New Job, Who Dis?

"Homie I got a feeling I could be one of the illest

Lord willing my villains won’t come out for no appearance

all of us will make a killing, work harder and make a million, and call it making a living

but what about making a difference?

what about breaking these ceilings?

what about pushing these limits?

the struggle making me sick and the devil taking these victims

all this is making me livid, the policy and the system, the falsity of the prisms

so all of us gotta get it"

-G Yamazawa One Crown

(If you're still sleeping on G Yamazawa in 2018 then lay off the snooze)

I'm starting a new job at Clean Power Research, just a few miles from home in Kirkland. I'll be developing software to model renewable energy systems for utility companies. I'm thrilled to pivot my career into an industry that I'm passionate about. Years from now, when Earth's ecosystems have bent but not broken, hopefully I'll be able to say I contributed to the transition away from fossil fuels AND got jacked legs from biking to work every day.

I had considered leaving Amazon for a while, but once I had an offer in hand I realized pulling the trigger would be harder than I expected. I spent nearly five years there during a period of incredible growth - both for myself and the company. I formed relationships with some exceptional people, and became a trusted owner of several domains. The company grew like a weed during that time - the stock value increased 500% since I began in 2013, and hundreds of thousands of new employees have since joined the company. My future at Amazon was brighter than ever. The idea of leaving seemed irrational, and irrational decisions don't come easily to engineers whose minds often work more like robots than humans. Beep boop.

Four years is long enough to become a dinosaur at Amazon

The problems I worked on at Amazon were stimulating, but I was never intrinsically interested in their applications. I would be unsatisfied spending the rest of my career developing consumer technology. It wasn't easy to uproot myself after years of digging in, but I had to get busy living or get busy dying. Shoutout to Morgan Freeman. The developmental years of many people's careers might feel like the corporate version of Shawshank; brutal, degrading, and unfruitful. I'm really fortunate that my time at Amazon was the exact opposite. I wish only the best things for the people I met there and the company as a whole. After all, I am still a shareholder...

The conflict in Shawshank doesn't end when the prisoners are released. The guys that were in for most of their lives are overwhelmed by the newfound freedom. They're so uncomfortable being outside that they dream of ways to get back in. In Brooks' case, the realization that he would never reintegrate into society meant that life was no longer worth living. I'm not trying to compare Amazon to prison. I'm just saying that even though Amazon isn't the best fit for me, it's still scary to leave because I might discover that this "dream job" actually sucks. What do I do with myself then? I'm not alone in feeling that way. A lot of people are content to let their dreams be dreams, even to the point of self-sabotage. They would rather keep their goals forever out of reach, like a carrot on a stick, because they get to hold on to hope that someday everything will work itself out. If you get a chance to reach the carrot, only to realize that it's plastic, then you can't restore the illusion that kept you going.

you need to play Portal at least once!

I'm risk-averse, so you might think it's uncharacteristic of me to jump ship from a safe situation at Amazon for a big unknown. I felt that way too, but I'm only 28 years old, and I decided that the bigger risk would be to miss a potential turning point in my life. In the wise words of Michael Scott...

Leaving Amazon was a difficult decision, but I'm committed to my choice. No ragrets. I'm stoked to leverage the versatility of my computer science degree, and I couldn't have asked for a more relevant problem to work on. Humanity's impact on the environment is real, and we're doomed if we don't take it seriously. My new job won't be the second coming of Captain Planet, but I'm approaching it with an eagerness to make whatever impact is possible. It's just like the saying;

"No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. -Unknown"
-Michael Scott

props to all the "heart" people out there

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
TGIB

P.S. I timed my exit from Amazon to overlap with the opening of the spheres. I spent a couple hours strolling through in my last week. That place is amazing! It's ironic that I would spend years at Amazon and then leave as soon as it opened, but at least I got to enjoy myself for one afternoon.

Fall Travels

I got around in October and November. It was a busy couple of months on top of Q4 at Amazon and the ongoing house remodel, but traveling is good for the soul, and I also earned Alaska Airlines MVP status for 2018. Things are finally starting to look up for ol' Brian.

Copenhagen

Felicia and I spent four days in Copenhagen with our friend Lauren, who we also traveled to France with in 2015. The three of us stayed in a cozy Airbnb near the heart of the city, and we were able to get around exclusively on foot. The cobblestone streets and abundance of shops make Copenhagen a charming place for pedestrians. Everyone we interacted with was friendly and spoke English, which was a convenient surprise, and public places were spotlessly clean.

We saw the Little Mermaid, and we're not sure why everyone is obsessed with it. It's basically Copenhagen's Lil' Sebastian. We also viewed the Danish crown jewels at Rosenborg castle, and tons of viking artifacts at the National Museum of Denmark. The rune stone exhibit was my personal favorite.

Copenhagen has some fun contemporary attractions as well. We took a canal boat tour from Nyhavn, stuffed ourselves at a permanant street food festival in an abandoned paper mill, and spent an afternoon in the anarchist district of Freetown Christiania. We also had a delicious and eclectic sushi dinner at a Sri-Lankan owned restaurant. I was very impressed by the botanical gardens, which are free to the public. Unfortunately, Tivoli Gardens was closed while they prepared for their Halloween season.

Amsterdam

Felicia and I took a $40 flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam for the last few days of the trip. Amsterdam was wild. I don't know how else to say it. I overdid it with the drugs and lost control with some strippers. It was bad. Security had to drag me out the banana bar with my pants around my ankles. That's not true - I wrote that on the bus and I wanted to have some fun with the person next to me. The banana bar is a real place, but I didn't go inside.
 
Amsterdam wasn't too different from Copenhagen, visually. Both cities feature canals, cobblestones, and cute townhouses. The city is very diverse culturally, and very open about sex and drugs. It's hard to walk 10 minutes without seeing a 'coffee shop' or sex toy store. At first I thought the red light district would be sad and uncomfortable. Prostitutes line the street in human-sized fish bowls while they wait for the next customer, but the women I saw working were having a good time and the atmosphere was very festive. Sexual assault, human trafficking, domestic violence, and STD rates would all go down (and tax revenue up) if prostitution was legal and well-regulated in more countries.

We did lots of touristy stuff on the rest of our trip. We had a great day with some fresh stroopwafels in the morning, visits to Hortus Botanicus and Vondelpark, and a pizza dinner on our evening canal tour. We also took a sobering tour of the Anne Frank House, and saw lots of classical art at Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum.

	me too, sister

Cajun Style

Less than a week after we got back from Europe we jetted to New Orleans for a group birthday weekend. Shout outs to Thomp and MarMar. We rolled 11 deep on this trip, and if you weren't paying close attention then you probably mistook us for a category:fun hurricane!

We got started with some hand grenades and jello kerosene shots while we walked down Bourbon street. Eventually we settled at a place called Ticklers to drink and watch the dueling pianos. There's no shame in my game, but I'll never be able to run for political office if I share too many pictures from that night.



I loved New Orleans. I want to compare it to Las Vegas because I go there once a year to have a fun long weekend, but that seems unfair to NOLA. Everything about Las Vegas is fake, but New Orleans is authentic and magical. The people, food, music, art, and architecture are all wonderful.

In one day we picked up street art at Jackson Square in the morning, caught a jazz show at Preservation Hall in the afternoon, then took a spooky ghost tour in the evening, where we learned about the LaLaurie murder mansion. In between events, we drank hurricanes at Pat O'Briens and ate beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Shout out to Cajun Carl.

The French Quarter is an amazing place to be even if you're doing nothing at all. If you grab some drinks and chill for a day, you might witness half a dozen second line wedding parades. Between parades there's always some ambient brass instruments playing. If you get hungry you're never more than a few steps away from a po' boy, gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, red beans and rice, fried gator, or fried okra. You might even wind up at a BBQ and blues festival like we did. It was a ton of fun. I'm looking forward to returning and checking out all the cool stuff that we didn't have time for.

Scoop

My grandfather is a great man. We call him Scoop because he was a hall-of-fame journalist, but also because he loves ice cream. He's 88 years old and he's had some serious health scares in the past, so I didn't take it lightly when I found out that he was in the hospital. Thankfully there are dozens of flights daily between Seattle and the Bay Area, so I was able to squeeze in a couple of trips to visit him. I've mentioned earlier that I don't see my family often enough, and so it was a silver lining that I got to enjoy not only Scoop's company, but also many of my immediate and extended family.

From what I heard on the phone I expected the situation to be bleak, but when we were all togeher morale was high and we had a jovial visit. The Swindell men bonded by watching the world series together. Normally when I see Scoop it's during a huge family gathering. It was nice to have some quality time together in a more intimate setting.

Trouble in Paradise

Felicia and I spent Thanksgiving in the Bahamas to watch the Battle 4 Atlantis (A basketball tournament that Arizona was playing in). This is normally my favorite week of the year as a college sports fan because the basketball tournaments overlap with the football rivalry games. I was excited to soak it all in just like 2014 in Maui. Unfortunately, the tournament was an unprecedented disaster for the Wildcats and the football team lost the Territorial Cup as well.

Sports crisis aside, we still enjoyed ourselves in the company of some friends that also made the trip from Seattle. It's hard to have a bad time when you're basking in the hot sun, warm water, and cold drinks of Paradise Island. We had some fun outside of the resort as well, swimming with reef sharks and grubbing on Bahamian food at the Arawak Cay Fish Fry. Shout out to my new acquaintance "The Genie" who, within five minutes of meeting, offered to sell me cocaine, sex, and turtle meat.

Until Next Time

We'll be in Tucson over the holidays to visit family. After that I'm thinking either the Galapagos Islands or New Zealand. I'd like to visit some natural wonders and exotic animals before it's too late. Don't forget to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

TGIB

28

I turned 28 a few months ago and I forgot to keep up with my briannual tradition of blogging about it. I've been busy! Better late than never ;)

Growing up in the land of opportunity I always had something to work toward. I spent 12 years working toward the next grade in school. While I was in school I worked to buy a car, so I could drive myself to work in the evenings after spending the days working towards college. Then I worked to pay rent while working toward my degree. Then I worked toward getting an internship - then a job - then a better job, so I could work to pay off my college debt. Before I knew it I was 27 years old and working was all I knew how to do.

I'm blessed by the opportunities to provide for myself, but in the year 2017 I believe there's more to life than just grinding. In one of my favorite songs Get By, Talib Kweli says

    just to get by
    We commute to computers
    spirits stay mute while your egos spread rumors
    We're survivalists, turned to consumers
    just to get by

My values don't align with consumer culture, but as time goes on I've found myself increasingly succumbed to its pervasiveness. 27 was the year I decided that I didn't want to be a supporting actor in my life's story. Transitioning into the spotlight doesn't happen overnight, but when I revisit this blog decades from now, hopefully I'll be able to say that this is when it all began :)

I needed to change my habitat in order to become the person I want to be. We were living comfortably, but I felt like I didn't have room to spread my wings. We wound up purchasing a fixer-upper house with lots of space for activities - a basement, a garage, and a big yard with room for a greenhouse. The house will get a post of its own when we're done remodeling, but the introvert in me is excited about all of the growth opportunities I'll have access to within my home.

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The real goal of this paradigm shift is to maximize my time. The house is complimentary to that because I don't need to travel in order to enjoy my hobbies, but I'd like to make bigger strides in my routine.

There are 168 hours in a week. I spend about 56 sleeping, 45 working, and 13 commuting. That leaves 54 hours/week that I'm in charge of. Subtract 5 of those for my morning routine, 5 more for errands and let's say 10 more for time spent cooking/eating. 34 waking hours per week remain. Right now I spend about 6 working out, 5 hours hanging out with my friends, 10 hours relaxing, and the other 13 are miscellaneous. Right now we're pretty busy with the remodel, so a lot of that time is spent at home depot or answering questions for the contractor.

I'd like to reallocate some of the work/commute hours into the other half of the equation, and I'd like to make the work hours more meaningful. Just like buying a home, career planning has proven to be a time-consuming and meticulous process. Thankfully I don't hate what I do now, so I can afford to be patient and selective with opportunities. I used to be thrilled by any job that came my way, but now I can't keep up with the messages that I get from recruiters looking for software engineers in Seattle. It's a bizarre feeling, but a welcome one for sure.

27 was the year I decided to make some big lifestyle changes. Maybe I'll fully turn the corner on these things before I hit 29.

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I almost got lost in all that introspective stuff and forgot to mention my actual birthday. I had an amazing weekend with my family on the lake in Coeur D'Alene. I don't get to see my dad or brother very often, and their better halves are outstanding company as well. It goes without saying, but the icing on the cake was getting to spend some quality time with my favorite niece.

TGIB!