Lies & Money

An Autobiography

***
So much has been going on in my life, I think I'm running in circles. I quite certainly have no idea what I want or how to go about getting it.

Full Sail sent me to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in February. It was awesome! GenCon is pretty fun, but I think I enjoyed GDC a bit more. Namely the fact that I love programming. I went to some really cool lectures: Ragdoll Physics for the Nintendo DS and Undefined Behavior in C++. Very fun.

I did have to work the booth all three days. It really wasn't so bad since we all had one hour shifts. Since I was wearing my Full Sail ID, I was too shy to just steal swag from other booths. I guess GenCon doesn't have too much free swag, but GDC is all about the swag. I got a few free shirts. And there's an entire chapter about the free pen I got.

This company, Factor 5, is looking for programmers. I was looking for a pen. I would have just walked away, but my friend was there. And she was pressuring me into talking to them. Well the booth guy didn't have a whole lot to say, but he wanted me to talk to their senior programmer. So I came back in 10 minutes to talk to him. Well ... he didn't really know what to talk about. I wasn't actively trying to get a job with them, so he wasn't entirely interviewing me. But we did talk about programming (curse you vtable) and stuff in general. Well, I didn't have a resume or business card with me (because I wasn't intending to get another job). But FS had blank business cards and I filled one out for them. Not even 15 minutes later, my phone rings with the other senior programmer wanting to interview me. So I talk to him a bit, and he's asking me about my resume. What projects I've worked on and what I'd be interested in working on.

When I got home from GDC, I emailed my resume to them. And I found one of the guys on LinkedIn. I got a phone call a week or two later asking to setup a phone interview. Sweet! Well unfortunately that phone interview never happened. These guys are originally from Germany, so most of them have a thick accent. Well I never really got the name of the person I was supposed to be interviewing with. So I neglected to call them asking about it. Pretty much a lost opportunity, but whatever. I like working at Full Sail for the most part.

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The other thing about going to GDC was the chance to see one of my FS friends, Mel. We hadn't talked for about a year since graduation. But in August I started talking to her online. And we've become pretty close friends now. So at GDC we got together for lunch and dinners, and we really hit it off.

Two weeks ago was my spring break. So I took some official time off work to visit her in Denver. I wasn't expecting snow, but there were a few white nights. It was really fun to see Mel again. I have a pseudo-girlfriend now. Not quite since we're long distance, and not officially dating. I'm trying to coerce her into moving back to FL ... I'm not sure it's working.

So we'll see. At the very least, we've renewed our friendship.

***
With the way parking had been going at my friend's condo, I've moved again. I'm living with Blade and his friend. The room is smaller, further from FS, and more expensive. I didn't particularly know what the rent was going to cost. I just needed a place immediately so my car wouldn't be towed.

I'm thinking about buying a mobile home again ... *sigh* Life just does not get any easier.

***
On a good note, though, I got $800 back on my taxes. And that doesn't include the stimulus which I'll see in July. Also, one of my student loan APRs has dropped from 6.25 to 4.25. Which is pretty awesome. And now surprising that my Federal loans, which had started off being the lowest at 7.75, are now the highest.