We were recently lucky enough to get tickets to see Adam and Jamie of the Mythbusters in a Q&A session. Since my son's name is Jamie, we thought it would be fun to dress him up as Mythbuster Jamie. This included white shirt black beret, and fake mustache.
( Jamie meets Jamie... )

This is an actual spam message I just received (minus the website). I like that it's not a trick, and it's actually funny (in a twisted way). Geez, are these guys learning how to market, not just spew?

I could deal with getting spam like this, as long as it wasn't more than 3 or so per day.

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Hello my friend!

I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here (website) are bad.

Look, the site and call me 1-800 if its wrong..

My dog and I are still alive :)

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been in flux like it was the end of the world. But, just like in the movies, it's all working out in the end.

So... did I miss anything?

One of the questions I'm hearing asked is, "If Diebold can make good ATMs, what's keeping them from making good voting machines?"

Seems the solution is obvious... add a "vote" function to every ATM. "Early voting" was available to me where I live, so, to avoid long lines, make it possible to vote via ATM for that entire time. I know few people who don't hit an ATM at least once a month.

Banks and credit unions are already seriously regulated and we trust them with our money...

First:

Electronic voting machines. Nice touch with the printers in my precinct: closed container, "please verify" mode, etc. However, two of the 5 voting machines where I voted were offline because they were "low on paper". Quite a line was starting to form.

Waiting for my turn, all I could think of was "dimpled chads".

As for the results... we're willing to strap GPS transceivers onto people, but not willing to tax oil and cigarettes? What the hell is WRONG with CA?!?!

I signed my offer letter today, and start work this coming Monday.

EDIT: If you don't have dental insurance, and it's been a while, they'll do a free checkup for you. /EDIT

So on Friday my crown decided to fall out. That day, I'd received a direct mailing from a local dentist, so I figured "why not". I left a voicemail Friday night.

This morning, I got a phone call at 9am, offering me a 10am opening.

After a full checkup, I walked away with a crown completely re-cemented and good "for the next few decades".

The guy's good. If you need a dentist, go see him.

EDIT: First time is free, so no cost to me for today, even with re-cementing the crown. :-) /EDIT

Anyone want to support Boyo's school by buying stuff? Wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, and other random... things. It's all there. There's a spiffy website and everything.

Granted, the website isn't spiffy enough that it's easy for you to enter in Boyo's information. Instead, may I recommend you leave a comment here (screened) with an email address, and you'll get a personalized link.

If you want to do it the braun way, surf to QSP, click on "Shop Now", and enter in the school# 710327733. His student number is MAC1, but I can't figure out where to enter it. Trust me, it's much easier - for you and me both - if I just have the system send you an email with your own link.

And thanks. :-)

I've received an informal offer. They're checking my references.

Had 2nd round of interviews at my #1 choice. This job would officially take me a step farther in the direction I think I want to go.

Had 1st round of interviews at another company. Totally different direction - a step closer to writing code professionally. It's an interesting choice.

Submitted a resume to another company whose senior management I used to work for, and who competes directly with the company I just left. Same position I just had. Neutral choice for career growth.

Monday, 8/14: lost my job. Called my favorite recruiter, and emailed a few contacts. Favorite recruiter had a hot lead.

Tuesday, 8/15: Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, previously a professional typesetter, I finish a new, kick-ass resume.

Thursday, 8/17: favorite recruiter told me that the position was gone. :-( That night, I post my resume to a job board.

Friday, 8/18: while packing for a plane trip, I get contacted by about 10 recruiters over a 3-hour period.

Weds, 8/23: one of the recruiters lands me an interview with a competitor of my former company. He'd had another lead at a different company that's doing cool anti-intrusion stuff using virtual systems embedded on a firewall, but that job got filled before we could talk to them.

Thurs, 8/24: a HR person calls me from a company that created a new field of computing a few years back. Although the company does different stuff than I've ever done before, they still want to talk to me. The position itself sounds like the favorite aspects of the job I'd been doing. Of COURSE I'd be interested!

Friday, 8/25: HR person schedules a telephone interview with me. Cool, that's 2 interviews I have lined up.

Monday morning, 8/28: in-person interview. I walked out feeling unsure, but cautiously optimistic.

Monday afternoon: phone interview. The phone interviewer loved me, and the job sounds even better.

Monday evening: feedback from the recruiter for the in-person interview: nope. They're going with someone else they've already been talking to.

Tuesday night, 8/29: the other company tells me they're bringing me in for an in-person on Friday. Cautiously wildly optimistic. This position is different than any title I've had before, but should allow me to leverage a lot of my strengths. We'll see where this goes.

I know some of you will want to post "hooray"-type comments, and that's cool, but don't feel obligated. I don't need encouragement. I need luck and skill. This post has been a public service update for anyone who wants to know how I'm doing in my job hunt.

There's still a few leads I was hoping to hear from that I haven't, and may not. One of them is with a startup in my previous field whose business is an open secret, and sounds like it would be a lot of fun. However, the company is still small enough that they might not need someone like me right now. Ah, well. Still have hopes of being in on the ground floor of a start-up at some point. Still not king. ;-)

Earlier this evening, while I was sitting in the bathroom, one of my cats came in and walked over to me. This is not unusual, as their litter box is next to mine. However, she decided that she was more interested in finding a place to curl up for a while, and chose my trousers.

Seriously. One of my cats curled up and made herself at home in my trousers, while they were around my ankles.

When cat hair gets near my eyes or nose, I tend to get a mild allergic reaction. I just hope that the same isn't true for other sensitive areas.

Here's my horoscope from the SFBG for Aug. 9-15:

What the—? Cancer, some major activity is going down in your sphere. A typhoon perhaps or a gang war. Alas, it is not an episode of Dynasty, and you will not awaken to learn that it was all just a bad dream. In the face of powerful collisions, you must make a choice and stick with it.

On the 14th, my job went away. I can see the "typhoon" aspect, but not the "make a choice" part.

The reason given was something like "we feel the department direction and your personal direction don't allign, and that you're probably flexible enough to land successfully somewhere else."

My personal interpretation is something like "Since we haven't bothered to give your team a manager for the last 8 months, we're going to guess that you can easily be replaced with someone we're transferring from another department, who makes 2/3 what you do, which will save the company quite a lot of money." It's hard to have good communication with your manager when you don't have one, and the VP to whom you theoretically report is out of the office 3 weeks a month.

INFP - the Healer You scored 45% I to E, 47% N to S, 28% F to T, and 57% J to P!

You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more feeling based than thinking based, and you prefer to go with the flow rather than having a plan. Your type can best be summarized by the word "Healer", which belongs to the larger group of idealists. You have a capacity for caring that is deeper than most. You strive for unity, are fascinated by the battles between good and evil, and can be something of an idealist. Only 1% of the population shares your type. As a romantic partner, you are usually supprtive and nuturing, however, you have a high need for individuality. Harmony is extremely important to you as you are very affected by conflict and tension, which also makes you resist confronting your partner directly about problems. When you get angry, you usually blame yourself, rather than your partner. You can also be stubborn and unyielding when you feel you are being criticized or mistreated. You feel the most appreciated when your partner listens to you carefully. You need to be understood. You need to hear your partner express their feelings, the more often, the better. Your group summary: idealists (NF) Your type summary: INFP

Link: The LONG Scientific Personality Test written by unpretentious2 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Here's the trailer on YouTube. (I hope that's not evil too.)

Wow, I post a computer-generated Haiku and I get comments.

I post a link to a movie trailer that I'm in, and I get crickets.

Check out the trailer for a movie I helped with at the Bird-O-Bot Myspace page. I'm the guy getting beaten up at 1:07.

If you're on MySpace, please friend the Bird-O-Bot. Viral Marketing brings money to indy projects.

Generally, if you think it looks good, spread the word.