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Random thoughts of a Brit living in the Imperial Valley of California

Archive for January, 2006

Headhunters and Other Animals

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I hate looking for a job. I thought the only reason to be mad at DefenseWeb Technologies for laying me off was for breaking their promise that they were not going to lay me off no matter what happened, but now I know that the real reason to be mad is that I have to deal with head hunters.

They are so upbeat, optimistic, but most of them have nothing to offer but empty statements. They want me to visit them and be ‘interviewed’, insist it can’t be done on the phone. But when you get there, its just a re-reading of the resume, most of the time with no clue as to what any of it means. It could have been done over the phone without making me drive for 2 hours each way. They put you forward for positions that I swear don’t really exist as I never hear from them again. Everyone I speak to says the same thing whether it be here or back in England.

On the positive side I think I may be close to a new position. I’m having a face to face on Friday for a job that sounds really interesting. They are looking for a boatload of developers and can’t find any; yeah, basically they’re desperate! Wish me luck.

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January 25th, 2006 at 2:00 pm

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Another Soul Taken

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With the rush of Christmas away, and the theft and house break-in on our return, I’d not checked up on my brain-tumour blogger in England for some time. I was sad to read last night that he lost his fight on Boxing Day. That makes both of ‘my’ tumour sufferers taken to this curse of a disease. Although they both lived with the cancer for longer than my mother, it is proof again that it is a diagnosis of death.

Just today my wife got news of two people well known to her dieing very recently from a cancer of some kind or other. And just as with my mother, these are all good people who did not deserve to be taken from us so soon, and so unkindly.

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January 16th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

Posted in General

iTunes Meme

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I’m blogging too much, I know, but here goes another. This time a little meme about my music library courtesy of jschwa.

Sort By Song Title:
First: ‘Til You Can’t Tuck It In by The Beautiful South, from the excellent Painting It Red album.
Last: Zorro Gris by Schifrin, Lalo & Orchestra Ensemble, from the soundtrack to the movie Tango.

Sort By Time:
Shortest: Untitled by Lamb, weighing in at 7 seconds.
Longest: When Will I Be Famous by Bros, I am astounded to see that I have a 29 minute and 10 second remix version of this 80’s hit. Astounded and embarrassed!

Sort By Artist:
First: ¡Cubanismo!, I have most if not all of their albums, absolutely essential if you like that Cuban latin vibe.
Last: Yukihiro Fukutomi with Second Sight [Yukihiro Fukutomi Remix], a little ambient groove that you’ll most likely like.

Top 5 Most Played:

  1. Cool by Gwen Stefani | 11 plays
  2. Because of You(Jason Nevins Acapella) by Kelly Clarkson | 8 plays
  3. Hung Up by Madonna | 7 plays
  4. Stickwitu by The Pussycat Dolls | 7 plays
  5. 30 Minutes by t.A.T.u. | 6 plays

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January 14th, 2006 at 10:01 am

Posted in Music

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So… About That Break-In

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Click Here to go to the Gallery

As I already mentioned some of Brawley’s finest young adults decided to use our house as their playground whilst we were away in England over Christmas. They first broke in when my in-laws were here feeding our dogs, the two girls said they had permission from Erin to use the hot tub. First clue that things were amiss was that they didn’t know how to get to the hot tub. Later during the week my mother-in-law noticed doors open, lights on or off that she hadn’t set and so was certain people had been in the house.

Before we left I had set two cameras – one on top of the fridge downstairs which would show activity in the living room, and the other looking out from the computer, the idea being to capture an image of the computer being stolen but it also looked out to Erin’s bedroom.
Read the rest of this entry »

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January 13th, 2006 at 11:15 am

Posted in General

Computer-type Stuff

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I bought a Dell Axim x51v to replace my stolen iPaq. I found a page that had coupons and other information to get discounts, and sellers on eBay always have $45 off coupons that you can buy for $4 and apply to almost any Dell purchase. Bottom line: got a $600 Axim for $300 direct from Dell.

Had trouble getting it to sync with Outlook though. After much installing and crap I eventually traced the problem to my personal firewall software, Zone Alarm, which was blocking attempts to send data to the Axim.

Now I don’t use Outlook at all, other than as the backup store for my PDA. Instead I use the always wonderful Thunderbird which today announced a brand new version 1.5. If you don’t already use it, I encourage you to check it out.

Big news of the week is the announcement of Apple’s Intel boxes and the hideously named MacBook. I guess they’d run out of iNames but that really is lame. Sweet hardware, and the new iLife totally rocks but still too expensive to justify a purchase for me.

I’m almost ready to put up my rogue’s gallery from the New Year’s break-in, I’ve narrowed 300 pictures down to 15 and will put them up soon.

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January 12th, 2006 at 9:08 am

Posted in Computing

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Gisa Job?!

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I think I’ve blogged before that I am employed by a San Diego firm to work on site at one of the military bases in the area; per their instruction, I currently can’t name names.

Well, that contract was cancelled abruptly at the end of last year and my primary employer has been scratching its head over what to do with me, and one other guy in the same boat. Their biggest problem is that they are exclusively .Net product development so they have no Java work to put us on. So far this year we’ve been on overhead but got a call yesterday to expect an email “inviting” me to HR today to “take care of business”.

Well, business is being taken care of – after today I am a free man. Anyone want to hire a J2EE, Oracle, blah blah person?? Heck, or even pay me to get my commercial piot licence and I’ll fly you around! That would be sweet.

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January 10th, 2006 at 9:11 am

Posted in Business

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And In More Good News..

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…. I won $9 on the lottery last night and….. Popeyes chicken is coming to El Centro!!!! A couple of blocks from El Pollo Loco….

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January 8th, 2006 at 3:08 pm

Posted in General

Passport Returned!

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Went to the mail box today and in the post is an envelope for my wife that contains something the shape and feel of a UK passport. She’s in San Diego so I call her up and tell her what I think, I open it and – voila! my passport has been returned. No clues as to who its from, no note telling me how I can get the bear back, or thanking me for my gift. Maybe the thief has a (small) conscience after all?

I’ve decided not to replace the iPod for a while (my old 20Gb one will suffice) and I replaced my iPaq with a Dell Axim for $300. That plus not having to apply for a new passport makes the damage a little better.

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January 7th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

Posted in General

Expensive Trip!

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Several calls and a personal visit to the airport lost and found have turned up nothing, looks like my bag was stolen rather than just left behind. The right words to describe the person responsible are not appropriate for this website. The cost to replace the contents is scary:

  • Replacement UK Passport – $145
  • Replacement iPod – $400
  • Replacement PDA – $550
  • Repalcement headphones – $50
  • Replacement stuffed bear from my family’s childhood – $irreplacable

Thats more than the damn flight cost. I bet the thief couldn’t believe their luck when they looked inside. I am such an idiot for letting it out of my sight.

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January 4th, 2006 at 8:42 pm

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Good Riddance 2005

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2005 was definitely my family’s annus horribilis and stayed that way right until the final hour. Obviously the lowlight of the year was my mother’s death, but we’ve also endured my sister losing her mother-in-law, having two cars smashed up within a month of each other and a whole other bunch of crap.

So we get home around 9.30 New Year’s Eve and its obvious that someone has been in the house. Fortunately, before I left I installed a couple of motion sensing cameras and so had over 100 photos of clueless teenagers enjoying our hospitality over several days. Turns out that one of my step-daughter’s friends ‘found’ a key to the house and were regularly letting themselves in to use the hot tub and who knows what else. The odd thing is that clearly didn’t care that about being caught – wet towels in our laundry room, doors left locked and unlocked, lights on etc. And these aren’t kids, they are all 18-20, and clearly don’t give a rat’s ass about anything. Well, maybe they will when the law comes knocking on the door. I did have to laugh though, two of them tried to deny it until they were told they had been on camera. Anyway when I find some decent ones I’ll post some pics of the dumbf*cks.

Then around 10.30pm I realised that we didn’t have my carryon bag at home, turns out we must have left it (or had it stolen) at the commuter terminal whilst trying to chase down our missing bags (yeah, the journey was grand too!). Contents: my passport, my video iPod, my iPaq and a stuffed bear of some personal value. So far no one has handed it in but I have my fingers crossed that at the very least someone will return the passport and the bear, even if they decide they like my ‘tunes.

So good riddance to you 2005.

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January 2nd, 2006 at 6:53 am

Posted in Rants

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