¶ 8:55 PM 0 Comments

 
Well I haven't done anything with my Episode three re-dub idea. I think of re-dubbing the Knights scene with kind of a kung fu sound effects. How those sound effects could need improving to make any more entertaining I don't know.

But the real reason for writing is because I am excited about a new job. I put in a two week notice for my current job ya see. That would make August 3rd my last day (a Friday).

And there were several reasons for said two week notice. But the clincher was being called about this new job. I just interviewed for it this morning as a matter of fact. Actually I had a "phone screen interview" yesterday around lunch time (and they actually called when they said they would!). That went well enough they wanted an in-person interview. So that was this morning at 9:00.

I used one of the few things I have actually picked up in my many years of hopping from one job to another in the interview: to be polite, let the interviewer do most of the talking and try to stay relaxed and keep my face kind of easily smiling/smirking. The friendly happy to be here kind of a smile, not the sarcastic kind/over confident kind.

I think my hair cut helped too. I cut it quite short these days. I must look like a marine or somethin. A really out of shape marine albeit.

Anyway...I answered the questions as best I could and tried to get him to kind of expand on some things. Eventually he was as much explaining things to me like a teacher as interviewing me for a job.

Also, it was not quite what I expected. I arrived at around 10 minutes to 9:00. I let the security guard know what I was waiting for and was instructed to take a seat. I noticed the security didn't take my name or make any calls so I was starting to wonder how anyone would know I was there or if I had arrived early. But the interviewer came down right at 9:00 so it wasn't really an issue.

The first thing I noticed about this fifty-something year old gentlemen was what he was wearing: I think blue-jeans and a t-shirt that said "if you choke a smurf what color would he turn?". This struck as a little odd. Here I am in nice pants, long sleeve shirt with button-up and everything you'd expect an applicant being interviewed to have and here's this mister causual guy.

He greeted me and said something about late notice so there was no conference room and we'd use the cafeteria.

Ok coincidence: this is the exact same cafeteria at the exact same place I went to a LAN party not more than two months ago. Now if you had told me at that LAN party "in less than two months time you'll be back here interviewing for a job with a guy wearing a t-shirt referencing killing smurfs" I probably wouldn't have believed you. In fact I probably would have thought "work at (wait for it) within two months" would have been too ambitious of a goal. Pfff.

Oh, and I'll mention the name of the company after I have actually walked into and exited at least ONE day of work...you know...in case it falls through...

Where was I? The interview. Right. He asked a lot of DOS-related questions. Like connected to a MS Network Domain with a DOS client. I mean who the hell does that? No one, that's who. He also asked somethings related to BIOS...I mean CMOS. Of course this would make more sense if I had mentioned the name of the company. But if anybody can differentiate between a CMOS and a BIOS it's this company. I mean really. He also mentioned that the first device to boot is often called the "BAID" device. A term I had never heard before and also that "no one gets". Or maybe the no one gets question was about the CMOS getting some information 16 bytes from the end of memory. Ya. "No one gets that one". Pfff. Show off.

We talked at length about different methods of booting off a CD and different ways DOS reacts to such things. Ya we talked a really long time about that.

He had mentioned he was only allocated a half our for interview but that he always needed more time. I told him I could go as long as necessary. The interview clocked in around 1 hour 20 minutes.

See that's the other thing I've learned: if the interview takes starts to go on and take longer than expected that's a good sign!

That and the conversational nature of it all. When it goes from answering a series of questions and scenarios to one guy teaching another about a subject both are quite fond of learning about and teaching the interview is actually doing well.

At some point during the interview I knew I must have impressed him to some degree and that I probably had the job. Possibly he had made his mind up and that that point he just wanted to expand what kind of other knowledge I had.

Oh and batch files. He gave me a print out of a batch file and asked me if I could explain what it did. Which I did fairly accurately.

So the staffing people call me up and let me know that the people at the company in question were impressed with me and wanted me to fill the position. And that they'd be without a person in the position for a month+ and preferred my starting ASAP.

See things are already making me nervous: As I may or may not have mentioned before I got a call from the same staffing service about a position at the same company-in-particular but then before I even had a phone screening interview or whatever she called back and said it had been filled. And this was AFTER she had told me it was to be "filled within the next few weeks" which would have made the August 6th thing perfect timing. This pissed me off.

But then a different employee of the same staffing service calls me up two days later to offer the position I apparently have. I mention that the position had fallen through and she says "it's the same position, different manager".

So for some reason I assume she has all the emails I had already sent to her co-worker about the two week notice and starting August 6 and that the pay rate had already been mention with a specific dollar amount. So apparently this particular staffing service doesn't share information and also tells ya one thing, lets you quit your job then fills the position behind your back.

Thus the paranoia and nervousness: if I really stick to the August 6 thing will they fill it with some one else? Should I try and leave my current job sooner? All this stress is giving me (among other things) indigestion and heartburn!!

Okay I'm so glad I wrote this all out...Intelligent...(subtle?)  ¶ 8:06 PM 0 Comments

 

part 2 of 3:


Part 3 of 3:


I've been playing with my video editor trying to figure who remixes or whatever I could make for submitting to youtube. You know, something creative. And then I thought of it: take that "final battle" at the end of episode 3 of Star Wars, rip out the audio and insert the audio from the Knights clips. Yes, that is what I will do.

The light saber battle sound effects replaced with the sword clanging sounds, the "crimeon attack!" line at a certain point. I could even insert the "stay out of this girl" part.

Of course Simon would be Anakin/Vader while Gabriel would Obi Wan. I mean all the lines work. The "ah! damn!"; the "ah no, am I on fire now?"; and possibly the "where do ya plan to stick that thing?". Might take a while. I still think it'd be funny.

Ok I just had to get that down while I'm thinking about it. I think I'll go to bed.  ¶ 10:01 PM 0 Comments

 
So it's the Fourth of July and everyone else, normal people, are outside doing stuff. I'm inside typing on a laptop while babysitting a dog. I don't mind though. It's cool where I am. Outside it's about 102 degrees. And I have a black car so it's even worse.

Anyway not a lot has been going on. About two weeks ago a co-worker of mine started making my life a living hell. I was about five minutes from just packing up and walking out. Leaving without a word and never coming back. I was that miserable. But he eventually "had a talk" with the manager and he isn't mean any more. Not as mean anyway.

So that's what I do all day everyday: ghost/ghost/ghost...install/install/install. Except the program they use to install applications really sucks and doesn't work about a quarter of the time. Oh and the methods from backing up PCs via ghost aren't nearly as effective as they should be. Some models are too recent they can't be ghosted over the network. I know this to be true and yet my co-workers seem to have other ideas. I mean I don't know much about many things but when I do know a lot about something you better listen!

So I solved that problem: they have a windows PE CD they use form imaging. It has Ghost32 on it with networking support. I use two PE CDs and run a peer-to-peer ghost. This had never even occurred to anyone else. And no one even seems interested in learning how to do it either. I really shouldn't giving knowledge away for free. I mean really. Especially if on one's interested in learning to begin with.

So that's most of what I do: image PCs, install what ever PC gets on it: "the core". Then install the appropriate applications for each person. I've now got a process down well enough I can stay two or three days ahead. That's easy when there's only six PCs to do but takes more effort when there's twelve. Fortunately I have about fifteen pre-imaged desktops with core ready to go at all times.

I also decided to get some electronica music recorded into MP3 and put on my player to listen to all day. Slightly better than complete silence. The good stuff is actually pretty good.

I found a program called "Free Sound Recorder". Two guesses what it does! Then I wrote a script that does a send key from starting and stopping the respective recording. So I have gigs and gigs of 2 and 1/2 minute MP3s of this electronica music. I load up several hours worth onto my MP3 player and listen to it all day long. I only use one ear plug (the other ear's plug stopped working so I cut it off).

Besides working I'm slowly making my way through both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin-off series Angel. Right now I'm on seasons 4 and 1 respectively. Angel I wasn't sure about but it's growing on me. Buffy may not be as good as it once was but the consistent quality of the show is just amazing. For instance one episode everybody lost their voice. So basically it was a silent movie. A product, on modern TV, intended for a mass audience and it's basically a silent movie. It's just amazing. So risky. How in the world did Wedon convince a network to do such a thing?! Very creative.

Also this season, season 4, one of the characters decides she's a lesbian. So there's lots of metaphorical lesbian sex. Sometimes it's subtle symbolic innuendo, sometimes it's a bit more obvious. There's not nearly enough of that these days. Metaphorical lesbian sex I mean.

Also Spike is one of my favorite characters. He was once an evil vampire villain but somebody put a chip in his head so he can't hurt anyone anymore. So it was like he turned impotent or something. The character just has such a sense of humor to him. It's amazing.

In fact one of my favorite moments of the series so far is a scene with spike and Buffy's mom just kind of sitting in a living room awkwardly looking at each other. Spike, the evil always-trying-to-Buffy vampire and Buffy's mom, the wholesome living normally kind of person. Just sitting in a living room. Not even saying much really. Ok I'm probably not describing it very well. It was a great moment though.

And finally I'm not reading any books right now but I am playing two games. One is Company of Heroes the other is FlatOut 2. Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy game set in World War 2. It should be the same as every other RTS but instead I'm having way too much fun with it. I've been playing one or two maps at a time for weeks. I don't know how many more there are before I get to the end of the campaign but damn is it fun.

FlatOut 2 is a great but sometimes frustrating racing game. It's also quite fun.  ¶ 4:34 PM 0 Comments