Job update and other

I suppose that all of you fine folks are a little bit curious: Why does Flip blog so infrequently? What the heck* else does he have to do?

Well, you bring up a good point there. Unemployment does leave a lot of time for side projects, such as blogging. But I have been spending a good amount of time on legitimate pursuits, such as the job search.

And I'm happy to report that this week has (so far) brought calls from three different companies, each interested in bringing me in for interviews. Time to get the suit dry cleaned!

The three companies are totally different from one another, all in different industries. But I'm optimistic that this round of interviews could lead to a job offer or two. And although the Connecticut job is still very much a possibility, I'd much rather be weighing that option against offers in our neck of the woods. It would feel much better to have a choice of whether to relocate or not, with viable options on either side of the equation.

Non-sequitur alert...
1. Trick-or-treaters seemed to end around 8pm. Probably got 20-something kids, leaving plenty of 3 Musketeers bars that never got passed out. (That's 20-something as a quantity, not an age)
2. Had our annual furnace inspection today, and they detected trace amounts of carbon monoxide. That's not the kind of thing you want to hear. It's an 18 year old system and may be due for replacement. That sort of thing is easier to pay for when one is gainfully employed... (so it wasn't a non-sequitur after all!)

*The missus has been prevailing upon me to limit the usage of vulgarities, to prevent the sort of situation that occurred with the baby in Meet the Fokkers. So just in case Seth reads this, he shouldn't be scarred by the use of dirty words. After all, there are plenty of other reasons for him to be scarred by what he reads in this blog.

They say that nobody's face is perfectly symmetrical

...so let's just say I was going for a degree of realism when I carved this year's jack-o-lantern.

The dryer is trying to kill me!

Moving a load of laundry this morning, I noticed a warning label inside the door of our clothes dryer. It says:

No washer can completely remove oil. Do not dry anything that has ever come into contact with oil (including cooking oils).
...
Failure to follow these instructions could result in death or fire.

I can see how, in theory, disobeying these rules could result in fire. What I fail to understand is how it could result in death -- exclusive of fire. The "or" suggests that either possibility, death or fire, could happen independently of the other.

Now I'm terrified that next time I go open the dryer, there's going to be a shotgun inside there, aimed squarely at me.

The Nutmeg State

As my job search continues, a very enticing prospect has come up... in Connecticut. It's potentially a very interesting job, a great career step, and perhaps even a chance to work with a great colleague from a previous job. In addition, it might be the most lucrative job offer I'm likely to get.

But Connecticut? I have nothing against it - I've enjoyed the time I've spent there. I don't actually have as much concern about living in the Nutmeg State as I have about moving there. A lot of issues to weigh:

• We have great friends here
• We know very few people there
• We're generally very happy with the life we've found here
• It would be nearly impossible to sell our house right now
• We HATE moving

So, if a job offer is forthcoming from Connecticut, it'll be time for some serious soul-searching and very tough decisions.

Carbon-Fiber Sculpture

A number of historic automobiles have been deemed worthy of the label "art". Most notably, the 1960's Jaguar E-type was one of the first cars to be put on display in several art museums.

Now, Alfa Romeo is planning their return to the United States, having ceased sales of the Spider and 164 sedan by 1995. Next year, some lucky (and very wealthy) 99 Americans will become owners of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. This will signal Alfa's return to the USA, with a variety of other sports coupes and sedans to follow within a year.

Although my chances of ever driving -- or perhaps even seeing - an 8C Competizione are incredibly slim, I am smitten. This car is stunning. And although it would be a crime for any of these to be denied a life of devouring twisty roads, there's no question that this car is worthy of a spot in any art museum.


More photos here. (Courtesy Edmunds)
I guarantee you won't find a bad angle.

The ultimate in flexible formats

A German company has invented a Compact Disk that has actual record grooves on its surface. So it's up to you: play your album on a turntable, or in a CD player.

Perfect for the Luddite who's almost ready to make the jump from 1940's technology to 1980's...

Next: a rotary iPhone...

Just because you're really, really smart...

...doesn't mean you can't be a racist a-hole.

And just in case you were ready to let him off the hook for being a little kooky and really believing in the scientific data, how does this quote rank on your bigot-o-meter?

"people who have to deal with black employees find [the notion of equal intelligence] not true"

I hereby move for future biology textbooks to attribute the discovery of DNA to "whats-his-name and Crick".

"Hi, Da"

Yesterday brought another one of those awesome, being-a-parent-is-so-cool moments. Rachel picked up Seth at day care as usual and brought him home. Walking into the house (well, being carried in), he saw me and said, "Hi, Da!"

Many of his words or mumblings are subject to interpretation. But this one was very clear. And very cool.

His vocabulary continues to grow. "Ga" means yes (yeah), and he says again, outside, mama, da, all done, okay.

Hold on tight

Colin McRae was an extraordinarily talented Rally car racer. He died last month in a tragic helicopter crash that also took the lives of his own son, his son's friend, and another adult.

In his honor, Edmunds included a couple videos of ride-alongs with McRae in their weekly video picks. Fun to watch him drive, amazing to listen to his calm demeanor, and ohh, that accent.

For your amusement

I've probably watched this a dozen times, and I still laugh out loud every time. You can watch the whole series of Eli's Dirty Jokes on YouTube - they're all pretty good, but this one takes the cake.

Talk like a Trucker Day!

Breaker breaker one-nine. This is Big Flipper coming at ya. You got your ears on, son? What's your 20?

Put the petal to the metal 'cause there ain't no smokeys in sight. Meet you at the next choke-and-puke, I gotta 10-100.

It's talk like a trucker day, and that's a big 10-4.

No deleting!

How different would electronic communication be if you couldn't use a backspace or delete key? Thihnk about it. What if typing was like writing in ink - once it's on the screen, the best you can do is strikeout.

Try this for a day, an hour, even just a single emial email or paragrpah paragraph. in case you're wondering <-s-> and <-/-s-> (remove the hyphens) are the HTML tags for strikes striketr strikethrough.

Can you imagint imagii imagine if we really had to deal with all of our typos and stupid stream-of-conv consciousness statements, rather than just hitting backspace?

By the way, I don't recommend trying this in an email or presentation intended for your boss. Feel free to give it a shot in a comment to this blog.

9/11 mentality in a 9/12 world

Great Tom Friedman column in the NYT. And I'm not just saying that because I once had brunch with him at my parents' house.

My issues with flossing

Yeah, this might be a little TMI, if you know what I mean. But if you don't use your blog for personal hygiene confessions, than really, what's the point?

I'm not a conscientious flosser. I was reminded of this during my dentist appointment yesterday. Numerous times. Not that I never floss, just I have a hard time keeping up the routine on a daily basis.

Here, in no particular order, are my issues with flossing.

• It takes too long. Between brushing, flossing, mouth-rinse, etc. I estimate that people are expected to spend over ten minutes per day taking care of their teeth. Why should that one body part require so much personal hygiene? I'd argue that no other individual body part requires as much time spent on hygiene on a daily basis.


• Self-inflicted bleeding. Let's just leave it at that.


• It makes me drool. Yeah, I'm leaning over the sink, but still.


• Popping the floss out from between two teeth and spattering the mirror with spittle/food particles. You know what I'm talking about. Then you have to clean the mirror.


• The environment. Yeah, that's right, I'm playing that card. It's the only part of the oral hygiene routine that creates additional trash. I don't throw out my toothbrush every day. Be the end of the year there must be literally hundreds of pounds of floss in our nation's landfills. And doesn't it get wrapped around the necks of seagulls or something?


• It's antiquated. Every other personal hygiene routine has grown more efficient through the use of technology - sonic toothbrushes, modern deoderant, etc. But flossing is still done the old-fashioned way. Why can't someone come up with something more efficient? I mean, can you imagine how George Jetson's personal hygiene conveyor-belt-machine-thing would have been slowed down if it had to floss his teeth??
  

I'll try to get over it and floss daily so that my teeth don't start falling out. But these are some legitimate gripes; wouldn't you agree?

I can assemble IKEA furniture.

Just so you know. I mean, not everyone can. And that's cool. But yeah, I can do that.

Top five signs that autumn is here

1. When I do laundry, I find that each load includes a bunch of socks.

2. Trees around the neighborhood have started posting maps and directions to make sure that every last leaf finds its way to my yard.

3. The annual appearance of Pigboy Willy's Pumpkin Patch (I kid you not) in a nearby strip-mall parking lot.

4. Walking down the sidewalk has a greatly increased risk of severe injury from slipping on hundreds of acorns. Of course, the squirrels still can't find them.

5. The inevitable feeling of disappointment knowing that there isn't much baseball left to watch.

The United States of Jesus

Forget everything you learned about the separation of Church and State. Forget that the Puritans fled Europe because of Religious inequality.

Apparently, the United States constitution establishes this as a Christian nation. At least, according to John McCain.

McCain also said he agreed with a recent poll that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation," he said.

I've read the US Constitution several times, and I don't recall seeing "Christ", "Jesus" or "Christian" anywhere in there.

It's pretty disappointing to see how far McCain, long considered a moderate, is willing to bend over to appeal to the Christian base.

The beauty of all-wheel drive

Very clever ad for the grip of Subaru AWD with the rig pictured above cruising around the UK. Autoblog [via Edmunds]

Busy Weekend!

The Boy had a very nice weekend. Grandma & Grandpa (NJ side) were in town.

Seth was very happy and fun all weekend. He got so excited about his new firetruck, in fact, that he walked his first steps! He's been cruising for a while now (that's walking while using a table or other object for balance), and Saturday afternoon he cruised to the edge of one toy and took a couple of steps to reach the next one. It seems redundant to call them baby steps, but that's a good description. A couple of small steps, unsupported. We all responded by clapping and cheering, which might have confused him a little.

On Sunday, we took him to the zoo. He definitely "got it" more than his last zoo visit a month ago - he was interested in watching the animals this time. He had great face-to-face moments with a black-footed ferret and an orang utan. (According to the National Zoo, that's the preferred spelling nowadays.)

He's back at school today. Most of the kids in his classroom are walking, so he'll hopefully pick it up pretty quickly.