Man, I wish I was profound or something.

I find that there's little going on in my life to blog about here lately. I wish I had something interesting or profound to comment on, but there you are. I'll do my best.

Job News

I went to Cleveland to interview, and found it to be productive. The company is very family oriented, which is important, and everyone was very nice. I enjoyed my time spent there--it was not painfully uncomfortable like one would expect a fly-in interview to be. I came away with a very good idea of what they wanted and where they would like for me to take them professionally. They are going to submit a firm offer to me, with job description, here in the next week or so.

I haven't made a decision yet. I am not going to rule out other positions at this time, simply because that's professional suicide, but there's still at least one more concrete offer. Relocating anywhere is a lot to consider, and there are a lot of factors involved.

As a result, I will most likely be travelling to Seattle in the near future to interview with another prospect. I'm looking forward to the trip because the company I am interviewing with was one of my very first choices. They do very, very good work--innovative and solid--and they are headed by someone who gives careful thought to expansion. They're small, they don't particularly care to grow gigantic, and that really, really appeals to me. The position they're offering is more in line with what I've been doing--technical support--and I can get back to working with the customers again.

My Thoughts on the 'Boutique' Computer Manufacturing Industry

I am tired of rapid growth in the custom manufacturing portion of the computing industry. I hate the mentality that comes with the acquisition of more, more, more. The people that care about the company get shoved aside in the interest of making more money, and it sucks. In order to be a stand-out in the field, you've got to give the perfect experience to the customer from start to finish, and when that stops in favor of cutting corners to generate sales, you're no better than Dell or HP.

When you found a company based on customer support, you have to work hard at maintaining a balance between support resources and sales. If your sales skyrocket, you can't support your customers with the same quality that a smaller company could because the people you bring in to do support don't have the advantage of one-on-one training or time to acclimate . Alienware is a prime example of customer support failure. What a wonderful concept they had early on...and how awful it is to see the entire concept sucked straight in to the corporate vacuum. It's sad.

Let's hope that the few good manufacturers out there--Maingear, Puget, Falcon Northwest--don't sell out and become like the Alienwares and Voodoos of the custom PC world. There's a lot to be said for craftsmanship and niche markets.

Vehicular Vanslaughter

The minivan is gone, thank god. In the interest of cutting costs, I decided it would be cheaper to give it up.

Let me make this clear--I HATED the minivan. The procurement of said minivan was done in desperation during a very bad time where I was in a car accident, lost a close friend unexpectedly AND found out I was pregnant (all in a three day period). In other words, if I had been thinking clearly at all, I would have run screaming from that purchase. So, when it came down to it, it was a $400/month expense I was ready and willing to give up.

No more car payments. I am going to use a little of my relocation package money to buy a car outright. Even if I have to replace the damn motor in one, it would be better spent on something I own free and clear.

The Family

My kids are driving me crazy. Well, the 3 year old in particular. She's INSANE. She's a toddler, so that's actually understood to be normal, but good lord...what a handful she's become since I took her out of daycare. I suspect that it's the lack of things to do that's got her dander up--Mom is not nearly as much fun as 3 other kids, I know this. If I had transportation right now, I'm sure that I could take her to the park or something, but with our emphasis on conserving cash, it's not happening.

I am not housewife material, guys. I am more ambitious than a lot of women and very easily bored by everything that's not fluid or multi-faceted. It's my nature to require constant mental stimulation. There is no "quiet" time for my brain...it's constantly working.

Here I sit. This would be better if I were able to get those last five classes of my degree done during this time, but I'm out of loan monies and need to pay for them out pocket.

The most I have going on right now is reading and preschooling programming from 7am-6pm. It's killing me. My brain is atrophying inside of my skull.