The interview wasn’t all that great. I had the same interviewer as the last time, and he recognized me. Even though last time he had seemed fairly interested in me, this time there was nothing. Total time: 15 minutes out of a scheduled 30.There were only three questions asked and then I got the “Well, its a pretty slow year, but your resume is the system, etc, etc, etc.” I hate systems. My resume is in so many systems right now that it’s probably the most widely circulated document on the planet. Tribes in the middle of the Amazon that have never had contact with civilization somehow have a copy of my resume. Does it do any good? No. At least I get to play again next week when I interview with Cerner and Eaton.

Alright, I’ve got an interview with Raytheon tomorrow. Yes, I did just interview with them earlier this year, but no, this isn’t really a second interview. Most likely its because they’ve got a different recruiter on campus from last time, or they just didn’t remember that I already interviewed this year. Either way, they accepted me onto their interviewing schedule so I’m hoping I’ve got a second chance at a first impression here. Most importantly though, now I can play me some video games again. (Although, ok, I did actually start playing games again when I first found out about the interview. I figured that counted, and since I was the one that made up the rule in the first place that’s all that mattered.)

Yesterday at CompUSA we were blessed with a visit by Cowboy Elvis. Picture Elvis in all denim with cowboy boots and a huge belt buckle and you’re just about there. That alone would be fairly memorable, but what followed was really something. Cowboy Elvis bought a box of screensaver software. 15 minutes later, Cowboy Elvis returned the screensaver software, unopened. His reason? “I didn’t know you needed a computer for this.” I wish I were making this up. Bless you Cowboy Elvis, you’re welcome in my CompUSA anytime.

So last night I went to see Clinic at the Wexner Center with The Standard and the Apples in Stereo opening. The show was actually held entirely on the stage of the huge auditorium there behind the curtain with the audience all on stage and then the bands on a stage on the stage. That was kind of cool, especially with all the stage ropes going up to the high ceiling lit up behind the bands. However, the sound was way way off. What it lacked in quality it made up for in loudness though. Really really loud. Painfully loud. Made me wish I’d remembered to bring earplugs, just like I always mean to but forget to do loud. I don’t know why I didn’t have the common sense to move away from the speakers, but I was really enjoying Clinic and I just stuck it out. Anyway, right after the show I noticed that things weren’t quite right with my ears. There was ringing, of course, but some noises like passing cars sounded like hissing static from a blown speaker. That was a little alarming. I was pretty disturbed by that, and even more so when it hadn’t gone entirely away by the time I woke up this morning. Since then it’s improved, but there’s still a slight high pitched ring in my left ear and things sound a little bit off in it. I’m hoping that it keeps fading, but I’m kind of worried since I’ve never experienced anything like this before even though I’ve been to a lot of loud shows. I’m definitely getting ear plugs.

Let’s talk about rock and roll for a moment. Over the weekend, I picked up the first new albums I’d been able to get in quite a while. Employment does have its advantages. I’m particularly fond of one of the albums, Interpol‘s “Turn on the Bright Lights“. From everything I’ve read about Interpol, it seems that anyone discussing this album either has to mention the Joy Division feel up front or go out of their way to mention that they’re avoiding making any Joy Division comparisons. It’s unavoidable though, as Paul Banks voice really does remind me of Ian Curtis if only in the style of delivery. What I also pick up on though is a sizeable Smiths influence, especially in the irrepressibly buoyant and perfectly timed bass lines. Throughout the album chiming reverb-soaked guitar and disarmingly delivered lyrics complete the effect. This album is about as solid a debut full-length as anyone could hope for. It’s an album that makes me look forward to coming home from work after a crapulent day and slipping on my headphones. That’s a good thing.

I went to the last day of Oktoberfest yesterday with Jolayne and my roommates. I think we were all expecting some kind of huge open festival loosely centered at several locations spread around German Village. Instead, it was located entirely in a parking lot in the Brewery District near the riverfront. Another unexpected surprise was the $7 admission price, but I guess I should have realized it would have been like that. I was just hoping that it would be a nice community based festival involving beer and bratwurst instead of a giant money sucking vacuum involving beer and bratwurst. Nonetheless, it did involve beer and bratwurst so it was still a fine time. And there was plenty of German music and dancing to go around, so that helped too. Of course, there were chicken hats as well. I almost wish I could understand what connection there might be between Oktoberfest and hats shaped like chickens. Almost.

Just got back from the Engineering Expo on the OSU campus. I didn’t think I’d be allowed in since I just graduated, but its a good thing I checked since I need all the job leads I can find. As usual, I got some resumes out but nothing that seemed really promising. There were even fewer companies there than last year, and I thought last year was bad. The real bad sign though is that there wasn’t nearly as much free crap being handed out. When the loot goes, you know things are rough. After just 6 months out of school, it was surprising to me how strange it felt to be down on campus again surrounded by college students. I was just one of them, but apparently it didn’t take long to grow out of that.

Yesterday Jolayne and I went to Cedar Point, and had ourselves a mighty good time. I hadn’t been up there in quite a few years. That place is really amazing. Its got more rollercoasters than you would really think could fit into a land mass that size. Looking at it from an elevated position (something you get more than enough opportunities to do, though usually not for very long) it looks like someone just dropped tons of brightly colored steel bars on it from above. Rollercoasters intertwine and overlap nearly everywhere as it is, but there was even ongoing construction on a new ride in the midst of that. Eventually I think the whole thing is going to be just a solid mass of rollercoaster track with no room for cars or riders. We rode coaster after coaster, but when it came down to it we choked and couldn’t bring ourselves to handle the big one. Maybe next time.

Tonight I went to an art show dressed up in my best cowboy outfit. Why? Because, hey… um, cowboys, right? Am I right? Somebody? The truth is I just needed to wear my cowboy vest to something finally. I’d put it off long enough. And sometimes a man just needs to feel like a cowboy. Even if he’s a computer programmer with dainty sensitive hands. Oh, and the art show? Pretty darn good. My friend Lori had a really good painting in it, though I may be a little biased since the subject of the painting happened to be my girlfriend. The show even had an awesome robotics piece built out of tree branches and motors that tried to turn pages in a book and had a camera on the page turning apparatus that projected the image on a wall behind the robot. It was amazing in the way that only failed and inefficient machinery can be. I wished that I could take it home. But that’s not the point. It was all about cowboys, got it?

I

may be a little late to the party, but thanks to Neal I’ve taken a second

look at Mozilla and found it to be a really nice browser with some nifty web

development tools thrown in as well. Its JavaScript debugger and DOM inspector

are both handy tools that I can see being very useful. On top of that, Mozilla

seems to be a very extensible platform as well. As an example, I’m writing

this post using Mozblog,

a snap-in blogging sidebar. Like many aspects of Mozilla, it’s not quite

perfect yet though. There are still a few quirks and things that don’t quite

work intuitively right now.  I don’t know if I’m quite ready to ditch IE

as my main browser, but Mozilla is by far the most tempting option to come

along.