Well, I've been laid off now for 2 weeks. I've applied to over 70 companies all across the US. I've had over a dozen phone interviews and at least that many phone or written programmer tests. Thus far I've had 2 onsite interviews and I have 2 more scheduled. I've had several 2nd-stage phone interviews as well. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few more companies too. All in all, I've been pretty busy. I'm really hoping to choose from several offers within the next 2 weeks. After graduation I had 2 offers within 3 months. After Raven I had a job within 1 month. Things are even faster this time around. So I have high hopes, but also high doubts.
I really dislike not having a job. Not only is it going to be financial ruin very soon, but I'm also fairly bored. Oh sure, 4 interviews a day is entertaining, but eventually the calls slow to a trickle, the emails slow down, and I'm left with my own insecurities in a state of panic about how much I'll end up earning at Taco Bell. I thought the same things before too and I landed 2 very good jobs and 2 very good companies. Well, they were good companies for me at the time I was hired. I kinda know everything will turn out OK, I just hate waiting.

I liked Cars

It took me long enough but I finally removed my Xmas 2006 links. I was hoping to one day get these things anyway, but alas, no job means I won't be buying them anytime soon. So I'll just post them here for my records and removed the links from the right.

TOotS MitD TShirt
Sharper Image Batmobile
Remote Control Dragon
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
DnD Icons: Black Dragon
USB Rocket Launcher

Important Safety Tip #238: If by some unfortunate circumstance you find yourself laid off from work and happen to land a sweet on-site interview at a hugely popular company, do NOT, under any circumstances, type in the wrong city name into your GPS just prior to departure. Doing so will probably lead you to the right address, but in the wrong city. You MAY just happen to come across an apartment complex on the wrong side of town and pay unnecessary parking fees. You MIGHT even, at some point, feel the embarrassment and indignity of calling up your job interview person to inform them personally that you're a dumb-ass. As a result of your carelessness its conceivable that you wind up being 40 minutes late for your job interview. This is not a good thing, theoretically speaking.

So the really great news is that Violet tested positive for pregnacy about a week ago. She's about a month in now, so its still a little early to mention it apparently. I'm not sure why people wait 3 months to tell other people. I guess because so many things can go wrong I dunno. Hopefully I'll find another job soon and get back on healthcare insurance so we can find out how everything is going. We've been trying for 3 years and were in the early stages of adoption research and fertility consultation, so this is really great! We're both pretty happy about it, despite our financial crunch right now. Hurray!

Apparently the cosmos wants to stay in balance. Almost as soon as I get the best news ever, I get the worse news ever. Lay Offs. I was laid off yesterday in conjunction with many other people. The company really seemed to try to keep us, but unfortunate circumstances forced them to do this drastic deed. I don't blame them, too much. Hopefully I'll find another job soon. I don't recall the last time I was up at 430am wide awake, but it was probably the previous time I had lost my job. Such a volatile industry. Ack.

Violet and I went out on our no-longer-weekly- Monday date night and saw Children of Men. It was fairly decent. My expectations weren't high or low since I didn't know much about the movie except it was supposed to be sci-fi ish and humankind is infertile.

This was a war movie. The glorious special effects were outstanding. Most of the rebels were Arab and all of the police were British. Of course, apparently, that's because the entire world has gone to hell and Britain is the only place worth living. As a result, illegal immigrants try to get in, and the Britain police and military keep them out. Countries aren't at war anymore.. its just the police vs the illegal immigrants. The overtone was so obvious that it was a little insulting.

The Sci-Fi was barely a part of the movie. Set about 20 years in the future, there's wasn't much integration between tech and society. Bigger LCD TVs for larger and more frequent Ads were on every building. The cars were almost interesting prototypes. There's a new product in most of the ads that you see. It allows you to gracefully and quickly kill yourself.

The story follows some guy who used to be a rebel but isn't anymore. Lots of people get killed fairly violently. He never carries or uses a gun, although the opportunity presents him with such options many times. Kinda weird.

The movie is a dark reminder why humanity doesn't probably deserve to survive. It may be worth renting, and the effects are very good, but I doubt I'd want to pay full price for it again.
I'll rate it an arbitrary 6.5/10.

I never cared for the fairly narrow column width of this blog. So I edited the template and widened it. No one uses 640x resolution anymore anyways.

Why do New England-ers heat their homes with oil? Maybe back in the day all they had was wood to burn, so oil seemed like a good idea at the time. But now-a-days its expensive, Eco-unfriendly, and inconvenient. Of course, it was those things in the past too. In case I failed to mention this in an earlier post, we had our home's oil drum replaced 2 months ago with a new one because it leaked. Apparently they last about 30 years. Anyway, our new one holds as much as the old one: 250 gallons.

This rental home of ours is not well insulated. The basement is unfinished and has no insulation. The ground floor has large, old windows that leak coldness and are fairly inefficient. The upstairs is pretty decent since its been renovated, but we don't even use 1 of the rooms much except for storage. The bedroom doesn't need to be too warm because Violet likes to sleep in the cold so we can snuggle under the covers. I have to add a blanket to my side of the bed though.

The oil heats the house by burning the oil in a furnace which then heats the air. Really OLD vents are located in each room to distribute the warm air. The vent in Violet's office was so old the metal handle that lifted/shut the vent was broken, thereby closing her office off from any heat. No wonder it was so cold in there. The hot water heater also uses oil. There is no A/C BTW, its a heat-only system, typical of the homes here. In my neighborhood there's no other options. No natural gas lines run through the narrow, twisting cow paths they call "roads" here. There isn't enough sunlight or wind to justify using either source. We could burn a tree or two, I suppose, but we don't have a fireplace. We're only like 15 miles from Boston. It's suburbs here, not the middle of nowhere.

We thus just have to eat $2.099 a gallon. Slightly less than gasoline. But 250 gallons is a big tank to fill. We can burn through that in about 5 weeks. During the winter season (granted this winter has been unusually warm) it would be typical for us to fill that tank every month each of the 3 or 4 winter months, and then 1 more time for each other season. Le Ouch. I don't like it.

So to help cut costs I did some cheap winterizing. I fixed the vent in Violet's office. Now her office is MUCH warmer. Since that's where she spends most of her day we can keep the heater temp down, which helps a lot. I also wrapped the hot water heater in a thermal hot water heater blanket covering. It should help some. The pipes are narrow and integrated into the house so covering them with pipe insulation isn't really a viable option. I covered several of the windows with that clear plastic covering that you tape to the front of the window frame and then use a blow dryer to get out the wrinkles. I used that stuff in Wisconsin and it worked pretty well, cost only a few bucks, and most of the time you can't even notice its there. That's about as much as I can do. This isn't even our house.

Well this post was longer than I was wanting. I just wanted to convey how expensive burning oil to heat your house seems to be. There's a reason this blog is called Roland's Ramblings.

I'm glad I'm not a game developer in Germany. Ack.

I kinda went on a tangent talking about desks and such in that last post and it ended up taking over the topic. My ORIGINAL intent for posting was this.. a vertical mouse.

I meant to blog about this a while ago but I kept forgetting. Ever seen a vertical mouse? I hadn't until recently, and I think it's neat. I used it for all of 2 seconds but I feel it may be of benefit to those with sore wrists after prolonged periods of mouse use. Yes, I'm talking about you, players of that WOW game. It also comes in purple and black. I don't personally suffer from any such repetitive strain based ailments despite decades of keyboarding and mouse use. Yes, I have been called a mutant. This is just one more reason.

Anyway, the vertical mice ain't cheap. But there's a few people making them, so maybe try to find a bargain one somewhere. MSRP is usually around 100 bucks but I've seen them online for around 50. Left handed versions are usually 10-30 bucks more. Suckers.

http://www.aerobicmouse.com/

Oh, and there's also this Zero Tension mouse.
There's a few joystick type versions too that they claim is a "Vertical Mouse". Bah.

And while you're looking at vertical mice, ya might as well check out the vertical keyboard.

I've always had a eye for ergonomics. Well ok, I've always been a slouch. But I tend to cringe at the environment some of my friends have put themselves into. For example, probably about 8 years ago my friend "T.A." was sitting on the floor with his monitor on a cardboard box. OMG! And it's not like he was at his computer every once in a while. He frickin played Everquest all the time. It was horrific. I couldn't stand it. He couldn't afford a table, let alone a decent computer desk, so I built him one. It took about 1 day and 2 very late nights but I think it turned out OK. It was a decent desk, though mostly particle board. The cubby holes were designed to hold standard 8 or 12" folders vertically, the top cubby was large enough to hold standard 8.5"x11" paper, the top shelf was wide enough for a printer, with built in "book ends" in case he wanted to use the other half of the hutch's top for books. I also drilled and cut several holes and "C" notches for cord management. I used a router so there were no hard edges, and the entire desk was covered with a heavy brown stain that resisted moisture. A pull out drawer is featured on the lower right, just above the main CPU shelf. The hutch is removable, of course, and the back of the desk features a long horizontal support brace using the same wood as the front for stability and strength. It's not exactly a light desk, but I could stand on it and not break it.

Oh, How did I know how to build a desk and all that? Well, fortunately my step-dad is a machinist engineer by trade and a woodworker by hobby, so he taught me everything I know. He also had all the really cool "shop tools" in the garage. One day I hope to have a similar setup. I enjoy woodworking, though I'm not that great at it. Shelves and desks are about all I've done.

Well, I couldn't bring myself to finish writing the adoption contract. I know I'll regret it but we're keeping him. Instead of trying to find him a better home where he'll be happier, I've resolved to become a better parent and change my mode of thinking from him being an annoying dog to a dog that wants my love and attention. Even though I said NO to Violet when she got him, and she promised to do everything for him without complaint, its too late for all that crap. He's my dog now too, and I'm going sacrifice what little free time I have to take the time and energy to devout more time to him and the other animals.

So instead of writing what I had planned to write, "Ode to Sebastian", I present instead "Sebastian, Then and Now"

Sebastian Thudd Nicholson
Born: 09/03/2003
Adopted: 11/09/2003
Time spent as his owners: Just over 3 years.
Homes Sebastian has known:
---SPCA Animal Shelter, The Colony, TX.
---Hawse Dr, The Colony, TX.
---Mifflin St, Unit#2, Madison, WI.
---Whitlock Rd, Madison, WI.
---River Rd, Tewksbury, MA.
Money spent to adopt: $185.00
Money spent for shots, vet bills, check-ups, and other medical bills: More than $200.00
Money spent on toys, dog cage, Dog-related repairs, and other incidentals: More than $500.00
Money spent for food, water, treats, or other nutritional needs: More than $3,000
Damage to other dogs: Accidently sprained the leg of our roomate's greyhound (Hank).
Making a pet a part of your family: Priceless.

November 9, 2003: [Gwyn and Sebastian Meet]


November 10, 2003:














November 13, 2003:


Dec 22, 2003:



01/01/2007

[WARNING The following paragraph is about as sentimental as I tend to get. Go get a tissue]

Why am I up at 8am on New Years Day after a paltry 6 or 7 hours sleep? Because today we're taking our dog of 3 years, Sebastian, down to his proposed new family. We adopted him in Texas as a 2 month old puppy. It's not a done deal yet but today will probably be our last day with him as I'm fairly certain the family's home is quite adequate. I have to write up an adoption contract and everything too, but mainly I just couldn't sleep. It'll be kinda weird not having him around. I'm sure I'll miss (a little) the frickin pain in my ass AKA doggy frog AKA baby bastian AKA dogus AKA Muttus aka Thud AKA Sebastian Thud Nicholson. Tis Boo.

[Insert witty Happy New Year exclamation here since I can't think of one because its 8am and we were up until about 1am because we went to a co-worker's house for new years eve]

A co-worker invited us to his house a few weeks ago for New Years Eve so we went. Surprisingly there weren't very many other co-workers there, but a lot of his friends were. They were great and we had a good time. Violet and I played Guitar Hero II for the first time (Never played Guitar Hero either.. I knew Violet would love it and want us to buy a PS2 just to play it). Well, it was a great game, obviously, and now she wants us to buy a PS2 so we can play that game. Cassin Frackin Freakin Heekin Hawkin. Well thats not gonna happen. I wish there was a Xbox 360 version. BTW, Nintendo's Donkey Konga (drums instead of a guitar) is similar, but not the same.

As expected, I didn't drink. I had a sip of champagne at midnight (I didn't care for it) but that's it. I ate WAY too many Peanut butter cookies and brownies though, so that's gonna be bad for my waistline and will kill my diet for the next 2 weeks, at least (sigh). I am quite happy I had someone to kiss at midnight. Roland [hearts] Violet.

I haven't made any new year resolutions, although I suppose I should. This was our first New Year's in the Eastern Time Zone, for whatever that's worth. Everyone else was drunk, at least. It reminded me of the New Year parties with my BBS buddies. They'd get totally drunk, especially on New Years. I always remember the concoction of whatever it was and chocolate cake put in a blender. (NO I didn't have any). I was not any one's designated driver for a change though... we left the party around 1230am.

We made good use of the GPS getting there and back. So that's good. Still would have been much cheaper to just use map quest but not turning when I need to and having the GPS recalculate new directions and telling me when the next turn or off ramp is at is very convenient.

Several boobies, both male and female, were revealed at the party. Drunk people tend to be funny that way. I didn't see nor reveal anything though, and neither did Violet. Well, I suppose that's a wrap. This is Roland D. Steedlam, signing off.