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Well, I just got back from a 28-hour excursion to Austin, TX.  I’ve been to Austin before, but not like this… usually it’s for Cowboy Band stuff, but this time I was on my own, headed for two interviews in the North Austin area.  Crazy?  Maybe.

I left Thursday at about 7:30 PM and checked-in to a hotel a little after midnight.  I booked the hotel before I left on Hotwire.com (which was super easy), and I got a pretty good rate for a decent room.  This, in and of itself, was great because that’s something I’d never done.  I’ve never traveled to another city and stayed in a hotel by myself, so this was yet another experience that made me feel more “grown up” (I’ve had a lot of those lately).  I stayed up a little longer to do some research on the companies I’d be interviewing with in the morning, and then crashed.

I got up in the morning and was ready at 11:00 AM for my first interview with company A.  Company A is looking for a front-end web developer to implement their product on client websites (though, they give this position the fancy title of “Implementation Engineer”, which I think I like better).  I met with a panel, then a group of two for a “culture interview”, then with one guy for a “technical interview”, and finally with two of the managers of different divisions there.  I think the interviews went really well; I feel like I made a positive impression with everybody I interviewed with, and I had fun at the same time.  I was there for about 2 hours, yet it didn’t really feel like that, though I’m not sure if it’s because I was enjoying the interview or if I was just so nervous I didn’t feel the time flying by.  After finishing up at company A, I had just enough time to grab a chicken salad sandwich combo from Chick-fil-a before going to my 2:00 PM interview with company B.

As a sidenote, can I just mention how elated I was to discover that my favorite item on the Chick-fil-a menu has finally become a combo meal?  I’ve always loved the chicken salad sandwich, so much so in fact that once (I think I was 10 years old?), my mother asked what I wanted from Chick-fil-a (and for some reason we hadn’t had it for awhile)… I told her I wanted “the Chick-fil-a sandwich”, and I was shocked when she brought back a regular chicken sandwich!  I had believed until that point that the chicken salad sandwich was THE Chick-fil-a sandwich!  Anyways, combo #7 has instantly become my favorite combo number.

Company B is entirely different sort of company and as such the job there would be totally different.  However, they’re looking for a junior web developer (they’re expecting to have to teach stuff), so it would be a great learning experience.  On the other side of that, I would have to be learning a lot, because I don’t have much experience in the platforms they use.  The interview was with one person, and was interesting; he had me work through solving a logic puzzle, and though he had to guide me a little to the correct answer, I found the answer pretty easy once it was revealed.  I’ll type out the puzzle at the bottom of this post and you see if you can figure it out.  Anyways, I think the interview here went well, but we’ll find out soon because I should hear either way from both of these companies next week.

After finishing my last interview, I found somewhere to get out of my suit into normal clothes (I didn’t see a single person wearing a suit all day), and called up an old friend from high school that just graduated from UT.  We had dinner at Hula Hut, and once again I’m going to digress to talk about food.  The Cowboy Band eats at the Hula Hut every year following the Chuy’s Children’s Parade, but we always get the same shortened menu, and when I say shortened menu, I mean there’s like 4 or 5 items to pick from on there.  So, this was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to go to Hula Hut and order off the regular menu, though I didn’t really need the menu; I already knew what I wanted.  Every year CBB went there, and every year I saw someone (not with us) get a sizzling plate of fajitas topped with… pineapple.  Crazy, right?  NO.  AMAZING. I’m not kidding; today I think I ate some of the best fajitas I’ve ever had the opportunity to digest.

I hit the road at about 7:30 PM once again and got back to Abilene a little after midnight.  It’s late and I’m running out of things to write about, but it was an interesting day for sure, and I’ll be sure to post here if I get a job!

Logic Puzzle:

You’ve got 8 balls, all the same size/shape/weight except for one that’s defective and weighs less.  You have a balance scale; use the scale to find the defective ball in only two weighings.  Note: you cannot cheat by just holding them and feeling the weight difference.

I seem to do a lot of these “it’s been a long time since I’ve posted” posts.  I never really stopped to think about why I haven’t posted (outside of just not having time), but after reading this post by Robert Scoble, it all made sense.  Basically, I’ve been online, just not here.  I’ve been on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and just haven’t felt the need to post full posts.  When I started this blog, it was a way to share personal thoughts and to keep people up-to-date with my life… these days, it’s far easier for someone to look at my profile on Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, Flickr, Delicious, LinkedIn, 30boxes, FriendFeed, and the list goes on.  In other words, I’m engaging in online social networks a lot more than I used to, and most of my friends are doing the same.

That’s not to say I’m done with this; I still need a place to write longer thoughts like this that won’t fit into Twitter’s 140 character limit.  So, while I draft my next post, here’s everything I’ve “tweeted” on Twitter since my last post here.

Finally enjoying IMAP-flavored Gmail… and it tastes goooood. 09:52 PM October 31, 2007 from Hahlo

It’s taking everything within me to not go home and finish setting up the new 24″ iMac… must work… must make money to pay for iMac… 03:21 PM November 02, 2007 from web

Installing Leopard; 37 minutes to go. 05:59 PM November 02, 2007 from PocketTweets

I’m running the Windows-only software for my Systems Analysis and Design class… on my Mac! VMware Fusion in Unity Mode FTW!! 11:29 PM November 04, 2007 from twitterrific

How can Pixelmator expect to be a serious contender against Photoshop if it doesn’t have support for guides or rulers? 12:24 AM November 11, 2007 from twitterrific

Why am I still up at 2:30 am, and why am I so hungry? 02:36 AM November 12, 2007 from twitterrific

Thank you, Discount Tire, for charging me the sum total of $0.00 to patch my flat tire this morning. Much appreciated. 10:15 AM November 12, 2007 from web

Trying to decide if Pixelmator is worth the investment, considering I can’t really afford Photoshop at the moment. Thoughts? 11:10 PM November 12, 2007 from twitterrific

Home for thanksgiving; using my iMac plugged into the 46″ HDTV with wireless mouse and keyboard… twittering from across the room FTW! 01:44 PM November 21, 2007 from web

Really wish I didn’t have class in the morning. Like really, really wish I didn’t. 01:32 AM November 26, 2007 from web

bored bored bored. 08:44 PM December 09, 2007 from web

I just finished my last final in about 5 minutes flat… everybody in the room gave me the “you bastard” look, but hooray for studying! 11:31 AM December 12, 2007 from web

Home for the weekend, then back to Abilene for one more week of work. 12:16 AM December 15, 2007 from Facebook

Just realized I haven’t twittered(?) since last week… oops. 09:32 AM December 21, 2007 from web

Trying to decide if I want to install the 1.1.3 update just yet… me likey my 3rd-party apps. 05:03 PM January 15, 2008 from web

Thinking about switching from Wordpress to Movable Type… I’m really digging the new Action Streams plugin… thoughts? 04:01 PM January 31, 2008 from Facebook

I’m finding I don’t much like Movable Type… will somebody please just make an Action Streams plugin for Wordpress? 01:38 AM February 11, 2008 from web

Terminal, TextMate, Firefox 3, NetNewsWire, Mail, iTunes, Aperture, Photoshop, & VMware Fusion without any noticeable performance drop FTW! 05:52 PM March 12, 2008 from web

My sister: “Isn’t an albino a type of goat?” 03:11 PM March 19, 2008 from web

The next release of WordPress (2.5) looks pretty darn good, and the new admin interface is *actually* better. Thanks @photomatt. 11:26 PM March 19, 2008 from web

Also, Safari 3.1 is… awesome. Especially awesome is the Network Timeline. Thanks Apple. 11:45 PM March 19, 2008 from web

It’s 3am… and I’m not tired. At all. WTH. Tomorrow will not be fun. Wait, *today* will not be fun… 03:06 AM March 20, 2008 from PocketTweets

Still sick… third day in a row… temp around 101… WTH. At least it’s giving me plenty of time to work on my senior project… ugh. 08:03 PM March 26, 2008 from web

Almost done with this senior project… wish I had time to flesh out a few more features, but I don’t think they’ll even use what’s there. 12:44 AM April 04, 2008 from web

Anybody know what happened to the “Networks” menu item and drop down on Facebook’s main navigation? Mine is mysteriously missing… 02:37 PM April 07, 2008 from Facebook

Somehow missed the post on The Facebook Blog explaining the demise of the “Networks” menu item… apparently, it just never got used. 01:03 AM April 08, 2008 from web

I’m a little perplexed by these random people following me; am I interesting, or is it just a game to see who can follow the most people? 11:31 AM April 16, 2008 from web

Why can’t I go to bed at a normal time like a normal person? Perhaps going to bed at a decent hour just isn’t normal anymore… ? 12:52 AM April 17, 2008 from web

Wearing khaki shorts for the first time this year… don’t know why that’s twitter-worthy, but there you go. 10:42 AM April 22, 2008 from web

Six months ago, I posted an entry about needing to get a new Mac… well, I never did. I continued to use my trusty 12-inch PowerBook G4, and I still am. There are many reasons I never went through with those plans… chief among them was that I couldn’t afford what I wanted (a Mac Pro), and I hated the design of the alternative (an iMac). Six months have passed since then, and with those six months came a few changes… 1) a new design for the iMac that just screams “I am the perfect mix of form and function”, and 2) OS X 10.5 Leopard, with it’s 300+ new features.

So, Saturday evening, armed with my $100 iPhone rebate (not much, but hey - every bit helps), me and my dad set out for the Apple Store Willowbend in Plano (only a few miles from my house). Dad’s not really a Mac guy; I think he sees how form and function complement each other in Apple’s designs for some of their products (for instance, he really likes the new Nanos), but he has yet to take the plunge on a Mac for himself and/or the family. Anyways, we browsed the store for a few minutes and I showed him a few of the finer points of Leopard. After a few minutes, I let one of the Mac specialists know I was there to buy an iMac of the 2.8 GHz variety… he paused for a minute, and said the words I was most afraid of hearing at that point: “We’re out of stock.”

Now, I’ve never known an Apple Store to be out of stock of something, but then again this was Leopard release weekend and so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. The specialist let me know he would go check the stockroom just to make sure, and then call the 3 other Apple Stores in the DFW area to check their stock. As he expected, the stockroom check confirmed they were out. However, what I didn’t expect (and I don’t think he did either) was that all the other stores were too! The entire DFW area was out of stock of 2.8 GHz iMacs. Can you say bummer? I did, along with some other things as me and dad walked dejectedly back to the parking garage, stopping only to play with the lightsabers in Sharper Image.

Not to be completely depressed about the evening’s events, I placed the order online as soon as we got home, and it should be here (in Abilene) by the end of the week. The specs, for those of you interested in this sort of thing:

iMac - 24″

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
• 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2×1GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

Overall, I’m happy with the configuration I finally settled on… I probably spent hours reading benchmark test after benchmark test, scrutinizing minute details here and there, and forever configuring and re-configuring different variations at the Apple Store online, but this is what I ended up with.

The end of the week can’t come soon enough.

So, it’s been a little quiet around here as of late. My apologies.

First, if you’ve hanging on for dear life just to read my review of the iPhone, you’re about to be sorely disappointed because this is not it. While I may still do that someday when I’m really bored (read: not anytime soon), I feel like enough has been said already, by people who said it much better than I can. If you really want to hear my opinions, my gripes, and what to consider if you’re thinking about getting one, just ask me - I’ll be more than happy to give an answer to any/all of that.

Second, many of you want to know why I wasn’t in band Monday afternoon, and why my Facebook and Twitter statuses alluded to my having some sort of medical problem. Well… here’s what happened. I was sitting on my bike on the “porch” of Hunter Hall, waiting for Erin and Amanda to come out the door to go to one of our weekly meetings. When I saw them come out the door at the other end of the building, my brain went into some weird mode where my thought processes were in line with the thoughts of a 7 or 8 year-old… I knew they were over there, and that I was over here, and that I needed to be over there… so I proceeded to ride my bike off the 2.5 ft ledge of the porch. The problem with that was two-fold: I didn’t have enough momentum to make it work, and worse, I realized what I was doing just as I was about to roll off the edge, and I squeezed that front brake hard… too hard. Essentially what happened next was that I fell over the front of bike onto the rocky concrete below (from where I was sitting on the bike, easily 4 to 5 feet), and then the bike fell on top of me. Now, I’ve done worse - just ask my mom. I’ve had more bruises and scrapes from my shenanigans as a child than I care to remember, but that period of my life was at least a decade or more ago… so I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I could just ride off that ledge. Anyways, I scraped up my elbow, and I’ve done something to my foot, thought I’m not sure what other than that I know it’s not broken… I just can’t really put any weight on it. And that is why I wasn’t in band on Monday.

I’m not sure if anybody noticed, but the site went through a major redesign about a month ago. It was a long and arduous search to find a clean and good-looking theme I liked that I could build on, and I finally found it. ColdBlue by WebRevolutionary is a very well laid out theme, and it was relatively easy to modify the design to give it a little touch of me. If it looks weird in your browser… use a modern browser. If it still looks bad, let me know. Seriously.

But, there are a few content changes as well:

• The Photos page still serves up my photos from Flickr and uses Lightbox to show the images in their galleries. Click on any image in an album to open the Lightbox, and then click on the left or right side of the image to go backwards and forwards (respectively) through the gallery.
• The News page no longer shows my “dugg” stories from digg. It now shows my Newsgator clippings, which is even better. Everyday, I read tons of news in feed reader, and the clippings are news stories that caught my eye or that interested me for some reason or another. Until recently I had no way to share those clippings with anybody, but some recent changes at Newsgator now allow me to do so, which is fantastic.
  EDIT: Also, the sidebar module that showed digg stories is gone as well.
• The Weather page is gone; if you used it, sorry.
• The HSU page… will be back to its previous usefulness soon.
  EDIT: Actually, I don’t have time to give the ‘ole HSU page the attention it needed, so it’s gone as well.
• The Archives have been redone, and it should be much easier to find one of my older posts, assuming you know about when it was written and/or what the title of the post was. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, the search bar can be your friend too.
• Colophon… is pretty much the same, with a few updates to plugins here and there.

I’ll try to crank out a post more often than once every two months; we’ll see what happens.