brirobot

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 22:08 Working on my new/used laptop. Removing some data and then going to install Ubuntu #
• 09:34 Just installed Ubuntu on my new/used Gateway laptop #
• 10:01 Maybe I should do something with the 4 old compact Macintoshes in my garage, a Mac Aquarium maybe? #

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AMERICA'S ENEMIES THROUGH THE AGES: A REFERENCE LIST BY CURT CLANGBURY, CONSERVATIVE

Decade: the 1770s
Greatest Threat: the English
Nature of Threat: British sought to place us back under the thumb of their imperial rule
Consequences of Failure: we'd all be speaking English today
Victor: America!

Decade: the 1780s
Greatest Threat: liberals
Nature of Threat: Attempts to place too many restrictions on gun ownership and not enough restrictions on free speech into the Constitution
Consequences of Failure: a nation of unarmed blabbermouths
Victor: real Americans, but not decisively called for forces of good until 2008

Decade: the 1790s
Greatest Threat: the French
Nature of Threat: took whole "democracy" thing a bit too far
Consequences of Failure: widespread embrace of the metric system
Victor: guillotine manufacturers

Decade: the 1800s
Greatest Threat: Barbary pirates
Nature of Threat: darkies learned to operate sailing vessels
Consequences of Failure: ruination of the America's Cup
Victor: National Talk Like a Pirate Day
( Le partie continue! )

I got my copy of the Field-Tested Books book in the mail today, and it's a purty thing. I know I've mentioned this before, but I'll do it again for no reason than I'd like to see a couple of you put money to a good cause:

If you're absolutely dying to have something I contributed to on your bookshelf, I have two essays in Field-Tested Books that are okay. More importantly, there's also essays by a ton of people better than me, including James Finn Garner, Will Leitch, Joe Meno, Lee Klein, Terry Teachout, Todd Dills, Ben Greenman, Maud Newton, Whitney Pastorek, Andrei Codrescu, Jessa Crispin, Jonathan Messinger, Heidi Moorman, Jim DeRogatis, Daniel Radosh, David Rees, and the internet's own Claire "Zulkey" Zulkey.

But even more importantly than that, a heap of the mayonnaise raised from sales of this book will go to First Book, a nonprofit outfit that does the very fine work of buying new books for low-income families. So if you go here and buy Field-Tested Books, you'll be doing more than stroking my pathetic ego; you'll be bringing good into the world. And that's something you can put on your heavenly resume.

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 15:06 I can hear thunder in the corner of this giant pole barn building I call my office. #

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People with kids are not happier in general than those without kids.

As I always say every time I get my period, ah! Another month of freedom! Another month of disposable income!

This story also made me wonder about all the research/evidence about how people with pets are happier than those without pets.

So, no children and three pets -- I guess we must be OVERJOYED!

The puppy and the cats are totally chilling together. It's only been what, two weeks? I am the puppy whisperer.

Do you know why I think this is so funny? Because I am nine, that's why. I am nine years old.

And, I mean, even beyond the name, it's like the news stringer deliberately wrote this for maximum juvenile hilarity:

"It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me."

In Saturday's opening heat, Homosexual pulled way up, way too soon, and nearly was caught by the field, before accelerating again and lunging in for fourth place.

COME ON

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 08:38 Twitter pals, sick of the fail whale? Come to Plurk, it's better! tinyurl.com/5lkn6n #
• 10:02 Damn it! Twitter swallowed my last two posts! I have been in the habit of copying posts to the clipboard before I hit "update". #
• 11:14 Yes, I just checked the Sci-Fi Channel and they will once again be running the Twilight Zone Marathon over the 4th of July! #

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So I have this box of out-of-print punk rock 45s, all from the 1990s, mostly Bay Area and Pacific NW bands. They are all in plastic sleeves and in pretty much perfect condition. This morning I was thinking I'd like to display them somehow, maybe on one wall in my office, but I don't want to use frames or anything. Not sure what to do...

Maybe this week I'll pull them out and count/catalogue them. I have some pretty good ones, like the Nirvana/Jesus Lizard split, Slant-6 "What Kind of Monster Are You?" 7", and Unwound's first 7", "Caterpillar."







I need to find me a turntable.

For those of you who need closure on that poll, whoever you hate the most won. Now let's move on to more important matters.

I am filled with questions about this article. First, and most obviously, there are those who are going to look a the headline and think, man, can you believe that in only 40 years, we can have sex with robots? And then there are those who are going to look at that headline and think, shit, 40 goddamn years before we can have sex with robots? Guess which camp I fall into.

Additionally, check out the robots for some fun double standard action. The girl robots are total sexpot body2hotties, while the guy robot is a flat-faced melvin. Pretty much any woman on Earth could nail a guy like that just by walking past a MicroCenter in a tube top. Why would you want a sex robot that looked like that? Obviously, the sex robot designers are all dudes and they are worried about being jealous of their own creations. I bet he has a tiny little robo-crank, too.

Then there's this:

"If you want to, you can have a robot that is completely faithful, or you can have a robot that is programmed to be completely faithful so long as you're completely faithful, or a robot that strays every now and again. It just depends on what you want."

Okay, I'm no expert on the human heart, but WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WANT A SEX ROBOT THAT'S GOING TO CHEAT ON YOU? How self-loathing can you possibly be? Folks, I hate myself more than pretty much anyone in the world, and even I am not going to shell out fifty grand for a sex robot who thinks I'm not good enough for her.

Originally published at Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear he's the Center of the Universe. Please leave any comments there.

So apparently the company I interviewed with has rescinded the job offer based off the last entry. Odd. Oh well, maybe I dodged a bullet. I’m happy to be staying with my current company. I think I might have become jaded by the treatment I have received from my current boss. I need to fix that and show my appreciation.

That’s about all I have to say about that. On the plus side I got a ton of hits to my site based on this hullabaloo.

 

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 21:53 Wrote a blog post about the new job I was offered: tinyurl.com/666352 #
• 08:34 I'm nervous #
• 13:21 I just got a call from HR at Great Wolf Lodge. They have rescinded their job offer because I wrote this blog post: tinyurl.com/666352 #
• 14:30 8 weeks ago I did a phone survey for a company claiming to represent Microsoft. They said they would send me $40 & it actually came! #

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I just cut down a number of long-stemmed roses from my garden. Also a peony and a few other random flowers. A few are blooming, but most are just budding and will bloom in water. I am taking them to work this week to sit in a vase on my desk. This bouquet would have cost who knows how much at a florists, maybe $30 - $50, but for me it's free. yay.

I took pics of some of my roses yesterday, to preserve them after they've withered.



( Read more... )

I am actually not a big fan of roses -- that is to say the store-bought kind that come from South America and are completely covered in pesticides and always have the same super-tight fist of a flower. Garden roses are amazingly different. And I love that these aren't doused in poison.

Originally published at Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear he's the Center of the Universe. Please leave any comments there.

About a month ago I sent my resume to a local resort, The Great Wolf Lodge, which was looking for an IT technician. No big deal. I’ve sent a few resumes out recently just to see of there was anything interesting out there.

It’s not that there is anything wrong with my current job. I’ve been an employee of that company for 14 years. I started there when I was 17 and now I’m 31. As I’ve worked there, I have slowly moved up the ladder to where I am now a manager. But the thing is, I’m completely burned out of working there. Other than cleaning rooms at the local Holiday Inn from the age of 14 till 17, I have never really worked anywhere else.

Fast forward last weekend. The HR director at Great Wolf Lodge calls me to ask if I’m still interested in the IT position with the resort. Of course I still am! I’m told that they had a good candidate, but corporate didn’t like him for a couple reasons and they have decided to widen their search.

This Thursday I had an interview with the current IT manager. He is being promoted to the corporate office in Wisconsin. To me that seems to be a good sign for the job, that it isn’t a dead end. He appears to be a few years younger than me, which is another good sign to me.

The interview seems to go well. Apparently they are actually looking for an IT manager. There is no one that works under this IT manager. 75% of the IT manager’s job is tech support for the front desk and all the office people. The MS Exchange Server and all the accounting software is run out of the corporate office. They don’t advertise the job as being for an IT manager, because they don’t want the add answered by people that expect $90,000+ a year and a staff working under them. One positive for me was that he liked the fact that I live two blocks away from the resort, so I could get them in a hurry in case of an emergency during off hours.

The current IT manager seemed to like me and thought the interview went well. The next step was to be interviewed over the phone by the corporate office.I got a call Thursday evening that the corporate office wanted to interview me the next day. I already had plans to go down state to attend my cousin’s graduation party. I told them they could call me and I would just pull over at some point. At 10:00 am on Friday I was interviewed by the corporate office in Wisconsin while I stood in the parking lot at a McDonald’s in Cadillac, MI.

The corporate office had questions for me that allowed to expound on my experience and my thoughts about computers and IT. As soon as I hung up the phone with them I knew I had blown them away. I just had this feeling that things couldn’t be better.

Around four O’clock on Friday I got a call from the HR manager. They wanted me. The corporate office told her to make it happen. So I entered into negotiations with her. I got more money than I expect to get. The benefits for the job are good. Two weeks of vacation to start, 3 personal days, BC/BS health insurance, Delta Dental insurance, 401K with matching funds to 4%. One of the biggest pluses is that I live right next to the place! I’ll be able to ride my bike and save a lot of money on gas. They also have a couple different restaurants in the resorts that I can eat lunch in at a deeply discounted rate. Lot’s of cool extras.

I still haven’t given them a 100% thumbs up on the job offer. I still need to talk to the president of my current company. I think I owe it to them. It would take a lot for me to stay. It would take a lot more money, frankly. We will see how it goes. I’m very excited.

Here is a link the the webpage for the Great Wolf Lodge.

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 11:57 Working in the yard. Cleaning up brush and burning stuff. #

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Yesterday we deemed it a lovely day and although both yuriverse and I have been lethargic these last few days (weeks, months, etc.) and although I had a gross upset stomach the night before thanks to a chicken dish served by a pizza restaurant (mistake!), by which I actually gassed Yuri out of the bedroom overnight, it was still one of those warm blue sky midwinter Sydney days where you feel guilty for not being outdoors. We got in the car and drove Manly-ward across the Harbour and Spit bridges, through the traffic lights in Bowgowlah and Fairlight, down to the beach where we were finally able to park around the corner from the southern tip. From there, there's a popular waterfront walk to Shelly Beach which of course we took.



Along the way, there were one or two poovish tourists, a couple of knowing stares but no chance of a connection in all the Sunday strollers and lollygaggers and kids riding scooters. After the walk up, we immediately turned back and returned to the car for a drive to North Head, there to look at the views back to Sydney and out to the Tasman Sea. Curiously, I had never been to North Head before. Access has been improved immensely, with the old artillery school closing down and reopening as a info center for the wildlife and banksia scrub sanctuary that forms the bulk of the headland.



So, because we don't keep up with the Saturday papers too well, and we're not big television watchers, we didn't know that it's whale watching season. There were quite a number of whale watchers at the various lookouts (not unpleasantly many, mind you). There were several boats about three kilometers off the coast bothering watching some grey whales or southern right whales (don't know which) as they did their feeding. I caught two distant glimpses of grey breaking the surface near the boats thence to dive back down for the food. It wasn't spiritual. I won't call it spiritual just because some vapid movie star does. I like this better:



Or this:



Birdie says "o hai"

I've spent much of the day walking around in a bikini top and shorts. Outside, too.

I don't recall the last time I did that in SF.

Kona and I went on a long walk this morning. It was 10am and about 75 degrees. She likes to pull on the leash, but I make her heel the whole time. She also weaves around a lot, and doesn't watch what I am doing, so I stepped on her toe once. I need to teach her to follow my pace, and walk in a straight line. Hmm.

Other than that she is a very good girl.

My Twitter posts from throughout the day.

• 21:19 Watching season 1 & 2 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" #

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Boy, this upcoming trip to Los Angeles is going to be ridiculous. Never in my freelance life has an interview subject put so many conditions on the gig, and I'm slightly menaced by the claim that his "people" will be traveling with us during the interview. If I go to prison, remember me as a man who murdered freely and had razor-sharp teeth lining his buttocks.

In other news, you may recall that a while back, much e-hay was made over the fact that representatives of John McCain and Barack Obama had a debate over Twitter. I don't see what the big deal is; George W. Bush has been doing this since 2006.

# 09:36AM: i had grafefruit and English muffins for breakfast. The english are our stonch allies
# 10:10AM: time for my workout
# 10:30AM: i need a drink just kidding j/k
# 11:17AM: did you know condi rice lives with another lady? I wonder if they ever maek out
# 11:22AM: shower time
# 12:41PM: meet w/mike ledeen to discuss iran invasion
# 12:57PM: i showed ledeen my tshirt with a missile going up the ayatollahs but, he said he saw it already
# 1:46PM: im bored
# 2:28PM: took a dump then thought about legacy for a while
# 3:14PM: oh ross will whats her name ever love you
# 5:24PM: shit the wife is home I better look busy
# 7:22PM: lose 4,765th consecutive game of minesweeper
# 8:14PM: jennas husband called me again wanting a job, note to self: find out what justice dept is
# 9:22AM: time for my workout
# 10:47PM: thought about legacy for a while then took a dump
# 11:01PM: SHIT DEAN THEYRE CLOSING THE PINCER WE GOTTA BREAK OUT WHERE IS DEAN WITH THE TANK FUCK
# 11:03PM: i swear to god if dean isn't an american citizen
# 11:52PM: dinner: pickle juice and a lung steak
# 12:04PM: another day without a terror attack, I win again
# 12:24PM: oh maddie will you and that bald guy ever do it

Yes, this thing hasn't ended yet! I have to say, I'm a bit surprised at how this is turning out; you people are far more into D&D and acid than even I would have guessed. We should see some tough voting this time around, so get at it.


Poll #1212041
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Comedian George Carlin, or musician Bo Diddley?

Game designer E. Gary Gygax, or LSD inventor Albert Hoffman?