OK, I have to make an update because this week has been so busy… if you are a regular visitor, you’ll understand.

First of all – The Job Front ~

For all of you that have been keeping up on my job searching endeavors, you’ll be pleased to hear that I have found employment. My last post was on December 2, so I’ll start there, On the evening of the 2nd, I got an email from the Vice President of Client Services that he wanted to know if I would be in Utah on Monday. I had said a week earlier that I could be back if he needed me to be. Apparently he did. I hopped online and found a plane ticket for the weekend and flew out on the 3rd to be with my family for the weekend and to be available the following Monday for Mike, if he wanted me to come in. I flew out of Colorado Springs during quite an impressive snow storm. The plane was about an hour late for boarding, so that was inconvenient. After we all were boarded, they made an announcement that they would like 5 people to take the next flight, so 5 people got off the plane. Well, what they didn’t tell us is they had already taken off ALL the luggage. Yeah, I flew to Salt Lake and waited by the baggage carousel waiting for my bags that never came. So I filled out a claim slip, and went home. Well Monday rolled by and I hadn’t heard anything. Discouraged because I had flown out for this job, I emailed Mike asking where I was on the list. He told me he wanted me to come in at noon the next day, but left it at that. He called me at about 10:00 on Tuesday asking for references, and confirmed our noon o’clock appointment. I sent him my references and showed up at noon on Tuesday, and was brought into his office. He sat me down and told me, “I would like you to talk to our CEO for a few minutes.” Can you imagine my feelings at hearing that. Not only had I been interviewed on the phone by Mike, Eric and Pablo, but brought in to speak with Mike for 2 hours just before Thanksgiving, and now they wanted me to speak with the CEO. What a company! I sat with he CEO and spoke with him for about an hour or so, really nice guy from Norway. So, afterwards, Mike brought me back into his office and told me he had left messages with my references and had heard back from one, John. He said, “I have only been able to speak with one of your references, so I can’t make you a formal offer, but if you’ll be available later, we might be able to talk more…” and as he had finished that sentence, his phone rang, it was Nolan. Nolan and I are really good friends and he just happens to be the Project Manager over the contract on which I work. Mike asked me to step out for a minute and talked with Nolan about me. He brought me back in a few minutes later and said, “I’ll for-go the third reference and offer you the job.” I took it. I start work at Infopia on Monday, the 19th of December. So I flew back home that evening, and started making preparations. I called the apartment complex I wanted to move into and had Kristin make the deposit. I got a truck to move all my stuff. I turned in my resignation at work, and I’ll be leaving the Friday. It is a little bittersweet though, I will deeply miss Colorado, but I have to be with my family. I am employee number 23 of a prestigious online e-Commerce company that has doubled its revenue each year since they were founded in 1999, and the CEO, Bjorn, told me that he wants to double the company this next year too. I’ll be working for the Vice President of Client Services as the Help Desk for Infopia, and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to move up to be a manager and hire people to work for me. A signing incentive was given of 5000 shares of stock for the company. This could turn into a very good thing! I am excited.

In other news: I have completed my Christmas/Easter presentation of the life of the Savior entitled “Learn of Me” and my mother has shown it to the Bishop, who has requested that all young women in my ward get a copy for Christmas. Today, I burned 55 DVD for the girls and others with whom I wish to share it. That was fun. I am still in the market for getting my Prayer of the Children DVD published. I am currently working on getting copyright approval for the media used therein and will be publishing it. I am seeking for pictures from the soldiers who are fighting in the was and the rights to use those pictures in my presentation. All pictures can be emailed to me (I can be contacted using the email link on this page), and as reimbursement for use of the pictures, I’ll offer you two copies of the completed work on DVD, one for yourself and one to share should you so desire. There will be more news on this endeavor available on my website: www.themaskedcrusader.com.

Well, that is about it. I have been packing the few things I have here into boxes and will be moving at the end of this week. I did find some cool music though. I was flipping channels the other day when I found the IMF, the International Music Feed. I turned on the channel and saw some awesome videos for some really cool music from India. They have a show on the IMF called Passage to India where I saw a video for “Maine Palay Hai” by Falguni Pathak, which is a pretty awesome song. I combed the Internet looking for a CD or something, but was only able to find a link to free (crappy quality) downloads for Falguni’s music. You can listen to her music here. I also heard a good song by the Pop-Indi group called the Aryans. More on that as I find out more about their music.

Thanks for hanging out. When I have some more free time (aka, when I get to Utah), I’ll be able to develop more code and share more tips and tricks about Linux. Stay tuned because there will be more information to come once I don’t have to worry about long hours and traveling.