New job

OK, first things first. Here's the long promised post about my new job.

It's quite a funny story how I ended up here. In this post from December about my 30th birthday, I mention the band I hired for the party, the Red Hand Blues Band. Between their sets we chatted and I learned that the double bass player, Martin, runs a development company. He mentioned, conversationally, that they were keen to find some programmers who were interested in working from home or part time. After that (and a tequila with tabasco and orange!) we both carried on with what we were there to do and didn't give it much further thought.

In January I sent my CV to the recruiters I had been working with ever since moving back to SA and, as an afterthought, to Martin as well. I heard back from the recruiters, went on a few interviews; eventually I was one interview with the CEO away from accepting a job with an online contract managment firm.

Cue an email from Martin to say that my CV had ended up in the junk folder, but if I'm still looking would I come for an interview. I almost didn't go, but he seemed keen and I didn't have anything to lose.

After the longest, most comfortable and most in-depth first interview ever, I was really torn because both positions felt like a good fit. Martin was also very keen to get me on board, and during the phone call where I told him I had to weigh my options and make a difficult decision, he told me he'd be buying a computer for me to work on in good faith in the meantime.

The biggest deciding factor that made me choose this job over the other is the diversity of projects they do (rather than maintaining one piece of software like in the other company) and the diversity of technologies they use. The focus is on my own core skill, ASP.NET, but there's a lot of scope for learning new things. There have been several occassions that showed me it was the right decision. Not least of all the boss' amazing attitude towards family and work-life balance when it transpired I was already pregnant at the time of the interview!

It's a small development company, doing mainly web stuff, but for an office with 7 people (one of whom is a designer and one a copy writer), we maintain some seriously heavy-weight clients.

I'm enjoying the work, I'm loving the people, and I'm seriously appreciating the very human and honest managerial style.

I am a little in danger of being that annoying new guy who thinks they should change everything to what I'm used to, but it can be a little frustrating to not have source control or coding standards. While it's a good exercise for me in relinquishing control and adapting, I like to think I do bring some good suggestions that at least give food for thought even if we don't implement them straight away.

So, that's the story of my now-not-so-new-anymore job, and what I believe to be the divine hand in leading me to it.

New post - do your eyes deceive you??

Ok, so I have been promising various people a new post on here for various amounts of time for different reasons.

So I'm going to do one of those lists of things I intend to post about in the near future again, the idea being that I'll update this post with a link to that post when it's done. As if that's worked before...

Anyhoo. Coming up, on Moonica's Musings:

• About my new job that's not so new anymore
• A review of my new(ish) Samsung Galaxy S phone
• Pregnancy updates (yes, that's right, if you've managed to miss it somehow, I'm pregnant, yippee!!)

Thanks for not having given up on me yet (if you're reading this, I'm making the assumption). Now that I've got something interesting to talk about again (see last point above), I may even update the blog semi-regularly.

Moonica.

Not everyone can be an astrophysicist

Found this great post in the Fat-o-sphere that so wonderfully captures what it’s like to be surrounded by people who are gripped tight in the commercial beauty fallacy, even when they are well-intentioned friends. For example, when I need a safe, sympathetic shoulder to admit to (some) of my psychological issues with food and get a dietician recommendation. Or when I go to a restaurant and feel obligated to have a salad, or skip desert, or at the very least feel bad about going round public looking the way I do and still having the gal to eat right there in the open (look me in the eye and tell me you've not thought that about a fat person eating).

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http://www.axisoffat.com/2011/02/everyone-can-be-an-astrophysicist.html

Everyone can be an astrophysicist

Everyone can be an astrophysicist. All you need to do is work hard, and you’ll get there. Let’s face it – only quitters aren’t astrophysicists. If it’s not something that comes naturally to you there’s PLENTY of things you can do help you get there.

Just study harder, for example. I know it seems obvious, but clearly you’ve never heard it before, otherwise you’d be doing it. Finding the complex mathematics difficult? Hire a tutor. Doesn’t matter that it’s expensive and maybe you can’t afford it right now – if that’s what you need to do, then do it.

Still finding it difficult? Maybe you need to spend more time studying so that you can get there. What? You’re already studying every day? Maybe you need to do more. And more. If it requires you to study 12 hours a day in order to become an astrophysicist – that’s what you need to do. Sure, you won’t have time for your friends or family, and your mental health might suffer, but at least you’ll be getting closer to that goal.

What do you mean you don’t understand why being an astrophysicist should be the ultimate goal for everyone? Astrophysics is what everyone aspires to, really, even if they say otherwise. Or it’s what they should want, even if they don’t. The benefits are amazing – well worth those small sacrifices of well-being and mental health.

I’m so tired of people saying that not everyone has the capacity to become an astrophysicist. It’s well established now that every single human brain functions in the same way and has the same capacity for intelligent thought. Do I have any research to back that up? Well no, not specifically, but everyone knows it. It’s on the news all the time and my cousin’s best friend’s boyfriend’s sister did a subject in psychology and she told me that essentially everyone’s brain is made up of the same stuff, so obviously it all works the same. Clearly the problem with the people who don’t become astrophysicists is that they’re quitters. They’re just not prepared to do the work it takes to get there. They don’t have any pride or self-respect or self-discipline. All they want to do is sit around on the couch watching TV or playing on the internet. That’s all anyone who isn’t an astrophysicist does.

And at the end of the day, I’m an astrophysicist*, so everyone else must be able to be one too.

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*Actually, I’m not an astrophysicist. I have nothing but respect and admiration for astrophysicists. It was the first occupation that I thought of that required a highly intelligent, highly trained mind, and I mean no disrespect to anyone in that field.