"I don't think I even want to know the answer to that, Morte"

Ok it's been a week since my last posting. At least that is better than the three of four weeks I had been doing. I'm still not sure I really have anything to write about. So I'll start writing and hope it's worth-while.

First of all I have started reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Actually I had already read the first half of the first book a few months ago and didn't much feel like going back and reading it again. So I read a few pages leading up to the second of half of the Fellowship of the Ring and started reading. Reading this book has made me appreciate how truly difficult it must have been to adapt such a thing for a popularly-accepted movie a broad range could enjoy. As I was reading I could see in my mind why they changed and re-arranged what they did in the way they did for the movie. And believe it or not I think they did a pretty good job for the adaptation. I should have The Two Towers finished by a week from this Sunday if I keep up my reading schedule. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go into the movie knowing the ending and how it goes for the third one. Truly this is one of the greatest epic series of novels ever written.

I have also rented a couple movies this week. The first one was a relatively low-budget one called 28 Days Later. It was pretty successful, I'm sure you've heard of it. I was sitting there trying to figure out all the symbolism that I am sure is there. Of course there was the director commentary track I could have turned on while I watched the movie a second time but I didn't go and do that. I hardly ever rent DVDs any more, I have so many movie channels on cable. Too bad few to none of them play anything worth watching. Oh but where was I? Right. 28 Days Later is indeed a very, very good movie. I'm not sure I would really describe it as "scary" however, unless of course you're on edge from the hype of it being scary and possibly chicks I guess find it scary. My sister seemed to anyway. Anytime any kind of music change happened she was up out of her seat freaked out. And the ending? I'm not quite sure about the ending. I expected something much different from what it was. The "alternate ending" was a little more like it but still not what I would have expected. And I'm still trying to figure the symbolism. Pfff. Whatever. I'm sure there was hardly any Freudian symbolism. Probably.

The other movie I rented was The Matrix: Reloaded. I'm still trying to decide if I really liked this movie or not. I mean I think I did but I'm still thinking about it. If they had just cut out that rave scene and the unnecessary sex scene the movie would have still worked and not lost anything for it. Also all that confusing stuff just for confusing sake was starting to get annoying. And what's with all the Biblical references anyway? I mean I'm not anti-bible or anything but how about some subtleties or something? And the ambiguous ending of course. What was up with that ending? What a rip. Still for a truly great experience so far as stunts and traffic scenes go this movie simply can't be missed. Not to mention no fewer than two saving-in-just-the-nick-of-time action sequences. Thos are always the best. And the choreography for the fighting sequences? Nothing short of perfection.

What enough fun/pointless stuff already? Well I did get that job interview I mentioned some how postponed or something. The earliest I could start now looks like sometime in December. What's the deal with that? So I guess I get to keep going on the MCSE course I've been taking this semester. I mean may as well continue learning while I'm searching for employment, right? I got an A in the first half of this MCSE course even though I missed 17 out of 80 questions on the final. I had a week to complete it and it was take-home/open-book. And I do nothing outside of class. Not much excuses for the not studying, eh? But I got an A so whateveh.

On the day of the final for that course I ended a meeting with the recruiting people I mentioned in the previous course. Actually my car was in the this repair place who had boxed me in and lost my keys. So I had a choice between dropping off my final for this 9-week course or going to the recruiters to see if I could get the job. Having little faith I would actually get this job (why should this one be any different?) I opted for the final/class thing. But got out soon enough I wanted to try and make it. The open call or whatever it was had been scheduled for a Thursday between 2:00 and 4:00 which was the time of my class. My Dad was driving since I didn't have a car. But he managed to come back and pick me up about 3:30 so we tried to make it over there. I had printed out directions from Map Quest and we followed them. Unfortunately they were grossly inaccurate and did not arrive at the recruiting office until about 4:15 or so. The trip, we soon realized, should not have taken us more than 20 or 25 minutes at the most.

But after looking over my resume the two women working there decided to let me sign up anyway. So I took an extremely lame technical assessment of some sort and filled out a bunch of stupid information on the computer followed by yet more paper work in the form of tax information and agreements to be good or something. But my appointment gets postponed. Some how the recruiting office didn't know my assigned time had been cancelled in favor of more interviews at a later date. Hopefully they'll call me back! But what am I to do between now and sometime in December? Kind of hard to plan around. Annoying also. I just hope my group members in my class don't get too peeved around my leaving. I've been trying to warn them I could find a job at any time and have to drop the class for the last few weeks. I am fairly advanced for such a class as this after all and my group seems like they're actually learning stuff and having to study. Ah those were the days! Easy classes rock :-).

I was just thinking about this whole job thing the other day. It seems kind of like I was really working my up to a particular place over the past 10 months or so. I mean last January I was an intern, unpaid though it was I did learn about the workings of a private company and deadlines and having to get out of bed and do stuff. From "the company" I learned what go so, so wrong in an environment but at least I worked my way in to that whole 40 hour work-week and how to do deal with difficult customers. So now, at this point (assuming I haven't lost what ever I think I've gained), it's like I am finally ready for a real job, with real training and a real building. If I'm lucky I might even have a bathroom with running water...and soap! But lets not be overly optimistic.

Now in an effort to partially prepare myself for this interview I may or may not have coming up I am going to try and recall some of the more memorable calls I had at the last job. Wow, what a great sentence. Who couldn't love writing?

Ok so there was this one call from a guy who sounded really great in his voice and was incredibly willing to work with me as a tech support type person. He was living in Vallejo and telling me about the lack of local numbers. Then about calling the local Telco and getting the explanation about truck lines and the weirdness of how the lines work into that area. At some point I had to ask if he was some sort of radio personality of some sort. He said he had been in the past and that now he was into HAM radio. I made a reference to a CB radio and he promptly compared a toy truck or a monster truck as an analogy (or something like that) demonstrating the two are nothing a like. So that was like some kind of a celebrity meeting or something.

Then there was this other call where the guy kept referring to IE as if it were a web page and I kept correcting him. Ok maybe I should stop with the correcting part. But finally he asked why I kept correcting on a seemingly minor detail so I tried to explain it as the Internet working like a phone. When he dials up this is like having the phone hooked up, IE is like picking and the receiver and getting a dial one and typing in an address is like dialing a number. The web site on the other end is like the answering person communicating back. So can you talk before dialing or dial without a dial tone? As with connecting to the Internet you cannot load a web site on the Internet without first dialing a number and connecting. I think that did finally work as an analogy.

Oh and there was this one woman who wanted a copy of IE 5.5 for Mac on CD because she couldn't very well download it. No being very familiar with Mac software I looked at the Mac IE site and found there was not IE 5.5 for Mac even available, thus I could not send her a copy on CD. This only served to make her more angry and upset. She threatened to cancel her account and find an ISP who would send her a copy of IE 5.5 for Mac on CD. So what is a poor tech support to do in such a situation? Keep explaining the impossibility of the requested task until the irrational customer hangs up on me perhaps. Ok that one I failed to help the consumer. But it did teach me how to deal with difficult customers, or at least what "doesn’t" work.

Well I could continue on for hours but it's already late. Looks like my entries are starting to get long again. How nice.

Bye the way, the title of the last entry was from an episode of The Family Guy. Also it was really funny. Point out how superior they are and how them and the rest of the world so embrace socialism and then complain about the money and prosperity of the USA. Apparently they can have it both ways.

_____  ¶ 1:45 AM 0 Comments

 

"Not like those free-loadin' Canadians..."

Ok so apparently I haven't made an entry in about three weeks. I'm sure I'm violating a few those blog search engine's rules but they'll never find out. I have a feeling I never get hits from them anyway.

The real reason I wasn't really making entries is because there really isn't all that much to write about. I'm not one of those bloggers who makes minor little entries consisting of a few sentences. Pah! Long entries is just how it worked out with me. Of course there has been the whole recall thing and various newsworthy items but that's what this entry will be for.

So I was really entertained by the whole recall thing. How funny it was to watch the poor liberals try to deal it and spin it. And judging by the responses given on TV the liberals STILL don't have clue as to why it happened to begin with. You have to understand exactly why something happens in order to understand how and what to change to avoid it in the future. And again assuming the TV people are at all indicative of the general Democrat machine they are just completely clueless.

Now for those of you outside of California or new to California or possibly living in the San Francisco Bay Area you have received virtually no accurate reports as to the motivation or the real reasons behind the recall. The national media just doesn't get it. They just live in their little universe of New York and Washington D.C. and it hurts their heads too much to think there's other people with other feelings outside of that universe. I really don't know what those people's problem is.

Now I think I can see why Arnold was elected. He's got that whole centrist/inclusive thing going on. Whether you're Republican and slightly right-of-center or Democrat slightly left-of-center you could definitely find something in common with Arnold. And of course those every-day-shloobs that don't usually vote but voted for him. Similar to that whole Jesse Ventura thing in Minnesota.

On a semi-related note the liberals on TV are getting further and further shrill. They've got virtually no candidate to run for President, they must know it, and it's driving them crazy. Nothing they do seems to really stick or turn out to be true. So the shrillness will get continually louder and louder over the next 12 1/2 months until the election. Now I don't know what's going to happen in the election, before the election or after the election but I do know the rhetoric will get steadily higher and higher and higher and the liberals will NEVER realize the mistake they're committing even after they lose the Presidential election. They're egos are too big to actually change their ways and stand a chance. Too bad for them. Of course all this is mostly just for the free entertainment value. No TV, movie or novel could ever match the entertainment that will be coming out the liberals for the next 12 1/2 months. See even if you don't have HBO you still have world-class, extremely funny free entertainment on your local news channel.

Now how about some other stuff? Well about two weeks ago I did go by my former work place to visit what few people were left working there. Of the 4 main co-workers I had any contact with only two were still there and one of those was starting a new job the following day. Of the other two I guess one went out of his way to get fired and the second quit but didn't do any work for several days so he was fired early. The fourth guy last I heard was also in process of finding a new job. He said he had an interview and sent them a thank you and everything and he was hoping to hear back. Ironically he was the one that hated the company the most and did the most amount of complaining. But isn't it great to know everyone of the five of us has left that damned company after less than 3 months? And best part is the company will never know why or feel the need to rectify the situation. Also I showed them my new car. Which they seemed much more impressed with than the Camry with the giant crack in the windshield and hole in the muffler and trash-filled back seat blah-blah-blah.

And finally looks a lot like I'll finally be getting a job. I found this good job posting on Hot Jobs through a recruiter. I would be working for the recruiting office for the first 90 days followed by becoming a permanent assuming I made it of course. In the interest of paranoia I won't be mentioning the name of the company or the recruiting firm. The recruiting firm has gone so far as to pay a decent wage and provide benefits and a 401k. So even if I don't keep this company for long looks like I'll have a decent place to find a new place.

Oh and also I think finally, after something like 18 months, I'm finally over Neocron. I was bored as an unemployed guy so I was on this irrational spending spree and I bought this EverQuest package. The "EverQuest Evolutions" package which includes the game and 5 expansion packs for a very reasonable price. I mean may as well see what all the hub-ub is about right? Well the graphics are rather rough but it is actually fairly fun. Took me a lot longer to understand the appeal of Ultima Online I think. I made my character a "Bard" on the "newbie server". I go around singing spells that help me and whatever group I'm with. And some weaken whatever I'm fighting and effect just me. Right now I'm only level 8 but it seems like I went up rather quickly. It will get slower and slower in the level ups but at least I should die little less often when I get up higher. Fortunately there does seem to be a dedicated following with lots of tips for success etc. when it comes to this game.

Ok one more thing. I went to my Windows 2000 Server class today (most likely the last one thanks to my job) and per the usual my class mates were discussing various general computing topics. One of these topics was copying DVDs and various methods. I was ripping DVDs when the cheapest DVD burner was still $500+ as opposed to the sub-$200 range they are now. I mentioned to him I managed to fit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon into under 700 megs, not as a viewable format from a DVD player but as an MPEG and mentioned I finally got the stupid words synced with the sound and lip movements but never did get the stupid subtitles to work. But the guy I was talking to didn't seem to get it. He looked at me like it was a mistake I had the original language coming through instead of the absolutely HORRID English dub you can use. So I try to explain to him how HORRIBLE the dubbing is and how I prefer the good acting skills of the real language. I don't think I got through though. So let me iterate this for the unitiated: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an absolutely WONDERFUL movie...but ONLY in the original language. I have noticed one of the premium movie channels and the basic cable channel FX has started showing the English dub version. THIS IS NOT THE VERSION THAT GOT NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE. Alright? The English dub makes it seem like some kung fu B movie from the friggin '60s or something. BUT IT'S NOT. It is a wonderful, wonderful movie. After you get used to the subtitles you won't even notice it any more. It'll just seem natural. Those actors really are good at acting. Seriously. English dub BAD; subtitles GOOD. Got it?

Well this looks like a good old long entry. Ironically I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff and leaving stuff out. Important stuff. Or whatever. Anyway I have to go to bed early (for me) tonight in case the recruitment place calls early tomorrow and I sound asleep at 11am :). See here the answer to that title from three weeks ago and goodnight to you!

The title to the last entry, "Get on the bus! Get on the bus!!," is actually from a reaction many, many men and a few lesbians have to had to a particular ending of a movie. Ok where did that lesbian bit come from? Hey what do you want from me. Well the movie is Dumb and Dumber. The ending you'll just have to see for yourself. It almost makes up for the rather abrupt ending of the whole story. And you’ll definitely be yelling "get on the bus, get on the bus."

Ok usually the title explanation is the last part of every entry but not this time. I'm going to mention I have deleted one entry on account of it kinda sucked. So below you will find an entry that refers to the title of it but it is not there. So I now have a "lost entry" you won't be unlucky enough to find (insert shrill laugh here). Just for clarificaiton.

  ¶ 12:44 AM 0 Comments