ilovecode

So I always get nostalgic with that song

Do you remember mixtapes? Even if you’re not old enough to have mixtapes, certainly you had a CD made for you at one time or another. I LOVED making and receiving mixtapes and can remember plenty of them.

You can’t do that so easily now. You can make a playlist, but then you need to decide on 200 songs to fill that playlist. Gone are the days of the 10-15 song playlists…..or are they?

There is a cool new website that probably violates a gazillion countries’ copyright laws called Muxtape.com. It looked really cool and I would love to see others’ lists.

Here is mine.

I live about 15 miles from my office in Arlington and aside from 1.5 miles, it is all highway driving. In most places this would make it about a 15 minute commute; but not in Northern Virginia. My morning commute is usually 40 minutes and my evening commute 40-45 minutes. Right now the time I go to and from work revolves around the kids (this will change at the end of the month when Drew is back for good) so for right now, I have to deal with it. So, I started slugging! What is slugging you ask? Well, slugging is when you allow complete strangers into your vehicle so you can ride in the HOV lanes. Sure there are benefits to the environment, blah blah blah, but it really comes down to saving me time!

This past Tuesday was my first go at it. Mom had always told me not to pick up strangers, but there are many times I didn’t listen to Mom, so I gave it a go. I was naturally a little hesitant and wondered if I was a complete idiot. But like all of the stupid people in horror movies who go looking for the strange noise, I went looking for my strangers.

There is a website devoted to slugging that shows maps of where all of the slugs are waiting for a ride. You ride up to the line, yell your order: 2 (the number of people you can take) for Joe’s Taco (the place you are going), and they get in the car.

The two people that I picked up the first day were pretty nice and one of them gave me the lowdown. I wondered if people talked, if you listened to the radio, or what. Apparently there is no protocol and it all depends on the people. I don’t want to turn my music up because I guarantee the people I am driving probably don’t like the stuff I listen to. It is very awkward to be driving people and not talk though. So, we talk.

The benefits of slugging are pretty cool, the downside is I used to spend the drive home cranking the music and just winding down from the day and clearing my head. I will continue slugging and probably just start turning the music up. Heck it’s a free ride for them!

Well, I am in northern Virginia, safe and mostly sound! The job search was crazy and I will have some interesting stories to tell if I ever take the time to write them up! I ended up choosing a .net developer position. There were several factors that went into this decision, but I am happy with it. I’ve been working for the last 2.5 weeks and it seems like a good job with a good team so far. It had been about a year and a half since I had done any serious .net development so I was curious to know how I would do with it, but so far so good. The DB we use is Oracle so I am happy to get new experience there. I’ve had to look up plenty of stuff and am learning some new things which is always good. I think continuous learning is a big reason why most of us are developers–we like to learn. I will keep up with my PHP by working on my own projects. I am working on a personal project right now in fact; although I have no idea if it will see the light of day (as is the case for 75% of my hobby projects).

Speaking of personal projects, I would like some recommendations on who people may like to see interviewed for my podcast. I have a few people that I plan on asking in the next few days (Lookout Haack!) but I’d love to find out who YOU would like to see; it’s not all about me right ! I’m looking for web personalities in general. They can be entrepreneurs, developers, designers, SEOers, etc.

Geek On!

By now you know that my mind and my interests are all over the place. If I was 5 I would be medicated but since I am a woman in my 30s, I get away with it and can claim it as multi-tasking! I have always considered myself an entrepreneur, even when I was working for “the man”, but when looking for resources and help on the web, I usually came up dry which was pretty disappointing.

I am really excited to be a contributor on a new project that highlights some of the best small business articles and blog posts from around the web and gives entrepreneurs a central place to look for their small business and entrepreneur fix! There are other entrepreneurs and small business owners who are contributors on this project so you will be exposed to a lot of different articles!

If you are an entrepreneur or have thought about going out on your own, sign up for the beta now!

Most people know that I am moving back to DC from Belgium in the coming months so I’ve been doing plenty of research. I am a researcher in general. Before the last car I bought, i compared and contrasted for about a year before I made a decision. I do this with most things. When it comes to the important things in life like where my kids will go to school, where we will live, what job I will have…using the word anal to describe me would be an understatement.

With the impending move, I started researching airfare. I will be traveling there by myself initially so I need a one-way ticket. A one-way ticket from Belgium to DC is $1200. A round trip ticket from Belgium to DC is $600. Hmmmm…which one do you think I’m going to buy?

I will be returning to Belgium at some point, but I will need a round-trip ticket then. I don’t understand why one way is twice as much as a round-trip ticket. Can anyone explain this logic to me?