4 years later, next chapter

I randomly got a spam bot comment posted to a blog entry, which reminded me that I had this blog! My last post was in 2013 almost 4 years ago. Wow how so much has changed in that time. I'm pretty certain that no one will see this, but for the sake of posterity and future nostalgia:

• 4 years ago, I was just moving into a new house. I loved that house. I just sold it -- and will be closing in a few weeks.
• Andrew and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary.
• I finished and defended my PhD in computer science
• We have a dog named pumpernickel who just celebrated her 3rd birthday.
• My mom moved to Florida with her husband
• We moved to Seattle and I started a new, exciting job.
• To celebrate the new job and finishing my PhD, Andrew and I had the most expensive meal for two that I've ever had. It was also the best and most interesting meal that I've ever had.
• I have now met a few twitterers/bloggers, including TylerTGBH, boboncvn, MaskedAek, randomthinker (although i likely already mentioned that years ago)
• I'm still cycling a lot

Some of that requires some additional explanation:
I am now 33 years old, which just seems unimaginable to me. I remember writing the majority of these entries 8-9 years ago. Back then, I had only been out of school for a couple of years. Life still seemed like it was just getting started. Almost ten years later, it certainly doesn't seem at the starting gate, but it also doesn't feel like it's been all that long. I can say a few things about the aging that I've done in the last ten years: 1- it does seem true that every year, I change in ways that are imperceptible while they are happening but are unmistakable in retrospect; 2- while there is no single point in time where I realize that I understand things now about life as a whole that I didn't understand previously -- again in retrospect that seems true. 3- I doubt that there would've been any way to educate my younger self to have the perspective (hopefully wiser) that I have now. 4- I believe that somewhere in here is an ambiguous definition of maturity. Or at least some kind of smoke screen that older people tell themselves is maturity.

On the more tangible side, I think there biggest difference that 10 years has made is that I am much more confident in myself as a worthy human on this earth. 10 years ago, I had such a crippling insecurity that I don't think I made any new friends during and after college for years. And this makes no sense. I made some work friends but that was basically through force since I spent so much time with them. Now that I have an easier time meeting new people and experiencing new things without anxiety and self-doubt, I look back and don't understand what I was thinking at the time.

As far as basic stats: I finished my PhD! And shortly thereafter started interviewing. I no longer live in Memphis. I moved just a few weeks ago -- selling my house, leaving our friends, and leaving my home (city). I started a new job with a very large, very well-known, very competitive tech company in Seattle, WA. I've only been here for 3 weeks, and in fairness, the summer weather is amazing whereas the winter will be miserable -- but so far I love this city. It is everything that I want in a city and everything I've been missing. It is beautiful, active, interesting, and has professional growth opportunities for me.  Not to mention that financially it's a big increase from my previous situation.

Andrew and I are enjoying the early days of our new-city adventure. We've made a few friends here and have a few more "on the books" to meet up with soon. I really hope that we survive the miserable winter and make enough quality friends to get back to a relatively nice social life. I am so happy that now that I'm done with my PhD, I can get back to spending my "free time" digging into some aspects of computer science and software development that I've had to leave to the side while finishing my thesis. The new team that I've joined is awesome so far. I really like my new manager, and I am surrounded by smart peers, who actually care about their work and their careers. I had a few of those in my previous company, but it was rare. My group here is the opposite. I'm really excited to see what the next few years hold.

I hope that I can update this more than once every 4 years. One day I'll go back and read some of these and enjoy the memories. I already have vivid memories of writing some of the more recent ones -- in the various different homes in which I lived.

Until next time, friends!

Steve