Band of Brothers

Last night I moved one step closer to fulfilling resolution #6 on my list of new years life resolutions, by finishing my second book of 2010: Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The book is a historical account of an American company of paratroopers, and follows them from their training to their first combat jump on D-day at Normandy, and throughout the rest of World War II. The book's strength is it's historical accuracy, it is pretty amazing reading some of the anecdotes knowing that they are all true. However, in my opinion this painstaking historical accuracy was also the book's weakness, since at times it seems to get bogged down in the specifics of exactly who did what at what time, etc. I can see why the author did it, since if I was a participant in these events I would want to see my name show up where it should, but at times it made for a less enjoyable read. One other complaint is that the author uses a lot of military acronyms and jargon which are completely unfamiliar to a civilian like myself. It would have been helpful if there was a military primer at the start explaining the difference between a battalion, a company, and a division, and also a glossary where all of the acronyms are defined. Those things being said, it was still an excellent read (and a quick one, good for my resolution!) and I would recommend it.

One other piece of news that is pertinent to a new years resolution: I actually have a job interview today! I had gotten so used to submitting resumes and never hearing anything back from anyone that I almost fell off my chair when I read an e-mail from someone telling me they might interview me. A few days ago I was scanning monster.com for job postings, and I noticed they had a list of recommended jobs associated for my account; Job #2 on the list of recommendations was a posting for a Warehouse Driver in Spokane, WA. This was a bit disheartening, since I had been under the assumption that a PhD in Electrical Engineering qualified me for a higher level job (no offense meant to any warehouse drivers reading this, I'm sure your training was equally intense). At least they asked for "PC Skills" in the posting, I'm pretty sure I picked those up somewhere along the line.

Anyways, the position I am interviewing for this morning (or at least meeting with someone from the company, I'm not sure if it is a full interview) sounds like a great job: the company does really interesting work, the location is perfect (right downtown), and they even have a climbing gym in their headquarters. I don't want to write too much about it since who knows what will happen, but it is at least a step in the right direction towards fulfilling resolution #5 on my list of new years life resolutions.

Weight: 162.4
Body Fat: 5.2%