Being Cellfish : Relocate

Spelling in English

cellfish — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:21:00 GMT

Sorry for this, but I've noticed lately that one thing I learned in the army has been very useful when moving to the US. And that is using the NATO Spelling Alphabet. The last years before the move the Swedish army started to use NATO standards for call signs, moving toward using English in all regular radio communication. The reasoning behind this is that Sweden engage in a lot of peace keeping/enforcing missions around the globe. At least compared to size of population. And being used to spelling out stuff using the NATO spelling alphabet has proved to be a very handy skill here in the US. Our Swedish names and accent often cause people to ask me to spell things when I talk to them over the phone. And sometimes I just spell things out to make sure they get my name right. So if you plan to move to an English speaking country and you so not have English as your first language I can recommend learning a English spelling alphabet. It will come in handy!

PAL to NTCS converter

cellfish — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:55:00 GMT

Finding a good PAL to NTCS converter turned out to be harder than expected. I needed something for my Wii, DVD player and digital video camera. And also something that would work with the TV I got. Turned out I had to dig a little bit more into my pocket than expected but so far I'm satisfied with my purchase (CMD-HDX98). The only downside is that if we decide to move back to Sweden it cannot be used for NTCS to PAL conversion.

So a few pointers to you if you're looking for a PAL to NTCS converter. The cheap ones do not convert sound so you might notice unsynced sound. Second the cheap ones might convert between PAL and NTCS but does not change the update frequency (from 50Hz to 60Hz) which is needed unless your TV can handle that for you.

Cash register feature

cellfish — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:42:00 GMT

A funny thing I've experienced here in the US is how the cash register systems at Fred Meyer and QFC (two large food store chains which apparently have the same owner). Most stores have offers where you get a discount when you buy more than one item (2 for $5 or $3 each). The funny thing about Fred Meyer and QFC is that you get the discount even if you buy only one item. So obviously their cash register software does not handle "group discounts" or they do not know how to configure it. Or it is a hidden feature which benefits the observant shopper. Either way; I like it.

The amazing auto woman

cellfish — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:45:00 GMT

For the first time in my life I've bought a car without the feeling of getting ripped off by the car dealer. I'm not particulary interested in cars and especially not in how they work and what makes a car better than another. I select car purly on feeling. I also hate negotiating. So when I found out that there actually exists a person who finds the car you want, negotiate a good price and then delivers it to your door including taking care of all the paperwork I was surprised that this isn't more common. Now I only have to decide on what will be my second car so I ca order that too.

Getting a drivers license in the US

cellfish — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:45:00 GMT

Getting a drivers license in the US is not the same thing as in Sweden. First of all the booklet you can read to study is much shorter. At least in state Washington. The written test is 25 multiple choice questions and you need 20 correct answers. Since the test is computerized you actually only have to answer 20 questions if you get them all correct. Another nice thing is that you can skip questions and answer them last. I wasn't sure on two questions so I skipped them and since I got the rest correct I never had to answer the skipped questions. That at least makes it feel easier.

The driving test it self took 15 minutes and included parallel parking, parking on a hillside and basically driving around a block with no traffic. Really easy if you've had a drivers license for some time. But to get top score remember to stop before any lines at stop signs (not even the front bumper may pass) and make sure you can parallel park with only three distinct turns on the steering wheel.

Mobile phone costs in the US

cellfish — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:21:00 GMT

So today I finally got my mobile phone service set up. And how mobile services are billed in the US is quite different than how it works in Sweden. The basic rule in Sweden is that if you do not make the call, you don't pay. That is, you pay nothing to receive calls and you pay nothing to receive text messages. The exception from the rule is if you're roaming outside Sweden. In that case you pay the costs for transferring the call/text to wherever you are.

This is not how things work in the US. Here you pay for incoming text messages as well as incoming calls... Always... So if I call/text my wife we have to pay for the communication twice... Actually that only applies to text messages since we have unlimited minutes because of the service plan we have but still... I don't get the logic behind this scheme. Maybe it's because I'm Swedish...

Relocation trip

cellfish — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:51:00 GMT

The relocation trip was interesting. Half an hour before we were scheduled to land in Amsterdam we got redirected to Brussels due to this. A quarter of an hour later we started to descend fast in order to land at Amsterdam after all. So we made our connection flight as scheduled.

Regarding traveling with children we have so far made two important observations. Having a seat for the child where you put a car seat is valuable. He slept in the comfort of his car seat for long periods. And jet-lag can be defined as "parents want to sleep and children are hyper active in the middle of the night".

Open Space Party

cellfish — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:02:00 GMT

Yesterday a number of my friends had organized a "reunion farewell party". Reunion since many of the guys had not seen each other for several years. Preparing for the party we had a lot of discussions on what would happen because we expected it to get pretty wild. That was when it struck me that a great party is like an Open Space:

Whoever comes is the right people
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
Whenever it starts is the right time
When it's over, it's over

There is no point in analyzing what is going to happen more than that... I only feel slightly disturbed just because of the fact that I'm comparing a party with an open space session...

Taks boards in real life

cellfish — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:21:00 GMT

Relocating half the way around the world takes some planning. As usual when we have a lot of stuff that needs to be done, me and my wife use Post-Its (in this case super sticky sortable cards) and write down every task that needs to be done.

Generally we also sort the tasks having the most important ones at the top but since our relocation to the US is kind of a fixed mile stone where everything has to be done (not very Agile but...) before we move we haven't bother prioritizing this list (yet).

Also this time (since we use larger cards) we have grouped related tasks on each index card and when one task is done we mark it with a green "strike over pen" and as soon as everything on one card is done, we throw the card away.

In order to remember we have to do all this stuff the cards are put up on the side of a cupboard in the kitchen where everybody sees it several times every day.

I guess this is an example of how you can apply things you do in your agile software development team onto other things in your life and get the same benefits. Using this task board makes it visible to everybody in the family all the things that must be done before we relocate.

Oh, and in order to make sure we have progress we make sure that we each day have completed at least one task on the board. If that doesn't happen we talk about what can be done the next day and by who in order to get back on track.

Expensive fraud prevention fee

cellfish — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:44:00 GMT

When you apply for a US Visa you have to pay a fee of $131 per applicant. Depending on type of visa you might also have to pay a $500 fraud prevention fee. I paid all this in advance and went happy to the US embassy this morning. It was pretty cold so standing in line outside for an hour with a one year old kid was not fun. When we reach the door to the security checkpoint the guard apologizes for not seeing we had a kid with us. If he'd known he'd let as go in before everybody else. That was the first lesson learned today.

Second lesson learned was that I should read all instructions carefully... The $500 fee should not be paid in advance. It should be paid at the embassy. And the extra money paid in advance is lost. I don't think that had anything to do with it but we had a really short wait inside for our visa interview. At least we overtook a couple of people there...

Yet Another Tale from an Interview

cellfish — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:15:00 GMT

There seems to be a lot of myths around the interview procedure at Microsoft. I had my interview a little more than a year ago and coming from Sweden it was a big difference to have the interview in the US. The interview is (as described in the myths) basically two parts. First half is number of people asking you to solve a number of programming problems on a white board. Since I flew in the day before and was severely jet-lagged this was a tough start. If the first guys thinks you're good enough you'll spend the second half of the day talking to different managers. At least this is what happens when you're interviewed for a software engineering position.

Another nice thing is that you're pretty good prepared for the interview by the recruiter. And there is no dress code. Actually they stress that since it is a long day of several hard interviews you should come wearing something you feel comfortable in. They're hiring you for your brain, not for what you're wearing.

So what kind of problems do they make you solve? Personally I prepared going over this list but don't expect to get any of those questions. I did not get a single question on that list. I have also (inspired by that list) added a few personal favorites that I use whenever I have to interview somebody.

Actually there is not much more to be said about the interviewing process I think. You have to experience it to know what's it like. And it is different for every person. Microsoft really tries to give you a challenge during your interview (at least my division does). So one thing I can tell you is that you feel pretty pleased with your self once you pass and get an offer.

So why is this filed under relocate? Well, I thought this would be a good start on a series of stories about my experiences relocating from Sweden to the US...