So how'd it go???

Short answer: I feel really good about the interviews.

Long answer: Read about it here.

Wednesday mid-day I got a call from the supervisor (Director of Leads Research) for the department I'm interviewing. He was calling "just to make sure that you know you're giving a presentation tomorrow." News to me! Luckily I don't mind presenting, and on the plane I put together some slides--what would normally be about 20 minutes' worth--about the Halo project. (Honestly, would anyone expect me to present on something different?) Landed at LAX, picked up the rental car they had arranged for me, and headed out to the hotel.

Thursday morning I leave 50 minutes to travel what they said takes approximately 14 minutes but to leave 30 for traffic. Anyway, I get there just in the nick of time...only to find they've changed my schedule and added another interview before my first one at 9:00. Well, that person was still on his way in, so I was able to start filling out the paperwork (by no means finish though).

The interviews were interesting. Most were one-on-one, but a few were two-on-one (me, of course, being the one). I was whisked from one office to the next, back to back, every 30-45 minutes meeting someone new. By noon I had met all six people on the team I'd be joining (Leads Research) and also someone on Leads Development and someone else in Materials.

Around 12:30 the Director and I went down to the cafeteria, got lunch, and brought it back to his office to continue conversation over the meal. St. Jude has a "Wall of Patents" near their cafeteria...very cool!

Interviewed back-to-back with two different Vice Presidents of various research divisions, then I got about a 3 minute break. It was time to present, and the conference room populated with faces that I had met earlier in the day. My "20-minute" presentation filled the entire hour that was on the schedule because they all asked good questions. After that, I had another talk with the Director, then squeezed in two more interviews with people in Quality Assurance and Emerging Indications. At the end of the day I finally filled out the paperwork for HR. It was a long, busy, fast-moving day.

The whole process was a lot of fun. I got to talk a lot about myself, my work, and my thought processes. Only two interviewers the whole day "quizzed" me on technical facts; most of the discussion was centered around what I do, how I think, and how I interact with others. I also learned a lot about the structure of this division, namely the differences between the various different research areas, research vs. development (yes, R&D can be separated), and project workflow.

I feel that it went well. I think I "fit" there, and I hope that they felt the same. Dinner with some friends afterward was a great way to wind down, since I was able to hear about life in Cali outside St. Jude.

So I'll keep the blog "posted" if and when I hear anything else. Thanks to all you well-wishers!

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Too funny!

I just walked into my apartment on my way home from the airport. Turning on the radio, the first song is the tail end of Ben Folds "I've Landed," followed immediately by Phantom Planet's "California." Coincidence? I think not.

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California here we come

I'm so happy I can hardly count. This afternoon I fly out to Los Angeles for a job interview with St. Jude Medical. The position is in the Cardiac Rhythym Management Division, doing leads development. In a nutshell, I'll be meeting with the entire Leads team over the course of the day tomorrow to see if I'm a fit. One of the senior recruiters has told me a number of times that people who can do leads design well will never have to worry about having a job.

Don't know what leads are?

For those in the dark about what this position entails, the "lead" is essentially a very specialized wire that delivers electricity from, say, a pacemaker to the heart. Leads are super-important for a number of reasons.

• Implantable medical devices like pacemakers and defibrillators run on really tiny batteries. Think like your watch battery. But now consider that you're powering something stronger than a watch, and you need to make sure the battery will last 10-20 years, and you want 0% chance that the battery will die prematurely because someone's life is counting on it. So you need to deliver the current as efficiently as possible, and a good lead can allow that.
• These wires are inside someone's body. A cardiac surgeon puts them in. They shouldn't have to come out. You need to make sure that the wires are well-insulated, both electrically and biologically, from the rest of the body. Not to mention you need to design a wire that won't kink and won't dislodge once placed.
• What happens when everyone finally takes the age-old advice of diet and exercise, and cardiovascular disease declines to near-null numbers? Will the pacing/defibrillation industry go bust? Well, leads are used in all sorts of other medical device applications that are on the up-and-coming, for example neural stimulators to treat tremor and other symptoms of Parkinson's. There are also some studies using implantable stimulators to treat severe anxiety and other psychological disorders. In fact, a good leads designer can make a wire targeted for pretty much any structure in the human body, and I'm sure that a host of novel applications of electrical stimulation are under investigation.

So, I can't wait to get out there (yes, it'll be my first time ever on the West Coast) and show 'em who I am, what I know, and how I think.

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Betcha feel pretty silly, now, don't you?

Yeah, I'm talking to you, Mister My Station Wagon Doesn't Need A Muffler Because I Pimped It Out With A Racing Stripe. Sitting at the stoplight, revving your engine, only to have me still pull away in front of you when we get the green. Do you think I care that you can hit 30 mph and cut me off right before the next light (that's already red, mind you), seeing as I'm going to make a right turn anyway?

Fine, go ahead, do it. It just seems silly to me that you feel macho because you try to drag race...

...against a bicyclist.

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Better than a day off of school

To be perfectly honest, I think that it is absurd for public schools to give a day off for things like President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Columbus Day, and other memorial holidays. Why? Think about it. Anyone great enough for us to make a national holiday dedicated to that person, probably worked hard to make this country a better place. And I can't think of anybody, let alone a great countryman, who wouldn't agree to a statement similar to the cliché that "Children are the future of this nation." So, wouldn't it be a better honor for those remembered by a holiday, that instead of a day off of school, to hold a "special" day of school where students learn or do projects or make a presentation about some topic related to the person(s) for whom the holiday is named?!

Seriously. Don't give a day off for Martin Luther King, but rather hold school and have the kids discuss some civil rights issue relevant to their community. On President's Day, have students debate about who was the best President and why. Instead of keeping kids home on Veteran's Day, invite a local Vet to come and describe his or her war experience.

Shit, if you still want a "day off," at least keep a half day of class. Those great folks being remembered would have wanted it that way.

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Stupidity is punishable by law

I saw a report on Good Morning America today about a law in Arizona called the "Stupid Motorist Law." No joke. It basically says that if drivers are stupid and ignore barricades, then get stuck and need to call for help, they can be charged up to $2000 for the rescue effort. (Read the text of the law at the Phoenix Fire Department.)

Somebody is on to something here! Rescue respondents are putting themselves at risk by going into flooded areas. The efforts consume time and resources. When "victims" are in such situations because they thought their Hummer could handle the high waters and decided to drive around Road Closed signs, they deserve to pay.

More states should follow suit and pass similar laws. And get rid of laws that allow criminals to sue for personal injury when law enforcement or civilians hurt them while they're committing a crime.

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Romance meets food

I finally kept a surprise. I set up for K and I to attend the "Hands On Romance Cooking Class" ...continued at Flavour Cooking School in Forest Park, IL, while we were in the Chicago area for the weekend. Even though she pressed me for clues, she didn't know what we were doing until we got to the place.

And what a place it was! Walking in the front is a cooking supplies store--everything from quality pots & pans to whisks to fondue pots to knives to measuring devices--and further back are some specialty ingredients--oils, seasonings, baking decorations, and more. The center of the store was a large countertop island, a nice stovetop and oven, industrial-sized fridge, and two big sinks. In the back they had set up dining tables.

So it's early-afternoon, and we arrive at the class right in time. We're one of five couples around the counter, with the instructor at the front wearing an apron and a smile. Each couple gets a knife and a scraper, a booklet of recipes, and nametags. We survey the menu to find that each course has at least one aphrodisiac ingredient: ...continued

• Oysters Rockefeller soup
• Arugula salad with vinegarette and truffle dressing
• Pork tenderloin sauteed in mustard sauce
• Chocolate fondue with dipping foods.

Such great fun! We cooked the courses one by one, eating each as it was finished. Everything was surprisingly easy to prepare under Denise's expert guidance, and we had a great time making our meal. (Apparently most of the classes at this place are demonstrations, not hands on.) There was so much food, and we wanted to savor every bite even though we were stuffed. The time involved in cook-eat-cook-eat-cook-eat helped make it manageable to clean our plates for the most part. Not to mention that each dish was positively delicious.

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What's more special than Valentine's Day?

A Valentine's Birthday.

Happy birthday, Mom!

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Negligence and debauchery

Yes, I've neglected my blog the past few days. I've been busy. Sue me.

But I've really wanted to post a shout-out to a few of my friends who came to town for a weekend of Mardi Gras festivities. They made the drive down from Chi-town Friday after work to partake in the Soulard Mardi Gras.

After waiting thru several overcrowded trains, we finally made it down to see the tail end of the Grand Parade on Saturday morning. The rest of the day consisted of drinking beer, eating spicy food, drinking hurricanes, peoplewatching, drinking more beer, walking thru crowds of happy-drunk partiers, drinking more hurricanes, and waiting in line for the bathroom. Well, with all that drinking what else would you expect? But we saw our fair share of flashers of both genders, plenty o' folks less-than-sober-but-not-quite-sloshed, and goofily-dressed adults toting children around on their shoulders.

We hopped the train home, carried in some Chinese food, and fell asleep in the middle of a round of Trivial Pursuit, all this around 7:00 in the evening. Rounded the nite off with a short spell at a biz/cas style bar and a trip to the casino.

So after a sleepless weekend, my buds went home in time for Super Bowl pregame shows, K went back to her clinical, and I damn-near passed out during the game that nite.

Ah, great fun. If I find work in the 'Lou, I will certainly make Soulard an annual tradition.

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My favorite mistake

I'm not talking about Sheryl Crow (though she is one of my not-so-secret crushes). I graded over 70 students' homework assigments for a junior-level (of college) engineering class. I was absolutely shocked, and I got a pretty hearty chuckle, at the number of students who, when asked "How sensitive must a [specific] pressure gauge be?" answered "Very sensitive" or "Extremely sensitive." They were given some parameters and were supposed to make reasonable assumptions to come up with a number, not a qualifier!

Only slightly better were the students who said the gauge must detect a certain percentage pressure change, without specifying the initial pressure of which the percent change would be measured. It's like saying "I need a car to fit half of some stuff" but not knowing how much stuff you need to fit half of.

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St. Louis by Bike

To take advantage of the wonderful weather (50+ degrees and sunny) and keep up my training program, I decided to do a nice long bike ride today. My goal was somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half, but I had no real destination. I kind of wanted to get away from Forest Park, as I've done most of my running there lately. So I thought back to this one dreamlike stretch I rode late summer up near Florrisant and decided to head that way again. Where to go from there? I figured I'd make a loop anywhere up there and come back thru Ladue.

So I opened a map and looked for a route of mostly thru-streets that would be less busy and still take me past those two points of interest. Now, in my five years here I must say that I know the Wash U "bubble" pretty well and then I know patchy areas downtown, in CWE, little bit in South County, and some out by Ballwin. Not much more. I have very few notions about a lot of the smaller towns nearby, and I don't know where there are "good neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods." So I was planning my route looking at a street map with no idea what these streets hold.

...continued

I knew that heading up early in my ride would take me thru a less-than-ideal part of town where we've done some community service events. No problem, because here I was still on a main road. I hit the stretch of Lucas & Hunt that I wanted, going past a large cemetary with a low stone fence and a number of small, old, but nice-looking houses. After that I was flying blind, riding thru Overland and a number of towns with California-esque names like Bevery Hills and Belle Ridge. This whole midsection of the ride was interesting, as I'd be going along very suburban-looking small homes and then suddenly on the next block I'd be riding thru a very run-down area. The contrast between any two neighboring blocks was striking. But I can't say I was upset or scared or anything. I was close to being alone: very few cars, even on the "busier" streets. I made it out to Olivette and headed down Warson into a very different area toward Ladue, where the lots are expansive and the houses are set back far from the road and hide behind natural landscaping. Coming thru Ladue and Clayton and U City toward home were the only trafficked parts of the ride. I was out for just under 90 minutes, on the move most of it. The ride felt great, the scenery was pleasant, and the weather was superb. After it all, my bike got a much-needed bath from the "commuting filth" of my daily rides to campus.

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Abortion

I've been doing this a lot lately. And by lately I mean in the last three days or so. I've written something, be it a letter, email, blog post, personal memo, post-it note, pretty much anything, and then when I should have been done with it I realize that I've already written something too long, too complicated, or just plain unneccesary. So I stop. I've got a number of postponed or aborted messages in my email folders, a few posts here saved as drafts, and half a trash can full of scraps with my chickenscratch. What's my deal???

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