Absolutely, completely, totally normal. I came to my present position with 10 years' experience, and was told by the hiring manager that he didn't expect me to be really productive for at least six months. He was right.

Don't bet on the guy having a high ranking. I've been snagged into doing interviews (and told what my recommendation would be when I was done) just because we needed a certain number of people to say "no thanks" to an interviewee by corporate policy.

This was my thought also, but not everyone likes or understands poetry. Music also came to mind: good song vs. bad song, but that's pretty subjective, too.

Most of my really good code evaporates when I wake up...

So...it's not broken, it's just time to fix it?

I'm old enough to be unsure of the meaning of this, but anyway: "W00t"!

I'm with Andres on this one. For whatever that's worth.