Nutty Weather, and No Sex For You!

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Freakish weather this morning. Woke up to sideways hail, thunder and lightning... the end of the world, basically. Step outside, and there's blue skies (with the slate gray clouds of the aforementioned storm dashing off to the east). Makes me really happy that Pittsburgh has just Extra Special weather. And totally unreleated, but somebody must think I actually _have_ the *Paris Hilton Sex Video*, because I've seen about 30 searches in the last day for any combination of *Paris*, *Hilton*, *Sex*, *Tape*, and *Video*. So no, I don't have it anywhere on my site. Go away. You won't find the *Paris Hilton Sex Video* here, and I don't know what search engine gave you that idea, but you're barking up the wrong tree. I have many *Video* clips on my site, and I've probably talked about *Paris* (the city, of course) before, but I'm still not sure why people think that the *Paris Hilton Sex Video* is for some reason hosted on this site. Weird.

Hot tub party.

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This past weekend I crashed "Joey 'Accordion Guy' deVilla":http://accordionguy.blogware.com/'s "Mobile Hot Tub Birthday Bash":http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2003/11/10/6108.html. Find me in da tub... bottle full of bub

(Sadly, I wasn't _actually_ there, but you'd really think that I was, thanks to "Pat":http://gregcioffi.com/hammerheads/images/galleries/images/otg2_5.jpg's nice "Photoshop":http://64.81.51.213/fpm/ job. See the shadow my head casts? You can see the bikini of the "vivacious beauty":http://meryle.diaryland.com/ behind it!)

Matrix Revolutions Review

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Spoilers abound, so don't read if you don't wanna know... What is The Mattrix? I took advantage of getting home early in the morning from California, right around the whole "Zero Hour" when the movie was released worldwide, so since I figured that most nerds like me have jobs, I should go see it while the theatre was quiet.

Bottom line: I really, really didn't like it. It felt like they forced in a bunch of crap to make it the right length. There was none of the "oh, wow!" mindbending ideas from the first movie, or to a lesser extend, the second.

The way they handled the death of the actress who played The Oracle from the first two movies was awful. The briefest of explainations, a sappy nod towards the actress herself. Ugh.

No pop psychology in this one at all, except for people who will say "Oh, man... it's so deep. You just don't, like, _get it_, man. Wow." The Christ imagery was over the top; same as the last one.

I know it's the 3rd movie, and everyone's seen the first two, but they got so "slang-ey" in this one... "calamari" instead of "squiddies" instead of "Sentinels". "Blue pills" instead of "people still jacked into the Matrix".

There was another pointless rave scene in this one, only this time it was vampire/goth/S&M/fetish party instead of the crappy one in the last movie.

Trinity dying was pointless, and the drawn-out love scene was embarrasingly bad.

No real new special effects, except for one unimpressive one.

Smith was an over-the-top charicature of himself.

I don't even have the heart to finish writing. Go read "the /. comments":http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/05/1613227&mode=thread&tid=188&tid=200&tid=97. To sum up, I was hoping this would be like a chocolate easter bunny... solid and a bit overly sweet, but still tasty. Instead, it wound up being like a hollow one where you curse the person who gave it to you and got your hopes up in the first place.

Young nasty man

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The last few days I've felt a little edgy, and it's come out in some rather unattractive ways. Submitted for your approval are my three latest confrontations. At work yesterday, we were all just sitting and coding, when a well-dressed man and woman come in. Out of the corner of my eye, I see them step in the door (which is one room outside our little sexxxy coding room), look around a little bit, and then come back in. The man immediately launches into "Hi, we're from blahblahblah Internet applications provider, clients include the Steelers, Heinz, etc." , at which point I interrupted him and asked, "Did you see the sign?" On the front door of our company, printed out in very large letters and taped at eye-level, it says "Absolutely No Solicitation." The guy looked at me like I had three heads and then proceeded to pitch my co-worker, who was too polite to tell them to fuck off. At the end of his spiel, he handed over his card, which I promptly bounded across the room to grab, and tossed in "the shredder":http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/shred.html, hopefully while they were still within earshot.

Upon returning home from work last night, I found an email on my yahoo account that was from "monster.com":http://www.monster.com's anonymous remailer. No, I'm not looking for another job, but I got an email that my resume on file was going to expire, and rather than having to re-enter the whole damn thing at some point, I figured I would just renew. The problem is, renewing looks like activity to recruiters, so I've gotten several lame emails about jobs in the last few days. This one was especially irksome to me.

Hello,

My name is Aliyah J. I am a recruiter with blahblahcompany located in Harrisburg, PA.

We are currently aggressively recruiting for .Net Developers with Oracle (PL/SQL and stored procedures) in the Harrisburg area. I would like to speak with you regarding this position.

I can be reached via phone or email....my contact information is listed below.

I look forward to speaking with you!

Best regards,

Aliyah J

I was so annoyed that I fired off this reply:

Dear Aliyah,

A quick check of Mapquest shows that the estimated drive time between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg is 3 hours, 18 minutes. I highly doubt that you will find many .NET developers in the greater Pittsburgh area willing to do that commute. Your email even explicitly states that you are "recruiting for ... developers ... in the Harrisburg area", implying that both the developers and the positions should be in the Harrisburg area.

I realize it's a tough market out there for recruiters and developers alike, but instead of indiscriminately mass-mailing people with "burg" in their city, you might look more closely and see who actually fits your candidate profile before you waste both your time and the candidate's.

Either that, or fire your sourcer.

Sincerely yours,

Matt Comroe

Not five minutes later I got this snippy response:

Hello Matt,

Yes Harrisburg is three hours away from Pittsburgh. I am very aware of this. This was not a mass email sent to people located in city's with "burg" in it.

Some people are open to relocating or can stay in the area for the week and go home on the weekends...it depends on the situation.

If you are not interested in relocating or working in the Harrisburg area...just say that.

Best regards,

Aliyah J

Feeling as though I rather blindsided her, I decided to play a little bit nice.

Aliyah,

--- Aliyah J wrote: > Hello Matt, > > Some people are open to relocating or can stay in > the area for the week and > go home on the weekends...it depends on the > situation.

I completely understand that, but perhaps your email could have been more clear on that when describing the positions. From my point of view, it looks like an over-wide net was cast (to everyone with a matching skill-set in the state, for all I know), which for someone who has dealt with their fair share of recruiters on prior job hunts gives the impression of the person on the other end only being interested in the commission, not making a placement that will benefit the candidate as well as the client.

I apologize for coming off as overly harsh in my email, but the simple act of renewing my resume on Monster to keep it from expiring and having to rewrite it in the future has prompted several emails from recruiters who clearly did no more than a cursory glance at my resume, saw ".NET", and fired off an email.

Developers want and deserve respect and a personal relationship from their recruiter, that's all.

> If you are not interested in relocating or working > in the Harrisburg > area...just say that.

I am not, but thank you for your interest anyway.

Best,

Matt Comroe

No reply.

Last thing happened today. I got off my lazy wussy ass and biked in, which was uneventful, although chilly. On the way home, I was approaching a traffic light with a left-turn-only lane and a straight-ahead lane. I was turning left, so I checked behind, saw there was plenty of distance between me and the car behind, stuck my arm out and moved over so I could coast up to the red light in the proper lane. Some guy in a big 4-door sedan proceeds to roar around me on the right, almost squeezing me into oncoming traffic, while we're only about 20 feet from the car that's already stopped at the *red* light. I rolled up next to him and tapped on his window. He stared grimly ahead, unwilling to roll down the window or even acknowledge my presence.

"You know, I'm a vehicle the same as you. When you pass me on the right it's dangerous for everyone. You shouldn't have been in that much of a hurry to get to a *red* light."

His mouth twitched, and he continued to stare at a point roughly 3 miles, dead ahead. Then I started to get angry.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you! Asshole! Big man in his piece of shit car! Learn to fucking drive!"

I then relented and moved my bike behind his car. I considered "accidentally" scraping my clipless pedals against his door, but that would have been "Bad Idea Jeans":http://www.pseudodictionary.com/word.php?id=15081.

As soon as the light turned green, I yelled "Go! You were in such a hurry!", which, of course, he couldn't do because of the car in front of him. It was still funny, anyway.

Why am I telling you all these stories? Because I don't really like being this way. Sure, when I was young and in college, it was fun to "rage against The Man":http://feralboy.com/medium/, but I'm older and more mellow now, and things like this really aren't just worth getting worked up about.

I think I need to start meditating.

Whoopsie

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On the drive home last night, my passenger-side window slipped its track and fell down into the door. Of course there was rain in the forecast last night, so I had to run out there and get all creative with garbage bags. I went early this morning to try and hit "the dealership":http://www.vwdealer.com/billco/ early and maybe get it fixed. They're always busy there, and I would have had to leave it there all day, but as an alternative they just had the body shop guy pull the window out of the door with a piece of wood and some duct tape, and then tape the window up in the frame well enough until I can bring it in for a scheduled appointment next Wednesday. Apparently this is "a common flaw":http://www.carsurvey.org/viewcomments_review_19084.html with VWs, although the body shop guy said he thought it was most common in Jettas, and mine was only the 2nd GTI he had seen with the problem. Lucky me.

Weekend Summary

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While waiting for my hot "code generation tool":http://www.llblgen.com/ to finish getting all my updated DB tables, I'll give you the rundown from the weekend. Friday night I went to the Worst. Party. Ever. It was a co-worker of the SLF(Special Lady Friend), and it was just a big dumb bad college party. I think there should be a rule that when you hit 35 or so, you're not allowed to play "beer pong":http://www.nbpl.net/ anymore. There were just so many bad things happening at this party, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, if you're pushing 40, chances are you can't pull off the Britney Spears thing. But someone was trying her best, darnit! Tanned-to-leather, low-slung jeans with the thong "peeking up the back":http://megnut.com/new_york/007439.asp, and a pink belly shirt with waaaaaay too much belly. The breaking point for me was when, within a 60 second span, I had 2 people step on my toes, 4 people spill drinks on me, and some yahoo shot me in the face with a water pistol. I broke for the exit, and thankfully the SLF(Special Lady Friend) was also really ready to leave, her friend obligation fulfilled.

Saturday was much better, with me going in to work for a few hours to make up for "taking off":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000505/ Thursday. Let me just say, I LOVE working on weekends. It's very quiet, and I can just crank "the music":http://feralboy.com/musicarchive/?d=2003-09-27 and howl along. I might need to do some more of that.

Saturday night there was a little "make yr own sushi" party at Dave and Casey's. All the "prep":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20030927_sushi/P1010002.jpg "tools":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20030927_sushi/P1010003.jpg were there, just bring your own fish and go nuts. It took a little longer to get everything made than people thought, and we didn't start eating until 10 or so, but it was all very tasty. The night sort of degraded into a "how big is your "wasabi(Death by Wasabi by Lynne LeMay)":http://www.lne.com/lemay/essays/wasabi.html dick?" contest between myself and "Lauren":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20030927_sushi/P1010006.jpg, and I believe I came out the victor. (She cried more)

Sunday the plan was for a few of the guys from the gym to head to the "Cleveland Rock Gym":http://www.clevelandrockgym.com/, just for a change of pace. The weather was supposed to be horrible, so it was a chance to see some new problems, and work on the on-sighting ability. When we all convened, the weather was looking beautiful, so we changed our minds and headed down to Coopers again. We got about 45 minutes down, and the skies turned black and rain started falling. Damnit, damnit, _damnit_! The only good thing at all about the drive down was we passed some cheezy guy in a "Fast'n'Furious":http://www.riceboypage.com/ "Eclipse":http://www.riceboypage.com/shame/hall_of_shame_5/hallofshame5.html getting a "plo-job":http://www.gawker.com/archives/008157.html from his girlfriend. Busted!

On the way back home, we thought maybe about going to the "bad, bad gym":http://www.jewarts.com/climbnorth/ that's sort of near the 'burgh, but nobody was answering at the number, so I was going through all my phone numbers to try and find someone who a) would be home, and b) would have teh intranet already all fired up to look up the gym's hours for me. All my friends suck, because they either weren't home, or weren't wired enough (Just kidding, I love all my friends). Finally got hold of someone, figured out the gym was closed Sundays, and we all went to the co-op instead, and had a very good workout... it just took us 2 hours of driving to get 5 minutes away.

Yummy dinner at Sharp Edge afterwords, plus a lapful of ketchup courtesy of the very harried waiter (apparently someone else called off, and he was all alone).

Animal Planet

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I did not have a very good animal day yesterday. First of all, my one cat, Sidney, is sick. He's been sneezing for the last few days, so I call the vet to see if I should bring him in, or if it's just one of those "low-grade things":http://www.mauihumane.org/pam118.htm that will pass. The woman who answers the phone tells me that as long as he's eating and drinking, and any discharge from his eyes or nose is clear, it's really nothing to worry about.

After I get home from work, I want to make sure that Sidney eats. So I grab a handful of "treats":http://www.permutator-reviews.com/petco/cat-treats-catnip/cats/Whiskas-824607.html to give to him. Of course, the sound of crunching make the "other two":http://feralboy.com/chez/brunch/11_party_pooped.jpg come running, so I give each of them their own little handful so they won't muscle in to Sidney's food.

Now, I probably haven't talked about it here, but my cats are very playful. They love to wrestle with each other, and Sidney and Manson even like to play fetch. The two brothers decided to make up their own new game last night, called "Let's see how many times we can throw up in a 5 minute span." I'm assuming it was because of the treats, because they both were sick almost immediately. Poe starts heaving, and looses most of what he just ate. I just get done cleaning that up, and Manson does the same thing. Lather, rinse, repeat. Then Manson again. Then Manson _again_. At this point I'm convinced that all of my cats are going to be dead from either a Upper Resperatory Infection or choking on their own vomit, "John Bonham-style":http://drum_gods.tripod.com/drumgods/id10.html.

Finally, everyone settles down, and I go off to "the gym":http://www.theclimbingwall.com/ to climb and unwind. Coming back into my building, I see my next door neighbor. Nice guy. He's taking his dog, a large Doberman, out for a walk. We're in the lobby, and I go over and pet the dog, who usually strains at his leash like crazy whenever he sees new people. Very friendly. This time he stands almost completely still while I'm petting him, and I was just about to say something about it when I feel something warm on my foot. Yup, the dog was pissing all over my feet (and of course I was wearing sandals... it was that kind of day yesterday).

"I, uh, guess he got a little excited there", I say. My neighbor apologized profusely. "I'm so sorry... he just gets worked up, etc." "No problem" I say, and I mean it. Just run in my apt., and rinse my feet off in the tub, including sandals. Of course, while rinsing off the feet, I realize that one of my darling cats had puked one more time on the bath mat. Luckily, this was the old bath mat, as I hadn't gotten around to putting in the "new ones":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000489/ yet.

I wouldn't say it was as bad a day as "Squirrel Cop":http://www.thisamericanlife.org/pages/descriptions/98/115.html from "This American Life":http://www.thisamericanlife.org/, but it was close.

(Oh, and the worst part of the whole dog pee thing? When I left my apartment an hour later, the puddle of dog pee was still there. Boo, neighbor! Booo!!!)

Shop 'till ya drop.

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Whew! Being domestic is _hard_! I had a new recipie for sauted chicken and artichoke hearts I wanted to try out, so I was hoping to just pick up a slightly larger pan and some wooden spoons and be out of there. Oh, no. After getting a Calphalon pan, a new spatula, replacement heads for my razor, and "new bathmats":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000161/, I managed to stagger out of "Target":http://target.com/ having "only" spent $100. Then it was over to the "grocery store":http://gianteagle.com/ to get my ingredients. Ok... first of all, good olive oil is _expensive_! And don't get me started about the organic chicken that I bought... $6 a pound instead of $4.

Everything went well after that. Pat made me a cd full o' Italian songs[1] to get in the mood for cooking (the cd was labeled "gravy music"), and I think the dish turned out pretty well. I'll know for sure today.

*Update:* It was very, very tasty. Heavy on the garlic, "which I like":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/000186/.

fn1. Basically "Mob Hits":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000IGQI?v=glance with some extra "Frank":http://www.sinatrafamily.com/ thrown in.

Weekend Wrapup

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A very nice weekend, with lovely post-hurricaine weather. Saturday was pretty low-key; just did some coding and got out for a short bike ride in the fresh air. Sunday went bouldering down at Coopers, which was a fun, although a bit more humid than I would have thought, seeing as how it was so crisp up in Pittsburgh. At the last minute, I decided that I wanted to bring my camera along, but all my batteries were flat. So today I'm going to do a quick "comparison shop":http://www.steves-digicams.com/nimh_batteries.html for some "NiMH batteries":http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM. With all my electronic "gizmos":http://feralboy.com/matt/tivo/ and "remotes":http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?srchdesc=y&query=RM-TP501E&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort, I don't seem to be able to keep my rechargables around. I figure picking up another 8 or so will be good. I already have a "rechargable pack":http://www.steves-digicams.com/maha_powerbank.html just for the camera, but it's somewhat clunky to carry around all the time, so a few extra sets of batteries will be good to have. *Update:* Got "a charger":http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm and 8 batteries for around $60. Not bad. I already have a NiCad/NiMH charger, but I don't know how good it is, seeing as how that technology seems to be "progressing":http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/maha_c401fs.html the same as the batteries themselves.

Sequels

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Pat and I were having a discussion on the way back from lunch today, trying to come up with movie sequels that were as good or better than the original. Here's what we've got so far: * "Empire Strikes Back":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/ * "Godfather II":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0071562/ * "LOTR: Two Towers":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/ * "Terminator 2":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/ * "Star Trek II":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/ ("Khaaaaaaan!")

What else?

*Update:* Thought of a couple more:

* "Toy Story 2":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120363/ * "Aliens":http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/ I feel a little weird about this one, as it's very similar to T2, in that the first movie was a sci-fi movie, and the sequel was either an action movie (T2), or action/horror (Aliens).

Long weekend

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Haven't really posted in awhile; but that's because there hasn't been much going on. Ryan was in town this weekend, which was awesome, and we raged a little bit. Even thought it was a long weekend, it feels like he went back to Philly too soon. Also did lots more work on my "BlogShares Client app":http://feralboy.com/bsclient/. I added some simple charting of your net worth last night, and some other nice things. It's amazing still how fun this little project has been, even with all the frustration.

Weather generally sucked all weekend, although I did manage to get a bike ride in Sunday. I'll need to do more of that, because I stepped on the scale last night, and it was a bad scene. I don't weigh any more than usual, but my body fat ticked up a percent... just the opposite of what I want. Today will start a slightly more rigorous program of diet and exercise; _especially_ more time climbing. I feel like I've let biking get in the way of that a little, so tonight I plan to go in and have a serious workout. I want to hurt when I leave, and then I'm going to do it again tomorrow night, too. I've felt weak climbing lately, and I don't like feeling that. Time to start working hard at it again, as it's the only way I'll push through this plateau I'm on now.