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Step

2008-10-24T23:23:00Z

Recently, I was feeling like I’d hit some sort of wall or plateau, where things just weren’t moving right. I’d felt dissociated from training, and my extra-curricular activities just were evolving. I didn’t have enough time to do what I wanted, and it seemed I was flailing trying to get things done, and as a result, I wasn’t accomplishing much of anything.

Being an engineer, I sat down, identified what I was spending my money on and where I was spending my time. Outcome: a new schedule and rough budget, where I train twice a day on MWF (morning and night), rock climb about twice a month on Thurs, take Kato to the dog park 2-3 times a week, and start reading up on sailing in anticipation of taking some sailing classes with the girl. I set aside hour blocks during the week to study languages, work on my notes, read, shoot photos, or run errands.

Net result: I’m feeling energized again, and after heading down to SD and seeing a bunch of the old martial arts buddies, I’m amped up to train hard, learn some new skills (rock climbing! sailing!) and generally just Get Shit Done.

Shit that I look forward to doing.

Ok, all better.

Slacker, Pt. 4

2008-08-20T22:08:00Z

Venice Custom Bike Show

Slacker, Pt. 3

2008-08-20T22:04:00Z

This is Kato:

Otherwise known as: spaz, freak, energizer doggy, booger, brat, furball.

Slacker, Pt. 2

2008-08-20T21:54:00Z

Fourth of July, rooftop, Marina Del Rey, whisky, point-and-shoot:

Slacker, Pt. 1

2008-08-20T21:37:00Z

Yeah, this little get-together happened, I don’t know, maybe 4 months ago? Regardless, I’m just now getting the pics off my point and shoot. For those who where there ….

Connecting the Dots

2008-06-12T19:15:00Z

I can’t believe I’ve been in LA for nearly nine months, nor can I believe I’ve spent this much time at my new job. Time seems to have accelerated exponentially. I’m reminded of a conversation I had years ago with my father, along the lines of, “A year of your life today is a big deal – make the most of it. When you’re older, a year goes by much faster. Don’t forget to make the most of it.”

Now that I finally feel somewhat competent in my job function(s), time may begin to slow down again, as my internal clock isn’t so distracted by the immense amounts of new things to learn during the workday. Granted, this still a ton to learn, but at least the foundation is there. It’s like starting all over in martial arts – when everything is new, every moment is spent absorbing new data. Once you have more experience, the number of new things you learn are less frequent, but more perhaps more important, as to epiphanies of connecting the dots allow you to gain a greater understanding of the whole picture.

Outside of work, I’m still training. I still travel down to SD to train with Kawika Sensei as frequently as possible, although work and social obligations have been limiting that to once every six to eight weeks. Regardless, now that I have a student of my own, I’m using the opportunity circle back to beginning and work on the foundations. Due to the responsibilities of teaching, I’m finding connections that I previously missed, and it is greatly increasing my understanding of the art. Frequently, these are things I realize as I’m vocalizing particular principles or techniques – and these things I may have momentarily conceptualized before – but being forced to explicate them in detail to someone that does not have the assumptions I have has proved extremely educational. (And provides fodder for my personal note collection.) And yes, I’m still taking notes, and re-vamping the existing ones. When the currently evolution is complete, years down the road, I believe the collection will be quite impressive.

Socially, most of my friends still revolve around work. Years ago, I noted that it somewhat depressed me that, once old enough, social circles tend to revolve around those you work with and those of your significant other’s. And, this is precisely the case for me today. Now, there are some very cool people I work with that I hang out from work, and Nae’s friends are by and large very cool people, so I don’t really have a problem with that. I do, however, feel like it’s somewhat contrived. How close are you with someone if, for example, you get fired, and you cease to see that social circle? Likewise, if you and your SO break up? Will you still call those friends of his/hers? There’s a nagging feeling that the friendships are driven by circumstance and locality, as opposed to a deeper confluence of shared interests. Regardless, I’m not dissatisfied here, nor with my particular situation, and it is primarily a result of my own doing: work hard, train hard, spend time with the girl. There’s not a lot of opportunity to make outside friends when that’s most of your life. But, in a way, I love that life – this life. Which is why, despite meeting some very cool people in the local art, martial arts, and photography scenes, I haven’t really followed up and initiated friendships. I feel almost like the nice new stranger in town: I get along with people, and they with me, and serendipitous encounters are appreciated when experienced, but not expected. Perhaps it’s that fiercely independent nature of mine asserting itself again. C’est la vie, it’s leading me where I think I want to go.

In short, I feel best when I get a good days work in, learn something new, train hard at night, learn something else new, hang with the girl, and have a few moments to practice a foreign language, read a good book, and shoot some photos. Since extended travel is (temporarily) out of the picture, I’m thoroughly enjoying the options available to me.

But when I do finally get out travel – watch out.

Ninpo Retreat April 2008

2008-05-06T16:42:00Z

Nidan

2008-04-28T21:17:00Z

Sweet.

Back to training.

Googleyland

2008-03-24T18:42:00Z

Mammoth

2008-03-20T18:23:00Z

Oops

2007-12-20T18:38:00Z

I guess I’ve missed most of December as well. Not just in blog-land, but a in real life as well. I’m finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable at the job, but still don’t have the level of depth required to discriminate between “know the reason why X is done via Y” and “X shouldn’t really be done via Y; I should build tool Z.” And, since I eat lunch and dinner at work, I haven’t really been out and about Santa Monica/Venice (not to mention LA) to a great degree. Notable points of interest:

The Novel Coffee House and Bookstore in Venice: very cool atmosphere, laptop friendly (although the wireless isn’t free).
Some pizza joint in Eagle Rock: excellent. Some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. I’ll have to dig up the name.
LACMA Dali Exhibit: again, excellent.
The Edison Hotel: awesome ‘steampunk-ish’ bar in LA. I wish I would’ve brought my camera to the Holiday Party we had there.
I now officially add Boxers to the types of dogs (Akita, Husky, Malamute) I’d like to (someday, not in the near future) own. Mainly due to Tommy.

However, I did get the chance to spend Thanksgiving with Pop’s side of the family in Yuma, and trained with Kawika Sensei, David Mills, and some others a few weekends ago. I felt good having a body to throw around again. Lance and I met an hour before class, and Mike and Sean showed up early as well, so we beat each other up in the soggy mud of the park. Ah, yes, I definitely miss that.

Hopefully I’ll get around to posting some new (although shot a while ago) photo to osbornphoto.com, since that’s become nearly static. Also on the docket: continue on with the Spanish, Japanese, and German lessons, get back to taking more photos, and learn how to rock climb. Hopefully I can syntehisize the last two.

Tomorrow I leave for MO to meet up with the girl at her father’s place. I have to bring long johns. Damn it’s cold there.

Where did Oct Go?

2007-11-19T18:52:00Z

Seriously. Wow. Two months with no update? Yeah, I know, you guys have been disappointed with that (judging from some phone calls and emails) since I disappeared. So what’s been going on?

Of course, I have a general policy not to blog about work, with the general exception of broaching vague summaries such as “busy” or “good.” And I’m not goig to change that now, but I will say this: working for Google rocks. It seems like they really value the employees, and everyone from engineer to exec seems to really buy in to the various phrases associated with Google (e.g., “Don’t be evil”), unlike other companies that just give such things lip service for the PR machine. There’s absolutely tons to learn and do here, so I’m really excited.

But, I only started just over a month ago, so what else has been going on? Ok, rewind, and let the snapshots do the talking….

And Nae and I went to Seattle for a week for a whole slew of reasons: Andrew’s wedding, hang out with Matt and Lindsay, and see some friends and family.

Andrew’s wedding:

Nae and I took one of those tours of the old underground Seattle. (Touristy but pretty cool to be down there.)

Wandering around Seattle:

Of course, some fam:

Oh yeah. In case you missed it, I had a Bon Voyage/bDay party as well:

I've Been in CA Too Long

2007-09-12T23:55:00Z

A few weeks ago, as I was getting out of bed, I felt one of the many recent quakes rumble through. Didn’t phase me a bit, but I did think, “probably a 4.0 or 4.1” When I get in to work, I check the USGS quake site, and find out it was a 4.0. Cut forward a week or so, and I feel another one pass through the house. This time, I peg it at a 3.7, and USGS verifies my guess as completely accurate.

Yeah, and I’m moving to LA.

This should be fun.

Summer Round-Up

2007-09-11T18:16:00Z

As a referred to last post, I’ve been quite busy. I have managed to make it out every once in a while, though …

Here’s a sport I just witnessed for the first time, and I’m not sure if it’s going to catch on: Mountain Unicycling. Uh-huh. You read that right.

And over Labor Day weekend, things tend to get a bit rowdy. What happens when you come out of the waves from a session of body surfing, and someone’s fashioned a beer bong out of a tube a seaweed? Well, you make the guy from out of town chug a beer out of it, of course. (I can’t believe he did that. Cool guy and a good sport. I wouldn’t even get near the thing.)

He said it tasted pretty gross, and way too salty. Despite that, this girl from a group next door decided to take a shot at it:

Wow, that’s disgusting. I still wasn’t enticed. But, later that weekend, I did meet the coolest bartender in Mission, and the only person I’ve ever met that prefers tabasco in her tequila shots:

Of course, I still managed to make it up to LA every once in a while. Sometime after the 4th of July, there were quite a few American flags still planted about ‘Nae’s apartment complex. At some point, Tommy (the coolest boxer I’ve every met), decided he was a bit more patriotic than the rest of us. He plucked a flag up in his mouth and hauled-butt up and down the yard with the flag in his mouth. Even when he dropped it, he’d make sure to pick it up by the stick and not the fabric before continuing his circuits. He looked quite happy, and I was probably more entertained than I should have been.

And there was Mai’s birthday party at Delve Sushi - the craziest sushi joint I’ve even been to, where the make the entire restaurant get up and do the chicken dance, and the staff perform lip-sync routines to pop music. Very fun.

Disclosure

2007-09-07T17:18:00Z

I know I’ve been saying that “there’s adventures in the works” for at least a year or two, and it’s finally time I can reveal what all the mystery was about. Some of you know, some of you may not. In any case I talked about doing one of two “adventures,” and of doing both if I could.

One was a special high-intensity training program for my martial arts. All outdoors in nature, two to four hour classes, two to four days a week, plus a significant amount of my own training time outside of class. The idea was to really dig in to the art. Well, I did the full six-month run of those classes, and then some, and for the last five months I’ve been taking six to eight private lessons per week with my instructor. Will I end up with some sort of ranking out of this? Perhaps. More importantly, I know that the sort of content I’ve been getting out of the last year and change of training is exactly what I was looking for in the art.

The second adventure was traveling: I was planning on selling the house, saving up money for a year or so, quitting my job, and backpacking the world for a year taking photos. This plan didn’t quite work out – as expected, that is. The bad news is the that house didn’t sell, and I had to rent it out. I really didn’t want to spend a year abroad having the anchor of a partial mortgage to pay on a monthly basis.

The interesting turn of events is that a company that offered me a job a two years ago recently came back to me and asked me what my current situation was. Two years ago, I just wasn’t in a position to take the offer, particularly since it required relocation. And, they have offices in Dublin, Zurich, Sidney … hmmm. Consider my curiosity piqued. We go back and forth a bit, and they send out another offer. A good offer.

Fast forward to this last Tuesday, September 4th. At 2 P.M., I meet with my supervisor. I tell him I’ve got this offer in, and I think I’d like to take it, but I also want to make sure I have the time to finish the current tasks at work before I leave. After all, my current company has been good to me, and I don’t want to leave them in a tough spot. I tell him it’s not “going from something, but going to something.” I don’t dislike it here, but I believe I’d really like to work for this other extremely well-regarded company.

After returning from that meeting, I see a new email in my box. “Company meeting at 4:30 P.M.” There’s something about the terseness and tone, the time, and the day of the week that send a shiver down my spine. I know what’s going to happen. And it’s a good thing.

Two hours after I tell me supervisor that I’m quitting, it is announced that our company has been sold.

Yup. I don’t know how, but I knew. Strange.

It’s been acquired by a solid company, and the deal is great for everyone involved. I’m given a very good offer – salary increase, stock, shares, performance bonuses, matching 401(k), retention bonus, all the goodies. It’s a damn good package.

I have to sleep on it.

Today, I made my decision: I will no longer be continuing employment at my current company. It was a tough decision to make, but I believe it’s the right one.

I’m going to work for Google.

I’ll be undergoing a week of training in the Mountain View office starting October 15th, and then returning to the Santa Monica office for at least a year and a half. Why “a year and a half”? After that, you’re eligible for transfer. Well, Zurich is right in the middle of Eastern and Western Europe, has a great train system, and you get the European standard five weeks of vacation per year … hmmm, that might not be a bad way to travel….

(And yes, ‘Nae is down with going.)

So that’s why I’ve been off the map lately. I’ve had more than my usual share of tasks to take care of lately.