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

Archive for February, 2006

Lame URL of the Week

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I get an email today advertising a brand new service for pilots, tells me to go to leftse.at. I scratch my head thinking what a bizarre URL and then it hits me – take out the dot and you get leftseat which is where the pilot in command sits. But its hideous; leftseat.com is taken so I am sure they couldn’t decide what to do but I really hate what they came up with.

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February 28th, 2006 at 11:02 am

Posted in Computing,Rants

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Possible Fun Ahead

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So whilst I look for a job I’m enjoying the good graces of the State of California and a nice little cheque every week or two. Last week I got a letter requesting that I go to the local employment office for a personal job search consultation. Now I’m sure these people do a great job but I doubt any of them have heard about Java, J2EE etc let alone have any idea how to find a job. Typing in the local office, no problem. Someone looking for Struts on Tomcat – probably not. So I was thinking I might be able to have some fun watching them try to tell me how to do a job search. Yeah, I’ll give them the acronyms and my starting salary requirement and wait for them to give me the interview times.

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February 26th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

Popeyes is Open!

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On the way into El Centro this morning I was excited to see that the new Popeyes is now open – I just love that spicy chicken. However, this is a rule out here in these parts (I call it the 15th law of being a redneck) that says when anything new opens everyone must go there and forsake all other alternatives. And sure enough we went in for lunch and the line was huge and no seating available. Well, it will still be there in a few weeks and I’ll try again then.

On the way back after lunch, there was a fire engine and an ambulance outside Popeyes, and the medics were running in with a stretcher. Not the best advert for your first week of opening – I won’t have what he’s having.

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February 25th, 2006 at 1:24 pm

Posted in Imperial Valley

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A Black Anniversary

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One year ago today I was woken by the incoming text message sound on my cell phone. I didn’t have to look at it to know who it was from or what it meant: the results of my mother’s brain scan were not good. The next few days were quite a daze, I don’t think there was a single minute where it wasn’t on my mind, trying to rationalise it or make sense of it. And so began the most awful 7 months of our lives. I can’t believe the time has passed so fast but she is still in my thoughts every day. She is missed by all of us.

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February 24th, 2006 at 11:18 am

Posted in General

A New Job At Last

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Its been a typically frustrating process, the IT market is full of annoying recruiters and companies advertising but not hiring. But I think I have a new employer. I won’t get a formal offer until I have completed a background check but the intention is there so I think I can stop the daily resume posting.

Not sure if I should jinx things by saying who I will be working for, so lets just say I’ll be writing web applications for use on that Company’s games console and their hand-held game player. And I might get to travel to Japan.

Will probably be a couple of weeks before things are sorted but in the meantime I’m going to do some relaxing and some flying. And maybe a little trip somewhere….

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February 23rd, 2006 at 10:47 am

Posted in General

America, You Let Me Down

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So you didn’t listen to me on Thursday, or perhaps you voted for Jerry just out of spite? Dancing With the Stars has problems with its final show – Jerry is almost guaranteed to win as he clearly has the popular vote. But anyone with one half-working eye knows that his dancing is not on a par with the others, and the articles are no doubt already being written about what a sham the show is. Because of the ranking system used, about the only way Jerry can lose is if the judges tie Drew and Stacey for first place. If that happens then Jerry can only come second no matter the viewer vote. But if there’s a tie, we’ll all know that the ‘fix’ is in. Like I said, the final is damned no matter what.

We all know reality shows are little to do with reality but in most cases the person who goes further than they should is usually gone when it comes down to the trophy, and the winner is usually deserved. But here that person is likely going to win if the show doesn’t get rigged against him, and I’m not sure that’s happened in a reality show before.

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February 18th, 2006 at 9:56 am

Posted in Dance,Rants

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Single of the Week

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Been a while, but heard this Wednesday performed live at the Brit Awards. Unannounced, Prince appeared on stage complete with the Time and Sheila E, did some classic numbers to great effect but I was most taken with his new single. Like When Doves Cry before it, Te Amo Corazon is a haunting ballad with a latin flavour. Grab a loved one and get your smooch on.

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February 16th, 2006 at 10:34 pm

Posted in Music

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Vote Lisa!

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I deliberately haven’t blogged about this season’s Dancing With The Stars but feel compelled to urge you all to vote for Lisa tonight. Yes, its admirable that Jerry Rice has the balls to try dancing but he truly is the worst person at this stage of the competition. And not just by a little, but by a whole planet. Its a dance competition, folks, not a celebrity fan club event.

I know Lisa has no chance, but wouldn’t it be nice if for once a reality show put forward someone who met the talent criteria rather than the most popular person? Come on, American, I know you can do it.

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February 16th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

Posted in Dance

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Wasting Paper

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So recently I’ve been printing out a lot of job descriptions, emails etc and almost every time I get one extra page than I expect, containing just a couple of lines of copyright or other irrelevant text. Why does this happen almost every time ? I ordered a new cell phone at the weekend, printed the receipt and there’s one line on the second page. I’m tired of wasting all this paper.

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February 14th, 2006 at 10:17 am

Posted in Computing,Rants

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Things I Don’t Understand

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  • Why remake the Pink Panther movies, Steve Martin may be funny but there is only one Inspector Clouseau
  • The people on Judge Joe Brown – yesterday a woman was writing cheques she couldn’t cash but blamed the person she gave them to for depositing them before she had the funds. And another woman trashed a car she thought was her ex-boyfriend’s but actually belonged to a total stranger. She thought she was innocent as she hadn’t meant to damage someone else’s car. Who are these people???!!
  • People who buy low budget fares on airlines and expect the airline to treat them like executive passengers when things go wrong. You paid $50 for a roundtrip and now want a hotel and free flight on a different airline? If the flight was that important to you, maybe you should have bought a proper fare on a larger carrier. And don’t get in the face of the gate agent, you cheap bastard!
  • American Football and Baseball. Yeah, I know 50 million people can’t be wrong so maybe it’s just TV coverage that sucks, because if I watch any part of these games I really do want to kill myself after just a few minutes.
  • Why do people buy the PT Cruiser? Thanks to the Aztec and that awful Chevrolet vehicle the Cruiser isn’t the ugliest car on the road but please don’t pull alongside me and smile like our cars are kin.

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February 8th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

Posted in Rants

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