Good Idea from Jessica

Thanks, Jess!

1. Seven things I plan to do before I die (not necessarily in order):
<1> learn how to deal like a Vegas dealer
<2> learn carpentry
<3> learn how to work on my car
<4> get married
<5> live abroad
<6> become fluent in another language
<7> invent something

2. Seven things I can do:
<1> dislocate my jaw
<2> bake and cook
<3> sing kinda well
<4> tap dance
<5> read a lot
<6> multitask
<7> make friends easily

3. Seven things I can't do:
<1> roll my Rs
<2> shop for extended periods of time
<3> listen to music and not sing along
<4> live without my computer
<5> understand fashion
<6> talk on my cell phone while parallel parking (I agree, Jess!)
<7> cross the monkey bars (never learned and haven't tried)

4. Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex
<1> collarbones
<2> honesty/integrity
<3> nice hands
<4> genuine concern for others
<5> good sounding laugh
<6> warm personality
<7> a brain

5. Seven things I say most:
<1> "Dude."
<2> "Holy Cow!"
<3> "My bad."
<4> "Riiigghhhttt."
<5> "No way."
<6> "Bummer."
<7> "That's AWESOME!"

6. Seven celebrity crushes:
<1> Prince William
<2> Ethan Embry
<3> Jude Law
<4> Hugh Dancy
<5> Ioan Gruffudd
<6> Rob Lowe (I know, I know...)
<7> Jake Gyllenhaal

7. Seven songs I know the words to:
<1> Shoop by Salt N' Pepa
<2> Gangster's Paradise by Coolio
<3> Wonderwall by Oasis
<4> theme song of Fresh Prince of Bel Air
<5> The Luckiest by Ben Folds Five
<6> Don't Take the Girl by Tim McGraw
<7> Black by Pearl Jam

"Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses

Well, Northrop Grumman was a bust. The project they're hiring for sounds cool, but they totally don't have it together about the hiring process. They said it'd probably take a couple of months to interview enough candidates. No thanks. Saves me from filling out all that security clearance paperwork anyways.

On the other hand, I received my first rejection. Cisco turned me down. Bummer. Well, not really, I had already decided I didn't really want it, anyways. But rejection still sucks.

Now for a story. A couple of months ago my dog bit the neighbor. He's old, and he gets protective of our property and my parents. Our neighbors walk up and down our hill past our house every day, and usually he just barks. It's been that way for years. Something changed, though, and he decided to bite. Not good. Anyways, they were going to put him down, because he can't be chained up, and there's no place to fence him in. Luckily for Rex, Mom is a chatterbox and struck up a conversation with some random guy who said he'd take Rex in. So, Rex moved to a yard in Santa Rita. Apparantly, he was NOT happy, because he decided to walk home. Now, I went to high school in Santa Rita, it's about a 15-20 minute drive from our house. Not only that, we live on top of a hill. Rex either followed the road back, or hiked through the jungle. What a good dog! I'm so proud. But he can't stay. My aunt Sam said she'll take him, but she has to move out of her apartment to a place where she can keep a dog. Mom's given her a week to find something, or she'll put him down. I know that sounds rather heartless of Mom, but she has to do something. She can't keep him. The neighbors would have a cow. We'll see what happens. Here's a map, showing where he went: Red is where he started, in Santa Rita, and the blue is where our house is.

Ok, until next time.

"Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves

I'm walking on sunshine...WHOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

Ernst & Young made me an offer yesterday, yay! It's for Chicago, but they're letting me start in June. I don't think I'm allowed to publish the dollar figure, but it ain't bad, especially for Chicago. And, I know a grad student here who was only offered $2K more and being placed near LA. Great, so now I know I have a job!

Second piece of awesome news, Google wants me to fly up! That's awesome, I told the recruiter that it'd have to be ASAP since I am considering the other offers. But YAY.

Downer note: I'm sick. Probably due to late nights at Cruiser, lack of sleep and stress. Should make for an interesting Northrop Grumman interview this afternoon!

Ok, gotta go get ready, :)

I'm selling out.

[07:29] blah: how's the job search?
[07:30] L to the indsay: it's going, went to San Jose on Monday for Cisco.
[07:30] L to the indsay: going to Texas for Microsoft on December 4th - 6th
[07:31] L to the indsay: but, looking positive
[07:31] blah: right on
[07:31] blah: you want to work for satan?
[07:31] L to the indsay: satan pays incredibly well
[07:32] blah: yeah
[07:32] blah: I'd sell my soul too
[07:32] L to the indsay: this conversation is totally going in my blog.
[07:32] blah: solid

Thanks, Josh, for the support.

"When I Get You Alone" by Thicke

Good song, the guy who sings it is Robin Thicke, son of Growing Pains TV dad Alan Thicke. Bow to the Queen of Random Trivia.

Cisco was, uh, okay. The day wasn't as enjoyable as the Ernst & Young day, but it wasn't bad. Most people didn't get technical interviews, but all 3 of mine were. We'll see what they thought. At the dinner (which was at Dave & Busters, an adult arcade-type place, where I went on Friday with the crazy kids from ABC.com - who were MUCH more fun), my on-campus interviewer told me: "I think you'd be great here, and I highly recommended you." Sweet. I'll find out in a week or so.

The most exciting part of the trip was getting there. Short flight up, and when I got to the airport I had to go pick up my rental car. Don't I feel important, I get a rental car! And it wasn't at the cheapo PayLess/Enterprise/Budget rental car, it was Avis. Ooh Aah. When I approached the rental agent, a really nice guy named Jose, he said I had an 'intermediate' car. Wow, intermediate! I have no idea what that means, but...AWESOME.

Jose: "Would you like to try the new Chevy HHR?"
Me: "Wow, okay, that'd be great!" Thinking, "Look at me! New car!"
Jose: "It's like a PT Cruiser, I'm sure you'll enjoy it."
Me: Thinking, "Why is he smirking?"

I soon found out. When I found my car in the parking lot, it reminded me of the bastard child of a station wagon and SUV. "Eh," I thought, "New car!" I put my luggage inside and started out for the hotel. Because of poor visibility, it felt like I was driving one of those 40s gangster getaway cars:

Once I arrived at the hotel, I parked in the garage, got out of the car and walked around to the trunk to get my suitcase out, and finally looked at the car. It was orange. I hadn't noticed it in the dark of the rental lot. Not just any orange, a deep deep orange, the color of burning.

I felt so used, so THAT'S why the guy was so nice, cause he saw a sucker! Jerk. The next morning when all of the candidates had to meet up, everybody else had nice, sensible rental cars...black, grey, blue sedans. Not me, thanks to Jose.

"Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes

It's sad that I know who sings that song off the top of my head.

Oh, I love sleep. I just had a WHOLE night's full! It was amazing, you'll have to try it sometime.

Yay for Saturday! I'm going to go hang out at Pam's and do laundry. Tonight is Monica's birthday dinner, so we're going to eat dinner and play pool. Then tomorrow, I'm flying to San Jose for my Cisco interviews on Monday. Whoohooo.

On Thursday evening in my cinema class taught by Leonard Maltin we watched the new kids movie Zathura. Wasn't expecting much, looked like Jumanji 2. However, it was much funnier than I expected, see it if you have a kid (or know one). Jon Favreau (actor in Made, Swingers, Dinner for Five) directed it, he also directed Elf. He came and spoke, and he's a BIG guy. He's also really intelligent and funny. Anyway, it was a good class, thought I'd share.

I'll let you know how Cisco goes, cross your fingers!

Something came, all right, it was a...

TRAIN. That bowled me over. Ouch.

It feels like I had one very long day. It began on Monday and is still going. Once I finish this, it's goodnight (until I get up for my class at 7pm)! Monday was a normal day of class and such. Then on Monday evening Sally and I went to Pam's because Aloha was visiting from the Philippines. Aloha is Pam's/Mom's/Carol's first cousin, and she's a famous movie star/singer in the Philippines. I haven't seen her since I was 13 or so, and Pam hasn't seen her in 35 years! It was a good time. Anyway, once I got home at 11 or so, I packed for New York. Monica's dad took us to the airport at 4:30am. Our flight left at 7am, arrived in New York at 3:30pm. Monica had never been to NY, but unfortunately there wasn't any time to see anything. We drove by Flushing Meadows, and had a few minutes to walk a block around Times Square, but that's it. Then we had a "meet and greet" dinner, went to sleep, and had the interview day from 8am - 4pm, spent 2 hours in a taxi to get to JFK, sat in a plane for 9 hours (including the 2 1/2 hours we spent not moving before we took off). Came home, slept a little bit, woke up for an interview on campus this morning, and now here I am. Phew.

If I decide to do consulting, this will be my life...flights, delays, suit-wearing, etc. Can I handle that?

The interview day went really well, everyone was really nice and informative, and I'm pretty sure they loved me. I'll hear back within 7 - 10 days. I also found out that they're considering me for Chicago. Live in Chicago? I've always wanted to GO, but it'll be SO cold to live there. Gosh, I don't know. I haven't had the time or brain power to contemplate my choices, yet. What do you all think?

The interview this morning with Avanade was HORRIBLE. It was a 45-minute technical interview. The questions weren't hard, or anything, but my mind was in NO position to think. Mitch (my interviewer) would ask me a question, I'd answer it, and then he'd tell me the answer using different words. I'm confused....does that mean that he thought I answered incorrectly, or was he confirming my answer? I really don't know. Good thing I'm exhausted, or I'd be wound up with worry. Eh, it's over. We'll see. I've stopped caring. (Not really, but I'm telling myself that).

"Something's Coming" from the West Side Story Soundtrack

Could be...who knows? There's something due anyday; I will know right away, as soon as it shows.

Good lyrics, eh? Fitting that it should be stuck in my head when I awoke this morning. This weekend should be pretty chill, no big plans. I'm supposed to work at Cruiser tonight, but may take off because it was Casey's (former roommate) birthday earlier this week, and she wants to celebrate. We'll see. Otherwise, all I've got is homework to do. And passport pictures to take. All in all, good chill weekend. Yay.

"The Joker" by Steve Miller Band

Again I've been told that I'm boring. I don't deny it. But it's your choice to keep reading. And I think you will. I may be boring, but addictive.

I watched the new movie Pride and Prejudice tonight in my cinema class. It had some great landscape shots of the English countryside, and the director who came to speak was English. It reminded me that I'M GOING TO ENGLAND!!!! So soon! And, hopefully, before I leave I'll have a job set up for when I return from my travels. And, I aspire to have some money to live on. I guess with this whole job search I'd forgotten about my upcoming holiday. It'll be a big party: Sally, Jim, Allison, Lilah, Shelly, cousin Robert, cousin Lynsey and I...all together. And I'll get to see my brother!

Warms my heart this cold evening working at Cruiser.

"Rapunzel" by Dave Matthews Band

Sorry for the lack of posts, busy busy busy.

I decided not to accept the KPMG, Deloitte and Chevron interviews. I just have too much on my plate. Besides, I already have second round interviews with Cisco in San Jose, SanDisk in San Jose, Microsoft in Texas, Hitachi here in LA and Ernst & Young in New York. Those plus classes, work and my internship are already too much! There are exactly 30 days left until classes are over. Wow. Then I'll finally be graduated, whoohooo! It's taken long enough.

I bought a suit for my interviews today. Suits are SO expensive. I had no idea. I guess it's tuna fish and ramen until next paycheck.

I worked at Cruiser for Halloween, and we were allowed to wear costumes. I wore my regular polo uniform shirt. BUT, I spiced it up a little. On the right side of my face I had my awesome roommate Bethany apply fake skin to look like I had a few deep gashes. Then we applied fake blood that ran from the gashes down my neck and under my chin. The reason I did this was because when I'm driving to pick up people, I speak to them from the driver-side window to confirm I'm picking up the right person. After confirmation, they walk around to the passenger side and get in the car. So, while speaking to them on Halloween, I looked normal, but once they sat in the car and looked at me, they freaked out. It was great. My boss almost didn't let me drive because I looked so gruesome. Then he got into the spirit of it and used me to play pranks on other Cruisers. All in all, it was a good costume. I don't know yet if I won for best costume, but I gave it a good shot.

My aunt Susan sent me a lovely email extoling my writing. She said it's my calling. Nevermind Computer Science. I do actually enjoy this little bit of writing, I forgot what it was like to write semi-creatively. But anyways, that warmed my heart, thanks Susan!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. You keep commenting, and I'll keep writing.