Beginning a new life

A new job, a new place to live, and, starting Monday, a new life! I am now a proud Software Engineer at TellMe Networks, which works on linking telephones to Internet services so you can access things like stocks, news, and traffic reports using a regular telephone instead of an Internet connection. The unique thing about their products is that they use a voice interface, so you have to speak to navigate around their menus. I have Tingting to thank for helping me introduce me to her friends, too. I can't wait to start work this coming Monday!

I also am almost moved out to Mountain View, which is arguably the heart of Silicon Valley. It's exciting to know that the Mozilla Foundation is down the street from me, TellMe is a short walk away, and that companies like Google and SGI are nearby. The thing is, it's hard to get around without a car since this place was built in a Southern California-like suburban sprawl. I spent a good deal of walking around yesterday trying to find a bookstore, but all the bookstores here are too small, too old, and a 20-minute walk away. The buses pass by every half hour. Here, the car is king. :(

Moving out is painful

I spent about a week cleaning up things and packing some belongings into boxes. My whole room, dismantled, looks even messier than before.

Carolen and I spent a very long, strenuous week-end moving nearly all of my belongings to my new place in Mountain View. We took two trips, moving nearly 40 heavy boxes down two flights of stairs, loading them up in her SUV (or is it a van?), driving to Mountain View, and carried them all up two more flights of stairs. She was drained by the end of the weekend, and I feel bad because she had a lot of homework and a lot of things to take care of. :( We used to get to see each other every day, but now, not so much, so that's another thing that sucks about living so far away.

The apartment is enormously spacious, with an actual dining room and living room. My old apartment had no such luxury (I stayed in the living room in a very tiny space). At the moment, my apartment-mate-friend (Tingting!) and I don't have any furniture, but a few more trips to Ikea and visits to Craigslist should solve our problem. :)

Plus, the lighting is so lovely...