the eternal student

Phineas Arrives!

First, I have to share some images of Isaac from a recent 'let's get this labor going' walk.

Alright, now the news you want. Phineas Cobb Perkins arrived at 7:43am this Thursday morning, Feb. 23. He was 8.0 lbs and 19.75 inches, the heaviest of his brothers. Like his brothers, he has a full head of dark hair. Thanks to our awesome midwives and chiropractor, Lynn was able to give a natural birth despite her slipped disk and Phineas being in a face presentation for a while. Total labor and delivery time was about 9 hours. Those who care about the details can read below.

Good contractions started the Sunday before Valentine's day and continued off and on until about 10pm Wednesday night when they became more regular and intense, a day after Phineas' due date. On Tuesday I took the boys to stay with Lynn's parents in Chattanooga to let Lynn's body relax without having the kids around and see if we couldn't get labor going. It seemed to work. We headed into the hospital at about 1am Thursday morning anticipating this to be a quick birth like Isaac's 5 hour rush when we barely made it to the hospital. Fortunately Lynn did not go through transition in the car this time. I don't think I could have gone through that again without Karen to help us. We were already bummed Karen couldn't be a part of this birth.

We checked into the hospital and contractions continued at about 3 minutes apart until 6am. There was little sleep for either of us. And what makes labor on the bathroom floor appealing to Lynn is a mystery to me, but there we were working through contractions a lot of the time. At 6am we got into the birthing tub and our incredible midwife, Margaret, checked Lynn who was at 7cm, cervix all thinned out and ready to go. The birthing tub did wonders for helping relieve pain on Lynn's back. Transition occured at about 7:15 and that's when Margaret discovered Phineas was turned in a facial presentation. She hadn't delivered a face presentation in 15 years. Apparently if the babies chin is in one position it's possible to deliver vaginally, but if the chin is in another it's not. Margaret couldn't figure out which way he was even with an ultrasound, so she had Lynn get out of the tub to attempt and turn Phineas.

God had other plans, though, and turned Phineas the correct way on the short path from the tub to the bed. Margaret ruptured the membranes because Lynn's back pain was getting pretty bad. Assumably because of the disc Lynn had been losing control of her arms and having trouble with her legs, so pushing was difficult. After about 20 minutes and six or seven pushes Phineas came out with very little tearing. He was very blue and took a great deal of suctioning and rubbing down, but he was soon gaining better color and eating like a pro. It's a strange affair and a miracle every time.

I have a thing for taking pictures of the placenta and bag of waters. I think it goes back to when I was a kid and watching our Siamese cat, Sassy, give birth to her kittens and then eat the placenta. Lynn does not eat her placentas, but I think the last picture is a good visualization of Phineas' environment inside the bag of waters.

Still waiting for Phineas

Phineas is a day late now. I took Gideon and Isaac up to Lynn's parents last night in Chattanooga to see if that doesn't speed things up. We think Lynn's mind and body are holding off on Phineas because of all the extra pressures during this pregnancy. So, we wait and enjoy this little bit of time Lynn and I have without the kids before the race begins again. We woke up this morning without the pitter-patter of feet. However, I still had a lot of residual sounds like the toy box being dumped out and Gideon asking for a 'nola bar.

And yes, I have accepted the offer from Micron. By the end of May our life here in Atlanta will be over and a new phase begin.

Good times

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Originally uploaded by theeternalstudent.

Job Interview with Micron in Boise, Idaho

This is Boise coming from the airport and from my hotel window.

I flew into Boise, Idaho on Sunday afternoon and had a good feeling about the area and people as the realtor was showing me around. I haven’t seen a city that has a better range of immediately accessible and affordable outdoor beauty and recreation than Boise. Chattanooga comes close, but Boise has the option of incredible mtn biking (#1 for that in the US) and skiing all in the same day. Camping is also a big deal in Boise. The downtown area is alive and well. North Boise felt like a Little Five, Virginia Highlands, or East Atlanta but a little more down to earth and still affordable. The other neighborhoods ranged from new subdivisions, older neighborhoods, to trailer parks. Quite a range of areas to choose from, but nearly areas had a great view of the foothills. Boise would be a great place to live and fit our lifestyles well. Which brings us to the other factor in decision to move, my job at Micron.

Brief background on Micron:. Micron is the largest manufacturer of memory chips behind Samsung. If you have an Ipod, a digital camera, or a cell phone, than most likely it has a Micron NAND flash memory or a CMOS optical chip. Micron and IBM are the only US companies in the top 10 worldwide for patents. They not only come up with new ideas for technology, but they have the ability to implement them. That makes it both an exciting place to be, but also can be a lot of pressure.

The interview process at Micron was by far the most technically intense, but also the most rewarding and fun. It felt like my PhD oral qualifiers again only with real problems. I interviewed with 5 separate people from the technical staff. Each one had some particular situation they were dealing with that they wanted my opinion on it. I did much better in these open ended questions than the ones at my GE interview. Most of it was good old-fashioned brainstorming on a white board. It was intense, but fun.

Micron made a job offer the next day, February 7th, which also happened to be my birthday. The job offer included a decent base salary, 2000 shares stock options, and a $3k signing bonus. They have numerous performance based bonuses including patent bonuses, 10% of all company profits are given back to the employees, and a performance bonus every 6 months based on a percentage of your salary. My would-be manager said bonuses can be anywhere from $5k to $10k a year. The relocation plan includes moving all our stuff plus 2 vehicles, a fully paid 5-day house hunting trip, they pay for our realtor in Boise and a realtor to sell our house in Atlanta plus closing costs, 60 days storage, 60 days temporary housing, 30 days rental car, and $3k incidental stuff.

Since the offer I’ve had several conversations with Micron about the work culture and the type of work I’d be doing. At first I was a little nervous about the environment being too performance oriented, but that is mostly because I’m making the transition from having control of my own schedule and performance to an industry-based 8-5 job which does have to make money. Number of hours worked is typically 45-50 hours a week, which sounds good considering I’m doing about 70 now while trying to wrap up my PhD and earn money for us.

The job entails developing new technologies and ideas for packaging chips that will be introduced 3-5 years out. This involves both concept and developing a stable process for mass producing. Basically the idea is to make things smaller, faster, cheaper, and more integrated. They also want me to enhance their reliability and modeling department as it is nearly nonexistant now. It sounds like a good mix of hands on work and modeling work. The first few weeks would be working in a cleanroom (picture the Intel commericals with bunny suits) getting hands on learning their process, tools, and capabilities. After that only about 25-50% of my time would be hands-on in the lab and clearnroom. Every two weeks they have brainstorming sessions on a whiteboard for sounding out new patent and product ideas. It sounds like a great opportunity for me to learn new stuff, stay current if-not-ahead of current technology, and use my current skills and interests.

So, we are seriously considering the Micron offer and moving to Boise. Right now is a good time for us to explore the West and decide if we like it. It will be hard to move from family and friends here. We do have some family in Boise whom we’d like to know better. If it doesn’t work out, we can always move back to the East before the kids hit junior high.

We’ll make a final decision in the next week or so. Hopefully, before Phineas arrives. Lynn is showing more signs of being

AeroSpace Corporation Interview in Los Angeles

I’m writing this while on the redeye from LA to Atlanta. It’s a pretty emotional time maybe from the lack of sleep and huge decisions to be made shortly. The interview with The AeroSpace Corporation went really well. Initially I wasn’t too excited about interviewing with them, but that was before seeing what they do. The AeroSpace Corporation is a non-profit Federally Funded Research Center (FFRC for those who like acronyms) and works closely with the Air Force. Boeing, Lockhead Martin, and other companies in the aerospace business. Most of the work is consulting on satellite systems and miscellaneous aerospace projects. Basically when Boeing has a problem they can’t solve, or if something goes wrong in space, they turn the AeroSpace Corporation. In addition, the government wants some entity that will be around forever to maintain and oversee such tremendous projects such as satellite systems. It takes 10-20 years to develop a satellite and get it into space, so these are long term projects that people get tied to and you better believe it is an emotional moment on a launch pad when you see your life’s work have one shot of success.

A defining moment was seeing and touching the actual O-ring that brought the Challenger down. That was a huge moment in the country as many politicians, scientists, and pretty much everyone wanted to know what happened. Many many people tried to figure out how it happened, including the notable physicist Richard Feynman who was key solving the problem. It’s humbling and exciting to think I could be taking part in projects such as that.. Maybe it’s the nerd in me, but it feels like somebody saying ‘Hey, take this brush and add a few of your own strokes to Mona Lisa’s smile. We think you have the skill, in fact, we think maybe you can do it better.” Alright, so maybe satellite and spacecrafts aren’t that cool or important. But there is a ton of stuff we are learning about earth, origins of the universe, and just some weird stuff that satellites are doing. This job would require a pretty security clearance, even to the point of the government interviewing neighbors and friends.

They really enjoyed the work I’m doing now and could see some of it being funded further. So that’s a big big bonus. They were well equipped with the necessary research toys. It’s really the first time someone has given me real affirmation that my work has more than academic or a curiosity factor to it. It could actually be useful to them. I’d also have a chance to learn work with solar cells which I’ve had an interest in but never have studied I did get a verbal confirmation that they were going to make me an offer. This guy has been pursuing me for 2 years to interview with him so it makes sense he would be ready to move. But, after how the whole GE thing went down, I won’t rest until the offer is in hand.

So the job would be great: great problems to solve, great job stability, and a lot of lifelong learing and being part of important space discoveries. Which brings us to the tough part; living in LA. A universe apart from where I had ever considered living. After driving around, I could see why people pay so much to live near the beach and in certain areas such as Manhattan Beach or Pasadena. I had a chance to visit.past our friends the Mauer’s in Pasadena and was jealous. The AeroSpace Corporation is right near the LA airport, and we would probably live just a mile from the beaches in a p;ace like Inglewood or Hawthorne. Can you say outrageous housing prices? A minimum of $300k-$400k for a 1000sqft. home with maybe a yard. The houses are cute and unique, I can’t stomach or fathom how to survive that. My salary would be around $90k which hardly compensates for the higher cost of living. I’m expecting $90k from Micron in Boise, Idaho where we can get over an acre of land or more plus a 2000sqft. home for about $100k cheaper. The only way people are affording LA is through interest-only loans, which I’m not interested in at all long term.
On a positive note, I went into a Trader Joe’s and was impressed with the organic selections and reasonable costs. Much cheaper than Whole Foods and the same quality.

I have a really hard time seeing us thriving as a family in LA. I would take the job easily iit were just Lynn and I, but it’s a much harder decision with the boys. I don’t care how much fulfillment I get at my job if Lynn and the boys don’t have places to play and grow that we can afford. I know LA is full of museums and culture, but it’s also got a lot of junky entertainment and stuff with it. I don’t know how it will affect our kids growing up with it. I can deal with the level of drugs, prostitution, and racism in our neighborhood in Atlanta, but I think it’s different in the inner city neighborhoods of LA. I may be looked at funny or feel uncomfortable in our neighborhood in Atlanta, but my life never feels threatened. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it and a new environment like LA makes me uneasy. But I think the presence of gangs in LA changes my desire to raise a family in the inner city. Maybe I’m copping out from helping the inner city with the excuse of my family safety coming first.

On Sunday I fly to Micron in Boise Idaho. Micron will offer the almost an opposite image of what AeroSpace offers: less job stability and a higher pressure competitive environment, but the pay will be higher and we will actually be able to have decent land and a house while being able to put a significant amount of money away for the future. In Boise, we have the option of buying a $100k home to start and living in that for a few years while paying off student debt and saving enough for a 30-40% downpayment on a house with land. That’s a big deal to us. But, first I have to see if I’d like working at Micron and actually get an offer. Micron makes flash memory and components for CCD cameras which isn’t nearly as sexy as satellites, but there is some incredible techonology going into new semiconductor devices. We’ll see. I will be spending part of Sunday with a realtor driving around and getting a feel for the area.

So, who lives in Los Angeles and can give me some advice? It doesn’t help that I met a family with three young children who had moved from LA because the qualtiy of life wasn’t there for them.