In which I have another interview… in the SAME BUILDING!
This afternoon I interviewed with this company for a part-time customer service job. They won’t make their decision ’til the 19th (omgwtfbbq?!) and the pay starts at only $9 an hour, but the office is super cozy and friendly and the vibe was great. I really liked the woman who interviewed me, and the other two girls seemed groovy, too. Plus: free organic coffee! Which is a total perq, considering how many working people spend a few bucks every day on coffee, and that shit adds up.
Today’s company shares a building with three other companies, one of which I interviewed at last week. The universe apparently wants me to work in yet another sthapatya Vedic building? (Sthapatya Vedic buildings bug me because they must have vastu fence, which means you can’t park close to the door no matter what you do.)
Unless I get hired here, that is. I have a two o’clock tomorrow with the HR chick for testing. (I guess they want to see if I can type?) They make infomercials!
The best part of my day so far has been these. Yum.
In which I’m offended.
As huge NASA supporter, I pay attention when they’re in the news. I’m totally pro space program, because we need it to develop the technologies we’ll require to get the fuck out of here after we finish brutally overusing the resources of and overpopulating the planet of our origin.
Not to mention the fact that the space program is responsible for all kinds of important tech advances currently in use, which is reason enough to love NASA.
That said, I just wanted to point out that every single article I’ve read about the astronaut love triangle situation has mentioned that the woman wore diapers on her long drive, in order to avoid making bathroom stops.
I have no meaningful comment on the situation or her mental stability as it looks to me like she just went to beat some bitch up over a man, which isn’t even news; the fact that she went über well-prepared to do it is exactly what I’d expect from someone who’s BEEN. TO. SPACE, where preparedness is the key to survival.
Mostly I’m just sick of how sophomorically titillated everyone is about the fact that she used a diaper. Uh, hello?! She’s been trained to do that. SHE’S AN ASTRONAUT. THAT’S WHAT THEY DO.
In other news, I’m out of dog food so Bindu’s dinner was a bowl of basmati, tuna, and feta. Lucky dog!
In which it weirds me out that I’d never heard of this.
So my roomie AmmZon is totally sick today, the poor monster.
When she gets sick, she always wants her comfort food, which happens to be, and I quote, “an All American cheeseburger – ketchup only! – and fries and a Coke,” from McDonald’s. This is the only thing she wants when she’s sick. It helps her get well. (She even has a particular order in which she eats this restorative meal, but I can’t remember exactly what it is.)
What happens when you order an “All American cheeseburger,” rather than just a plain ol’ cheeseburger, is that you get your small fries for free. It’s like an adult Happy Meal or something because it only costs $2.14.
Apparently this item hasn’t actually been on the menu in the twenty years I’ve been eating there (and I begin to suspect that it might be the very first combo meal ever) and it’s nowhere to be found on the website, but when you ask for it at a drive-thru they always seem to know exactly what it is. This weirds me out because I worked at a McDonald’s once — even ran the register — and I’d never heard of it, but I’ve asked around and AmmZon’s not the only person who possesses this arcane knowledge.
So there you go, my babies: how to get a small fries for free.
Use your powers for good!
In which there’s a request — from Shigeki — for a recipe. I’m so happy to oblige!
Broccoli-Cheddar Soup
2 T. butter
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 T. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 whole clove
1 bay leaf
4 c. water, hot
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In which I’m lazy. And broke.
I slept all day not because I was tired but because I had nothing to do and nowhere to go and no one was home to talk to. I had two cigarettes in my pack and no money to get any more, and one thing that poverty has taught me is that the best way to conserve resources is to be asleep so you can’t use any.
I got up twice to let the dog out, but not wanting to knit or watch TV I just went back to bed again. I can always drop off to sleep, even if I’ve already slept ten hours. Napping is my superhero power.
I keep my money in AmmZon’s account (because mine has a levy on it), and my balance has recently dropped below $300. Now I’m nickling and diming her to death: “Get me $20, please?” “Get me $50, please?” She’ll bring me $20 tonight and I’ll buy smokes and dog food and $6 worth of gas and be out of cash again.
All is not lost, though. I’m not so lazy and useless that I eat badly: today I had leftover broccoli-cheddar soup with a grilled cheese sandwich of utmost deliciousness!
Behold its ingredients: American and jack and brie cheeses, red peppers, green onions, tomato, lettuce, black olives, and pesto, on light rye. It was freaking amazing.
But the very best news is I have another job interview, here, next Thursday. Maybe I’ll get two p/t jobs! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
In other news, I finally surfed over to check out Windows Vista. It’s a blatant copy of OSX. I mean, blatant! I can’t believe they can even get away with that shit: they copied the Dashboard concept and took Widgets and cleverly renamed them Gadgets. And while the new mobile Sync Center feature does seem cool, they probably should have released it back in Windows 95.
I am totally switching to Mac… if my circumstances should ever permit me to buy a computer again, that is.
In which I just got back from my first interview in quite awhile.
I just had a great interview here. The woman who interviewed me is totally from my planet — the organized, anal-retentive planet, that is — and the interview lasted slightly over an hour. Her desk was spotless, which is something I totally approve of. And she knits. I really liked her.
She told me she was already planning on calling me back for a second interview with the department head. (!!!)
The position is basically clerical/sales support, and starts at p/t. It’s expected to become f/t in 3-6 months. (I’m also going to drop off a resume at FPAC tomorrow; they have a little office support position they need filled. Two p/t jobs would suit me just fine for now.)
Oooh, I hope I get a job! That would rock so hard! (Plus I’m nearly out of money.)
Now I’m going to make myself some soup because I’m starving.
In other news, it snowed again last night. Is this not the fluffiest snow ever?
In which the Movement is moving to the center of the nation.
AmmZon told me this morning that she’d heard that the Big M had decided to build a peace palace or something in Kansas, so I immediately googled it. It’s totally fascinating! The Movement really has bought 600 acres in north-central Kansas, and they plan to build there:
‘So here in traditional Kansas, the recent purchase of land by representatives of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to build what they’re calling a World Capital of Peace — just outside town — where meditators will send “waves of coherence” across the country — has many residents riled.
‘The group plans to spend at least $15 million to erect 12-15 buildings for a retreat, training center and residences.’
[link to article]
The nearest town to this newly-purchased property is small, aged, and dying… and it’s smack-dab in the middle of the bible belt:
‘”They say they’re not a religion. I say they’re a sect of Hinduism,” said Greg Hubbard, pastor of Smith Center’s Evangelical Free Church. “Bottom line is, I don’t buy you can be a Christian and a Hindu at the same time.”
‘Hubbard and eight other local ministers recently signed an open letter decrying the proposed new city as a threat to “the eternal souls of people.” A large Christian crusade spurred by the controversy is scheduled in Smith Center this month.’
[link to article]
He’s right: they are a sect of Hinduism, even though they’ll swear up and down that they’re not (and even went so far as to ban ownership of Hindu icons a few years ago, causing local thrift shops to fill up with abandoned deities). They celebrate Guru Purnima and Mahalakshmi, study Sanskrit and do pujas, and have their jyotish charts done. They’re totally fucking Hindu, as much as Hinduism is a religion and not merely a culture.
Hubbard’s also a closed-minded, bigoted idiot. (American Christians are FUCKING INSANE.) All religions are compatible. The rituals are different, but the underlayment is always the same. Only fundamentalists — and unfortunately, nearly all Xians are fundies — think that only their religion is the true one. THEY. ARE. ALL. THE. SAME. The differences are nearly always CULTURAL. Sheesh.
I hate all organized religion. (I already hate what will happen when my Guru leaves Her body — beaureacrats, rules, rigidity. It’s inevitable — and She hasn’t even done it yet.) I have no idea why God bothers with us, other than enlightened beings don’t appear to be much affected by suffering, so to them it’s no big deal.
Anyway.
In other news, I have an interview on Thursday morning. The job’s only part-time, but that’s better than no-time. Wish me luck!
In which I cook Indian, freak the fuck OUT — omg! you have no idea! DUDES! — on a virtual world, and talk about the perils of knitting. In the process I manage to put a rather astonishing number of links into a single entry. (Mouse over ’em for snap-ups!)
This morning (and I use ‘morning’ loosely here; you should cleverly interpret it to mean ‘early afternoonish’), I got up and immediately cooked a feast!
Chana masala. Egg curry. Long-grain Basmati rice. Papadums. Yogurt, chutney. So good! OMFG, so good. We all ate heartily.
Then I got back on the laptop and booted into Second Life. (I was up until five-thirty this morning wandering around in there.) It’s so, so fun. I want to move to San Francisco and work at Linden Labs, like, toute suite, swear to God. And I don’t even like living in SF!
This world, this Second Life, it’s everything sci-fi ever taught me to want! It’s virtual. It’s wonderful. It’s a/the progenitor of the metaverse, and that’s HOT. Sweden is building an embassy there. You can fly in there! How did I not know about this until now? Has my entire head been up my arse since 2003? It’s practically better than knitting!
Oh, and on the subject of knitting, I’ve divided my sweater for the front and back around the armholes. This means I’m actually lurking up on being halfway done with it! Yay!
The bad news is that the bamboo circulars I bought (from Knit Picks, along with the yarn and pattern), which were supposed to be size 10, are not in fact size 10 at all — they’re more like 9.75s. This means I have to knit the entire sweater with them, including the collar and the arms (which will be a pain in the arse), or my gauge will change noticeably. Luckily the circulars in question are long enough that I can use the magic loop method, but it still kinda pisses me off. I guess it’s taught me to use my needle gauge to check new needles for accuracy of size upon purchase, at least. Pah.
In other news, I submitted a resume to Robert Half Technology last week — for a tech position they’d listed on Monster.com as “Web Administrator’s Dream Job” — and they called me back and left a message Friday night! I’ll be calling them first thing Monday morning.
I suppose moving to Cedar Rapids wouldn’t be too terribly bad; it’s only an hour and a quarter from Fairfield so I could still come see my friends on weekends, and it’s almost practically a city (by Iowa standards, at least) so if I lived there I might could find myself a working band and have access to quasi-decent restaurants!
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4 random books from my Library!
