As Heard on All Things Considered

I thought this was an interesting story done on NPR about voice mail messages vs. caller id. I find it ironic that I hear this story on the same day I choose to leave a voice mail message for the chica I spoke with on Saturday. Enjoy.

Leaving Messages? That's So 20th Century
by Lori Gottlieb

Lately a lot of people have been complaining that I am not returning their calls. “But I didn’t get a message” I’ll say, and they’ll get all huffy and say ‘well, didn’t you see me on your caller id?”

Ahh, caller id. Now a days almost everyone’s phone service includes the option where the caller’s number pops up on the recipients digital display. And my friends are saying ‘that a number alone counts as a bonefied message. To me this kind of non-message message isn’t just passive aggressive, it’s ineffective. I don’t really have the time, or the sense of paranoia to scroll through all of my missed calls. My friends see it differently – they believe that because we have such busy lives, voice messages are out-dated. In their view not only is listening to the outgoing message a waste of time, mine lasts a whopping ten seconds but, they insist that leaving a voice message is redundant. As one friend put it ‘all I’d say on a message is call me back.’ My number on your caller id display says the same thing.’ Call me old fashioned, but I like hearing an actual voice

A list of ten digits seems too impersonal. Besides how am I suppose to analyze messages left by boyfriends if there is no voice to analyze? I can’t play a guys message for friends anymore and ask “what do you think he meant by talk to you sooon?” does his emphasizing of the word soon mean I should call him tonight? Or wait until tomorrow? Now all I have to work with is his electronic phone number, and you can’t get much mileage out of that.”

But while leaving messages with caller id seems impersonal there’s also something paradoxically personal about it. There’s an intimacy implied by the shorthand of the digital display. By the fact that I’m supposed to know that my friend Ellen called by simply recognizing her number.

It’s the technological equivalent of the ‘hi it’s me’ message, the kind where you are supposed to know who the ‘me’ is because you recognize that persons voice. Sure on caller ID some times a name pops up, but when its number alone and I don’t know who’s it is the caller feels insulted. And the most frustrating part is now that I’ve started checking my ‘non-message messages’ I’ve noticed that some numbers even have a ‘times two’ or a ‘times three’ after them. Meaning if the person has called back multiple times sending me the telepathic message – along with the dollop of guilt; that I haven’t returned their calls.

Having just left a voice message time’s one, I would have called them back right away; at least that is what my ten second outgoing message says

Feelin' a Rant Comin' On...

There have been several items which I wanted to address, but I don’t think they can stand on their own for individual blog entries, so here we go…

The Daimler Chrysler Corporation must be sinking, drowning in its own refuse. They resorted to 50 Cent promoting their 300 series cars by featuring it in his videos, and now they have Snoop shizzilating the new commercials. Can the advertisers think of nothing better to do than to pair hip-hop icons with men which are at least double their age? Yea, that’s a good way to sell cars isn’t it? Fo’ shizzle.

Second on the list, is something I just don’t understand. Why is it old men tuck their undershirts into the waistband of their underwear? I can only imagine what is running through the mind of the reader right now, “who is this guy, and what is he doing watching old men get dressed?” This is not the case, it happens casually walking through the locker room at the gym. I don’t request to see this kind of thing, but once you bump into it, you gotta ask “why?”

Third, I had another random encounter and rolled the dice – why? Because you never know. I went downtown this weekend for an acquaintance’s birthday; I was invited by proxy (her best friend). I rode with a couple of people, and we had parked on the second level of a parking garage off of Commerce. The exit ramps out were a downward spiral, and there was a car nice enough to let us in front of her. I looked back and I saw this beautiful smiling face. I started smiling back and this continued for a minute. The guy driving, Nick, somewhat challenged me to go talk to her. Next thing I know I am hopping out of the car and strolling up to the driver’s side door. I chat with Lori (spelling?) for a few minutes and asked for her number. I did receive it, so we’ll see what happens now. I placed my phone call today and left voice mail.

Anybody can lose one fight, anybody can lose once, you'll come back from this you'll be champion of the world. - Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris from Million Dollar Baby

I saw Million Dollar Baby this week end, which I enjoyed. I can see how Hillary Swank won the oscar for best actress – she did an incredible job in that movie. I don’t want to give anything away about the movie, but I would recommend seeing it.

The Summer Belly Flop

The New York Times recently ran an article about Hollywood seeing disappointing numbers at the box office this summer. Let this be a message from the public to Hollywood – give us good movies, not just sitcom re-dos and sequel after sequel.

”Part of this is the fact that the movies may not have lived up to the expectations of the audience, not just in this year, but in years prior," said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment

So it seems that the chairman of Sony Pictures is admitting that they were relying on the gullibility and boredom of “Joe Sixpack” to go to the movies. I can almost here a modified voice a-la Field of Dreams “If you make it, they will come”. It is finally starting to come back and bite Hollywood, now that DVD sales growth is slowing down, and big budget movies are flopping in triumphant fashion.

The current issue of Rolling Stone states:
“Dukes of Hazzard: Zero Stars! Can Movies Get any Worse?”

Wait a second, you’re telling me that a movie starring Johnny “Jackass” Knoxville, Sean William Scott (the actor still referred to as the guy who played Stiffler), and Jessica “Tuna is the chicken of the sea” Simpson didn’t give Oscar worthy performances?! You’re right that would be expecting too much, but it’s like they couldn’t even get their “big star” to promote this movie so they had to rely on Jessica Simpson’s uhmm…talents *wink* to promote the movie.

Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal, said Hollywood has been too focused on short-term box office payoff and not focused enough on what he called "the most elemental factor of all" - the satisfaction of the moviegoing experience.

So now that the idea that piracy is not the sole reason for the drop of revenue, and the demand for quality movies has started, maybe the music industry will get the hint as well. It will be safe to say that people aren’t dying to see I Dream of Jeanie the Movie, Kicking and Screaming 2: Harder and Louder, or a remake of Bullit. Although the latter would have been rushed to production on the heels of The Fast and the Furious and Gone in 60 Seconds.

If you make it, they wont necessarily come…

An E-mail to Joel on Software

I said I was going to do this a while back. Well since I have a wee bit of time on my hands I finally got around to giving ol' Joel what has been brewing in my head for the past few months. Enjoy, and let me know what you think:

Joel,

I’ll be the first to admit I am a casual reader of yours, but I must say that a posting you made back in January 02, 2005 really stuck with me. What could have possibly stuck with me for such a period of time you ask, well it was the “Free Advice for Computer Science College Students”. If nothing else I found it entertaining, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that there is a major item missing from your seven items. Luck, yes sir – something as artificial as luck is needed because it seems that very few places are willing to take a chance on new graduates for positions within their company; this can extend beyond CS majors, but for personal sake I will stick with it.

So let me reiterate what you had posted:

• 1. Learn how to write before graduating.


• 2. Learn C before graduating.


• 3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.


• 4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.


• 5. Take programming-intensive courses.


• 6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.


• 7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

Now for the explanations, unless you're gullible enough to do all that stuff just because I tell you to, in which case add: 8. Seek professional help for that self-esteem thing.

So if you have read this far, and I have managed to keep your attention let me cut the fore play and get down to brass tax here, because I just may be a candidate for step eight. I graduated after you wrote this article, and after reading your suggestions I reflected back on my academic career. The following would be my reaction to the advice you offered:

• 1. I would like to think I learned how to write before I graduated. I am no published author, but I do enjoy ranting a bit on my own blog, and I am writing this email to you now. Granted just because I am writing this gibberish doesn’t mean that I know how to do it as well as Hunter S. Thompson or Kurt Vonnegut. Never the less I would like to think I can hold my own, that being said onwards…


• 2. I studied C extensively while in school, more so than a lot of my fellow colleagues, or ex-colleagues as it is. I was even given the prestigious title of a *** C Programmer by Dr. Steven Robbins, author of “Practical Unix Programming”, and “Unix Systems Programming”.


• 3. I one up’d you on this little tidbit – I went all out and obtained a minor in business. I figured this education thing was like the stock market, and to be successful you need diversification. So I had my micro economics, macro economics, finance, management, business law, and marketing among others.


• 4. I didn’t simply blow off those non-CS classes, even though I did find some of them to be boring. Instead I did well in each of them, and even learned something from each one I attended, no matter how trivial it is. For instance marketing is a scam, and quite frankly a clever scheme how to get people to spend money on your product.


• 5. I was crazy enough to take quite a few difficult classes which only had a few people enrolled in them, In hind-site the entire program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (I know, its no Yale) is pretty code intensive, but more of those when I could.


• 6. India, I am contempt with India. There are going to be jobs which simply can’t get outsourced to other countries for sake of national security and those companies which don’t want to invest in off shoring.


• 7. Finally I had a good summer internship, with Raytheon of all companies. The problem is, it was their aerospace division in Houston, which has since all but closed shop due to losing its contracts with other competitors.


• 8. Yes indeed, since I qualified all the others – I too fit into this category. The self esteem thing took a severe blow since I am now part of the ever growing population of Americans who get laid off. I was unfortunate enough to fall prey to a reduction in force movement which swept though my previous employers business. I have been looking for employment only to hear the gentle sounds of crickets on the background, or the occasional cough like when a comedian tells a joke which bombs.

So I will ask you what you recommend for those individuals looking for work as software engineer, who followed your seven step program, but don’t have either five years experience or a security clearance. Not that the latter guarantees anything, but certainly more opportunities open up if you are in possession of this little gem. I cant tell you the number of cover letters and resumes I have sent out into the black hole of HR departments. I have attempted to differentiate myself from others on my resume, but in the age of auto-replies and web-based resume submission what can I do to get my resume on an individual’s desk?

A starving software engineer would like to know – I am sure I am not the only one.

Regards,

Rainman (no I didnt really sign it 'Rainman').

Downward Spiral

“the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”

I took my vehicle in to get the dash replaced since the patch work they did looked like a patch on a pair of jeans. You know the type, the jeans are a faded blue, and then there is a noticeable dark blue patch over the knee area. Well, the colors at least matched, but other than that the repair work which was done on it was sub-par.

I had additional work for the body shop as well; my rear bumper was struck this weekend causing some damage. The body shop did a real good job of repairing the door, and color matching, so I figured they could do a good job with the rear bumper as well. I kind of wish that it could have been the front that was dinged up because there are scratches on the front, and it always suffer more damage from road debris.

So I headed back to Enterprise Rent-a-Car to be supplied with a Chevrolet Montecarlo.

I wasn’t thrilled with this choice, but it was better than several of the other vehicles which were presently on the lot. So I got into the car after doing the standard “walk around”, looked at the gas gauge and saw that it was on E. I wasn’t going to take this so I strolled back into the building and asked “is it policy to rent out a vehicle which has no gas in it?”

I was not being factitious either; the individual who had the car before I got in it must have thrown it into neutral to roll into the lot. The alleged manager snatched up the keys and found a peon to get $10 worth of gas. I felt vindicated in some sort of weird way, but it was also going to cost me fifteen minutes of my life {insert Henry Rollins’ time murder bit here}.

So I get the car back and start to make my way home. I am a firm believer in seeing what the car can do, and abusing them since I don’t have to fit the repair bills which may incur. The montecarlo is the most poorly designed, unresponsive, slow piece of crap on the road. I was not going to be happy driving this thing, and the drivers seat offered zero comfort. I am not happy with this vehicle – in some weird way I preferred the sentra to this.

So Tuesday I decided to press my luck and request another vehicle. The same Enterprise employee was there who snapped at the peon, and I explained to her that I was not happy with the vehicle they had supplied me with. You think I would be given the Nissan altima – no I was thrown into a Chevrolet impala.

Same interior, same poor handling, poor engine performance, different shell, but after requesting a swap I figured it would be best not to press my luck by asking for something else again.

So not only is my opinion of these GM vehicles extremely low, but they still equip these vehicles with cassette players. No CD player was present in the car – are the people at GM stuck in the stone age?! Even a base model sentra had a CD player, but trust those “folks” at GM to cur corners every possible way they possibly can. What else can you really expect from a poorly designed car – maybe that is why GM is practically being forced to give these cars away with little no markup for the dealer.

The Nissan Sentra

So I was (un)expectedly laid off on Friday, and wasting no time I started distributing my resume on Sunday. I say unexpected because I knew administrative cuts were coming, but I thought I manned a more critical role in the grand scheme of things. Whoops – guess what kid – you don’t.

This freed me up to take my car to the shop to get the repairs done. So I speak with a representative there, and they call up Enterprise Rent-a-Car for me. The rental car office is about a block away, but this is San Antonio, people don’t walk here that is crazy! So I sat around for about ten minutes waiting, when the customer service rep says “I can just run you over in your car.” He seems more than happy to get behind the wheel of my car to drive me the block, although I mention to him that I could have just walked.

I took the ride, and got door to door treatment, and went inside to request my rental. There was some moron on the phone requesting a “large SUV” to rent instead of the mini-van State Farm Insurance had approved him for. I guess he wasn’t a van guy, or thought he was entitled to a large SUV based on what he took in for repairs. Before I got to the bottom of the situation I was told my car was ready.

I walk outside to see a black 2005 nissan sentra. What a disappointment this is, but I don’t have any extra money to throw around for any sort of upgrade. Of course the lady outside marking the cars dents asked what was wrong with my car. I told her that it had been vandalized, and was in to get fixed. She mentioned that she too had an accord when she lived in Miami, and it too had been broken into several times. She since traded to a maxima, and moved to San Antonio of all places.





What a downgrade in living locations, Miami to San Antonio. I refer to this place as the nissan sentra of America. It’s not the best place to live, but there are certainly worse places to live.

My job hunt so far has also been the nissan sentra, but thankfully I have had the help of Mr. Anti-Thought to aid me in resume preparation, and willingness to pass it along to his manager where he works. I say it has been a nissan sentra because I had an interview today which resembled my old position way too much. More database applications, and if I have the choice (before desperation sets in) I do not want to work on database applications. So I am hoping to find a position which I will like more than my previous one and trying to see the silver lining in all this un-employment stuff. Call it the One Year Mulligan