divine angst

During last night’s weekly phone call with the Angst-in-laws, my mother-in-law asked me how things were going at work. I said I felt like I was in a holding pattern. I’m working on a couple of new things, but nothing really taxing. I said it was just sort of boring.

And she said, “You know, it’s hard to have your heart in something when you know you’re leaving.”

This is why 2-weeks’ notice is such a good thing. Every time I’ve been offered a job, I’ve given two weeks’ notice right then and there. Done. Two weeks to wrap up things, take care of administrative details, and say my goodbyes. Two weeks of anticipation, yes, but filled with stuff to take care of. No time to get bored.

It’s probably not fair to say I’m bored right now; I just have no desire to push forward with what I’m doing very quickly. That’s always been my thing—I work fast. And now? Feh. Working fast is the LAST thing I want to do. I don’t want new projects assigned. I don’t want anything on my plate that I could possibly feel anxious about when I leave. I want everything to be neatly, tidily, wrapped up on the day I say goodbye.

Knowing I’m leaving two months before it’s going to happen sucks. Really.

Depending on what Steve Jobs tells us at WWDC today, I may be ordering my new computer tonight.

Whee! Now THAT’s something to get excited about.

Update: Keynote starts in about 40 minutes. I’m watching this website. I figure we won’t see a PowerBook update, though there might be an iBook speed/RAM/video card bump. But what I really want to find out about is the reported Apple-Intel deal and what it will mean for the future of the Mac.

Update 2: According to MacNN’s live coverage of Steve’s keynote, OS X is moving to Intel and, what’s more, every OS X build for the last five years has been built for both a PowerPC and an Intel processor. Sheesh. But users won’t see any of this until next year.

This is all very interesting. But I will hold off on my “Wow! Steve Jobs has been working a cool 10-year plan!” reaction until I hear what he has to say about keeping the clones away. Power Computing, a Mac clone company, went out of business when Steve Jobs pulled the plug on Mac OS licensing. But if OS X is going to be ported to an x86 base, what’s to keep the hacker-builder community from building their own Macs? The only reason Macs are so stable is because of the total control Apple has on software AND hardware. That advantage goes the way of the dodo unless Apple has some clever means of preventing home builds of Macs.

Update 3: Since it appears that WWDC will not introduce any new hardware, I went ahead and ordered my new computer. A shiny, new, teensy-weensy 12″ Powerbook. It should arrive by the end of the week. I think I’ll go order the bag to go with it RIGHT NOW. Whee!!!