I just read a short blurb at The Belmont Club about a killer fog that settled on London in the 1950's. I had never heard about this. It's amazing to think that this fog (smog) killed upwards of 4000+ people. An interesting read.

• The Belmont Club: A nightingale choked in Berkely Square

More info (a stub with links) can be found at the always excellent Wikipedia.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_1952

We (the family) spent three days down in Silicon Valley looking for a place to live. We saw condos, houses, and of course, apartments. We finally settled on a nice apartment on the Santa Clara/Sunnyvale border. It's such a nice area... especially when compared to Vallejo. It felt so good, so clean, so safe just walking and driving around that area. Everyone I know who lives or has recently lived in The Valley says I made an excellent choice of location. I hope so.

While house hunting is never fun, we managed to have a blast with our Japanese friends from Los Gatos. They have been so helpful over the last few weeks. They're wonderful people.

One geek note: I managed to schedule my cable and internet installation for the evening we move in. I should only be off the net for 24 hours. THAT ROCKS! Oh yeah... and my wife will have TV Japan. Suh-weet!

Update (Thu Oct 26 21:59:43 PDT 2006): Silicon Valley is very nice. The job... not so much.

I've accepted employment with the consulting firm I mentioned in my last post. I'm very excited about this position. My gut is telling me everything is right.

I'm even more excited for my family. They really hate it in Vallejo/Fairfield. I believe they'll enjoy the San Jose area so much more. The schools are light years better. The parks... the people... the food! YEAH! My stomach will be much happier too. My wife will be able to buy ANY Japanese cooking materials she'll need. Yakiniku resutoran mo aru! Okunomiyaki mo! Ramen mo! Honmono desu!

Suh-weet!

I had an interview yesterday in Sunnyvale with a small consulting firm. They are looking for a jack-of-all-trades type engineer with a focus on Linux and networking. I think I'm a perfect fit for it. It's an interesting job.

They provide IT support for small to medium sized businesses in the San Jose area. They do have some clients a bit further away, but nothing too drastic. I am interested in this position because of the opportunities I'll have to play with lots of different types of technology. The fact that I'll be able to use Linux in solutions for clients is wonderful. The travel aspect of the job worries me a bit, but I think once I get the lay of the land, I'll be fine. I think it will be cool to interact with so many different types of people (even the annoying ones) in different locations. Some may think I am crazy... and I very well may be.

I think the interview went very well. I'm pretty confident they liked me and that I'll be receiving an offer soon. I just hope the figure is something I can work with.

Wish me luck. If they do make an offer and I accept, I'll have to start in three weeks. That means I'll have to quit the current job and move my family down to San Jose before then. OUCH! I can do this though. This move will be a helluva lot easier than the move from Japan!