Nick and I have a lot to be thankful for. We’re both really happy in general with how our lives have been going and we’re glad that we were able to get our first house this year. Nick enjoys his job and people seem to really appreciate his hard work. As for my job? Well… I just found out that the company is going to close its doors due to financial struggles. I’m not looking forward to looking for a new job, but I’m grateful for the time I got to work there. I learned a lot of new things and had fun doing what I love.

So does anyone know of any good game development jobs in the Seattle area?

My name badge for the Casual Connect conference I went to in July

Several people have asked me how I’ve been enjoying my new game development job. Well, I really like it and I’ve been learning a ton! It’s a small start-up company, so it’s just me and two other developers. It took a while to get used to the new software, tools, and libraries and I’m still learning new things every day. In addition to development, I’m also involved in the design process and it’s been fun offering my input in the games we’re working on. I also like when we get to spend time testing games (getting paid to play games, darn!). We have a couple of games that should be released shortly, so I’ll be sure to let you guys know when they’re available.

Oh, and one of the neat things about being a game developer I can justify playing video games as “research.”

Nick has been keeping busy in his job, too. He was nominated and recognized for being awesome at a recent annual iSchool retreat. He’s also now on two UW certificate advisory boards. Nick’s been working hard on the new iSchool website, which launches next week. It’ll be a huge improvement over the current website and everyone’s really excited to see it go live.

Last night’s Zaw pizza

Last night, we had pizza from Zaw, a bake-at-home pizza place that uses fresh, local ingredients. We were first introduced to Zaw by Martin (one of Nick’s coworkers) and his wife, Shelly, shortly after we moved to Seattle last year. When Groupon had a 50% off deal the other day, we couldn’t pass it up. We tried a pizza that was half Arugula Patch (prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, basil, parmesan, mozzarella, and arugula) and half Tailgate Feast (bacon, pepperoni, caramelized red onions, parmesan, and mozzarella). Both were really good.

Sean (a friend of ours) moved to Seattle a couple weeks ago and it’s been fun teaching him all of the quirks about Seattle, along with fun things to see and good places to eat. Most of the major differences relate to traffic: carpool lanes, express lanes, tolls, the bus system, parking, etc., but there are other things like the plastic bag ban and recycling / food & yard waste that he’s been getting used to, too.

What else is new? Nick and I started playing a new game called Guild Wars 2 that I’ve been blogging about on my personal blog. It’s an MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft, but with a lot of improvements. Nick and I have been having fun exploring the world and seeing this new take on the genre.

There isn’t, however, a nice way for me to get to work via bus. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to work in the morning and an hour home in the evening (yay traffic). I usually see several other Smart Car drivers during my commute, though, and their smiling and waving helps makes the drive more bearable.

Clematis in our Backyard

It’s been almost 2 weeks since we moved in to our new house and it totally feels like home. We still have some boxes to unpack and decorations to put up, though, which is probably why we haven’t uploaded many pictures of our place yet. Expect some soon, though! In the meantime, enjoy the picture on the right of the clematis (thank you for telling me what it was, Mom!) that is blooming in our backyard.

I started my new job as a software developer at a start-up game development company on Monday. I’m really excited to be working there and I know I’m going to learn a lot. My first few days were mostly setting up my computer and whatnot, but I started diving into code on Thursday. The guys I work with are pretty cool. The worst part is the commute, but I can more or less set my own work hours, so I’m trying to find out which times are best for driving.

The weather in Seattle has been really nice this week. The forecast for the upcoming week looks very summery, too – sunny and highs in the low 80’s. That’s a little hotter than I like it, but I’m not going to complain while the rest of the country is dealing with 100°+ temperatures.

On July 1, Seattle enacted a plastic bag ban. Nick and I have been using reusable grocery bags for the past year, so it’s not a big deal for us, but we have to be extra careful not to forget them now. With our house, we also have a food and yard waste bin, which is new for us. Between food and yard waste and recycling, we find that we don’t produce that much actual garbage, which is kind of nice.

We met the couple we bought our house from earlier this week. They had some mail in the mailbox that didn’t get forwarded, so we said they could stop by to pick it up. They were really nice, friendly people and we enjoyed meeting them. They filled us in about our alarm system and told us that the shoe rack they left was custom-built for our house by her father, so they were happy we were using it.

Main Bathroom

One of the first decoration projects I tackled was the main bathroom. We only had one bathroom’s worth of bath mats, shower curtains, towels, etc., so I knew we would have to get something for the main bathroom fairly soon. I wrestled with various color palettes before I found a green and white shower curtain I liked and I picked the rest of the bathroom accessories based on it. The result is pictured on the left. Nick and I are really happy with it and smile every time we walk past the bathroom (it’s such a cheerful green!). Now we just need to find some art or something to put on the walls.

We also bought some curtains for our bedroom and a sofa for the living room that we’ll show off in another post.

The weather was really nice this evening, so Nick and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. We stopped at Joy Teriyaki to try out their teriyaki. We both liked it, but I think it could have used a little more teriyaki sauce. Yelp reviews for Joy Teriyaki recommend their Mongolian menu – especially the huushuur, a Mongolian pastry filled with beef, onion, and garlic. We’ll have to try it out next time!

I got a job!

I am going to be doing game development for a start-up company in Redmond. They make family-friendly puzzle and strategy games for mobile devices, Facebook, and desktop computers. Since this month is already going to be pretty hectic, I’m going to wait until July 2 to start working there. I can’t wait!

On Thursday afternoon, I had a phone interview with Amazon.com that went pretty well. The interview was with a developer at Amazon Webstore (where I would also work, if I get offered the job). The phone interview was very technical and I think I did a good job answering his questions. After I got off the phone, though, I thought of a better solution for the last question he asked me. D’oh! I heard back from Amazon the next day and they want me do a 5-8 hour on-site interview at the beginning of January.

In other news, I created a desktop application for the University of Washington Information School IT Help Desk. When someone is experiencing a technical problem on their computer, the application lets the user submit a ticket to the IT Help Desk (and, for the IT guys, it also collects and submits relevant system information about the machine). They are really happy with the application and it is probably going to go on the lab computers within the next week or so. Very cool!

And Nick and I celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary today.

Out my office window

I’ve been taking the bus since mid July and this was the first time I’ve had to deal with rain. That’s almost 3 months of no rain before or after work, in Seattle. I was begining to think that the “rainy city” was a myth concocted by the folks who live here to keep everyone else from rushing in and furthering the congestion on the roads. I’d say the weather here has been pretty good.

If this is how Seattle does rain I’m not going to miss Michigan’s weather one bit. It’s a light sprinkling of drops that make a calming noise as they hit the ground. In fact my office window is open and I don’t have headphones on because the rain sounds that nice.

My new work home (Mary Gates Hall)

The building itself is pretty confusing, but it looks awesome and has a ton of artwork to view while trying to find your way around. I’m on the third floor but the Information School has folks on multiple floors (from garden level up to the 3rd, maybe 4th?). The weather today was pretty much perfect (70s and only slightly cloudy) except for a slight drizzle on the way home from work.

My day was pretty busy with meeting everyone, learning my way around and filling out some HR paperwork. Everyone I met seems to be really awesome and I’m very excited to get to know them all better, especially the IT team. Martin, one of my new coworkers, was an awesome tour guide who showed me around the building and gave me a quick bit of campus highlights while we walked to lunch. We ate at Schultzy’s Sausage on the Ave. I had “The Schultzy” for lunch. It’s a sausage burger with onions and bell peppers on it, and it was quite tasty.

All in all, I’m very excited to dive into work and get to know everyone in the Information School. It’s going to be quite a bit different from Wayne, but I think it’s a good different and I’m pretty geeked about getting to work in this environment.

Nick is now a web developer for the iSchool (Information School), which is in Mary Gates Hall (formerly known as the Physics Building).

I haven’t heard from Nick yet (he’s been at work for an hour so far), but I’m sure he’s very busy. His coworkers are going to take him out to lunch today to celebrate. I’m very anxious to hear how his first day goes!