oh hi

Haven't written in about a week. Went to an interview in Connecticut last week. I originally thought I had no interest in the position and didn't want to go and interview for it but I'm glad that I did. I ended up liking what they had to say, the benefits package, etc. Although, I heard today that they narrowed the search down to two candidates, me and someone else (yay!) but it looks like they are leaning towards the someone else (boo!). I could still get the offer if this other person turns it down or whatever, but it's not looking 100% promising.

Still waiting to hear back from the other job. They are kinda stringing me a long a little bit. Let's see how that goes.

I'm kinda on a ticking clock here; I have about two months to find a job. I'm hoping that this all works out because I don't want to end up poor and on unemployment.

We're thinking about dressing Jack up and going to the pet Halloween costume contest that the radio station is throwing. I will update on that if it happens.

Goings on

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I'm such a nerd. I bought a turn-by-turn GPS app, MotionX, from the App Store. It's only $3, compared to TomTom and Navigon, which are $90 and $100 respectively. The difference is, you get one month voice and turn-by-turn for $3 and you have to subscribe for additional months. The cool thing is, you only pay when you need it. So you don't have to pay $3 every month if you aren't going to be traveling, but if you ever do need it you just pay your $3 and off you go. I like this business model.

So I went right over to Best Buy and bought the "RoadTrip", which is a combination iPhone car charger/iPod radio transmitter, and iPhone holder. So, it holds the phone up via steel cord (for lack of a better term) from the cigarette lighter, charges the phone, and allows it to play music through the radio. But with this GPS app, it also doubles as GPS holder. The app allows iPod integration into the turn-by-turn directions. I gave it a trial run yesterday and it quiets the music to give you your directions and then goes right back into the music.

I am absolutely in love with this; it goes directly to my nerd heart. I just thought I'd share.

I'll be using it tonight for a roadtrip to CT and it's making the thought of driving 4 hours both tonight and tomorrow a little more inviting.

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On the opposite of the cool spectrum, I finally gave in and bought a no load/no fee index fund today for my IRA that I can just throw money into and not even think about. I'm tired of picking up individual stocks and seeing how they go. Let's just make it boring and easy.

I screwed up really bad back in March. I wanted to put $1000 into Bank of America stock just to see what would happen, and guess what? That stock would be worth just around $6000 today. Ooops! I really dropped the ball on that one.

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Mentioned earlier that I'm going to CT. It's for a job interview in Cheshire, CT. I already know how much the job pays, that they will pay up to $35k for full relocation, and all that other good stuff. The salary is livable, and I've been told that this isn't the insanely rich part of CT. It's still about an hour+ from NYC so not exactly a suburb, but worth a shot.

I have no idea what my feelings on the state of CT is but I figure it's worth figuring out.

As for the other job - I have heard that I should hear something maybe as soon as this week. Although I can almost swear I heard something similar nearly two weeks ago. So I'm not holding my breath. But through discussions with the recruiter working on this for me, I have been made aware of the progressions being made internally. I know that it's a lot closer to happening then it was then; all my references have been contacted, etc. I have to just do a phone interview with a VP who was not there the day of my interview and we might be able to proceed from there.

This has been pushed back so far that I'm already looking at a first day of November 16th, even if they offered me the job as soon as tomorrow. Hey, get there just in time to take Thanksgiving holiday! Assuming that's what I end up doing - unclear at this point.

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Last weekend when Marissa and I were in the process of getting out of bed, Jack whined his way onto the bed and crammed his head inbetween us (as he is hilariously known to do on occasion; it's his favorite place to be). This is all well and good until we realized that he left a poop stain on the side of the sheets somehow. I have no idea where the poop came from - it was just a tiny bit.

It was funnier if you were there; trust me.

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A job interview on a Thursday really breaks up the week. By the time I get back it will be Friday and the week will be over. Nice!

Everybody is a crybaby

I saw Where The Wild Things Are yesterday. No thank you.

The book was maybe 10-15 pages, so adapting it to a movie is obviously going to be a bit of a stretch. Well, I think director Spike Jonze decided that having everyone get butthurt about everything and silently sit and ponder their heartbreak and problems while staring at the ocean was a perfect way to flesh out the storyline.

Don't get me wrong, the set work was pretty good and the voice work was tremendous. James Gandolifini was probably the best choice to play Carol, the uber-tough, ultra emo crybaby lead "thing". The only thing Carol likes better than destroying and/or building things is sharing his feelings in a "gosh why do bad things happen to me" manner.

I guess the message of the film is that nothing will ever be perfect and people will always ruin things. But despite that it's better to be with other people than to be alone, so deal with it. Make sure you bring your kids!

I was kinda hoping that when Max went back home to be with his mom that his boat capsized and he drowned but that didn't happen.

NOT A FAN.

?

Haven't written anything in a few days - nothing to write about. Just sitting around waiting for things to happen or not happen, however it may go.

I filled out a Cornell alumni survey today; only after about six different email reminders about it. I try to fill out surveys honestly, I really do. Filling out the survey made me realize that I'm quite proud to be an alumnus of Cornell, although I don't actually think about this fact on a regular or even semi-regular basis.

I have grown to not care for upstate/central NY very much, but that's mostly due to the fact that I feel like I should be in a city and I absolutely despise cold weather. I shouldn't associate those bad feelings with Cornell in any way, since looking back it was a really good four years for undergraduate and a mildly decent three years for graduate.

If I move to Washington there are probably Cornell Alumni events there. Is attending said events as lame as I might imagine it to be? I have no idea. It's something worth considering, but I'm unsure on the whole idea.

I saw Zombieland last week; loved it. The best part of the movie is something I won't talk about here because it's something of a (totally freakin' awesome) spoiler and knowing it ahead of time will take some of the enjoyment out of the movie. Needless to say, that's not the only good part. If you are hesitant because it's a zombie movie, then don't be. I'm not a big zombie movie fan, myself... didn't even really love Shaun of the Dead, which people constantly cream over. This movie is more of a comedy with a zombie backdrop instead of the other way around. Funny throughout. Go and see it. No joke it's probably my third favorite movie of the year (behind Up! and Away We Go).

It's getting cold again. It might even snow on Friday. This drives me crazy... it's not even Halloween yet. I have nothing more to add here without descending in to a very negative rant about my feelings on the matter.

Hmmm... I beat two separate Guitar Hero games this weekend (in to yesterday). I finally finished GH5 on Saturday, which took awhile because there are so many songs on the game. I got my free copy of Guitar Hero:Van Halen in the mail on Saturday, as well. I finished that yesterday. It was easier, seemingly. I got 4 perfect songs and I've only gotten one in my life prior to that. I think the trick is that I finally mastered the hammer on/pull offs (HOPOs as they are called in the game). I never realized it before but if the top of the note is glowing white then you don't have to strum, you just need to press the fret. Little trick for those of you who might not have known that. Or maybe everyone does and I'm just a retard. I don't know. I might go back and try both of them on hard at some point, but not now, because...

Just started a new game, one I have been looking forward to for awhile. It's called Fallout 3 and a lot of people consider it the best game on XBox360. I was waiting to pick it up because the Game of the Year edition with all of the paid DLC (downloadable content for the non video game players) didn't come out until yesterday, now I can finish the entire true game without paying $100 for all of it (DLC isn't cheap!). I started playing last night... so far, so good. It's set in 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war between China and the US. You live in a bunker called The Vault and then you have to leave and examine the area around Washington DC in a post apocalyptic society. It combines elements of a roleplaying game and a first person shooter. Not much I can really say about it so far, since I only put in about 90 minutes of play but I think it's going to be awesome. I have high hopes.

Ok - back to killing time at work. I'm kind of already getting phased out even though I might not be leaving. Fun times. Well, maybe that's not accurate since all of the people who can not directly report to the FDA next month have a bit less to do, but still... boring days at times. Sigh.

A brief review of every movie I've seen since last time I did this

Ok... picking up where we left off at the end of July.

Skipped out on: District 9, Gamer. The rest were romantic comedies and movies off the radar. I think we're officially out of summer movie season, so really I didn't miss much.

Ok, now to those I did see.

Funny People: Interesting movie in the sense that it had some absolutely hilarious parts, but overall I never want to see it again. Jonah Hill killed it in this movie, everything he said was pretty funny. Schwartzman and "Hey Teach!" was a riot. A lot of Sandler and Seth Rogan's standup was very, very funny. But as a movie? Not so much! The entire third act with Leslie Mann (who thinks nepotism is awesome, by the way) and Eric Bana really killed the movie. Plus, Adam Sandler's character was completely unlikeable. Some great comedy in this one, but overall a bad movie. I think this was the Judd Apatow ego project and I can't really say that I was a big fan.

2/5

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: I went in to this with very low expectations. The reviews were terrible, the previews weren't that great, and the cast left a little to be desired. But you know what? It worked for what it was. A brainless popcorn flick that maybe brought back some memories of my childhood. GI Joe was my favorite toy/cartoon from when I was a kid. The movie worked despite some questionable casting decisions (Channing Tatum as Duke? A Wayans brother as anyone?). Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow dueling was easily the best part. Also - the sequel set up with Cobra Commander and Destro at the end was nice. I could have done with one "Destro, you idiot!", but I guess that can wait until the sequel.

3/5

Inglorious Basterds: I enjoy Quentin Tarantino. Kill Bill is one of my favorites and all of his movies are enjoyable to me. This was a good movie with a lot of great sequences. Some of it was over the top, but I appreciated it for what it was. The performances were incredible. Hans Landa was one of the best villains I have seen in a movie, hilarious and evil. The acting was top notch. The actor, Christoph Waltz, deserves some recognition from the Academy for his work. The opening scene on the farm built up the tension and paid off in a huge way. Brad Pitt was also good here - mostly playing an unlikeable character who is supposed to be a hero. That sort of goes for all of the Basterds. These guys were crazy and a little bit sociopathic but we cheer for them because they are killing Nazis. The fact that Aldo the Apache was the best at speaking eye-talian was one of the funniest parts of the movie.

Great movie, yes. Tarantino's masterpiece as the ending might suggest? No.

4/5

Extract: Interesting movie here as well. Great cast, decent story, one of the hottest women on the planet (in my eyes), but it didn't work completely. I thought it was a passable and somewhat enjoyable film but it was definitely missing something. I think Mike Judge has had better films, but this is worth a rental if you missed it, and you probably did.

3/5

Jennifer's Body: I've written about this previously. Stupid movie, but good. I enjoyed it a lot. Cheesy dialogue, cheesy kill scenes, two hot chicks. I recommend. Don't expect anything substantial, though.

4/5

The Informant: All-star performance by Matt Damon. Outstanding is pretty much the only way to put it. The story is interesting and the layers of the plot unfold in a way that makes sense and is interesting, by the end it's hard to believe some of the things that are happening. It's made all the more interesting by the fact that it's mostly a true story. If you look it up, most of this stuff actually happened. Cornell graduate! And fun fact, same department as me, same major. Maybe some day I can embezzle 13 million dollars while working for the FBI? Probably not...

4/5

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D: It was alright. The 3D animation was pretty spectacular, as it is for a lot of the films these days. In terms of the story, it was cute but definitely geared more towards kids. It's easy to get spoiled by Pixar movies that kids love but have adult storylines that are heartwarming and somewhat sophisticated. This is not that movie. There is a pretty funny monkey in the film, though, and it was enjoyable. Still, not even in the same ballpark as Up! or any other Pixar movie.

3/5

The Invention of Lying: Oh, this could have been so much better. It started off very funny and with so much promise.

"You're early, I was just upstairs masturbating. I'll be right back, in case I get horny again and finish masturbating" - Jennifer Garner

But not good. Two problems: 1) in a world where everyone has to tell the truth, everyone it a gigantic asshole. It's like a non-stop competition to see who can say the meanest thing all movie. Maybe that's how life would be if everyone had to tell the truth all the time, but it was kind of a shock to see.

2) They went in the wrong direction. Him inventing religion and becoming "Jesus" and the commandments on pizza boxes... not how I would have gone at all. I enjoy a good lampoon of religion as much as the next person but they got it all wrong here.

This could have been an outstanding movie, the concept is great. Execution; not so much.

2/5

Going to see Zombieland tonight, and probably Where the Wild Things Are round out the list for movies I'm going to see this month. It's getting in to a slow month or so before the Oscar contenders start hitting theaters!

100th post

Hey, this is my 100th post.

So, to all who contributed to the 2,747 page views that I have amassed since February, thank you. I realize that most of those views came from this being a #1 hit on Google for a month or so, but hey... I can pretend I'm that popular.

I have another phone screen for a job in Connecticut on Monday. I can't lie, I'm not that excited about it. I'm not even sure I want to go through with it. I already know ahead of time that the job pays $65,000, with 5% bonus and full relocation. I don't know if that's going to cut it. I never have had a strong desire to live in Connecticut. I told my recruiter to submit my resume so I have to at least take a half hour of my schedule and go through the motions of a phone screen. I probably won't go for the full interview, though.

I have this secret hope that I will get a job offer from Maryland and then somehow convince people here at Bristol to match the offer. This would be a double-win because the offer would be higher, but translate that higher offer to Syracuse dollars (cheaper than regular dollars) and it would be even MORE money. There would be other benefits to this option as well. How feasible is this? I don't know... maybe not at all. I really can't say. I do now that at the very least they might make some promises but promises do not make mortgage payments. I loved things in Maryland but if I could script it, I would probably get a big promotion/raise and stay here in Syracuse.

The truth is: I really don't know how things are going to turn out, although in my head I realize that some scenarios are more likely than others.

I spent all last night attempting to get caught up on all the TV I missed. Season premiere of Dexter, Entourage, Curb your Enthusiasm, two nights of Daily Show and Colbert Report, The Ultimate Fighter (with Kimbo Slice in action!)... that just about covers all the TV I watched yesterday.

Dexter was great. Don't want to spoil it. I know people who read this blog who still aren't caught up, but sleepy Dexter was pretty great. Why is he sleepy? I don't know... hurry up and catch up. (PS: yes you. PPS: you're sexy)

Curb Your Enthusiasm was an all-time classic episode. Here's a few reasons why:

"secondhand semen"

"I told you that blowjobs were dangerous"

"... I think you blew him."

"I'm going to go upstairs and eat this fuckin' Chinese food. That's what I'm gonna do."

"LD, I give you a taste of the chocolate and now look at you."

I love Larry David.

STILL need to catch this week's House, Bored to Death episode 2 from Sunday, and after tonight both episodes of Flash Forward. Not to mention SNL, The Office, and Community tonight. Yay, TV is back!

Which is good because it's freezing! And my heat is on already! BOOOOOOOOO.