A new job, computer, and even a new processor

First update in a while so sorry about the length.

I moved up to my job on Sunday, but of all the things I could've forgotten, I forget my passport. Federal regulations gave me three days to bring it in so thankfully, my parents came back up and dropped it off for me along with a ton of supplies.

Despite my missing papers, my first two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) netted me lunch with my manager and co/op coordinator, a nice ThinkPad T30 (for work, of course), my first meeting, badge reels, t-shirts, notepad, a message board, and my first assignment. Oh, and lots of donuts. Our co/op coordinator put lots of donuts in the office to give me a chance to meet people in our department.

Getting free stuff is nice but meeting smart people is a privilege. In some ways it feels like taking a summer class at an elite private institution that draws students from all over the country. Not that there aren't smart people at Rutgers, but you don't usually meet people from Texas (like my roommate Roy) around Rutgers. The full-timers are also pretty friendly and I don't want to disappoint them. Unfortunately, that's not going to be easy given my current track record.

I stayed late on Thursday (day 3) I was trying to boost my productivity by extending my desktop to an external CRT monitor, but it taxed the video card to the point where my displays eventually blinked out. After several restarts, it stopped booting up so I went home hoping it would get better the next day. Friday came and the situation didn't improve, but the workstation guy brought me a replacement laptop using the same hard drive so my productivity went back up. I was able to end the week on a positive note, for which I'm tremendously grateful. Of course, I'm so happy that I forget to save the last couple of donuts from getting stale over the weekend in the office.

Friday also brought a CNET report of the upcoming WWDC announcement that Apple will phase IntelX86 chips in to replace IBM PowerPC chips. The initial rumors supposedly brought Apple's stock up 5% but it seems people are afraid of backwards compatibility issues, the difficulty for developers to adapt so soon after going to OS X, and a gap in sales as people stop buying the old Macs.

The bottom line is that I'll need to work harder and be more focused than ever before. I feel that dedication is my strength and I'm motivated by the people I work with to do my best work (or something approaching it). Of course, I also need to try my best to have fun. [-]

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SOURCE: CNET / SOUNDTRACK: The Long Day Is Over