Day 1 Retrospective

So much for chillin'.

More moving, shopping at REI for Whitney, opening IRA for 401K rollover, business meetings, and finally more moving. I got my final paycheck today and it looks like I can spend 6 months looking for a job based on my savings and unemployment comfortably before I start tapping penalized retirement money to live and I think unemployment runs out. Anyone know if it's still six months to motivate people?


Tomorrow full practice of Whitney equipment, tent setup, cooking, everything to make sure I have my ducks in a row, then it's off for 3 days to Mt. Whitney.


Time for some stress free reading and a good nights sleep.


Shameless plug. My friend Dennis runs a GREAT Restaurant called the Blue Wave down off Prospect in La Jolla, and the food is AMAZING and the menu is always changing with a smattering of eclectic Mediterranean dishes:

Day 1

I'm EXCITED!

Wow, It's been a while since I've been excited. Not about something, but about EVERYTHING!


I've been excited about triathlon for a while now for those of you who know me. It's been an amazing internal journey of getting to know myself, my capabilities, my limits. But something great happened today. I got FIRED!


Call it what you want to call it. They didn't really give me ANYTHING in writing today, and at my last review I told my boss it seemed like it wasn't working, and they should work out a smooth transition. I wanted to keep my friends right? And my bosses who shall remain nameless where I worked (Luxtera) didn't really communicate with me for the last 6 months, so my life was basically a waste of time while they wrung the last of my knowledge and I gracefully transitioned out. Well it appears that time was today!


The reality is the details of what happened don't bother me THAT much so I won't bore you with them. Luxtera was of course my 6 year old startup, where I'd been working the last 2 years. I grew with it from roughly 40 to 75 the last 2 years and worked on a Plethora of things I'm incredibly proud of. There's a list at the bottom if anyone's interested (Geeks/Potential Employers/etc.)


WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? This means:
1) If you're my friend, you should see/hear more of me for a little fun
2) I'm going to do IT consulting part time. If you've used/witnessed my IT Saavy before, let me know if there's anything I can help you with. If you are talking to a contact and they need some help let me know. I can help with small things, and help get you in touch with the right people for bigger things.
3) Some other fun things will be coming. I've not decided yet whether to seek full time employment, to start my own business, or some other consulting gigs. If you're interested let me know.

Everything happens for a reason!

-Tom

My Luxtera Achievements:

-Board, Firmware, and PC DLL for a 2 channel Optoelectronic Transceiver called Aurora
-TCP Based GUI for 4 channel WDM Optical Mux
-Verilog for Digital blocks of first sampled 4 channel QSFP Optical Transceiver (I believe)
-Board Electronics for a couple revs of first sampled 4 channel QSFP Optical Transceiver (I believe)
-Firmware for first sampled 4 channel QSFP Optical Transceiver (I believe)
-XML Based Tool for testing/debug of HW/FW/SW (Thanks Phil @ Dexcom for showing me the C# light)
-Slave program for production alignment station
-Extensive PERL scripting for internal use
-Handled deployment (not IT side) of SVN and most user questions, and worked with IT when system had issues
And a lot more.



You can see my linked in profile for more job history. Also check out the NSI Robots I worked on, and the Borevitz Lab where I did some cool PERL scripting and continue to collaborate.

It's Time

So I've pretty much decided. Whether or not I make it or not is completely irrelevant. I have the potential, and inclination, and after reading this Popular Science article about Andy Potts this week I'm gonna make a run for it before I get too old.

As some of you may know I've embarked down the Mental/Physical/Spiritual Journey of Triathlon. Last year was my first full year, and I dropped 60lbs. while gaining some pretty solid bike fitness. This year I've begun using scientific testing to guide my training, and also hired a coach to assist in my training, continued cutting the weight (currently around 197 from my all time peak of 265), and started focusing more on recovery and nutrition. Ken at the fitstop has helped me immensely to balance training and recovery, and also to debunk myths and claims I come across in my research, as well as to plan my events. I know it can't last forever, but my improvement these last few months has been nothing short of amazing.

I'm now going to make it my stated goal to be able to become competitive within my age group, and be able to hold my own with Elites in the next 2 years. I know there may be limitations but it's not going to be my determination, or mental fortitude. I know that genetic factors can play a role, and of course like it says in the article chance matter as well. Let's see what happens now that it's out in the open.

Tim Ferriss

I love this guys blog and subscribe to it. He often comments on how to reduce waste and increase effectiveness and demonstrates that success in anything is a life long process. His most recent post which I just read and throughly enjoyed is here.



Back to work.....