Strange similarity recently struck me - my strong preference for working with Unix in a job is similar to my strong preference in dating gals who are atheist/agnostic - I remember my parents always criticising the latter as "closing doors" - the former is also true, and for very similar reasons. While my "dating confidence" is still around zero, having not dated (or anything close) for several years, I still know at least a few things about what I want in a S.O. -- a largely (if not entirely) secular framework of thought helps at least limit some major areas of difference that are important to me. Almost as important is the day-to-day stuff - I don't think I'd react well to ritual/tradition being pushed heavily into my routines - while it might be fun to go to a Seder or similar when that time came around, I'm enough of my own person that going to a religious building to hear people do things that I disagree with and might even think harmful is not something I think an adult who is their own person should do. This theoretical/practical divide fits with the work/Unix thing too - there seems to be at least a few "unix way"s of looking at technology that make me feel at home - that all pieces are flexible, replacable, and go through well-documented channels, even if one would prefer not to always go in and tinker with the components when done on an "enterprise" scale. On the practical side, I am most comfortable using a Unix variant on the desktop nowadays (even as I have fond memories of OS/2, I don't think I'd use a Workplace Shell port to Linux even were it available and free).

It still kinda sucks to see interesting jobs where I don't think I'd be happy because of a strong Windows focus. Likewise with religious gals (although I suspect who I've made myself is more of a barrier in finding romance than my pickiness).

Applied for a few new jobs tonight -- I found that the job search function didn't actually work right for UCSB. One of the jobs is pretty scary in what it demands - right up my alley but possibly asking for a bit more than I can give. I've learned that this is generally a good level of discomfort to aim for in a new job - I'd need to hit the ground running but ideally would not get bored. It looks to be another adorable Frankenjob - working for an ecological research group developing databases, writing scientific applications, doing documentation and grants, and working on standards and technologies used to share data between different research groups. It's not as technical or systems-y as I can go, but it does seem to fit a reasonable slice of my interests - if I were doing kernel development somewhere my interests in the sciences would not really be fulfilled :) Fingers are crossed for this one, both that it actually would be a good fit and that I get it.

My craving for Fondue has reached epic levels. Hopefully I will either have success at cooking some or find a restaurant that makes a good one soon. "Welsh Rarebit" would be a suitable cousin.