I don’t usually have a rogue mocha porter at 9 a.m., but it’s my last saturday of funemployment.  and I had just a smidge of hangover to eliminate.  oh, and there’s coffee in it.  right.  that’s what mocha means.  it’s really a good beer, I’m realizing.

the k/ontract became more solid.  I start Monda/y.

of course I think about the fact that it’s the day.  it’s a saturday.  it’s going to be nice out.  it already is.  I took the trash out.

oh , this is something I’m proud of:  I researched smart phone plans and prices recently and after I dont know 30 minutes decided not to get one and it was a pretty easy decision.  they cost 1000 dollars a year.  just to have the internet when you’re walking around.  I pay about 100/yr for my pre-paid phone.

I am starting to relax.  I was a spaz today.  really keyed up but also indecisive, unfocussed.  an annoying person to be.  it was a struggle.

I am intense and paranoid.

this goddamn renovation.  it has been really noisy this week.  today they are removing the concrete foundation below where the chimney was formerly located over there.  it can’t last forever.  the renovation is finite.  it will end at some point.

[I have a feeling like "I don't have to job search right now" but also like "I don't exactly have a job yet".  this should be regarded as a good thing.  but I don't really have a formal con/tract yet and yes, now I'm remembering that it's always like this.  there are always a couple days, or more, where you are crossing the rubicon.  you have what you think is a pretty solid verbal agreement but you still wonder.  it is an in between time.  I told them I want my start date, for pay purposes, to be this monday and have not yet gotten a rousing affirmative type of response.  but this is just my usual paranoia when I'm in the rubicon.  it is made more poignant, tho, by the three interviews I turned down in the last couple of days.  like, maybe I should have been a hard ass and told this org that until I have something written, I'm going to keep interviewing.  but for various reasons that doesn't work.  you have to manage their paranoia as well.  telling them I'm going to keep interviewing would stoke their paranoia and the whole thing would not settle into place.]

to return, this goddamn renovation.  man, it will never happen again, right.  both neighbors will have renovated dwellings.  never again, right.  I CAN”T WAIT TIL IT”S DONE.  LORDY THAT WILL BE GREAT. O M G.  I don’t get the economics.  that house was solid.  are they really going to make more profit from gutting & renovating than they would have if they had just remediated any serious nastiness and then painted, remodeled baths and kitchen, and re-done the floors.  then again those items are probably 3/4 the cost of the whole renovation, so I guess you might as well gut.  I guess the economics makes sense somehow.

arnold is here with me up in the office.  he got freaked out about the neighboring noise and he usually does not freak that easily.

the supplies do have a way of diminishing as they are used.

supposed to be quite nice out this weekend.  guess I’ll do a lot of drywall repair today.  it’s not nice out, so.  I need to go out there at some point.  even if it’s not nice out.

I guess I got that kontract.  I also got two new invites to interview today.  I got one invite in voicemail while I was talking to the kontract guy.  so the last couple of days were good.  I heard back from almost every company to which I applied recently.   I told those people I would get back to them later this year.

20cent will attribute this onslaught to her resume edits.

it occurs to me that it’s all about targeting.

I’m going to head over to gallaud/et in a bit to observe some bik/e polo for a spell.  maybe bring a thermos.

interv/iew thurs in the burbs.  the near burbs.  home state.  never thought I’d have another jo/b there.  it would most likely be a driving commute, if.  though there is a half decent transit option.  it would not involve the beltway.  not directly.  the drive would likely be shorter in duration than a bike+transit trip from here to dupont.  scooting would be an option in fair weather.

they said the process would start with a phone talk, but then after they saw my cod/e sample they invited me in, sans phone talk.  that’s perhaps a good sign.  I guess the fact that I can get an interview after someone sees a code sample is at the very least proof that my code isn’t conspicuously bad.  I will never not feel like I somehow snuck into the profession.  I struggled with the number of negatives to include there.  for a while I had I will never not feel like I didn’t sneak.

my search engine disoptimization practices have slackened.

as predicted back when the ceiling was open, each phase is easier than the one before.  I have already skimmed 90% of the ceiling in a rough way, after earlier today removing the last 1/3 of the popcorn.  the walls are ready for sanding.  a few more iterations of mud and the ceiling will be ready for sanding.  sanding the mud will be much, much quicker work than was sanding the popcorn.

I may be at that phase where because I’m getting several nibbles I decide they all add up to a yes somewhere.  but in fact that might not be the case.  could be that none will add up to a yes.  probably something will, I think.  fascinating.  I wasn’t being sarcastic.  I actually think this is sort of fascinating, the blindness.   today the search front was a bit quiet and I was a bit quiet as well.  I did not look for more prospects.  I should blindly proceed with seeking prospects as if I have none.  I should get back on that tomorrow.

a very dim grey day in the dc.  certain pieces of the weather were cancelled.  its color and sound among them.  I think it is football related.

there is one recruiter whose emails I have not been answering and it’s entirely due to grammar.  I should get past that.  could be ESL.

the popcorn is DEAD.

I killed it with the orbital sander.  it was pronounced DEAD around 2:04 p.m. EST.

my home is now a popcorn-free school zone.

it was a deltoid workout.   a patience workout.

dust floats in that room right now.  it is the spirit leaving the popcorn, stubbornly refusing to pass into the beyond.  it will settle to the floor, then I will vacuum it up.  then I will dump it in the back yard where it will get rained on and join the earth.  then probably microorganisms will eat it.

next step is to skim coat the whole ceiling in there.  shouldn’t be too hard.  120 sq ft.

snow

I like it

it makes things both shiny and obscure, and revealed

.

it’s a uniter, not a divider.

–

it snowed.

–

I hit the sweet spot in some botanic.

man.

going down with the botanic.  I’m reminded of the old gary larson comic, wherein the cook is seen pondering whether to regret having believed that the cook always goes down with the the ship.

so it is we generate these psychic closures.  out of the twigs and button threads of the field.

of closures, the room is smoothing out.  it does proceed, by an hour or two of work a day.  sometimes a burst of 3 or 4.

I opened the vent in there.  it is toasty.  it never really got cold, even with the vent closed.  so you know.  in the closed it was cold for a while.

the renovators were seen moving boxes of hardwood flooring into the house.  I presume the wood will acclimate in there for a few days or whatever, before installation.  so they anticipate installation soon.  and that would be it, right.  I have at times gotten just a little pissed off about how quickly they are able to move through all these phases.  time lapse.  the nerve of them.  gutting and renovating an entire house in 2+ months.

the patriots winning the superbowl is like, a tie.  the season would just be a tie.  every team’s record would be reset to 8-8.  hopefully it would not affect draft order.  I think it’s unlikely, though.  they’re one of those teams that looks great when it’s playing the broncos.  speaking of 8-8.

it was an outstanding day on the search front.  I met with recruiters who I liked very much.  in fact they have changed how I see recruiters.  that sentence is somehow embarrassing.  separately I heard from an employer to which I applied directly.  that is actually the first time that’s happened during this search.  separately I heard from another less impressive recruiter who is based in NY but works with DC clients sometimes.  heady times in the search, after a dullness in recent days.

I can’t say enough about the single speed conversion.  the bike.  it has changed the way I see recruiters.

boulder was the first place I ever lived where I encountered people who believed that a haircut could help purge the psyche of, toxins.  I have such a clear image of the moment when it was explained to me by two extremely blonde girls, really the two blondest people I have ever seen, that the reason one was giving the other a haircut was because they were beginning a fast.  My puzzlement must have been clear.  I imagine them detecting my puzzlement at the initial explanation and voluntarily providing further explanation in a charitable, not quite patronizing way.  a concise and pleasant explanation, each or both staring out of their aura’s deep indefinite abyss of blondeness.