Jobs :(

I'm in Redmond today; Microsoft flew me out to an interview. I was excited, though nervous, to come -- but after a day full of interviews and driving around Seattle last night, I really just want to be home.

I guess it was just an underwhelming day -- so underwhelming that I feel pretty burdened down with it. I didn't really do good on the interviews, and I highly doubt I'll get an offer. It's not that I did bad, but I don't feel like I really connected with the interviewers like I hoped to. But even if I did get an offer, would it be something to celebrate?

According to my interviewers and recruiter, Microsoft 1) does not offer a signing bonus like Amazon, 2) doesn't care about a Masters degree, and 3) pays about $10k less than Amazon. Sure, they claim have a "better atmosphere" and aggressive bonuses with more flexible hours. Maybe that's true, but it's REALLY hard to know that from the outside. One interviewer told me the wage if I got hired as a college student, 'level 59,' is 75k; plug that number into this site:

http://www.cityrating.com/costofliving.asp

and you'll see that it's similar to making a bit under 45k in Provo. Yikes! OK, granted, this calculator seems low. Some other ones say it's more like 60k. Hard to say though, really, when homes are 350-450k! Gas prices are $3.20 here. In fact, a lot seems "more expensive" overall; it's not just the housing to consider. Everything is "more expensive" and homes are impossible to afford unless you bought 10 years ago before the housing boom. Since it's all so expensive, it makes it that much harder to gauge how much you'll really have to afford a home.

On top of that, throughout this whole salary job hunt process I've been a bit discouraged by the general inability for people to actually accurately represent cost of living in the Seattle area. The people from these companies that I talk to seem to think it's great, but they all are in very different circumstances. They all say, "Oh yes! It's very easy to live on what they offer! I just got a job here, and we already bought a home!" And then you find out that BOTH them and their spouse have the same 80k job, and they have no kids. Niiiiiiice. Another group of people say it's easy to live on 80k... but they aren't married, and have a roomate to share rent. So the vibe I'm getting here is that it's a great wage, if you're single or dual income childless. I've heard no real compelling arguments that 75k is a "great wage" from someone who has done it with a family. I do however read on forums things like: "It is very hard to make here with a family if you make under 80k. "

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping to maybe save for a few years, then buy a low end but livable home. I was hoping that getting a masters degree, work experience at IBM, a job at one of the top companies would be a fairly good step up from living as a collage student. I thought 75k would be a prize! It sure sounds like it should be. But adjusted for cost of living? We'd certainly never buy a home when home prices here are 350k-450k. I feel like I could give a speech when I graduate: "Hey everybody! I'd like to thank my wife for going through a master's degree with me! She's been great, and patient, while our other friends get houses and 'real jobs' -- and now that my grand plan for success is over and I work for a great well known company, we're going to celebrate by NEVER OWNING A HOME! Isn't that great? You can visit us anytime you want -- we'll be in a burned out van down by the river, since the rent is so cheap there..."

I know, I know -- I'm exaggerating. I guess I'm just disappointed at what I thought was a poor performance on my interviews, combined with no one really telling me what it's like to live in Seattle as a family. I haven't gotten my offer from Amazon; when I do get it though, how do I accurately asses what it's like to live here? Am I worried about nothing? How much does IBM need to offer to be not only 'competitive' but to make me really want to move to CT? I'm not sure, but everything I read on Seattle cost of living scares me.

Mostly, I just want to go hop on a plane and be home. I want to get back to life as normal and forget about strange expensive cities where no one actually has a family on one income anymore. I look forward to reading a Cara blog entry about the nobility of a classic family provider-homemaker arrangement, just because at this moment it feels foreign to everyone up here.

We'll see what Monday brings; I get my offer from Amazon then. I'm hoping that a good night sleep, some research, and a good offer turn my day around on Monday. In the meantime, I'm going to sit alone in my hotel room and do schoolwork -- at least school is something in my comfort zone. Or, maybe, do my work for IBM, where I'm one of the experts on our little project.

Best music choice EVER

Shortly after 9/11, the military band that plays at Buckingham Palace played "The Stars and Stripes" (I believe they usually play "God Save the Queen"). Yesterday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia arrived at the Palace to meet the Queen.
A little background might be in order here: A scandal involving the books for sale in many British mosques has recently erupted. The books are terrible-- calling for the gruesome death of homosexuals, among other ghastly things. And guess who funds these mosques and sends these books? The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not just some random Saudi guy, but the actual government. If I remember correctly, these Wahhabi sects produced the terrorists who set off the bombs in July of 2005.
Anyway, the king of Saudi Arabia showed up at Buckingham Palace, with the Queen and the military band there to greet him. And what did the band play?
"The Imperial March", from Star Wars. Darth Vader's theme.
MAN I love the military!! Watch the video:

And the pander-fest continues...

Remember Hillary Clinton, or HRC, as she she's often called, (I can't help reading it as "Her Royal Clintonness") saying that she wanted to give $5,000 to every child born in America? Well, after taking that off the table, she came up with another grant idea that would cost more than the baby one. And then there's this one: "No child should have to leave his or her hometown to get a good job".
The problems with this are legion. The first one to strike me? "Children" don't leaving town for jobs. Adults do. How old do you have to be before HRC considers you a free-acting adult instead of a victim? 25? 30? 40?
The second problem? Let's look at this whole idea mathematically, shall we? According to HRC, you should never have to leave your hometown, right? Well, say you come from a small town like my hometown, North Pole, Alaska (or any town, really. Just take North Pole for an example). There are probably about 5,000 people in the area. Now, according to HRC's assertion, thee good people of North Pole have two options: they can either A) breed at EXACTLY the replacement rate, and hope that there's a one-to-one correlation between workers, stay-at-home Moms, and unemployed people, or B) create one new job for EVERY child born, and deal with the unfilled jobs that will be created when people choose not to work... somehow. But heaven forbid that new people should come in and fill those open jobs, because they would have had to leave their hometown. Oh, never mind. You can always use illegal immigrants for those jobs, according to HRC. Not leaving your hometown is only for Americans. (This option also involves every hamlet, village, town and city in America growing at the birth rate, melting into each other and sinking into urban chaos, forever and ever amen.)
Brilliant, Hillary. Just brilliant. Would you, please, stop telling different groups of people exactly what that particular group wants to hear? The cognitive dissonance is starting to make my ears ring.

Well, I did it.

I am now an official Republican.
Weird.

What was she thinking?!?

If she was at all... Hillary Clinton says she "likes the idea" of giving every child born in the U.S. $5000 in an account to be accessed after they graduate from high school. Every child.

Any guesses how many kids are born in the U.S. each year?
4 million. In one year! That's twenty billion dollars PER YEAR. Of course she didn't say how she'd pay for this $20 billion a year. Tax increase anyone?

And that's assuming that she even meant it. Somehow, I doubt it. At least, I hope she didn't mean it. You see, it's not her job, or anyone's job in the government, to take care of me, or my kids. That's MY job, thank you very much. I want my kids to work to earn money for college. I want to earn my home. I DON'T want Hillary to give it to me.

Civics test

I got a 76%-- and I STILL beat seniors at Harvard, Yale, and all the other Ivy League schools.
Give it a shot! Leave your scores and thoughts in the comments section.

Today

Six years ago, at this time, I was sitting at my computer in a cinder-block apartment, staring at CNN's website. We didn't have a TV in out apartment, and I couldn't stand watching the one in the lobby anymore-- too many people were coming through, and I couldn't look at their shell-shocked faces anymore. They looked too much like I felt, and it wasn't a fun thing to see.

I didn't go down to the television again, in the weeks that followed. I stayed glued to my computer, lapping up any news of someone being pulled out of the wreckage, until those stories ended. And then I didn't want to see anymore. But I couldn't stop. I remember wanting, almost, desperately, to not go to CNN, or MSNBC, or CBS, or any other news website, not wanting to see those pictures again, not wanting to read any more of the same words... But I couldn't stay away.

For years, every time I saw a flag at half-staff, I wondered if I had somehow managed to miss hearing about another attack. I spent the rest of the day slightly jittery until I could go home and make sure nothing cataclysmic had happened.

I was one of those people who spent a week or so of autumn 2001 flinching when I saw a jet fly overhead.

I have looked at the news very nearly every day of the six years between then and now. There have been 2-- yes, I counted, 2-- days when one of the top stories was not something related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Honor and remember the dead.