Saturday night after a weekend of skiing, I find myself in an alpine cabin by Lake Tahoe with five feet a snow falling outside. Twenty coworkers cook a vegan Thai curry (my boss is a vegan) while a bunch downstairs shout drinking games over a pingpong table. I’m upstairs with …
Rabbits, Rabbits, Rabbits, a new month of February begins. I have been working officially for one month. I tend to check in with a new job at the one month, two month, six month, and one year time points – quite orderly, but I am a data scientist after all. …
Adam loaned me a finance biography, John Bogle’s “Enough.” Within, Mr. Bogle charts his trajectory from scrappy Philadelphia boy to mutual fund innovator and head of the canonical index fund at his company, Vanguard. Although Bogle dispenses financial advice, such as paradoxically never buy a mutual fund because the annual …
This Sphere may kill me. In the fall, I decided to tackle a long-standing project of the Sphere, a 120-sided, 6-foot diameter, white fabric and LED sphere. The previous Snowflakes project taught me how to build the Sphere’s frame and cells. I had sabbatical time at home to attempt a …
I may not work long hours (yet), but my intellectual and psychological centers these days remain at work. I wake up, hop the long shuttle to work, work at work, get on the long shuttle from work back to home, eat dinner, and think about work. Weekends are for catching …
I have survived two weeks of work, although one of those weeks – just three days – was not a whole week. From what I see so far, I like my job, I like my coworkers, I like the company. There may be only two of us employees over the …
For our winter trip of 2018, my brother and I flew to Havana with friends Ruben, Lee, and Adriene for ten days of exploring embargoed Cuba. We set up shop initially in Havana’s gritty Centro district for a look at the neighboring Habana Vieja, teeming with Hemingway haunts, mariachi bands, …
I spent most of December wondering about my new job, not anxious, just fascinated by the upcoming unknown work environment, colleagues, and schedule. I knew my 2019 life would be much different from my leisurely fall, but did not know how. I just finished my first week at the new …
I start a new job tomorrow on Wednesday, January 2. I wish my mother would pack a lunch in my red backpack to allay the anxious first day of school. Tomorrow morning, I walk to the bus, which I had best not miss. I wonder about my busmates, the building …
2019 New Year’s Resolutions Tomorrow starts a new year with hope for much. I see mostly ahead a world of work for at least six months. The latter half of 2019 sits understandably cloudy. I resolve: Take Work Seriously… but Not Too Seriously Insecure from the last job’s layoff, I’d …