Reeee-jected

Heard back from the recruiter - NCM is a no-go. My LAN skills are not up to the task.

Ah, such is life.

Good news?

I had my first job interview in more than 5 years this morning, with a company called National CineMedia. The position they interviewed me for is here.

Now I know that I'm not *perfect* for that job, but dang... I'm really really close. The things I don't know I'm more than sure I can pick up pretty quickly. And man... the technology they're working with is just kickass stuff - HiDef digital projection at crazy bitrates and gorgeous resolutions... just serious drool-worthy stuff that I'd love to work with.

Anyway, the interview this morning was a bit disconcerting - one of the two people I met with was friendly, but a tough guy to read as far as his reaction to me and my qualifications. The other fellow I met with later on was cool and we got along well.

So all in all, I'm not sure how it went. I'd like to think that it went well, but I won't really know until my recruiter gets back to me with their reactions.

Wish me well.

Outshined

I just looked in the mirror
Things aren't looking so good
I'm looking California
And feeling Minnesota

Duff's all shitty

For those of you who don't know me, I've got this cool cat named Duff, seen here in a normal pose (sleeping hard):One of Duff's best features is his long soft fur, but this fur also gets him into trouble.

This morning, I hear him excavating in the litterbox - he had to have been in there digging and dredging for at least 10 minutes. Then when he was done, he ROCKETED out of the box with a half pound of litter flying out the front with him. I figured this couldn't be good. And it wasn't.

He had shit stuck in big clumps all over his furry ass, his bushy tail, all down the back side of his back legs, and in the toes of his back feet. Nasty. I didn't take pictures. So I had to drag him into the shower with me and shampoo the shit out of his ass (literally) for 20 minutes, and during this he's howling like I'm trying to kill him with a dull butter knife.

All part of the fun of owning a long haired cat.

Nowhere to go and all day to get there

Minnesotans drive slow. I'd somehow forgotten this fact from when I lived here before, but the more I drive around here, the more I'm forced to remember it. Even in the lightly traveled off-hours, traffic tops out at about 65 mph. People drive like they have no purpose in life.

And not only are the drivers slow, you have to wait to get on the damn freeway because they're militant communists about the goddamn on-ramp stoplights around here too. I was trying to get on the 35W at about 3 o'clock today and had to wait 4 minutes on this damn on-ramp:The best part of this comes when you actually do get to go - the slug who went before you has barely accelerated to 40 mph by the time he hits the end of the on-ramp.

Merging is another concept that Minnesotans have trouble comprehending. In LA, I would be considered a polite driver - I leave people a gap and will let them merge in front of me. Here, I leave a gap for someone merging onto the freeway and they don't seem to understand that the gap is meant for them - it's just a foreign concept. They'll slow down to an almost complete stop waiting for me to pass by, as I'm sitting there begging to get rear-ended while I wait for them to accept my hand engraved invitation for them to merge.

People around here need to grow a pair and stop treating traffic like it's gonna jump out and bite them. Pick a plan and run with it.

How the other half lives

I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I do enjoy it. Much like baseball, I don't really like to watch it on TV, but going to see a game is a lot of fun. Even better if a good fight breaks out.

Friday night, I was invited by a new friend to go see the U of M vs. St. Cloud State game in the WCHA finals. I wasn't about to pass up a free ticket for some good college hockey, but then the deal got even better - a corporate suite at the Xcel Energy Center. We watched the game in style:The suite included a delightful buffet of chicken, meatballs, snacks, and "Minnesota Wild-rice soup" (get it?). Oh, and did I mention free beer? Yeah. Free beer.

Now that's the way to watch a hockey game. I need to somehow become rich so I can see all sporting events in the manner to which I have become accustomed.

Snow, v2.0

If you've never lived in a place where snow falls, there are a few things you might never experience, like clearing snow off your car. When I moved away from Minneapolis ~14 years ago, one of life's little accessories that I gleefully banished from my life was my car's snow and ice scraper. Gone forever, along with my heavy winter coat.

Ahh... never say forever. Monday morning, my car looked like this:Damn. A scraper would have been handy, but I had the next best thing:ye olde broom & dustpan. 10 minutes later:Perfecto. Ready to rock. Later Monday morning as I was sloooowly driving Melba to work, we passed this:Nothing serious.

About midnight last night, it started snowing again and this is what we woke up to this morning:That's Melba's VW Jetta sticking into the right edge of the frame. Woo... another 6" of snow.

Restaurant review: Fuji Ya sushi

Monday night, just before the sky opened up and dumped an assload of snow on the area, Melba and I walked over to Fuji Ya sushi (the Minneapolis location) for dinner. We were planning to meet some friends at a bar later, so we didn't want to wait for a table and chose to eat at the bar instead. Since the sushi bar was also full, and the full menu was also available at the booze bar, that was our only choice.

For beverages, we partook in Kirin Lager - 22oz., of course. Can't go wrong with Kirin. Chased that with some Edamame, which was prepared perfectly. But really - it's pretty hard to fuck up boiling soybeans in water for 5 minutes. This was followed by another appetizer, Wonton Wrapped Salmon. I wasn't wild about this particular "APP" - it was a bit short on the salmon (for $7.95) and had a whole crapload of ceviche salsa that didn't have the right combo of spices for my taste.

Just before our sushi arrived, we were presented with the usual wooden chopsticks in a paper wrapper. Oh, but this was a clever little paper wrapper, for along with the directions on how to hold your chopsticks (like a pencil, ya gringo), it also included thoughtful little warnings about what not to do with them:

Thank you, Fuji Ya... I never knew ramming them in my nostrils would be a bad idea.

I digress. Our sushi choices (all rolls, we're wimps) were as follows:
1. Dynamite ($6.75) This one was good - they went a bit crazy with the lettuce, but it was pleasantly spicy and the Yellowtail was tender and nice.
2. Philly ($7.50) Yes, this makes us weak in the eyes of Mark Beeson, but Melvin and I both dig sushi with cream cheese. This did not disappoint - good stuff.
3. Spicy Tuna ($6.75) Not spicy enough! Hey - if *I* say something isn't spicy enough, it's gotta be damn near prefectly bland.
4. Tempura ($8.50) I usually like my tempura a little more crispy, but ths wasn't bad.
5. Crunchy ($14.95) An interesting one - tempura with "spicy mayo". I liked the spicy mayo - a different taste/texture than I'm used to for sushi.

All in all, Fuji Ya was pretty good. Not spectacular, but I would definitely go back - and the prices seemed reasonable. Dub-O-Meter Food Rating: 65%.

People watching at Fuji Ya was above average. Seated next to us when we arrived was a trio of women who appeared to be co-workers, one of whom was sporting a black t-shirt that featured "Shut the FUCK up!" in large white letters. Can't go wrong with that. And on their other side was a fascinating couple that I can only describe as "middle aged overweight geek on a date with the only woman who would say yes". Aye... he was at least 45 and looked like he still lived in his mom's basement, and she was just... uhh... homely. But they were diggin' on each other muchly, and hey - who am I to judge? The rest of the bar area was the pretty standard Uptown crowd, but sorta homogenous. Dub-O-Meter Social Rating: 73%

F*ck snow!

I knew that uni-directional high performance summer tires on a rear wheel drive car with no weight in the back would be bad in the snow, but damn... I thought I'd at least be able to move a little bit and have some fun in the snow. No fun. Took 5 minutes to get out of the spot I was parked in - and moving around on the streets was a whole lotta countersteering even with feather-light throttle imputs and super-conservative driving.

Oh well. I'll get some decent snow tires for next winter.

Yay snow!

This was the view out our living room window at 3.30am this morning. Then...this was the view at about 7.30. Snow is supposed to continue until about noon, then trail off. Can't wait to get out and do some rally-style laps of the neighborhood in the Bimmer.

Check out my webcam for the latest view.

Flickr

Yeah, I know - I'm late to the party on the whole Flickr thing. Hell, for all I know Flickr is soooo 2004 and out of style already. Anyway, I have some pictures posted here and will likely post more fairly soon.

I hear there's this newfangled thing called MySpace...

Pffft.

Shuffle puck

I'm starting to really like shuffle puck. I generally dig bar games in general, and shuffle puck is random enough for me to really dig it. Here's a shot of my amigo Jon at the other end:Sadly, we lost this match.

Pole.

A dance studio that not only offers pole dancing lessons, but also advertises the fact. It just doesn't get any better than that.

51!

Yesterday (Thursday) was the first sunny day in awhile, and the temp actually peaked at 51 - not a bad day, and pretty damn good for Minnesota in early March. Melba and I went for a little walk in the late afternoon down to Lake Calhoun, and I snapped this pic:Yes, my Angeleno friends, that's a frozen lake. And despite the multiple signs warning you to stay off the lake due to thin ice, there was a dude cross-country skiing on the lake who drew disapproving clucks from Melvin as he passed us.

The first few "warm" days of spring are always amusing - temps in the high 40's and people are out wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. Ahh, optimism.

My kingdom for a decent mug

I have been asked thousands of times, by allies and adversaries alike, the age old question: "Steve, what makes a GOOD coffee mug?" Well skippy, sit back and I'll fill ya in. Some people may think the amount of coffee a mug holds is the prime aspect of a mug's goodness. To that, I say "nay". Granted, a good mug does hold a fair bit of java, but that's not all that makes a good mug. Take for instance these four examples:I have conveniently arranged these mugs in order from left to right, shitty to stellar. At first glance, it still may not be obvious what makes one mug better than another.

The size of the handle.

See that little orange bastard on the far left? One finger fits in that damn handle. That's practically worthless. On top of that, it only holds about a shot of coffee. Lame.

Now the next one is almost as bad - only two fingers fit in that handle. One might argue that it is a better mug because it holds an awful lotta Joe, but to that I say "poppycock". A large capacity is counteracted by a tiny handle - how long can you hold onto a fairly hefty mug when all you've got is two fingers partially wedged into the handle? Not long, amigo.

The third one comes close. Just by virtue of what is painted on the side makes it one of my favorites, but yet - only room for three fingers. Good thing the capacity is large, but not too large.

Yes, Virginia, the dark blue example on the far right is a GREAT mug. Look at the sheer size of that handle! It's a thing of beauty, comfortably allowing a full four finger grip. Combine that ergonomic masterpiece of a handle with decadent coffee capacity and you have yourself a work of coffee mug art.

Bad things before 9am

When I was a wee lad, my parents taught me a few general life rules. Rule #4712: "It is rude to phone anyone before 9am or after 10pm." There is an addendum to this rule that states: "It is also rude to create a lot of noise that would wake someone between those same hours".

These thoughtless cretins:did not learn this rule. They were out there starting that hole with a jackhammer at 8.15 this morning, then followed that with a whole lotta backhoe noise from 8.45 until just a few minutes ago. I knew even before I saw the truck that says "Gene's Water and Sewer" that they weren't working for the city. The city never starts crap like this before 9am, whether due to laziness or out of respect to Rule #4712.

Gene owes me some lost sleep.

Mmm... shelving

I've never been the tidiest person. I'm not a slob, but organization has never been my strong suit. So I decided that since I moved, it'd be a good time to get my crap organized. This weekend, I went out and bought four sets of shelving:Aren't they beautiful?

Chocolate fountains

This post is a shout out to someone I know who has a serious THING for chocolate fountains. I won't name names - you know who you are.

"This chocolate fountain contains 15 to 20 pounds of chocolate..."

Life in Minneapolis, day 1

Beyond the fact that the little digital thermometer in my car said "22" instead of the usual "72", I'm already starting to notice little differences about life in Minneapolis versus life in Los Angeles. Take for instance Costco. The Costco I used to go to in LA had a nifty little outdoor snack bar that sells a hot dog and a Coke for $1.50, and a few picnic tables with umbrellas where you could sit and eat said hot dog. In Minneapolis, the Costco has the same $1.50 hot dog and Coke, but the snack bar is inside, and the picnic tables shield you from the harsh fluorescent lighting instead of the sunshine.

The Costco in LA has the booze and the beer mixed in with the sporting goods and the bread - Costco in Minneapolis has the booze and the beer segregated in it's own little section, walled off from the rest of the goodies, with it's own separate cashier. Sorta like the VIP room at the strip club. Not that I'd know anything about strip clubs.

the webcam is back

I found the box containing the webcam. Fulfill your voyeuristic tendencies here.

LA - MSP v2.1: epilogue

Now that I've had a bit of sleep, I wanted to finish the trip story with a few more pictures I took in Gallup and on the road.

Yah-ta-hey is a Navajo word meaning "Yes, goodbye, attention!"

Because all towns need a Cowboy Shop.

I was damn happy to see this sign. Minnesota welcomes ME! We'll just see how Minnesota feels about me after I've been here for awhile.

LA - MSP v2.0: the conclusion

After spending six days in Gallup, I was highly motivated to get the hell out and get to Minneapolis. So I drove for 22 hours straight, stopping only for gas.

Made it. Finally.