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.