Memos From the Cube

I’m happy now. A few of your that read my Twitter updates might remember this one:

I’m going to refuse to work for Atmel next month unless they give me one of these: http://bit.ly/hrwviI – I’ve wanted one for *ages*.

Well, happily, my wish has come true! My guru Atmel workmates managed to scrounge me up an old AVRMan action figure from the big room of miscellaneous marketing crap goldmine of awesome AVR swag. It’s even complete in its original sealed box – although sadly, I somehow doubt it will appreciate in value if left that way. Besides, I want to take it out and keep it with me to ward off evil Heisenbug spirits while coding.

Granted, today wasn’t a total triple-sevens-winner-takes-all. Interesting fact; when a celebrity endures a wardrobe malfunction on stage, they can nearly die of embarrassment. When the zip breaks on a nice, warm but quite cheap jacket while being worn by a skinny young guy outside in -5C weather, he can nearly die of exposure. Such was the fun end to my day, which (when coupled with the bus being late – different country, same public transportation quality) nearly turned me into a human icicle Christmas tree decoration.

I’ve now finished my third day of work, and I’m rather surprised at how tired I feel despite not accomplishing much. I’m not sure if it’s my highly erratic sleeping pattern (bed around 10 after becoming too tired to stay awake, wake up at 4, 5, 6 and finally 7 o’clock in the morning) or the sheer mental stress of having to sit around drinking coffee all day, but I haven’t felt like working on my personal projects for a few days now. I’m sure once I’m in a proper routine my enthusiasm for all things not sleeping related might return, but for now I feel like I’ve been smacked upside the head with a rubber mallet.

Actually, speaking of work, I almost feel like I should be putting that in quotes. It’s not that I’m not trying hard or deliberately slacking off – it’s just that since the meeting about the project I’ll be working on hasn’t happened yet, I’ve been basically sitting around just familiarizing myself with the Atmel framework they’ve been pushing recently to try to make myself useful. Still, while the Atmel folk have been really, really amazing in making me feel like part of the team, it’s hard not to feel like a rather expensive seat warmer. The Atmel Software Framework is actually pretty interesting, but since it’s so large and complex and I haven’t had the chance to look at it before, it’s quite intimidating. Now I know how new users to LUFA feel, albeit on a much larger scale in my particular case.

Something I’ve learned; NDAs make writing interesting posts quite difficult. I’m stuck writing about generalities and things tangential to my actual work there. On the plus side, I’m going to see if I can grab a photo of the AVR indoor rock climbing wall, since I don’t think that can be counted as a trade secret.

I stupidly neglected to bring my camera today, which I regretted fairly quickly; the Atmel offices have an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Around mid-day I was able to watch the sun move slowly across the trees in a bright, narrow arc – somewhat like a flashlight on a very, very large scale due to its extremely low angle with respect to the ground. I’m making a note to pack it with me tomorrow, because it’s something I’ll definitely want a permanent memory of. One interesting side effect of this is that it acts as a nice region-specific space heater, turning nice fluffy snow into melted (and subsequently re-frozen) ice sheets of doom. Snow is actually great to walk on once you’re used to it, but all the experience in the world doesn’t make ice fun to anyone not wearing ice skates or one of those doughnut hemorrhoid cushions strapped to their butt. If there’s a God, he’s certainly playing the wacky arm-flailing sound effect from Your Country Here’s Funniest Home Videos TV show on loop around here.

On shopping; one minor difficulty with buying products here is that I can’t read Norwegian, and thus while I know what I want, I don’t know how to get it. After nearly buying a small tub full of (what I think was) cooking lard instead of butter, I discovered a technique I call Rosetta Stone Shopping. Practically everything in Norway is available, and practically everything has at least one familiar – but very expensive – international brand version on sale. By working out what I want, finding the familiar known brand of it, and then using that Norwegian text to find the local (and somewhat cheaper) equivalent, I’ve made certain I don’t end up with cans of cat food instead of tuna for dinner. Of course, on some things this doesn’t work, so last Saturday I ended up buying my cuts of meat based on the median price, and then used Google Translate when I got home to identify it (pork chops, if anyone’s interested).

Some miscellaneous pearls of wisdom I’ve discovered to round out this post:

• If the company you are working for offers an insanely cheap lunchtime meal option, use that as your main meal of the day, and have light breakfast/dinner to reduce cooking and costs.
• Look BOTH ways before crossing the street – Norwegians drive on the right side of the road, and you will inevitably forget at some point before walking.
• Fix your damn hair after taking off your hat, lest you walk around looking like Donald Trump after playing with a Van de Graaff generator all day like an idiot.
• If you forget where you’re parked in Australia, you have to walk around an look for a while. Do the same in Norway, and you’ll have to play car-lotto by digging out random cars with a shovel until you find your own.
• If drinking, put an If found return to… bracelet on, just in case. If taking the bus home – and you should, given that drink driving is a serious offense – see if you can ask the driver to stop at the right location just in case.
• Regardless of how confident you are in your memory, take a map and bus schedule. Better have it and not need it, than need it and end up in Sweden.

Until next time.