rundown

This will simply be a rundown on who I'm with at the hostel tonight:

1.) 6 Pack of miller lite
2.) A russian computer science graduate from the Bronx who is looking for work and is the spitting image of Liev Schriber
3.) The russian's girlfriend of whom I know nothing about except she is also from NYC
4.) Fiona the darling from SW england whom I went to the Cubs game with
5.) Kate, Fiona's childhood friend also from england with a film degree who has a job lined up in England to scout out movie shooting locations
6.) An argentenian brazillian gal who's name escapes me at the moment who works for Lexmark printers and lives in Buenos Aries. Went to lexington KY to learn some of the new corporate structure. A real talker.
7.) Man, yes I explicitly asked if his actual name is Man and it is. He's from Hong Kong and I'm not sure what kind of work he's in. He told me he wanted to come to Texas to find out about Cowboys and has had trouble finding them. Yeah, good luck with that. He's about 40 so kinda funny. He wears a modern fanny pack complete with water bottle holder.
8.) Some guy I don't know anything about.
9.) A gal from Vegas who is into the club scene and it out hitting up the town right now. She's around 30, likes to cook, and has a somewhat brazen personality.
10.) A French gal that I will surely find more out about
11.) Did I mention 6 pack of miller lite?

Trippin

Goin out with my amigo Beau (yes that's his name) to get a couple drinks and some BBQ at a local joint he claims is the best in Austin. Beau's wife is back in India with his daughter so he's pretty stoked to have some time for himself. Tomorrow morning I'm gonna hit the road up to Dallas and bunk up at the hostel for the weekend to catch the weekend Cubs Rangers series! I plan on going to Billy Bob's up in Fort Worth since I didn't check it out when I was up there last.
Then on Monday I'm going to trek over to Arkansas and show up at the door of a few companies that ought to hire me. We'll see how it all pans out!

Bowling league started yesterday and let's just say that was an experience. Since I don't have a team I got tossed on Debi and Matthew's team. Matthew is a scrawny 19 year old true southern boy with lots of tats, a welder and a rodeo jockey. He rides bulls and has scars to prove it, he even comes with his authentic junior rodeo championship belt buckle. Debi....yeah. She's Matthew's aunt and it's obvious to anyone with any common sense that she does way too many drugs. She's middle aged and looks like someone you'd see at any of America's finest shopping establishments, WalMart, at about 2:30 in the morning. Just picture it, yeah that's her. Her daughter was there sittin around and told me she had just got married that day to some guy and that she just got out of jail for assaulting a police officer. So the team is a top-notch crew of committed US citizens. Recap of people:

1.) Unemployed college graduate
2.) Rodeo welder
3.) Trashy former drug dealer lady
4.) Jailbird newlywed

Ahhh America, the formerly greatest country in the world.

I can't make this stuff up, I wish my mind was that creative but here you have it folks, the most rag tag bowling team in the greater Austin area. I could go into more detail about how insane this experience was but I'll keep the "R" rated stuff out of the blog. I'm so grateful I get to be on their team, and by grateful I mean not grateful at all. And by the way, the rest of the bowlers in the league are great. Met some very cool people.

Anyways, this time tomorrow I'll be watching Derrek Lee taking batting practice with a cold one in hand. I'll see if I can't drag some noobs from the hostel to a game or two with me. Show the Dutch or French or whoever is there how we do it in the states.


keep it 1337

Money time again, been having trouble sleeping figuring out what the hell it is exactly that I'm doing. After I got a raise, I get fired because they can't afford to pay me so go figure that one. Again here without a job and I can't help but begin to question what the hell I'm doing, how do people decide what to do? Everyone has their own story and I hope one day when my last chapter is written that it's worthy of reading.

Time to get a passport and consider overseas endeavors. I found a place today that sells Leines honey weiss so I picked up a 6 pack and enjoyed some brewskis for the first time in a couple of weeks on a hot day. Yesterday someone cranked up the heat and we reached 94, today was 89 but it's a "dry" heat. Really I think it's pretty badass because it feels good as I hear it didn't reach 50 in MPLS today so you make the call.

At 9 tonight I walked down to the intramural fields 2 blocks from my place to see what was going on, and it turns out the UT (University of Texas) IM softball championship was on the docket so I picked a side sat down in the bleachers and talked to everyone I could for the whole game. A beautiful blonde UT gal wrote me a list of places to see and things to do for me titled "Morgan's to do list" which includes some places I haven't heard of so I will check them out. They made fun of me for being from Wisco/MN which was pretty funny to me because I told them it doesn't make a lick of difference where you're from, only thing that matters is who you are. I've been told at least a dozen times since I got here that I have a midwest or chicago accent, and everytime I say "thank you!", the midwest and chicago are great places!

Before that I went bowling and there's a summer league starting up next week and another great looking gal that works at the bowling alley so you can guarantee I will be there on Wed. If I keep at it I will bowl a sanctioned 300 game and get my 300 ring.
A couple days ago I went hiking up to mount bonnell to enjoy a gorgeous sunny afternoon overlooking the city and river from the northwest.



I'd love an engineering job. A job that is amazing and when I go in to work I can say to myself "Morgan, this is really amazing what you get to do". A job that makes a difference in improving the world around me, and a job that I get to use my knowledge talents and intelligence to make things better. After all, that in essence is what engineering is all about. After consideration apparently I'm going about landing one from the wrong perspective. I have some ideas that I'm not afraid to try. I'm not afraid of failure - I'm like a kid. Ask a kid to do something interesting or out of the ordinary and they are always up for it, they are not afraid that they might not be the best at it nor are they afraid to give it a shot. Being afraid of failure is something that we learn to do - "don't do that, you're no good", "if you do that, then XXXXXX will happen" and we learn to not take chances and not try things that might be amazing. I'm not going to lose my house because of a mortgage, I'm not going to endanger myself or my kids, and I'm certainly not risking my career. I love kids and family, having a house is good and all but I prefer not to be locked down because it limits opportunities. Point is to not ever give up. No point in being afraid and no point in not giving it your best effort every single time.

I think there is a place locked away in everyone's mind that every now and then wonders what things might have been like if they made a different decision at critical points in their life. And that, Paul W is why you need to take the job in Taiwan.

I'm trying to figure out a way to go to Dallas in 2 weeks to get a chance to see my cubbies play the Rangers. I plan on staying at the hostel up there again as I'm familiar with the area.

Tomorrow is a big day, a list of important things is begging to get completed. Make it a day that counts. Make every day a day that counts.

Went from almost getting fired/walking out to getting an 80% payraise and more responsibility at work today. That should help me keep my head above water for a while but I'm not settling and will continue to push forward in life. It was a nuts day, had an interview at New York Life this morning which the big boss man wasn't too fond of. The interview was fun - very professional yet casual people and work environment. Between that and a lot of talking/arguing at work things turned out pretty good and it was a mutual agreement that my services well be better compensated for at computers 4 kids.

My friend Dave who is an EMT offered to let me ride with him and his partner in the ambulance so I'm going to try to do that this weekend and bring the video camera with me which should be a blast.

Cubs seem to suck in the early going, but what else could I expect? I've been incredibly busy lately and barely have time to do anything which is good. Not burning myself out but just trying to use my time productively and pursue things I enjoy while outside of work. This weekend I have a bunch of stuff lined up so I hope I can charge my batteries for it.

Until next time, adios from Austin!

1st day

Started the new job today. It's hectic gritty and very unorganized so I will have to make some adjustments. My goal is to somehow convince the big boss man that I will be more valuable to him by using my skills to improve some of the IT infrastructure and develop a new inventory system than unloading trucks of random crap by hand.

Other than that I'm just glad to have a definitive reason to get up in the morning again and am glad it's normal hours. I don't want to fall into a routine but rather hope I keep my life disheveled because you learn more that way and have a little bit more fun. Think of it as a way avoiding the plateau effect on life.

I'm back

After a hiatus, I am back and promise to regularly update the blog. I apologize to those who missed my literary masterpieces. Let's start of with some fun:

Top Ten Signs Your Baseball Team Isn't Ready For The Season
10.Your spring training begins in June
9.Only thing they tested positive for was cheese fries
8.Outfielders following Justin Bieber on tour
7.Manager spends hour after hour practicing free throws
6.You get winded standing for the National Anthem
5.When writers compare clean-up hitter to Ruth, they mean Ruth Bader Ginsburg
4.Instead of giving signs, third base coach screams, "Bunt, you fat bastard!"
3.Tomorrow whole team scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery
2.General manger used payroll trying to build a hot tub time machine
1.Your star pitcher defected to Cuba

Yeah well I think they were talking about the Pirates there. Anyways I just figured out why there are 14 teams in the AL and 16 in the NL. Can anyone figure it out? If so post a comment and I'll tell you if you're right. It just came to me yesterday - I didn't read this anywhere but it makes 100% sense to me now.

Other sports news: Cubs got drubbed in their opener giving up 16 runs, and Butler lost a heartbreaker in the national championship game but the run was incredible!

On to the good stuff now. I have an interview today at a place that refurbs computers for Texas school kids at 10:00 this morning so I am looking forward to that. I have also been in correspondence with the owner of a medical insurance company for a database administrator position so I will continue to push with that.

I can't express enough how glad I am that baseball is back. I'm going to have to do a trip to Houston and Dallas to check out their respective stadiums when the Cubs are in town. The weather out here is beyond amazing. 70's to low 80's every single day the last two weeks. The apartment is awesome. I now have a table and am using my van seat as a couch! How's that for innovation? Fadia calls in ghetto but I call it smart!

I'll be going to the Magic: The gathering castle this week even though I didn't bring my cads with me, and I've been meeting some neat people. A couple of guys that live in the apt complex invited me over for beers the other night and we had some great conversation. One of the guys is a little out there and wrote a philosophy book that he lent me ("borrowed me" to you LAX folks).

Overall, it's a good week so far and I'm close to meeting my goal of being employed by the end of this week. Oh by the way for those that I didn't talk to: the other job I had did some housecleaning and let me go which was complete BS but I'm over it. I threw on the country radio station in the van and it's kinda nice to listen to - I feel very Texan except I need to be driving a big truck. It's nice because I don't know any of the songs.

And how's this for irony? The insurance company I'm trying to get a position at is located in the EXACT SAME BUILDING as outernet. That's just weird.

Love you all, peace out from Texas

http://www.kvue.com/news/Website-says-Austin-best-place-to-weather-recession-for-people-in-20s-30s-87726742.html

The method to my madness.

Job

So this new job is working out well. I started on Monday, and right now I'm working my 2nd shift. It's graveyard time so I'm working midnight to 8:00am but I'm pretty much already adjusted. I've had to be so flexible during my adventures so it's not that big of a deal and I'm just accepting it for what it is.

I work in the NOC (network operations center, pronounced knock) monitoring hundreds of servers both on site and remote sites for some cool companies such as the video game developer BioWare who makes all the cool star wars games, and a ton of radio stations as well as a lot of other smaller companies that are lesser known. There is a ton of proprietary software to learn and master which has been fun. I'm set up with a sweet quad-screen display so that you can have a ton of windows open at once which is necessary. We are set up well here in the NOC, and let's be honest: saying you work in the NOC sounds cool.

The people here are great, Allan has been training me in graveyard style. He's been here about 9 months and has his stuff together. He's a former Army Ranger from Bangor Maine and has a great attitude and work ethic. Apparently the other guy they hired here has some issues and might not work out. Two guys recently got fired because they sucked, which is why they were hiring. I guess one of the guys would just leave for hours in the night and stuff like that. Other than that guy everyone here is very cool - a lot of nerds that talk about video games, techie stuff, and are well versed in 1337 speak. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's super nerdy internet jargon so don't worry about it. The midnight shift is actually pretty uneventful but someone needs to be manning the NOC 24x7 in case something happens. We've had a couple servers on the east coast go down due to flooding and rain/power outages so I'm learning how to handle it all. The night shift guys are kind of on an island because nobody else is around and everyone else is home sleeping or whatever so there is a level of responsibility and decision making involved that I enjoy. By the end of the week, I'm going to be tasked with running the show solo.
I'm having to recall my old cisco networking skills from high school which are greatly valued here, and OuterNet even pays for the employees to get cisco certifications (pays for your books and test fees). I'll be taking advantage of that. I'll go for my CCNA (cisco certified network assistant) first off and try to move up from there. I know I can master these tests as they are far easier than EE curriculum, but it's still going to take a little work. I'll get a pay bump and be better marketable if I can land some of these certifications, so I might as well!

The campus up here is super awesome. Yes I said "super awesome" because it is super awesome. there is a free gym on site, a open air basketball court on the roof, and companies like cray supercomputers in our building which is building #4 out of 5.

The new apt is working out great, and I'll be scouring craigslist to see if I can't pick up some free furniture so I'll actually have a place to sit down. I'll post some more videos as soon as I get my internet at the apartment hooked up.

Peace out from Austin!

A Place to Call My Own

Well, things have a funny way of working out because this morning I was homeless but tonight I have my own apartment. I'm sitting poolside right now and it's about 60 out since the sun went down.

The new place is great, 1 bed 1 bath, a living room, small connected dining room and full kitchen with all new appliances including full sized microwave, and a new dishwasher. It has brand new carpeting, paint, 2 new ceiling fans, new light fixtures and new tile in the bathroom and kitchen, a porch and plenty of free parking. It's a gated community so you need a keycard to get in the place, and there are many 3 story buildings with a cool courtyard between them and plenty of FREE parking which is baller. Mine is up on the 3rd floor so nobody above will make any noise. It's in a pretty neat area, there are definitely things to do within walking distance and it's only 4 miles away from downtown right on the busline that runs late. Best of all it's very reasonably priced, and Lisa the manager pushed the paperwork through fast so I could move in today! I'll throw up a video when I get the time so you can all see the pad. Woot my own place, feels like home already

I need to go pick up some essentials such as a shower curtain, soap and maybe a little table. I have no furniture here, only a rocker game chair and a blowup mattress that will suit well for the foreseeable future. I have a lot of work to do yet to get things organized like get some bills put in my name and get internet hooked up and all that garbage, so I'm going to sign off.

SXSW runs for the next 7 days so I will have to find time to get down there. Maybe I can test drive a ferrari at the dealership that's just down the road and pick up some babes. And oh yeah the gophers beat Michigan State in OT yesterday then pummeled Purdue badly today, they are on a roll and play for the big10 championship tomorrow, something they have never won before!

addendum

Let's go Gophers! Gotta beat Michigan State tonight if we wanna dance baby!

And apparently Robert DeNiro is going to portray Vince Lombardi in a new movie! bet that's news to you huh uncle Paul?

Nailed it!

Holy smokes people, life is a whirlwind. A true told whirling dervish. I am now employed! I had both of my interviews today after blazing a trail in my minivan down to Austin from Dallas. This morning I interviewed with Jason and Nick at OuterNet, a server hosting and management IT company right on the beautiful banks of the Colorado river (yes, the same river that carved out the grand canyon).
Apparently I did something right for once and a few hours later I got called back with a job offer, and I accepted!
The nitty gritty of the job is that I will be providing technical and phone support for OuterNet's clients in regards to server operations and maintenance. This ranges from escalating calls to the appropriate party to getting hands on with the equipment. It is a small company (35 employees or so) with a great atmosphere and incredible growth potential. It is a position where I have experience, and I think I will learn a ton about the industry. Nick said that there is great opportunity to move up the ranks. I will go into more detail after I start, of course. Check out the link for more info:

OuterNet's website

I have a feeling this might be a long post, but you all love my creative and colorful style of writing so consider it a gift.

Sooo, a little bit about my first day in Austin. I arrived at about 9:00 in the night and took a quick gander through downtown which I honestly can say is the most inviting and modern downtown I have ever seen. I then went down to find the hostel

link to the Hostel in Austin

and luckily they had 1 single bed left for the night, phew. The hostel was amazing with 40 something beds, a massive clean common area, huge patio, and a huge lot on the river just a couple miles from the skyline of downtown. It was late and I was tired but I managed to meet a guy from Wisconsin that used to play shows in downtown La Crosse at Popcorn and Nighthawks. A crazy old scottish guy, a Swede, and even ran into my aussie buddy Alex who I met in Dallas. There were people running around all over the place but I had some research and work to attend to.
They really packed em in like sardines and the beds are noisy, every time you move it sounds like you're crushing a bag of potato chips. I was on the top bunk in a room of 14 dudes and everyone was snoring and coming in late so it was a terrible night of sleep to say the least.

I've been running around the city since early morning, and the layout is fantastic. There is a skyscraper boom in downtown, apparently the housing market is also booming in the city. It is known as "Silicon Hills" a play on Silicon Valley where all the IT companies are located. Major companies running out of Austin include Cisco, Google, Apple, HP, AMD, ebay, intel, Samsung, Sun microsystems and countless others. Recession? What recession, this city is booming!

Let's give some numbers: According to wikipedia in 1990 there were 472,000 people in the city limits. As of 2009, there were 758,000. I'm no good with numbers, oh wait yeah I am, and that comes out to 80% growth in 20 years. Almost doubled in size!

There are rolling hills everywhere with gorgeous homes and businesses. Nothing looks rundown, but of course there has to be a bad part of town - there's a bad part of every town. Wherever it is I'll just never go there and pretend it doesn't exist. I did read though that this metro is basically (one of) the best large city(s) to live in based on crime statistics, income, and cost of living. The capital building is nestled in between downtown and the HUGE university of Texas longhorns. It is a very liberal city which is very rare in Texas, and in the south as a whole. There are young people everywhere, the city is very clean, there are no expansive ugly huge highways running all over, the city planners seemed to have their heads screwed on straight.
There are about 1.6 million people that live in the area, so comparable to Milwaukee without the crappiness.

The young tech savvy liberal minded population and great urban planning makes for some of the best nightlife (I've heard) in the entire country. And starting today happens to be the largest music festival on the planet, south by southwest aka (SXSW) where there are tons of shows, movie premieres, and apparently free beer!! I'm thinking it might just be a really big Madison without the winter.

website for South By SouthWest



So due to SXSW getting a hotel was tough but I had to fork over some cash at a Best Western which is pretty nice actually for a 2 person room, but oh well.

Tonight I plan on checking out 6th street downtown, listening to some great music, drinking a celebration beer and meeting more incredible people as I try to grasp the fact that I'm going to be living here. Then next up is finding an apartment. I have the business card of the boyfriend of a girl I just met, and he happens to be a real estate guy that knows all about the apts. in Austin so I'll hit him up right now, and of course check craigslist!


OK I know I don't know squat about Texas, and that maybe I'm talking the area up a bit, but I am excited and super happy to finally have found a job. Other places are fantastic, but it was no sense trying to force the square peg in a round hole.

The roller coaster of life brings you up, then down, then up....and on and on. The peaks are great, but are only really enjoyable if you experience the valleys.

I saw on a billboard the other day in Dallas "It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome", and it's true.

And as a final note, THANKS MOM!! love ya, you're the best!

Greeting from the world of youtube

I finally was able to upload my videos to youtube! I've only been in Austin a few hours and have way too much awesome stuff to say about it, so I'll go into detail tomorrow. I need to rest up and nail these interviews tomorrow.

This is a little inside view of the hostel in Irving I stayed at for a week and a half.



And some friends that I made from Germany and Australia. Maria, Sophia, and Alex (who was nice enough to shave my head down to 1/4" before my interviews)



And not too amazing or anything, but a view from the west side of downtown Dallas with another Aussie. I figure I might as well post everything I got. After all, just like property is all about location, the internet is all about content.

Going to Austin

Woot! I just got two interviews in Austin tomorrow! I'm packing up my bags and hitting the road in the next hour or two, so wish me luck!

What time is it? Game time!

Alright! So it turns out I might be rocking down to Houston very soon. It seems I will have a place to stay with (stay with me here) the gracious sister, Debbie, of an old friend's mom, Kim, that lives in Spring TX just north of Houston. They have a trailer would be able to stay in for a bit until I get a job, which is inevitable because I am reduced to having to find a server job or job at a place like Target or similar place for now. I need cash and I need it bad so these next few days are the last draw, time to pull out all the stops. I'm fine with this, not upset nor disappointed because I'm fully aware of the reality of this crazy idea moving to where I don't have any connections.

I am staying very busy with job applications, phone calls, emails and exploring Dallas. I go to bed exhausted at the end of the day which means I know I'm putting in the best effort I can to turn over all the stones in my endeavor.

I seriously can't believe the people I've been meeting, it's incredible, there is so much going on here in Dallas.
Romain, a froggy French Parisian police officer showed up yesterday and he's obsessed with food, cars, shoes, guns, and knives. His English is pretty bad, and he's one of the few Frenchman who loves the American lifestyle.
August is a 45 year old Polynesian Dutch guy who is ripped like a mack truck. He's a personal trainer and boxer and came to Dallas to go to the huge boxing title fight between his hero, Pacquiao, and Clottey from Africa. They are going to bout in the new amazing Cowboy's stadium on Saturday. He is obsessed with this guy and went to the press conference yesterday at the stadium and got to meet all the legendary trainers, boxers, and promoters including Jerry Jones. He is in heaven because he got Pacquiao's autograph and even talked to one of the promoters and got a press pass for the fight! He can't believe how awesome this country is. I didn't even know who Pacquiao was two days ago, but I'm now a fan. His energy and enthusiasm is infectious.

http://www.pacquiaovsclottey.com/



I also met Jane, a university student who works at a TV station in Cologne, Germany. She is a sweetheart, it's funny how close you can get to someone in just a day or two. I dropped her off at the greyhound station as she continues to travel around Texas and the states.



Went to the Maverick's vs. Nets game last night with Romain who doesn't know jack about basketball. We got some cheap seats and took the train from Irving - which is about 4 times faster and 4 times as cheap as driving, and dropped us off directly in front of American Airlines center - the best NBA venue in the country. This country needs to implement rail travel more. Time to get ready for some college basketball March madness, get ready for spring, get ready for baseball, get ready for progress, get ready for success!

I'm well rested. Morgan's aggressive side is coming out today, failure is not an option. Success takes hard work, and the harder you work the luckier you get.

Weekend Update

Friday March 5 Temp: 65

Hmm where do I begin? The weekend all sort of blended into one long day. Phone interview went very well, and sounds like I fit the bill for what they are looking for. Trying to get an interview set up for Tuesday but some of these blokes are pretty tough to get ahold of with their schedule so I will continue to badger them about it.

Went downtown today to check it out with my aussie buddy Broderick. We just sort of walked around and enjoyed the weather and eventually found a free trolly that runs along the uptown district just north of downtown. It's not the same as Minneapolis' hipster infested uptown area, instead it is a rather upscale area with high end shopping, street side cafes, and the ritz-carlton hotel. All in all though it is the best neighborhood around the city I've encountered due to its easy walkability and pedestrian minded design.

Hooked up the wii and played some mario brothers with the dutch contingent and showed them the ropes.

Saturday March 6 Temp: 68

Today was pretty solid, gave me a chance to settle down during the day and a break from applying to jobs. Carlos and I went out to a neat joint in Fort Worth and enjoyed an amazing creole cuisine at Papadeaux (pronounced papa doe), threw down a few beers with some of the people staying at the hostel, and nothing else super noteworthy to mention.

Sunday March 7 Temp: 72, rain

So since the start of the weekend I've met some interesting cats:

- 2 really cute German medical students, Maria and Sophia, staying in Dallas before they head to San Antonio for a big 3 day wedding.
- A 25 year old aussie, Alex that just got back from Canada snowboarding who is on his way to Mexico -> Cuba -> Belize -> Honduras. He's studying pharmacy but is not super serious about school from the sound of it
- A group of 4 more aussies, 3 dudes and a chick that are on their way to Guatemala to teach english even though they don't have a job lined up down there
- A super quiet Japanese girl who dresses like something out of a comic book
- A guy studying architecture at Oklahoma State from Washington state. He spent a night here to fly out of Dallas because he's going to Romania to design an orphanage for his senior design. He was delayed on the train because his train hit an 18 wheeler and split it in half and it dumped a whole bunch of expandable foam all over the tracks and they had to replace the train engine and didn't let anyone off. Then the truck driver ran away from the scene because he was an illegal alien without a license. Link to that news story if you don't believe it:

http://www.wfaa.com/news/18-wheeler-stuck-on-tracks-hit-by-train-in-Fort-Worth-86766782.html

- Another German girl Anne who is a nanny for a doctor family in Virginia.
- And I also met Tim, a black rasta looking dread-sporting dude from Miami who plays guitar very well, and studied archaeology at UW-Madison who is coming through Texas to go on a dig in an area where they are building a dam. They need to get in there before they build it and the whole area floods and artifacts are lost.

Soooo overall the people I have been meeting are all spectacular, have great stories and are quite inspiring.

On Sunday I went downtown with one of the aussies and the two german gals (who unfortunately both have boyfriends) and we spent the day walking around and enjoying some food and beers as well as having some very great conversation about anything and everything.
Came back to the hostel and watched the academy awards and had to explain all the jokes to the Germans which was quite amusing. Super stoked to see the hurt locker mop up with best picture and director woot!!

Monday March 8 Temp: 56, thunderstorms

Carlos treated me to lunch today at an upscale mexican joint. Spent part of the day badgering the company I had the phone interview with. I just got done beating 3 aussies at nintendo themed monopoly. Decided to pour a fine guinness draught and hit the blog since I've been MIA for a couple days. I have some cool videos to post but am having trouble due to some router config problems here at the hostel so I'm going to work on fixing that so I can upload.
I told the hostel owner he needed a new computer and recommended some stuff to him which he's going to buy, which is why I think Carlos treated me to lunch today.

Going to try to find a studio apartment to stay at for cheap and I think I'm super close to finally finding work. I'll take mom's advice and run down to the TXU (texas utilities) headquarters with suit and resume in hand and see if I can't walk in and get a face to face or something. I've applied for entry level engineering positions but doing it cold call seems difficult, so maybe this will give me an edge.

Peace out from Texas and thanks for reading the long post but it should at least put a smile on your face!

Phone Interview

Got me some loving from a company with a technical support engineer position opening. Phone interview this afternoon or tomorrow depending on how busy they are.
It's a health care company in Plano (a nice part of the north metro) and they offer good wage and $100/month cell phone reimbursement, health insurance and some other benefits. I would be great at this job - so wish me the best in landing it!

Irving TX

Tuesday March 2

Today I found a great hostel in Irving right between Dallas and Fort Worth for $20/night. A guy named Carlos runs the joint and he is incredibly helpful and friendly.
The hostel has 4 rooms with a total of 20 beds and a nice common area. It's a remodeled house, full kitchen, backyard, parking, foosball table, free wireless, free washer/dryer + free detergent, and it's pretty close to just about everything in the area.
So far I've met a very good looking Belgian photographer, Bieke

you can check her award winning work @
www.biekedepoorter.be

a dude from Jersey moving to Vegas, a guy from far north New York who just graduated and is moving to Atlanta, an Aussie carpenter named Broderick on holiday for 4 months, a Chinese PHD economics student who studies at Columbia in Manhattan, a pair of Dutch dudes, and a guy from who the hell knows where.

Spent the day at a coffee shop in the super rich part of town just a couple miles north of downtown Dallas applying for positions.

Wednesday March 3

Today I got up at 8:00 and hit the internet hard and made some phone calls looking for work. There are actually quite a few positions here including some of the local utilities that are hiring for a couple entry level engineers as well as some IT and PC Support jobs. I also hit up a career placement center here in Irving and will be returning there tomorrow to meet with someone.
I'm feeling confident that something is just on the horizon and am not discouraged at all, mostly because it was in the mid 60's and beautifully sunny today!

When I finally land a job, I am in talks to sublet an efficiency apt. in the metroplex here for under $400/month and will finally be able to unload my van. For now, however I am doing what I have to to live cheap.

Texas is quite a different place but pretty close to what I expected. The people are (generally) very kind and there is a lot of diversity everywhere I've been down here which is a plus. The weather is warm, the entire area seems more spread out that what I imagined and it sort of seems like everything has been bleached by the sun over the years. There is a ton of construction and development everywhere due to the population influx, and seemingly plenty of opportunities to be had.

This weekend I plan on checking out some of the sites of the area like the baseball park, cowboy's stadium, some neat sculptures, a place they call the "stockyards" in Fort Worth and downtown Dallas so I'll keep you all up to date on what's going on here in Texas!

OU stadium tour

Texas woot!

March 1:

Headed out finally today from Kansas to Texas with a pit stop at the OU campus in Norman, OK to visit my old roommate and college friend Tory who works for the athletics department. He gave me a pretty righteous tour of the stadium, and I'll see if I can't put together a nice video to post on here.

Shacked up for the night in Arlington with the job hunt on full force for tomorrow. KCP&L gave me a callback today for a job which is ironic considering I was just in Kansas this morning. We'll see if something pans out there, I'll keep at it and if I get an interview I might have to rock back up there for a bit.

Lots of cattle, geese, and open farm/ranch land the whole drive down. I gotta say it was pretty boring save for the pit stop in Oklahoma.

Forecast for Tues: 60 and clear

Travelling

So I just went down to Chicago for a couple of days while Nate was in the states. We stayed at a hostel is greektown on the fringe of downtown, met a bunch of great people and cruised around the town.
Met a guy that was moving to Santiago Chile then heard about the huge earthquake there yesterday and hope everything still works out for him.

After dropping Nater off at O'Hare, I drove down to Wheaton and surprised Kevin Sandy Sophie and Cole. Hospitality was great and they treated me to dinner and one of the kid's favorite local mexican joints.
A quick drive back to La Crosse that night found me facing an uncertain and exciting week.

Sat. Feb 27th

Bags and van are packed and I hit the road. Just me, an engineering degree, and an open road symbolize what this country is all about. You can go anywhere, do anything, and eventually with enough elbow grease something will work out.

On the drive down I actually considered what a lot of European immigrants must have gone through. They just booked a boat, and jumped the pond in hopes of something new and exciting. This is basically what I'm doing. Headed to somewhere in Texas and hope for the best.

I drove all the way to Lawrence, KS to meet two friends, Meghan and Allison, and go out on the town to catch up for the night. Crashed at their pad and now I'm sitting at a great Sunday brunch spot in downtown Lawrence. We're going to go to Allison's barn later today to take some video of her horse. Vids will be up soon.

I wish the best to everyone and want to thank you for your wishes, love, and support as I trek cross-country in search of greener pastures.