Today started with fellow Scorpio Squad member Netta bringing me along to a job fair. I’d never been to one of those before, and it was pretty much as I expected.

There were tons of booths set up offering a veritable cornucopia of choices of diverse career opportunities.. as long as you wanted to sell stuff.

“Hi, welcome to Aflac! We’re the number one provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States. In January 2005, Aflac was included in Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the seventh consecutive year! We employ thousands of customer sevice specialists, database engineers, and accounting experts.

“Sounds cool, what jobs could I apply for?

“Wanna sell insurance?”

“Hi, we’re Verizon Wireless! Boasting a huge national network, we employ thousands of network specialists, engineers, hardware and software developers, repair persons, customer service specialists, troubleshooters, and so on.”

“Neat, what sort of positions can I apply for?”

“Wanna sell telephones?”

“Hi, we’re Newsday, Long Island’s most popular newspaper. We employ hundreds of reporters, graphic artists, photographers, layout designers, fact-checkers, printers, web designers, software developers, network engineers, and so on. We also organize and run this entire job fair.”

“Great, so what kind of career opportunities could I find with you?”

“Wanna sell newspapers?”

“Hi, welcome to Bloomingdales!”

“Forget it.”

I did come home to a couple of good prospects, though. Tomorrow I interview at a place literally two blocks from my house. Whatever positions they have open, it’s an easy commute.

Today was a wash on the job front, the company were not at all what they claimed to be. What I was led on the phone to believe was a nonprofit looking for an HTML guy turned out to be a dodgy, unprfessional, low-level temp agency looking for an application to be filled out and submitted with a pile of others to a client of theirs.

I’m more upset than I expected to be about that.

At least I got to harass Murd0c and MikeTV on the job and hang out with Murd0c for a bit, which rocked as always.

Pagan Pride is on Saturday, I’m sure that’ll lift my spirits.

Will be in Manhattan for an interview tomorrow (technically today, but I’m sleeping first.) Depending on how that works out, I may be aimless and available later in the day if anyone wants to score lunch or dinner or something. Text my number or email firefone at me dot net if you’re interested.

Pimp mode.

Yes, I did a remix of “What’s On Your Mind” by InSoc, the most remixed song ever. And it’s a little *groan* different from the rest, and at least contains mostly InSoc material.

If nothing else, there’s lots of Star Trek TOS. And it’s short.

Anyway, it’s called the “Gratuitous Luciernaga Mix” and you can find it right here. I’d love any feedback on this, positive or negative.

I’ve also tweaked the hell out of that page, it’s much more organized now.

Pimp mode, cancel.

I’m in the process of bashing together an artwork section for the ol’ webbysite. Sections are messy/scary/incomplete/nonexistant, but it’s not a bad start. I hope to beat it into submission and have an actual online art portfolio, something I’ve put off doing for ten years or so.

It is now, by my watch, Stupid O’Clock and I really need to pass out. I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s something I’m supposed to do tomorrow, but damned if I know what it is.

Oh, and I made another one of these damn things. They’re addicting.

I make mixes.

You like mixes.

You especially like my first mashup album.

I have no idea how long I’ll be able to keep the files up, so grab while the grabbing’s good!

Stolen from everyone’s livejournals…

LJ Interests meme results

1. captain murphy:
   The original gangsta. Most of Sealab 2021 just would not have been the same without him.
   Goodnight Harry Goz, wherever you are!
2. emmitt nervend:
   This cute little guy was hidden Where’s-Waldo-style in the backgrounds of the amazingly cool and underrated cartoon Freakazoid. He never said or did anything, other than stare and grin maniacally at the camera like so:
   
   The number of times Emmitt could be found in the episode was hidden in the credits.
3. hacking:
   This is not just about the Hollywood-style messing about with other people’s computers. It’s a way of looking at the world, wanting to find out how and why things work, how you can make them work better, and being willing to take the best route to something regardless of whether it’s the standard or accepted route.
   Unfortunately, certain interests wish to maintain a negative image of hackers and hacking, leading to the constant portrayals of hackers as mischief-makers at best, hardened criminals at worst.
   The analogy I like to use for the general public is an auto designer or mechanic. With all that person’s knowledge, he/she could be out there stealing cars, chopping them up in a chop shop, and making a huge living as a criminal, or he/she could be using what they know to make an honest living, and possibly improve cars past what they were designed for.
   A hacker is not a criminal. The guy in a movie or a played-to-heavy news broadcast who is stealing credit info or destroying systems is a criminal, regardless of whether or not hacking skills come into play.
4. labyrinth:
   Humans + Muppets + David Bowie. No further explanation is necessary.
   “Pants, pants, magic pants…”
5. ninja pirates:
   I refuse to believe ninja and pirates are always arch enemies. Some crossbreeding has to happen. When it does, we get the best of both worlds.
6. psychology:
   I’ve been on the right and wrong ends of this from an early age, and really had no chice other than to learn what I could about it.
   These days it’s an actual interest of mine, and is useful on many levels, including:
7. social engineering:
   Social engineering is basically using hacking skills in psychological situations rather than technological ones, locating exploitable elements in the human equation rather than the technological one. Like hacking skills, it’s a moral judgement call on whether this is used for good or evil.
   Positive examples of social engineers include actors, comedians and humorists, detectives, harmless pranksters, anthropologists, the benevolent types of psychologists, therapists, clergy, activists, and rare non-evil lawyers, and security experts looking for holes to patch against non-benevolent social engineers.
8. the tick:
   He is the Wild Blue Yonder!
   Possibly one of the best comics ever made. The cartoon was okay, but my definitive Tick adaptation will always be Patrick Warburton’s live-action portrayal.
9. wbai:
   WBAI is one of the best listener-sponsored radio stations ever slapped together out of spit and baling wire.
   It’s also the home of Off The Hook, a hacker-themed radio show involving some cool people I know.
10. ♦:
    What can I say, I like unsupported extended character sets.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

This should never have happened. I wholeheartedly apologize.

Their hearts are in the right place I’m sure, but this may well and truly be the worst splash screen ever.

Build the Batphone!

Build the TARDIS!

Build a lightsaber!

Build MST3k bots!

Build ET’s phone!

EDIT - No, I didn’t make this. Wish I did, though, and may have to do similar for another fandom…

If you haven’t seen the “Final Fantasy: Advent Children” movie yet but plan to, be careful when reading blogs and message boards. People are already trying to pull a “Harry Potter” and spread a major spoiler all over the place.

Kupo!