it's been a change-full seven days. (not "changeful"; different word) i told my boss that i'm leaving to take a new job and i finally bought a new car to replace the destroyed Civic.

i accepted the new job over a week ago but couldn't really announce it to the world. my boss had asked me to keep it quiet until he figured out the best way to spin it. and this morning it was spun.

the new job is exciting. i'm sure some of you have no idea what i really do for a living but i architect and design user interfaces for business-to-business, web-based applications. (i won't go into a longer explanation because it's long, boring, and, well, you're smart enough to figure it out for yourselves) for most of my career i've worked for small consulting firms working on projects for much larger clients. and because i've been exposed to a lot of different kinds of work over a relatively short period of time, it's been an excellent learning experience. my skill level has leaped forward with each new project.

but the new job allows me to take all that collected knowledge and apply it to a much more deep iterative construction process. instead of racing through a three-month project, constantly worrying about time and budget and never seeing the product come to real fruition, i'll have a chance to work on a much smaller set of functionality, watching it grow and giving it the time and thought it truly deserves.

this is in theory, of course, and we'll see how the actual end result job turns out.

it's not that my old job was bad. it was actually a wonderful place to be. the premise of the company was life over work. our children, our significant others, our well being were all paramont over our work. we worked very hard, don't get me wrong, but there was just a level of healthy reality that isn't often found in my industry.

but the April stock market "correction" had done its damage on companies and their budgets and we were finding it difficult to find work. how that affected me was i was left without a real project for months on end. admittedly, i enjoyed the first month or so of it. it was a break from the grind that let me goof off for a bit. but after a while i began to feel at first bored, then unchallenged, and then dull. people who enjoy hard work, enjoy the challenges, become less productive and less sharp, almost to the point of being less smart, when they sit around for too long. it's like leaving a bottle of wine uncorked for days on end -- it gets skunky. (ok, bad analogy, move on)

so, as hard as it was to say goodbye to all the wonderful, wonderful people i've worked with, and the excellent working environment, and the interesting work (when it was there), i just felt i couldn't pass up this excellent opportunity that was being offered to me.

i'm a little scared. i'm curious about the work and how i'll actually fit into the hierarchy, but that's not what scares me. it's a dot-com. a real, nasty, festering, do-all-evil dot-com. and i'm not sure what it'll be like to work there. when interviewing, i was reassured that, yes, people went home at six o'clock most nights. but even stepping briefly around the cubicles and talking to the receptionist, i could tell this place was different.

of course, i've been spoiled and different isn't necessarily bad. but the number of khaki pants and button-down shirts wasn't lost on me.

the good side of things, aside from the challenging work, is pretty good. there's a whole lot more money in it for me. it's never been about the money but it's nice to have a little extra. and the job's in the City so no more commuting. you non-Bay Area-ites may sneeze at that but when it costs me an hour each way of my day to commute, the more i can remove the act of GETTING to work the better. and i can walk to work.

speaking of getting places, the other piece of my banner week has been the purchase of my beautiful, brand-spanking new, drives like a fucking rocket, took me forever to find car. i bought a black Volkswagen GTI 1.8T with black leather interior. ohhh, it's sooo nice. i like to drive. ok, i love to drive. and fast. and this thing is my heaven.

i loved my Civic. it was a great car that fit me perfectly. but the GTI is a large step up from that. it has much more power, is much more "gadgety", and just feels much better built. the German design logic has taken a little time to get use to -- the interface paradigms are completely different from what i'm use to in Japanese cars. but now that i'm familiar with things, or getting there anyway, it all makes sense. and more than that, it helps me drive better. or faster. one of those two.

the two best features, aside from the really fast engine: heated seats to warm my little butt and the really neat airplane-like dash panel in periwinkle blue. oh, and being able to close all the windows and the sunroof from outside the car using my key is pretty cool. but you've already seen the commercial for that one.

so it's been a great week. i'm a little overwhelmed. now i have to take a moment before i leap into this new job to be thankful for what i've been lucky to recieve and to realize how little value it is to me if i become shallow, overly materialistic, or lose any of the human sensitivities that have defined me. it's easy to get swept up in the glamour, excitement and self-importance of it all and forget or overlook what is really important.

let's hope i don't do that.