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July 30, 2004
July 29, 2004
Much better (job stuff)
I think we should just realize that people have their specialties, and when they know what they're doing we shouldn't waste time debating with them.I've suddenly gained a lot of respect for him — he actually does know where his knowledge is lacking, and actually does want to learn!— James, in response to Antoine spending about two hours arguing with me about a window-drawing mechanism he couldn't wrap his mind around
July 28, 2004
Dev cycle (job stuff)
At least I finally got my travel/hotel/etc. reimbursement today so I can actually start buying furniture.
July 26, 2004
Multitaskers are good (random)
It's a good thing that I have this for cooking, because it looks like it's going to be the only way I can cook things for a while.
July 25, 2004
Underwhelming (music)
July 24, 2004
Broadband decisions (geekery)
July 22, 2004
Finally moved in (random)
It turns out that Ridgewood is actually in Queens, though just barely (it's right on the official edge of the borough). But it's still basically Brooklyn. Actually I think the grocery store just across the street is technically Brooklyn. Though maybe not, since the food is a lot cheaper here than in Manhattan or Brooklyn. :) (Still more expensive than NM though.)
(Totally unrelated self-congratulatory note: The phpBB mod team has finally seen fit to accept one of my mods. Maybe they'll see fit to incorporate it into 2.2... I haven't had one single piece of comment spam since I wrote it, even though there have been plenty of attempts!)
Time estimates (geekery)
<fluffy> I still think I should implement a proportional font renderer. It'll look better.Or three hours, including the time to draw the font and write a conversion tool and a minimal tile-graphics emulator to test the output. Whichever.<James> It might, but it'd take you like four days to write it!
July 21, 2004
I am finally satisfied (food)
I have finally found a good hamburger.
Gnar (job stuff)
So I emailed Antoine and told him that I'll be coming in around noon tomorrow so I can move in to my apartment. I'll probably buy some furniture too. Since having a place to sleep will be rather nice.
Mice are nice (travels)
July 20, 2004
I need to focus on the positive (job stuff)
July 19, 2004
I have an apartment now (random)
"Only" $1200/month. Ugh.
I can move in Thursday. Yay!
July 18, 2004
Expensive (random)
- Sales tax: 8.5%
- State income tax: 6.85%
- City income tax: 3%
- 2-liter bottle of Coke: $1.80
The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train (random)
More notes to self (random)
- It's better to check which train you're getting onto before getting on
- The doors to a subway are not like the doors to an elevator. Having them close on you actually kinda hurts.
- When you ask for the address of "the apartment on Franklin which was listed on Craigslist," consider that the landlord may not even know what Craigslist is, might have multiple apartments on Franklin, and will probably send you to a roach-infested crumbling two-bedroom shithole in a neighborhood full of drug pushers instead of the newly-renovated place you wanted to go which happened to have its open house at the same time (god damnit)
July 17, 2004
Notes from the pavement (random)
Note to self (random)
Glacial apartment search (random)
Right now I'm staying in the same hotel as when I was here for my job interview, but this time it's even worse:
July 15, 2004
Chutzpah (job stuff)
Also, I was extremely lucky to get this job — not just because of the "OMG I'm a game programmer!" bit, but because of the chain of events which led to me getting it.
Happy fun puzzle challenge (geekery)
Changing phone numbers (customer experience)
July 14, 2004
July 13, 2004
The countdown is nigh (random)
I'm gonna be a New Yorker in less than 24 hours! Eep!
July 12, 2004
$140 (random)
That's just for immediate needs though (you know, things like my CDs, DVDs, and all my video games and all systems except the NES, though that does include my NES cartridges).
NYC MTA out of date (random)
(It's the last stop on one particular line if you're not sure where to look.)
July 11, 2004
I just found Zorkachu (random)
July 9, 2004
Thinning out (random)
One of the things I was going to take now was Zorkachu, my fileserver box. But I couldn't find it anywhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's still in my last house's utility room in Las Cruces. Oops.
Good ol' MBNA (random)
The CSR said he had to transfer me to another department to answer that question. I said okay.
Five minutes later, I heard a woman ask, "Hello?"
I said, "Yes, I had a question about my account APR—"
"I'm sorry, you have the wrong number. This is a hotel."
"Uh, the credit card company transferred me here—"
"Yeah, I don't know why they keep doing that. Goodbye," she said, and hung up.
I have a feeling that MBNA does this on purpose whenever there's a question about their ever-increasing APRs.
July 8, 2004
Parents driving me CRAZY again (rant)
But hey. I'll be gone in a week. After that I can just get nagged on the phone instead, and guilt-tripped for not going out of my way to meet distant relatives I've never met or cared to meet while in NYC.
Grumble.
Damn airport shuttle! (travels)
Not a remix (music)
I mean, I already have a pretty high standard for what makes a remix worth listening to, and this is just way below that standard. But it seems like this is the only way classic rock is played on the radio here. Do people just have specific expectations for the percussion and EQ of a track nowadays?
July 7, 2004
After careful consideration (job stuff)
Arglebargle (job stuff)
Gnah (random)
Also, I didn't win anything in the nigritude ultramarine contest, and the winners of the bonus prizes were fucking retarded linkfarms. WTF? My weblog (and definition entry) are way better than the ones which were selected as "best weblog" and "best definition." I smell a circlejerk, or (equally likely) inattentive judges.
July 6, 2004
The ice arrived. (travels)
(The attendant thought the guy at the front desk said 507 instead of 607, though I was at the front desk when he called and it sounded pretty clearly of a 6!)
Interesting (geekery)
Who knows how long this'll last, though.
I also still haven't gotten my damn ice.
Retarded hotel (travels)
There is no hotel information in the rooms themselves, including information on how to call the front desk, or anything about room service costs, not even on the surface of the phone, which is as clean and pure as the driven snow.
There are no guest-accessible ice makers. Instead, you have to call the front desk and order it to be sent up, which I found out when I went to the front desk to ask where the ice maker was half an hour ago. The guy got on a walkie-talkie and ordered some ice for me. It still hasn't arrived — are they freezing it especially for me? Will I be charged for it?
Blah.
Affirmation (job stuff)
Wish me luck.
4:55 EDT Back at the hotel room.
July 5, 2004
Near-dearth experience (food, travels)
Which, apparently, isn't so easy to find in New York. (It turns out it's 2,000 miles away from Mexico. Who knew?)
Fortunately, Corsendonk, a Belgian ale I'd never heard of (I was attracted to its champagne-esque packaging, to the point that I didn't notice the $7 pricetag for a pint and a half), is plentiful here — and tastes way better.
The best bagel ever (food, travels)
Or at least the best bagel I'd ever had.
Yay for free airport WiFi (travels)
'Course, even though it's free it requires a stupid clickthrough thing to establish a browsing session once an hour, to let me know that yes, I am, in fact, connecting to free WiFi. As if I didn't already know that. And it's not even selling any advertising or saying which company provides it. Weird.
Also, I guess I could have gotten up an hour later after all, since I've been sitting here bored for a while and my flight doesn't leave for an hour. (Oh, and no meal service on any of my flights. Arse.)
July 4, 2004
July 3, 2004
The best spam ever (random)
Applicant said if he was hired he would demonstrate his loyalty by having the corporate logo tattooe
If the pay was right, I'd travel with the carnival.
All grocery shopping bags contain at least one French bread and one bunch of carrots with leafy tops
You can jump-start your car without cables.
NEED MEDS?
July 2, 2004
More anti-spam measures (meta)
Ranking (meta)
I don't actually care about winning the monitor (it doesn't have a DVI input as far as I can tell) but it'd be really neat to get a page with real content higher up than the various linkfarm spammers.

