Joe Chin

Rejected

Nothing hurts more than being rejected...all the time. It seems like I never have enough experience or there is someone with a little more experience than I. But these are the breaks. So I'm left to suck it up. Tuck it in and get back to work. There's gotta be someone out there that wants me.

Now to face the fork in the road of my life and career. On the one hand I have the option of sticking with ASP.NET and all that entails. I've always tried to stay away from proprietary solutions but what the clients want the clients get. I've been working in C# for a year and a half. Visual Studio has made me a lazy programmer. Since it seems to know what I want to do before I finish typing it. This can be a godsend and can a curse.

On the other hand there is always learning the F/OSS languages Python, Perl, PHP. The market is starting to involve more of these solutions but the question of money is always raised. Who pays in the end? The clients want a free solution but some neglect the cost of development. And developers aren't cheap.
In the meantime, all those projects that I passed on because I thought I was going to be studying abroad, can I have them back please?

I made the computer cry

Iago's been doing good by me for the last 3 years. I can't believe I've held onto this little beast for the last 3 years. (Technically 2.6) And its still going strong. Not shiny new hardware strong, but it does what it does day in and day out without wincing.

(Hint: Wanna mess with a Windows user? Print the uptime. In my case: uptime
13:23 up 73 days, 15:38, 2 users, load averages: 1.72 2.35 2.88). 73 days straight, including editing video, working on files, compiling, and writing emails.

But alas, it can't last forever. The system updates have been stacking up, my VM is getting outta hand ( < 8 GB), and I'm sure I have a few dead processes taking up memory somewhere. Ahh what the hell, let's see how far he'll go before he croaks. If you haven't bought a UPS for your computer yet, its the best investment you can make. I used to be afraid of leaving unfinished work on the screen, now I save before I go to sleep, but I know it'll still be there in the morning.

Now the PowerMac G5, it's a nice computer, the system architect is topnotch, but I prefer the elegance of a QuickSilver, if they have a way to squeeze an dual G5 into a Quicksilver case then I'll put money on that.
It's unfortunate that a computer has more presence than most people. But anyone who sees it is drawn to it. What do you do with it? Is that a Mac? I've never seen one like that? I know I know. I'll leave him alone for now. He's ripping DVDs and it's quite a strain on our relationship. I've got work to do, but I can't get it to multitask the way I want it to. I need two processors! Maybe more...

This blog is now being written from the ecto. I'm evaluating it right now because I may use it in the longrun instead of the CGI interface.

If you haven't heard you should check out my homegirl M.I.A. Artist out of the UK. Beats are made crazy and I'm digging the colloquialism. You can also cop it on Amazon.

Listening to: Hombre from the album "Arular" by M.I.A.

As found on Craigslist

Okay, this isn't me, but I found it hilarious...

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ so
much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing. I have
never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart.

FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into
bed.

Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says "I don't feel
like it, I just want you to hold me."

I said "WHAT??!! What was that?!"

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear...
"You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me
to satisfy your physical needs as a man." She responded to my puzzled look
by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in
the bedroom?"

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with
her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big
unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on
several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to
take so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to
compliment her new clothes, so I said lets get a pair for each outfit. We
went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond
earrings. Let me tell you...she was so excited. She must have thought I was
one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because
she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play
tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey."
She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.
Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, "I think this is all
dear, let's go to the cashier."

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel
like it."

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled
WHAT?"

I then said "honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're
just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy
your shopping needs as a woman." And just when she had this look like she
was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and
not for the things I buy you?"

Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either.

Ripped from the internet:
First it was the icyHotStunnaz.... now we have White Gangstaz.
I'm not making this up folks.

On Spring Breaks, Weekends, and Bride and Prejudice

This was a long weekend. A seriously long, enjoyable weekend. My VA Tech peoples came down and chilled on South Beach. Which only proved that I'm as much the tourist as they are. And that's sad. I live five minutes away from South Beach but consider it a pain to ever really visit there. And then I never go to the beach. Too many pretty people intimidate me. Sike! Joe Chin is hardly intimidated.
If you get the chance I encourage you to check the movie Bride and Prejudice. It's based on the 50s novel by Jane Austen, but done in Bollywood fashion. I was surprised how good the movie came out. Same director also did Bend it Like Beckham.
I won't give it away, but, I will say the ending was too predictable. From what I understand this is predictable for Bollywood flicks.
I loved the snake dance. Funny as hell too.

And that's why I will never forget Inheritance

I had a job interview yesterday. Actually, not a real job interview but one of those phone screenings to make sure you are who you say you are on your resume. The interviewer was really good, got me on a lot of questions and even helped me through some of the answers I should have known, but couldn't put it into words. After that interview I learned my lesson, I will no longer be using Intellitype (bad Joe, bad Joe).

And then it was the final question that really got me. The one that is never supposed to get anyone because it's so simple that even your grandmother would know the answer, Inheritance: using one class, the base, to provide methods, properties, and other members to a derived class.

You know, like when you "inherit" property. Duh.
Excuse me while I sit in the corner.

Here's hoping that the interviewer can see through my faux pas and take me seriously.
Salute!

Mondays are fresh

For all those spring breakers out there on South Beach, Welcome to South Florida! Now please don't piss on the side of my car. I miss those days and, if I have the time, I'm longing to engage in the shenanigans that most college students will endure for a week. God, I feel like one of those creepy old men hanging around the all ages club. I'm not "that old" yet but I've worn my badge of honor well. Time to conquer something new besides drunk college chicks.
These city girls you gotta step your game up, or down (some are real easy to impress ;-) ).

Who's ready for St. Patty's!

Spider bites

Last weekend I drove up to see my brother in Savannah, GA. He was suffering from a spider bite, a brown recluse spider bite. All things considered, it was pretty nasty but the doctor at the hospital was able to patch up the hole it left in his arm. Yes, a really big hole.


Needless to say, I was grossed out when I saw the wad of gauze fall out of the pocket in his elbow.

Coming soon...my amateur pictures of Savannah and the river district.

Google Maps finally supports Safari

I waited and waited and, finally, they did it. Google Maps includes support for Safari now as announced by Bret Tyler. This announcement comes as a great relief to those of us waiting to get our Map on! Now the list has grown to include IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari. Good work guys!

Relationships and automobiles

If there is one thing that always happens in life, invariably we as humans will grow to be attached to another being (hopefully not blood related) for a serious amount of time. But in the meantime we put ourself in the market and engage in train dating. And that is where I'm at, sort of.

I guess I'm fixated not necessarily in dating but in taking the time to find out what I want. And that includes everything: dating, career, finances, and location.