Fattening ’em up

On the way home from visiting Kelly’s parents at their home in Virginia we stopped into a Wendy’s for lunch. It was a testament to how little fast food I’ve eaten lately that I was surprised to see how prices had risen.

But prices weren’t the only things that had risen: the soft drinks had supersized themselves. My small soft drink was the size of what used to be a large. Kelly’s medium soft drink was ginormous – what used to be a supersize. I shudder to think what an actual large soft drink looks like.

Americans have a troubling obesity problem, one which costs billions of dollars in health care expenses. Do we really need to be pumping more high fructose corn syrup into the populace, particularly the poorer population who may eat fast food more frequently?

I’d like to see fast food chains be a bit more responsible, though this is America and most would argue they’re just giving their customers what they want. Upgrading the size of soft drinks on the sly, however, is not helpful.

You’re who again?

I’ve applied for over a dozen various positions at this point: so many that I’m beginning to lose track of where my resume has been sent. Its been my experience that most job seekers do the same. No one puts all their eggs in one basket when it comes to finding a job: its a shotgun approach.

While I enjoy getting a call from a prospective employer, one thing that always annoys me is when the caller doesn’t identify themselves or the position for which they’re calling. What happens is that you’re deep in the middle of sorting through job leads when a call comes in out of the blue.

Boom! You’re caught off guard and nine times out of ten the interviewer proceeds as if you know exactly to whom you’re speaking and about which job. That’s why I keep a file folder with a printout of all the positions to which I’ve applied and including the dates when I applied for them. That way when the phone rings I’ll have a clue about what in my skills and experience might be relevant.

I’ve got experience from the other side of the phone, too, and have interviewed many people for jobs. Whenever I’ve called a prospective hire, I’ve always made it a point to clearly state who I am and which position I’m calling about. Its just good hiring etiquette.

Now if I could just start getting some calls I could put this all to use!

Job search goes on

I’m still spending hours scouring the job boards for a new position. Hopefully things will pick up this week now that Thanksgiving is over.

Myth clue?

I thought to do a watch -d 'ls -l' on the file MythTV was creating when it was recording a show this evening and what I saw was very revealing. There seemed to be gaps of about 5 to 10 seconds where the file size did not change.

I’m using the XFS file system for my MythTV recordings, as it is better suited to the large files common to digital video. I did upgrade the system’s kernel, which may have somehow broken the XFS driver.

I have another partition formatted in EXT3. My next test will be to send the files to that partition and see if they continue to miss frames.

Bullet Motorsports Scam

Got this scam email today. I suppose it fools many people.

I’ve highlighted the interesting parts below.

From: “Bullet Motorsports Speedlab” Stratton_2492@arkansas.net
To: markt@ blah blah blah.net
Subject: part time job for you
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:22:53 -0400

BMS, Bullet Motorsports Speedlab, was originally founded to turn “ordinary” BMWs into the fastest race cars possible. BMS race cars have won numerous national championships over the past four years and BMS continues to promote club racing through its driver development program. From their intimate knowledge of the inner workings of BMWs, and countless hours of track time testing products in a high-stress environment, BMS technicians are highly skilled in tuning BMWs and Minis for street applications. There are many misconceptions in the aftermarket tuning industry. Our job is to separate the truth from the hype, for the benefit of our customers. Of course, tuning by itself is insufficient without full knowledge of servicing not only BMW components, but also the full range of aftermarket equipment from superchargers to stereos. There is nothing on your BMW or Mini that BMS can’t fix – or if you desire, improve.
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Gas prices

Here in Richmond I saw the lowest price for gas I’ve seen in years. It was $1.57 a gallon at a station in north Richmond. Its amazing how far prices have fallen since October.

I wish I had the money now to resume my flight training. It would be a great time to get back into the cockpit. That’ll have to wait for a while, alas.

Thought for the day

Never work for a German company. Ever. Its just not worth the trouble. It’ll drive you batshit insane.

Why blazing guns might not be the best approach

While hunting down Kelly’s letter to the editor, I came across this recent, chest-pounding N&O editorial, chiding the “maritime world” for hand-wringing and praising the Indian Navy for sinking a pirate “mother ship.”

Here’s to India’s navy. While much of the maritime world wrings its hands over the annoying pirates of Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula, an Indian frigate takes decisive action. On Tuesday the INS Tabar blasted a pirate “mother ship” out of the water.
[…]
Some well-placed rounds of shellfire, not endless rounds of ransom-paying, might persuade these waterborne robbers to reverse course.

Wouldn’t you know it, word comes today that the Indian Navy didn’t fire on a pirate “mother ship” after all: it sunk an innocent fishing trawler that had been captured by pirates. Fourteen Thai sailors are now missing.

In one action, the Indian Navy killed more captured sailors than the pirates ever have. To the Rambos writing the N&O editorials: do you see why going in with guns blazing might not be the best approach?
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