Unemployed nerd

Due to a company re-organisation, a "slow-down" in the market and a shift in strategy, Nokia have shut down their Sydney lab. This means that I am now out of a job. It's a shame because I really enjoyed working for Nokia. I considered continuing with Nokia in Finland but I've just bought an apartment here and it's a bit cold for me in Helsinki.

Anyway, there's not much to report. I'm still looking for a new job. There doesn't seem to be much out there at the moment. September 11 doesn't help things that's for sure. I have had a few interviews thus far and whilst they have all gone very well, either the rug has been pulled out from under my feet at the eleventh hour due to external influences or the role was too junior.

It's been great weather and though I am only 5 minutes from the beach I have been nerding. I bought and assembled a new computer, played around with WebSphere, continued with my little "Thrust" applet, mucked around with Flash (a new little sound control), wrote a couple OpenGL "hello world" programs in C++, downloaded and installed the DirectX 8a SDK, played Ultima 9, played Counter-strike on the net (yahfor my new kick-ass computer) and sadly played Colonization for two days straight.

If you know the game then you'll understand why it's so sad (those little Yankee doodle MIDI's have tainted my soul I'm sure). I'm only going to Kick Boxing and Jiu-Hitsu to de-nerdify myself at the moment. At least I didn't go to the Counter-Strike competition.