originally posted december 09, 2003

holiday time

I took two days off to go home for Thanksgiving. The traffic was tolerable, the sales bearable, but above all else it was good to see my family at home again.

This is my first year as a full-time member of the workforce. Last year, I was given a choice: take a job with a large software company based on Long Island, or go with a small software company in Pittsburgh. Even though I chose the job that would plant me 400 miles from my family in New York, I certainly haven't felt isolated from my family this year. My family has come to visit me three times. I've visited them three times in New York already, and will be returning home again for the week of Christmas. In August, I spent a week in Vermont with my family.

The holidays are fast approaching. Maybe I should do some holiday shopping.

hey, I know you

I have only kept in touch with a select few people from high school. Although my memories of that time are not all fond, I occasionally wonder what everyone's up to. The day after Thanksgiving, Scott -- who has thrown many a bash since leaving high school -- set up an open-bar party in midtown Manhattan. Among the invitees were several people I hadn't seen since graduation day.

Alcohol truly is the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. There was one person at the party who wasn't on the best of terms with me through the last couple of years. However, time and about five flavors of martini healed those wounds: we got along just fine for the duration of the event. I passed around a few cards, saw a few buddies, and woke up the following morning still feeling nauseous. That whole experience was worth the extra day's stay at home to recover.

where to live

Last year I faced two important decisions: where to work, and where to live. After a brief, frenzied search for an apartment, I found the Brake House Lofts. It had everything I sought in an apartment: lots of open space, indoor parking available, and walking distance to work. The only problem I found was price: at $1,000 per month plus parking and utilities, my apartment would be significantly more expensive than most in Pittsburgh. Nevertheless, I signed a one-year lease.

Flash forward to this month: I'm up for renewal. Many people I know, including one co-worker who formerly lived in my building, bought houses this year. Interest rates are favorable and Pittsburgh's housing market is friendly towards buyers. My co-worker's mortgage payment on a five-bedroom house is less than what he paid in rent as a tenant. Should I buy a house, seek cheaper rent, or stay where I am?

Well, long story short, I decided to stay here. I really hate commuting in rush-hour traffic. The home ownership route isn't for me yet -- it was enough trouble settling into an apartment, so I think a house is too much responsibility for now. I sign the papers Thursday morning to stay where I am, in this eclectic but sparsely-populated neighborhood where my commute is painless and my floors are concrete.

Back to December 2003, or to the year 2003.

Where am I?

This is Weill Aspects, the official news archive of Jason Weill Web Productions. All articles posted to the front page end up here. This page was generated automatically by a series of Perl scripts.

Articles in Weill Aspects are organized solely by date. You may find the Google search in the left column to be useful if you are looking for an article but do not know the date on which it was posted.

Weill Aspects is composed of static web pages generated as appropriate when a new article is posted. It was developed in May 2001 as a way of managing the content on this site. I also used it extensively while in Japan, during which time I did not have continuous access to the Internet. I was able to write daily updates during July and August 2002, pack the files onto a CD-R or memory device, and upload them from the Internet-connected computers at school.

These scripts are all hacked together in less than elegant fashion, and I don't plan to release them. Some of the design that went into Aspects also was used to develop Livestat, a suite of Perl scripts to process statistics for academic competition tournaments. Livestat is available freely.