Scott came over for Riff Trax night on Thursday, and before we got into the movie watching we headed over to a local restaurant to get something to eat, ending up being the jerks who come into a place ten minutes before it’s about to close.
Still, how were we supposed to know? Who expects a restaurant to close at 5:00?
Taking our food to go, we got back to my house where I heard an all-too familiar sound: a squirrel trying to escape from the trap it’s stumbled into.
I went up into the attic to retrieve trap and squirrel (which doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Moose and Squirrel”), then set it aside while we ate and started watching the movie before finally attending to the…unpleasantness.
The first movie for the night was Jurassic Park (featuring guest riffer “Weird” Al Yankovic). I had burned the DVD the other night, and then on the next day I saw that Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton had died. Some people would call that ironic, but that’s just because they don’t know what ironic means.
I will grant that it was an odd coincidence.
After Jurassic Park we watched Missile to the Moon, a movie made well before 1969 that’s just rife with all of the kinds of bizarre notions about traveling to our planet’s natural satellite that you would expect from that time period, with guest riffer Fred Willard, who was a riot.
Then we watched the Thursday night NBC comedy line-up (minus that show with Molly Shannon).
I didn’t do much yesterday beyond watching the episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report that had piled up on my DVR. I also watched the premiere of Law & Order, which I’d recorded on Wednesday.
More TV watching was in order, as I watched that show Numb3rs at 10. Though I like the show I had been ambivalent about watching it this season, as I didn’t want to devote another hour to TV. Then I thought, “What else am I going to do on a Friday night?”
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, the show centers around two brothers, one of whom is an FBI agent, with the other being a college professor and math genius. The math genius and his unrealistically hot genius girlfriend, who is also a professor, and one other professor consult with the FBI, using mathematical analyses and simulations to help solve crimes.
I think it should actually be called M3taphors, because the math geniuses are constantly using metaphors to explain their computations to the math-challenged FBI agents (and viewers).
Still, it’s an entertaining show, though I spend a good portion of it wondering what the hell is up with Rob Morrow’s mouth, as he tends to move it as little as possible when speaking. He looks rather a lot like he’s holding a big wad of chew in his bottom lip. I don’t remember him doing that on Northern Exposure, but then it’s been a while.
As for today I woke up – unwillingly – around 9:30 and got up because there was a bunch of stuff I intended to do this morning. It took me about two and a half hours to build up enough motivation to shower, dress, and head out into the world.
I hadn’t stopped at the comic shop this week because every day after work I just wanted to get home as soon as possible, and also because I hadn’t made my way all through the stack of two weeks’ worth of comics I’d picked up last week.
So that was the first order of business today. Well, actually the second, as I first stopped at the bank to deposit a check that I’d gotten from my mortgage company for an overage in my escrow account.
After that I stopped to get a haircut. Once again it wasn’t as short as I would have liked. I should probably either start being more vocal and descriptive about how I want it cut, or else stop going there entirely.
As for the latter solution, I’m not really inclined to stop going there because it’s (relatively) cheap and I very seldom have to wait.
And as for the former, well, I don’t really care that much, and there have been people who think it looks better a little longer. Not really having that much of an opinion about how I look myself, and only really caring about whether or not my hair is hanging down and rubbing against my forehead, or getting full of static and clinging to my forehead, I’m inclined to just go with the results I’ve been getting.
After all, it’s not like it’s going to be a haircut that suddenly makes all the difference. There’s not going to be some chick who looks at me and thinks, “Wow, that guy over there who’s mostly-unremarkable-but-unappealing-in-a-nerdy-creepy-sort-of-way has a great haircut! I should sleep with him!” or “That guy over there is mostly-unremarkable-but-unappealing-in-a-nerdy-creepy-sort-of-way, but I might still sleep with him…if he didn’t have such a dodgy haircut.”
The other thing about the place I go to get my hair cut is that I never know what kind of additional service they’re going to throw in randomly. Usually they’ll bust out some kind of massager and give me a – rather unpleasant, actually – neck and shoulder rub, as was the case today, sometimes including a scalp massage, and sometimes they’ll shave the back of my neck with a straight razor.
Today, in addition to the lousy massage, the girl trimmed my eyebrows, which was a new one on me. I will grant that they have gotten decidedly Kirby-esque of late, though.
After that I gassed up the car and headed over to Super Target to do some grocery shopping, then returned home where, after putting away the groceries, I ate lunch, sat around for a while doing nothing in particular, then considered either taking a nap or writing a blog post.
Guess which course of action I decided on.
I was awoken from my nap by a phone call. For some reason my cordless handsets frequently become unregistered from the base station, so until they’re power-cycled they won’t actually ring or be usable. That proved to be the case with the one on my nightstand, so I had to get up and answer the phone here in the office.
It was Stacy calling to invite me over for dinner tonight. The idea of not having to feed myself was tempting, but still feeling extremely groggy and listless, the idea of driving to and from Manassas seemed less so. Ultimately I gave in to my lethargy and demurred.
The start of what has now become a nasty headache that I woke up from my nap with didn’t help make me any more amenable to venturing out into the world either.
In any case, that pretty much brings you up to date on all things Jon.
Showing posts with label squirrel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label squirrel. Show all posts
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Jon And I Usually Don't Agree
Because I wasn’t there for the one held last Monday, this morning I went to a new hire orientation at work.
I discovered that, as I’d been told, the benefits package is pretty much the same as AOL’s, but considerably cheaper.
I also found out that there’s an actual pension plan in addition to the 401K program, which is cool, and pretty rare these days.
The other cool thing I found out is that even though I’m on salary, I won’t have to deal with the semi-monthly pay schedule, but will instead be paid bi-weekly. This is cool because it means that I will actually get to have some three paycheck months, whereas I would not if we were on the semi-monthly schedule.
Tomorrow I’ll be getting some training on the ticketing system that the NOC uses, which will help give me a better understanding of the kinds of issues that I’ll be running into in reviewing their tickets for problems, and then I’ll actually be sitting in the NOC to get a feel for how they operate.
Two recruiters contacted me today, one of them for a job in Atlanta – no idea why she thought I’d be interested in it – and I let them know that I wasn’t interested, then went to Monster to make my résumé no longer viewable, as I’m done with dealing with recruiters.
There’s a Shoppers Food Warehouse right by where I work, so I’d intended to stop there on my way home and pick up the things I forgot to buy when I went shopping yesterday.
I didn’t really want to, as getting in and out of the parking lot with all of traffic in that area would be a pain, but I told myself, “We’re stopping there after work,” to which I responded, “No, we’re not.” I then said, “Yes, we are,” but I knew I didn’t have it in me to force the issue, and by late afternoon I said to myself, “Fine, we won’t stop there, but we will go to the Shoppers in Leesburg on the way home,” which I found more agreeable.
(I don’t refer to myself internally as “we” out of any sort of royal pretentions, but rather because there are essentially two Jons living in my head. There’s the Jon who makes decisions about what I’m going to do, and then there’s the Jon who either ignores those decisions or chooses to go along with them. Depending on the degree to which there is disagreement, I sometimes go with “I” and “you” rather than “we.” My head is a confusing place.)
I was going to take 267 to 28 and 28 to 7, but I kind of spaced it once I got on 267 and forgot that the exit to 28 was right ahead of me, so I drove past it and ended up taking the Greenway home. This meant that, given that I didn’t take the exit to 15, as taking the Greenway stripped away some of my resolve about going to Shoppers, I would actually have to drive right past the street that leads to my house if I were to follow through on my intentions regarding shopping. My resolve did not hold, and I ended up making the turn and just going straight home.
We’ll see if I can manage to hit the store tomorrow.
And apart from having a squirrel waiting for me in the trap with its bags packed for its trip to the enchanted forest where I bring all of the squirrels who find their way into my attic and into the trap when I got home, that’s pretty much been my day.
I discovered that, as I’d been told, the benefits package is pretty much the same as AOL’s, but considerably cheaper.
I also found out that there’s an actual pension plan in addition to the 401K program, which is cool, and pretty rare these days.
The other cool thing I found out is that even though I’m on salary, I won’t have to deal with the semi-monthly pay schedule, but will instead be paid bi-weekly. This is cool because it means that I will actually get to have some three paycheck months, whereas I would not if we were on the semi-monthly schedule.
Tomorrow I’ll be getting some training on the ticketing system that the NOC uses, which will help give me a better understanding of the kinds of issues that I’ll be running into in reviewing their tickets for problems, and then I’ll actually be sitting in the NOC to get a feel for how they operate.
Two recruiters contacted me today, one of them for a job in Atlanta – no idea why she thought I’d be interested in it – and I let them know that I wasn’t interested, then went to Monster to make my résumé no longer viewable, as I’m done with dealing with recruiters.
There’s a Shoppers Food Warehouse right by where I work, so I’d intended to stop there on my way home and pick up the things I forgot to buy when I went shopping yesterday.
I didn’t really want to, as getting in and out of the parking lot with all of traffic in that area would be a pain, but I told myself, “We’re stopping there after work,” to which I responded, “No, we’re not.” I then said, “Yes, we are,” but I knew I didn’t have it in me to force the issue, and by late afternoon I said to myself, “Fine, we won’t stop there, but we will go to the Shoppers in Leesburg on the way home,” which I found more agreeable.
(I don’t refer to myself internally as “we” out of any sort of royal pretentions, but rather because there are essentially two Jons living in my head. There’s the Jon who makes decisions about what I’m going to do, and then there’s the Jon who either ignores those decisions or chooses to go along with them. Depending on the degree to which there is disagreement, I sometimes go with “I” and “you” rather than “we.” My head is a confusing place.)
I was going to take 267 to 28 and 28 to 7, but I kind of spaced it once I got on 267 and forgot that the exit to 28 was right ahead of me, so I drove past it and ended up taking the Greenway home. This meant that, given that I didn’t take the exit to 15, as taking the Greenway stripped away some of my resolve about going to Shoppers, I would actually have to drive right past the street that leads to my house if I were to follow through on my intentions regarding shopping. My resolve did not hold, and I ended up making the turn and just going straight home.
We’ll see if I can manage to hit the store tomorrow.
And apart from having a squirrel waiting for me in the trap with its bags packed for its trip to the enchanted forest where I bring all of the squirrels who find their way into my attic and into the trap when I got home, that’s pretty much been my day.
Monday, January 07, 2008
The Squirrel Invasion Has Begun
This morning when I woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen I looked out the window to see a half a dozen squirrels running around in my backyard.
I immediately decided to add poison to my grocery list.
When I got home from the store I took one of the little packages of poison kibble – stored inside a convenient serving tray – and set it on a fence post near where they tend to congregate. The squirrels in the tree behind my yard looked like there were preparing to check it out, so I hung out on my patio to watch. Before any of them could make a move, though, I heard some scratching on the fence at the front of the yard where another squirrel was climbing its way up. With a look of determination I never thought I’d see on a squirrel, it climbed over the fence and made a mad dash directly to the tray of poison at the back of the yard and very deliberately knocked it off the fence post, scattering the poison pellets all over the ground, before rushing off.
WTF? Was it like some squirrel super hero swooping in to protect its fellow squirrels?
I’m really starting to think that I need to pick up a pellet gun, though I suspect I would end up taking out more windows than squirrels.
I also checked the trap in the attic and found that I’d apparently set it improperly last time, as all the peanut butter was gone, but the trap had never been sprung.
Why is my place such a magnet for squirrels anyway? They seem to stay out of everyone else’s yard.
Oh well.
So last night, if history has taught me anything, I should have been having anxiety-filled dreams about being late for my first day of work. Usually I’ll dream that I’m already like four hours late and keep running into further delays as I scramble to get ready and head out the door.
Of course I didn’t have any dreams like that because today wasn’t my first day of work.
I just remained baffled at what an aggravating mess this whole job thing has been. I grudgingly admit that the Universe has really outdone itself this time.
I immediately decided to add poison to my grocery list.
When I got home from the store I took one of the little packages of poison kibble – stored inside a convenient serving tray – and set it on a fence post near where they tend to congregate. The squirrels in the tree behind my yard looked like there were preparing to check it out, so I hung out on my patio to watch. Before any of them could make a move, though, I heard some scratching on the fence at the front of the yard where another squirrel was climbing its way up. With a look of determination I never thought I’d see on a squirrel, it climbed over the fence and made a mad dash directly to the tray of poison at the back of the yard and very deliberately knocked it off the fence post, scattering the poison pellets all over the ground, before rushing off.
WTF? Was it like some squirrel super hero swooping in to protect its fellow squirrels?
I’m really starting to think that I need to pick up a pellet gun, though I suspect I would end up taking out more windows than squirrels.
I also checked the trap in the attic and found that I’d apparently set it improperly last time, as all the peanut butter was gone, but the trap had never been sprung.
Why is my place such a magnet for squirrels anyway? They seem to stay out of everyone else’s yard.
Oh well.
So last night, if history has taught me anything, I should have been having anxiety-filled dreams about being late for my first day of work. Usually I’ll dream that I’m already like four hours late and keep running into further delays as I scramble to get ready and head out the door.
Of course I didn’t have any dreams like that because today wasn’t my first day of work.
I just remained baffled at what an aggravating mess this whole job thing has been. I grudgingly admit that the Universe has really outdone itself this time.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Slow Day Entry With Entertaining/Offensive Links
Today has been pretty uneventful.
I got up. I sat around. I read the comics I bought on Wednesday. I went for a walk. I got back. I sat around. I read the Left Behind Friday post at Slacktivist. I applied for a job.
I got a call this morning from the other recruiter who’d been submitting my résumé to the company that the recruiter that called yesterday said wasn’t interested in me. He was looking for some additional information to provide said company with. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the company had already said they weren’t interested in me.
I’m not 100% sure, but there may be yet another squirrel in the attic.
It’s hard to say for sure, as it’s windy today, and the noise I heard might have just been the branches of the tree out front brushing against the house.
Sound travels and echoes in an odd fashion in the house. Sometimes when I’m sitting downstairs watching TV, someone out on the street will slam a car door or something and it will sound like someone walking heavily upstairs.
In any case, I haven’t set the trap up again yet, though I was thinking about setting it up in the backyard, as the squirrels seem to pass through there (if only via the fence) on their way to whatever ingress there is to my attic.
(I also considered mounting squirrel number two’s head on a pike and sticking that on the fence as a warning to other squirrels, but I couldn’t do that, as doing so would mean that I killed the squirrel, and of course that just can’t be the case.)
I’ve walked around the house a few times craning my neck skyward, but so far I haven’t been able to spot any sort of opening, except one that seems too small (and awkward) even for a squirrel to get in through (I realize it doesn’t take much), and it may not even be an opening. Not sure what it is. There’s no easy way to get to whatever corresponding opening there may (or may not) be on the inside, either, so I can’t really check it out from the attic.
Speaking of Slacktivist (well, a couple of paragraphs ago), in the characteristically interesting comments on one of the characteristically entertaining posts, someone posted a link to a blog entry and a photo gallery detailing a visit to the Creation Museum.
It was far too entertaining to not pass along, so check out the blog entry here.
The entry itself has a link to the photo gallery. There are a lot of pictures in the gallery, but the accompanying captions and comments make going through them all time well-spent. My favorite captions: “Diormageddon!” and “When You Gaze Into the Abyss, It Gazes Back, and Looks Like an Ape.”
What makes the whole thing even more entertaining is that the author of the blog – writer John Scalzi – essentially went to the museum on a dare. In exchange for readers of his blog donating $250 to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, he agreed that he would visit this monument to what I hesitate to even call pseudo-science. The total donations received actually reached $5,118.36. His response to this largess, in addition to eventually going to the museum, was to a post a picture of himself holding up a sign with a message for his readers: I hate you all.
Now, if any of you would like to make donations to Americans United for Preventing the Separation of Jon from His House, click on the PayPal link over on the right. In exchange, I probably won’t go to any museum, but I will happily pose for a similar picture, though with a different message (probably something like, “I hate you all…but thanks for the money.”).
Anyway, if you’re as amused/horrified by the agenda of fundamentalists who view the Bible as a science textbook as I am, check out the blog entry and gallery for a good laugh, or, if you’re the type who does view the Bible as a science textbook, check it out to keep your moral outrage and feelings of persecution by the evil, sinful secularists at their maximum levels.
I got up. I sat around. I read the comics I bought on Wednesday. I went for a walk. I got back. I sat around. I read the Left Behind Friday post at Slacktivist. I applied for a job.
I got a call this morning from the other recruiter who’d been submitting my résumé to the company that the recruiter that called yesterday said wasn’t interested in me. He was looking for some additional information to provide said company with. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the company had already said they weren’t interested in me.
I’m not 100% sure, but there may be yet another squirrel in the attic.
It’s hard to say for sure, as it’s windy today, and the noise I heard might have just been the branches of the tree out front brushing against the house.
Sound travels and echoes in an odd fashion in the house. Sometimes when I’m sitting downstairs watching TV, someone out on the street will slam a car door or something and it will sound like someone walking heavily upstairs.
In any case, I haven’t set the trap up again yet, though I was thinking about setting it up in the backyard, as the squirrels seem to pass through there (if only via the fence) on their way to whatever ingress there is to my attic.
(I also considered mounting squirrel number two’s head on a pike and sticking that on the fence as a warning to other squirrels, but I couldn’t do that, as doing so would mean that I killed the squirrel, and of course that just can’t be the case.)
I’ve walked around the house a few times craning my neck skyward, but so far I haven’t been able to spot any sort of opening, except one that seems too small (and awkward) even for a squirrel to get in through (I realize it doesn’t take much), and it may not even be an opening. Not sure what it is. There’s no easy way to get to whatever corresponding opening there may (or may not) be on the inside, either, so I can’t really check it out from the attic.
Speaking of Slacktivist (well, a couple of paragraphs ago), in the characteristically interesting comments on one of the characteristically entertaining posts, someone posted a link to a blog entry and a photo gallery detailing a visit to the Creation Museum.
It was far too entertaining to not pass along, so check out the blog entry here.
The entry itself has a link to the photo gallery. There are a lot of pictures in the gallery, but the accompanying captions and comments make going through them all time well-spent. My favorite captions: “Diormageddon!” and “When You Gaze Into the Abyss, It Gazes Back, and Looks Like an Ape.”
What makes the whole thing even more entertaining is that the author of the blog – writer John Scalzi – essentially went to the museum on a dare. In exchange for readers of his blog donating $250 to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, he agreed that he would visit this monument to what I hesitate to even call pseudo-science. The total donations received actually reached $5,118.36. His response to this largess, in addition to eventually going to the museum, was to a post a picture of himself holding up a sign with a message for his readers: I hate you all.
Now, if any of you would like to make donations to Americans United for Preventing the Separation of Jon from His House, click on the PayPal link over on the right. In exchange, I probably won’t go to any museum, but I will happily pose for a similar picture, though with a different message (probably something like, “I hate you all…but thanks for the money.”).
Anyway, if you’re as amused/horrified by the agenda of fundamentalists who view the Bible as a science textbook as I am, check out the blog entry and gallery for a good laugh, or, if you’re the type who does view the Bible as a science textbook, check it out to keep your moral outrage and feelings of persecution by the evil, sinful secularists at their maximum levels.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Caught!
The squirrel took the bait!
The obvious question is, "What did you do with it after you caught it?"
Well, if you want to believe that I drove it to an enchanted forest and set it free so that it could frolic with all its little woodland friends, I'm perfectly willing to let you.
(But that's not what happened.)
Now, if I could just catch Moose I'd be doing twice as well as Boris and Natasha.
The obvious question is, "What did you do with it after you caught it?"
Well, if you want to believe that I drove it to an enchanted forest and set it free so that it could frolic with all its little woodland friends, I'm perfectly willing to let you.
(But that's not what happened.)
Now, if I could just catch Moose I'd be doing twice as well as Boris and Natasha.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Your Most Burning Question Answered!
I’m sure the question that’s foremost on everyone’s mind is “How did the new sheets work out for Jon last night?”
They were okay. Not quite as soft as the old ones were, but also not quite so mysteriously ripped to shreds.
Of course, given that we’ve been having some cold weather of late and that in an effort to save money (and to avoid the hot curling iron smell that comes from the electric baseboard heaters), I’ve been dressing in layers to stay warm rather than turning the heat on, so, just as with the old ones, the coldness of the sheets as my skin first came into contact with them elicited the standard “Gah!” from me as I got into bed.
I was supposed to hear from the recruiter for the job I was really interested in by today.
That didn’t happen.
Serves me right, I suppose, for getting my hopes up (and for thinking that I could work out a deal with the Universe).
Of course, maybe something just came up and she’ll contact me next week, but given how things have been going I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m not quite so employable as I’d thought my experience and education made me.
Not much else I can do but keep applying for jobs, I guess.
Still, that was exactly the thing that made this particular prospect seem so promising: I didn’t actually apply for the job.
The recruiter just got a copy of my résumé (from the company representative who had been at the job fair last week) and contacted me because she thought I’d be a good fit (and seemed to be even more convinced of that after I’d talked to her).
Oh well.
The squirrel is still ranging around up in the attic. I went up and put some more tempting bait (pieces of bread with peanut butter on them) in and around the trap.
I really hate going up into the attic because as soon as I do I begin to itch from all of the insulation floating around and have to take a shower as soon as I come down.
This leads me to wonder why it is that spending just a couple of minutes up there forces me to have to recreate the decontamination scene from Silkwood, yet it doesn’t seem to bother the squirrel. I mean, I was up there for only a couple of minutes – albeit slightly longer than should have been necessary, as I ended up springing the trap while re-baiting it and had to set it again – and it’s not like I’m actually frolicking around in the insulation like the little rodent is. I know the stuff can be deadly because years ago we had a cat that chose a bunch of insulation as the place to give birth to her kittens, and the insulation killed all of them before we actually found them (one survived, briefly, but eventually died after being removed from the insulation).
Again, oh well.
Earlier today my computer started acting a little wacky (no sound on some video files, Media Center flat out refusing to play some videos, memory usage through the roof, etc.), so I decided to reboot it.
After the reboot I got a message telling me that I wasn’t connected to my network, and it wouldn’t even allow me to access the Network Control Panel.
So I went for reboot number two.
Same thing.
After a few frustrated attempts at getting into the Network Control Panel – and after confirming on my laptop that there was no problem with the network itself – I realized that all of the weirdness had started after I’d finally given in to the little nag screen that came up every time I launched it and updated to the latest version of AIM.
First you lay me off, then you hose my computer; thanks AOL!
So I did a system restore to a point before I made the update and everything was back to normal.
The thing that really annoyed me the most, though, wasn’t that the new AIM trashed my network settings, it was the damn screen nagging me to upgrade to the new version.
When I launch a program, I’m doing so because I want to actually use it. At that moment I’m not particularly interested in whether or not there’s an update available.
Fuck your update; I just want to use the program.
I hardly think I’m alone in this regard. Most people launch programs because they want to use them.
At least Firefox, which seems to have an update available every damn time you launch it, gives you the option to run the update the next time you launch – most other programs, like AIM, only give you the option to update now or be reminded again the next time you launch - but even that’s a pain in the ass.
The time to mention that updates are available is when I’m closing the program. The fact that I’m closing it means that I’m no longer using it, therefore your stupid update won’t be interfering with what I’m trying to do.
And when you do choose to run the update, you generally get a message at some point saying “Oh my god, you can’t update me while I’m running! What the hell were you thinking? Close me!”
I understand that it may not be possible to update some files while they’re in use, but why pop up an error message at me? As it is, I can’t actually use the damn program anyway because the stupid update is running, so just quit your bitching and close the program your damn self as part of the installation process.
I just can’t fathom the mentality behind this kind of shit. Most software developers (and their bosses) are, at some point, also software end-users for at least some programs, so how hard can it be to figure out that this kind of nonsense is a barrier to use and annoying as hell?
Whether you believe that the adhere to it or not, Google has as its motto “Don’t be evil.” I think that software companies should have a similar motto: “Don’t be an idiot.”
(Oh, and if you could write software that doesn’t hose people’s systems, that’d be super, too.)
They were okay. Not quite as soft as the old ones were, but also not quite so mysteriously ripped to shreds.
Of course, given that we’ve been having some cold weather of late and that in an effort to save money (and to avoid the hot curling iron smell that comes from the electric baseboard heaters), I’ve been dressing in layers to stay warm rather than turning the heat on, so, just as with the old ones, the coldness of the sheets as my skin first came into contact with them elicited the standard “Gah!” from me as I got into bed.
I was supposed to hear from the recruiter for the job I was really interested in by today.
That didn’t happen.
Serves me right, I suppose, for getting my hopes up (and for thinking that I could work out a deal with the Universe).
Of course, maybe something just came up and she’ll contact me next week, but given how things have been going I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m not quite so employable as I’d thought my experience and education made me.
Not much else I can do but keep applying for jobs, I guess.
Still, that was exactly the thing that made this particular prospect seem so promising: I didn’t actually apply for the job.
The recruiter just got a copy of my résumé (from the company representative who had been at the job fair last week) and contacted me because she thought I’d be a good fit (and seemed to be even more convinced of that after I’d talked to her).
Oh well.
The squirrel is still ranging around up in the attic. I went up and put some more tempting bait (pieces of bread with peanut butter on them) in and around the trap.
I really hate going up into the attic because as soon as I do I begin to itch from all of the insulation floating around and have to take a shower as soon as I come down.
This leads me to wonder why it is that spending just a couple of minutes up there forces me to have to recreate the decontamination scene from Silkwood, yet it doesn’t seem to bother the squirrel. I mean, I was up there for only a couple of minutes – albeit slightly longer than should have been necessary, as I ended up springing the trap while re-baiting it and had to set it again – and it’s not like I’m actually frolicking around in the insulation like the little rodent is. I know the stuff can be deadly because years ago we had a cat that chose a bunch of insulation as the place to give birth to her kittens, and the insulation killed all of them before we actually found them (one survived, briefly, but eventually died after being removed from the insulation).
Again, oh well.
Earlier today my computer started acting a little wacky (no sound on some video files, Media Center flat out refusing to play some videos, memory usage through the roof, etc.), so I decided to reboot it.
After the reboot I got a message telling me that I wasn’t connected to my network, and it wouldn’t even allow me to access the Network Control Panel.
So I went for reboot number two.
Same thing.
After a few frustrated attempts at getting into the Network Control Panel – and after confirming on my laptop that there was no problem with the network itself – I realized that all of the weirdness had started after I’d finally given in to the little nag screen that came up every time I launched it and updated to the latest version of AIM.
First you lay me off, then you hose my computer; thanks AOL!
So I did a system restore to a point before I made the update and everything was back to normal.
The thing that really annoyed me the most, though, wasn’t that the new AIM trashed my network settings, it was the damn screen nagging me to upgrade to the new version.
When I launch a program, I’m doing so because I want to actually use it. At that moment I’m not particularly interested in whether or not there’s an update available.
Fuck your update; I just want to use the program.
I hardly think I’m alone in this regard. Most people launch programs because they want to use them.
At least Firefox, which seems to have an update available every damn time you launch it, gives you the option to run the update the next time you launch – most other programs, like AIM, only give you the option to update now or be reminded again the next time you launch - but even that’s a pain in the ass.
The time to mention that updates are available is when I’m closing the program. The fact that I’m closing it means that I’m no longer using it, therefore your stupid update won’t be interfering with what I’m trying to do.
And when you do choose to run the update, you generally get a message at some point saying “Oh my god, you can’t update me while I’m running! What the hell were you thinking? Close me!”
I understand that it may not be possible to update some files while they’re in use, but why pop up an error message at me? As it is, I can’t actually use the damn program anyway because the stupid update is running, so just quit your bitching and close the program your damn self as part of the installation process.
I just can’t fathom the mentality behind this kind of shit. Most software developers (and their bosses) are, at some point, also software end-users for at least some programs, so how hard can it be to figure out that this kind of nonsense is a barrier to use and annoying as hell?
Whether you believe that the adhere to it or not, Google has as its motto “Don’t be evil.” I think that software companies should have a similar motto: “Don’t be an idiot.”
(Oh, and if you could write software that doesn’t hose people’s systems, that’d be super, too.)
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Slow Day
No movement on the job-hunting front today.
Well, no positive movement, at any rate. I did find out conclusively that one of the companies that’s come up a lot in conversations with recruiters and in recommendations from various people has absolutely no interest in hiring me.
Oh well.
I spent much of the day at first working on a modification to the free Heroic Portrait I did for Brian’s friend, as it turns out my vision of what he wanted was not, in fact, what he wanted.
Then I got tired of that and started working on a random picture that may or may not find its way onto the (eventual) revamped Heroic Portraits site.
While I was up in the office working on that and listening to music I was oblivious to the sound of my cell phone – downstairs on the dining room table – ringing as Scott called twice, first to let me know that he would be getting to the comic shop late, and then to let me know that he wouldn’t be that late.
So we met at the comic shop as per usual and had “dunch.”
When I got home I learned that the squirrel is still in the attic. I moved the trap so that it’s more directly in line with its movements.
And that’s pretty much all that’s happened today.
Well, no positive movement, at any rate. I did find out conclusively that one of the companies that’s come up a lot in conversations with recruiters and in recommendations from various people has absolutely no interest in hiring me.
Oh well.
I spent much of the day at first working on a modification to the free Heroic Portrait I did for Brian’s friend, as it turns out my vision of what he wanted was not, in fact, what he wanted.
Then I got tired of that and started working on a random picture that may or may not find its way onto the (eventual) revamped Heroic Portraits site.
While I was up in the office working on that and listening to music I was oblivious to the sound of my cell phone – downstairs on the dining room table – ringing as Scott called twice, first to let me know that he would be getting to the comic shop late, and then to let me know that he wouldn’t be that late.
So we met at the comic shop as per usual and had “dunch.”
When I got home I learned that the squirrel is still in the attic. I moved the trap so that it’s more directly in line with its movements.
And that’s pretty much all that’s happened today.
Friday, October 26, 2007
At Least It's Not Bats In My Belfry
So I was sitting at the computer minding my own business, as, after all, I have no one else’s business to mind, when I heard an odd noise.
I didn’t think much of it, as there was a moving truck at the house across the street and it seemed likely that the noise was coming from the movers’ activities.
Then I heard something else that definitely sounded like it was coming from inside the house.
I checked all of the rooms but didn’t see anything amiss.
After the third or fourth time it became clear that the noises were coming from the attic.
So I went up, flashlight in one hand, broom in the other, and sure enough I spotted a squirrel crouched in the back corner amid the insulation.
I knew that little son of a bitch was going to be trouble when I spotted him in the backyard last week after he’d knocked over the garbage can in my shed (from which he had stolen some dryer lint like some furry version of Burt Reynolds in Striptease).
So I went online to find the best way to deal with it.
It seems that a live trap is the best way to catch one, as poison will just lead to a dead squirrel in some unreachable area stinking up the place, and if a rat trap doesn’t catch it it’ll learn to avoid the trap.
So I headed off to Home Depot and asked the nearest goober where the traps were. When I said, “I have a squirrel in my attic,” he responded, “That ain’t good.”
Oh, really goober? Because I was thinking that it was fucking grand. You couldn’t tell by the way I was looking for a trap to either capture or kill the damn thing?
Okay, that’s unfairly hostile on my part, and naturally I didn’t actually say any of that, but when you’ve spent as much time working in technical support-related jobs as I have, you learn a lot about how much havoc a squirrel can wreak on things like your Internet connection.
He didn’t think they sold live traps and suggested that I try mothballs, though my research on the subject had indicated that mothballs do nothing to deter squirrels.
Eventually, though, he spotted the live traps on the bottom shelf and we found one that actually had a picture of a squirrel on it.
For the sheer hell of it, and because it certainly couldn’t hurt anything, I also bought some mothballs, which I’ve carpetbombed the attic with.
When last I checked the trap was still empty, and the mothballs hadn’t chased it away, as I could hear it skittering around.
Assuming that the trap gets sprung at some point, the question becomes what to do with it.
Apparently some squirrels that have been caught and then released in the wild have returned from a distance of more than 25 miles (and presumably returns that much wiser for the experience and knows to avoid the trap).
As I said to the goober at Home Depot, I have no qualms about killing the thing.
That is to say, I would have no qualms about using a lethal trap if what I’d read hadn’t suggested that such a method was ineffective.
But actually personally killing it? That’s another matter all together.
And then there’s the matter of finding where it got in and sealing that off.
*Sigh*
I didn’t think much of it, as there was a moving truck at the house across the street and it seemed likely that the noise was coming from the movers’ activities.
Then I heard something else that definitely sounded like it was coming from inside the house.
I checked all of the rooms but didn’t see anything amiss.
After the third or fourth time it became clear that the noises were coming from the attic.
So I went up, flashlight in one hand, broom in the other, and sure enough I spotted a squirrel crouched in the back corner amid the insulation.
I knew that little son of a bitch was going to be trouble when I spotted him in the backyard last week after he’d knocked over the garbage can in my shed (from which he had stolen some dryer lint like some furry version of Burt Reynolds in Striptease).
So I went online to find the best way to deal with it.
It seems that a live trap is the best way to catch one, as poison will just lead to a dead squirrel in some unreachable area stinking up the place, and if a rat trap doesn’t catch it it’ll learn to avoid the trap.
So I headed off to Home Depot and asked the nearest goober where the traps were. When I said, “I have a squirrel in my attic,” he responded, “That ain’t good.”
Oh, really goober? Because I was thinking that it was fucking grand. You couldn’t tell by the way I was looking for a trap to either capture or kill the damn thing?
Okay, that’s unfairly hostile on my part, and naturally I didn’t actually say any of that, but when you’ve spent as much time working in technical support-related jobs as I have, you learn a lot about how much havoc a squirrel can wreak on things like your Internet connection.
He didn’t think they sold live traps and suggested that I try mothballs, though my research on the subject had indicated that mothballs do nothing to deter squirrels.
Eventually, though, he spotted the live traps on the bottom shelf and we found one that actually had a picture of a squirrel on it.
For the sheer hell of it, and because it certainly couldn’t hurt anything, I also bought some mothballs, which I’ve carpetbombed the attic with.
When last I checked the trap was still empty, and the mothballs hadn’t chased it away, as I could hear it skittering around.
Assuming that the trap gets sprung at some point, the question becomes what to do with it.
Apparently some squirrels that have been caught and then released in the wild have returned from a distance of more than 25 miles (and presumably returns that much wiser for the experience and knows to avoid the trap).
As I said to the goober at Home Depot, I have no qualms about killing the thing.
That is to say, I would have no qualms about using a lethal trap if what I’d read hadn’t suggested that such a method was ineffective.
But actually personally killing it? That’s another matter all together.
And then there’s the matter of finding where it got in and sealing that off.
*Sigh*
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