for the title, think “Office Space”.

Cleaned a bit, downloaded a couple demos and trailers from Live, walked the dog for a while, took some photos, did some laundry, cleaned & reorganized the “office,” and basically had a relaxing, calm day. Tomorrow, I’m gonna try to bike to the Y, while Ei-Nyung drives. That should be sort of entertaining. 😀

Hmmm… Not a whole lot else, really. Chillin’. Set up an appointment with the insurance agent to consolidate all our insurance policies. That’ll be fun. Gotta make an appointment with the DMV to get my scooter permit renewed so I can take the damn test to get my license, finally.

Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll start working on this design I’ve been planning to write up. Talked to a friend of mine, and he’ll be doing some conceptual drawings – I’m super-psyched to see what he comes up with…

Yeah. Otherwise, not a whole lot going on. Not a bad way to be, for a while.

title pun “credit” to eingy

I’ve been downloading episodes of Top Gear again, getting caught up on stuff now that it’s not being shown on Discovery anymore. And when it does resume, it’s apparently going to be a “US Version” which is basically going to suck.

Man, I wish more shows had the production values, and the style that Top Gear does. Their sort of ridiculous approach to everything is charming in and of itself, but the sheer *style* that exudes from their photography, and with which they deliver the dialogue is just incredible. I’ll leave an episode running while I’m cleaning a room, just to listen to it. Not to mention the use of music is fabulous – there’s always some perfectly-timed piece of music that fits exactly with whatever it is they’re doing at the time…

I’d love to see more shows with the production values of Top Gear, but I can’t really imagine what. A cooking show? Oh yeah.

Hrm. Where to start?

I suppose I should mention that tomorrow’s my last day at my current job. That’s pretty interesting, in and of itself. Gives me time to write, to weed the garden, to paint, to cook, and to take care of the dog.

It also requires that I find another form of employment post-haste. Weird thing is, I quit a job that’s *really hard to get*. And though now I have experience with the process, the “proper” official title, and a couple relatively high profile games under my belt (one success, one less so), I feel like at least getting interviews should be easier.

And perhaps they are. I’ve had three phone interviews, one of which turned into a full-blown interview interview. The two that didn’t didn’t because I was missing a critical skill that the position required – no big letdown there, as I knew they were looking for something different. This job seemed to be a pretty good fit, though, and given that I got the interview, I was feeling pretty good. Afterwards, my feelings were somewhat mixed – it’s the first interview I’ve had in a couple years, and didn’t give my best showing. Still, I thought I did ok.

So, disappointment naturally looms, if you actually read the title of this post. Apparently, there’s still *some* possibility it’ll come together, but that’s pretty damn remote at this point. Which sort of sucks. I think this is only the second time I’ve ever gone to an interview and not gotten an offer. On top of that, I thought I had a reasonable showing, so that was pretty disappointing, again. *sigh*

There’s a reasonable number of companies in the area that have potential openings for me, so I’ve still got some things to chase down. But still, rejection’s disappointing, and the uncertain future, though full of potential, becomes a little more worrying.

Man. So, Google Video now has the stuff from C-SPAN for the Colbert performance, and Bush’s thing with that lookalike guy. I figured, WTF, I should watch the Bush thing, just to see whether there was anything even marginally funny about it, and holy shit, no. It’s genuinely one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Obvious, stupid jokes, completely hamfisted delivery, and makes fun of some of the most inane and idiotic crap I’ve ever seen. Holy shit.

In comparison, Colbert is incredibly witty, relevant, and genuinely a lot *less offensive* than the President’s performance, to me. It doesn’t trivialize important issues – instead, it sheds light on how badly the administration has botched those issues. Bush’s performance, on the other hand, shows that he simply doesn’t understand anything about what he’s talking about.

Bleah.

WARNING: really fucking stupid.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1921276117304287501

So, a friend of mine did her first triathlon today, and finished like a champ. Made me think of way back when when Sean and I used to do these things in high school. Made me miss the experience, to be perfectly honest. Not just the triathlons, which were fun in a really unique way, but just the sense of getting up really early, full of nerves, ready to do something you’d never done before. It was like that before every swim meet, triathlon, mountain bike race, whatever – before every ridiculous thing that I did, where the potential for failure was high, and success would require every ounce of strength or cunning I could muster.

Heady times. Sitting in a lake, ready to go completely nuts for the next two+ hours at 8 in the morning is a unique feeling. You’re tired, from having gotten up at 4:30 to get to the competition site, but you’re also amped up from the nervous energy. Maybe you’re lucky, and you’re sitting in the water as the sun comes up – the breaking dawn casting a warm glow over the punishment you know awaits.

It is sort of strange – I felt the same way somewhat way back when after I’d watched the Last Samurai – sort of a sense of, what do I prepare myself for? What conflict do I face? What battle do I desperately hope to win? And lacking such a battle, how do I fulfill that desire for purpose?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060501/1whwatch.htm

“Colbert’s routine was similar to what he does on his show, the Colbert Report, but much longer on the topic of Bush, suggesting that the president is out of touch with reality. Aides and reporters, however, said that it did not overshadow Bush’s own funny routine, which featured an impersonator who told the audience what Bush was thinking when he spoke dull speech lines.

In fact, some aides crowed over reports that the president easily bested Colbert in the reviews of both comedy acts.”

bwahahahhahahahahaha! The President bested Colbert? Jayzis – will the press just print whatever the administration says without considering for even half a second what they’re writing?

Ah, yes, make, tell, type. Keep up the good work, journalists.