Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Step one and a third

I have two tech screens most likely meaning that I have two managers fighting over me. I have a screen tonight at 8pm and another at 8am.

THIS IS FREAKIN AWESOME!

My only concern is "teching out" at a high enough level for the job. I have to tech out at the highest level they have cause the jobs they are offering are all 3rd level support. Lets hope I'm awesome enough. I have to guess that they think I can do the job because they want to interview me for it.

I guess the only thing that modulates my enthusiasm is that I doubt my knowledge. I always feel like I don't know enough.

That having been typed I'm still totally pumped and am going to do my best because I sure as heck don't want to get stuck holding the bag at Lexmark

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Step one down

There are three steps. There's a phone pre-screen w/ the tech recruiter. Then a phone screen w/ someone from the team. Then, they fly you down for a Tech interview, and a management interview

I am past step one with flying colors. To quote the guy "I think you'd be a good fit."

Next step is the tech screen with someone from the team. I've been studying their documentation.

I hope this pans out quick.

This place gets about 70k resumes a year. They interview about 1000 people a year. They hire about 200 a year.  Since they are interviewing me I've gone from 350:1 to 5:1.

That is fscking awesome. I am now 70 times more likely to get hired now.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Life is strange

So friday morning (the 23rd I'll have you know) I had decided to give up waiting for NetApp to contact me. It had been a month since they had gotten their new money; when I had expected to get contacted. I was getting down about not getting contacted; like the really good guys didn't want me. So I decided to let it happen when it happened and keep trying to make Lexmark work. No sooner had I resigned myself to the idea and told a friend of mine about it than I got an email from NetApp. They want to have a phone interview with me tuesday or wednesday. If this goes about like the hiring of my former co-workers I can expect a second interview about a week later (if they like me) and then a contract a week to two after that. So maybe three weeks before the contract is dry. I'm gonna need to give my current boss some time; at least two if not three weeks or four. If I give them three, tell NetApp four, we are talking about 7 weeks before I start the new job and 6 weeks before I have to leave Lexington.

Eeek.

If I get signed I'll start gutting my apartment of things I don't need soon after. I'll have about 3 weeks to get rid of the crap I don't need, give away crap other people can use, and pack the rest. I'll have to get a place in NC and then get all my crap there in a week. It'll be a lot of work and my reward will be a strange foreign place that I won't know and will be stuck with for a while.

Also eek.

Have I really become this much of a coward? Is this what happens when you get old? Is my desire for stable and ease made me so hesitant? I really am going to miss my friends. I'm worried I'm going to become one of those old guys at the bar that doesn't have anyone with them and talks to everyone who looks at him. It's like I want to get set in my ways. How is that any way for a discordian to live?

Strangeness abound. Interesting times are a double edge sword that cuts both ways. Hail Eris even if she is a bitch sometimes.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Hard Cider project

This is not a recipe; this is the beginning of a recipe. The hope is to cull info from the web and produce a hard cider; "Hail Eris!" "Wholly Mother" "Golden Apple" or something like that.

5 bags of different apples
10 qt stock pot with a hole in the side at the bottom.
3 qt stock pot
3 qt stock pot lid
blender (bigger volume the better)
2 25 lbs dumb-bells
cheese cloth
apple corer
fermenting bucket
grolsch style bottles
air lock
bottle wand thingy
brewers yeast
big ass tub

Core a crap ton of apples (no stems or seeds). Blend them with the skins on to paste; to let the juice out. Pour the result into cheese cloth and wrap them up so that the apple sauce can't get out. Put them in the 10 qt stock pot. Put the cheese cloth wrapped sauce in the 10 qt stock pot. Put the 3 qt stock pot lid on top of them. Put both 25 lb dumb bells on top of the 3 qt lid. Put the 3 qt stock pot under the hole in the 10 qt stock pot to collect the juice. Congrads you've made a make shift cider press. Put the juice and some water into a sterilized fermenters bucket with a packet of brewer's yeast. Put the lid of the fermenters bucket on with the air lock in. Fermenting ought to really start in 12 hours or so. Put the bucket some where cool and dry. Wait until the bubbles from the air lock slow to a minute between bubbles. That was your primary fermentation. Let it sit so that it can clear. Gently move it to an elevated position so you can siphon it into bottles. Leave head room so that the minimal living yeast don't carbonate further and break the bottle. Leave the bottles alone. Don't drink them yet. Let them sit. I swear. Like a couple weeks so that they can carbonate and mellow. Keep them somewhere dark and in the big ass tub so that if a bottle breaks the cider doesn't get everywhere.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Funny stuff

I do enjoy limericks if they are well formed and sufficiently referential. That is why http://limerickdb.com/ is so awesome. Have fun.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

An advanced jake

This jake comes in three different Jake levels. The basics are to pervert the automated threat detection system attached to phone taps by calling people and saying a bunch of terrorist buzzwords.

Low Risk:
Call your friends from a various pay phones, never using the same one twice.

Medium:
Call random people from the phone book from the same pay phone.

Advanced:
Call governmental numbers from the same payphone

Eris:
Call Homeland security from your cell phone.