CaseyAndKelly.Com

Earlier in the summer it was my theory that companies would be hiring a ton of people for entry level positions since they knew there would be a ton of new graduates. Not the case. I had another interview two weeks ago (my third) and the position I applied for is now being done by an intern. So now my theory is that companies should be gearing up for fall, as in now, as all of their interns go back to school. We’ll see if that happens or not but I did get another interview yesterday at a company in Old Town Alexandria as a Media Buyer Assistant for an advertising agency. I really want this job because the position sounds like something I’d be interested in, there’s a casual dress code, and you can bring your dog to work on Fridays. The owner is on a business trip this week and maybe next so I have to wait and see till he gets back.

As you may notice I have added a Meebo Me block to the website. This will allow anyone visiting the website to IM me… assuming that I’m online. Meebo is an AJAX written instant messaging client that connects to most of the popular protocols. Check it out here HERE.

Not much of anything else is going on. I have been reading the Harry Potter series of books, finally, and have to say that I am enjoying them. I have been slacking on studying for me next MCSE test for the last week and a half, but I will get around to it soon enough.

I have been getting plenty of emails and calls about jobs but they are all located here in the DC area…Dell, Microsoft, Verizon…blah blah blah… but I don’t want to work here. Have been getting a few storage engineer positions pup up which I may look into a little more. the crappy thing is when I mention my salary they usually freak out and hang up the phone, but we will see.

And in other news you can no longer bring beverages and lotions with you onto airplanes in your carry on luggage. Nothing like hijacking a place with a big tube of SPF-50, and a Sprite. Or this could just be a way for airlines to generate more revenue by selling their overpriced food and beverages during long flights. Who knows?

So I posted some pics in the Gallery of some tattoo ideas I have been throwing around. The one I liked the most and was somewhat disappointed to find someone already having it was the “Murder” of crows on the arm. I really liked that one the most, very simple. Anyway…

I’m going to be taking a pair of Microsoft tests this week in hopes of completing a pair of certifications. First of all the tests are 70-271 and 70-272, a pair of simple tests that will give you a MCDST or Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. Now you may be asking why on earth would I want a “help desk” certification… well the answer is the 300 dollars my company will pay me once I complete it. Also by completing the MCDST I will also receive my MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator), which is a $600 dollar bonus from my company, and finally the simple act of taking the first test 70-271 I will receive an additional $300 (MCP cert). So for taking 2 tests (which the company pays for as well) I will be receiving a bonus of nearly $1200 before taxes. A pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

So with that said I have been in the market for a new MacBook Pro. The “Lunchtray” (17in Powerbook) is now showing its age with the release of the Core Duo MacBooks, and I would love to get my hands on one. So hopefully with the bonus check that I will receive from work along with the sale of my current Powerbook I should be able to score the middle-tier 15in MacBook Pro. Hopefully.

In about another week I will finally be less than 200 pounds again. My weight has fluctuated badly over the last four years due to little exercise and unforgiving work. Hopefully now I can keep the weight off and get in a little better shape. But I’m afraid my dreams of being in N’Sync are over.

yawwwnnn… time for bed.

It’s the end of July now and we’ve now seen four movies in the theater. Granted, these are the only four movies we’ve seen in 2006 but this is pretty huge for us. Now that one of the mall’s added on an entire new wing with a stadium seating theater we’re not SOL when something is showing at our other favorite theater. Other than X3 and Superman Returns (loved them), we’ve seen You, Me, and Dupree (wait for the rental), and Clerks 2. Now I had high expecations for Clerks 2 and I thought it was really funny in places, but Casey and I agree that it wasn’t nearly as good as the original and ended up being much more of a romantic comedy. There is so much crap in production that there wasn’t a single preview coming up I was interested in, the future of quality movies is looking pretty bleak. I could watch the new Pirates of the Carribean and be happy for another year.

Happy Birthday to my Mom! We wish we could be there with her to celebrate another year!

I’m posting pictures in the gallery as we speak. The ‘big-eyed fish’ in question is red snapper. Yum, unfortunately we didn’t catch it but there is some in our freezer. 😉

The friggin’ fire alarm for the building and all those surrounding our courtyard (so four) went off today and lasted about 20 minutes. At first I thought they were just testing it, which they normally let us know ahead of time, and looked in the hall and didn’t see or smell smoke. Nevertheless, with Stoli looking up at me with pleading eyes to get her out of here, I grabbed her, my laptop, important papers, scrapbooks, and purse and waited in the parking lot with a bunch of other people for the fire trucks to arrive. I couldn’t hear exactly what happened to set off the alarms because it was starting to sprinkle and Stoli HATES water so we were hiding under a tree. A little excitement for an otherwise boring day.

After getting more than a full week of vacation time in, we’re back to our routine again. We had a great time but it was way to short and we weren’t quite ready to come home yet. Isn’t that always the case?

I sent an email to NAA to check on the status of their hiring the night of the 4th (they were closed on Monday) since they were supposed to have let everyone know by Friday. After having interviewed twice, I figured that some sort of status report was in order. However, yesterday (a week after sending the email) I *finally* got a form rejection letter. It was, in fact, the same exact wording as the other ‘you suck letter’ I got from my other interview. I’m trying to stay positive and hope that an even better job will come up since I didn’t get the others, that or we move.

We started clicker training on Stoli yesterday in hopes that she will start minding and not going berserk around strangers and especially not friends. So far, we’re just trying to get her used to the clicker and the association with a treat (positive reinforcement) so we can’t tell how well she’s going to do yet but she LOVES food so it should be a success.

So having the unlimited internet access on my phone is pretty handy. We are currently ouside a local seafood restaurant waiting in line drinking a beer. Thank god for no open container law. Everyone waiting outside is a little drunk making for a pretty good time.

And whats this two posts in one day? Hopefully we will get out and get some fishing done in the next couple days. Tomorrow is the 4th and we will be going out on a boat to watch some fireworks, hopefully I will be well hammered by he time i get on the boat, seasickness is the worst.

OK eating up the battery on my phone time to wrap it up.

Gonna disable the Chatterbox for a bit, due to spamming. So expect even less content than usual for awhile. 🙂

In other news we are on vacation, taking it easy, drinking some beers, enjoying not being at work. We are getting ready to head out and get some new shoes for me, as my boots are slowly destroying my feet. I saw an opening at the local Chili’s for a manager position… thinking about a career change and a paycut.

We rolled 140K miles in the Civic on the way to our vacation destination… USAA offered us a pantload of money for a car loan at a fairly low interest rate. Perhaps its time for a new car.

OK time to head out into the daylight, spent enough time here already. Have a happy 4th.

So I have been thinking about a new job already. This position was never meant to be a long term thing, just kind of a stop-gap measure to keep me from killing myself or other people… probably other people. I have a few ideas, and a few prospects, but nothing solid at least for a bit. Kelly is probably going to be employed soon, so we can take a little bit and get out of whatever debt we have worked ourselves into since we were in the house, BUT THEN it will be time to make a decision.

It has been raining non-stop for the last few days, and if you bother to turn on the TV or open the newspaper you would see that DC is underwater. The building across the street from my present location (Main Justice Building) has their bottom two levels flooded. Including the server rooms of the last two organizations that i worked for. Its a good thing I implemented a real-time SAN replication system for the first one, the other I could give a rats ass about (except for the fact that Joe, James and Jun still work there).

Next week is July 4th and I’m gonna take some time off and take a REAL break from everything. Its probably going to involve a good amount of beer and a whole lot of nothing else. Just relaxing. If we end up going anywhere I’m going to see if I can ship my couch there ahead of time. Hell just ship me with the couch and a cooler of beer and i will be a happy man.

k its about time to head on out of here, traffic is a nightmare I’m sure (yesterday it took us 1hr 5 min to go 7 blocks). Maybe I will take a nap where I get home…. or go see Superman, tough call. Ohhh we ordered our new phones for the second time yesterday. Got a pair of Motorola “Q”s, hopefully they will be as bitchin as I think they are.