I have no interest in ordinary humans!

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

Yesterday, I received two job offers. Today, I’ve formally made a decision. I’m going to Dallas.

I begin the moving process shortly. I’ve got a good chunk of dad’s car packed up with my clothes and some blankets. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes, actually. I’ll be back in Houston tomorrow for sure, but I leave again on Saturday.

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

The first week of the year isn’t over yet, and I haven’t posted my new year’s resolutions yet.

In years past, I didn’t think I needed to change anything about my life. This year, however, I know there are things that must change. Therefore, I’ve got a list of things I’m going to do to make sure at least some of those changes happen.

1. Until I am employed, engage at least three companies a day, including weekends.

The only exception is when I’m travelling for an interview. If the interview is in Greater Houston, I don’t get the day off. Sending a resume and cover letter counts as engaging a company, as do phone and in-person interviews. If the in-person interview is not in Greater Houston, it fills the day’s quota.

2. Get a new driver’s license.

My driver’s license doesn’t expire until 2014. However, I will need a new one when I leave my parents’ house. There is a preference for this driver’s license to come from a state other than Texas.

3. Start paying down my student loans.

Currently, my parents are paying them. This is not acceptable, and it never really has been.

4. Buy a car.

Unless my employment takes me to New York City and its immediate environment, I’ll need one.

5. Purchase a new computer.

It must run at least Windows and Linux. There is a stated preference for legally running OS X as well.

6. On no day weigh more than 180 pounds, naked and fasting.

I will weigh myself every day. Being over 180 pounds will result in a restricted diet for a week from that date, and the restricted diet will continue until I weigh less than 177 pounds, naked and fasting (in the morning).

7. Go to the gym for at least 1 hour three times a week.

Yeah, I’m already behind on that one. Walking for one hour may substitue for a gym visit.

8. Attend a Weight Watchers meeting at least once a week.

If I move, I have one week from the date of initial move-in to find a meeting and two months to find a regular meeting that works for me.

9. Watch at least one new anime series a month.

I need to catch up here. Use bittorrent and buy it if the series was worth watching. Besides, I need some fun.

10. Upon employment, find a social group and join it.

Civic groups count, churches do not. There is a requirement of weekly meetings. I must attend at least one meeting a month.

11. Upon employment, find a church and join it.

I must attend at least two services a month. Between acquiring employment and joining a church, I must attend worship services from at least two different traditions each month. For a tradition to count, it must affirm the Nicene Creed (because that’s how I roll personally). I must take notes and blog about the experience. If I should choose to join a traditional church that requires new confirmation before joining, enrolling in adult confirmation classes will suffice for this requirement.

Those are my resolutions. The last two may be deferred as long as I am making an honest effort to find a satisfactory group or church.

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

According to Wikipedia, the Metroplex has an 8% chance of having a White Christmas in a given year. According to the thermometer and the conditions outside right now, I’m saying that it’s a certainty. The snow is a light dust, and the roads are covered in ice.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen (if there are any of you), I’m in Arlington right now. No, I’m not here on a job interview (I wish), but instead am here to spend Christmas with my out-laws. This would be slightly less confusing if the matriarch of the house wasn’t an observant Jew (even if nobody else is, and no, we’re not talking about an adult convert–this house was mixed-faith from the start, and my brother in law observes both Christian and Jewish holidays in their proper idioms). I wanted to see one accumulation of snow. I’ve done three. The only goal I didn’t get in this year was receiving an acceptable job offer.

I’ve been really bad, food-wise. I get 36 points a day. I had 6 points at breakfast (4 for a scone, 1 for honey, 1 for grapes, so I did well there), and then the other meal was more interesting: 2 points for green beans with bacon, 14 points for ribs, 4 points for the barbecue sauce on those ribs, and 4 points for the Texas Toast (total: 24 points, for a running total of 30), a beer (4 points, 34 total), two ounces of mead (3 points, 37 total), three slices of bread (3 points, they were small, 40 total), 2 more for another kind of bread (42 total), pumpkin pie for 12 (54 total), and a cookie for 4 (58 total). That’s 22 points over. I’ve got 13 points on my 35 left. I think I’ll be going to a Saturday meeting to give myself time to recover. That said, I am weighing in at 179 right now, so I may be fine as long as I don’t do it all again tomorrow.

I do have $25 in a gift card to Fry’s that I don’t quite know how to spend. I’ve got enough money to pair that with what I have to acquire a PS2 (and from there, I’d pick up at least Frequency and Amplitude, as you all know I less than three rhythm games), though I’m not sure the money wouldn’t be better spent on an anime series or controllers for either my Xbox or my Wii. The iTunes gift card will probably go to acquiring Daft Punk’s Discovery or Norah Jones’s latest album. It’s not enough to unshackle my music collection (that will take $100), and I don’t think my parents understand what that means or why I want to do it.

The other things I got: New Super Mario Bros. Wii (the reason I requested this above all else should be painfully obvious to anyone who knows anything about video games and people of my age), The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (the game that got second priority for very similar reasons), Wii Sports Resort (that franchise is the only group of sporting games I can stand, and that’s because of the concept they embody rather than attempting to recreate a spectator or coach experience), a couple of small skillets that will be nice for small scale personal cooking if and when I move out (and until then are great for pan cookies, which my family loves), a blender (I do have a smoothie every morning for breakfast and had pretty much killed the old one), and the gym membership (including the gym bag, shower shoes, pants–I already had shirts–and a new pair of workout shoes because I killed the old ones on my 5 mile walks in the course of 5 months). That’s right, I may have requested games on the more “hardcore” consoles, but I generally made it clear that my order of precedence followed the age of the franchise, with the oldest franchises coming first. My aunt’s presents were shipped yesterday and won’t be here until late next week. This is a shock: she normally doesn’t ship them before my mom’s birthday, and one year it didn’t make it here until Spring Break. My grandma gave me $20.

Even now, I’m spamming resumes, though the holiday has meant that the postings have ramped down. I managed to get 5 out even tonight, knowing that nobody will see them until Monday. One of them was even to a firm here in the Metroplex.

One last thing: I’ve posted the proof of concept code for the reverse engineered calculator from my previous posts.

Have a good day tomorrow. I’ll probably be iced in for most of it.

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

So I’m currently in San Diego. I’ve been in the air most of the day, attempting to re-read Good Omens without much success.

I’m going to need a great deal of luck and all my skill to get myself through the next few days, which will prove to be some of the most expensive of my life: they’re charging for Internet access at the hotel (as if I were going to live without that). Also, plane tickets weren’t cheap. As it stands, the only deal I’m getting is on the rental car: I got an intermediate vehicle for the price of the economy car I ordered because someone drove off with the last Aveo.

That said, I fully intend to enjoy myself. I’ve got four movie tickets, and if I can swing it, I’ll probably go see Inglorious Bastards, as nobody else in my family wants to see the film (but I generally enjoy such bloodfests).

If you live in Southern California, I wouldn’t mind meeting you, as I’m here until Monday. Comment on any location where this post appears with info.