I didn’t do much this weekend except play ultimate I think. There was great weather and we had a good turnout, so it was a lot of fun. I’m kind of sore still… I think I gave myself some minor shin splints again. =)

For some reason I was reflecting on one of my past work experiences. During one of my rotations at Freescale, I spent a few months at Metrowerks. Back in the day, they were known for CodeWarrior and dominated the Mac development scene before Apple started to release their own tools for free. At the time I was there, they provided the development tools for Nintendo and Sony (maybe still do… not sure) and even had a development Wii at the time (this was before the Wii was out). I got to play with a pre-release Wiimote by moving a bunch of dots and lines on the screen. How exciting! ;)

Anyways, I ended up not getting an offer to stay full time from the group primarily because I didn’t put in a lot of effort into meshing with the team there. I basically did my own thing siloed away and though I completed my project with positive reactions, the team ultimately decided that they’d hold off on the full time offer because they wanted me to integrate into the team more. Although they did a lot of cool things there, I wasn’t exactly convinced it was the right fit for me, so I wasn’t too disappointed with the outcome of that experience. However, I did learn the lesson that I need to engage at a level other than just delivering what’s asked of me to be successful in certain environments. I’m glad I didn’t get the job offer as I’m not sure I would be where I am today if I had. I look back at my rotation there positively, influencing me for the better, and helping me to be successful at BV.

So, here’s to you, Metrowerks. RIP.

Yes, I turned 27 over the past weekend. I didn’t really do much though… mostly sat around and read. There was some eating involved, though. On Friday, the usual gang went to Austin Land & Cattle, Saturday, I went to Asia Cafe with the family. Then finally on Sunday, Heather arranged for a small birthday thingy with a few peeps at Eddie V’s, then we went to a couple of coffee shops until we found one that was open and not packed.

Did something else happen? I can’t remember anymore… oh, I have cancelled my WoW account and we played Heroes of Newerth instead last night.

Oh yeah, and Melissa made me a website in the fashion of Andrew Approved: Things Owiber Wuvs!

Okay, so I returned Friday night, but my schedule’s pretty much back to normal now. For a while over the weekend, even though I seemed to have quickly returned to a normal sleep schedule, I think my eating schedule was still off. I felt like I wanted to eat even though I had already eaten and felt full still. Hungry and full at the same time. It was weird. Anyways, I’m good now.

I’ve used my Kindle pretty heavily and I read three books on my London trip: Ender’s Game, Hunger Games, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’m also now about 90% through the first Wheel of Time book. That one starts pretty slow, but it’s finally picking up now.

On Saturday, I was really looking forward to playing ultimate again and it was pretty fun. Last night, we skipped WoW (didn’t have enough people to raid) and played DotA instead, which was also good to get back to. We need to start HoN sometime soon… =)

Oh, and as usual, Flickr (but not my account!) has photos from the London Summit.

Apparently the US decided to warn against traveling to Europe after I arrived. Oh well. =)

I spent most of the flight reading Ender’s Game, which I enjoyed. I’m liking my Kindle so far! Unfortunately, because I was reading instead of sleeping, I was not prepared at all to stay awake so I crashed once I got to my hotel (morning UK time). I ended up sleeping way too long and woke up at around 11PM. I lounged around a bit until it was early AM when I realized I was pretty hungry, but everything was closed (that I was aware of). I waited until around 5AM and found a McDonald’s. Never been happier to see one.

On the flight over, I sat next to a super cobra pilot who was flying to London to watch the Ryder Cup before going back to Afghanistan. He told me that the GPS, maps, and screen on the iPad are so much better than what’s installed in the cobra, that he carries one along with him (they hack it to hook it up to their GPS antennas on the cobra). Plus, he told me, they can play music and play games with it while they wait around. I thought that was pretty amusing.

I’ve managed to stay out of the rain so far, which I was actually a little surprised about. I had to wander around a handful of stores before I found a grounded/3-prong power converter I could use. I’ve left my camera in the bedroom safe because I didn’t want to risk getting it wet (in hindsight, I wish I’d taken it out since I lucked out not getting rained on), but I went to visit Kensington Gardens and ate at an indian place called Zaika which was well rated on Yelp UK. It was not bad, but pricey. Probably wouldn’t go back.

Oh, and there’s a tube strike now. Woo! Mind the gap!