Matt’s Blog

It’s a good thing the weather isn’t so great this time of year in Seattle:

Note: This was written last Friday, when I was traveling to Nashville. But since I didn’t have internet then, and had better things to do when I got to Nashville, I haven’t gotten around to posting it until today. Therefore: “today” = “last Friday”.

Today has not been the best day. It started out very early (3:30 am) getting up to get ready for a very early flight out of Seattle. Or, I should say, what was supposed to be a very early flight out of Seattle but ended up being a somewhat early flight out of Seattle due to mechanical problems. This of course meant that my rather loose connection in Minneapolis ended up being a very tight connection, actually too tight as I hustled up to the gate for my Nashville flight right as the door was closing.

Now those of you who have gotten up at such an early hour know how tolerant you are of even the smallest of problems. Yeah, so my limited patience was not really all that thrilled to have to deal with the missed flight. Add to that a headache from lack of sleep and I was not feeling particularly plesant, but the day was not done. Thankfully I was booked on another flight in the mid afternoon. Never mind that this flight was leaving Minneapolis when I was supposed to be arriving in Nashville, at least I had a flight out, right?

Well sort of. As the weather got worse my mid-afternoon flight quickly became a late afternoon flight, and then an early evening flight. The bottom line is that I’ll now be landing in Nashville 4 hours later than I had planned. And I’m certainly not any less tired.

Now you might argue, 4 hours? That’s nothing! And that’s kind of the point. In the wide world of things that could have gone wrong this is a relative non-issue. And that got me thinking. It’s very tempting to rant about all the incompetence of Delta Airlines maintenance or gate agents or whatever, or make baseless claims like, “that’s the last time I ever fly such-and-such airline.” But honestly, I don’t really feel any better afterwards, and it’s not likely anyone’s fault that the plane had mechanical problems, and it’s definitely no one’s fault that the weather wouldn’t cooperate. But that doesn’t mean that it’s any less frustrating to me, particularly when I’m tired and have a headache and don’t want to spend my day off in a weird airport instead of with my friends I only get to see every so often.

One reason this situation was so frustrating was that I had virtually no control and no options. I felt trapped. And as I thought about it (there was plenty of time for sitting and thinking) I realized that I, like the Delta employees, work for a company where our users are in mostly the same position. Many of our products are given to the employees of large companies where there is no option for other solutions, and by virtue of our market dominance in many segments users are forced to use our products, for better or worse, in their personal and professional lives.

We catch a lot of flak at The Empire© about our products, and most all of it is filled with frustration-infused vitriol. The internet is the great equalizer, only there can a trained journalist have the same exposure as the Apple fanboi (or, as I recently heard: ifanboi) commenting on the particle. But prodding aside, many of the complaints I read about The Empire© are strikingly similar to my, and my co-travelers, complaints about the airline industry today. Here are some examples I’ve heard recently where you could easily exchange “Microsoft” for “any particular airline”: “Microsoft employees are rigid, greedy, automatons working for a dying company that can’t innovate and just steals ideas from Apple and Google” or: “I’ve had enough of M$ and I’m switching to Linux/Apple/whatever…” or my personal favorite: “Windows 7 is just re-branded Vista.”

Now I would hope that most rational people would realize that these statements aren’t true. Creating software on any scale is an incredibly complex process, and there’s bound to be compromises that are going to leave people wanting something more, even at Apple (see: iPhone). But none of that really matters to the end users when they are forced to use something that’s frustrating and when they really don’t have any other options. So, while I can’t promise that the products produced at The Empire© will always satisfy, or even placate, our end users I can promise to understand that behind every vicious comment is a user who’s likely tired, with a headache, who just feels trapped in a system that seems illogical and very frustrating. And I promise that I, along with many of my co-workers, will be committed to doing everything that we can to make the experience a little better. If anything, today has taught me a great deal about what it means to be completely pissed at a major corporation.

Normally I frown upon people who post blog entries that talk about the frequency (or lack thereof) of their blog posts… generally a post of that type assumes that people actually read your blog and care if you post or not. An assumption that I find rather comical in general given the average readership of most blogs (mine included), and quite outrageous in this particular case given that my last post was over two months ago and by now the few followers I had have undoubtedly moved on to richer reading pastures. So, on that count there’s no reason to apologize for the lack of posts recently. Furthermore, far be it from me that my site would become just another tombstone in the vast graveyard of dead blogs filled with posts lamenting the lack of time for proper writing.

Anyways, that said, it’s been a wild couple of months. I left Atlanta on the 29th of June, Seattle bound. After a long cross-country trip with a brief stop in Colorado I arrived in Seattle on the 6th of July. There hasn’t been one aspect of my life that has not changed at least a little, and most areas have changed so significantly that I have yet to fully grasp the magnitude of the difference.

Since I left Atlanta:

• I’ve gone from living in a double-occupancy room in a fraternity house to living in an apartment alone to living in a three-story townhouse with a friend from GA.
• I have not eaten at Jason’s Deli, not even once.
• I’ve left my church home at Buckhead Church where the music was like a rock concert and Andy reiterated everything three times for 30 minutes tops and started attending Mars Hill Church where the music is indie-ish and Mark Driscoll yells at us for at least an hour every Sunday.
• I’ve gone from being a poor grad student to working for the largest software company on the planet although, in contrast, my wardrobe has remained relatively constant.
• I’ve gone from working out at the GT Rec Center with a bunch of college aged guys and one girl to working out at what amounts to the Microsoft Rec Center with a bunch of 40 year-old guys and no girls
• I’ve gone from walking 5-10 minutes to and from class/work to a 30 minute minimum drive from home to work. I now take the bus almost every day.
• I can pretty much afford to eat out whenever I want, but I no longer have nearly as many friends to take with me.
• I’ve gone from living in the middle of constant activity to living in a quiet neighborhood and working alone at a desk for most of the day.
• I’ve gone from near constant involvement at Theta Xi to nearly none outside of observing the e-mail lists.
• I’ve gone from anticipating the GT football season with great excitement to mere indifference.
• I used to sweat just looking outside, now I wear a polar fleece jacket nearly every morning, and often throughout the entire day.
• I’ve gone from having to pay for each load of laundry in washers and dryers with two clothing settings: Maul and Destroy to having a washer and dryer with more settings than a mid-sized aircraft.
• I’ve gone from having basically everything I own in one room to having to go to Ikea to get stuff to fill up all the extra rooms in the house.
• There hasn’t been a day, or really even an hour, that I haven’t missed all of my great friends back in Georgia in one way or another.
• I’ve been blessed with the seeds of new friendships here in Seattle.
• I’ve struggled as God has moved me across the country and away from all my connections, comforts and familiarity to the place He wants me to be. And I’ve been amazed as He has given me grace to persevere in the face of what can often be overwhelming sadness and frustration.

And that’s just a few of the things going on now. When people ask how the move has gone I usually tell them that it’s like a roller coaster; there are up days and there are down days but in the end the entire thing is an exhilarating ride. It’s been a very exciting period in my life, but as I get settled in the swings become less frequent, and less severe. As I move forward I always try to recall the feeling of awesome opportunity that I had in anticipation of the move when I was still in Georgia.

And, if all else fails, I just book a ticket “home” for the weekend

7:30 AM Wake up when my roommate’s alarm goes off (I intended to get up at 8:30 AM). Realize that I have a paper due in Growth Management Law today that I have not yet started on.

7:31 AM Decide to sleep until 8:30 AM as planned and then hit the paper hard.

7:32 AM Fall back asleep.

7:39 AM Wake up when roommate’s snooze alarm goes off. Worry about paper to write.

7:41 AM Fall back asleep.

7:48 AM Wake up when roommate’s snooze alarm goes off. Worry about paper. Think about killing the inventor of snooze buttons.

7:51 AM Fall back asleep.

7:57 AM Wake up when roommate shuffles around the room. Worry about paper. Think about getting up to get started. Realize bed is much comfier.

8:02 AM Fall back asleep.

8:30 AM Wake up when my alarm goes off. Worry about paper. Get out of bed.

8:32 AM Decide to glance over the requirements for the paper before going to work out so I can think them over while working out. Notice that the paper (a review of a journal article) must also cite the class textbooks, which means the class textbooks must also be read in addition to the journal article. Also notice that although there is a wide selection of journal articles to review, none of them appear to be online. Realize this means a trip to the library.

8:37 AM Curse the Planning Department and my choice to enroll in it.

8:38 AM Realize that I also have small group tonight, and SGA at 11.

8:38 AM Worry about paper.

8:39 AM Leave for the Gym. Soundtrack: Mark Driscoll

9:03 AM While working out, think that some journal articles might be available online with a little creative searching.

9:27 AM Return from Gym. Prepare materials for small group. Thank God that Mark has creatively covered Nehemiah 3.

9:38 AM Decide against the SGA meeting this morning. Send text message to that effect. Pick out article that does not seem like reading it would be like dragging a cheese grater across my forehead (common with planning articles). Realize that most JAPA articles are online. Check. Success!

9:42 AM Find shorter article also online. Justify switch because I also like the topic better. Print it out.

9:47 AM Shower. Clothes. Make coffee/breakfast to go.

10:25 AM Gather article, laptop and (stupid) textbooks. Off to the coffee shop for some intense writing.

10:32 AM Arrive at coffee shop (favorite writing location on campus). Find empty table. Bonus it’s large. Spread out. Begin reading/highlighting article.

11:03 AM Finish article, look for supporting ideas in class textbooks. Wish I had more time to actually read the legal handbook. Read/endure American Planning Association book on managed growth. Wonder if any American Planning Association members voted for McCain.

11:11 AM Finish APA growth management book. Decide that no American Planning Association members voted for McCain.

11:12 AM Boot up laptop. Re-read paper requirements. Send small group reminder e-mail.

11:13 AM Create paper outline in OneNote.

11:17 AM Start writing paper.

11:32 AM Thank self for highlighting journal article while writing section summarizing said article.

11:43 AM Look at clock. Compare with writing progress (2ish pages, halfway). Less worried about paper.

12:37 PM Look at clock. Wonder where all the time went. Remark at how much time writing consumes. Launch into big finish. Starting to hit writing wall.

1:05 PM Finish rough draft of paper. Power through quick references section. Head back to the house for lunch.

1:11 PM Arrive at house. Make quick lunch and print off paper for review while eating. Wish I could watch scrubs instead. Think that I don’t proof read my blog posts, so I shouldn’t proof my paper. Think that’s stupid because my blog isn’t graded and no one reads it. Wonder if I should start proofing my blog posts in case someone does read it.

1:16 PM Eat lunch. Revise paper. Find surprisingly few problems. Probably because I’m burned out at this point and don’t care too much. Still glad I caught the “nay” when I meant “many”.

1:45 PM Format paper, print final copy. Think I should write all papers this quickly.

2:10 PM Head to lab thinking class starts at 3 PM.

2:15 PM Arrive at lab. Do a few miscellaneous things to kill some time.

2:43 PM Leave for class.

2:46 PM Arrive at class. Class is full and already in session. Think WTF.

2:47 PM Find seat, determine that class usually starts at 2:30 PM. Sigh.

2:54 PM Wonder if papers have already been collected. Hope they haven’t.

2:55 PM Determine that after such an intense morning it’s either write a blog post or fall asleep.

3:45 PM Finish blog post. Again, remark at how much time writing consumes.