The Robot's Thoughts

....Its not like you have a job....

ha.

Job Hunt Update: My Microsoft interview date is set. The tickets are being purchased, the rental car booked, and the hotel room reserved. In two weeks, I hope I have my interviewing "A" game down, because it would be sweet to work in an environment full of smart people. Granted, my biggest concern is that smart people need their ego validated as much as dumb people, but its my hope that smart people will be keeping busy enough with their work, and that what they accomplish will be enough validation.

At any rate, I'm gonna roll the dice and take my chances with Microsoft. It is the opportunity of a lifetime.

So since this hasn't been updated in a while, I'm going to fill you all in on the wonderful things I've been doing to keep busy.

Ultimate Frisbee - Tuesday pick-up games at CMU, Wenesday practices, and Saturday games. My team is second-worst in the league, but the regular season is just practice for finals. But if it were about winning games, they'd be paying us to play in the league, not the other way around. Its still a good time, and much needed exercise. It just sucks on Saturdays, because it has been wayyyyy too sunny and wayyyyy too hot for anyone in their right mind to spend 4 hours running around like a madman chasing a disc.

Creative Thinking - I've had three great ideas for technology. A friend and I are pursuing one. I guess if all else fails, I could try the start up company approach. Use unemployment to get a prototype for a VC firm. Its a thought worth considering. When else is there going to be a better time in your life to take such a risk? And if you succeed, you got to bring one of your ideas to the market. You got to work for yourself. It'd be pretty nice. Its just great having ideas. I also came up with a great idea for a horror movie. I'm tempted to actually grab one or two of my better writer friends and bang out some kind of script. It could be filmed on a totally low budget. The point was to create something that could be suspenseful and scary without just being a formulaic big studio movie starring special effects.
That's really what I want to do with my life: Pursue and market my own ideas.

Malt Liquor Monday madness - I've been starting my weeks off right. Malt Liquor Monday madness is all about a tour de force in 40 ounces. Its been great to gather with all my close friends on Chesterfield and just relax and shoot the shit. Occasionally there is drama. Just like at the old Porn and 40s nights, sometimes two people that shouldn't be left alone are left alone, but everyone's older and wiser now, and cooler heads prevail.

Summer blockbuster - Batman Begins, Episode 3, Land of the Dead, The Secretary, Appleseed, Resident Evil 2 -- this has been a summer of renting and watching movies. Or watching them with they arrive via NetFlix. Essentially, all my friends and I rent movies and watch them. Great distraction.

And as always, geekin' out.

Relationships are tricky.
They're as fragile as eggshells sometimes, and others, stronger then any newtonian force we've discovered.

Some relationships are simple, plain, and one dimensional: Drinking Buddy. Co-Worker. Teammate. I would argue these are the most common of relationships because of the simplicity. All friendships start off as one-dimensional.

Some relationships are merely ones of simplicity. A truth I learned in college is that 50% of the people you meet will drift away simply because their schedules have changed. You will meet new people as a result of the schedule changes, but you don't often keep the old.

Some relationships are adversarial. Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, for example. Or, to a lesser degree a rivialry between two friends.

And some relationships are based off crystal clear intentions of both individuals, that should never be acted on. These are the tricky, complicated, and bittersweet relationships. These are the harbingers of conflict and drama.

And the only real way to navigate these little dramas is judgement. Correction: Sound judgement.

I felt that I probably would not get to fly out and interview at microsoft. That was my gut feeling after I hung up the phone.
I just didn't feel any smarter then I usually do -- and I felt that would've shown.
But my friends said, "You probably did awesome, Chris. You rock."

And they were right.

The travel plans aren't set in stone yet, but I am flying out to interview with Microsoft.
And this time I will be a little better prepared.

Phone interviewed with Microsoft today. One hell of an interview puzzle. IM me to hear the details, but I didn't arrive at an optimal solution in the short window they had. I don't know if the rest of the interview was a wash, because I felt I did very well on that part.

I should know whether or not I'm flying out to the campus for an on-site interview in the next two days.

My fingers are crossed. But after tripping over that brain teaser, I fear optimism might need to be discounted. I don't want to get my hopes up. Its just another job -- its just another place to work.

In not-so-amazing news, I hate Radio Shack. I went in to see if they carried DVI cables. They were selling two brands: The Monster brand cable (6 ft.) for $99. The Radio Shack 12ft for $109.99.
I told the guy something like "That's fucking expensive for just a monitor cable."
His response: "Well, try shopping around if you like, but I haven't seen them for less then $80."

Came back home, went straight to ebay.com: Quick search for gold plated DVI to DVI cable returned several hits: One for $18.00 (shipping included).

Used Buy It Now.

Now here comes the fun part: I am unemployed. My time is my own. I'm sure that guy has a manager. I'm sure that manager loves untold levels of harassment from smartass customers. During their lunch break. So guess what I'm doing tomorrow after I get done taking Erin to the airport?

Muhahahahahaahahaha. (I so wish Radio Shack would go out of business. And I urge all of you to never shop there.)

Erin had free tickets to see the Pixies last night, so the two of us went.
It rocked.

The opening band was as bad as the pixies were good.
Drinks were over priced, but still, I owed Erin since she got me Pizza, so we had a few on me.

And the oddest thing of all...I ran into a friend who had cut me out of their life: Because I bitched about them in an earlier blog post (and apologized). I met the boyfriend and heard the story about how she broke her foot. I kept wanting to say, "The last time I called you, you answered just so you could hang up. Why are you pretending to care now?"

But I didn't say it. Later, right before the Pixies played Gigantic, Erin caught me doing that same shit-eating-grin and thumbs up that I displayed during our little chat. She jabbed me in the side and siad, "Be nice to her. She was nice to you."

And that was that.

I was laid off wenesday. I'm taking it pretty well. When its something out of your control, you just try to take it in stride.
Ironically, you could call this a life changing day, and I saw Christine. The last time I saw her was another life changing day: The day of my last summer class. The day when I was offically no longer a college student.

It was also the first practice for my new ultimate frisbee team. This year, my team seems to be older players, with more experience. It looks promising. My knee wasn't complaining so much, so that is promising as well.

I'm going out with some of the guys I used to work with tonight -- mostly the ones I'm cool with.

Life goes on.