Skip to content

Quitting my job at Google

10-Jun-11

Voluntarily quitting my job at Google gives me sort of these “anti-Christmas” feelings every morning.

Let me unpack that:

When you were a kid, do you remember the days immediately following Christmas? You wake up every morning and for a little while, as you rub sleep from your eyes and your brain begins to boot up, you think it’s just another morning like any other. But then you remember:

Yesterday was CHRISTMAS. I have all those NEW TOYS!

And you jump out of bed and begin your long day of playing.

Well, ever since I told my manager that I’d like to quit my job and pursue other things, I’ve had mornings sort of like that. I wake up and I’ve forgotten that anything significant has happened. I roll over, hit the snooze button… and then I remember:

N days ago, I finally told my manager I would like to quit my job and go to grad school!

And then comes a flood of mixed emotions: relief, happiness, terror, sadness, etc. Very very different emotions from what you’d feel on post-Christmas mornings, which is why I’m calling this “anti-Christmas feelings” (Sort of like the “anti” in “anti-hero”).

And so far, each morning brings a different set of emotions. The first morning, it was all about the joy and relief. The second morning, after I’d broken the news to my team (who I LOVE btw), it was mostly sadness and heartache.

Granted, I’ve only had TWO mornings like that so far, but I expect this feeling won’t go away until my actual departure date. I’m very excited to be moving on and on my way to do other things, but I expect these last few weeks at work will feel a bit like being in Limbo.

I have absolutely no regrets or second-thoughts though. As much as it hurts to leave a team I love, I think I’ve known for a long time that Tech Writing is not the career for me. It feels GREAT to finally acknowledge that and take steps to find what I really want to do with my life.

Anyway, the full details of why I’m leaving, and why I think Tech Writing is the wrong fit for me will probably come out in a separate blog post.

Filed in work | | Comments (3) »

Rift Recruit-a-friend (“Ascend-a-friend”)

11-May-11

So, I’ve been playing Rift off and on for a few months and I’m starting to get really into it. Rift just started a “Recruit-a-friend” type of system, so now I can invite others to play, and if the people I invite end up purchasing, the system gives me free gifts (like a PUPPY. And not just any puppy… a CORGI!!)

I cant find anything in the program that says I can’t invite people through my blog so…

Here’s my recruit-a-friend / ascend-a-friend link.

Anyway, it would be awesome if I knew more people in-game. I’m enjoying seeing all new content, and learning brand new lore. I’m mostly playing Defiant-side right now, but I want to see some of the Guardian side too. It would be nice if I had people around to help figure things out, or who wanted to group up for instances or group quests every once in a while. I have a few friends from my WoW guild and a few friends from real-life who play, but we have different play-times, and we’re all different levels, etc, so it doesn’t happen very often.

Anyway, hopefully see you in the world!

Filed in games | | Comments (0) »

On Fiction Day

22-Mar-11

I’ve had fiction on my brain all day.

Once upon a time, I used to write a lot of fiction. Fantasy/Sci-Fi as a kid, literary fiction in college, etc. I even wrote a play once.

But somewhere along the way, I became a technical writer, and when you’re writing for a living in a genre that is the antithesis of fiction, sometimes things get lost. And, I’m not just talking about losing your motivation to write, which definitely happens. I’m also talking about rusty skills. Really really rusty skills.

Yesterday, a friend of mine shared a draft of some fiction he wrote, and I had a total blast reading it and writing feedback. I got extremely nostalgic for my fiction classes in college, and the whole close-knit workshopping group energy. It also made me realize that I still really really care about the craft of writing. I might not have the same analytical skills, or the same instincts, but I had a blast putting thought into someone else’s fiction and offering up what I thought would make it work better.

Today, I tore through my apartment until I found a very old USB stick that contained all my documents and essays and yes, all my fiction, from college. I just spent about an hour and a half uploading them all into Google Docs. I’ve got about 30 documents from my fiction class. Some of them are rough drafts, unfinished ideas, half-formed bits of scene, etc. But, there’s also a few totally finished pieces. And one of them, I still think is pretty good.

I’m very motivated to get back into fiction now. I’m thinking Mondays or Wednesdays might be good days to regularly designate as Fiction Days.

On Fiction Day, videogames, tv, and beer will all be off-limits. Writing and reading fiction won’t be. Also, talking about fiction, blogging about fiction, or reading about the craft of fiction will also be totally fine.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling and personal thoughts. But it’s my blawg and I can do with it what I want. :)

Filed in thoughts, writing | | Comments (3) »

“Rebooting” pennyhero.net

08-Mar-11

I met you on the internet today, and we had the following conversation:

You: Hey Penny! Where did all the archived posts go?

Me: Oh those? Yeah, they’ve been changed to “Private”.

You: How come?

Me: Shame, mostly.

You: Eh?

Me: Okay that’s a lie. Actually, I’m in the process of rebooting pennyhero.net so that it can become a reasonably sane blog that I’d be comfortable sharing with anyone (professionally or personally).

You: Ahhh. So, does this mean that all your angsty teenage ramblings are gone forever?

Me: Maybe? Probably? They’re safely stored under lock and key now. (Although, I’m sure they still live in google cache, or the Internet Archive, or something like that.) I may resurrect a few choice posts for the sole purpose of making fun of my angsty teenage self, but otherwise yeah.

You: Resurrected teenage angsty zombie posts sound like a lot of fun.

Me: If anyone on the internet would think something like that, it would be you, wouldn’t it.

Then we went our separate ways for the day. :)

Filed in housekeeping | | Comments (2) »

30 second synopsis of my fiction

27-May-09

I’ve mentioned to some people that I’ve been writing some fiction. All my attempts at explaining the surface plot have sort of failed… there I am stammering like “well, I’m trying to express blah blah…” and “I’m trying to make you feel like blah blah”.

Well, you’ve waited long enough!

Here’s the 30 second synopsis of my fiction project:

The only two nations that exist on this fantasy-ish planet have been at war for pretty much all of recorded history until the son of the emperor of one nation learns how the war started in the first place (sorry, no spoilers), decides to try and stop the war by taking human form and seducing the queen of the other nation. He hopes she’ll love him, understand, bring peace, etc. However, she finds out who he is prematurely (due to her form of innate magic), immediately distrusts, fears the worse etc, and decides “fuck my life” (only more melodramatically) and when their halfbreed daughter is born, she sends her into hiding and disappears herself to go form some kind of underground resistance to the tyrany that she thinks is her in-laws’ people.

This changes the form of the war, but doesn’t end it. Boo fighting. And no one can find or kill John Conner I mean, mommy dearest, the leader of the human resistance (not to mention her disappeared kid).

My story begins about 16 years later when her daughter finds out that not only was she adopted, but she’s also the daughter of this woman all her school teachers are told to say is a crazy insurgent nutjob (and probably dead). She goes totally emo (also her form of magic is waking up, and going haywire since she’s zomg only half human) and she runs away.

Her younger adopted brother, who loves her to death regardless of how fucked up she’s becoming, is the “main” character of the book I’m writing now, and he’s run off to find her and restore her sanity/stability and help her on her quest to find out who and why she is (uncovering all the backstory and history and politics along the way). Eventually it becomes their job to clean up the mess left behind by the previous generations.

At some point, the story will loop back to the origins of the war once daughter and father meet up, which is tied to the “genesis” of humanity on the planet (all of which is lost to human history). If I ever finish it, it will be a several book series… somewhat epic. OR, I could simplify it quite a bit and it will just be a young adult coming of age novel from either the brother or the sister’s point of view.

Okay that’s it! No stealing my ideas! Feel free to laugh at my silly summary. :)

Filed in writing | | Comments (3) »

The geek shirt that made me laugh the hardest today:

18-May-09

Heavy Metal

Edit: Link fixed. Don’t know why it worked one day and broke the next.

Filed in geek | | Comments (3) »

Test drove a civic

16-May-09

I went and test drove a newish (’07) Honda Civic today. Unfortunately it was not nearly as fun to drive as my STOLEN 98 Civic… so it may be that my very STOLEN Civic will be the last Civic I ever own. *sigh*

Okay… I’m open to suggestions again. I want a car that’s reasonably small, FUN to drive (manual), and NOT obnoxiously sporty.

Filed in life | | Comments (7) »

Boo car theft.

14-May-09

So, very close to exactly 2 years ago, I had my first brush with scary crime about 2 weeks into my new life in the Bay Area. My car got broken into and my stereo was stolen. And, within about a week, someone came to my apartment pretending to be a friendly neighbor and attempted to expose himself to me and force himself into my apartment. Those were not the best weeks evar, and definitely not the best introduction to the area.

Needless to say, I moved out of those cheap apartments and moved somewhere I felt was much safer. My new apartments are off the street, resident parking is locked under ground, there are lots of families around, the managers all live here and are always around, etc.

So, I’m glad I’m not about to say that my car was stolen from my apartments and now I’m afraid to come home etc. No… my car was stolen from work.

If you know me, you know -where- I work… and apparently, this is the first time ever that a car has been stolen from one of our campus lots. There are nice, friendly, plainly visible surveillance cameras all over the outside of the buildings, so I’m sure that’s a deterrent. But… not deterrent enough apparently.

Here’s what happened (according to the security folks telling me what was on the video):

9:45am – I arrive, I park my car in the usual space. I enter the building and go about my work day.

9:45 – 8:25ish – My car is there, perfectly fine ALL DAY LONG.

6:45pmish – I started to think about going home, but decided to stay and finish the last 2 documents I was working on reviewing. Little do I know, a dirty car thief is on his way to campus driving a stolen car.

8:00pm to 8:25pmish – Thief pulls into the driveway in a beige Nissan and parks next to me. He sits there for a little while, then gets out of the car. He walks straight to my car, unlocks the door, gets in, starts it up and drives away as if it belongs to him. The cameras apparently didn’t show any forced entry.

8:30pm – I decide to leave. I pack up and head out to find my car is gone. I apparently missed him by about 5 minutes or so. When I first realized this, I thought “oh man, I could have avoided the theft if I’d just gone out there 5 minutes earlier.” Then I realized… oh wait. If I’d gone out 5 minutes earlier, the thief would be sitting in the car parked next to mine, with god knows what kind of criminal intent. It’s pretty dark out at that hour, and I’m not exactly a big strong person.

Yeah… after thinking about it like that, I’m SUPER glad that it was just my car that was stolen.

I read online a few people in various forums talking about how “zomg my key opens my boyfriend’s car and starts it! wtf Honda?!” so I’m guessing I just have one of those cars that are really really easy to steal. (98 Honda Civic, to be specific)

The story goes that the Nissan was apparently stolen 3 days ago, so this person is switching cars and moving on apparently. Not sure how FAR he moves on before dumping a car… The sort of cool part about my whole experience was I got to watch the cops dust the car for prints. I think I even muttered “it’s like an episode of CSI” or something. hehe.

Anyway… my insurance company is covering a rental car until it’s recovered, or until 21 days pass… at which time my claims person says they’ll make an offer and I’ll give up the rental and have to buy a new car.

Good times. Good times.

Regardless of if my car is recovered, i’m about 99% sure I’d like to buy something newer and a little harder to steal. I might even go for a brand new car of some kind.

Any suggestions? I like smaller cars, compact, reliable, etc. I DO like Hondas, and if I could find a new Honda that wasn’t a giant boat as pretty much all the new Hondas seem to be, I’d probably go for that. I’m sort of infatuated with the idea of getting a mini, but I’m open to other suggestions. Got any?

Filed in life | | Comments (7) »

registrations closed

29-Apr-09

Not that any of you registered for a pennyhero.net account (why would you? Comments are open), but just an FYI: I closed registrations on my site because spammers were registering.

We now return to your regularly scheduled internet.

Filed in housekeeping | | Comments (16) »

Food bank work and wine tasting, yum!

24-Apr-09

A small contingent from my team at work spent about 4 hours today sticking barcodes on cases of gatoraid and chips, then loading them onto pallets at the Second Harvest Food Bank in Watsonville today.

I’m a whiny bitch, so I was very unhappy about getting up SO FREAKING EARLY for a work-related activity (I’ve been whining to the bf about this for weeks), but as soon as I got into the car, all grumpiness FINALLY went away (partly because the particular team member I was carpooling with is pure awesome) and the rest of the day was great.

This is the second time I’ve gone with my team to volunteer there, although I think other team members have gone more than that. My first time going was during the Christmas donation season, and we packaged up about 16 tons of food! (Not joking here! We did the math on our iPhones and stuff).

Anyway, today we did what I’d consider “light” work… we took barcodes and labeled cases of food while Only The Men loaded them onto pallets (Ms. Drill Sergent in charge of us would not let The Men touch the barcodes or let The Women load the cases. She was hilarious) .

Very worth doing, and easy to get involved with your local food bank if you’re interested. :) And, if you work at a company that has team off-sites, it’s a really great experience (and costs your cost-center basically nothing but gas and lunch if you’re expensing your off-site).

Afterwards, another team member and I stopped on the way home and did two wine tastings (don’t worry, we’re not expensing that!) I bought a Bonny Doon Angel Paille (browse their flash animation menu to find it if you’re interested) which is a yummy light white dessert wine where the grapes are apparently dried on straw before made into wine. It’s tasty. I also bought this tasty tasty apple cider brandy (which I can’t find a link to… and yes, I know that’s not a wine.)

We also stopped at the Santa Cruz Mountain Vinyard tasting room but I decided I had spent too much money on booze for a work day, so even though their apparently big award winning 2006 pinot noir was amazing even by my “I suck at wine” standards, I didn’t buy anything else.

Anyway, overall, it was a good day “at work”. Time for a nap. I’ll have to catch up on non-fun work this weekend. good times. good times.

Filed in wine, work | | Comments (2) »