Eseme's Den

It is very loud here today, as a bunch of people showed up at 7:00 Am to put in a new floor. And as I cam oddly not working today (my schedule has gone rather weird) I thought I would answer the questions about the trip to Pennsylvania.

I may one day have to be able to spell that state's name correctly, as this was for a job interview. The same thing goes for Massachusetts (where I interviewed just before Thanksgiving). I drove to Northern PA Institution Of Higher Learning (it and the town hereafter listed as Northern PA). No, I'm not going to use the real name of the place, as I don't want to jinx any job chances I have.

The trip from Maine to Albany was fairly uneventful. Albany more than made up for that. I was driving along in the far left lane to allow oncoming traffic to enter from an on-ramp. Ahead of me I saw something very odd. It looked, in silhouette, like a very large Segway. A tall stick-like shape about 6-8 feet high, coming down the on-ramp ahead of a dump truck. As my brain attempted to process this and came up blank, the front end dropped to the pavement.

And I realized this was a motorcycle. Doing a wheelie. On the highway. At speed.

The nutcase then pulled in front of me (I was going 75, so this guy with a death wish was as well).

Nutcase then decided the far left lane wasn't quite right and darted into the 8 foot space between two semis.

And then popped another wheelie while holding pace with me or going a bit faster.

When I stopped yelping "Oh shit, he's gonna die and I'm going to be seeing his entrails!" I grabbed my phone and made my first ever 911 call. Sadly there were no cops running speed traps when you need them.

( The rest of the two day drive )

It's that time again. Time to be thankful.

Today I'm thankful that I've had interviews lately, and have another scheduled. Do think good thoughts for me- the most recent interview was for an extremely cool job.

I'm thankful that I got to drive two hours out of my way after the last interview and see two friends of mine, friends that I haven't seen in years.

Talking to one of those friends, who has had some very regrettable experiences with a store-gaming crowd (to the point that she is no longer gaming) has made me thankful for the great community in Rochester. I got to game with people who weren't pissed off if I missed a game because something else in my life came first. I got to game with people who didn't mind if people didn't pay strict attention to every aspect of the game (I was teased as opposed to yelled at for falling asleep at game, and btoblake could be distracted... heck darkvalor played WoW). Having hobbies other than gaming was seen as normal as opposed to evidence that one didn't take gaming "seriously" enough. I've had the good fortune to have a GM who sometimes noticed "Hey, no one's in the mood for this game, lets do something else" and would let before-game conversation carry on if it was interesting.

I have been very fortunate in gaming groups, and I am very thankful for that.

Those darn pine trees are having sex again. Poor Ruby has an almost neon yellow hood.

I'm experimenting with Flickr, in part due to the topic I plan to use for my interview presentation- Social Bookmarking and Tagging.

If you like photos of castles and far away places (and Stonehenge) I have a Travel set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eseme_r/sets/72157600359008404/

I had my first phone interview on Thursday. I enjoyed it and thought it went well (the Search Committee on the other end laughed a few times). However, it is impossible to tell how it went from the interviewer's perspective - you can't see people on the other end of a phone call.

I have about nine more jobs to apply for this week. That means lots of cover letters to write, which is honestly the worst part of the whole business as it is very repetitive.

The weekend was fun. Went out for dinner with my parents on Friday at Richard's, a local German restaurant. The food was delicious as always. Saturday I went to three different rummage sales profiting three different charities (the largest one being the Bowdoin Yard Sale, formerly known as the Dump and Run Sale). We also went to an estate sale which was a very odd experience as we wandered through a dead person's house, opening drawers and cabinets to look for things to buy. Sunday I drove to the Windsor Fairgrounds with M to go to the Maine Fiber Frolic. Sheep, llamas, alpaca, rabbits, and fiber, fleece, roving, yarns, dyes, and stuff for sale, oh my! So much color and texture. We paid for a felting workshop and made lovely pouches, then we shopped, having lots of fun wandering through the stalls. We got ice cream and watched the Llama Drill Team, which was certainly a sight. People and llamas marching to "Anchor's Away" was really quite stirring and patriotic.

I love felting. *sigh* All my supplies are packed and in storage in Buffalo. Darn it.

First, I heartily reccomend Bill Bryson's The mother tongue: English and how it got that way. Especially to lissadora who posts the Word of the Day and who would enjoy a wander through the history of our language (for instance, while now we can only impede an action, it used to be possible to expede as well).

Second, I applied for more jobs yesterday. While I had a very nice interview (and learned I'm one of two people being considered) it is always a good idea to keep applying. Today, Institution of Higher Learning Number 1 called, asking if I was still interested in the job (yes, I did apply yesterday). I will have a phone interview next Thursday. Then while running errands with Mom I got another call. It was Institution of Higher learning Number 2, asking if I was still interested in the job (yes, I applied yesterday). I was asked if they could contact my references (yes, certainly), and told that further contact regarding interviews between next Thursday and June 19 would be made soon. I was "shortlisted" in their process.

So of the four jobs I applied for, two called me within 24 hours.

Life is, as always, interesting.