my coworkers, but I feel that it is simply time to move on to bigger and better things, to a position that has more job growth (and that 20.48% raise in my salary is helpful as well). I am rather excited for this opportunity. It is near Edina, approximately 25 miles from our apartment, and will probably usually take me between 25-30 minutes to get to work, depending on traffic.

My schedule will be slightly more flexible. They would like you there during the company's core hours of 9-3, but besides that, they just want you to put in your 40 hours. In that case, I'll probably usually work 7-3, but we'll see.

I do find it a little odd that, if I had gotten this job a couple months ago, my daily commute would have possibly included the now-collapsed 35W bridge. Ah, well, maybe it was good that I didn't get a new job so soon. :)

The Waiting Game

My Scrabble Score, as linked from Dave's blog:

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 30. What is your score? Get it here.

David beats me by 4 points. My wife, Megan Rebecca Cooper, beats me by one. Even my 8-point J doesn't bring me victory. :)

That being said, the winner may be none other than the Hogwarts headmaster - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, for sixty points.

Anyway, as previously reported, I had a job interview on Thursday. It went well, and I talked to the woman from Priority Publications on Friday, and we then scheduled a second interview for today - Monday - at 9:30 in the morning, which also went well. It seems like a good job, and I think I would be a good fit. They said that they had two more first interviews today, but plan on making a hiring decision by the end of this week or beginning of next week. So, now we wait. :)

And It's Gone

Love him, hate him, Barry Bonds is the new all-time home run king in Major League Baseball.

Personally, I don't get too much into the steroids issue. I don't know if he cheated, and if he did, how much it has affected his game. In the end, it doesn't really matter too much to me, I think it's a great accomplishment. Of course, Bonds is my favorite player, and has been since long before thought of any home run records, back to his days with the Pirates.

Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me if a certain Alex Rodriguez comes along as breaks this record a few years down the line.

Ah, I love sports.

And someday, my San Francisco 49ers will win the Super Bowl again, once again allowing me to shower. The world is waiting..... and starting to become rather odorous.

Hokey Pokey

Despite the rumors, I do know what the hokey pokey is all about. Well, I'm pretty sure anyway. I have an inkling. I think it has something to do with cheese.

Anyway, here is some good news. I have landed a job interview for Thursday - at 1:30 in the afternoon at a company called Priority Publications near Edina. It's about 25 miles from our apartment, but that's okay. It's for a Web Developer position - I would be using ASP and ASP.NET and other such web/database related things. It has potential to be an interesting job, and has the possibility of increasing my salary by at least 20%. Which would be nice. [But of course, money isn't everything.] We'll see how that goes though. :)

To Boldly Go

We had card night on Friday, and it was good fun. Not only did I went 2 of the 3 games I played - including a three player game of Star Trek - but I opened lots of packs of cards for the Alternate Universe set, which was the second expansion set in the Trek game. I did well, pulling a copy of the Future Enterprise, which is an ultra-rare, that used to be worth about $75. Now it's not quite so valuable, but it is still a good card.

I was given a new project at work on Friday, which I have mostly completed today, unless they want things changed. It was a Visual Basic application for updating a database - nothing too exciting or challenging, but something a little different at least from my day-to-day work. Variety is good.

Scrabulous

I am a big fan of Scrabble. I have started playing large numbers of games of it online on Facebook, and am thus far fairing pretty well, currently with a 21-7 overall record. I have about 20 games going on right now, but some of my opponents (who are random people from Facebook) haven't made a move in a few days. Ah well. It's good fun. :) So, if any of you Facebook people want to play me, I'd be all up for it.

I am planning on working on The Lords of Sargoff this weekend, including possibly some changes to chapter one. But who knows.

Short blog entry today. Kind of like my friend Tom. Good thing he doesn't read my blog. :)

Just Another Evening Commute

I have finished the (very) rough draft of the second chapter of The Lords of Sargoff, but it needs a good bit more detail and tweaking. So maybe I will get that posted next week.

We won our last softball game of the season last night; 8-3 I believe was the score. I went 3-4 batting, with a couple runs. It was good fun. But alas, tis always a little sad when seasons end. The good news, though, is that volleyball is only a few months away. Whooah!

And of course, I must mention this, though you all (I would certainly assume) already know about it. The 35W interstate bridge collapse is one of those things that makes you remember how fragile life is. You can just be driving home from work, driving across a bridge, and fall out of the sky and have your life taken from you in an instant. I am thankful that (as far as I know) none of my friends, family, or coworkers were on that bridge when it collapsed. Though - one of the members of our softball team drove over the bridge within a minute or two of it falling. So it was a close call. That bridge is not part of my daily commute, I just have taken it every couple weeks or so. There is video online of the actual collapse, from a security camera, and it's odd to see it fall like that, knowing that this was no planning bridge demolition. Absolutely crazy.

But, in the end, we can thank God that it wasn't worse. There was a school bus full of children on the bridge at the time, but all children got out safely; their location on the bridge meant they didn't fall as far, and didn't fall into the river itself. There are lots of stories of close calls with people.

The Shining Ball of Light

I've decided to go ahead and post the first chapter to The Lords of Sargoff. It is still somewhat of a rough draft, so I'm sure there will be spelling and grammar mistakes, and gaping plot holes. :) If you read it and happen to notice any of these problems, please let me know :). The first chapter 4,436 words - about 9 pages in Word, which would translate to approximately 18 pages of a novel. If you so desire, you may download the Word file here. Any comments, suggestions, or criticisms are more than welcome! :)

Tonight is our last night of softball. Hopefully we are able to play (we've been having problems getting enough players), and hopefully we do well, though it is just fun to get out there and play. I will miss playing, but volleyball is only a few months away.

We had card night on Saturday, which was good fun. I played three games of Lord of the Rings and four games of Star Trek, and though I only won 2 games (3 of the games I played were 3 player), it was still great fun. I worked on my Trek deck on Sunday and am looking forward to seeing if the changes I made help.