britton thinks out loud

My church has a bunch of similarly-themed posters up in the main corridor (sans logo), courtesy of Rick Patrick Photography. I like.

What a difference that little word makes.

The last time I started a new job, back in 2004, I had quite literally half the industry experience I have now. Expectations were low when I started my contract with Silicon Labs; I was going to help out in a few key projects that no one had time for, and then go on to the next job. Because expectations were low, however, I was able to blow them out of the water, and I ended up with a permanent offer within a couple months.

Now here I am, back at Silicon Labs, starting afresh in a new division. But this time, I've got the word "senior" on my business card. Senior Firmware Engineer. As in, "this guy knows what he's doing". For the first time, I feel as though I'm expected to take a leadership position right out of the starting gate, despite the fact that I'm still familiarizing myself with the architecture and the black magic that my new team employs on a daily basis. I can't afford to fade into the background until I bring myself up to speed, at my own pace; my teammates are counting on me to help solve their current problems as quickly as humanly possible. So I'm coming in to work early and remoting in from home at night, playing catch-up. All because of one little word on my business card.

And I gotta say -- it's hard work, but it's fun.

Go outside during a rainshower and try to catch raindrops on your tongue.

Ever since Peter's teacher brought it up last November, we've been wondering if perhaps part of the reason why Peter has been difficult to handle over the past few months is that he's not being sufficiently challenged at school. Potty training was taking much longer than I was expecting, daytime naps rarely happened, and much of the time Peter just seemed...frustrated.

She recommended we move him up to pre-school as soon as possible, but the school administrators informed us that they did not have the required age ratios to do so until he was closer to three years old. I harbored my doubts as to whether moving to pre-school would be some sort of "magic pill", but there was little doubt that he needed to transition as soon as possible. When we got the green light to start the move to pre-school two weeks ago, we jumped on it.

Sure enough, we're noticing the change. Right now, he's sound asleep on his bed, having voluntarily chosen to nap instead of just taking "quiet time" in his room. His potty training has accelerated dramatically. When we pick him up in the evening, he enjoys talking about what he did in pre-school that day. He's still a firecracker, make no mistake, but now it's clear that he's where he ought to be.

So, the takeaway: making sure your child is appropriately challenged at school can make all the difference in the world.

From this article:

'[Obama] cherishes family dinner in the White House, where "thorns and roses" is now the favorite family game. Each family member describes the day's highlight, or rose, and the day's worst moment, the thorn. We were told after describing one particularly challenging day at the White House, Malia Obama had this to say to her father the president: "You have a really thorny job."'

Yeah, I'd say so.