2005-09-09

I heard the computer turn on (it turns on automatically at 7 AM) and then the alarm went off. Eriko had decided to grab an extra 15 minutes of sleep. So she had to hustle to get breakfast ready. She wasn’t feeling well (her stomach was bothering her) so she decided not to walk to work with me. I finished up the dishes and left about 5 minutes later than usual (7:40) since I move faster when I walk alone. I arrived at work before 8 and was productive almost immediately. I put the finishing touches on this project I was working on and sent it out for review. Eriko still wasn’t feeling well by lunch time, so she skipped the Shiki Train and decided to eat a small meal at home. I went with Aaron, Qichu, and Kaya; Ki showed up a little later. It was nice. I enjoy the small trains more as they are much more personal. I didn’t have time to do much after lunch before I had my usual Friday 2 o’clock meeting. It was pretty engaging and lasted until 3:30. I had requested an audience with the big boss and he told me that he would accomodate me at 5. I worked on some problems until then. There are some changes going on at work, changes in reporting structure – which creates opportunities. However, I realized that I don’t have the political clout or the engineering experience to take advantage of those opportunities; for the most part my crawl up the corporate Isilon ladder ends where I am now. There is potential that I will be given more people to manage, since I seem to be fairly good at that – however, managing people is not the same thing as managing direction. After work I had a good chat with my co-worker about where we saw ourselves in five years; we both agreed that we would be dissappointed if we were still at Isilon. Knowing that my future opportunities at Isilon are limited (if not none) should help cement my thinking (if only be removing an option). I dream of being a professor, and I think I possess the natural qualities and desires but the road there seems long and almost impossible. Right now I’m very poor at studying (undisiplined) and I can’t go anywhere without studying. My co-worker and I agreed that we should continue to talk to each other and maybe it would lead to mutual collaboration some day. Eriko had a wonderful meal of curry waiting for me at home, and it was excellent. She still wasn’t feeling super so we didn’t really do much the rest of the night – I used the computer, we watched a little TV, lounged around, and went to bed pretty early – at 10.