The fiscal year is drawing to a close, along with my first season on board with Microsoft. In a couple months I’ll be posting a very comprehensive bit on what it’s like to work for Microsoft – I’m sure that some of you, especially those who’ve been considering donning the Microsoft Worker Drone Mind Control Helmet, have been a little curious about what it’s like to go behind the scenes at one of the universe’s largest software companies.
In the meantime, though, I can sum it up simply:
– Sometimes I feel like crying
– Sometimes I feel like hugging strangers
The pressure and stress can really get to you at times - especially if you let yourself forget what you’re doing (in my case, the job I’ve always wanted). After a few months of bending your brain in directions it was never meant to bend, you have moments where you want to just get out of your car, walk into the middle of the road, crouch down into a nice ball shape, bounce lightly on your ankles, and sob to the sound of honking horns and hey-get-out-of-the-street-asshole.
Other times, though, you feel like the luckiest bastard alive. You wonder how other people could possibly stand to wake up in the morning and not be you. You want to hug strangers and pick up litter. It’s weird.
Tonight’s right in the middle. I’m tired. I’ve spent more time in 737’s in the past few months than I’ve spent in my apartment. I actually forgot to pay the rent at one point because it completely slipped my mind that I even had an apartment. I submitted payment late to my building manager and he pretended to understand, but I know what he was really thinking: “That guy has it together now, but in two weeks he’s going to be in the middle of the road, curled up into a ball, and sobbing to the sound of honking horns and hey-get-out-of-the-road-you-asshole.”
Exhaustion aside, I’m also elated. I’ve just taken my first peek at the content for the next quarter of MSDN Events, and it’s going to be the Mega Nifty. We’ve worked with some of the best bastards in the business for this stuff, and it shows. Glen Gordon, the content lead on our team, has been doing some smarty things to improve the quality of our events.
I’ll be finishing off this first year of MSDN Events with one talk in New Mexico and one in Texas at the end of the month. After that, I’m going to have a little bit of quiet time to recuperate and get ready to present this new stuff.
At the same time, I’m going to be getting started in earnest with The CodeRoom. I’ve finished sketching out the twelve episodes I’d like to do. Not only do I think these episodes will be good for geeks, but I think even the non-geek will be interested in most of them. There will be some real uber-nerdy episodes, sure, but there will also be some that will be unlike anything you might be expecting. I let out more than one mad scientist cackle while outlining these suckers.
What a weird, weird world.
Anyway, that’s what I’m doing.
Tired. Happy. Sobbing. Hugging.