Better late than never

Back when I was unemployed I signed up to attempt to be a guide for Everquest 2. Sad to say it did not happen while I had oodles of time to devote to it whilst looking for employment. I waited nearly 8 months with no kind of correspondence at all, not even anything letting me know they received the application, which had to be submitted via alternative means.

So, I come home one day and take a look at my email. Low and behold, there is the invitation to join the guide program. It is semi-ironic that this email would come shortly after I start a new job, am staying up late late nights dealing with a child who wants to sleep during the day, and just overall not having a whole heck of a lot of time. Oh well.

I went ahead and accepted the offer and start my "training" in the coming weeks. I'm really looking forward to finally having the opportunity to give back to the EQ community after spending years enjoying just playing the game. Who knows how long it will last, but at least now I will get the benefit of not having to pay my monthly for the SOE Station pass, which is now going up I might add.

Oh yeah, I can't tell you what server, so don't ask! And even if you find it, I won't tell you my guide name, and even if you somehow figure THAT out, don't ask me for any favors cause I won't help you!!

HAPPY BABY!!

I managed to capture some really good pictures of Ezra over the past couple of days. We have one happy baby!!

Peek-A-Boo Daddy!

I see you!!

You're so funny.

I really like these pictures. I'm looking forward to watching his expressions grow and his personality flourish! Being a Daddy is fun!!!

An unexpected oppurtunity.

This post is long overdue, I really should have had this news up a long time ago... but here it is.

February 11th, I'm at my job with HP doing the whole printer testing thing. I'm hating the hours but it is an extremely low stress job and things are going well for me. I wake up that morning to a phone call, it's from a company I interviewed for as an IT Technician - Network Ops d00d back in October/November. I hadn't heard from the company for so long that I just forgot about them. Anyway, they ask me if I'm still interested in the position. What I remember of it was that they offered a lot higher salary range than what I was currently making so I said "Sure"

That afternoon, after I had already left to go to work, they give my wife a call and arrange for a 2nd interview the next morning. I arrive at the interview ready for a beating. Well, it was extremely mild beating. I almost felt as if the interview was really more of a formality than a real interview. Either way, I was happy about it when I left. They asked me what my salary requirements would be and I offered them what I thought to be a pretty high asking salary for a Jr Network Engineer.

Tuesday afternoon, 10 minutes before I'm walking out the door to work, I get the phone call. They offer me the job, and they offered me the top end of the $2k salary I requested. I guess I didn't ask for enough money. Naturally, I accepted the job even though now I will have to pay Oregon state income taxes and drive into the horrible traffic into downtown Portland.

So, as of March 5th, I am working as a Network Ops d00d for Encounter Collaborative. So far I love the job and am really enjoying working with the folks that are here. At the very least this will be a tremendous resume builder and may eventually lead into a job in development.

As to my blogging, I'll be getting more pics of the kiddo up hopefully later this week.

Cheers!