August 01, 2005
Update on How Things are Going
Reading my blog is generally a terrible source of information on my life. When I update it regularly, it's a reasonable source of information on the state of my mind, but if you want to find out what I did today, it's generally very unhelpful. This is probably because I simply don't care about such things - or rarely care, anyway. The circumstances in which I live my life rarely interest me enough to notice them. But I've discovered most of my friends have an interest in the daily doings of my life ... in some ways, it seems they have more of an interest than I do. This is, of course, flattering. But it means I should probably let you know what's been happening. So I will. Or I'll try to, anyway.
These last few months have been positively delightful. I've loved my job and really enjoy living here in Bellingham. Nikki and I found a wonderful church almost right away, and our opinion of it hasn't changed since. It's been more like a vacation than it has a career beginning. And I think that's how God intended it to be ... a time to rest, enjoy myself, and recover from the pain and suffering that was my final semester at LeTourneau (hardly unmitigated, of course).
But it looks like this delightful time is drawing to an end. I spoke to my boss, and my chances of being able to stay on and keep working at Logos aren't very good. They aren't really ready to add another full-time developer; things have been a little slower than expected. Additionally, I don't think I've impressed them tremendously. While the projects I've been given work, it takes me quite a while to finish them. I noticed this trait even at college - routine programming assignments always seemed to take me far longer than it did most of my fellow classmates. To some degree, I made up for this by writing code for very long hours and by stubbornly refusing to give up until an assignment was completed to my satisfaction. I've got a lot to learn as a software developer, though. My ability to cut, splice, and refactor code swiftly and cleanly needs a whole lot of maturing ... if indeed I can do it at all. The thought that I may be incompetent at the task of programming has crossed my mind more than once ... it would be terrible to discover that the job I love so much is one that I can't do very well :-(. Of course, the jury is still out on that - it probably takes a lot longer than a summer to see if I'm any good at it. Besides, in most occupations, being good at them isn't so much a matter of inborn ability as it is passion and practice. I've discovered that I like the task of programming computers very much. Now I just need to learn to be good at it. Suggestions from those of you who are brilliant programmers would help.
Anyway, I've crafted a new and updated resume, and I'll start shopping it around presently. This is a great state for my line of work, but this city isn't particularly. I'd hate to move, but it may be necessary. Still, at least my internship won't be over until the first week of September, which means I've got about a month or so. Umph. Not much time ... I'd better get to work.
In happier news, this coming Sunday will be Nikki and my first wedding anniversary! This Saturday will be exactly 52 weeks since our wedding, and 104 weeks since I asked my beloved wife to marry. It's interesting; I deeply enjoyed the wedding and wasn't a bit nervous ... not even when I got to kiss the bride (for the second time). But it was a nerve-wracking, sleepless night before I asked her to marry me. Getting up the courage to ask her dad "the question" that day wasn't exactly a walk in the park, either. It wasn't that I was afraid of her answer ... it's hard to explain what it was. Maybe just a momentous sense of doom ... the knowledge that on the morrow, I would make a promise that would never be broken. From my engagement on, my course was set. I also wanted the moment to be just right ... I wanted her to be pleased with the ring I'd bought, and happy that I'd asked her. There were a lot of issues on my mind that night. But anyway our first anniversary is coming up, and I can tell you that I've loved my last year of being married to my wonderful wife. We're hoping to go out for lunch at the Space Needle Restaurant in Seattle. That'll be a lot of fun; I've been up in the Space Needle before, but never in the restaurant. And never with a lovely lady at my side, either ... ahh, the joy of strutting in public, secure in the knowledge that I'm married to the prettiest woman in the world. I try not to be smug about it, really I do ... :-) Sometimes.
One of the many benefits of where we're living is unlimited long distance. We don't get it for free, but at only $20 a month, it's not a bad deal at all. And Nikki and I take full advantage of it. It's amazing and wonderful to look at our phone bill, to see that we've called dozens of states and talked for more than a thousand minutes in the last month ... we're certainly getting our money's worth! It's helped a lot of hold our friends and family close, in a way I hoped this blog would ... but it hasn't, because I've been so miserable at posting. I doubt I'll ever be really regular at it again, but I hope you continue to come back a few times a month ... I hope you'll always find something new and interesting for you.
I'm not sure what else to update you all on, so I think I'll close this post off. God bless you all ... and thanks for continuing to read.
