“Good Morning Baby” by Dan Wilson and Bic Runga duet on my car’s CD player… “See the stars and all the planets. Fly the great wide world and have it all. Yeah better get a ticket, better get in line. I’m praying now for beautiful weather. Take a car and drive forever but I’m only ever sitting at the traffic light. And all the world to see is too much sometimes for me. Good morning baby, I hope I’m gonna make it through another day…”
Sunday night I left to go to Brighton for 4 days. In the morning I had booked only 2 nights in a hotel just in case the fairly remote chance of failing miserably came to fruition. Mum called and left a message that same afternoon because she was worried about if I got there alright. Mums will be mums! I had turned my phone off and she had left a concerned message on my voicemail. I called her back to reassure her that I still had all my limbs and had not been cast into the sea.
The first thing I noticed about the quaint little seaside town when I got there was that the roads were narrow and parking was about as ample as the streets of San Francisco (i.e. not ample at all). The day I arrived was conveniently the day there was some sort of Mini Cooper exhibition because they were absolutely everywhere and due to it being the holiday weekend, Brighton’s business was booming. A lot of people were out and everywhere despite the weather being gloomy. As soon as I had found a lone parking spot on a residential road near the hotel, I got out of the car and a seagull swooped down and landed on the roof of the car ahead of me. It seemed like it was squaring me up to see if I would make a delicious meal, but luckily I was not the size of a dormouse otherwise I would certainly have perished immediately to the confines of some bird’s gut. Birds have eyes on either side of their head, so remember that if a bird is facing sideways perpendicular to your direction, chances are that it’s checking you out for potential snacking opportunities. Those albatross and seagulls are fearless too. You could walk right up to them and they wouldn’t budge like pigeons do when you approach them. If they’re in your walking path they won’t even move to accommodate your way through. They’d just stand there and expect you to walk around them! They are the gangsters of the seaside bird world.
After staying for 2 days I realised the parking situation wasn’t going to get any better so I decided to just drive home and drive back for the last few days. Upon hearing my decision, my mum had to tell me to stick to the speed limits and in the 65 mph zone, to make sure I don’t go above 75 mph because 80 is too high. Hmmm, I’d better not tell her the speeds I was hitting then. I learned that listening to music containing lots of little melodies doesn’t help your paranoia when you’re in a speeding car. Every now and again the song would go through a convoluted little melody and I’d hear what sounds like sirens wailing, so I’d instinctvely check the rear view mirror to make sure I didn’t see any sirens flashing. But then again only the American police do that, the UK police just get your registration plate and send you a fine. I didn’t really speed much but in the fast lane I worked on the group principle that you can only go as fast as the car in front of you, so I did. If I was going to get a speeding ticket, then everyone else in the fast lane with me would go down too! I also learned that in traffic queues, it’s best to stay in the middle lane rather than the (fast) right lane because of group psychology. Everyone in a hurry would go into the right lane thinking that it will move faster, but of course it doesn’t. The middle lane that everyone leaves to enter the right lane is the lane that moves faster.
The assessments went well. They went even better than I had expected and during the course of the few days I found brains I never even knew I had. I’m a confident person and luckily this stood out to the trainers and recruitment staff there who are convinced I will make a good web developer. I’m still shakey about that idea and it still hasn’t sunk in that I can code like a caffeinated type-writer monkey but I will continue to give it my best shot because that’s the best I can do. Being only 1 of the 3 who made it into the company out of 10 keeps my confidence level high. I met an interesting batch of people there and noticed again the different types of people you’ll see in an IT environment. I was able to pick out the following clichéd IT personality types:
The eccentric: who has a level head on their shoulders but it protrudes into the clouds.
The old and eccentric: who is the same as above but older and has a desire to tell everyone about their life experiences.
The quiet and anti-social: who will sit on their own avoiding contact with everyone else. Will only speak when spoken to but will speak using monosyllables and single sentences at a time.
The talkative: who likes to ask a lot of questions and keep conversations going at all cost. Will occasionally come across as being a little eccentric due to nature of questioning.
The young hot-shot: who picks things up quickly and seems to be awashed with confidence. Think Tom Cruise’s character (Maverick) from the movie Top Gun, but instead of flying fighter jets, he can code as though computer programs are going out of style.
The modest young hot-shot: who is the same as above, but more deferential and humble of his abilites.
Ahem. I’m not going to say which one of those I am.
I spent the whole day with Chris yesterday, starting the day off watching Matrix Reloaded. Good film, better than the first but similar because both are equally slow in parts and there was a lot of politics involved. The visuals were amazing and I still can’t tell where the real film ends and the CGI begins in some scenes. They also decided to do more unarmed and melee weapon fighting, which creates more room for creativity compared with firearms. I have to also add that I am a geek for noticing the program that Trinity uses to hack into a mainframe computer.
Spent the afternoon and evening over at Chris’ place. Went to put on a new high E string on his guitar but the spare one I put on broke as well. So the day started with a 5 string guitar and ended with a 5 string guitar. Still, it was fun just chatting, joking around and jamming/singing on the guitar for 3 hours! By the end I felt I could busk for a living.
Bad joke of the day:
Q: Why is a seagull called a seagull?
A: Because if it lived by the bay it would be a bagel.
