I have been pretty happy at work. My first week was horrible because I was sick the whole week (Recall I had a 102 degree fever and was throwing up the night before my first day.) and I didn't get my computer until halfway through the week.

I didn't realize how much working in a beautiful environment could affect my mood. Almost every time I walk around the building I get a little lift from just appreciating the artistry of the architecture. Architecture has never effected me that way before, or at least not that I was consciously aware. All of the natural light in the building has also been good for me. The previous two years I worked in a basement with no natural lights. There were days when I would not go upstairs, so I would come to work in the dark, work in fluorescent light all day, and leave after the sun set. Blech!

Another thing I just realized yesterday was that I like working around a lot of people. The previous two years I worked in a small environment. If I stayed in the general vicinity of my desk I might only come into contact with a half dozen people or so in a day. Now I come into contact with that many people before I even reach my desk in the morning.

Yesterday, Friday, was probably the best day I have had there so far. I had one big exciting achievement that not only did I get a hearty heartfelt "attaboy", but I was really excited about what I accomplished. My boss's exact words were "I'm glad you're here." How can that not make your week? If I described the accomplishment you would probably be more than under whelmed. Using industry jargon terms I figured out how to set up an unmanaged raster catalog and then use it to create wireframe outlines of all of the aerial images in several directories. I won't go into the benefits of how this will be useful until we get all of our aerial images into our SDE database and how it will be helpful in organizing the images so we can get them into our SDE database. Just know that my boss and I were excited about it.

I also had a little win yesterday when I imported a CAD file into my GIS software. I have done it before at my previous job but it is the first time anyone has done that where I work now. I will have a little bit more to say about that on my e-mail list. Maybe later today but no promises.

Next Friday I am flying to Springfield, IL in a small private turboprop plane.





It will take about 55 minutes of flight time to get from the DuPage Airport to Springfield and it will be me and four big-wigs from one of the engineering firms we have under contract.

I am still at a temporary desk with a temporary phone extension and no voicemail. I can't order business cards yet because I don't know my phone number.

They are exceeding strict on their Internet usage and e-mail policy. NO personal use. I have already had my hands slapped twice by the Internet usage monitoring people. As such I cannot make posts from work which explains why I have not been posting a lot lately. A lot of times I have things I want to write about when I get home, but by the time I get chores and errands done it is time for bed and I am too tired to put much energy towards writing.

I am starting to know more people and am able to nod, smile, and say hello as I walk the halls. I make an effort to try and call people by there name because people like to hear their own name. I think it makes a difference to people if you say "Hi Brian." rather than just "Hi.". The first week or so can be a little depressing because you feel like such an outsider.

When we worked in the city a lot of the people we worked with lived in the city. There were people that we would have liked to do things with outside of work, but because they lived 30+ miles away it made it difficult to do anything spontaneous. Now that I live only 15 minutes from work I am hoping we might be able to meet some people we can do things with.

We have a time and attendance system that everyone must use whether they are hourly or salaried. When you are issued your badge you are also electronically fingerprinted. When you swipe your badge when you arrive at work or leave you also have to touch an electronic fingerprint pad. That prevents you giving your badge to someone else and swiping you in for the day. You have to enter two different fingers into the system and the terminal will randomly prompt you for one or the other. I don't know why they need to do that. I guess if someone really wanted to get in the building with my badge they would have to cut off two of my fingers instead of one?

I am excited about the couch we ordered this week. For the first five years in our current house when we watched TV in the family room we were separated by a long coffee table. Sheri started to not like watching movies down there because she felt like she was alone. A few months ago we moved the coffee table out of the way and dragged her recliner next to the couch were I usually am. This is nice but not aesthetically pleasing. The couch we ordered is a sectional. We have always disliked sectionals for some reason, but this would be the perfect solution for us. We can both lay down to watch a movie and lay head-to-head. They said it will take six to eight weeks to deliver, but I have a feeling it will be here sooner. I think they say a lot longer than it will really take just to prevent angry phone calls if they are running behind my a week. Like it normally takes about three weeks, but it is possible it might take four, and in certain instances maybe five weeks. So if they said it will be there in three or four weeks, they would get phone calls from a lot of people after three weeks if they have not heard from them yet.

I have been thinking about getting a dog again. I am far from certain about it though. I remember all of the great things about having a dog, but time has diminished from my memory the unpleasant parts of dog ownership. The need to pick up turds when it is 90 degrees and humid before cutting the grass. Stepping in a turd while cutting the grass that I missed. Not being able to sleep in past 6:30 am on the weekend because someone is whining to go outside. Not being able go out someplace directly after work for the evening. The hassle of what to do with a dog during vacations. Muddy paws when it is raining outside.

Do those negatives outweigh all of the enjoyment a dog provides? I don't know. That is the calculus I am doing in my head now.

Lately I have been bringing up fond memories of the quirky things Goliath used to do.