The Happy Thread

[Jadecavy]

I'm almost ready to win this box tourny next weekend. Hopefully Fedex's international overnight is as fast as they claim.

[meleechampion]

So, our professor for this class writes new exams every time, makes up the numbers, and doesn't even attempt to solve them beforehand.

For example on the last one there was an unsolvable problem that was on there by mistake. Finally the class pet brought this to the attention of the professor 10 minutes before time was up. Most of the class had already finished and left. While in the end we all got credit for that problem, it cost me a lot of time so the last couple of problems were a rush job and I didn't get full credit.

So for this latest exam two of the problems got really messy. Like, reeeeeeeally messy. I worked through it anyway. Finally finished and it's super messy so I double check. It all looked correct. I triple checked. It all looked correct. "Oh well." I turned it in.

Cut to today, checked my grade online. 104%

Fuck yeah!

[CodeZTM]

I got the job!!!!!

I'll be making double my previous salary and get free health insurance + 401(k).

I AM SO HAPPERS.

[drewaconclusion]

I got the job!!!!!

I'll be making double my previous salary and get free health insurance + 401(k).

I AM SO HAPPERS.

That's awesome. Congratulations!

[Jwalk0]

Told ya it was a done deal, knew the prayer would work

[Mkid]

So i started looking at a new(to me) show (has 4 seasons already lol). "Misfits" and i love it. holiday season is going to be quite enjoyable.

[Jadecavy]

So I was thinking, and I've come to the realization that I'm no longer enjoying game development and life in Cornwall in general. I really don't want to spend the rest of my life doing this, it's a lot of hard work and it's something that I'm already disliking... I'd like to continue as a hobby, but not for any more than that. There is a program at my college campus in my hometown that I think I'd enjoy more, which is networking, and I'm going to switch into that. A LOT of my credits transfer over, as the game dev program was more intensive in general, and since I'm in my third semester, I'll be able to skip a lot. I weighed the benefits, and;

Cornwall:
Uh... Living alone? This really isn't a benefit, I have to pay rent and the allure of the "independence" (really no difference from home there, my parents gave me complete freedom to come and go) has worn off

Kingston:
I can ACTUALLY find a job and have a lot of contacts there
My family and girlfriend is there, and I have a lot of friends there
Access to a vehicle
Cheaper tuition
No living costs, maybe rent if my parents ask it but it won't be close to as steep as here
Card games
A more enjoyable and less intensive program for now (I'd like to go back to school for Physics down the road)

It seems like a no-brainer to me, I feel so much happier having made this decision... I'm gonna talk to my parents this weekend.

[CodeZTM]

Good luck. . I hope the discussion goes well!

[Otohiko]

Yes. Do it. You will be happier for it.

[Kitsuner]

Good on you. I hear Jamaica's super nice this time of the year.

[ngsilver]

So my manger called me into his office yesterday to let me know of a job opening in an engineer position in our company. I am already working with him and our network team to transition into an engineering role in our department for network issues (we have engineers in our helpdesk that help handle issues first before they goto our engineering teams) but the transition period is a long one. This new position will put me in as an actual engineer in an engineer team right away and the transition will be quick as the team needs someone now.

I'm honored my manager thought of me and is recommending me for it and pushing me towards this job. As the philosophy in our department in this company is to breed engineers with good customer service skills. It would be a significant pay raise, and I mean significantly more then I make now.

This is all well and good, but my issue is, and why I'm hung on the idea right now, is that this engineering job is for an entirely different team then I was aiming to goto. Basically, I'm moving toward networking and that's been what I want to do, network administration. But this job will be for Hyperion work. I know next to nothing about Hyperion beyond what little I'm required to know in order to route Hyperion requests properly at the tier 1 level. I've been told they aren't looking for someone who knows Hyperion as they can teach it, but need someone who is good at troubleshooting and thinking on their feet, which I know I'm good at.

So while I'm happy that the opportunity is here, I'm not sure if I should take it. I don't like making decisions based on money alone, and considering this position will be for doing something I never expect or planned to do I don't know if I will enjoy the job. I've always had a mantra of doing what you love to make money so you can enjoy life... I need to make a decision though or I'll be passed up....

This is probably more of a rant/vent...

[ZephyrStar]

So, despite my generally hanging around a lot of geeky nerdy people, I don't really have anyone I can identify with or who identifies with me (I don't believe so anyway) as a 3D CG pro. I mean, yes, I have my college pals, a lot of whom moved out to the West coast and are working in the games/film industry, but I do not really talk to them on a regular basis, and everyone else I know who does 3D work only dabbles in it, or teaches it, or likes it as a hobby.

I was super excited to learn that my city has a local chapter of AAUGA, (Autodesk Animation User Group Association), which holds meetings every couple of months. I went to the meeting last night (December 3rd, also known as 3December), and ended up talking to some folks who are on the same wavelength. I was also excited to discover that there is a local company in my city that does fairly high end boutique 3D work, animation, video, and who seek out freelancers with skills on a regular basis for contract work. I spoke a lot with the owners of the company, a husband and wife team, who were really laid back and awesome.

I also met a girl who had worked for Digital Domain in Florida, right before their department got cut. She actually knew one of the people I went to college with, and had worked with him at Rythm & Hues on a couple of movies. Small freaking world.

I'm just really glad to finally know some people, local people, that kinda get me when I start talking about this stuff on a fairly technical level. They also were impressed that I was working on my own film, though I did get called insane by a couple of different people. Yup.

[Pwolf]

Always nice to have local people to talk to and throw ideas around. Never the same doing it over the internet IMO. Don't get that same connection.

[Otohiko]

Getting to know good people in your profession is always a plus!

***

It's still more than a month till I start working my new job (at a department I worked for a couple of years ago), and my god, I already it so much. I may eat my words when all the student papers and presentations are coming in, but at least as far as the people I'm working with, I seriously love 'em. Had my first meeting today and was reminded of why they're so awesome. In the sense that we really see eye-to-eye on what teaching at a university means, and everybody's got their shit together and are really engaged and supportive. Can't wait until it's officially my job, and fingers crossed that it's indeed gonna be a "next few years" thing for me.

Also, on the NaNoWriMo-type-stuff front, I'm about to have concrete (prelim work that is actually readable) stuff to show certain people who might be interested and I'm super-excited about getting to work on my novel properly.

[CodeZTM]

Since we're talking about professions...

I start my new job on the 17th. From just talking to them the last few days, I feel like it's going to be a whole new world that I'm going to love being in. I have proper support lines, I have CLEAR cut definitions of what my job entails, I have a list of expectations I'm to fill before the end of the workday, and I'm going to be working directly underneath one of the partners and be in charge of the tax division's workload and reporting. A subject that I love working with, and one which involves travel several times a month out of state for certain corporate clientele.

In other words, I'm moving into a good place.