Neotextus

It has been a crazy couple of months at work, but we finally got to launch the Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) and the press reaction (BBC, CNet News, The Register) has made it all worth while. Now that the launch is out of the way, I can get to do some research on this beast and hopefully get back to a more normal life

The time is rapidly approaching when I will need to pack up my cube at Intel and head off into the wild for two whole months – yes, it is finally time for my sabbatical.

What is sabbatical you ask? Well, if you are a US Intel employee, for every seven years you work, you get 8 weeks paid time off in the form of a sabbatical. I can do anything I like with my sabbatical, except that I can’t split it up. It’s a fantastic idea – probably the best perk that Intel offers, and I plan to take full advantage of it. The idea is to get anyway from work, recharge and reinvigorate yourself so that you can focus on the things that really matter. Donna and I have decided to not just get away from work, but to get away completely – we are planning on spending almost all of the two months on the road travelling around the USA.

But we need your help – turns out, the USA is a big place, so we really need to be a little more specific about where we are going. So please help us plan our trip by submitting suggestions at our Sabbatical 2010 wiki.

It has been two weeks since we lost our Special, and the house has never felt so empty. So we made the trip down to the Oregon Humane Society and came back with Bodie & Doyle – two of the most adorable three month old kittens you have ever seen.

Whilst these boys look alot alike, they are very different in character. Bodie is the personification of kittenhood – loving, a fearless explorer with no sense of danger, he is chaos in motion. Doyle is much more reserved – born to a feral cat, he arrived at the Humane Society in a sorry state with fleas, worms and bites on his back legs. But a week’s care and he arrives at our house all fixed up with only a few scars and a bad cold to hint at his previous life.

The boys have been in the house for about 24 hours now, and everyone is adjusting well to the new dynamic. Welcome to your new home my boys.